Chapter 111: Escapee: Roman
Hannah and I stayed together for the rest of the afternoon in blissful quiet, something we had been robbed of for the past few months. She was sitting on the chair besides my bed as she held my hand.
I had tried and failed many times to try and get her back onto the bed with me, but she was adamant in her refusal as she stated she wasn’t going to risk having the stitches rip open a second time.
I only rolled my eyes at the look in her green ones and pouted as she sat down in the chair next to me. I smiled down at her as she made a funny face towards me, and we both turned in uison as a sound rang out in the room.
A knock sounded from the hospital door. It was a sound I had become familiar with. To my surprise, this time Hannah did not get off from the bed and her situation next to me as people began filing into the room.
The first person was Kirsten. Her eyes were somewhat red and puffy as she barged into the room and wrapped her hands and arms—practically her entire body—around Hannah. The two of the sobbed together as they spoke to each other loudly.
"I am so glad you’re alright." Kirsten choked out through a mouthful of Hannah’s hair. I laughed as I watched the scene before me.
I watched as Hannah pulled back and held Kirsten’s face in her hands as she spoke to the woman. "Roman told me what you did, Kirsten. Thank you so much. I... I owe you everything. I don’t know how I would have made it if you didn’t come to my rescue."
Kirsten shook her head as the tears fell down her cheeks. "It was the least I could do after you and Roman did so much for me. I didn’t want you to have to go through that again, Hannah. I was so worried about you and–"
Kirsten was cut off from her rambling when Hannah laughed and pulled her closer to her in a great bear hug.
Lori and Lauren were the next to come. The two of them attacked Hannah in a huge hug as well. Kirsten came to my side and gave me a cautious hug. She was careful not to touch or disturb the bandage around my waist or any of the wires attached to me.
Lori came up to me next and took my hand in hers as she stared down at me with a grateful look in her eyes. "Thank you for bringing her back."
"There was no question about it," I responded quickly.
I caught Hannah’s eye over Lori’s shoulder as she gave me a teasing smile and a lift of her eyebrow. I only smiled back at her as I reached out for her and pulled her back down next to me.
The three girls stayed for over an hour as we recounted all the things that had happened from the moment I had met Hannah at the Auction House up until my second visit to the hospital, present time.
"He flipped him over with stitches in?" Lauren gasped at Hannah as the woman sitting next to me retold the story of how I had managed to reopen my stitches. "That was so stupid, Roman!"
"Hey," I argued against her use of words, "I would actually say it was brave of me given the situation. I mean, I helped save everyone, didn’t I?" I turned Hannah’s face to look at me. "Tell her off or something for me, I’m too tired."
The other women only laughed. To my surprise, they all got up ten minutes later and said that it was time to leave me to my rest. I thanked them again after a tearful goodbye and an absolute promise to meet up at the mansion in a week.
"They were all just very worried about you," Hannah told me as she came back into the room after seeing the girls off and sat next to me. I cracked open an eye as I watched her.
"You should have seen the way they were worried about you," I told her. "Lori nearly threatened to bite my head off if I didn’t bring her sister back."
Hannah only shook her head as she laughed and playfully smacked me in my arm. "You’re exaggerating too much."
"No seriously! Marcus was there you can ask him." I continued to tease Hannah about her sister and various other things about the situation.
It seemed like my talk of Marcus had apparently summoned him. Within the next fifteen minutes, it was him knocking on the hospital door.
The last person to come in was Marcus. With him not only came Ed but also a surprising load of chaos and tension. We knew what it meant for the two of them to be there. I gripped Hannah’s hand in mine as they smiled down at us.
"Well, there is definitely good news," Ed laughed, "so don’t look so unhappy to see us."
I watched as Hannah’s shoulders fell and she let out a soft laugh. Ed didn’t look too offended despite his words. He and Marcus both knew Hannah more than any of us had gone through the most. It wasn’t too hard to forgive the anxiety she held now.
Marcus began explaining the entire situation. "The girls are safe. I managed to get them out of the warehouse with, what I’m assuming, was help from you Hannah."
"But of course," Hannah replied cheekily. Marcus gave her a nod of appreciation.
"We managed to have them all checked in at a different hospital. For safety reasons, they will remain anonymous to you all and be given new IDs regardless. This is all part of the procedure. They’re going to be put in a protection program for the time being."
I was glad to hear about the situation of the girls. No one should have ever had to have gone through what they did. I was only glad we were able to get to them in time and get them out with minimal altercations to them and any further risk.
Things like these tended to get messy if our situation was anything to go by.
"But..." Marcus said as he gave the both of us a solemn look. Ah. There it was. "There is some bad news."
Ed continued explaining the situation when Marcus gave him the go-ahead. "The boss, Jared, who we had caught and arrested, seems to be only one pawn in a much larger and grander scheme. Thanks to Hannah, we found various reports in that warehouse about shipping girls across states and even, in some cases, countries."
Hannah gasped from beside me. The situation was bigger than any of us could have imagined.
"He said something similar to me," Hannah said as she walked over to us. "He had said that even if I got out, I couldn’t really stop what was happening and that we had no idea how big this operation really went."
Marcus nodded as he listened to Hannah’s words and Ed wrote them down. "It seems like Jared was only one end to this entire messy operation on this side of the country."
Gritting my teeth, I looked to Marcus as I asked, "What happens now?"
The two agents only shook their heads in dismay. "I’m afraid to say it, but not much. We only were able to go so far with the investigation on our end because we had you two and Kirsten right in the middle of it."
"Without solid leads," Ed continued, "and a proper foundation on where to even start, I’m afraid we’re a little out of our depth here regarding worldwide human trafficking"
The room fell silent as everyone chewed over Ed’s words. It was true that I had felt somewhat relieved when we had managed to raid and clear out those Auction House locations. Hearing that they were only a small part of a much grander scheme set my stomach in knots.
Although we had made a difference in the lives of the girls we had saved... What about the ones we didn’t? Who would save them?
Slamming his notebook shut, Ed began to speak again, "There is one more thing. Jessica escaped."
Hannah rolled her eyes immediately and let out a frustrated groan as she ran her hand through her red hair. "God, she’s like a slimy, greasy fish!"
"When the police had come, they found her chained up pretending to be one of the girls who had been taken." My jaw fell. "During the chaos of saving the girls and taking down the guards and muscle of the warehouse, she managed to run away."
Shaking her head, Hannah spoke up. "I would say I’m surprised, but there really are no limits on what that wretched woman would do to save her own skin."
