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little over six hours.”
    Bailey was a little surprised by his attention to detail, but she tried not to read into it.
    Dr. Stone had been by earlier that day with refills of her pain meds, something he’d done twice before. Brock stepped into the kitchen for her pills and water. She took them and then dropped her head onto the back of the chair.
    “What happened that night, Bailey?” he asked quietly as he sat on the sofa.
    She looked at him. “You’re not going to let this drop, are you?”
    “No. Whatever happened to Ali will happen again to some other girl, unless we catch the scumbags who did this. I need your help.”
    She took a deep breath. “I went to a party with Ali. I didn’t want to go, but she insisted. And there was this guy there, Asher, he gave me the creeps. I’d only met him once, but still, something about him just didn’t seem right to me. He watched Ali like she was a steak and he wanted a bite. It was… weird. Ali had taken something. A pill. I don’t know what it was, but I saw her wash it down with a cocktail. She partied like no one I’d ever met before and at the beginning it was exciting, but then she started doing stuff that wasn’t like her. She went too far, but I had her back, so stuck around and made sure I stayed sober. I stuck to water bottles I opened myself. No open cups offered by creepy guys.” Bailey swallowed, squeezing her eyes shut.
    “It’s okay, Bailey. I’m here.” He leaned forward and took her hand. “These are just memories, okay?”
    She nodded. “Then everything changed. Everyone left suddenly and we were alone with Asher and his friends. I told Ali it was time to go, but she was so messed up. Asher started making out with her and she just ignored me.”
    Brock smiled sympathetically.
    “Everyone was just standing around watching them make out. It was so awkward. I kept yelling at her, and telling her I wanted to go, but she didn’t care. I tried to pull her away from him, but one of his goons grabbed me and wouldn’t let go of me.”
    Brock frowned. “Why didn’t you just leave?”
    “Because she’s my friend and I couldn’t just leave her there with them. She was out of her mind!” she snapped.
    “Hey, no judgment, babe, just a question.”
    Bailey stared at him. Wrong move. He was so sincere and his face was so gorgeous and she wanted to kiss him so bad, it made her sick to her stomach.
    “Can you keep going?” he asked.
    She nodded. “Anyway, I was yelling at Asher, pointing out that Ali was high and probably drunk and maybe he should be a real man and not take advantage.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “And that was the last thing I remember. I woke up in a concrete basement with Ali and several kids. Ali and I were zip-tied, and so were a couple of the older kids. The younger ones were just sitting where they’d been ordered to sit. Conor and Callie were the two kids closest to me. When I woke up, they were trying to wipe the blood off my forehead. Just a couple of kids, and they were trying to take care of me. I remember smelling bleach and something else, like vanilla. I wasn’t sure if it was air freshener or what, but it made me nauseous. I knew if we didn’t get out of the basement, we were screwed. I knew my arm was broken and I knew I must have looked bad, because they kept whispering about my wounds. Ali woke up a few minutes after me and we tried to put together a plan.”
    She shivered when Brock ran a thumb gently down her bruised eye. “What was the plan?”
    “Callie wasn’t bound; neither were a couple of the others, so we tried to get them to find anything sharp. Scissors, knives, anything. Conor is the smartest little kid. I don’t think I’ve ever met a kid so on top of things. He was able to guide his sister, keeping her calm and encouraging her like a big brother ought to. She found bolt cutters and when you see a petite six-year-old holding a pair of bolt cutters that weigh almost as much as she does, the