Chapter 33 Mila A convoy travelled with us through the streets of Deadwater, Manny in a car ahead with a skeleton crew member whose name I didn't catch, Riordan driving our vehicle which I was pretty sure was bulletproof, and another crew member in a car behind. Additionally, Tyler was watching us, though I hadn't seen him since we'd set out from the warehouse. It was for Genevieve's benefit, I gathered. Arran would flay them alive if anything happened to his woman. Cassie pulled her phone from her ear, her pretty features wreathed in worry. "Has anyone spoken to Dixie recently? I can't get hold of her and I haven't seen her in the warehouse." Lovelyn put up a hand like she was in class. "I did a few days ago. She was upset about something and left the warehouse in a hurry. I'm sure she'll come back when she's ready." sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Findηʘvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Cassie sighed. "I hope so." I hadn't met the woman in question so focused on our task. We'd already tried Esther's flat, and my knock had been answered by a woman who had to be her mother. She'd stumbled and slurred, screamed at us to piss off, then slammed the door so hard the echo rattled down the sparse corridor. I felt so bad for her, but obviously now wasn't a good time to talk. Tyler had been able to give us an address for Annabelle, so we switched our approach to the two other women who'd been in the auction with me. Perhaps they would have clues. We pulled up at Annabelle's street, and I hopped out, Cassie and Riordan coming with me. The rest of the crew held back. We'd agreed not to go mob-handed and for Genevieve to stay in the safety of the car. Annabelle opened the door. She blinked at me. "Oh, hi." I got straight to the point. "Did you know Esther died?" She gave a wide-eyed and fast nod. "I heard about it. It's terrifying. I never thanked you..." "You don't have to. Did you ever meet her before that night?" "Never." "When we were in the cell for the auction, you went out in the hall with her and the other woman. Did she say anything?" "She spoke to the guy out there who was shit talking us. He grouched about not taking long like you had, and she said you were a nice girl and too good for that place. You had people who cared about you. He laughed and said what a great friend she was with all she was doing to you." I held in my hurt. That pretty much confirmed she'd set me up. "The other woman who was there, I didn't get her name. Did you?" The youngster jerked her head. "I've seen her before. She works at the Burger Barn. Pretty sure her name's Becky." I thanked her, extracting a promise that she'd never do anything like that again. Annabelle gazed at the skeleton crew cars blocking her street. "Your boyfriend already made me swear that when he was hunting for you. I'm glad you found each other again." We drove away, and my heart thumped at the thought of Convict searching for me in the days Salter had held me before the game. The two margaritas must've heightened my emotions as I felt the weight of him being so far away as a band constricting my chest. A quarter of an hour on, we'd arrived at the fast-food chain restaurant Annabelle had named. It was past eleven p.m., and the place was empty though the lights were still on, and people moved at the back of the kitchen area. I rapped on the door, but none of them approached. Manny, escorting me this time, made a dismissive sound and booted it. It flew open, and heads popped up in the kitchen. A manager stepped forward, her gaze darting from us to the crew and the cars. "I don't want any trouble." Manny shrugged. "You won't get any. We need to talk to Becky. It won't take long." The manager peered over her shoulder and flapped a hand, then the woman with braids I remembered from the holding cell crept up to the counter. In her blue-and-yellow uniform, she darted anxious looks at me. "Did you hear about Esther?" I asked. Becky sucked in a deep breath and circled out of the counter opening, catching my arm to guide me across the floor, all the way beyond the doors and to an outside eating area. In the cool night, she shoved her hands into her armpits. "I heard. I don't know anything about it." I leaned on a low wall to a children's play area and took in the woman I'd so briefly met in that holding cell. Going by her expression, Becky was wary and afraid. Almost hostile. "You know she was a sex worker?" She leaned in and dropped her voice down low. "That isn't news. She has been for years. She tried to target wealthier clientele, but her habit set her back." "She used drugs?" "Obviously." "Did she go through with the auction?" Becky darted a glance into the nearest Burger Barn window then up at a camera. "I don't know what you're talking about." "Please? Esther died. Someone needs to care." She worked her jaw