Disclaimer: They aren't mine

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Bobby breezed down the corridor, almost knocking over several hospital staff in the process. Alex had to jog to keep up. Getting to the nurse's station, he found the first the first person he could to vent his fears on. "What the hell happened!?"

The nurse looked absolutely terrified. "There, there was a man. He demanded to know where Ms Miller was. Someone told him and he pulled a gun. We heard yells and gunshots from the room but she escaped through the window. The man ran out down the stairs but he got away before security could get here."

Bobby turned to Alex. "Go down to the lobby and see if she comes back. I'm going to look for her." Alex nodded, knowing her partner would do this with or without her help.

Bobby pushed through the doors and looked both ways down the street. "You're looking for that girl aren't you?"

Bobby turned to see a homeless woman sitting on the stairs of the hospital. "How did you know?"

"I just do. She went that way." She replied, pointing north. Bobby thanked her and started down the street. It was busy now. Everyone was at lunch and away from work. He wondered how a woman wearing a hospital gown could walk down the street without being noticed. Then again this was New York.

He began asking people if they had seen her. A couple of people nodded and waved him further down the road. A police car went past. The only color amongst the yellow cabs now crowding the street. He continued, turning down an alley when he thought he heard a noise. His phone rang, echoing down the gap between the two apartment buildings.

"Its me." Bobby heard when he answered. "A police patrol just radioed in saying they had a run away patient. From the description, it sounds like Tori."

"OK. I'll be right there. Bobby ran back to the hospital.

Surprised, he got there before the police. Then again there had been a lot of traffic on the road. He ran up the steps and almost bumped into Alex, who was coming out he door. "They just radioed again. They're almost here."

Bobby nodded and led them back inside. A crowd had gathered in the entrance, many which were patients, anxious to see the girl who had climbed out an 8th floor window to escape a killer. The car pulled up and the police struggled to pull out whoever was in the back.

After quite a fight, the local cop finally pulled out Tori. She was bruised, bleeding and dirty but she was also absolutely terrified. The cop dragged her into the lobby. For such a frail looking woman, she certainly gave him a hard time. When she saw the crowd, she began glancing around frantically, fear etched into every corner.

When she saw the two detectives, a flicker of hope passed through her entire body. "BOBBY TELL THEM TO LET ME GO!" she screamed, struggling to get to Bobby who was now starting to walk towards her.

It all happened at once. The look of hope on Tori's face changed into fear. Bobby saw the man in the crowd raise the gun.

"FLOOR!' Tori screamed, pulling the two policemen behind her down.

The gun went off, hitting the glass door and shattering it to pieces. Bobby pulled out his gun and fired. The gunman hit the ground and didn't move.

Tori, in the panic, managed to slip free of the cops grasp and ran out the door. Bobby followed, chasing her down the street. "TORI WAIT!" He screamed.

She ducked around a corner and disappeared out of sight. When Bobby rounded the corner, she was nowhere to be seen. "TORI!" He yelled again.

A man sitting in the café by the road yelled out. "Down that alley there."

Bobby nodded and crossed the road, dodging traffic. Carefully, he crept into the alley. Trying to be silent, a sob startled him, causing him to jump back and knock over the bins sitting there.

A scream came from behind the dumpster. Bobby looked to find Tori there, curled up into a ball and covering her head. It was just like when he found her in the closet. He knelt down and touched her shoulder. She flinched at the touch but opened her eyes. Seeing Bobby, she sat up and broke down into tears.

Ignoring the dirt and bloodstains that covered her body, he sat down and pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before. I was just so afraid. I thought telling you would make things worse."

Bobby looked at Tori. "Tori, if you tell me what happened, tell me what you know, I can put this guy away."

To Bobby's surprise, Tori laughed. "You really think it's that simple, that this is a small time gang with a few members who go out and vandalize buildings?" she said, looking into Bobby's eyes. "It's so much bigger than that. And what's more, this is one of New York's biggest underground secrets ever kept. There is no data are even any evidence that this gang even exists."

Bobby frowned. "What do you mean?"

Tori sighed and looked at the ground. "This all begins, and ends with my father. My father, in high school, began a brotherhood with his closet friends. The kind of friends who you would die for. That's how it all began. They all went to college, got good jobs and it never went any further than that. When my father met my mother, he fell in love. So much so that he gave her everything. But the other members of the brotherhood he had started began to get jealous. This woman was taking up his time and he was no longer there for them. He was torn between his friends and my mother. In the end, he compromised. Each brother was told to travel the world, find a woman and bring her back here. He would give them homes, clothe them and feed them. Give them anything they wanted. In the end, he just couldn't support them all. He began to get into things. Trafficking drugs, performing hits. He began recruiting people into the brotherhood each person was given a tattoo on his right arm, to symbolize his or her connection to the gang. The gang grew and grew. Expanding without the hindrance of the police. They weren't stopped because no one knew. Any one who did was killed. Have you ever investigated a suicide that didn't seem quite right. Like there was something that just didn't fit with it all?"

