The instant the door opened, all six of my brothers were on me. I was passed from brother to brother until finally one of them handed me off to Chip and he hugged me to his chest like I was a rag doll. Crushing me was one of their favorite pastimes.
“Little bit, you got some meat on your bones since you were home!” Chip grabbed my sides and dug his fingers in as he said it.
I slapped the side of his head and was finally put back down. “Don’t be an asshole, Chip.”
Hendrix stepped forward. “Nice to meet you. Hendrix Crimson.”
My brothers each took their turn shaking Hendrix’s outstretched hand, sizing him up. I could tell Chip was squeezing his hand so I smacked him in the head again.
I glanced up as Harding walked in, holding the arm of the girl I’d been looking for. My stomach quivered as I realized she could tell me to go fuck myself. She didn’t owe me anything. I was the one who’d messed up and gotten Tabatha killed.
That was a sobering thought as I walked over to her and forced a smile to my face. “Hi.”
She scowled at me and crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t do cops and I don’t do gang bangs.”
I glanced back at my brothers and my face burned. “Um, you’re getting the wrong idea. I just need to talk to you. About Ricky.”
Her face paled and she tried to spin away. “No way! You got Pamela and Tab killed! I ain’t answering none of your questions!”
Harding was there, holding her still. “Sweetheart, please talk to her. I don’t want to have to cuff you.”
I shook my head. “That won’t be necessary. Why don’t you just come in and talk to me? No one knows you’re here. If we talk and you decide you still want to tell me to go fuck myself, then so be it. I’ll give you money for your time so you don’t get into trouble.”
She stared at me long and hard before finally nodding. “Only because Tab really liked you, though. She said you were setting her up with that guy Laster.”
I smiled. “I was. She would’ve hated him, though. He’s a creep.”
She came into the room and followed me as I led her into the back room. When my brothers tried to follow, I blocked them and shook my head. I didn’t need them botching anything.
She sat in the chair and looked at the rumpled bed. “Which one of them are you screwing? They’re all pretty hot.”
I heard my brothers growling and shut the door, leaving Hendrix to fight for himself. “Six of those idiots are my brothers.”
She made a face. “What are they all doing here?”
“They were worried about me. And they’re a little crazy.”
“Damn. I never had any brothers or sisters. The closest thing I’ve got are the other girls, but most of them would rather sell each other out than waste any of their time helping.”
“That sounds rough. Tab wasn’t like that, though.”
Her eyes met mine in a hard stare when I said Tabatha’s name. “She was good. And you went off and got her killed. She should have never talked to you. She knew better.”
“She wanted better.” I realized I still didn’t know her name. “What’s your name?”
She frowned. “I’m not sure I should tell you.”
“Please.” I wasn’t above begging this girl for any help she could give me.
“Samantha. Everybody calls me Baby, though.”
I bit my tongue, wondering if the nickname came from the fact that she couldn’t be anywhere near the legal age to even drink. Up close, she looked even younger. “Baby. Tabatha wanted better for you and for the other girls. She was chancing everything to make a difference. I… I’m so sorry about what happened to her. You have to believe me when I say that I never meant for her to be in danger. I…liked her. She was brave and strong.”
Baby looked away from me with tears in her eyes. “She was an idiot. She should’ve known that Ricky would find out. He always finds out stuff.”
I scooted closer to where she sat and clenched my hands together. “He doesn’t have to. We can make a difference, Baby. I know it doesn’t seem possible, but you can stop him.”
“You want to get me killed, too? Lady, you’re no better than Ricky! There’s a trail of girls behind you!”
I grabbed her hand. “Please, help. There’s no one else. Without you, I don’t know of anyone else who can help. Ricky keeps killing girls. He keeps forcing girls to do things, to do what he wants. He rules. No one is going to stop him.”
She jumped up and strode across the room. “And you’re going to? You think you’re big enough to take him on?”
“No. Not alone. I’m hoping that when you stand up, the others will get behind you. Ricky goes to jail. I write a story that lets everyone know how awful he is. So, even if by some fucking miracle he gets out, no one will have any doubt about what kind of man he is. No one would let him within fifty feet of another young girl.”
“What world do you live in, lady? Nothing is going to happen to him.”
I stood up and faced her head on. “Yes. He’s going to pay for what he did. He doesn’t get to do the things he’s done and just walk away. I need you. I know I’m asking a lot of you, I do. I’m asking for you to step forward and tell your story. It’s a huge ask. But I need you. Without you, Tabatha died in vain. Ricky gets to brag about murdering her and no one stops him.”
Tears filled her eyes again and she angrily wiped at them. “He didn’t have to do that to her.”
