Clint leaned against the rail, tension creeping into his body. “I think the aftershocks of this last job are starting to hit him.”
Cruz frowned. “And you? How’re you holding up?”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Clint shrugged. “Fine… for now.” It would him as well—and soon. Even now, he was holding it back by sheer brute force.
“Was it worse than the orphanage?”
“Yes and no,” Clint mumbled. “The kids weren’t in as bad physical condition as the ones from the orphanage and warehouse, but…” He licked his lips, averting his eyes. “At least, we actually saved those kids.”
“What do you mean?” Sanchez asked. “You didn’t save the kids on this last job? That isn’t how Carmen told it.”
“We got them out of the prison, and took out the border station that was trafficking them to the prison…”
“Sounds like a success to me,” Cruz said.
Clint shook his head. “All those families, and the kids without families… they’re going to end up back in border patrol custody. Maybe some will be trafficked again, others sent back to the hell they were trying to escape. You can bet your ass that all of them will be mistreated, abused at the hands of the border agents. We didn’t really save them—just gave them a temporary reprieve before the nightmare starts all over again.”
“You did everything you could,” Sanchez said.
Clint pinched his lips between his teeth and stared away from the men. “So I keep hearing.”
“It’s the truth,” Cruz insisted. “What more could you do? It isn’t like you could bring them all back here. You rescued Carmen and her siblings, you got Jax, Jesus, and Manny out of that prison. Those are wins.”
“Amen to that,” Jax murmured and Jesus nodded in agreement.
Clint wished he could take comfort in that reality, but he couldn’t. “You didn’t see their faces,” he whispered. “Those kids… when we took them out of the prison. There was this… hope in their eyes, like they just woke up from their nightmare. And I told them… I told them everything would be all right.” Clint swallowed hard. “I lied to them.” His face tightened. “I fucking lied to children because I couldn’t handle telling them the truth. Me—who demands truth from everyone else. When it came my turn to tell the truth—I couldn’t fucking do it.”
“In all fairness,” Jax said quietly, “none of us know what the agents are going to do with them. Maybe they’ll come up with something, some way to help them. Those kids had just escaped hell. You were right to let them feel safe. They needed that right then, more than anything else—even the truth, if the truth would reignite their fears.”
“He’s right,” Jesus said. “You told them exactly what they needed to hear at that moment.”
“Yeah, well…” Clint sighed. “It doesn’t make me feel any better, offering them empty sentiments that’ll evaporate the minute they realize there’s no truth to them. We get to walk away, come home to our families, while they get dumped in the shit all over again. Yeah… what a victory.”
The back door opened and the Egyptian emerged, catching Clint’s final words. The two men exchanged a look of mutual defeat that no number of platitudes would wash away.
●●●
“This is Zoe,” Caterina said. “Cochise’s… daughter.”
Carmen stared at the young woman, about her same age. Blond hair, blue eyes, slender. Just like…
“Te pareces a ella,” Carmen whispered.
Zoe smiled uncertainly. “I… I don’t know what you said.” She glanced to Caterina.
“She, um, she said you look like her.”
“Like who?”
Caterina inquired, then translated as Carmen told her about Jesse.
“She looked like me?” Zoe murmured. “I thought they were all Hispanic.”
Carmen shook her head as Caterina relayed Zoe’s words. “The men at the brothel had her. I-I think they picked her up off the highway. She was trying to get home to her fiancé.”
Zoe looked stricken. “What… what did they do to her?”
Lowering her eyes, Carmen whispered, “They sold her to men who came to the brothel, and the men… raped her.”
“Oh my God,” Zoe breathed, and tears filled her eyes.
“Cochise…” Carmen swallowed as her own vision swam. “He broke into one of the rooms while she was being…”
“Oh God.” Zoe pressed her hand to her mouth.
Her tears thickening, Carmen whispered, “He saved her, and the other girls, and… and burned down the brothel. But he…” She bit her lip, chin trembling.
“What…” Tears rolled down Zoe’s face. “Tell me.”
“It… it did something to him. Maybe it was Jesse… because she looked so much like you…” Swallowing sobs, she explained about him sitting outside the van, and the phone call.
Zoe covered her mouth with both hands, quiet sobs shuddering through her. The younger girl beside her wrapped an arm around Zoe for comfort.
“He… he doesn’t tell us what happens out there,” Zoe sobbed. “Maybe he tells some to Uncle Kane, but not to us. I-I know he’s just trying to shield us from all the horrible things he sees.” She cleared her throat and wiped her eyes. “The way he looked at me when he came home… I-I didn’t know about Jesse.” She blinked back freshly forming tears. “What did he do to the men at the brothel?”
Carmen lowered her eyes. “They’ll never hurt another girl ever again.”
●●●
“Don’t think for a minute you two are gonna sit this one out,” Cory warned when Axel and Cal joined the guys.
Axel shook his head. “Nah. I’m not an athlete.”
“Who here is?” Maddy laughed.
Maybe he should—anything to keep his mind off the things Jax and Jesus had told him. Talking to Cal about Zoe had helped distract his thoughts for a bit, but the second conversation died down, his focus shot back to Clint.
Axel looked across the yard to the porch where some of the men were gathered. Since arriving home, the cowboy had done a good job of hiding the effects of their latest mission. But even now, from a distance, Axel noted the tension in Clint as he spoke to the other men.
“Hey.” Cory touched his arm and drew him away from the young men preparing for the game. “You okay?” He followed Axel’s stare to the porch. “Worried about Clint?”
“Yeah,” he whispered. “Jax and Jesus told me some things about what happened in that prison.” His throat tightened. “He lost another little girl. It… it wasn’t his fault, but…” He looked at Cory. “You know him. He blames himself.”
Cory exhaled slowly. “Yeah,” he mumbled. “I heard about that.”
“I can’t let him keep that bottled up inside,” Axel said. “But if he lets it out… it’s gonna hurt like hell. And it breaks me to see him in that kind of pain.”