“Hate you? Marissa, I don’t hate you. I don’t understand how all this happened, but I don’t hate you.”
She was quiet then reached over to turn the heat up in the truck. He could only smile inwardly. She was practically naked other than the sequined thong still covering part of her ass.
“We’ll stop and get you some clothes,” he said. She nodded and then pointed to a thrift store.
“They usually open early,” she said. “I’ve had to use them these past few months.”
He pulled into the parking lot and sure enough, the lights were on. Behind his seat, he grabbed a black duffel bag. Pulling out a pair of black sweats, he handed them to her.
“They’ll be huge, but you can tighten and tie them for now. I have some slides, but they’re going to be too big, too.”
“It’s okay. I can make do until we find something,” she whispered.
She shuffled alongside him as they entered the store. There was an older woman working the counter but she said nothing to them. Right away, Marissa pulled two pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts from the rack. Since it was a thrift store, it didn’t even total ten bucks.
“Get a few more things. Tees, sweaters, sweats. You’ll need something to sleep in as well. Oh, and undergarments. Wait. Do they have unused undergarments here?”
“Yes,” she smiled. “They’re not very sexy but they’re comfortable.”
Sure enough, there were rows of packaged underwear and brand-new bras. With their arms full, Joey grabbed a wool coat for her as they paid for their purchases.
“I’ll pay you back, Joey.”
“You don’t have to pay me back,” he said grabbing the things.
Outside in the truck, he nodded for her to get in the back and change. A few minutes later, she was dressed in the jeans and sweater, a new pair of socks on her feet and a barely worn pair of hiking boots.
“D-do you have a comb or brush?” she asked.
“In the bag,” he said nodding toward his duffel.
She grabbed the brush and ran it through her long blonde hair, then tied it up with an elastic holder.
“It’s as good as it’s going to get,” she said with a small smile. He stared at her and she squirmed. “What?”
“You’re beautiful. You’re more fucking beautiful than the last time I saw you and that’s pretty damn beautiful.”
“How can you say that? You saw me. I was stripping,” she said in a choked voice.
“You were doing what you thought you had to do. I guess what I don’t understand is why you didn’t trust someone. Your parents, your brothers, me. We would have helped.”
“They threatened everyone, Joey. They said they could get to anyone and it would be my fault.”
“You know who we are, Marissa. You know what we do. No one will get to us,” he said still sitting in the parking lot.
“Okay. Okay, so I was wrong and I know that now. But what do we do? He’ll come for me.”
“There’s something else here. Something else he wants. Did he sell the girls?”
“You mean prostitution?” she asked.
“That, or did he actually sell them to buyers?” She froze for a moment, the tears building again.
“I-I don’t know. I never thought of that. He kept saying I had to dance a while longer for him and then my debt would be paid but there was no way. I wasn’t making enough to pay that debt. The most I could hope for was running away.”
“He would have killed you,” said Joey shaking his head. “What were you doing at Duke? I mean, what were you studying?”
“I was working on my master’s in chemistry, weapons chemistry.”
