Rescued (14 page)

“Follow me.” Rose started out at an easy pace to make sure Roxie could keep up. When it was obvious she could, Rose picked up her steps a bit. The girl was a real trooper. She stumbled and fell several times but always righted herself and caught up. Rose came to a stop as they neared the road and checked both ways before they started across.

Roxie ran ahead to open the car door. Rose eased Marty’s limp body onto the back seat and settled him in for the ride to the house. She fished through his jeans pocket for the key, closed the backdoor, and went to the driver’s side of the car as Roxie slid into the passenger seat. She looked over her left shoulder at their patient. “Rose, he looks bad. I can’t even tell if he’s breathing or not.” Her hands shook so hard she had trouble fastening her seatbelt.

“He’ll be fine. He just needs some rest.” She started the car, pulled out onto the road, and sped to the house where Oscar and the boys could help access the files from the hard drive contents of the doctor’s computer and she could care for her mate.

Chapter 26

The car skidded to a stop on the lawn by the front door. An emergency call to Oscar a few minutes earlier had the group of men gathered at the door ready to help in any way.

The men each grabbed a door and sprang into action. “Get him inside, guys. Rose, do we need to do any recon?” Oscar barked out his instructions while he checked out the road to make sure no one followed.

Rose’s heart still slammed into her chest at an accelerated rate. She strained to draw in sufficient oxygen.
How did this happen? If I hadn’t taken so long replacing those stupid screws on the laptop. If my stupid shoestring hadn’t got caught in the stupid crack on the stupid windowsill. If I’d . . .

“Rose.” Oscar placed a hand on her shoulder and drew her attention from Marty’s limp body as Garth and Daily carried him inside. “Are there any loose ends we need to tie up at the compound?”

Rose struggled to draw in a breath. She wanted to erase the past minutes and go back to where Marty was not hurt and near death. She paused for a few seconds and retraced their steps in her mind. “Blood. There must be a trail of his blood from the window to the spot in the woods where we met Roxie. I have the knife, but I need to go back and clean up the blood.”

“Daily and Garth are already on it. I need you to help with the situation here.” His words were low and even. He directed his focus to Rose but nodded toward Roxie who stood slumped against the car still holding tight to her bundle.

Rose took a deep breath. She had to grab hold of the fact she couldn’t do everything. Oscar and the team would see to the details at the compound. Her priorities had to be Marty and Roxie. Marty was inside, healing in the safety of their bed. She longed to hold him while he regained his strength but Roxie needed her. How much was the right amount of information to give their new companion? She took a deep breath.

“Roxie, come on. Let’s get you inside.” She put her arm around the frightened girl and steered her through the front door and into the kitchen. She regarded the room as the one in every house where healing took place. If she’d learned anything from her parents, it had been that the best times happened around the table.

“Where are we?” Roxie asked, surveying her surroundings. “I mean I know this is a kitchen, but where? Who lives here?”

“I don’t even know where to start. First, I need to go check on Marty. I’ll only be a minute. There are soft drinks, bottled water, and sandwich fixings in the fridge. The bread, chips, and other snacks are on the counter. Help yourself. I promise I’ll be right back.” She put her bravest face on to try and reassure the girl everything would be okay.

Roxie smiled. “I’ll be fine Rose. Go. Check in on Marty. Tell him I said get better. Although I don’t know how he could possibly be alive. There was so much blood. I thought he was dead when he fell to the ground in the woods.” She stared into space and mumbled.

Rose stepped into the hallway and made her way to the bedroom she and Marty shared. She eased the door open. Her mate’s near lifeless body lay on their bed. Her heart weighed heavy and sank low in her chest. Memories from the past hour flooded her head. The sucking sound made by the knife as she dislodged it from his back, the smell of his blood, and his struggle to change forms in order to boost the blood cells needed for healing were sights and sounds she would never forget. The vision of Marty in cat form. The soft, smooth feel of his fur when he nuzzled her face with his. She ached to run with him.

Her hand covered her mouth. She fought back a sob. What had she done?

Marty lay slumped on his side. Still. So still, his chest barely moved when he took a breath. It had been an hour. Why hadn’t he come around? Had the blade done so much damage, he would never wake up? She tiptoed to the bed, knelt at his side, and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. Sleep was best now. He needed to heal. She needed him to heal.