I grabbed her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, begging with my own. “No, he didn’t. She didn’t deserve that. Help me make it right, Baby. Please, I’m begging you. Help me make him suffer for what he did to her.”
A sob shook her and she looked up at the ceiling, clearly seeing something else. “He didn’t even bury her. I heard him talking about wanting to let her rot before he threw her on your doorstep.”
My heart shrank in my chest, wanting to get away from the pain her words brought. Poor Tabatha. I hugged Baby to me and let her shake in my arms. She felt frail and weak, barely even really existing. “I’m so sorry.”
When she pulled back, she looked like she was about to fall over. Her eyes were red and puffy, her face sunken and pale.
“When’s the last time you ate?”
She shrugged and I opened the door to find my brothers in the middle of a round of eight thousand questions with Hendrix. I glared at them and then pointed at Chip. “Go find food for her. She’s starving. Pick up water and some stuff she can wear if she wants to stay. Hurry it up, too.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but I just shut the door. I went back to Baby’s side and gently pushed her towards the bed. “I promise we were clean. I just think you should rest for a while. You look like you’re about to fall over.”
She pulled the blanket up to her neck and closed her eyes. “I just can’t do it.”
I let her sleep until Chip came back with food. Then I made her eat and shower before dressing her in one of my brother’s huge shirts and putting her back in bed. I couldn’t help myself. I sat with her and talked quietly after she’d fallen back asleep. I could see why Tab had spent so much time taking care of her. The girl was so young and she still had the spirit of a child somehow, despite everything.
My brothers piled up in the outside room, fighting over the bed before I threatened them within an inch of their lives if they woke Baby up. Harding had gone back to work and after everyone else was asleep, Hendrix slipped into the inner room. He sat in the chair and pulled me into his lap and we slept like that until early the next morning.
Baby woke up looking a little better and seemed to have gotten shy overnight. She blushed and even giggled at something Randy, my barely-older-than-me older brother, said. It was almost like a kid had appeared while she slept.
When we were alone in the bathroom, trying to decide if her little frame could fit into my leggings without them falling off of her, she smiled at me through the mirror and then shook her head.
“I know this is going to sound crazy, but I dreamt of Tabatha last night.”
“Yeah? Is that why you’re in a good mood?” I averted my eyes as she lifted the shirt to get the leggings up and I saw a deep bruise covering her stomach.
“I think so. She seemed happy. She looked pretty, like someone was taking care of her. Like…this.” She blushed and looked away. “She talked to me.”
I blinked away the shock of seeing her stomach and touched her shoulder. “What’d she say?”
“She wants me to trust you and talk. She doesn’t want to be with Ricky anymore.”
My stomach rolled as I thought of her body, still with Ricky somewhere. “What do you want, Baby?”
Tears filled her eyes. “I want to go home.”
Disappointment filled me but I tried to hide it. “Okay… Sure. We’ll take you back.”
She let out a mixture of a laugh and a sob. “My real home. With my parents. I’ll talk to the cops for you. For Tabatha. I know where she is. I can take the cops there.”
What happened next was a blur. We ended up at the police station with all of my brothers in tow. They’d instantly taken a liking to Baby and were hovering over her the same way they hovered over me. While she spoke with Harding and another detective, half of them sat in with her while the other half sat with me.
By the time Baby was finished, the detectives were on the move. They had a caravan of cars heading to the warehouse Ricky was using to store Tabatha’s body. It was one of the warehouses owned by a shell company, really owned by Ricky.
Harding called me and told me they found Tabatha. Ricky had gotten sloppy. He hadn’t taken care to remove the evidence from her body yet. She’d fought him and had the evidence of it was still under her nails.
That, along with the statement Baby made, was more than enough to lock up Ricky. While they looked for him, they suggested Baby go somewhere safe. She wanted to go home to her parents and Hendrix had his brother’s security firm put a protective detail on her until they thought the threat was lessened.
Before she left, she hugged me and told me that she knew why Tabatha had liked me so much. It was a complement I needed to hear, but wasn’t sure I deserved. I was still the reason Tab was dead.
My brothers, still being their protective selves, offered to take Baby home. Randy, Junior, and Tommy went with her to make sure she was safe, leaving me with Chip, Jimmy, and Gaines. We went back to the motel and I made them leave me alone while I wrote my piece on Ricky.
I’d write a fuller, more detailed piece later, but I wanted to break the story and I wanted it to be accurate. Instead of waiting on a local reporter to write a story about how a prominent businessman was arrested on what he called trumped-up charges, I wanted to get the truth out there. Ricky was scum.