Her bare feet hit, and instantly her arches tensed, her muscles flexing around the wall’s edges. Her left arm shot straight from her side, the right one bracing again the wall. Knees bent, she wobbled, fighting gravity’s pull. Finally, the rocking subsided, and Cassidy breathed a sigh of relief. She repositioned herself to be hanging once more, her feet brushing the top of a filing cabinet. From there, it was an easy scramble down to the desk and floor.
Cassidy hurried out of the office and across the warehouse floor, past the towering shelves . An unfamiliar sound broke the steady hum of the warehouse fan—voices coming from upstairs. She listened again and thought she could hear movement above, and stared at the ceiling, wondering if it was footsteps.
How many people were up there? For the first time, she wondered if there could be other girls here besides Izzy. A private club. For kinky stuff, the waitress had said. She remembered the history Bruce had shared about Saxon and gritted her teeth. Could there be children here, locked away in rooms upstairs? The image of the boy selling sunglasses popped into her head. Who was he working for?
Cassidy reached the stairway and gazed upwards, wondering what would happen once she made it through its dark tunnel. Her hand slid up the cold, metal railing, which released a sharp scent of iron. The air seemed to grow warmer as she ascended. She wondered if the front end of the building had a direct entrance to the second floor. If not, she knew that at any time, the door ahead of her could bust open, exposing her.
At the top of the stairs, Cassidy paused, her breath loud in her throat. Across from her, she stood eye-level with the top of the shelves and the various pipes running along the ceiling. She pressed her ear against the door, straining to detect any sound. Muted voices carried through the metal, but they were far off. Somewhere a door closed and the vibration passed through her frame. Was there a guard posted on the other side of this door?
She closed her eyes and waited for her courage to surface. Izzy needs me, she thought, imagining Mel dragging a struggling Izzy into a room. A shudder trembled through her limbs. Her eyes popped open. After a tight breath, Cassidy gripped the knob and turned, bracing herself for the possibility that the door would get ripped from her hands by some menacing character. But the door opened to a long, empty hallway lined with doors, illuminated by the light from the windows at the far end.
Cassidy paused to listen—where were the sounds she’d heard from the other side of the door coming from? Halfway down the hall, a red light from a smoke detector on the ceiling blinked. Her pulse pumped into her tightened throat. She forced down a hard swallow then closed the door carefully behind her.
Her bare feet making no sound, her senses on high alert, she stopped at the first door and carefully pressed her ear to it. Soft sounds filtered through the metal—was it someone breathing? Or sheets rustling? She stepped back, unsure what to do. Was Izzy inside? She listened at the next door, even getting on her knees to peer under the crack. This time she distinctly heard a man’s soft grunts.
Down the hallway, a door opened. Panicked, Cassidy dove into the next room. Across from her, a person sat on a bare mattress, hugging her knees. Her angry eyes locked with Cassidy’s.
“Who the hell are you?” she hissed. It was then Cassidy realized how young she was.
Cassidy heard footsteps approach, and then the door popped open. A man dressed in khaki chinos and a black V-neck sweater stepped through. Cassidy froze. He raised an eyebrow as he took in the person on the mattress and then Cassidy standing in the middle of the room.
“On the bed, now,” he said in a commanding voice.
“I’m…not supposed to be here,” Cassidy said but stopped because the man’s look had turned predatory. “There’s someone else I’m . . . meeting,” she added, trying to keep from screaming.
“Then get out,” the man said. Cassidy slipped past him, not daring to breathe. As she closed the door behind her, she heard the man’s strong voice give more orders.
In the hallway, Cassidy shuddered so hard she had to grip the wall for support. What was this place? A wave of guilt washed over her at the idea of abandoning the girl she’d seen on the bed. But she wasn’t Izzy.
Cassidy moved to the next door, pressing her ear to the metal but hearing no sounds. A sudden creak from down the hallway startled her. Quickly she turned the knob and hurried inside, closing it swiftly behind her just as she heard the door at the front end of the hall open.
Inside, the room was completely empty except for two lumps of something she couldn’t make out on the floor and a closet which she ducked into, making herself small in the corner. Footsteps vibrated the floor outside, and then she heard a door across the hallway open and shut.
Cassidy exhaled a shaky breath. From the wall of the closet, she could hear the muffled sound of voices: a man’s, and the softer pitch of a female’s. While it was impossible to know what was said, the pitch matched Izzy’s. Cassidy lurched for the exit and hurried into the hallway. Her lungs felt spasmic, jilting her of a full breath as she moved to the door adjacent to hers.
Go back! A voice inside her head screamed. You’ll be caught!
Her fingers shook as she turned the knob but her body was alive with purpose, pulling the heavy door open just wide enough to step inside.
Inside, a dim overhead bulb illuminated the sparse,
