Counting Paths

Chapter 1.

"Did you give her anything?"

He tries to push himself off the ground but he's not strong enough and collapses on his back. He coughs as if I pushed him hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs. "She was drinking...and I gave her a pill."

I curl and uncurl my fists repeatedly as I take deep and controlled breaths, trying not to lose my shit. "Kevin!" I bark, and he quickly walks over to us. "Take him to the warehouse and call nurse Smith on the way there, tell her to meet me back at my place." He nods and lifts Ryan off the ground effortlessly. Ryan screams and begs me to let him go, claiming he was never going to touch the girl. He's not strong enough to lift himself off the ground but he's surely strong enough to scream his lungs out. "Shut him up before-"

Kevin puts him in a chokehold and has him knocked out in seconds.

"Let him go and put the bag in the car. I...need a minute."

He nods, grabs the bag, and climbs into the SUV.

I unlock the locks in Ryan's car and open the back door. The kid's barefoot. And cold. "Hey..." I shake her leg hard enough to make her stir in her sleep. But she doesn't. I check her pulse only to find her heartbeat is racing. She's young, like dangerously young to the point I have to step away from the car and force myself to swallow multiple times so I won't throw up. She must be eleven or twelve. "So what the hell are you doing at a party with Ryan?" I ask out loud.

I remind myself I'm running out of time, the patrol car should be coming back soon, and I can't take a freaking moment to collect myself. I remove my jacket, cover the girl with it, then tug her out of the car and pick her up.

"Sir?" Kevin hesitantly steps out of the car.

With a nod of my head, I gesture for him to move out of the way and he does. "Take Ryan's car to the warehouse. You can find a ride back." I carefully place the girl in the back seat of my car and close the door. "Don't forget about nurse Smith. And call the boys, I don't no one at the house until I say so. Including you."

He nods.

# # #

Smith is waiting in the driveway in her baby blue scrubs with different poses of Sitch scattered everywhere when I pull up. She quickly rushes over to my side of the car. "What are you doing?" I ask as I climb out. "You have a key-"

"Kevin told me it was a little girl."

I sigh. "Yeah...She took something, I'm not sure what, and she was drinking-"

A motherly fear fills her big, light brown eyes and she peers through the back window before opening the door. I don't bother stopping her. "Her heart is pounding!" She gasps. "Roland-" she steps away from the car door and faces me completely "-this girl is not one of your boys. Let me take her to the hospital."

"No hospitals. That goes for everyone. If you can't do anything, then go home." I shove her aside and pull the girl out of the car, cradling her in my arms.

"No hospitals," Smith agrees reluctantly. She follows me inside and upstairs to the only room I would feel most comfortable with the girl in; my room. I settle her onto the bed and cover her with the sheets. In the better lighting, I see the bruises on her are handmarks. Someone choked her. Someone grabbed her. "She has bruises on her back too," Smith whispers.

My blood is ice cold.

"She might need an IV."

"Get her whatever she needs," I mutter, stepping away. If I stare at her any longer I might puke or throw things.

There were four bedrooms when I first got my place. I turned one of them into a mini nursing room for Smith. Whatever she needs to help my wounded men is in that room.

Smith grabs a cart and goes back and forth from my bedroom to her nurse room a couple of times with things she thinks she would need to help the girl. I stayed in the hallway the entire time, honestly questioning why I decided to help this one girl. I've dealt with a few kids in my past but I've never felt this intense need to actually help them before. Smith finally realizes there's not much she can do to help the girl and she joins me. I grab a loveseat from another room for her and a long chair from the den for myself.

After what feels like a thousand years of night, the sun begins to rise over the horizon.

Smith is somewhat asleep. Any movement I make wakes her. But she falls right back to sleep a couple of minutes later. I, on the other hand, didn't get much sleep at all.

A few hours later, it dawns on me that this kid might be out longer than any of us expect.

"Fucking hell," I mumble, pushing myself off the long chair and startling Smith awake again. I open my bedroom door.

"Wait, where are you going?" She asks.

"Grabbing a change of clothes. She'll be out for another twelve or so hours." I step into my room and close the door behind me to keep the light from the hall reaching the girl. I doubt the light on her face will wake her but it still hurts to see her.

Sunlight slips through the curtains and poorly lits the room. I keep my attention focused on the dresser. I quickly cross the room and pull out the third drawer where my nicely folded-up t-shirts greet me. I grab the first one that catches my eye. I close that drawer and pull out the next.

Then I freeze at the sound of sheets being moved.

Her yawn fills the room, then leaves an eerie silence after it. "Hi."

Hi? She wakes up in a strange room with a grown man, and her only response is 'hi'? Could she be working with the feds? But the bruising is real, Smith made sure of it last night. The feds wouldn't hurt a kid to get to me...would they?

"If you don't want to talk to me, fine," she continues. "But I'm hungry and thirsty."

I close the drawer, place my shirt on top of the dresser, and face the girl. "What?"

"I'm hungry and thirsty," she repeats.

"No, I heard you, but..." I look around to make sure I'm still in my bedroom, because what the actual fuck? "Who are you with?"

"Um, the last thing I remember..." She scratches the back of her head, scrunching her nose, then drops her hand on her lap and winces. She closes her eyes and keeps them shut as she talks. "This guy, average height, short hair, a weird beard-"

"Ryan."

"Ryan!" Her eyes pop open. "That's his name."

"Yeah, what the hell are you doing with Ryan? You must be, what, twelve?"

"Thirteen."

The painful knot in my stomach returns. "What were you doing with him?" I tell myself I'm calm but my voice comes out rough and my tone is harsh.

She looks around the room, then moves the sheets off of her and peers down at her build. "Mm." She lifts her head and stares straight ahead. "What happened?"

"You tell me," I snarl, stepping closer.

She looks at me. I...I think she has two different eye colors. "Why are you giving me attitude?"

"What are you doing here?"

"You tell me!" She exclaims, and Smith barges into the room. She looks at me like she could yell at me for waking the girl but she knows better. "Seriously, can I get one question answered? What am I doing here?!" The girl demands to know.

I look at her and lose it. "Ryan, the asshole you were with for some fucking reason, was going to rape you!"

What comes out of her mouth next makes the entire situation much more worse and confusing. "He said he would give me enough pills to kill me."