"Good to hear your voice. I was watching the trackers merge and figured that you'd found them," Joe said as he answered. "Did you get what you needed?"

"Yes, somewhat. I need a medical clinic, and fast. The kidnappers drugged two women with heroin, not sure the dosage. I've been told they need something called Naloxone. I'm going to need a toy chest too. The clinic is the first priority though. Keep an eye on the local police, and call me if any are sent here, please! I'll be logging into the site with some phones that I need the info from, but that will be last." I was speaking quickly, because I needed a shower before we left. Yakiv had sprayed blood everywhere, and while it was satisfying to kill him, it was also messy. I had to put the phone on speaker to try limiting the blood on my face and hair from getting on it. While I talked, I rifled through the pants that the first dead man was trying to put on, and found the key to the handcuffs, then tossed it to Willow, who quickly unlocked the girls.

"Give me 30 minutes and I'll have the clinic location for you. The toy chest might take time, but I'll get that going too." Joe sounded quick and businesslike, just the same as when I'd talked to him after his accomplices bailed me out of the brig years ago. When I was free, they brought me right to him and he took care of the rest, setting me up with fake IDs and new missions. I was pretty sure he knew who we worked for, but I didn't even know his last name. Not his real one anyway.

There were doctors' offices around the country that worked for the same organization I did, even if they didn't realize it. Some no doubt they were working for a humanitarian effort, or just strictly for cash. Others had been set up for good doctors who needed a break by an unnamed donor. But all of them would help out in a pinch. The only question was, how close were they to where we were?

The toy chest was a different matter. Weapons caches were scattered all around the country, many of them containing weapons from foreign countries that were either purchased on the black market or captured on missions by people other than me. It was a very compartmentalized set up, and was yet another reason I knew that the people I worked for were incredibly well connected. If I was ever captured, the only thing I could tell people was about a guy named Joe and a phone number. I wasn't a risk to them at all.

I'm sure they liked it that way.

"Willow, I'm going to go grab clothes from the car, then take a quick shower." She just stared at me, gulping as she saw all the blood still dripping off my hair and face. "Keep an eye on the girls, I'll be fast."

I power walked out to the car, my mind a whirl of emotions, and grabbed a small duffel that contained a few spare pairs of clothes and a pair of high top black Converse, then returned to the room. I did a quick scan of the outside area, but never noticed any attention thrown our way. I figured we should be out of here in under 45 minutes, and Joe would call if there were any police alerts.

The bathroom wasn't much, but the water was hot and there were clean towels, so I'd be fine. I had to peel off the leather pants, I'd been in them too long, and then the rest came off easy enough before I got into the shower with the water as hot as it would go, washing my hair and face as a priority. The little hotel soaps and shampoo would do for now. I just didn't want any more blood up there please! The rest of my body got a thorough wash as well, not even caring about the old scars on me anymore. I used to be upset about them, but these days they were just a part of me, and it wasn't like anyone was looking at me. It wasn't a perfect wash, but what was? With what I was doing for a living, would I ever be truly clean?

I stood under the water, feeling the spray pounding over my body as I finally relaxed. Lexie was alive. I may have failed Lessa, regardless of her telling me I hadn't, but I felt a little lighter in my soul that Lexie hadn't joined her in that same fate. Granted, we had to make sure that she and the other girl were okay after the drugs, but that was a much better outcome than what would have happened if we hadn't gotten to them in time. But why couldn't I have done this for Lessa?

I don't think I realized I was crying at first. Tears could have been dripping from my eyes for a while before I started to sob, sinking to my knees on the bottom of the little tub. The relief I felt finally came pouring out, and I struggled to breathe as I tipped over to lean against the wall. How did things like this keep happening to Lexie's family? Was it finally over? I shuddered at the thought that it might happen again, and again. I couldn't let that happen.

I'd planned to get out of the shower after maybe 10 minutes, but I guess that I lost track of the time as I huddled in the bottom of the bath. I never heard Willow knock, or heard her come in, and I only registered her presence when she turned the water off and draped a pair of towels over me.

"You're ok, Jesse. Everyone's safe now. I know, this is a lot, but we need you. Please? Some guy named Joe called your phone and wants you to call him back. He keeps calling you Jessica too." Her voice was soft, and I knew I had to pull myself together. Willow was right, they still needed me, and they couldn't afford me wallowing around in my own self-pity. We weren't safe yet, and that had to be my priority. We needed to get Lexie and the other girl to a clinic. I didn't need to worry about the new name right now.

"I got it. I'm sorry. I'll be ready in a second." I pulled myself up and started to dry off, making Willow turn away in embarrassment before she went back out to the other room. I didn't have time to waste, so I threw on some sweatpants and a tee shirt from my bag, then pulled my hair into a quick ponytail before striding back out. Willow handed me my phone, before going back to sit next to Lexie again, holding her hand and lightly stroking her cheek. Shaking my head, I quickly dialed Joe's number.

"Jessica! Are you all good?" he answered quickly.

"Yeah, I was just cleaning off some blood. What do you have?" Saying more than that was pointless.

"I have a clinic. It should be relatively close. I have a doctor on the way there, and she already has some of the Naloxone you wanted because they have a lot of opioid issues in the area. If you can get there, then you should be okay."

"Perfect. We'll be on our way in a few, just getting packed up now. No calls to the police?"

"Nothing. But I'll keep listening in to see who reports them missing," he assured me.

I nodded to myself, thinking that would be good information to have.

"Thanks. I'll give you an update when we get the girls to the clinic. We'll need this room cleaned too."

"Got it. Take care!"

I disconnected, then finished going through the pockets of the pants that the first guy I'd shot had been trying to put on. I removed a wallet and phone, since we already had the keys, and tossed them on the bed. I did the same to a pair of pants that were draped over a chair in the corner, no doubt Yakiv's, and found a pair of phones, one no doubt a burner that I'd been following, and another wallet. The burner had no passcode, and I quickly opened it, glancing through the apps to see if it was using GPS, but it wasn't. I held the other phones in front of their owner's and let facial recognition open them, once again looking for a GPS program. Luckily, Yakiv's phone was using Waze, and I got all the addresses off of that. It looked like they had been on their way to an address up in Gary, Indiana, and I knew that would be my first stop. Well, once we got the girls better and all of them living somewhere safe.

I pulled all the cash from the wallets, then looked for anything else that might help. They each had a security badge, and I grabbed those too. I might need them later when I went hunting. I took pictures of their licenses and the credit cards so we could look at purchase histories, and their health insurance cards to see who was carrying the corporate payments. In the bathroom was a small medicine bag with several vials of a yellow liquid and assorted syringes. I assumed those were the drugs that they had injected the girls with, so I took the bag too. With that done, I opened the browser on all the phones onto an IP address that we regularly used to download information from. I logged them on, then turned to Willow.

"Is there anything you need before we go?"

"No, the sooner the better," she admitted, holding Lexie's limp hand.

"Alright. Go to the bathroom, and I'll get us ready to go."