The Butterfly Garden (The Collector #1)(77)

Keely looked up at me again. “You have wings too?”

“On my back, yes.”

Her eyes flicked over to Bliss, who nodded. “But you won’t let him do that to me?”

“I won’t let him touch you at all.”

We took her out into the Garden in the early afternoon, Bliss going ahead of us to warn the other girls. Normally most of the others stayed away from the new girl until she was settled. Keely was different. Singly or in pairs, as nonthreateningly as possible, every girl but Sirvat came to say hello, to introduce herself, and, maybe most importantly, to promise that they’d help protect her. I was okay with Sirvat absenting herself from that.

Marenka knelt down and let Keely trace the white, browns, and black of the wings on her face so she wouldn’t be scared anymore. “I’m going to move my things so you’ll be right next to Maya,” she told her. “That way if you get scared or don’t want to be alone, you won’t have to worry about getting lost. You’ll be right next to her.”

“Th-thank you,” she managed.

Lorraine roused herself enough to put together a cold lunch for us, though she was crying the entire time. I wanted to believe that maybe she’d finally realized just what the Gardener was, that she was horrified that a child so young had been taken, that she was mortified over how she’d been mooning and jealous of dead girls. I really wanted to believe that little bit of good of her. I didn’t, though. I didn’t know why she was so shocked and upset, but I didn’t think it was for anyone’s situation but hers. Maybe buying the wig—or, more likely, Bliss not getting in trouble for the attack—finally made her realize that the Gardener was never going to love her again.

We took our lunches up on the cliff, where the sun was warm and the space around us open. Keely still didn’t have much of an appetite, but she ate to humor us. Then she saw Desmond walking up the path and she buried herself against me. Bliss and Danelle moved in close, as well, protecting her from all sides.

Desmond wasn’t the threat, but he was a male. I understood the impulse.

He stopped a safe distance away, kneeling down on the rock and spreading his arms wide. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said quietly. “I’m not going to touch you, or even come any closer than this.”

I shook my head. “Why are you here?”

“To ask her name and where she came from, so I can do what’s right.”

I started to scoot off the rock, but Keely’s arms tightened around my waist. “It’s okay,” I whispered, hugging her close. “I’m just going to go talk to him. You can stay right here with Bliss and Danelle.”

“What if he hurts you?” she whimpered.

“He won’t. This one doesn’t. I’ll be right back. You’ll see me the whole time.”

She slowly released me to transfer her grip to Danelle. Bliss was soft and curvy, but she was not cuddly.

I walked past Desmond to the very edge of the cliff and, after a moment, he followed me. He stood a foot or so away, shoving his hands deep in his pockets. “What are you doing?”

“What’s right,” he answered. “I’m calling the police, but I need to know her name. There’s got to be an AMBER Alert out for her.”

“Why now? You’ve known about the Garden for six months now.”

“How old is she?”

I glanced back at her over my shoulder. “She and her friends were hanging out at the mall to celebrate her twelfth birthday.”

He swore and studied his feet, the toes of his shoes a little over the edge of the rock. “I’ve been trying so hard to convince myself that my father is telling the truth, that even if you’re not here by choice you at least came from something he could rescue you from.”

And still, in the face of this twelve-year-old girl, he was deluding himself.

“The streets, maybe, or bad families,” he continued. “Something that made this just a little bit better, but I can’t . . . I know it was Avery who took her, not Father, but this has to stop. You’re right: I am a coward. And I am selfish, because I don’t want to hurt my family, and I don’t want to go to jail, but that girl is . . .” He stopped, panting with the force of his words and the tangle of emotion behind them. “I kept telling myself that I needed to learn to be braver, and Jesus, what a stupid thing to think. You don’t learn to be brave. You just have to do what’s right, even if it scares you. So I’m calling the police with as many names as I know and telling them about the Garden.”

“You’re really calling?” I asked.

He flashed me an angry look.

“Yes, I’m asking, because I can’t go tell that girl that help is on the way if you’re going to back out or bury your head back in the sand. Are you really doing this?”

He took a deep breath. “Yes. I’m really doing this.”

I reached out and lightly touched his cheek to bring his eyes to mine. “Her name is Keely Rudolph, and she lives in Sharpsburg.”

“Thank you.” He turned to walk away, then stopped, walked back, and pulled me into a searing kiss.

And then walked away without another word.

I returned to the rock. “We need to stay in my room for the rest of today,” I told the girls. “Go ahead without me, I’m just going to tell everyone else.”