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I looked up and saw a tear running down Jase’s face.

“Ahh, Jase, I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

“What else, Angel? What else do you remember?”

“I remember somebody calling me a puta. A whore. They said other things that didn’t make sense, but I remember the word whore.”

Jase nodded. “Yeah, I remember that, too. What else, sweetheart?”

My hand clenched in his. “Why do you want me to say?”

“Because if you get it all out, you won’t have nightmares.”

“Who says I’m having nightmares?”

He reached out again and cupped my cheek. “You are, aren’t you? Having nightmares?”

I stared at him for more than a minute, then I finally nodded. My nightmares were getting all mixed together. Little girls being auctioned, me in a cage being kicked, Luzia screaming, Matthew laughing and walking out on me. “Everything is all mixed up, Jase. But yeah, remembering being in that cage, being kicked and beaten. That’s the worst.”

“So, tell me, Angel. Let’s make it go away.”

“I don’t think I ever felt so scared before as when a boy was kicking me. He said he would cut me up. I remember that. He would cut me up, Jase.” My voice was trembling. So were my hands. Jase grabbed them.

“I heard him, Angel. Malik and I got you away from him. We got you away. Do you remember?”

I shut my eyes, and remembered Jase in the cage with me. He was holding me. Protecting me.

“You got into the cage,” I said quietly.

“I did. Malik got the keys, and I got into the cage.”

“That was good.”

I was staring at our hands. His hands were so big. They’d seemed just as big back then when he’d picked me up, but no hair on them. I remembered his hands. That was all I remembered for a long time. Just his hands picking me up, then I remember hearing him.

“You sang to me. It was beautiful. It was the same song as at our house when we got home.”

“Yeah.”

I started to sing.

“When I’m worried and I can’t sleep

I count my blessings, instead of sheep

And I fall asleep⁠—”

“You sing a hell of a lot better than I do, Angel.”

“But that’s how you found me,” I whispered. “I could see you after that. I wasn’t in that cage anymore.”

“You weren’t.”

“It was you and Renzo, and Malik.”

I watched another tear drip off Jase’s chin.

“And then Mom came.”