I peered around the grate. Becca was back. She looked like she’d gained a kilo or two, so wherever she’d been, they were feeding her better, but her eyes were dead and flat.

What the hell was she doing here? The Family had sold her a few weeks ago. She was only nine, but still, they sold her to someone. Some sick ponce had come to pick her up. My skin crawled thinking about it.

That was the reason my mother had insisted on nurturing my love of all things tech; so that I could avoid having those dead eyes. My stealing stuff and taking it apart had been a problem for her, but she’d let me. It made me useful in other ways. If Becca was back, did that mean the buyer hadn’t liked her? What had gone wrong?

Up top, I could see Colin holding her tight, shaking her, and my hands curled into fists. I wanted to go up there and beat Colin for touching her. Becca was only a little kid. She didn’t deserve that. And then I saw him – Father. I couldn’t explain it, but my mother had always told me to stay out of the way, stay hidden, and don’t draw attention. She told me that I didn’t want the attention of Father.

The older man bent in front of the little girl with the stringy brown hair. He was asking her something. She didn’t even respond. No reaction, no emotion, nothing.

Oh yeah, I knew that look well. Father and Colin stepped aside to talk privately. And the girl turned her head, our eyes meeting for just a moment. I wanted to say something, mouth some words to her to offer some comfort. Anything. But what could I really say?

Your life is over? This is the hell we all live in?

I could hear the conversation a little bit between Colin and Father. The buyer who sent her back didn’t like her. She cried too much and was uncooperative. Besides, she was too old.

My skin crawled. I hated those men, every last one of them. If I could, I would burn the whole place down. I had a plan… a plan to get me and Gigi the hell out of there. I’d been squirreling away some money too… enough for train tickets.

My mother and I had come from up north. My gran was up there. If I could find her, we’d have a safe place to go. My mum ran away from Gran, because Gran said she was unfit to raise me. So one day, in the middle of the night, she’d packed me up and we’d run—ended up in London.

I missed my Gran. But if I could get it together, we could get up there, up north near Newcastle. I remembered the small village. And I was good. All I needed was a computer. If things went well, I could steal one. But first, I had to get me and Gigi out safely. Maybe another week and we could manage it.

I was good with technology, and I was good at light hacking. I knew all the right people to get the right IDs. And if I was smart and I picked the right wallet, I’d have access to bank accounts, real money… money that little kids couldn’t get access to.

Maybe I could take that little girl Becca up there with us. But she’d been sent back. That meant she was safe for now, right? I glanced back up. My eyes scanned the scaffolding, and then I saw her to the right. She was climbing up.

The scream lodged in my throat, survival instincts taking over. Don’t make a sound, do not be noticed. It’s your life or hers. You die, Gigi dies. Becca is on her own.

Still, the part of me that felt compassion, empathy, the part of me that the Family tried to kill, that part wanted to run up to that girl and tell her not to do it. Not to do that terrible thing she was clearly about to do. That there was a way out. That I could save her just like I was going to save Gigi. And then meeting my gaze one more time, she jumped.

The pandemonium was instant. Father and Colin ran for her. The people down below were screaming. Some of the younger girls and the babies cried, and the women cowered. They knew what was going to happen… beatings for everyone. I turned my gaze back to Colin whose hands were now clutching his hair. Father shoved at his shoulder and told him to find another girl.

In that moment, I knew we didn’t have a week. We needed to leave now.

I’d never run so fast in my life.

As small as I was, I shoved past the people in the hallways, the crowds running toward the main area to find out what had happened. I ran against them and found Gigi in her little hidden cubby under the stairs… the one I’d built for her. It had a little shelf under there for her dolls and her little tea cups.

“We have to go.”

Her eyes went wide. “What? Why?”

“You’re not safe. We have to go right now. Pack your things. I’ll be right back.”

I booked down the hall, down to my mother’s room where I slept, to my little padded mattress on the floor. I knew better than to leave anything visible in the room. I’d learned early enough how to sew my mother’s outfits together. Every time I’d stolen enough money, I rolled it tight and shoved it into the padding of the mattress and stitched back up the hole. And in the next time I had some money, I’d open those stitches up and do it all again. I’d amassed maybe a few hundred quid. It was enough for tickets and food if we had to rough it for a bit.

I tore the mattress open and grabbed the money and took one of my mother’s heavier shawls for Gigi. There was nothing else I wanted… nothing else I needed. Hell, I had nothing else. When I went back to Gigi, she had her Tigger and a small little back pack she had over her back with the picture of her father in it, some coins she’d saved, and some of her tea cups ‘in case we wanted to eat or drink anything,’ she said.

I nodded. “Smart thinking… Are you ready?”

She placed her tiny hand in mine and smiled up at me. “Yes, let’s go.”

