The Butterfly Garden (The Collector #1)(75)

No hair on her crotch or underarms, no breasts, no hips, this was definitely still a child.

Danelle held her up so I could wash her hair. By then Bliss was there with her dress—the only thing that was likely to fit her and keep her fully covered, even if it was a bit loose—so we got her dried off, clothed, and tucked into my bed.

“Now that she’s here, do you think . . .” Not even Bliss could finish that thought.

I shook my head, inspecting the girl’s hand where several nails had torn short. She must have fought. “They’re not touching her.”

“Maya—”

“They’re not touching her.”

A pained bellow ripped through the Garden and we flinched.

But it wasn’t from a female, so we didn’t move.

Other girls fled from the sound, crowding into my room, until I finally had to tell most of them to leave. We had no idea when this child was going to wake up, and she was going to be terrified and in pain and really didn’t need twenty-something people staring at her. Only Danelle and Bliss stayed, Danelle keeping herself behind the girl so her face wouldn’t be seen right away.

Except the bookshelf on my right wall didn’t entirely hide Lyonette.

Bliss tugged the curtain for my toilet as far as it could go, lifting the bottom and tucking it between several of the books to anchor it. If you knew something was there you could still see her hair, the curve of her spine, but not at a casual glance.

And we waited.

Bliss made a quick errand to fetch bottles of water, as well as bullying a few aspirin out of the cowed Lorraine. Aspirin wasn’t going to do much in the long run—it was great against headaches from the drugs, but that wasn’t what she had—but it was something anyway.

Then the Gardener appeared in my doorway. He glanced at the wall and the arrangement of the curtain, then to the girl on the bed, and nodded, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a small control, and after a minute or so of fiddling with it, the walls came down on either side, leaving the front open. “How is she?”

“Unconscious,” I said shortly. “She’s been raped, she’s been hit very hard in the head, and she’ll have a world of other hurts.”

“Was there anything to show her name? Or where she came from?”

“No.” I gave her hand to Bliss so I could walk across the room, standing right next to the pale, suddenly worn-looking man. “No one touches her.”

“Maya—”

“No, no one touches her. No wings, no sex, nothing. She is a child.”

To my shock, he actually nodded. “I’m giving her to your care.”

Danelle cleared her throat. “Sir? She hasn’t actually woken up yet; couldn’t she be taken somewhere? Left at a hospital or something? She wouldn’t know anything.”

“I can’t trust that she didn’t see Avery,” he said heavily. “She has to stay.”

Danelle bit her lip and looked away, her hands stroking the girl’s hair.

“I think it best if you leave,” I told him evenly. “We don’t know when she’s going to wake up. It would be best to not have any males present.”

“Of course, yes. You’ll tell me if . . . if she needs anything?”

“She needs her mother and her virginity,” snapped Bliss. “She needs to be safely at home.”

“Bliss.”

She snorted, but fell silent at his warning tone.

“You’ll tell me,” he said again, and I nodded. I didn’t bother to watch him leave.

He wasn’t gone long before Desmond came, that bruised look even stronger in his eyes. “Will she be all right?”

“No,” I said stiffly. “But I think she’ll live.”

“That yell? Father caned Avery.”

“Yes, because that will make her feel so much better,” Bliss snarled. “Go fuck yourself.”

“What did he do to her?”

“What do you think he did to her? Shook her hand?”

“Desmond.” I didn’t continue until he was finally looking at me, meeting my eye. “This is what your brother is, but it’s what all three of you do, so right now you need to not be here. I know you’re all full of self-pity and loathing right now, but I will not have any males around this child. You need to go.”

“I’m not the one who hurt her!”

“Yes, you are,” I snapped. “You could have prevented this! If you had just gone to the police, or let one of us go so we could go to the police, Avery wouldn’t have been free to kidnap her, to savage her, to rape her, to bring her here where it will happen to her again and again and again until she’s dead too young. You allowed this to happen, Desmond, actively allowed it, so yes, you are the one who hurt her. If you’re not going to do anything to help her, you need to get the hell away from her.”

He stared at me, his face pale and shocked. Then he turned and walked away.

How could a child be worth less than a name? How could all our lives be worth less than a reputation?

Bliss looked after him, then reached out to touch my hand. “Do you think he’ll come back?”

“I don’t care.”

It was even mostly true. I was tired in a way that went deeper than my bones. I simply did not have the energy to think about Desmond’s continued uselessness.