Secrets revealed
Eliot ran towards the auditorium his bag filled with insulin and other meds plus the Gatorade. He didn’t know what condition the poor kids would be in and he wanted to have stuff on hand in case anyone needed it. Plus the faster he got the girls free the sooner he could get Darcy. He knew she didn’t like the dark so much and that detention cell sounded pretty damn awful. Eliot knew sometimes the worst torture was your own mind. He was going to make damn sure Darcy Lou was out of there soon. It was just a little longer and they were home free. Hardison had already placed an anonymous tip to the local news networks and the he would be signaling the local PD in an hour. This school was going down.
He made it to the doors glared at the guard who let him in with a shrug. Hired muscle, guy was either to dumb to know Eliot shouldn’t be there or he was smarter than Eliot gave him credit for and knew he couldn’t take him. Either way it saved Eliot a few minutes so he wasn’t going to complain. He walked in to see Sophie talking to the clingy principal, Cheryl. Nate spoke quietly to a group of huddled girls. He didn’t bother stopping at the woman going straight to the girls handing Nate the meds and passing out drinks to the poor frightened kids.
“Hey just what the hell are you doing Sinclair!”.
“Keeping these girls alive.” Eliot replied with a growl. He had only met the woman a handful of times and even if he hadn’t known what she was doing with those girls he would have hated her. She had a predatory look in her eye. Eliot was used to drawing the eyes of woman. Her eyes held possession and distain in equal measure. He had known plenty of woman like her. Ones that wanted him and hated him all at once, who looked down on his roots while tying to buy his body. The press would be here in thirty minutes he didn’t have to humor the bitch anymore so he shook her hand off his arm with a sneer.
“Listen here Sinclair with a history like yours you don’t want to make me angry. You can be out on your ass faster than you hock another stolen artifact. Just because I indulged your little thing with that Lewis girl doesn’t mean you can just sample the merchandise! I am in a goddamn meeting now go back to your classroom.”
“Soph?” He asked with a lift of his brow. Sophie curled her lip in disgust at Cheryl and nodded happily at Eliot who grabbed Cheryl’s arm and twisted it painfully behind her back.
“I quit”
“What’s gong on here! You work for me why are you talking to her. Security!”
Eliot shoved Cheryl hard into the wall. He hated to put his hands on woman it went against everything in him. For one second he wished he wasn’t a reformed man because this bitch had tried to harm innocent girls for profit. Had tried to hurt Darcy and that he couldn’t forgive. He rushed the two security guards coming his way while Nate shielded the girls. Eliot grabbed the gun from the first guard ejecting the clip before throwing the empty gun at approaching guy then kicking in his knee caps in. He fell with a cry of pain and the other one just raised his hands in surrender, so he was smarter than Eliot had thought.
Sophie stood over the woman who had try to sell her only child to sex traffickers. She wondered for a brief moment if the team would notice if she killed her. She could do it so fast they would never see her. Nate would suspect and she had kept her secret for so long not just for her but for Darcy. So instead she drew back her fist and punched. Enjoying the crunch of her broken nose. Sophie flipped over her body twisting in air, landing behind the bitch a knife at her throat. Just because she had decided not to kill her didn’t mean she wasn’t going to scare her. Make sure she knew just what a mistake she had made in hurting what was hers.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t slit your throat for what you tried to do to Darcy.”
“Why do you care about the little bitch! She’s a dime a dozen an orphan, just another little bitch who will be pregnant sooner rather than later.” She gasped as the knife pressed into her throat harder a drop of blood beading at its tip. Cheryl laughed looking into the woman’s angry eyes. The eyes were a different color but the shape, the hate reflected in them she had seen a hundred times over in Lewis’s eyes.
“She’s yours isn’t she. You abandoned your kid, then get mad when I try to make a little money. Go ahead push that knife through by the time West is done with your precious girl there won’t be anything left of her. Noah’s toys never last very long but well his father pays us handsomely to over look his broken things. He’s the reason we started this whole thing. Janet had to many broken girls laying around.”
