Page 30 of The Protégé

“You hungry?” I asked.

It meowed, and I followed it to an empty electronic kibble feeder. A stack of books had fallen and unplugged the cord.

I plugged it back in, and the cat got its food.

Something about the books intrigued me.I looked at the bookcase that wasn’t very tall. The five shelves were occupied with books and magazines. A closer look at the bookcase revealed it was slightly ajar from the wall. The scrapes on the floor showed someone had been pushing it back and forth.

A soft whimper sounded from behind the bookcase. I pushed the bookcase aside, revealing a secret door.

“Someone in there?” I grabbed the doorknob and was surprised it wasn’t locked.

The door opened and two frightened faces peered out at me.

“Let’s go.” I helped them out and glanced at the small space that reeked of urine and feces.

Fuck, how long had they been in there?

They appeared to be in their early twenties, but I couldn’t be sure.

Anger erupted in me. I came here tonight wanting to steal a few things from the asshole, but now I wanted him dead. Despite that, there was more to this story. Why was he hiding these women? Were there more of them elsewhere? Was he part of The Trogyn? That was a possibility I couldn’t dismiss. I had to remain anonymous.

I grabbed two bottles of water from the refrigerator and made up a story about being the maintenance man who needed to use the bathroom without the owner’s permission.

“Please don’t mention me to the police. I’ll lose my job. Just say you tampered with the lock and set yourself free. Okay?”

The woman with the brown eyes nodded as tears streamed down her face. “We understand. Thank you for being here. I didn’t know if I had the strength to push through the heavy bookcase.”

“How did you unlock the door?” I asked.

She reached into the pocket of her jeans and showed me a paperclip. “I found it inside a box he had in the basement.”

“I’m Timothy. What’s your name?”

“I’m Emma Winters,” said the lock picker. “This is my younger sister, Taylor.”

They briefed me on how they’d been kidnapped and imprisoned in this asshole’s house for a year.

While they called the police from his home phone, an idea percolated in my head. I grabbed the cardboard box, went out tomy car, and called the press with an anonymous tip. I thought about calling Elena for this story. She could get the first scoop, but I didn’t want her anywhere near this shit. This was too dark for her. I returned to the house, reminded the women not to mention me, and looked for the cat. I didn’t see any obvious signs of animal abuse. It wore a gem-studded collar on its neck.

“You wanna help me out, kitty?”

It meowed, so I took that as a yes and added something special to his collar.

Then I checked on the sisters. They sat on the couch holding each other while waiting for the authorities to arrive.

“You’ll be okay,” I told them. After one last check around the house to ensure I didn’t drop or leave anything behind, I exited through the back door.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ELENA

“Are you sure?”I asked Elliot, who was on speaker. My fingers flew across the keyboard, searching. “Okay, I’ve got the address.”

“Don’t do anything irrational or reckless.”

“You know me.” I smiled over the phone. “Very rational and guarded.”

“For certain things. Sometimes you get too excited about a story and your brain forgets how to function properly.”

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