I grunt, tilting my head in the direction of the spare room. “I’ll make sure the spare room is made up for you.” Leading the way, Warren follows in step behind me. Jesse had already cleared out most of Kinsley’s paperwork that she had collected over the years, but there are still a few old news articles lying around. I gather them up, stacking them neatly. Without turning around to face him, I place my palms flat on the dresser, leaning forward and dropping my chin to my chest. “Lance … Did they get him?”

“The police said they have him in custody, as well as the man who was driving for him. They had loaded four girls into the back of the van when Jesse and I took off, we spoke with them — tried to calm them down, then hid the four of them in a set of abandoned shearing quarters not too far down the road. Once you and Kinsley left to take Jesse to the hospital, I went back to check on the girls and used the driver’s phone to contact the police.”

Four fucking girls. How many more are there that we are no closer to finding? What was it, fifty-one or something on the file I received the other day? If Lance is locked up, someone else is going to step into King Dick position and will continue running the show. The police might believe having Lance behind bars will halt his operations, but he already has the pawns in his game doing the dirty work for him. This will continue, whether he is around or not. I need to know the ins and outs of this operation, so lucky for me I have someone standing behind me who has had their hands in it for over a decade.

“Tanner?” a sweet voice floats down the stairs interrupting my thoughts.

Warren gestures towards the door. “I’m okay here, this room has more than I have had over the years. We can finish this conversation tomorrow.”

I’ll have to make some calls, get the others to dig a little deeper. Hopefully, between my contacts and Warren’s intel, we can find the slimy bastards that will inevitably fall through the law enforcement cracks.

“Yeah, Pip, I’m here,” I say, walking out into the hallway, closing the door to the spare room behind me. She’s standing at the bottom of the staircase, trembling, with her arms wrapped around herself.

“I woke up and —” she looks to the ground, her eyes lacking the gold flecks I’ve come to love, “— I, uh, I was alone.”

Tipping her chin slightly so her eyes meet mine, I search for all the scars that live buried under the surface; I want to heal them all. “You’ll never be alone again. That I can promise you.”