Page 36 of Their Little Foursome

A wave of love swept over Beverly at the sight of Gordon settling on the couch, this time between Blake and Lori, holding each close to his side as they held on to their stuffies and each other’s hand. She felt as if she were being held as well by the people in this room. Those who had become the family she needed when she’d lost the one she’d had. They would also bethe people to help celebrate as four individual people walked out of the ashes of the past to become one.

Taking a breath, she told her part. “When it became clear that this was far more than a car accident, state police blocked off lanes of the highway in readiness of having several ambulances transporting patients to various hospitals. Instead, there was only need for the one. The EMTs knew Lori needed more than they could provide so they called for Life Flight. The same trees that had hid the scene of the accident made it impossible for the helicopter to safely land, so the ambulance had to take her five miles to the highway where it could. She was flown to the nearest large trauma center which was in Houston. I was on duty that night and met the chopper.” She paused to look at Lori and shook her head.

“When I first saw the gurney, I thought they’d left her in the helicopter. She was so small, so thin she barely made a bump beneath the sheets. She was unconscious when she was admitted and didn’t wake up for three weeks. It was a true miracle she survived. Several times we were afraid we were going to lose her, but she refused to let go. As little as she was, she was one hell of a fighter.”

“And still is,” Blake offered. “Oh, and she pinches too.”

For the first time since the story had begun, a few people chuckled, Littles giggling as Lori rolled her eyes, giving her own soft laugh.

That brief moment made the rest much easier to tell.

“She was Jane Doe for official records, but at the hospital, we referred to her as Li’l Bit. Partly due to the fact she was so small, but also because all the nurses and doctors kept telling each other that her coma would last just a day or two, she’d be up and talking in no time, that she’d be ready to go home before we knew it. That someone would come forward to identify her soon. Everything would be fine in just a ‘li’l bit’.”

Beverly smiled as she shook her head. “It took far longer than alittle bit,but she did wake up. By that time, the accident was no longer leading in the news reports. Once the police were able to take her statement, it became clear this was a crime that extended beyond Texas’ borders. Lori was able to give some details about the people who’d taken her and confirm that some of the other captives had come from Louisiana, Arkansas, and even Mexico. That’s when the FBI got involved. When she told us she had no living relatives, it was decided her name would never be released publicly. The fact there had been a survivor was buried for her own safety. Gordon and I had been dating for a while and when Lori was well enough to leave the hospital, we knew she couldn’t go back to her life. She came to live with us. We became her family.”

Beverly took a moment to remember the times they’d shared together before their lives were uprooted again.

“Gordon worked as an assistant district attorney and when two men were eventually arrested, he was assigned the case. He’ll have to tell you the rest of the story.”

CHAPTER 15

Gordon

After standing to give Beverly a hug, waiting for her to take his place between their Littles, Gordon told how everyone in his office had worked thousands of hours gathering evidence, contacting anyone they even suspected knew anything at all about the trafficking ring. He told them how, after two years, the opening day of the trial arrived and how it took three weeks before it came to a close.

He turned to look at Blake. “Blake, I know you counted on me to win the case, to bring the men to justice. Believe me, I was just as shocked as you when the jury came back and declared they couldn’t come to an agreement. The judge had no choice but to declare the mistrial.”

“He was wrong. Those men fucking laughed when?—”

“No”—Gordon held up his hand to interrupt as Blake cursed—“let me finish. The judge didn’t declare the mistrial because he agreed with the jury. He did so because he had sworn to follow the rules of the law. When you heard the verdict and saw the defendants celebrating, you left.”

“Because you should have done more! You just… just stood there!”

Gordon didn’t react except to nod. “You’re right. I should have done more.Notabout the verdict. I had no power to do anything but accept it because I also took an oath. But, I shouldn’t have given up so easily when I tried to find you and learned you resigned and were no longer a police officer. Your landlord told me you’d left without so much as packing anything but a few clothes. That you hadn’t left a forwarding address, but still, I should have tried harder.”

“Wait, you looked for me?”

“Yes, I wanted to explain what had happened. To let you know I had no plans of giving up the case. But when I learned you’d left, I decided to leave you alone. I knew the pain you’d lived with and the fact that I’d disappointed you. I didn’t want to impose, but if I’d known how much you were hurting, that you thought the girl you’d saved had died, I swear I would have found some way to let you know the story didn’t end with that verdict.”

“I-I never considered it could end any other way… I just knew I couldn’t go through that ever again. I turned in my badge and basically, just started walking. I had no destination, just hoped I’d know it when I saw it.” Blake looked at each of them in turn. “To be honest, I-I didn’t really care what happened to me. If I hadn’t found this Ranch, if Master Derek hadn’t taken me in, I-I?—”

“But he did,” Gordon said, not wanting to hear the words he’d thought he’d hear. The wear and tear of that journey was easily seen in the young man’s eyes, in the slump of his shoulders, could be heard in the defeated tone of Blake’s voice.

“We can stop for a bit?—”

“No. I need to hear the rest, please.”

As if he was laying out his case in a courtroom, Gordon began to pace as he told how the very day the verdict came down, he and his team began to work even longer hours, helping the FBI dig even deeper to gather more evidence. When it was discovered two of the jurors had been bought to make sure there was no guilty verdict, the feds began to suspect how massive and far-reaching the case had become.

“It turned out to be a blessing that Lori had been unconscious and looked far younger than she was as both had kept her name out of the public eye. Still, she was the only witness to what had happened before the accident. In the woods, you saw the shock when your Mommy called my name. You asked why I called her Barb and she called Lori Lauren. It was because those were their names before our family was broken apart.”

“Who broke up your family?”

Gordon took a moment to process Blake’s question, the memory of hearing Lauren beg to be allowed to stay, the sight of her sobbing when he said she had to go, that he couldn’t keep her safe. The anger and hurt in her eyes when she’d gotten into the car and the knife in his gut when she never looked back as they drove her away. The knife had twisted when Barbara had left an hour later. Despite the death threats he’d received, he’d refused to leave. He owed it to the victims, to those who’d worked so hard for justice, to the two women who had become his family. He had a job to do and he’d die before he’d stop.

“The feds put Lauren in the witness protection program. Your Mommy left the same day and we were instructed not to contact each other because doing so might put them both in even more danger.”

“From whom?” Blake asked.

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