Defiance (The Protectors #9)(94)

It was the only thing that helped me forget the pain-filled blue eyes that had been etched into my brain for nearly two years now.

Please…help me.

I flinched as the hoarse voice filtered through my brain.

He’s fine. You got him out of there, I reminded myself.

“Caleb’s gone.”

My stomach dropped out at Memphis’s words.

“What?” I asked, my voice sounding like I’d swallowed a handful of broken glass.

“He’s been missing since yesterday morning.”

“Jesus,” I muttered as I climbed to my feet. “What happened?”

Memphis sighed. “I take it you haven’t been watching the news.”

“No,” I said. “I’ve been…busy,” I said lamely, though the word didn’t even begin to describe the shit storm I’d been dealing with these last few weeks.

“The trial against Caleb’s father started last week. Eli’s case.”

I knew exactly what he was talking about and I automatically sat back down on the bed as memories of the young man came flooding back to me. I’d met Eli Galvez nearly two years earlier when I’d been asked by my then boss, Ronan Grisham, the head of the underground vigilante group I worked for, to check on Eli’s step-brother who’d been institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital. My plan had just been to make sure young Caleb Cortano was okay when I’d broken into the hospital and disguised myself as an orderly. I’d found Caleb strapped to a bed, drugged to the gills and scared to death. I’d tried to convince myself the treatment must have been necessary for whatever mental problems he’d been dealing with, but the second he’d turned his terrified blue eyes in my direction, I’d known something wasn’t right. A single tear had rolled down his cheek and I’d been reaching for the restraint on his wrist before he’d even whispered the words that still haunted me.

Please…help me.

Everything had changed from that moment going forward.

Two days after I’d gotten Caleb out of there, I’d been sitting across from Eli and Maverick “Mav” James, another one of Ronan’s operatives who also happened to be Eli’s lover, explaining to young Eli that I’d watched several videos of him being brutally raped by his stepfather, Jack Cortano, Caleb’s father. As if that hadn’t been bad enough, I’d discovered multiple videos of Caleb and his older brother, Nick, being repeatedly sexually assaulted by their own father as well.

Jack had been arrested on multiple charges, but the district attorney had decided to start with Eli’s case first.

“What happened?” I asked, my heart in my throat.

“The judge threw out the videos on a technicality.”

I swallowed hard as I shook my head. How the fuck was that even possible? There’d been no question what had been happening in those videos and who the parties involved had been.

“Did Eli testify?” I asked. I knew that had always been the plan, though the videos alone should have been enough to prove that Jack had raped a then sixteen-year-old Eli.

“He did. It was…”

The fact that Memphis had to pause pretty much answered the question for me. My heart broke for Eli and Mav. I stiffened as I realized where Memphis was going with this.

“Jesus, Memphis, don’t tell me he got off.”

There was a long pause before Memphis said, “Acquitted on all the charges.”

“Fucking Christ!” I yelled as I got up and began pacing the room. “How the ever-loving hell is that even fucking possible?” I shouted. “The fucker raped him! I saw the goddamn proof myself!” I snapped.

I managed to calm myself down as Memphis remained silent. I suspected he and the rest of the team had likely had a similar reaction to my own.

“The defense brought up Eli’s history,” Memphis murmured.

I shook my head in disbelief. “He was a fucking kid,” I whispered. As a teenager, Eli had been forced to prostitute himself for money before someone had finally stepped in and put a stop to it. I couldn’t even begin to fathom what it must have been like for him to have that shit thrown in his face in an open courtroom.

“How is he doing?” I asked.

“Not good,” was all Memphis said. “That’s why he and Mav didn’t realize Caleb had taken off at first. They found his phone in his room and he didn’t take his car. We can’t find his name on any flights and we’ve searched everywhere we can think of. We think he might be headed to D.C. – maybe to meet up with some old friends or something. He…he hasn’t contacted you, right?”

“No,” I managed to get out as my worry for Caleb grew. “I’ve never given him my number and he doesn’t know where I live.”

A fact I was cursing now. The last time I’d seen Caleb had been more than a year ago at Christmas. I’d flown to Seattle after Caleb had begged me to come see him. He hadn’t been doing well then either, but after spending the holiday with him, I’d hoped things would start turning around for him. He’d even agreed to go to therapy to start dealing with what his father had done to him.

But I hadn’t had the balls to check in with him since then. I’d told myself it was for his own good since he’d become far too attached to me, but I knew that was only half the truth.