Excerpt from Take It Back by Kia Abdullah, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Zara blinked. "How many were there?" she asked softly.

Jodie shifted in her seat. "Four. Amir and Hassan and Mo and Farid."

Zara frowned. "Do you know their surnames?"

"Yes. Amir Rabbani, Hassan Tanweer, Mohammed Ahmed, and Farid Khan."

Zara stiffened. A bead of sweat trickled down the small of her back. Four Muslim boys. Four Muslim boys had raped a disabled white girl.

"I—" Jodie faltered. "I wasn't going to tell anyone because…" Her voice trailed off.

"You can tell me." Zara reached out and touched the girl's hand. It was an awkward gesture but it seemed to soothe her.

"Because if a month ago, you had told me that any one of those boys wanted me, I would have thought it was a dream come true." Hot tears of humiliation pooled in her eyes. "Please don't tell anyone I said that."

A flush of pity bloomed on Zara's cheeks. "I won't," she promised.

Jodie pushed her palms beneath her thighs to stop her hands from shaking. "Farid said he wasn't going to touch a freak like me, so Hassan grabbed me and pushed me against the wall. He's so small, I thought I could fight him but he was like an animal." Jodie took a short, sharp breath as if it might stifle her tears. "Amir said he would hurt me if I bit him and then he … he put himself in my mouth." Jodie's lips curled in livid disgust. "He grabbed my hair and used it to move my head. I gagged and he pulled out. He said he didn't want me to throw up all over him and…" A sob rose from her chest and she held it in her mouth with a knuckle. "He finished himself off over me."

Zara's features were neutral despite the churning she felt inside. "What were the others doing?" she asked gently.

Jodie shook with the effort of a labored breath. "I—I couldn't see. They were behind me." She clasped her hands together in her lap. "Hassan pushed me and I fell to the ground. He tore my top and undid my jeans and then … he started." Jodie's features buckled in anguish. "He—he came on my face, like Amir."

Zara closed her eyes for a moment, stemming the weakness knotting in her throat.

Jodie's words came faster now, as if she needed them said before they broke inside. "Hassan turned to Mo and said, 'She's all yours.' Mo said he didn't want to but they started calling him names and saying he wasn't man enough, so … he did it too." Jodie's voice cracked, giving it a strange, abrasive texture. "Mo has sat next to me in class before. He's helped me, been kind to me. I begged him to stop, but he didn't." She swallowed a sob, needing to get through this.

Zara listened as the words from Jodie's mouth fell like black spiders, crawling over her skin and making her recoil. The sensation unnerved her. Part of Zara's talent as a caseworker was her ability to remain composed, almost dispassionate, in the face of the painful stories told between these walls. Today, the buffer was breached.

"Jodie." Zara swallowed hard to loosen the words. "I am so, so sorry for what you went through." Her words, though earnest, rang hollow, echoing in a chamber of horror. "We're nearly there. Can you tell me what happened after?"

"They just left me there." Her words held a note of wonder. "I wiped everything off me using some old curtains. I tucked my top into my jeans so it wouldn't keep splitting open and then I walked home."

"Did you see anyone on the way? Any passing cars or revellers from the party?"

Jodie shook her head. "I stayed off the path. I didn't want to be seen."

"Were you injured at all? Bleeding?"

"No." Jodie took a steady breath, appeased by the simplicity of this back and forth questioning.

"What time was it when you got home?"

"I walked for fifteen minutes so around twelve I think."

"Did you tell your mum?"

"Not that night. She was in bed and I let myself in. I went to my bedroom and then I cleaned myself up." Jodie pointed at her backpack, a bare and practical navy so she couldn't be teased for signs of personality. "I've brought the clothes I was wearing."

Excerpted from Take It Back by Kia Abdullah. Copyright © 2020 by Kia Abdullah. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.