In the dim overhead light, a young girl crawl toward Leo. She brushed her stringy hair back from her face and he saw the bruises along her high cheekbones, her almond-shaped eyes sunken into her moon-shaped face.

“Get me out?” Her weak voice was a hoarse whisper, pleading. Her fingers gripped the chain link fence of the door. “Don’t leave me here.”

“Rose?” Hearing a voice, Toni rushed back, dropping to her knees. “Is that you?”

Leo immediately turned back toward the staircase, covering the entrance, scanning the room for any surprises.

“This isn't Rose.” Disappointment rang in her voice but the fact that the girl wasn’t Rose didn’t deter Toni from getting her out. She tugged at the chain link, jerking at the padlock. “How many of you are here?”

“Hurry up, Toni.”

The girl's voice sounded uncertain, confused. “I don’t…”

“Less talking, more escaping,” Leo warned.

“Call Jones.” She shoved her phone at him, moving to the next enclosure. “Hey." Toni whispered loudly, but there was no answer. "There are three of them but, from what I can see, only two appear conscious. The third one is breathing though.”

She’d already pressed the speed dial to call Jones and he relayed Toni's message to her partner, hanging up and passing her back the phone. “Reinforcements are on the way but we need to get out before someone comes back down here. As soon as they hear sirens, they'll know something's up."

“We're not leaving without them. I need to find something to cut it open.”

Toni moved to the table against the back wall. The light shone down faintly on a variety of tools, neatly organized. In the center was a metal tray with several vials and various syringes lined up. She picked up one of the unmarked vials and sniffed it.

“What is it?”

“Probably Oxy.”

“Son of a bitch," Leo said in disbelief.

These women were being drugged to keep them quiet until shipping them out. Toni lip curled in loathing as she set the bottle back on the tray.

Leo’s head jerked to the door at the end of the corridor as it opened. Two men, both tall and lanky, entered the room, laughing. Leo’s first thought was how grateful he was that neither was Monique’s giant bodyguard. His second thought was that they were both closer to Toni then he was and she wouldn't have time to pull her gun before they reached her.

“Toni, company!”

At the sound of his voice, both men jumped backward. “What the hell?”

As they spotted the intruders , they bounced off one another in shock, trying to reach for weapons tucked in their waistbands. Leo had his weapon ready and leveled it at the man closest to the open doorway.

“Don’t even think about it.”

From the corner of his eye, Toni had already grasped a needle from the tray. Without waiting for the other man to make a move, she spun backward and jammed it at him. In one swift move, she lodged it deep into the soft tissue between his shoulder and chest, pressing the plunger.

“You bitch! Do you…” His words grew slurred and he half-heartedly lunged at Toni.

Leo kept his gaze focused on the man in front of him but Toni’s attacker grunted in pain and, in his peripheral vision, he saw Toni drop to the ground. He had no idea if it was a deliberate move on her part or involuntary and his heart raced as he tried to ease closer to get a better view. A loud thud made his heart leap into his chest and he moved to where she'd been standing.

It was the brief distraction the other guy had been waiting for. As Leo tried to edge around the side of the cage where Toni was on the ground, a high-pitched zing rang past his left ear before shards of brick splintered, raining over his back and shoulder. Ducking, he aimed, and the room echoed with the crack of gunfire again. The girl in the cage nearest the table screamed.

At least he thought it was her.

Please, don’t let that be Toni.

He army-crawled over the floor, searching for Toni in the shadows of the room. There were sounds of a struggle to his left, in the corner formed by the cage and the long table. The second guy laying on the ground in front of the last cage with a syringe sticking up from his chest, his head bleeding profusely.

