Page 118 of Smooth Sailing

This was my reaction too.

Hugger voiced his confusion.

“Why didn’t he just threaten her to keep quiet? Why would he put himself in that spot?”

“Rayne talked to me after,” I began to explain. “He said they think that the senior Babic did this because none of the DNA would come back to him. He’d be exonerated, she’d be discredited. After falsely reporting, even if she did eventually point the finger at Esad and his boys, a good defense attorney would have a field day with her on the stand. And according to Rayne, that’s one way Babic gets his giggles. Messing with the police. And if he can make them and a witness appear incompetent, all the better. So it was a twofer for ole Imran. He gets his son off, and he gets to play with the cops. Win-win for him.”

“And now?” Hugger asked.

“Now, the Feds are pursuing this network of recruiters and their buyers. I guess they’re transporting these girls everywhere. So they’ve got an arrest warrant for Esad, and from mugshots, Madison has identified the two guys that were with him, so they have warrants for them as well. And the Feds sat down with her. She couldn’t give them much, though she was very thorough with her description of the man who groomed her and was able to identify him from a photo array too. She was scared sick at the time, so she didn’t pay a lot of attention, but she did say she saw other girls there. Though she didn’t know how many, she just saw two. And between Maddy, who doesn’t know Phoenix at all but gave a description of where she was taken, and the good Samaritan, who gave a thorough report at the hospital, they’ve got a vicinity of where this place is.”

“Some good news.”

I nodded. “And there’s more. Esad’s phone was a huge get. It’s been a treasure trove for them. And if they can pull in Esad and his boys, and they can get one of them to talk, they think this is going to be huge and the pins of that organization will start toppling.”

“Okay, yeah. That’s good too.”

It was.

“They took her phone,” I noted. “Esad and his assholes took it, and her purse, so she had no identifying information. But she packed a bag before she took off on her folks, that bag remained with her, and she grabbed that too when she escaped. I get why they took her phone and purse. But I think it’s weird that they wouldn’t take her belongings from her.”

“Don’t know how these clowns work, babe. But at least she had her own shit with her when she got away from them. Maybe that was a comfort?” he suggested.

I hoped so.

Now, for the rough part.

“They’re taking them,” I whispered.

“What?”

“Maddy, Elias and Emmylou. They’re getting everything sorted, and tomorrow morning, they’re taking them into protective custody, at the very least until this Babic situation is sorted. But maybe even longer, if Maddy has to go into WITSEC. Either way, I’ll lose contact since she can’t talk to me. That might just be for the interim, or it might be forever.”

“Di,” he murmured tenderly.

I shoved my face in his throat and burrowed into him.

“I know it’s better for her,” I said to his skin. “I know it. But I don’t want her to go. And WITSEC? Her entire life was turned upside down, now it’s gonna be turned upside down again?”

“It’s what’s best for her, what’s safest.”

“Yeah,” I grumbled.

He was right, of course.

I just hated that she’d been through so much, and now she had to go through more.

“Scott was seriously forthcoming about shit,” Hugger observed.

I pulled my face out of his throat. “He was. But I also sat in on the interviews because Maddy wanted me to.”

He stopped stroking my back in order to hold me tight, whispering, “Babe.”

“It’s okay. I’m okay. I was honored she asked.”

He got a funny look on his face before he said, “We’re gonna have to talk about your bent to sacrifice yourself to be all you need to be for other people.”

“I survived, Harlan.”

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