Chapter 7 Thirty-Two

Lily

Thirty-two.

I stared at Darius because there was no fucking way I'd heard him correctly. "What?"

His phone was still pressed against his ear. Across the main room, everyone had gone silent. Knox stood beside the bar. Jinx was next to me, his arm still loosely around my waist. Victor had stopped mid-conversation with Elias. Nobody moved.

Darius looked at me. "Thirty-two."

My stomach dropped. "Women?"

He nodded.

"Alive?"

Another nod. Something inside me broke. My knees nearly went out. Jinx caught me before I hit the floor.

"Whoa. Hey."

"Thirty-two?" My voice cracked around the number. I had seen three. Three. Bare feet. Oversized clothes. Hands behind one woman's back. I'd sat in that truck ready to pull my fucking gun and charge through the doors because I'd seen three women. There had been thirty-two.

"Are they okay?"

Darius lifted one finger, listening to Tyler on the other end. "Yeah." Pause. His expression tightened. "How many?"

I grabbed Jinx's arm. "What? How many what?"

Darius didn't answer me. "Any critical?"

My heart stopped. Knox was moving before I realized it. He came across the room and stopped in front of me.

"Let him finish."

"I need to know."

"I know."

Darius paced away. "Okay. Yeah. Keep me updated." Another pause. "Thanks, Tyler." He hung up.

I couldn't breathe. "Well?"

"Thirty-two women recovered alive."

"All of them?"

"Everyone they found."

My eyes burned. "Are they hurt?"

Darius hesitated. That told me enough.

"Some."

"How bad?"

"Dehydration. Malnutrition. Injuries consistent with restraint."

I closed my eyes. Fuck.

"Two were transported immediately, but Tyler said they're stable."

Stable. I grabbed onto that word. Stable meant alive. Stable meant tomorrow. Stable meant they still had a fucking chance.

"Anything else?"

Darius looked at Knox before answering. "Fourteen arrests. They're still processing the building. Computers, phones, paperwork, vehicles. Tyler said it'll take hours."

"And the women?"

"Advocates are there. Medical teams. They're separating them from the scene as quickly as possible."

I nodded. Good. That was good. So why the fuck was I crying? I wiped angrily at my face. "Goddammit."

Jinx's arm tightened around me.

"Thirty-two," I whispered.

"Yeah."

"I only saw three."

Nobody answered. I looked at Jinx. "There were twenty-nine fucking women in there that I didn't see."

His expression softened. "I know."

"I would've gone in." The words slipped out before I could stop them. Knox's face changed. "I would've gone in," I repeated. Because I needed to say it. Needed to hear how fucking stupid it sounded now. "If you hadn't stopped me, I would've gotten out of that truck."

Jinx didn't deny it.

"I would've gone straight through that door."

"Probably."

"Jinx."

"What do you want me to say, Lily?"

"I don't fucking know!" My voice cracked. "I thought there were three!"

He stepped in front of me. "But there weren't."

"Exactly!"

"And that's why we watched."

I hated that word. But for the first time, I understood it.

Knox came closer. "This is what I was trying to tell you."

I looked at him. There was no smugness. No I told you so. Just Knox.

"If we'd gone in—"

"We don't know what would've happened," he interrupted.

"But—"

"No." His voice hardened. "We're not doing that shit."

"What shit?"

"Punishing yourself for something you didn't fucking do." He swallowed. "You didn't go inside."

"Because Jinx stopped me."

"And then you stayed."

I looked away. Knox caught my chin. "You stayed."

That distinction hurt more than it should have. Because he was right. Jinx stopped me initially. But afterward? I'd made the choice. I sat back. I raised the camera. I documented everything.

"You did your job," Knox said.

Darius came closer. "You found them."

Those words again. I laughed weakly through the tears. "Apparently you guys have rehearsed this."

"We have a group chat," Jinx said.

I looked at him. Knox sighed. Darius muttered, "Jesus Christ."

"What? She was getting sad."

A laugh escaped me. Small. Wet. Fucking ridiculous. But it was a laugh.

I wiped my cheeks. Then something occurred to me. "Where were they?"

Darius frowned. "What?"

"The others." I looked at him. "I saw three. Where were the other twenty-nine?"

His expression darkened. "Tyler said the building had been modified."

My stomach twisted. "Modified how?"

"False walls. Interior rooms that weren't on the original plans. One holding area behind the loading section."

Jesus. I pictured Jinx and me storming inside. Guns drawn. Chaos. Men running. Bullets flying. And twenty-nine women hidden behind walls we didn't even know existed. I suddenly felt sick.

I sat down. Nobody told me not to. For a few seconds, I just stared at my hands. I'd spent my entire life thinking strength meant doing something. Punching. Shooting. Fighting. Running toward the problem before anyone could stop me. Caleb had taught me to fight. The club had taught me to survive. Rourke had taught me exactly what happened when monsters were allowed too much time.

But maybe Shadow required something different. Maybe sometimes I wasn't supposed to be the weapon. Maybe I was supposed to find where the weapon needed to be pointed.

Jinx dropped onto the couch beside me. I looked at him. "You said every fucking one."

He nodded. "I did."

"They got every fucking one."

His smile wasn't crazy this time. Wasn't sarcastic. It was just Jinx. "Yeah, Shadow." He bumped his shoulder against mine. "They fucking did."

I leaned against him. Darius sat on my other side. Knox remained standing in front of us. Three men. Three entirely different versions of insanity. Mine. Unfortunately.

I looked toward Darius. "What happens now?"

"Tyler's team processes everything."

"And us?"

Knox answered. "We keep digging."

I nodded. Because Rourke was dead. But his network wasn't. There were still names in that ledger. Routes. Warehouses. Buyers. People who had paid money for human beings and gone to sleep afterward like they'd ordered fucking furniture.

Including whoever had bought me.