“You’re not dead, Mr Trainor. You didn’t deliver me, and yet you’re not dead,” I reason. Blowing that excuse to shit.
“Because they saw you run. They know I tried…”
I nod my head, hold my hand up to shut him up, and take in another deep breath.
“Why then?” I ask again.
He crashes into the back of his chair. Irritation sparks withthe violence and speed of his movement. “What does it matter?” he cries belligerently.
What does it matter?What does it matter? FUCKING PRICK.
I’m vibrating; my whole body shakes down to the bones—just enough that I feel it but can’t see it. The energy filling me is the first clue that I’m no longer in control. The dark, quiet depth of my voice when I finally bring myself to speak is the other.
“It. Matters. To. Me. Whatever you agreed with them was the price of my life, Mr Trainor. Whatever you were promised, I’d have paid for in my blood. IT FUCKING MATTERS!” I force another quick, calming breath and pull my shit together before Aiden or Dax appear and drag me out.
“Money,” he finally admits. I note the lack of shame or regret. He’s only telling me to get this questioning over with. “They offered me enough money to pay off all my debts. You have no idea…”
I have no idea? I have every fucking idea of what his greed nearly cost me. What it still might cost me. This man is the same as Eric Feelan; both are cut from the same mouldy cloth.
I laugh mirthlessly. The sound is cold. “Makes sense. Is that why you drink? Because of your debts? Is that why your wife left you?” I fire at him, all pretence of calm fading now.
“How did you —?”
“How much?”
“What?” He searches the room for a way to make me shut up. Glances at that camera again as if begging them to make me stop.
“How much was my life worth to you?” He blanches. Good. “Come on, a thousand? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? What’s a nobody like me worth to you? Oh wait, that’s not what you called me yesterday…what was it again?” The words roll in my head in Trainor’s smarmy voice. “A potential success story. A valuable alumnus…An asset…So how valuable am I?”
“Fifty thousand,” he mutters.
“Fifty.” I nod. “I guess that’s not bad. For fifty grand I mighthave handed myself in, but then they’d only make me earn it all back at Hanson’s. I wonder if I’d get fifty grand for Alyssa?” I ask.
His eyes balloon wide and bug out at the mention of his daughter’s name. There’s an odd gurgling sound in his throat. I ready myself to move. I’ve just primed a bomb—one that will probably blow up in my face—but let’s see how he enjoys living in fear, genuine fear.
“She’s underage,” I continue. “Just how they like them. Is she still at that posh preparatory school up on Dawnside Avenue? Averney Prep? Something like that, right?” I threaten, unsurprised with how easily the details appear in my mind when I want them.
“She’s pretty too,” I press. He’s clenched tight, body coiling to spring. My attack is brutal. Cruel. Deserved. “Maybe they’ll make more on a girl like her. I mean, she’s probably still a virgin. They’d pay me a cool fifty grand just to bid on who could pop her cherry. Then they’d fuck her all at once. Rail her into the ground and cheer every time she screamed for one of them to stop. Hell, if she screams, they’ll just use the excuse to plug her mouth too. Eventually, they’ll shoot her up on heroin and go at her again and again and again until she’s only worth putting out on the streets.”
Trainor charges to his feet, but so do I.
“What’s wrong, Mr Trainor? It was fine when they were going to do that to me and myfucking two-year-old sister!” I bellow, spitting the words at his face. “Why are you so upset now that we’re talking about your precious princess?”
Aiden and Dax slam through the doors. Aiden blocks Trainor, and Dax wraps his arms around me. He grunts in my ear, wrestling me into submission as I fight to pull myself across the table and tear at the man who thought he could sell me.
FUCK HIM. FUCK ERIC. FUCK THEM ALL.
“Jules. Enough.Enough! You made your point,” Dax argues in my ear. I calm enough to understand and then allow him to hold me still until the storm in my head quietens.
“Let me go!” I growl. Dax dumps me back on my feet.
“Please,” Trainor begs, his fight entirely diminished with the appearance of bigger men that him. He reaches out and grabs Aiden’s wrist. “Please, not my little girl, not Alyssa.”
My breathing is ragged. My heart is in my ears, pounding like war drums. I hear this man beg for his daughter’s safety, register the tears trailing down his face, and I feel more pathetic than ever.
Lucky for Alyssa to have a father that loves her. But I knew that anyway, didn’t I? It’s why I used her to push his buttons. The money Franz promised Trainor would have probably been for her too.
“I want you to remember this,” I tell Trainor, swallowing down as much of my anger as I can. It lumps heavily in my throat. I’ll need to leave before I choke on it. “The fear you’re feeling for Alyssa, I want you to remember it always. That is the fear I live with every fucking day. Unlike you, I’m not a monster. I’d never sell out an innocent for money or anything else…not even for my own life.”
