Page 232 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

I giggled. “You weren’tthatmean.”

He shook his head and sighed.

The house was not ahouse. It was a castle. “Jeez, Reuben, how much did this place cost?”

“It was a foreclosure, and almost completely ruined. I had a lot of work done on it.”

“You just love fixing things, don’t you?”

He put his SUV in park and jumped out, leaving it idling. A moment later, a young girl scampered out and climbed into his car to take it to wherever their parking was. “Thank you, Tricia,” he said in passing. To me he said, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re such a guy. You see something broken and you justhaveto fix it. Whether it’s houses or broken little subs like me.”

He stopped inside the massive entrance to the castle, took hold of my shoulders, and turned me around to face him.

“I want tohelpyou. I want to make you happy and help you feel safe. You don’t need fixing because there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re justhurt. Now if I hear you insult my girl again, you’re getting more lines and mantras in the mirror.”

Oh yuck. “Yes Sir.”

He set his hand on my head. “That’s my girl.”

He led me through the house, and it took everything I could not to gawk as we went. High ceilings, elegant tasteful art, spotless glossy tile floors, and lush carpet made the place look less like a treatment center and more like a luxury vacation house. We went through a living room, a dining room, a huge empty room that looked like a ballroom, a hallway, a library, and then around the corner to another hallway with several doors. He led me into what I guessed was the IT room.

The room was lit with low amber lights, and one wall was covered in a myriad of computer screens. A middle-aged dark-skinned woman with super curly hair wrapped up in a colorful bandana sat at the computer, clicking away. She pushed her jeweled cat-eye glasses up farther on her nose and hit a button on her keyboard, making a piece of audio play over and over while fiddled with controls. All I could hear from the audio was a rambling jumble of words in an unfamiliar language.

Becca was standing behind her, looking at the screens, holding a radio. “Okay, room six... the blonde tall one... Angelina. She’s pacing and looks like she’s panicking. Can you check on her next?”

“Will do, Bec.” A familiar voice came through the radio. That was probably Doctor Mike.

“What happened?” Reuben said. Becca looked over her shoulder and saw both of us. She looked back at the screens and pointed out one particular room.

“Room fourteen, the black girl with the bald head. She’s the instigator. We are calling her Abeni right now, until we get a name out of her. Still have no clue what happened or what she said. Room eleven, the Korean girl... I think she’s Korean. She doesn’t speak. She’s the one who threw the plate. We’re calling her Dae.”

“And Lindsay is out?”

“Out of the country.”

“Okay. Did you call Brett?”

“Melanie is sending them audio clips to run through their software now.”

“I’m going to see what I can do for Abeni and Dae, and I’ll see if I can get any more audio from them to translate.”

Reuben strode out of the room with confident, purposeful steps.

I looked to Becca. “Is there anything I can do?”

“I don’t know, sweet girl.” Her eyes darted back and forth between the cameras of the rooms. I saw Doctor Mike enter one of the rooms and gesture to the pacing girl to sit down. He put his stethoscope to her heart, patted her head, and tried to give her a pill or something. She refused it. He nodded and put it away, and tried to comfort her, but she continued to pace.

“So they don’t speak English? They don’t understand what’s going on?”

“About half the girls speak at least some English. We have several employees here who speak a variety of languages, so that they can try to explain what’s going on. But some of them are from countries where we don’t have an interpreter. Mike is good with the ones who can’t speak English or won’t speak at all due to fear. Something about his voice and his body language. He’s very good with the girls and he reads them well. Most of them trust him first, actually,” she said. “When they first come in, he gives them pain killers if they’re hurt, medicine baths for their aches and pains and infections, and he gives them itch cream for any yeast infections or STDs. They learn pretty quickly he’s a doctor and won’t hurt them.”

On the screen, Reuben entered Abeni’s room. When he entered, Abeni appeared to shout and scream. She slunk back, trying to keep as much space between them as possible, grabbing the few small items that sat on the nightstand and hurling them at him.

He walked very slowly, settling himself down on the rug by the fireplace, crossing his legs and resting his elbows on his knees, watching the girl carefully.

She continued to shout, even taking a few steps towards him and raising a fist like she was going to hit him. He raised his arms to defend his face but made no move to stop her. When she retreated, he lowered his arms again.

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