“She’s a journalist. Researches and writes articles for a variety of online publications. She’s even been picked up by the New York Times a couple times.”
“Wow.”
They were climbing out of the 4Runner just as someone Briar assumed was Royce’s sister opened the front door.
“Hurry,” she urged them.
“What’s the emergency, Raine?”
She stepped out and pulled the door closed but kept a grip on the door handle.
“She’s scared and I’m afraid she’s going to bolt. I think you need to hear what she has to say. Be gentle, Royce.”
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Of course.”
Raine opened the door and waved them inside.
“Have a seat on the couch. I’ll let her know you’re here.”
Briar sat down and watched Raine walk away. Royce’s sister was tall, maybe taller than Briar, which didn’t happen often. Like Royce, she had dark hair, but hers was long and currently secured back in a ponytail that hung between her shoulder blades.
When Raine returned a few minutes later, she was accompanied by a much smaller and younger Asian-American woman. Briar suspected from her delicate features that she was possibly of Vietnamese descent, although the distinctive golden-hazel eyes spoke of European heritage. The eye color was rare, and Briar kept finding her gaze drifting back to them. The clothes she wore obviously weren’t hers. They engulfed her small body and she held one arm awkwardly and close to her body as if it hurt her.
“This is Tia.” Raine kept one hand on Tia’s thin shoulder to comfort her. “Tia, this is my brother Royce. He’s a good man, you can trust him. And this is his friend, Briar, who is also Tor’s daughter.”
Tia’s eyes widened and she twisted as if to run, but Raine held on to her.
“Tia,” Raine twisted and dropped to her knees in front of the smaller woman, “Royce and Briar are good people. They just need to know the truth and you are the only one who knows what happened. No one is going to hurt you, and no one is going to take you away. I promise I will protect you.”
Tia was still for a long moment before she nodded and turned back around to face them. Briar nodded back and smiled, hoping she appeared harmless. Raine steered the girl to the loveseat adjacent to the couch where Royce and Briar waited, sat her down, and wrapped her in a thick blanket that had been laying across the back. Then she sat down beside her.
“I’ll go first,” Raine began. “I was coming home from an interview with some of the workers at Tulip Land Farms. I’ve been working on a piece about working conditions on the farm and others in the area. You know how hard it was raining.” They nodded. “I was just at the edge of town when Tia burst out of the bushes and onto the road. I almost hit her, it was that close. I actually thought I had because she fell and didn’t get up.”
“So, of course, you stopped to help. Raine,” Royce shook his head, “I know you have a bleeding heart, but one of these days it’s going to get you into trouble.”
“Just listen to what Tia has to say, okay? I think you’ll be very interested. Go ahead, Tia.”
Tia spoke quietly. The further she got into her story, the more horrified and angry Briar felt, and from the stiff way Royce held himself, she could tell he felt the same. As “Sunny” in the Spiders, she’d experienced the horrors of women treated as something less than human. But she had always been aware of her cover. If needed, she could leave—and she did for periods of time when Sunny couldn’t handle being around the gang any longer and left to “take care of her sick mother.”
“I ran away, walked until I couldn’t anymore. Then I found the house and snuck inside. I thought no one lived there but there was an old man. At first, I was scared, I thought he would call the police and have me taken away. But he didn’t, he let me stay and gave me a room upstairs.” Tia’s voice trailed off.
“It’s okay,” Raine spoke soothingly, “keep going. They need to hear everything.”
“I’m scared.” Her eyes filled with tears.
Briar leaned forward. “Please, Tia. The old man, Tor, was my father and I’d like to know what happened.” Tia was holding something back, just a feeling Briar had. Everything she’d told them had been painted with broad strokes, but if they were going to find these assholes and the rest of the girls, they were holding they needed more details—and backup.
Tia took a deep breath and began again. “I was sleeping upstairs, and I heard a noise. Some voices, men talking. But I couldn’t understand what they were saying, just the sound of their voices. I was afraid the old man was giving me away.”
Raine hugged Tia tighter. Briar had a feeling that, when Tia said, “give away,” she meant sell, as in human trafficking. Which, if the Spiders were involved, wasn’t a surprise. She struggled to hide her response to the sick feeling in her stomach.
And Arkady Ivanof, a little voice reminded her. Was he involved? Briar needed to talk to Agent Klay again, sooner rather than later. Human trafficking was a big problem along the west coast of the United States, where poorly monitored international waters offered the traffickers easy escape.
“My father would never do that. He was old, but he was a good man.”
After all, he’d allowed a terrified girl to take refuge in his house.
Tia nodded. “No, but the men’s voices scared me. I wanted to hear what they were saying, so I crept down the attic stairs. Before I could open the door, the voices got louder and it sounded like people were coming up from the kitchen, then there was a bang and then,” she breathed out the words, “there wasn’t anything. No talking.” Tia sniffed. “I stayed in the attic and waited a long time—until it was almost morning. But there were no more sounds. So, I opened the door.”