“Come back to me, Marty Brown. We need to go home soon.” Home. Home, so they could begin their life together. But first, she had to complete the job. She prayed there was sufficient evidence on the doctor’s hard drive to end this nightmare, so Roxie and the others would be safe.

Roxie. She had to clarify some things for the frightened girl. “Sleep, mate. I’ll be back.” She brushed her lips against his and turned to shed some light for the confused young woman waiting for her.

Rose stepped into the kitchen. “See anything interesting?”

Roxie sat in the chair at the laptop watching the surveillance of the grounds at the compound. She stood with a start and tipped over the chair, sending it clamoring to the floor. “Oh. Rose. I didn’t mean to snoop. I was just- how’s Marty?” She stammered on.

“He’s asleep. His breathing is slow but steady, so he should be good as new in no time.” She pointed to the laptop, righted the chair, and patted Roxie’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about snooping. That’s part of everything I have to fill you in on, so we may as well start with the cameras. You know Marty and I are private investigators hired to find some missing people, right? Well, we teamed up with some others hired for the same reason so we could combine resources and solve all our cases sooner.

We found out in Memphis that the people you were living with were selling the blood you all were donating and gathering other medical information on you as well. One of our guys got into the clinic where you donated and got a peek at Wendy’s file. There was a transplant list matching her blood type to people willing to pay for . . . new organs. Kidneys and such. There was also a list of people wanting to adopt newborns.” She paused to let Roxie absorb the news.

“There were so many pregnant girls at the facility. Some came there already pregnant to learn parenting and family living skills but there was really no nighttime supervision. Several girls told me they became pregnant after they arrived.

“I thought it was strange there were no birth control classes or posters warning against STD’s like other schools and clinics. There were only classes for adoption prep and how you could enrich your baby’s life and the lives of some unfortunate couple not able to have children of their own.”

Roxie glanced back at the laptop screen and then into thin air. “So, I was right? Those weren’t normal appendectomies last week, were they? I knew something was weird about those oversized scars.”

“I won’t be able to say with any certainty until Oscar can access the files from the doctor’s computer hard drive. Maybe you could help with names and such.”

“Just let me at ‘em. Whatever you need, whatever I can do to help, I will, Rose. Nothing is more important than stopping these freaks from hurting anyone else.” She huffed out a breath and shook her head. “They promised us all better lives. They never said we had to pay with our blood. I can’t believe I was so stupid. Now I’m back to square one. I have nothing. No place to stay. No clothes. Nothing.” She held her head in her hands and mumbled under her breath, “Why?”

“I’m glad you’re so willing to help and don’t you worry. We would never kick you to the curb.” Rose paused again. “Roxie. You said you were told Jeremy left the compound and went back home to his dad.”

Roxie looked up, already shaking her head side to side before the words cleared Rose’s lips. “I would bet my life he
did not
go back to that man, Rose. He had scars all over his back from the beatings he took almost all his life. He was just like all the rest of us . . . he just wanted to belong somewhere and be happy.” She rested her head in her hands again.

“You must be exhausted. We can finish this after we all get some sleep if you like.”

“No. No way. If I can help find Jeremy, I’ll stay awake all night, all week if I have to.” She finished off the diet cola, tossed the empty can in the trash, and reached for another.

“I’m glad to hear you say that. I can’t sleep now either and I’d just as soon get into that hard drive.” Oscar entered the kitchen with Nelson close behind.

“Is he still sleeping?” Rose was worried about Marty even though he would heal good as new courtesy of his inner cougar. But he was her mate, and that’s what she did. Worry.

“Yeah, the wound has almost healed. He needs rest now more than anything to regain his strength,” Nelson answered.

“The wound has almost healed?” Roxie raised her head and looked at the group. Wide-eyed, mouth opened.

Rose lifted a finger to her lips and glanced Nelson’s way. Roxie would certainly question the miraculous healing considering the gaping wound she had seen in Marty’s back.

“Oops. You didn’t get to that part yet, did you? Sorry.” Nelson’s shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. He offered his hand in greeting. “I’m Nelson and I want you to know you’re in the safest place on earth right now.
No one
is going to hurt you here.”