I didn’t even think. I just dragged her behind me along the path I’d already cleared. Most everyone was in the main common area of the warehouse. I took her down to the boiler and around an old washing machine. The stupid thing didn’t work, but some of us guys figured we could find parts and fix it.

I’d found it with Gareth when we’d been playing hide and seek a few months ago and I’d discovered the tunnel. I knew it was likely a drug-running tunnel, but I knew it went to the outside. Unlike Gigi, I was allowed access outside. So once we were on the streets, I knew where to go.

“This is it.”

Gigi glanced behind us. “Wait. What about Sabine? We have to take her with us.”

My heart was pounding so fast I could hear it in my ears like a drumbeat. Every moment we waited gave Alan time to catch up.

“We can’t go back. We’ll get caught.”

Gigi’s eyes rounded in alarm. “But we can’t just leave her here all alone. She’s our friend!”

I put a hand over her mouth gently. “Quiet. I know it’s scary but we have to go now while we can. Later once we have a safe place to hide, we can get a message to her. But if we don’t leave now…”

Her face fell, but she seemed to understand my meaning. She squared her shoulders and turned toward the tunnel.

I pushed her forward gently. “Go on, you first. I know it looks scary but I’ll be right behind you.”

What I didn’t tell her was in case anyone followed us, at least I could fight and she could still probably make it to the outside. But no one followed. Inch by inch we crawled, getting the dirt from the tunnels in our hair, on our clothes, and on our skin, but freedom wasn’t far. I gave her the directions leading her out. And when we reached the break, I helped her open and shoved it aside. When I touched her hand, I could feel her shaking.

“All right?” I asked her softly.

She rolled her lips inward and nodded. I could feel the fear in her tiny body, but she was brave. She was a fighter. She was a survivor. We ran out of the alley and down the street. I knew better than to go to the Nick, because the Family had people on the payroll. We wouldn’t be helped. We’d be turned right back over. So that wasn’t an option.

Besides, I’d already been collared once for pickpocketing. I didn’t need that kind of headache, and I hated to think about what would happen to Gigi if I wasn’t around.

Finally, we made it along the Thames heading toward Piccadilly Circus. I’d memorized the bus and train schedules. If we could just get there, we’d be fine.

Gigi clutched tightly onto my hand. “Are we going to be okay?”

“Yeah, love, I promise. I wouldn’t lie to ya.”

But that promise was made in vain. It was a promise I couldn’t keep. We were so close. The streets got busier as we neared Piccadilly Circus, and I knew that we were almost to safety in the crowds where no one would know us, where we could change clothes, find something to eat, and get on the bus. We could be with my gran in under a day. All I had to do was get us to safety.

But as we neared the main road, a hand clamped on my shoulder and I knew. I knew that somewhere along the line I’d made a miscalculation, made a wrong turn. Beside me, Gigi screamed. Someone had her by the shoulders and she was kicking.

“Oy, let her go.”

Alan Rice, one of the Family’s enforcers, leaned into my face. “Where do you ‘fink you’re going?”

I thrashed, kicked, wiggled, and punched. I was much smaller than Alan, but there was no way I was letting them take Gigi.

“If you weren’t so valuable to Father, I’d put an end to this. But he made it clear that we’re not to kill you.”

They weren’t? Why was I valuable to Father? Yeah, I knew tech, and sometimes I hacked things for the old man at Colin’s behest. But I wasn’t that useful. Were they going to sell me instead?

“Put me down.”

“Happy to oblige,” Alan said. When he put me down, I realized that they had Gigi and she was fighting.

“Put her down too. It was my idea. I made her do it.”

She was crying now. The tears were running down her face. “I, no. I came –“

I set my jaw and turned away from her. Maybe if they thought I’d forced her, she’d be okay. “I thought I could sell her on my own. Make my own money, run and be free.”

Her eyes went wide. “No. Don’t – “

Alan laughed. “Oy, looks like we got a businessman on our hands.” He leaned closer. “You’re valuable to us. Yeah, she’s sellable, but Father wants to make a point. You fink we didn’t know your plan to run with her? There are spies everywhere boyo. You two have to learn that.”

The other two men that were with Alan were huge to me and even bigger when I looked at them in regard to Gigi. They held her higher. At first I didn’t know what they were going to do with her, but then I saw the gleam in their eyes, the joy… and I screamed.

They picked her up and tossed her over the edge.

I screamed and fought against Alan’s hold as I watched, stricken with horror as her little tiny body hit the water. I screamed, and screamed, and screamed, until my voice went hoarse and licks of fire lit my esophagus. All I saw on the bridge was her doll. The tiny stuffed Tigger she always carried with her.

Finally, Alan let me go and I ran to the bridge. I grabbed the doll and stuffed it under my shirt as I frantically searched the water for her. Maybe, maybe she’d made it. But I knew the truth. Gigi had confessed to me that she didn’t know how to swim. She was always fascinated with it. She wanted to learn when she got older.

She was gone because of me. I’d failed her.