“Good girl.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Dustin took one of the padded chairs, and Nolan and Caylee took the other.
“Okay, Holly, why don’t you start?” Jonah said.
Holly licked her lips, glanced at Caylee’s fear-filled face, and tried to stay calm. “Okay, a few nights ago, Caylee and I went to a dance club. We don’t go out a lot, and someone told us about the place, so we wanted to broaden our horizons.” She cleared her throat. “We’d been there a little over an hour when two guys came up to us and asked us to dance, and we did.”
God, how could she talk about this in front of strangers?
“You can do this, honey.”
She sighed. “They tried to buy us drinks, but we knew not to take anything from anyone, so we said no. We danced a few more times, and then they asked us to go for breakfast. We said yes, but we’d drive ourselves. We thought we were being so smart.”
Holly wiped a tear off her cheek. “We never got to our car. We walked out together. I was opening my driver’s side door when both guys grabbed us and threw us into the back of a van that pulled up. It was like they had it planned.”
“They did, baby,” Jonah said.
“How can people be so awful to other people?”
He rubbed her back. “I don’t know, baby. People can be really bad, and that’s why the three of us and our friends are in the profession we are because we want to protect the ones who can’t do it themselves, like you two.”
It made her feel good that they didn’t blame them for the situation. “They took us to a building in Rogers. It looked like a regular office building. The guy in the back with us took our phones and purses, but they didn’t check our pockets, or maybe he didn’t see that my dress had a pocket.
“An older man was in the room the men dragged us into. He … he slapped us and put his hands on us while he told us the horrible things that were going to happen to us.”
Caylee sniffed. “He hurt us. He s … squeezed my b … breast so hard it left bruises.” She started crying, jerked out of Nolan’s arms, and ran from the room.
Holly went to stand and go after her, but Jonah tightened his arms. “Nolan will go, sweetheart. He’ll take care of her.”
“All right.”
“Keep going.”
“One of the men took our arms and was pulling us down a long hallway. When we got to the room, I saw a metal dog kennel they were going to put us in. I had pepper spray in my pocket and pulled it out. I sprayed him and then kneed him in the crotch, and then both of us pushed him into the cage and shut the door. We ran. We crawled out a window, hid until nighttime, and ran farther away. We were under the dumpster when we saw you pull up. The guys were still looking for us, so we decided to hitch a ride with you.”
“That was good thinking, sweetheart. I’m very proud of you.”
Holly exhaled and rested against his chest.
“Do either of you have family or anyone that would be looking for you?” Dustin asked.
“No, just the people we work with. Caylee is a secretary, and I’m a hostess at a restaurant. I have a mom, but she married for the fifth time and moved to Europe or something. I haven’t heard from her in years.”
“I’m sorry, honey. You and Caylee live together?”
Holly sniffed as tears filled her eyes. “We’ll never be able to go back, will we?”
“No,” Jonah said and pressed a kiss to her temple. “It sounds like they’ve been doing this a long time by the way you described everything. The fact you saw several of them will keep them looking for you. They don’t like witnesses. Do you think you girls would be able to describe the men to an artist?”
Holly nodded. “Yes.”
“Do you think you can remember the building they took you to?” Dustin asked.
She nodded. “Yes. I’ll never forget anything about what happened to us. I want them all in cages where they belong.”
Dustin nodded. “We’ll do our best to get that to happen.”
She rested against Jonah, so drained she could not keep her eyes open.