“It wasn’t you, was it?”Mateo asked.
He reached out and tore the tape from his mouth.
“No.”
The woman was screaming, trying to jump in her seat, but Mateo had her tied really well.
“I ...I didn’t want to foster.She did.She wanted the money, and ...just kill me.I didn’t stop it.I didn’t stop any of it.She said she was helping those kids, and I ...didn’t help.”
Mateo pulled out his gun and fired a single bullet into the man’s head.It was a small act of mercy.Turning to the woman, he looked at her, and unfortunately, there was not a lot of time for what he wanted to do to her.She was going to have a quick death, but he hoped she would rot in hell, because that was the only acceptable place she was going.
****
Ella sat in the hospitalroom with Terry.
Mateo had brought her to the hospital and told her simply that Terry had been inside the closet for what looked like a week.The young girl was starved and dehydrated.The doctors were keeping her for observation.
Ella took one look at the girl and knew the hell she had been through.She’d experienced the same, so she didn’t leave that girl’s side.Jay and Steven remained on guard, and even when the nurses and doctors attempted to throw her out, she wouldn’t let them.Social workers attempted to visit the girl, but Mateo intervened.She didn’t know how he did it, but they stopped coming, and she was able to take care of Terry.
There were times the young girl would wake up thrashing, screaming, begging for it to stop.Ella kept the light on.She would climb onto the bed and the girl would wrap her arms around her and hold her tightly.
This was where she was when Mateo came into the hospital room.She hadn’t seen him for a couple of days.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey, yourself.”He stepped close to the bed.“How is she?”
“She’s doing much better.I know the doctors are happy to release her.She’s stable and recovered, and they need the bed.”Ella snorted and rubbed Terry’s back.“If she goes back there—”
“There is nothereto go back to,” Mateo said.“The house burned down.”
Ella nodded.“With them inside?”
“Yes.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Did you ever make a complaint?”Mateo asked.
She shook her head.“I know several who did.Some of them ended back in the closet, others got removed.I think there was always a fear of going someplace worse.”Ella looked over at him.“I was weak.”
“No, you’re a survivor.”
“Did others make complaints?”
“Yes, and they were ignored.Social workers went around the house, but they deemed the complaints to be false.”
Ella sighed.“It’s bad news.”
“Yeah, you don’t have to worry about those social workers causing trouble and not listening to kids anymore,” Mateo said.
She looked at him.“You took care of that as well?”
“The world is full of bad people, Ella.I’m just trying to balance it out.”He shrugged.
“You know, you’re starting to sound like a good person.”
He snorted.“No, I’m not.”
