We sit in silence, the only sound coming from the repetitive dripping from the leak in the roof landing on the stone floor.
It took only a couple minutes for me to draw the conclusion that this is not my child. She's much smaller than an average seventeen year old, her skin is significantly darker than Aria's and she doesn't posses her signature orange curls.
I feel both a sense of relief and disappointment, on one hand I wanted to find Aria so desperately but another part of me is thankful this poor girl isn't her.
Even though she's not my daughter my heart still constricts for her.
She's deathly skinny, her bones visibly protruding out of her skin as she hunches over and slowly rocks back and forth. As a parent myself, I knew from the moment I saw her that I would get her out of here and help her find her family because I would want someone to do the same thing for my little girl.
"Here," Raf says tenderly, handing the shivering girl his jacket so she can cover herself up. The girl doesn't react, continuing to rock back and forth. He looks over at me, completely unsure of what to do. I shrug at him, never having dealt with a traumatised child before.
Before we have time to start braining storming ideas a blaring alarm cuts through the silent air of the grim basement.
We both bolt up, leaving the unresponsive girl in the corner as we press ourselves against the metal bars to try and get a glimpse of what is happening but the basement is still completely void of any other human life.
My lips slightly tug upwards at the corners when I realise what is about to go down. "Eles estão aqui, fique com a garota," I tell Raf.
He immediately makes his way to the girl, slowly reaching his hand out to touch her. "It's okay I'm just going to help you up," He assures.
As soon as his hand makes contact with her shoulder she immediately recoils, sobbing hysterically and shuffling into the corner.
The sound of boots hitting the creaky staircase draws my attention as I stare expectantly at the metal door. I take a defensive stance, ready to overpower any of Pedro's men but when the door swings open I sigh in relief at the sight of three familiar faces.
They scan the basement for a split second before spotting us in our cell. "Boss we're sorry for taking so long," He apologies while frantically trying to unlock the door with the numerous keys hanging off the bloody keychain they must have pried off a dead guard.
I stay silent, patiently waiting for them to unlock the door.
"Luther," Raf calls out behind me. I turn and see that he's still squatting next to the girl who he's managed to get into his jacket. He points towards her ankle with a pained expression adoring his face.
I slightly bend down, seeing that her jagged bone is sticking out of her clearly broken ankle. "You'll have to carry her," I tell him as the sound of the metal door clanking open echos through the cell.
He picks her up, guiltily ignoring her screaming and desperate attempts to free herself from his grip and we run through the basement. We make it up the stairs, pushing our way into the gruesome scene awaiting us.
It's literally a bloodbath. All of Pedro's men mixed with a few of mine are dead or barely clinging to life as they bleed out on the floor and a man who is almost completely decapitated is sprawled out across the bar.
The sight doesn't faze me but it causes the petrified young girl's screams to intensify before she passes out completely.
"Boss," A monotone voice calls out from across the room. One of my men holds Pedro at gunpoint as he kneels in blood while the rest are carrying out arm fulls of any guns and drugs they could find.
"Take her to the van," I order Raf before walking over to Pedro. I stare at him for a second, relishing the sight of his broken nose and blood stained skin. "Pedro," I greet for the second time today.
"Fuck you," He spits on my shoe, covering it in specs of blood. Pedro's a smart man, he knows there is no point in begging for his life.
I lift my spit covered shoe upwards, connecting it with the bottom of his jaw as I kick his face full force. The sound of cracking echos through the room as he clutches his jaw and whines in pain.
I'm handed a gun which I immediately aim at Pedro as I loom over him. I waste no time, my finger wrapping around the trigger and applying pressure which sends a bullet straight into Pedro's skull. His crying immediately ceases, plunging the room back into it's eerie silence.
Whilst on the plane ride here I was plotting all the ways I would drag out Pedro's death, maybe I would cut off his limbs one by one starting at the fingers or maybe I would drown him but let him come up for air at the last possible second only to repeat the process.
But now that I know that he didn't take my daughter my anger and my thirst for his blood significantly decreased, at this point I just wanted to kill him so I could hurry up and get back home to wash my hands of this whole disappointing excursion.
"Burn the bodies and make sure this place is sealed up," I order before heading to the staircase and emerging back into the thick forest. The early morning daylight makes it much easier to navigate back to the rows of vans parked on the dirt road which my men are still busy loading with any loot they stole from the Delgados.
One of my men nods at me before handing me a set of keys and points towards an SUV with Raf sitting in the front seat. I climb in, ready to start the car but I do a double take when I spot the back of the girl laid out in the backseat.
"Rafael," I sigh.
In these situations we usually hand off victims to our men who take them straight to a hospital, meaning we never directly deal with it ourselves.
"I know but I want to help her," He pleads. "You know hospitals around here don't actually care what happens to them, she'll probably just be shoved into foster care," He pleads.
"We can take her home and have her treated then use our resources to find her family," He suggests hopefully.
I think for a few moments. Now that we've wiped out the leader of the Delgados our work load will be practically halved because we'll no longer have to deal with tracking them or preparing ambushes, meaning we'll have enough time to help this little girl.
I look back at her and sigh. "Fine." I mutter, placing the keys in the ignition and heading steadily off towards the airport.