Leo edged forward. The gunman had closed in on Toni, his hand fisted in her ponytail, jerking her head backward. He had at least fifty pounds on her and was almost a foot taller but she used that against him, ducking and spinning to face him, using her hair for leverage. Face to face, she slammed the top of her forehead into his mouth. He stumbled backward, letting go and reaching both hands to his face. The gun clattered to the floor and Toni kicked it aside, even as her hand snapped out sharply, landing against his solar plexus. The man wheezed, the wind knocked out of him. He doubled over in attempt to breathe and Toni locked her hands behind his neck, bringing his face down to her knee. The sharp crunch made Leo cringe as the man’s legs buckled beneath him. With a wail, he slid to the floor, gripping his nose as blood gushed down the front of his dingy flannel on the floor.

“Holy shit,” Leo muttered as he jumped to his feet and hurried to her side. Toni stepped back into a defensive stance and he dropped back. He jerked handcuffs from the back of his pants and passed them to her. “Remind me not to piss you off.”

“ I keep warning you.”

The shadows danced over her face and Leo could make out redness on her cheek where a blow must have landed. “You okay?”

“Don’t I look okay?”

She'd be fine. He jerked his chin toward the man with the needle in his chest. “What do we do about him?”

She didn't bother glancing the direction Leo motioned. “He’s either out cold from whatever was in that syringe or dead. Don’t know which and don’t care.”

The man in front of her spit blood at her feet. “How’d you get loose? And why’d you come back here?”

Toni bent down to the man kneeling on the floor, and knocked him off balance, watching him fall. She jerked her gun from her holster and pointed it at the man in front of her. "Where is she?"

"Fuck you, bitch!"

Leo kept his weapon trained on the man on the ground, unsure of what Toni would do.

Her gaze narrowed as she stepped closer to the man, now on his side, unable to get back to his knees. “Where are the rest of them, asshole?”

When he didn’t answer, she kicked his ribs. “You remember a girl who looks like me. Where’s my sister?”

He grunted before giving Toni a bloody smile. “Your sister, huh?”

“Where is she?” Toni pressed her gun into the flesh of his temple. “I’d have no problem blowing what little brains you have on this floor.”

“All clear?” Jones’s voice echoed down the staircase and, instead of looking relieved, Toni looked furious.

“Only this room,” Leo called out. “We haven’t gone beyond it.”

The Vegas SWAT “Zebra unit” thundered down the stairs and right past them to the corridor, calling out orders. Leo holstered his weapon, easing himself closer to Toni and her suspect, and reached for her arm, forcing her to release him before she did something she'd regret.

“Got a pulse over here.” The SWAT officer inspected the man on the floor, pulling his radio to call a medic from outside. “What was in this needle?”

“No clue,” Leo answered. “Vials are on the table. Take it all.”

“Get those cages open and take the girls out first,” Toni ordered, pointing at the cages. “They go out before either of these two.”

Medics were already rushing in as she located a ring of keys in cabinets on the back wall. Jones tugged Toni off to one side of the room as the SWAT took both men into custody.

“She’s not here?”

Toni shook her head, her eyes training on the man still holding his nose, howling as the medics walked him out to the ambulance.

“Does she look like you?” The timid voice broke into their conversation and all three of them turned to find the battered girl from the cage standing to one side of them. “There was a lady here who looked like you.”

“We're twins.” Hope flashed in Toni’s eyes.

“They dragged her to a van early this morning. It was still dark. Something about getting ready to catch a flight.”

Disgust filled Leo when he considered what the woman - girl, Leo corrected himself - had gone through. She didn’t look older than fifteen. Although he didn’t want to press her, not after what she must have experienced, he still had a case to solve and the best time to get answers - about Rose or any of the girls from his case - was while the details were still fresh in her mind. He waved a medic over and instructed her to go with the EMT to the ambulance. Toni reached for the girl, intent on stopping her but Leo put a hand on her shoulder.

"Let her go. I'll talk to her in a minute."

"But, she knew Rose." Her voice held a pleading note he'd never heard there before.

He brushed his thumb over Toni’s cheek where a yellow bruise surfacing beneath her pale skin. “This is your jurisdiction now, but trust me to do this for you. I’ll find out about your sister.”

