Page 67 of Rescuing Josiah
“Have you got Desiree yet?” he asked.
“No, but we’re hoping she’s here,” Rocco replied.
“She is. We saw her yesterday afternoon. Her kid, too.”
Rocco quickly relayed that intel to the rest of his team and Alpha Team, and Josiah wished he had a comms unit too so he could be in the loop.
As though reading his mind, Ace held one out to him. “We’ve got one for Chelsea too.”
The closer they got to Chelsea’s hiding place, the stronger the smell of blood became. “One of the doctors told me protocol was to kill as many of the buyers as they could, shoot them in their beds,” he told the others.
“Chelsea?” Gumby asked.
“We had a plan, she was leaving the room a few minutes after me and hiding,” he assured them. So long as she’d followed through, she should be safe.
Still, nerves danced inside him as he reached the linen closet and opened the door, a tingling told him something wasn't right.
“Chels?” he called out.
There was no response, and his nerves amped up to panic.
“Chelsea,” he demanded, reaching into the closet and beginning to rip out everything that was in there.
But the thing he was searching for was nowhere to be found.
Where the hell had Chelsea gone, and why had she broken her promise to him to hide until he came for her?
May 18th
1:29 A.M.
“Mommy!”
The little girl Chelsea was clutching tight, began to struggle in her grip, and she didn't know what she should do.
While she was reasonably certain that under normal circumstances Desiree Tilly wouldn't do anything to hurt her daughter, these weren't normal circumstances. Just because the woman has started this entire trafficking ring with the goal of saving her daughter’s life, with it all crumbling around her, it was anyone’s guess how she’d react.
What if she decided she wasn't going to spend the rest of her life in a prison cell? Lose access to her daughter, the same way she would if the child had died. Was this woman unbalanced enough to decide that her best course of action was for her and her daughter to be together in death?
“Shh, sweetie, stay here a moment,” she soothed the child, maintaining her grip even as the girl wriggled, trying to break free.
“But it’s my mommy,” Bridget whimpered.
“Let my daughter go now, or I’ll shoot you,” Desiree said, and at her mother’s harsh words, Bridget finally stilled.
“No,” Chelsea said with more confidence than she felt. “I don’t think you will. Not with Bridget here.”
“Mommy, why would you shoot her? She’s not one of the bad men. We played in the maze together before, I told her how to get to the middle so she could beat her husband and win.”
This poor, sweet little girl had no idea who her mother truly was. Bridget was too young, too innocent to understand what was happening around her. All she likely knew was that her mother loved her and provided the medical care she needed to manage her condition.
“Come, Bridget, now,” Desiree barked, but this time the little girl burrowed into Chelsea’s hold.
“Stop it, Desiree, you're scaring her, and I know that’s not what you want,” she told the other woman.
“What would you know?” Desiree sneered. “You got what you wanted, you’ve destroyed everything I've built. It’s all falling down, all coming apart, and …” The woman broke off in a sob. “You just gave my daughter a death sentence.”
Shifting slightly so she had Bridget tucked more securely in her grasp, but could also get a better look at Desiree, Chelsea shook her head. “No. No death sentence for this precious child. She’s completely innocent in all of this, and the last thing anyone wants is for her to suffer any more than she already has. Put your weapon down, Desiree, surrender, and Prey will make sure that Bridget always has access to the medical care she needs.”
