Page 99 of What's the time, Mr. Wolfe
“NO! Let me go, fucking let me go,” I shouted.
He handed me over to Tony who got the same treatmentas Sebastian had. I was crying hard, and I couldn’t catch my breath.
“Don’t leave me,” I said, calling out to Sebastian. He paused as he entered the building, cocking his head as if deliberating what to do. “Come with me, please,” I said, sobbing.
He walked through the door and closed it behind him.
I was thrown over Tony’s shoulder and he marched back to the house.
“If I put you down, you have to stay put, okay?” he said.
“Fucking let go of me. This is assault.”
“There’s a phone there, if you want to call the police.”
“This isn’t fucking funny,” I screamed.
He placed me on my feet but stood close.
“I know, Ruby. But what that man has done... He deserves everything coming to him.”
“I don’t care about that. I have questions! I need answers! You could have...You could have done whatever you wanted after.”
I paced but he blocked the doors. When he could, he closed and locked them, then he pocketed the key. I paced some more. There had to be a way out. The house stood, detached from any other, in the middle of thegrounds. If I could get out, all I had to do was run around the side. I highly doubted I’d get far, though.
“Hey, I get it. I honestly do, but you’ll be glad you’re not related to that piece of scum out there.”
“Who am I related to? Who the fuck am I, then?”
Tony shook his head and walked towards me. “You’re Sebastian’s, that makes you mine and a hundred other people who have formed a family. You don’t need to be a blood relative, Ruby. You don’t need to share DNA to be a member of a family. This one wants you, appreciates you.”
“You don’t know me,” I said, quietly.
“My brother loves you, that’s good enough for me.”
I shook my head. Platitudes, that’s all it was. I slumped into a chair. “What is he going to do?”
“Beat the fuck out of him, then hand him over to the police.”
“Really? Because last time I asked, he was going to kill him!” Sarcasm dripped from my lips. “I can’t sit here while he does that.”
Tony walked over and crouched down in front of me. “Let me tell you about that man out there. The one you’re desperate to get answers you won’t like from. As a teenager he befriended kids, bought them sweets, toys, then kidnapped them. Sold them to adults. Do you want to know what for, Ruby?”
I shook my head and covered my ears. Tony pulled my hands away.
“He was part of a gang. Some of that gang are now dead, some in prison. Sebastian,ourfamily, have spent over twenty years disbanding them, rescuing those kids still alive. You want answers from him? He’s kidnapped so many, he wouldn’t remember where the fuck he picked you up from, Ruby. Is that the man you want to speak to?”
I stared at him with tears running down my cheeks, snot leaking from my nose; my body shaking.
“What can he tell you that Sebastian can’t?”
“Who my parents are?”
“Do you think he would remember? And who knows, he might still be your father!”
The thought he could made me feel sick. I clutched my stomach and heaved. I vomited all over the tiled floor.
“It’s okay,” Tony said, gently. He rubbed my back until my heaving stopped.