then swore and walked away, out of the perimeter of the building and into the car park. I followed, Manny tracking me. In the open space, she whirled around. "I can't lose this job. I have a kid. I need the money." I formed a sympathetic smile. "Then you went through with it, too." Brittle tension rolled off her. "I can't tell you anything useful. She was sold first. There were other girls there who I heard, one was crying nonstop, but we were kept blindfolded until they took us out front." "Do you know who bought Esther?" "No." "Did you see any of the other handlers?" "Only the two men who had been at the place I saw you. They didn't speak often." "Did anyone say a name?" "Like I said, they weren't chatty. One called another Dumbo, but that's got to be a nickname, right?" I lodged that fact away, though she was probably correct. "Then someone bought you. You must've been so scared." At her tiny nod, my heart broke for her. I gentled my tone. "I'm sorry for what you went through." She snorted, not meeting my gaze. "I made it out. Figured you for dead, but here you are, backed by fancy men with fancy cars. Looks like we both did okay." "This next bit is important. I need to know who bought you." "Why should I tell you shit? You didn't go through it. You come to my place of work and cause drama. All those nosy bitches are going to have a field day over this." "You should help me because someone needs to be held accountable for what they did to Esther." Becky's gaze flew to mine. "Maybe she deserved it. I only know her because she would come in here and other places to try to recruit girls. She was a fucked-up user. I'm not sad. Only shaken that it could've been me. Whoever bought her must've been a real bastard. No one in the auctions will be safe if he's on the scene. To think, he could've bought me." She wasn't wrong. The mystery buyer was more than likely Esther's murderer. "Exactly. Which is why I want to work out who he is. Your buyer might be able to tell us." "Fuck. Fine. I didn't see him when I was being sold. Not until I was escorted to his car and locked in the back. He didn't tell me his name, not when he was inviting his friends to run train on me and not when he did the most degrading shit a prissy princess like you can even imagine. The auction was for no-holds-barred sex, you know that? I put up with what he..." She gazed to the dark skies and took a steadying breath. "I would do anything to give my son a better life. The money paid for his school uniform, new, not secondhand, shoes that didn't have a previous owner, day trips he'd otherwise miss out on. Don't you dare judge me." I kept silent. I wasn't judging. I'd been in a place where I'd have done anything for my family. Becky centred herself. "When the bastard was asleep in the rented apartment, after everything was over, I went through his bag. There was no wallet, but in a side compartment I found a gym membership card with RS Yelland on it." My mind spun. I recognised the name. Richard Yelland was a Deadwater businessman who had occasionally attended events I'd been to with my grandparents. "Man in his sixties, bad teeth, stinks of cigars?" Her shoulders rose and fell. "I'm so ashamed. Fuck you for making me feel it all again tonight. Are we done?" I nodded, and Becky stormed away. I didn't follow, for a moment, standing with my thoughts in the desolated retail estate where shadows wrapped around the edges, all the other businesses dark. It was a dead end. Men like Yelland would keep secrets to avoid implicating themselves. The cold crept in around me. All of a sudden, I felt vulnerable, though Manny was close and the cars only twenty feet away. The hair on the back of my neck rose, and I peered around, searching the gloom beyond the Burger Barn's slices of light. A litter-strewn hedgerow, a couple of cars and pushbikes further away on the expanse of tarmac. Nothing obviously wrong to explain my intuition. Something shifted in the dark. Not a sound, not a shape, just a presence. Like the night itself had taken interest in me. "Mila, call for you." Manny approached and handed over his phone. I raised it to my ear. If mine had rung, I hadn't noticed. "Don't leave me," Convict said down the line. I turned away and clutched the phone tighter. "I'm not." "I'm on my way back. We'll be there as fast as we can. Just hear me out. Let me make it up to you. I promise to be better." A faint noise reached me. A chill slid down my spine. The yellow patches of light from the restaurant cut out, plunging us into darkness. "Mila," Convict said again. "I'm here. It's just... Something's off. I don't know how to explain it." "Get back in the car. Please, listen to me." A scream stopped my chance of a response. From the shadows, a figure lurched and ran full pelt at me. I didn't spot the knife they threw until pain bloomed and blood flowed.