Blood is Thicker Than Water

Chapter Six

"How are you holding up?" Luke asked me as we took care of the horses the following morning.

I shrugged and threw a sack of feed over my shoulder. "I'm fine. It's not exactly me you need to be worried about right now."

"You were pretty tore up yesterday."

I thought that he was the one who burst into my room crying, but I didn't say so. "I'm okay."

Luke made one of his yes-no-maybe so sounds and turned to look at me. "You still wanting to go for a ride?"

"Has there ever been a time I didn't?"

He playfully shoved me and nodded toward the tack room. "Well, now that we've got plenty of day light and you aren't about to visually lose your mind, maybe we can head out on a quick trail ride. What do you say?"

I thought of the man's words to me last night. "You'll be joining her soon." Luke might think he's some big protector bodyguard, but I know better. He was pretty strong and almost six feet tall, yes. But he wouldn't stand a chance against a full grown man. Not for a couple more years. I was dying to go for a ride, but if we did and Ella's abductors tried to snag me, I knew Luke would try his best to protect me. That could get him killed, more than likely would.

"Hello? Earth to Kay?"

I snapped back to reality and fastened my gaze on my cousin. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Ride?" Luke answered in his traditional half-sentence.

"Uh, well, honestly I don't know if it's safe. May....maybe we should wait a couple of days."

He laughed. "What's got you stuttering? You afraid we'll see your crush in the woods or something?"

"I don't have a crush." I pointed out.

"Uh-huh. So what's your deal? You sick or something?"

Sick of sex traffickers trying to abduct me. I thought with a roll of my eyes. "Nah, just thinking about stuff. If you want you and I could see what we can come with about El for a little while."

I filled Cupcake's trough with fresh water. Just as liquid washed from the hose, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I flinched. " Kay," Luke said into my ear. "You need to take a break from that. There's nothing we can do."

I flung his hand away and walked to Emmit's stall. "Not my strong point, Luke. I'm sitting in here for the next couple of hours and seeing what I can come up with."

He cocked his head to the side. "And this is the girl who swore on her life she wouldn't be a detective?"

"Yeah, well, knowing your sister is probably being trafficked as we speak kind of changes your perspective. You in or not?"

"Okay, fine. But you and I are going for at least a quick ride later."

Sure, about the same time the navy rolls into my front yard. "You got it."

I sat down on a square bale of hay and brushed my hair behind my back. Luke pulled up an old chair and sat in it backwards opposite me. "What are you thinking?"

"Okay, so you said the other day that about a dozen girls have gone missing so far, right?" I inquired.

"Yep. Fifteen including El."

"And you said most of them were my age, correct?"

He flinched a little at my words, but nodded. "Yes. Kay, what are you leading up to?"

"Well, it just doesn't make sense to me. Just an inquiry, all the vics went or had siblings that went to our school, right?"

"Right."

"Here's my theory." I steepled my fingers together and leveled my gaze on my cousin. "I think that we're dealing with a trafficker working at our school."

Luke gasped. "What?"

"Maybe he or she isn't the ring leader, but just a recruiter. A high school would be the perfect place to snag girls and....well, you know."

"No way on earth the board would hire a sex trafficker to work at our school." He confided.

**like no duh.** I pushed the taunting words to the back of my mind and shrugged. "Not a known offender. But there's always a first victim and there's always that guy who just hasn't been caught yet. We could be dealing with either."

"Well, I guess it's a horrifying but possible solution. So who are you thinking? Do you have a suspect list?"

"No." I responded without a second thought. I had to keep my suspicions a secret until I had solid evidence and until I knew I wouldn't put anyone in danger by sharing. "But I'm working on it. So let's just say it's a recruiter at school. He or she would pick girls my age mainly because they're usually gullible and not very strong. But there's been a few of our classmates who had siblings disappear. So maybe those select few of us were too hard to snag right away and they started looking other places. The next best thing would have been our sisters, right?"

Luke scratched the back of his neck. "Seems like a good possibility."

It took every once of self control to keep from crying when I said "Luke, I was the target. But Ella was more convenient. So they got her while they had the chance."

"And they'll probably come back for you." He added thoughtfully.

I knew that was exactly the case, but I didn't say so. "Maybe, but I doubt it. I think that, since Ella's disappearance is already getting state-wide coverage, the ring will probably lay low for a while and then come after me when the dust settles. But let's not let that happen. We need to stop them now."

"I have a serious feeling I won't like what you're about to say." Luke sighed and shook his head.

I smirked. "Time to pay our dear leaders in education a visit."