Chapter 9 - CALVARY

When she was seated comfortably in the chair I started talking to her, asking her what I could think of to get an idea of how this had happened to her. I didn't need to know what he had done to her, that was Lucian's job, but I wanted to know how she had ended up here with him.

"What's your name?" I asked first, it was the most important.

"C-Celeste." She stuttered briefly.

"You're going to be OK, Celeste, I promise." I smiled reassuringly at her. "How old are you?" Now that I had her out of the frame she looked a lot younger than I had originally guessed that she was.

"Seventeen." I could see tears in her eyes then, tears of pain, sorrow, humiliation, fear, you name it. If it was a negative emotion she was probably feeling it at the time.

"How did you end up here with him?" I asked her, confused about how a pretty young girl like her had been taken in by a sleaze like him.

"H-he said I was g-go-going to b-be a m-model." She sobbed as she buried her face in her hands. "I-I was s-so st-stupid." Her hiccuping and sobbing made her stutter even worse. That asshole probably turned her off from ever wanting to be a model again.

"Shhh, shhh. You're not stupid." I didn't want to say out loud that a seventeen year old should know about stranger danger and to never go into a strange man's hotel room, but he could have also taken her by force, so she might have ended up here no matter what.

"Yes I am, I let this happen to me because I believed what he said like a stupid naive girl." Well, at least she knew what the real issue was, that was step one to never doing it again, oh and recovering.

While we were talking there was a loud commotion coming down the hall from the middle of the building, most likely where the elevators were.

There were two stretchers and six EMTs running down the hall, prepared to save lives. I only saw this because Lucian had propped the door open when I wasn't looking.

Behind the EMTs were two other members of Lucian's department, his superior, Captain Knight, and his partner Detective Turner. It was almost time for me to leave. No matter how friendly Lucian and I were, I was not allowed to work directly with the police department.

"Leight, what happened here." Captain Knight demanded as he stepped past the stretchers that had been left in the hallway.

"Jacy was after a bounty and came across this girl. Based on what I've gathered so far, I'd say she is the missing girl from over in Amesbury. They had her pegged as a runaway that came to the city."

"I didn't run away!" Celeste cried out. "I thought I was getting a job, I didn't run away."

"We know that, don't worry."

"Do my parents think I ran away? Do they think I don't love them?"

"No, sweety." I soothed her, rubbing circles into her back through the sheet. "The police are the ones who assumed you ran away. Your parents filed a missing person report, that's how they have a case for you."

"Really?" She seemed relieved to hear my words. "So my parents don't think I hate them?"

"I'm sure they know you love them and they've been waiting for you to come home."

Celeste hugged me then, throwing her arms around my neck and holding on tight. I just let her hold me for a minute since I knew it was making her feel better. While we sat there I just listened to Lucian talk to the others while EZ snuck out of the room as quietly as he could.

"What happened here?" Captain Knight's voice was a little softer when he spoke this time.

"From what I gather, Jacy tracked her bounty to this place and made her way into his room."

"Probably making him accost her with a honey trap." Turner laughed as he looked at me. I just shrugged my shoulders, he wasn't entirely wrong.

"When she got him here he implied that she should do as he said or he would have to get rough." Had EZ filled him in while I was talking to Celeste? Yeah, he probably had, since he had heard it all. "At some point during all that the bounty revealed to her his hidey hole over there where he had Celeste hidden. And, well, you can guess what happened from there."

"Yeah, I can." Captain Knight was looking at me with a firm, steady gaze. "Who threw the first punch Kai?"

"He did. You know I don't hit back unless it's self defense."

"Of course you don't." He scoffed at me.

"You can look at that wall over there, you might still see this fist imprinted, his first punch landed on the wall there and he broke several bones in his hand." Turner sniggered when he heard this, like he was saying 'serves him right'.

"If he threw the first punch how come he hit the wall?"

"I dodged. And for the record, he threw the second punch too." I informed him sweetly.

"Where did the second punch land?" Captain Knight was looking skeptical when he asked this.

"His chin. I redirected his momentum and he ended up knocking himself off his own feet." At that all three of them started laughing, as did the six EMTs and Celeste. I guess the mental image of a man knocking himself off his own feet was pretty funny.

"Miss, can we examine you now?" One of the female EMTs had stepped forward and was looking at Celeste as she still clung to me. "The sooner we get you to the hospital the sooner you can go home." That seemed to make Celeste perk up quite a bit.

The girl let me go then and allowed the EMT to take her by the hand and help her over to the stretcher.. She was still shaking and wobbling, but at least her legs had started to work a little more now.