And then I see her red hair. It’s wild, and curly, and more of a mane that’s threatening to become thick threads than anything else, but she’s there. Dirty, and sitting down, and tired looking. But beaming. She’s beaming and alive and there.
I let myself fall down on my knees and hug her through the bars. It’s uncomfortable as shit, but who cares? This is the best day ever. I got her back when I had started to believe she’d be dead.
“How’d you get out?” she asks me.
“There is this officer with some kind of powertool.”
She uses both hands to grab my face, looking serious as all hell. “We need him. We need him to use his tool.”
I nod, trying to give her a serious look, but I’m grinning way too widely for it to stick. “Hello!” I yell out. “Can the nice officer with the power tool thingy come help us here?”
I can hear officer Vargas laugh all the way over there while sounds of protest start coming from the cages. The prisoners seem to find their voices again as well. Suddenly everyone wants to be saved first, and I can’t even blame them. I’d want to get the hell out of there as well. Hell, I want to get the hell out of here.
The agent with the angle grinder comes over, and I point at Meggy’s lock so he knows exactly what to do, because you know, without my instruction he’d obviously be hopeless.
“Kellan’s been looking for me?” Meggy asks me, hope gleaming in her eyes.
I nod. “First, I almost fought the cops to go looking for you,” this makes powertool guy snicker, “then, when we got home, Kellan wanted to go out and look for you, and he almost fought Jonah over it, because they both felt like it was all their fault, but I parted them like I was Mozes. And now I’m bait and we saved you!”
Meggy laughs. “I feel like there’s a lot more to that story you’re not telling me right now. But we’ll get to it.”
When the door to her cage opens, she almost stumbles out. “We’re so getting out of here,” she half whispers, like there’d be anything that could hold me back right now. I got what I came for, now we get our asses home. I grab her hand, and expect to have to help her along, but she’s actually dragging me instead. “Come on, bait, we have somewhere to be,” she tells me.
As we walk out of the building, a lot more officers are busy going in, and a lot more tool boxes appear from kits in the cars. But the main thing I see is this giant wall of masculinity. There’s a lot of good looking guys arguing with police officers to get inside. Five guys. My guys and Meggy’s guy. Bickering with authorities to be able to go in. They haven’t seen us yet, and I take in a moment to observe them.
Meggy isn’t so patient. She lets go of my hand, and as she stands with her hands on her hips, legs wide, she opens that mouth of her. “Well have you ever, you guys are being held back by a little tape and some agents? Am I not worth getting into a fight over, Kellan?”
They all look up at the same time. It’s exactly two seconds before the tape ceases to exist, because five huge men walk straight through it. The agents even make way for them.
Meggy reaches Kellan first, because, damn, that girl is quick despite the short size of her legs. She jumps up, wraps her arms and her legs around him and doesn’t let him go.
I get bulldozered by the rest of them and start laughing. I don’t know who I’m touching, or who’s touching me, but I’m ecstatic to be back in their arms again.
“I’m sorry! I’ll never try to be a detective again!” I randomly say.
“No worries, I’ll be your keeper from now on whether you want me to or not,” Gil says.
“How about a compromise? I won’t try to act like some badass and you get to boss me around in the bedroom.”
“Deal,” he says without hesitating.
“Are you okay?” O asks, gently laying a hand on my face, rubbing one of the lines where the gag still feels pressed into my skin.
“I’m fine. Let’s never, ever, do it again.”
Dean snorts. “Yeah, let’s not say never. It’s not like we have a lot of control over anything that’s going on right now..”
“The man is right,” Jonah says as he presses a kiss to the top of my head. “But you did it, Mor. You found her.”
Meggy is still wrapped around Kellan like she’s hanging on for dear life. I don’t think she’s ever letting him go. And maybe that’s exactly where she needs to be for the rest of her long, long, life.
“Take me home,” I say to none of them in particular. And without saying another word, we take off.