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But someone of Tyson’s size, carrying someone like me over his shoulder down the street in broad daylight, here, people didn’t give a shit.
I was thankful for the numbness, both physically and mentally.
When I pounded on his back, managing to slur out the words that I was going to vomit, he dropped me to the ground in time, so I could get it out of my system. My head was spinning as I sat up, and I clutched it.
Then I did something stupid.
I tried to run. But I was unsteady on my feet, the purge not having gotten rid of enough of the alcohol that was already well and truly absorbed into my system. I made it two steps before Tyson grabbed the back of my top and slapped me so hard, I fell again before he hoisted me back onto his shoulder. I thought I saw the blurry outline of a couple of people across the street who witnessed the episode, but they did nothing.
When he had come into my apartment, he hadn’t said a word, and after a slap across the face, I had simply allowed myself to go limp and let him pick me up. He was mumbling something about something I did and some contacts I must have. I had no idea what he was talking about, so I didn’t respond.
Guess there were consequences to wanting a better life, after all.
ZAQIEL
After I left her for a second time, I told myself I’d stay away from Evie, and I guess technically I was. I wasn’t going after her directly, but I was lingering in the area, going to all the places I associated with her in my quest to find the next person who needed a leg up in life.
I found myself at the bar across from where I had found her in the street.
She wasn’t there.
Why would she be? It was barely midday.
Yet there were people milling around, sticking to the edges of the room where they could hide in the dank shadows and pretend it wasn’t the middle of the day and should be somewhere else. The people who lined the bar kept their heads down, focusing on their drinks and their own misery. Many of them looked like they had slept in their clothes, but none of them looked as though they were homeless. Given what I knew about Evie, I’m guessing this was a place where girls and clients alike hung out, overlooked by the pimps and goons who ran the area.
When I saw the girl at the table, my breath was sucked from my body.
She was petite, so small and fragile she looked as though she could be broken easily.
And looking at her face, someone already had in the very worst way.
At least she had gone to the hospital, but I don’t suppose she had a choice. I couldn’t be sure what the weapon of choice was, what type of blade or razor, but whoever had done this to her hadn’t held back. Her cheek had been split from the edge of her lips almost to her ear, and then again straight up and down her face, mercifully skirting around her eye. She still had the stitches, and the doctors had obviously done their best to bring the torn pieces of her face together. But her cheek caved in around the cut, and she’d never be the same again.
Once again, my heart shattered.
Beyond the scarring she’d have, she was beautiful, with wide, innocent eyes and lips I’m sure once held a stunning smile. The scars didn’t make her ugly, she was still beautiful, but she had no light in her eyes. I wondered what I’d need to do to bring that light back. For just a moment, she took my breath away enough to push Evie from my mind.
I slid into the booth across from her, keeping my distance when her hand holding her drink began to tremble, clinking the ice in the glass against the sides as a soundtrack to her fear.
“Hi, what’s your name?” I asked.
“It’s Heidi, but please, you have to leave,” she whispered, her eyes darting around the bar.
“I was just—”
“No, you don’t understand. I’m not working anymore. If you want a girl, you’ll need to see Tyson.”
“I only… wait, Tyson?” I was snapped out from behind the mask I had put on, the one where I was the caregiver I was before. Before Evie. “You work for Tyson?”
“I did. I don’t anymore.” Her hand lifted as though she was going to touch her face, then dropped back to the table.
“Do you know Evie?”
Her round eyes went wider, if that was possible, and she stared at me. “Is she okay?”
Something dropped in the pit of my stomach. “Why do you ask that?”
Heidi started twisting her hands together, resuming her sweep of the bar and every person inside it. If she used to work for Tyson, perhaps he still had people watching her. Perhaps even when they no longer worked for him, they weren’t truly free.
