Can't Save Me

Grant

I got even more concerned the closer we got to the location Jones had insisted Madeline would be at. It was isolated, on the water, surrounded by empty fields and nothing else as far as the eye could see. No one would hear a scream. No one would be there to jump in if something went wrong, and I was terrified we were already too late.

Snyder turned off the headlights as we pulled closer to the immense house. It looked like a mansion, though it needed a bit of a facelift. It was eerily well lit considering its surroundings, with fancy cars and limousines parked all around. I could only assume the lighting was for security cameras they had planted all over. It was evident whoever owned this property didn't want themselves or their guests disturbed. Or caught if what we thought was happening was indeed happening.

God, I hated thinking about what was going on in that house at that moment. From what I'd gotten out of Jones it was no more than a livestock sale, just using women instead of cattle. According to the scum, they kept the girls on a base level of ketamine or haldol or some other date rape type drug, making them placid and pliable. They barely remembered their own names, let alone anything about what was happening to them.

This event was apparently the largest of many. Jones said there was a website where 'customers' (if you could call them that), could browse the women like a menu and make offers. This event, however, was for more of an upscale crowd, offering girls that weren't available to your everyday bidder. Jones assured me Maddie was one of them. He said that Eva and her cronies would have dressed them all up like dolls and put them on display for the guests to see. I could hardly wrap my head around it all. This was shit that happened in the movies, or your worst nightmares, not in real life. Sure, sex trafficking was a huge issue, but this? This was on a mind-blowing level that I didn't even know existed. But according to Jones, this is what Eva Braun was known for, all over the world in fact. There was no way we were the only people looking for her. Interpol, the FBI, someone else had to be on this.

At least I'd hoped.

My heart broke for all the families, husbands, friends that had lost their loved ones to this and still had no idea what had happened to them. I was oddly thankful that I knew who to look for, considering I could've just been left with no answers and no leads. That would've probably eaten me alive even more. I had gone into this with only one thought, one person in my head, but now? Now I was determined to do everything I could to save every single woman in that building, not just Maddie. They all deserved to go home. Their families deserved to have them home.

There was a grove of trees that blocked almost the entire grounds from view, yet somehow Snyder got the truck parked in the dark where we could have a perfect view of the entrance. We sat in silence for a while, simply watching for movement, or an opportunity maybe. I don't know. As determined as I was to get Maddie out of there, I had little to no idea how to actually do it. Couldn't just run in there with Snyder guns blazing. I could already see security guards posted at damn near every angle, and as much as I would do anything to save Maddie, sending my kids home a corpse wasn't on the top of my list either.

"Maybe we should..."

I stopped Jones midsentence by jamming my knee into the back of his seat, causing him to whimper as it jerked. "If I want your fucking opinion, I'll ask for it."

"I was just trying..."

"I don't CARE what you were just trying to do," I growled, my chest rattling with the force of it. "YOU are part of the reason we're here in the first place. I don't need your fucking help."

Jones's head hung, his eyes staring at his hands as he picked with the fraying ends of his fingerless gloves. "Then why did you even bring me?"

"We can fix that right now." My eyes drifted to Snyder as he reached into his coat and pulled out his handgun; instantly clicking off the safety and pointing it at Jones's skull. "This better?"