Chapter One
Reyna
My heart races but my hands remain steady on my weapon. A Phoenix Police Department officer pounds a steel front door with a hand-held battering ram and the hinges rattle, nearly breaking free. Another strike with the ram and the door bursts open.
“Hands in the air!” my colleague Adrian shouts, entering the rundown three-bedroom ranch-style house. “Police! Hands in the air!”
I enter the house, overcome by the smell of pepperoni pizza and pot smoke. The sound of gunfire heightens my senses as I move behind a wall for cover.
My bulletproof vest isn’t enough protection for a mad dash through this room while bullets are flying. My job isn’t to fire on these guys—my colleagues have that covered. I’m here to find the victim.
“Get back in here, you piece of shit,” another Phoenix officer shouts, hauling back a man trying to flee through a window by pulling on the belt fastened around the waist of his jeans.
I poke my head around a corner and it’s clear enough that I’m able to crawl to the hallway. There are four doors in the hallway, all closed. With a deep breath, I stand up and call out my arrival before opening the first one.
It’s a dimly lit bathroom, all but one bulb in the light fixture above the sink burned out. The smell of rubber draws my gaze to a trash can in the corner of the room, and my stomach turns at the sight of used condoms, some hanging over the edge of the can, others dropped on the dirty linoleum floor.
I repeat the process at the next door, which is a tiny bedroom with dirty clothes scattered over the stained carpet and the giant bed that nearly fills the room. Keeping my weapon aimed in front of me, I approach the double closet doors and lower one hand to the handle, opening it.
There are several guns, including a semi-automatic rifle, on a shelf. I also see a pile of cash, a bong and more dirty clothes. There’s no one in this room, so I move on.
At the next door, I announce myself and open the door. When I flip the light switch on the wall, I see that this room is a lot like the last one. Smelly, with dirty clothes piled in a corner. There’s an empty pizza box on the floor and empty alcohol bottles crowding a small table. The big bed has no sheets and a stained, sagging mattress. The one window has plywood nailed into its frame.
Gun leveled, I make my way around to the side of the bed. There’s only about a foot between the bed and the wall, and a girl is huddled in the corner there, hugging her knees to her chest and shaking.
I exhale hard, relieved she’s alive. Then I lower my weapon.
“My name is Reyna Diaz,” I say gently. “I’m a federal agent, and I’m here to help you.”
She lifts her head from her knees to peek up at me, her dark eyes filled with terror. I stay where I am, knowing from my training that any sudden movement or getting too close could scare her even more right now.
“We’re clear,” Adrian says over the radio. “Two suspects deceased, one in custody.”
Knowing it’s safe to holster my gun after getting the all clear, I do so. I make sure the girl can see my empty hands in front of me, and I repeat, “I’m here to help you. I’m a federal agent. Okay?”
She lifts her head higher and I get a better look at her face. I scroll through my mental rolodex of missing children cases, but I don’t recognize her. We got a lead on the dirtbags in this house from an undercover agent monitoring the internet. What they call “sex with young girls” I call rape and kidnapping.
“Are there any other children here?” I ask her.
She shrugs, and I radio Adrian to check the final door for me.
“Is there anything I can do for you?” I ask the girl, who looks maybe thirteen. “I have food if you’re hungry.”
I take a Snickers bar out of my pocket and her face lights up. I always bring a candy bar and some crackers to raids, because I learned the hard way that when I’m looking at a traumatized, hungry kid, it helps to have something to offer them.
“Do you have water?” she asks, her voice hoarse.
“I do.”
I push a button on my radio and speak into it. “I need a bottle of water left outside the second door on the left side of the hallway.”
“Want this, too?” I hold out the candy bar.
She nods, but doesn’t move.
“Is it okay if I come closer to give it to you?” I ask.
She eyes me skeptically. I reach for the badge hanging around my neck inside my vest, pull it out and show it to her, saying, “I’m a police officer. Agent Diaz. You can call me Reyna, though.”
Her shoulders sink slightly as she relaxes.
“I won’t do anything unless you say it’s okay,” I say. “If you don’t want me to come any closer to you, I won’t.”
“I want to go home,” she says, her throat so raw I can’t even hear the last word she says; I only get it by reading her lips.
Fury builds hard and fast inside me, my blood pressure rising with it. Those fucking bastards. This poor girl likely lost her voice while screaming from what they did to her. I know they’ll probably get theirs when they get to prison. No one with a shred of decency stands by and lets child rapists breathe easy.
“I know, baby,” I say softly. “Where is your home?”
She recites an address in Marysville, Ohio.
“Diaz,” Adrian says from the doorway. “Last room is clear.”
He sets the bottle of water down and meets my gaze.
“Marysville, Ohio,” I tell him.
He nods and leaves, knowing better than to walk into the room. When I rescue kids, no one but me goes into the room, and I don’t walk out with them until they’re ready to go.
I go get the bottle of water and ask the girl again if I can give it to her. She nods and I approach, twisting the cap off before handing it to her.
“I’d like to take you to the hospital to get checked out,” I say as I hand it to her. “Would that be okay with you?”
She’s drinking the water in huge gulps, a trickle running down to her neck. Poor thing is probably dehydrated, from the looks of her. If I had two minutes alone in a room with the one asshole who didn’t just get shot, I’d probably do things to him that would get me fired.
No, I definitely would. My only consolation is that what happens to him in prison will be worse than anything I could do.
“Can you just take me home?” she asks pleadingly.
“I will, but first I need to find out who you are and make sure you’re okay.”
In a matter of two seconds, tears flood her eyes and spill onto her cheeks. She covers her face with her hands and sobs, and I have to squeeze my own burning eyes closed to keep from crying myself.
Of course she’s not okay. She was abducted and sexually assaulted. But I have to use words she can understand, and take this one small step at a time. If I told this poor, terrorized child what rape kits are, I’d never get her into a hospital. And unfortunately, the evidence they’ll get from her body is essential to building a case.
I decide to unleash just a tiny bit of the real Reyna Diaz for her, hoping it’s the right approach.
“Hey,” I say softly. “I want to tell you a little about me. I became an FBI agent when I was twenty-six. I’m thirty now, and I’ve been rescuing kids like you for three years now. I do this every day, and I’m really good at it. I’ve gotten 131 kids back to a safe place after this happened to them, and you’ll be the 132nd. I won’t leave your side until you want me to, I promise. I have this gun,” I pat my holstered weapon, “and I will use it against anyone who tries to hurt you. What happened to you was terrible, and I’m so sorry. I wish I could’ve gotten here sooner. But it’s over. It’s over, and you’re safe with me. I can be a badass bitch when I need to be, okay?”