Sophie drew back her fist and put power in it that she hadn’t used in thirty years. Cheryl crumpled to the ground. Sophie didn’t bother to check if she was still alive she didn’t care.
“Where’s West?” She called frantically hoping that he was in the auditorium somewhere. She smacked her head trying to think back to when she had last seen him. Oh god it was when they first gotten to the auditorium. She ran towards the doors screaming for Eliot his coms were the ones linked to Darcy’s.
“West went to Darcy! Is she ok Eliot is my daughter ok!” Sophie’s voice was frantic and Eliot blanched realizing he hadn’t turned his coms back on after the fight with Quinn. He hurriedly flipped them on only to push Sophie out of the way running when he heard her scream in his ear.
“Freeze!” Eliot and Sophie froze in the face of thirty armed FBI agents guns aimed at them. Leading the charge was a tiny Hispanic woman with a machete.
“Please you gotta let me go. He’s going to hurt her!” Sophie struggled and screamed taking out five agents while Eliot had taken out three before they were subdued. Guns held to their heads.
“Mami!” Jesse ran towards her mother sobbing. She knew she knew Darcy and her mother would never leave her. She hugged her mother tightly. “Did Darcy get you?”
“No mijita, I haven’t seen her mi bebe. I was so worried. when those Hijos de chingada (mother fuckers) killed Mr. Lewis I knew I had to come. Your father called his friends and here we are, pero no te preocupes tu tio vienes. You tell me which one of these people did this in prison he will disappear.”
Jesse smiled at her mother. She knew while her fathers connections were all political her mothers were more illegal. Her uncle Chuco loved her and Darcy dearly.
“His name is Noah West. He brought Sky and me here. He thought because Sky was an orphan and I was brown, no one would miss us.”
“Oh si, todo es bein hija (everything is fine daughter). Where is this Sky? Is this the girl you and Darcy have been telling me about?”
Jesse pulled Sky towards her mother who inspected the girl before pulling her into a hug. Then digging into her purse she pulled out two burritos giving each girl one. When Sky hesitated Mrs. Sanchez said “Eat you’re to skinny. When you move in I will teach you to cook. Everyone should know how to cook. Then you wont have to waste money on food out. You will have to share a room with Darcy I hope thats ok”. Sky just looked at beaming Jesse and her mom and burst into tears giving both of them hugs.
“Where is Darcy?” Mrs. Sanchez asked.
“I don’t know. She brought those people to help us but I haven’t seen her.” Jesse told her mother bitting her lip worriedly. They walked towards the group struggling with the police. Jesse tried to tell them that that man had tried to help but they weren’t listening to her.
Hardison was led out of the control room at gun point by several agents. While Eliot and Sophie still struggled from the ground. He was freaking out. Sophie and Eliot were seconds from getting shot in the head in front of them and 20 already traumatized girls and he didn’t know how to stop it.
“Special Agent Alan!” Hardison let out a breath. He knew Eliot was seconds from picking up a gun and murdering a whole bunch of FBI agents so he could get to Darcy and Agent Taggert had just saved all their lives. He had never been so grateful to see the older FBI agent that he and Parker had met on several cons.
“Taggert! This is my team we’ve been under cover for weeks trying to stop the ring of human Traffickers out of this school. Agent Hagen has the rest of the school secured in the gymnasium but we have an asset that’s in danger. One of the girls agreed to help us. She’s being assaulted by one of the professors here. I really need you to let my team up before this girl is harmed.”
“Agent Hagen’s here?” Special Agent McSweenten asked his face brightening. Hardison kept from rolling his eyes but only barely.
“Look you can go confer with her in the gym but please don’t let us lose this brave kid because she helped us.”
Taggert nodded his head at his fellow officers and as soon as the guns were down Eliot took off. Each of Darcy’s screams breaking his heart, shredding his resolve to never pick up a gun again.