I close my eyes forcing back the tears that want to come as I remember that day. I was so stupid trusting her on the simple fact she was a woman and thus that must've meant she was safe.
"I didn't see her as a threat because she was a woman. I'd opened the door, and she was crying. She told me she lost her cat and asked if I'd seen it, she even showed me a flier. I told her no and apologized. When I tried to close the door in her face she stopped me and begged me to help her look for her cat. I didn't want to be rude and tell her no, she didn't even seem to notice that I was mute. There was no way I could shout for a cat. When I tried to tell her I wouldn't be much help, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me from the house. I couldn't scream and I wasn't strong enough to get away from her. She put something against my nose and mouth and it made me pass out. When I woke up again, I was in a hotel room."
My hands start to shake, and I lower them, picking up the glass to try and center myself. I haven't thought about that day in so long.
"You were eleven?" His voice comes out soft.
I nod. "I never saw my parents again after that."
He frowns. "But once you became part of the WPP, wouldn't someone have alerted them before that? That you had been found?"
I shake my head. "I didn't get out until I was eighteen. I asked them not to tell my parents I'd been found, and since I was an adult, they couldn't go against my wishes, especially since I was agreeing to testify against the man who had taken me."
He drinks his vodka and sprite down to the halfway mark. My gaze travels down to his Adam's apple as it bobs. The vodka is starting to settle into my system and all I want to do is lean forward and kiss his neck. I wish he was ugly so I wouldn't be attracted to him, that would make this so much easier.
He looks at me as he swallows the last of what's in his mouth and I turn my gaze to the floor. "Why didn't you want to see them? Wouldn't you want them to know you're alive?"
The tears come to my eyes faster than I can stop them, my signing comes across harsher than I meant for it to. "Look at me. If I were your daughter would you want to see me like this, a fragment of the little girl you raised? Or would you rather believe I was dead and at peace? I'm not the person they remember. I would just feel like a burden to them, and it wouldn't have been safe for them either. If they don't know I'm alive, then there are no targets on their backs."
He hums as he stares at me and the record transitions to the next song. "Regardless, I would want to know if my baby was alive. I would always hold out hope that if I had a kid and they disappeared that they would be found alive. Once you're safe to move around, are you going to seek them out?"
My heart hammers at the thought of seeing them again. Get one of my mom's tight hugs. She always gave the best hugs. I've often wondered how they are. I haven't been back to Texas since Harold took me out of it, and the WPP hasn't sent me there. And without access to the internet, it's not like I could look them up and see if they're still alive.
"I don't know. I rather they remember me as the innocent little girl. I think that would be easier for everyone."
He shakes his head. "You were so young, and the way they tricked you to make you think it was safe is just wrong. I'm sorry that happened to you."
I shrug. "It is what it is. The past can't change now. That bitch died a few years later when one of the new girls stabbed her in the gut. So she got what she deserved even if we didn't get away from him or his clients in the process."
He shook his head. "Well, at least she went out in pain. Getting stabbed in the gut is one of the most painful ways a person can go. It's slow, too."
It shouldn't make me happy hearing that, but it does. I hated Monica with all my heart. It was because of her that I got taken away from my family, and she knew what she was doing, she'd been taken by Harold too when she was a little girl.
"How did you get out?"
I finish off my drink and he motions to it and asks me if I want another. I shake my head. If I drink anymore, I'm going to end up jumping him after this story. Being near him makes me feel safe, and I have a feeling sex with him would make me feel good and forget. He gives off the air of not only a man with a nice-sized cock, but of one that knows what he's doing and likes to give women orgasms. Those kinds of men always have an aura about them. They were the only clients I ever kind of liked, because with them, at least I wasn't in pain.
I put my glass on the floor and sigh. "When I became too old for his clientele base, he had a reputation of using the women who no longer looked like little girls as bait for the next generation. Once we weren't good for that, he would kill us." I close my eyes, not wanting to think about the friends I left behind when I ran.
"When I realized he wanted me to become the woman who captured me, I couldn't do it. Not even to keep him from killing me. I wouldn't let this happen to some other little girl that doesn't know better. So one night, when we were staying in a dingy motel, I ran. I ran all the way until I could find a police station."
He snorts. "I doubt those assholes did much to help you."
I shrug. "It took them a while to find someone who spoke sign language, I had to write out most of it. I told them everything about the man that took me and who I was. I told them where they could find him and the girls he had with him. They sent out police to arrest him, but by the time they got there, he was gone. I'm surprised he didn't come after me then."
His knuckles turn white as he grips the glass. "What's the name of the man who took you?"
I swallow hard. "His street name was Harold, but his real name was Richard Dockson."
Porter's blue eyes narrow. "I know that name."
I nod. "There's been a lot of news about him and two documentaries. His trial was a big thing a few years ago. They protected my identity, but that didn't stop some of his old clients and proteges from finding me."
He frowns. "So the bastard is in prison?"
I nod. "Maximum security. From what I hear he can only leave his cell for one hour a day and he's not allowed around the other inmates because several have tried to kill him for being a child predator."
He shakes his head and finishes his drink. He stands and goes to get more. "I don't blame them, if I were in there with him I would try to do the same thing."