“I think she knows by now she can trust us and we would never harm her but I’m sure she has questions.” Rose added.

“I do have questions, lots of questions, but even with the major weirdness I can say for sure, I don’t feel threatened here in the least.” Roxie stared at the soft drink can she fumbled between her fingers.

“Sorry. There’s so much more I need to explain to you. You must be wondering why Marty only needs to sleep off a near fatal stab wound.” Rose waited.

“That question has crossed my mind. Down in south Mississippi, there are folks who fancy themselves as witches of sorts. I’ve seen some strange stuff but never made up my mind if I believed it or not. Are you guys . . .?” She twirled her finger around between the three folks at the table with her.

“Witches? Oh no. Nothing like that but, did you ever hear other stories about people who were able to take on animal forms?” She waited, hoping Roxie would have an open mind to what she was about to hear.

She shrugged. “Heard stories, watched movies. It’s all make-believe. Or . . .” She paused and made eye contact with each face at the table with her. “It’s
not
all make-believe, is it?”

Rose wrinkled her nose and shook her head slightly but didn’t deny the stories.

“Wait. You. All of you are like,
werewolves
?” An astounded expression covered her face.

The three chuckled.

“Something like that.” Rose nodded a bit and waited for the revelation to sink in.

Roxie’s eyes left Rose’s face and moved to Oscar who acknowledged with a half nod and then to Nelson.

“Hey, y’all speak for your furry selves. I’m just a plain old human, who can kick ass with the best of them by the way.” Nelson defended his status as a human PI.

Rose eased one finger under Roxie’s chin and gave her a gentle push to close her mouth. “There are many different species of Weres. Wolves are only one. We happen to be feline. Marty and I are cougars and Oscar is a jaguar. You have absolutely no reason to be afraid of any of us, Roxie. We
are
your friends.”

She studied the air for a few seconds before she replied with the ultimate in calm and certainty, “I’m not. I’m not afraid of any of you. Not in the least. I’ve never been more at ease or felt safer in my life.” She paused for a brief second before she continued. “Now, let’s get into that hard drive and find out what really went on in that place.” She walked to the fridge and snagged another soft drink. “Anybody else?” She held the can up, offering to retrieve refreshments for the group.

“That’s my girl.” Rose smiled and took the device containing the information they wanted to review from her backpack. “Oscar, work your magic.”

She looked at Roxie and chuckled. “Technical magic, that is.”

Chapter 27

Rose removed a large bowl from the cabinet and filled it with flour. She greased an oversized baking sheet with some reserved bacon drippings and reached for the can of shortening to begin the biscuit making process. It would help to keep busy while Oscar concentrated on getting the files from the computer they found in the doctor’s office transferred to his laptop.

She had always been reasonably good at waiting games. If all night stakeouts had taught her anything, it was that patience paid off, but it never hurt to keep busy. Besides, Marty loved a good, hot, homemade biscuit. He’d be hungry when he woke up. It was the least she could do for him after almost getting him killed. She blamed herself. She had fumbled with those screws much too long. Why hadn’t she tied her laces up tighter?

“Hey, can I help?” Nelson peeked over her shoulder checking on the biscuit progress. All the occupants of the house welcomed Rose’s biscuits.

“Oh, sure. What do y’all want with these?” She nodded toward the bowl where she kneaded an enormous dough ball.

“I’ll fire up the grill and put a couple of packages of sausage links on to slow cook,” he offered.

“Sounds good to me. Marty loves food from the grill.” She choked on the last word. A lump formed in the throat. She stopped working the dough and squeezed her eyes shut.

Her head pounded with flashbacks of her mate struggling to heal from injuries that never should have happened. They should have been out long before the guards made the inside rounds. She wasted precious seconds getting everything back into place. It was all her fault.

Nelson slid an arm around her shoulder. “Rose. You can’t blame yourself. We train for close situations like that but things happen. And you guys have an advantage over us weak humans. He’ll be okay. I’ve seen Logan and the others heal from some pretty severe injuries.” Nelson’s words comforted her. He spoke the truth. Marty would recover. Still.

