Heather places her arm around my neck, pulling my head down as she speaks directly into my ear. Her breath fans over it, and I clench my jaw in an attempt to control myself.
“I haven't forgotten about it. Can we leave soon? Please, sir. I can’t wait much longer.”
Fuuck.
She lifts her head, pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and gazes at me, her eyes filled with amusement.
‘Fucking brat.’ I mouth to her as she giggles.
Athena clears the table, insisting she doesn’t need help. Heather and Bella jump out of their seats helping her anyway. Bones nods for the three of us to follow him and we do along with his two brothers.
We make it into a large office, sparsely decorated. Other than a few chairs, there’s only a large black desk with a laptop sitting on top of it. He pulls open a drawer and lies a stack of photographs on top of the ebony surface.
“I’m not sure if you are aware of what you’ll be walking into, but I was certainly surprised by the vast number of children.”
I flip through dozens of photographs and instantly know it’s Heather's family. The men all have long beards while the boys and young men are clean shaven. They are all dressed in jeans and t-shirts with the words, ‘Servants of Christ’ scrawled across the top. The women are dressed in floor-length, long sleeve dresses. It looks like a pregnancy camp. So many of the women, various ages, some quite young, have bulging bellies. I cover the one photo with my hand over the pregnant stomach trying to get a read on how old she might be.
“This one looks young. Maybe eleven or twelve.”
“Jesus. This is fucking sick.” Carter says, looking at the same photo.
Bones leans back behind the desk, rubbing his temples.
“I know the men will all die, and that’s a non-issue for us. What about the women? The children? We can’t call law enforcement. I have counted thirty-two women, seventeen are visibly with child. And twenty-four live children. I assume there will be more once we get in there. I glance at Carter on my left and Knox on my right as I stare at these children. It guts me to know some of what they are experiencing.
“We need Heather in here.”
Carter rises from his seat to go and get her while I continue going through the stack.
Bones clears his throat uncomfortably.
“Each of the women are tasked with kidnapping a girl under the age of eight. He is trying to increase the number of children, specifically girls. My gut says he’s planning to traffic them.”
Jesus Christ. His family isn’t enough for him. Now, he’s victimizing outsiders as well?
“What?” Heather cries out angrily and we all look in her direction. I didn’t realize Carter had brought her in already, and judging by the shocked expression on Bones’ face, he didn’t either.
“We need a list of men that would have access to information.” Psycho says to her as she balls her hands into fists.
“This has to stop.” Heather's voice is broken, understandably so.
“It will, but Psycho is right. Can you look at the photographs and tell us the men you think would know Jedediah’s whereabouts?”
She nods, tears falling down her face as Knox pulls her onto his lap.
I hand her the photograph with the most men in it.
She points to an older man with a long beard and matching bushy eyebrows. He’s skinny and has an angry scowl on his face as he grips the arm of a young girl.
“That’s John Steve. He knows everything. If it weren’t for him, I don’t know if any of this would’ve happened. Jedediah met him in prison, and I promise you, John Steve is hiding him.”
She points out three other men: “Daniel, Issac, and David.They will have limited information. Wherever the Prophet is, he’s under armed guards. That I can promise you. He’s very paranoid and only trusts a few people.”
Rightfully so. After all, my gorgeous Killer is out for his blood. I cannot fucking wait to watch her drain the life from his body.
I nod to my brothers letting them know it’s time to go and I grab Heather’s hand. We make our way to where everyone else is and say our goodbyes. It’s a short trip back to our house but we walk leisurely. Heather seems really happy and Carter too. I glance at Knox and he flashes me a grin, confirming that he sees it too. I think she’ll be dealing with her trauma for a long time but this is at least progress.
Chapter Twenty-Eight