Page 57 of Rescuing Josiah
The child nodded. “It’s that way,” she said, pointing to their right.
“You play in the maze a lot?”
“Yeah, I like the tall, tall, tall leaves,” she replied, gesturing to the hedges.
“It’s so fun in here, a great place to play. Do you live here?”
“I’m not ‘sposed to talk to strangers,” the child said, making Chelsea grin.
“Absolutely true, I'm glad your mom taught you that. She knows you're out here, doesn’t she?”
“She's always working, so I always play in the garden. Sometimes I even play out here when it’s raining. Mommy gets mad, but if she doesn’t want me to play outside, then she should play with me inside.”
“Can't argue with that, sweetie. Sometimes moms and dads need to work, though. Your mom works here?”
The little girl looked around as though someone was going to pop out of the hedges at any second and scold her. Then shetook a step closer and curled her finger, beckoning Chelsea in with a conspiratorial smile. “My mommy is the boss, everybody here got to do what she says, ‘cept me, cos mommy always says I'm the boss of her cos she don’t ever want to see me sad. My mommy gets sad lots cos my daddy and my brothers died. She always tells me she’s never gonna let me die.”
“I'm sure your mommy loves you more than anything else in the world,” Chelsea said softly, her heart breaking because she could absolutely understand Desiree Tilly’s desperation to save this adorable child.
But the cost of saving Bridget’s life was too high. She would never wish the little girl a single second of pain and suffering, but nor could she allow Bridget’s mother to keep killing people.
“Keep going that way, left, and left, and left,” Bridget said, holding up her left hand and making an L. “Then you can win.”
With a giggle, the little girl skipped off, and Chelsea couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen to her once her mother was imprisoned. Which, now that she had confirmation Bridget was here and so was Desiree, was going to happen sometime in the next twenty-four hours.
Chapter
Sixteen
May 17th
3:36 P.M.
“We should do it now,” Josiah insisted, not sure why they were still having this argument several hours later.
“After we get a visual,” Chelsea insisted just as strongly from where she was sitting by the window. It was the same spot she’d been in since she spoke with the little girl they both believed was Bridget Tilly in the maze this morning.
After meeting the child, Chelsea quickly made her way back to the entrance, and after he’d walked the entire distance of the maze, or at least as far into it as he could get, he headed back to the entrance and met up with her. She’d been so excited to tell him about talking with the girl, and how certain she was both by the fact that the child matched their physical description of Bridget Tilly, and by what the girl said about her mother being the boss, and the loss of her father and siblings.
There was no way that little girl wasn't Bridget Tilly, and he doubted that Desiree would be far away, but Chelsea wanted to wait until they spotted the woman. So they’d come back inside,ordered lunch to be delivered to their room, and then gone up there to pretend to do her dialysis.
Chelsea had sat by the window, occasionally spotting glimpses of the child playing in the gardens, getting more annoyed when no adult went to check on the little girl, even as the hours ticked by. They’d spent most of the time arguing about whether or not they should set off their trackers and bring Prey in.
If there was a way he could pass on intel to them, he’d have agreed with waiting, at least until their visit with Chelsea’s “donor” because spending more time in the medical suites would have told him how many victims were there, and how many doctors, and if any appeared to not be there by choice. But they had no way to communicate, didn't even have their cell phones since the people who took them there had left them behind at the townhouse.
Waiting increased the risk for no good reason.
While he was pretty sure that they were within a couple of hours of the townhouse, even though they’d driven for longer than that, so they technically had enough time for Prey to get there and plan their entrance, he couldn’t help but be antsy with Chelsea in the mix.
They had yet to discuss their plan for when the raid happened, although he had discussed a signal with Alpha Team, so at least he’d know when it was time to get her to hide somewhere. But they needed to come up with more details than that. Where would she hide? What signal would he give her that it was safe to come out?
Once the raid started Desiree, Dr. Gant, and the others would all know he and Chelsea were responsible. There was no way they wouldn't. Which meant she would have a huge target on her back.
The thought made his chest tighten painfully, making it difficult to draw a full breath.
“Look!” Chelsea suddenly squealed from the window, darting to her feet and pointing. “Josiah, look. I see her. Desiree Tilly, by the maze, holding Bridget’s hand.”
Joining her by the window, he followed her line of sight and spotted the same thing she had seen. A small girl of around six, skipping along, holding a woman’s hand. The woman had the same chestnut brown locks, pulled back into a bun, and while it was impossible to accurately identify her from this distance, he was comfortable agreeing that the woman was the head of the trafficking ring.