“I’ve made too many silly, careless mistakes since I started this case and now one on those mistakes almost cost Marty his life.” Her voice cracked and trailed off to a whisper.

“You know we are all here to help you through this. If there’s anything you need . . .” He rubbed her arm.

“Tell ya what
I
need. I need you to get your grubby paws off my woman, dude.”

Everyone turned to the sound of a weak but a very much alive, Marty Brown. He stood in the kitchen door, propped against the jamb for support.

“Sorry man, but I thought you were a goner and
she
can cook. It was a win for me.” He grinned and extended both hands in a
problem-solved
manner.

“Marty!” Rose left her doughy chore and ran to the opposite side of the kitchen. Her first thought was to leap into her mate’s arms but since he had them wrapped around his waist, she was reminded of his injury and his weakened state. She slowed a step before she plowed into him and stared up into his eyes. Her hands, covered with biscuit dough, reached out to frame his face but she stopped short of flouring him, too.

Marty eyed her doughy fingers and smiled. “Hey. Are you okay?”

“Forget about me. How do you feel?” The weight of the world lifted off her shoulders.

“I’ll be fine. It was just a little ol’ knife. Nothin’ to it.” His voice was weak and barely above a whisper. The two shifts back-to-back sped the healing, and helped his body replenish its blood level.

She inched closer and lifted herself onto her tiptoes to brush their lips together. She inhaled and drank in his scent. His essence. “You need to sit. Come over here to the table. I’m about to put the biscuits in the oven. Are you hungry?” She locked her arm with his to help him into a chair.

He huffed out a weak breath. “Have you ever known me
not
to be hungry?”

She settled him in the chair, kissed the top of his head, and hurried back to her biscuit baking.

“How’s the search going?” He nodded toward the computer Oscar was watching with eagle eyes.

“Slow. There were a ton of files on that hard drive but as soon as the transfer is done we can start to sift through the info.” Oscar indicated the progress bar on the screen to confirm his answer. The blue line was moving but it would be a while longer.

“Are you thirsty? I’m glad you didn’t die.” Roxie offered a half smile and a bottle of water from the fridge.

“Thanks. Me too. So, you kinda know what happened . . . with me?” He pointed toward his back.

“Yeah, everyone’s been filling me in since we got here. It’s a lot to absorb.”

The backdoor opened and filled the kitchen with the smoky aroma of sausage links hot off the grill. “Sausages are ready,” Nelson announced.

“Perfect timing. The coffee’s done, and by the time we set the table, the biscuits will be ready to come out of the oven. Eggs anybody?” A sea of hands created a wave around the kitchen so Rose took both cartons from the fridge and started cracking. She dropped a double handful of grated cheddar cheese into the scrambled eggs as she turned them out into a serving bowl.

Rose beamed when Marty consumed three biscuits along with sausages and two helpings of cheese and eggs. A healthy appetite meant he was healing. He would be fine. The other eating machines around the table cleaned their plates with no surprise.

Rose and Marty related all they had seen inside the procedures room in the doctor’s office.

“Everything was clean. No visible blood but the scent was overwhelming,” Rose said.

“Hindsight really is twenty-twenty. So many things I saw make sense now that I know what really went on in that office.” Roxie pushed her eggs around on her plate. “I just hope we find out the truth about Jeremy. I
know
he didn’t go back to his dad. Do you think they sent him on to his new job?” Roxie sounded hopeful.

Rose and Marty shared a glance. She hesitated to reveal their suspicions without hard evidence. Marty nodded slightly and Rose slipped her hand into her pocket.

“Roxie, we can’t be sure of anything until we sift through the computer records but . . .” she paused, then pulled out the gold chain with the
J
initial and held it up, “ . . . it doesn’t look good, sweetie.” She handed the chain to the stunned girl and wrapped an arm around her shoulder in support.

“This is Jeremy’s. He never took it off. Not even to shower. The guys kidded him about it. He laughed and said gold needed to be cleaned too.” She clinched her hand into a fist and rested her head against it, holding tight to the chain. “I remember his smile, the way he told a corny joke and then laughed harder than anyone else.” Her sobs became uncontrollable.

Rose hated to be the one to break such news to Roxie. She was already on edge. “You’re tired. Why don’t you go curl up on the couch and rest for a while. We’ll call you when we have more information.”