She swatted his hand away, glaring at him, her fierce determination returning. “I’ll go with you.”

Leo glanced at Jones, silently asking him for help.

“Maybe you should let him talk to her, T. You’re a little…” She spun to face him, her gaze cold, nostrils flaring.

“I’m what?”

Jones rolled his eyes and shot a glance at Leo as he sought a word that wouldn’t send Toni into a tailspin of rage in an attempt to mask her fear for Rose. “You’re intense. Leo might sound less…desperate.”

She craned her neck at Jones, making Leo glad he hadn't been the one to say it. Jones was lucky Toni had re-holstered her gun. Her glare gave new meaning to “if looks could kill.” Jones held up both hands in surrender.

“You do what you want but, I’ll tell you that girl has seen shit. Don’t you think it’d be far more productive to send someone who can calmly talk to her instead of someone ready to strong-arm answers out of her? Not to mention she just saw you drop two full-grown men and nearly put a bullet into the head of one of them?”

Toni fell silent but Leo could see that, while she recognized Jones was right, she didn’t like sending Leo to get the answers she wanted. She frowned, her jaw twitching with the effort it took to control her emotions.

“You’ll find out where they took Rose?”

Surprised by her acquiescence, he wasn’t going to wait around for her second-guess her decision. His gaze locked with hers. He couldn’t make this situation easier for her but this was something he could do. “If she knows anything, I’ll find out.”

Turning on a heel, Leo jogged toward the stairs.

“Leo?” The catch in her voice made him turn to face her. “Find her.”

“I will.”

She left so much of what she wanted to say unspoken. But he didn’t need her to say losing Rose would destroy her. It would break Toni, in a way that could never heal. Rose and Toni were two parts of a beautiful whole. Toni was the heart, but Rose was the lifeblood that kept that heart beating. Without Rose, Toni was a nothing more than a walking corpse.

* * *

The young girl glanced up from where she sat on the end of the ambulance as the EMT took her blood pressure, a gray cotton blanket around her shoulders. Her fingers gripped the blanket a little tighter, tugging the edges closer together in front of her.

“I’m Detective Castellano.” He held out a business card, stopping a good two feet away from her, not wanting her to feel cornered. Her gaze flicked to the card in his fingers. “I was with the other agent when we came into the basement.”

She eyed him cautiously, squinting at him. “The one looking for her sister?”

He nodded as she tucked her chin, lifting the blanket higher around her shoulders, partially covering her mouth. Her hands trembled as she clutched the edges of the blanket around her thin body like a shield.

“What’s your name?” Her eyes clouded, and he knew she was ready to lie. “You’re a runaway?”

“Yes.”

Leo fought the urge to mentally run through the list of missing persons he’d been studying over the past few months since getting Megan’s case. Torn between trying to earn her trust and getting her off the streets before she ended up a victim again, Leo prayed he could play his cards right and do both.

“Okay, what should I call you?” It was a safe compromise for the time being.

“Kara.”

“Okay, Kara. Are you hurt?” He glanced at the EMT and she shook her head subtly, slipping the blood pressure cuff from Kara's thin arm.

“I’m okay.” She rubbed her bicep, dropping her fingers to cover the inside of her elbow. He could see the track marks beneath her fingers.

“Want to tell me what happened?”

A sharp laugh slipped past her lips, sounding hysterical until she contained it with a hand over her mouth. Her dark eyes stared at him - through him - glazing over. “What happened? I came to the 4Teen Center because he claimed he could help me get off the streets. Instead, he turned me into…this.” Her lips pinched together and her gaze was still glassy, staring off into the distance.

“How long?”

“About a month ago.”

A month? She’d been living this horror for a month? He waited, hoping she’d elaborate without prompting.

“I expected it’d be a safe place, I guess.” Her gaze lifted, clearing, and met his. “It wasn’t.”

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen.”

“How old were you when you ran away?”

