Page 36 of Out to Find Freedom

“Well, no, but… the clothes say otherwise.”

Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose. Then I explained to Butch what was going on. By the end of it, we were sitting in the kitchen with a beer. I’d deemed it safe for us to wander the house since if they saw Butch arrive or his car out front, they’d know we wouldn’t be in bed.

“Sounds messed up. Want to know something strange though?” He didn’t wait for an answer, just continued, “The manager guy from the club I went to see seemed tweaked by my visit and questions. Well, his car is next door right now.”

My beer hit the table as I leaned towards him. “What the fuck?”

Butch nodded. “He must have just got here before I did, but I’d pulled up to grab a snack on the way.”

I glanced at Violet. “They’re in on it?”

She shrugged. “Could be. Highly likely.”

I looked back to Butch. “You think this guy deals the drugs to the girls?”

“Man, I can’t say for certain, but the dude was suspicious. He wouldn’t meet my gaze the whole time. Kept saying how tired he was after getting back. Now he’s next door, and with what you’ve told me about the characters there, it’s starting to connect some serious dots in my head.”

“Same here.” I nodded. If that was the case, I wanted to put pressure on the three of them about the drugged-out girls and why the hell Emmie was kept in the basement. Question was, did I go about it the legal way or another? Right then, all I could see was the other way because I had the biggest fucking feeling Emmie needed to get out of there. How long had she been in there in the first place?

“What are you thinking?” Violet asked.

“Do we go in now, hard and fast,makethem tell us everything they know, and help the woman in their basement? Or play it safe and have all the evidence we need to convict them?”

“What happens if we do it fast and it backfires? Remember what Emmie said; she won’t let anyone else get hurt because of her. Do they have someone she’s trying to save, which is why she’s staying there?”

Fuck. If there was, it could mean risking that person if they were at another destination.

“I need her to tell me.”

Violet nodded. “You do.”

I snatched up my phone from the table and typed out a text. “How’s this sound? ‘Emmie, before I can let this drop, like you asked, I need more information first.’”

“It’s a good start. She won’t know what your questions will be, but she’ll be willing to answer them to protect you.” Violet said. I pressed Send and we all stared down at the phone.

I ground my teeth together when no text came back right away.

Movement in the laundry room caught my attention. I looked there to see Travis stepping through the side door, his arm curled around a box. Violet stood, walking over to him. He stopped, their heads bent together. She was telling him what we’d learned from Butch.

After a few moments, they came into the kitchen with Violet saying, “For now, we’re just waiting on a text from Emmie.”

“If we fuckin’ get one,” I added.

“She will,” Violet said, sounding sure.

Yeah, I had a feeling Emmie would text back, but I was an impatient man. I wanted it now, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be.

“Violet said you’re thinking of going in for the three of them,” Travis said, taking a seat next to his woman.

“Just an option to think about,” I told him.

“What happens if there’s more people in their group? We don’t know if it’s only drugging girls and dumping them that they’re doing. We don’t know how many are involved. Are you willing to let the crew next door be taken in and then they contact their people? We don’t know how dangerous they are. They could come for this Emmie woman or the people she’s worried about.”

Jesus motherfucking Christ. He was right.

Going in with force was out of the damn question until we had more answers.

“They could tell us who they work with,” Butch said.

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