She opened her eyes and wiped them with the back of her hand. “I can’t. I have to find out what happened to him. And Rose, what about the other kids? Are they safe? What’s gonna happen to them now? Will they be okay?” Her eyes glistened. She searched the faces around her, but at this point, no one could give her any assurance that the others were safe.

“Once we get a look at the files, it shouldn’t take long to determine if we need to call in the authorities to close that place down. At any rate, the kids should be safe for now. We won’t let it go on.” Rose stroked the girl’s hair and squeezed her shoulder.

“Finally, we’re ready to examine some medical files and answer some of these questions,” Oscar announced, as he made one last check on the transfer progress and restarted the computer.

The group gathered around as he opened the first files going back more than three years. A medical history of each resident of the program contained blood type and a donor list from that time period. A summary of the disposition of each of the patients determined the length of their stay. A notation was made of the date any young person threatened to leave or questioned any suspicious activity. A complete dissection and dismemberment would be planned for the coming Wednesday and the body parts shipped out in the wee hours before dawn the next morning.

Rose put both arms around the girl next to her. Roxie rested her head on Rose’s shoulder for a moment and then sucked in a breath. “Jeremy Grassy. Search for any information on Jeremy Grassy.”

Oscar typed in the boy’s name and hesitated a moment before he hit the search button. He glanced in Rose’s direction for confirmation he should continue. She mouthed the words, “Do it.”

Oscar pressed the button and the file from the doctor’s notes confirmed Jeremy had questioned the number of procedures performed at the facility. “The order for
final destination
was issued last week. The same time the group was told he decided to return home to work on his relationship with his family. The notations include a listing of each body part packed for shipment and its destination. This information will make it easy for the authorities to track the criminals receiving human organs for profit.”

Roxie placed her hand over her mouth. A frightened cry escaped. “If you hadn’t brought me here with you that could have been me in a week or two.” She gasped for air.

Nelson pulled a chair around and took a seat on her other side. “You’re safe now and we’ll get everyone else to safety in a few hours.”

“You’re right, Nelson. Make the call.” Rose directed him to call the local authorities and speak with their contact to get the ball rolling on a raid of the facility.

She tried again to comfort the girl. “We’ve been piecing this together for sometime, Roxie. The local authorities and the FBI are aware of our findings and will do what’s necessary to save these kids. When you agreed to help us, we were able to move along even faster. From what I can see from these records, you saved Jason Tice and probably yourself from the
final
destination
list.”

Roxie rested her head on the table and closed her eyes.

“What about your client’s son, Marty? Tim Easton wasn’t it?” Marty acknowledged the name and Oscar typed it into the search bar.. He scrolled through the names and paused a couple of times. “I found him.”

Marty closed his eyes. Rose didn’t know if she could take any more bad news. Everyone held their breath.

“Medical info was obtained from a blood drive at the campus in Atlanta. Tim’s blood type is rare. Someone approached him to join the group.. He declined. They flagged him as uncooperative and an order to take by force was issued. A list of the initial drug to make him cooperative and all subsequent procedures is included. There’s an entire separate list for kids like him who refused the program and were handled in a more immediate manner.”

“It’s not possible there could be any worse news, Oscar. Having to tell a parent his child is dead is about as bad as it gets.” Marty shook his head. “More than likely, Tim was already dead before I agreed to take this job. Now we know exactly where Mabel and Stan intended to take Rose, too.”

“This is bigger than the operation here in Santa Fe. There are at least three other compounds scattered throughout the west.” Oscar continued as he processed the information on the screen. “Nelson call ‘em back and have ‘em hold up on moving in on the compound here. They may want to coordinate with other agencies to make a simultaneous move. That’ll prevent one compound from notifying another and any computer records being destroyed.”

“On it.” Nelson flipped his phone open, pressed the number on speed dial for his law enforcement contact, and explained the new findings. “They’re coming here to review the files and make plans. Should arrive in a few,” he announced.

Rose sucked in a determined breath. She stood and paced the kitchen floor, searching for answers. “Good. We need to move fast before anyone catches on. Hopefully, at this point, they think we were only locals looking for drugs or money.”