“I didn’t. My parents kicked me out last year because I was dating this guy…” Her words trailed off and her fingers slipped from the blanket and it fall from her shoulder. “It was so stupid. I was so stupid. I thought…” She shook her head and reached for the blanket, tugging it back up around her shoulders. “I had nowhere else to go after he broke up with me and I ended up on the streets.”

“How long ago ?”

“Who knows? Two months? Three?”

Exhaustion crashed over her and she closed her eyes, taking a slow breath and rubbing her hand over her dirty forehead. He needed so much more information from her before she gave in to the demands of her body. About Monique, the Center, and about Megan. But first, he needed to find out about Rose, for Toni.

“You said they took the other woman to catch a flight? Who was she? Where they were sending her?”

Kara pressed her fingers against her temples and closed her eyes again. “I think they said on a flight. No, wait.” Her dark eyes opened and locked on his. “They said she was going on a trip. That was the word they used. But they found bruises on her and said something about holding her over for a few days to let them fade.”

“Here?”

“No. They only kept her here for a few days. When they drugged her. Then they took her upstairs, and I didn’t see her again.”

Leo dreaded hearing anything else. They didn't have any other leads. They had no idea where else to look and, so far, they had discovered nothing in the basement to lead them elsewhere. They could search the main facility but that would take time, a commodity they didn’t have.

“You keep saying ‘they.’ Do you mean the two men we saw down there?”

“No.” Kara shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest protectively, the blanket tight in her fists again. “Tank.”

“Is there anything else you remember, Kara? Anything that might help us find any other women?”

“It’s not just women. They had little kids, boys, too. They sent them out of the country for labor camps. At least, that’s what they said.”

Leo blinked slowly, trying not to remember the faces of the hundreds of missing children files he’d seen over the past few months. How many of those kids were shuttled through this place?

“She was there too.”

“She?” He had his suspicions, but he didn’t want it to bite him in the ass for influencing a witness before her official statement. He needed Kara to say a name.

“The lady that runs the center, Miss B. She’s in charge.”

Monique Bentley had sat with him, lied about Megan and sent Tank after Toni.

“Kara, do you remember a girl named Megan staying here? Maybe another girl named Becca or a Stacy? They were a little younger than you, all blonde?”

“I remember Megan and Becca, not Stacy.” Her voice grew quiet. “I liked them.”

“Liked?”

She pressed her lips together tightly, staring at the ground. “Becca left about a month ago, right after I got here, and Megan left almost a week ago. I'm pretty sure that's when she left.” She frowned, staring down at the ground. “I'm not sure how long I've been in that cage.”

“Why were you down there?”

“I asked about Megan, when she would come back. Tank said she overdosed and for me to stop asking questions. It was my punishment.”

“Did you believe that's what happened to her?”

She looked up at him, her gaze cold and dead, like an animal accustomed to abuse. “They were sold.”

“Sold?” Dread welled in his chest, squeezing tighter as the puzzle pieces slid into place.

“We’re all sold. Sometimes for a few hours, sometimes a few days. Some never come back.”

“And Rose?”

“Is that really her name?” Her eyes widened slightly, suddenly more alert. “She kept insisting it was, but they said she lied, that her name was Casey.”

Shit! They didn’t make Toni’s cover. They kidnapped Rose because they believed she was Toni, or at least her most recent identity. Rose was one of their victims to be sold overseas.

He needed to get an APB out on Monique Bentley and her thugs. They had enough to shut down the Center and book Monique and Tank. It would put a significant speed bump in the trafficking operation but it wouldn’t halt it completely. At least, not yet.

“Thank you for your help, Kara. We'll make sure you’re taken care of. You’ll spend tonight in the hospital for observation, okay?”

She gave him a one-shouldered shrug. Leo turned to see Toni exiting the garage, her gaze seeking him out.

“Detective.” Kara's hand shot out, grasping his bicep. “You need to find her. They sold her too. When he brought her in, I heard them say someone would do worse than what Tank had done. I know how bad Tank could be. No one deserves that.”