Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 74655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74655 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Like the fact his daughter is snooping through his uncle’s house, trying to find some information to prove he’s double crossing my father. The two of them have been working together for a while, probably two years, another reason Clay has a foot in the door. But lately things have been going wrong, very wrong, and my father suspects Clay’s uncle is behind it. Of course, Clay’s uncle has no idea my father suspects him.
The idiot.
After snooping through the basic areas and finding nothing, I found a door in the master bedroom that led down to a basement. It was a big risk coming down here, because let’s face it, I could have walked into anything. I expected it to be locked, but it wasn’t. It is, however, very well hidden. Anyone not looking wouldn’t know this was here.
And inside the basement, I found a girl, chained up on the ground to big chains connecting to a wall. The stench down here is out of this world. She’s covered in her own urine and god knows what else. She’s naked and has nothing more than a pot on the ground and a worn-out mattress on the floor. Judging by the marks on her body, she’s been used for sex. Fingerprint marks, not beatings.
She was fully gagged when I found her, and for a few moments, I stood in shock, just staring at her, then I rushed over and pulled her gag off. There was so much crying and begging, and she finally told me that she was taken on vacation a year ago and kept as a sex slave down here. My heart sunk, and everything in the room started spinning. Clay’s uncle is buying sex slaves and using them? Is she the only one, or are there more?
Is he selling them, too?
“What’s your name?” I ask the girl after she’s begged me, yet again, to get her out of here.
“My name is Ellie, Ellie Peterson. Please, you have to let me out. Don’t let him come back down here and hurt me again. Please.”
My heart feels like it’s going to fall out of my chest. I know better than anyone that if I try to get her out now, I’ll get caught, my father will find out, and everything will blow up. Which also means I’ll suffer severe consequences. Severe. But at the same time, I can’t leave this poor girl down here alone in the hands of a monster.
“I can’t get you out now. If I do, I’ll probably never leave this house either.”
A very real possibility.
“Please,” she begs. “Please, don’t leave me here.”
“I’ll get help, okay. I’ll find a way. I promise. But I can’t do it now. I can’t ...”
She starts crying, deep, heavy sobs, and my whole body aches. I want to find a way to get these chains off her and get her out, but I know I can’t. I know this more than I can even begin to explain. Still, that doesn’t make it any easier. It means, because of the monster I live with, that I have to walk out of here and know that this girl will spend more time being abused and tortured.
Any normal person would just call the police right now.
But I’m not normal.
And I know the risks that would bring.
For the first time, I feel as big of a monster as the man who raised me.
A heartless, cruel monster.
“I’ll find help, I have to go,” I whisper, and turn and rush out.
I run out of the basement, careful to leave everything just the way it was, and then rush out of the main bedroom and back down the halls and into the living room where Carl and his Uncle are chatting closely about something. They both look up when I walk in.
“That took ages,” Carl mutters.
“Sorry,” I whisper. “I told you my stomach was upset.”
“Take that girl home,” his uncle snaps. “I don’t need to be getting sick. And tell your father to contact me, as soon as possible, will you?”
I nod. “Yes, sir.”
“Get her out of here, boy.”
Carl stands, shooting me an angry glare, like it’s all my fault that whatever they were just doing was interrupted. If I was actually sick, I’d feel a whole lot worse now.
“Don’t come near me if you’re sick,” Carl growls, walking past me.
I turn and glance at his uncle, and for a moment, our eyes lock. And I could swear, he knows that I know. Does he? I move my eyes away from his after a few moments when Carl snaps my name, and I turn and rush out.
If he knows, will that girl survive another night?
Or will he remove her, just in case?
Was that my only chance to free Ellie Peterson?
And did I run out without even trying?
Guilt swarms my chest as I walk out the front door.