Page 90 of Against the Clock

“You killed my dad?!”she screamed furiously as he carried her over his arm across the room.

Fury blinded me as I stared at Julia.Before I could speak, I heard a woman’s voice behind me.

“Put the gun down.”

Julia narrowed her eyes and moved her aim from me to the girl now standing next to me.

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but since they were aimed at each other, I turned and focused mine on Elias.

In a split second, gunfire rang out in the room and I took cover as I heard a bullet whip beside me.I spun around to find Roman in the hallway, rushing into the room.

Julia was on the floor in a puddle of blood, matching the mess Elias had made on the other side of the bed.Rosie was standing there, screaming, as red splattered her hair and face.

“Go get Rosie, Quinn,” Roman instructed, rushing in and blocking me from the other woman.

“I’m not here to hurt anyone,” she said, lowering her gun and handing it to Roman.

Forty-Eight

Roman

“Julia took me whenI was seven.My mom was a drug addict and didn’t care what happened to me.She just wanted that next fix.At first, I thought Julia was a godsend until I was old enough to know what they were doing.”

“Why didn’t you try to leave and get help?”Quinn asked as she held Rosie on her lap.

“I couldn’t.Every time I tried, they caught me.By the time I was thirteen, Julia had started showing me theropesand told me that if I didn’t want that kind of life, then I could work for her.I didn’t know what she meant at the time, but I knew that I didn’t want the men to touch me anymore, so I agreed.She started teaching me how to lure children away and said we made the perfect team because I was someone they would trust.”

“That’s why I wanted to help Bree when she lost her puppy,” Rosie said sadly, tucking her head into Quinn’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry about that,” Bree sighed.“I didn’t want to do it.But I also didn’t have a choice.Julia had changed once Elias came back.She wasn’t nice to me anymore.I was afraid of what she might do to me after I saw what happened to Ariel.She told me to lead her away from the house, then got upset after I did because Elias reminded her that it wasn’t the right day.They had been planning it for a while.”

“We’ll need you to talk to the police about this,” Quinn said softly.“I’m here to help you however I can, but we need to make sure that there are no other victims that we don’t know about.Was she working with anyone else?”

“No,” Bree shook her head.“She hadn’t done much while Elias was locked up.Once he was out, they became obsessed with Rosie and getting revenge on Justin for the accident and then for uncovering their operation.It was too risky for her to start it up again right away, and she didn’t have all of the resources she needed.She was told to hire people to take out Justin’s team so there were no traces back to her.She even hired people for other stuff, like breaking into your apartments.”She looked between us.That explained the random thug that Quinn had shot in my apartment.

“That’s why everyone on Justin’s team was targeted and murdered,” I commented, not letting on to whether Mike was alive or dead.“Except her.”

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