Bobby nodded, captivated by the sudden knowledge he possessed of the streets of New York.

"Well it was most likely a member of the brotherhood. They would kill anyone who got in their way. My mother knew nothing of this. When she fell pregnant, she was over the moon. She couldn't wait to tell my father. But when he found out, he grew angry and abusive. He began to drink and when he came home drunk, my mother would go to one of the woman who were brought back by the original brothers. When I was born, they helped my mum, taking me when my father got abusive. It was after my birth that the real trouble began. My father became truly heartless, killing people for no reason except to vent his anger. Eventually my mother found out about what had been going on. She kept quiet, believing that one day, my father would stop and we could be a happy family. When I was 10, I began to realize that something wasn't right. I knew about the beatings but growing up with that, I thought it was normal. One day, I followed my father to a poker night he had every Friday with his friends. At least I thought it was a poker night. I knew all of the women at the brotherhood. They were like close aunts. That night I followed my dad to Lacey's house."

"Lacey.wasn't that one of the women who was killed?"

Tori nodded and continued. "They brought in a girl. She was barley 15. They whipped her, sexually abused her then killed her slowly. I still remember her screams."

Tears were now streaming down Tori's cheek. "They found me, hiding in the hallway. My dad dragged me in and they whipped me. He yelled and screamed at me, shoved my face in the girl's body and told me if I ever told anyone what I saw, I would end u p like her. I found out what they did later on. Have you ever been to the Hudson River? Beautiful place, but so big. So big that so many things can be hidden under the water. If someone cared to look, there would be over hundreds of bodies down there 'cause that's were they dumped the girls they abused each week. No one ever found them. The few that did surface were so decayed that the investigations were dropped, purely on the fact that there was never any evidence to warrant an investigation. They couldn't even find the causes of death but I knew it was those girls. My dad had a death certificate made out for me so no one would find me and find out what I knew. He even organized a funeral for everyone that knew me. I was so afraid of my father from that night on. I never told my mother what had happened. The abusing went on. He often forced me to take heroine. I became addicted but never took it voluntarily. I'm terrified of needles. I was often whipped and bashed. Somehow my mother knew, but she just couldn't face the truth that her daughter was being abused. I grew up knowing nothing but hate from my father."

Tori began shaking. Bobby took her hand and pulled her into another hug.

"I grew up, living in the basement of my mother's apartment building. My father didn't live with he anymore but he kept his promise. He fed them, clothed them and kept a roof over their heads, but that promise didn't extend to me. When I was 16, he told my mother that if her ever found out that she had given the tiniest bit of his money to me, he would kill her. But she still did it. All of the brotherhood women pitched in, giving small amounts of money that could be counted as lost. It was enough to give me a tiny bit of food. The rest I had to buy from the money I got from pick pocketing. I lived on the street, spending nights in one on the woman's basements, arriving after midnight and leaving before sunrise. But my health was declining. My father would often find me on the street and he would beat me, almost to death once. I was in and out of hospital. Always giving a fake name and always leaving before they could find out I was lying. It's how I got so good at climbing out of the 8th floor of buildings."

Bobby smiled. Even through her hardships, she still managed to smile.

"A few months ago, I went to my mum's house. I told her about the murder I saw when I was 10. She got all the brotherhood women together and they decided to go forward with what they knew. But somehow my father found out. He began killing them one by one. It would stop the others from going forward, but eventually, they would gather the courage again. But then he killed another. It finally got to the point where there was only my mother left. She called me into her home. She told me that if anything happened to her that I would bring down my father, no matter what it took. We heard my father come in and she shoved me into the closet."

Tori's jaw clenched. Her face hardened into anger, despite the tears still streaming from her eyes.

"I watched him torture my mother. I watched him beat her and I did nothing. I watched him slit her throat AND I DID NOTHING!"

She was yelling now, pure emotion taking over. Bobby held her tighter.

"I passed out then. The next thing I knew was there were police everywhere. I was so scared. When you found me, I thought I could never trust anyone again, but you helped me. But it's all happening again. Anyone who's ever helped me has died."

"What do you mean Tori, I'm not going anywhere."

She looked up, shaking and crying harder. "You think that gunman was the only member of the brotherhood in that room? He was just a trainee, there was someone watching him, making sure he would carry out his orders. Even if it meant he would die. They know about you. You're both in danger."

Bobby looked at Tori, processing what she had just said. He looked into her eyes and he knew, he wasn't scared, because he was going to help her, even if it meant it would kill all of them.

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There you go. Tori's big secret. Review and tell me what you think!