AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Who are you?” she asked, leaning across the small table.
“Zaqiel. I’m… a friend.”
Her jaw dropped as she assessed me. “You’re the one, aren’t you? You’re the one who took her?”
I hesitated. “Yes.” Snatching her hands before she could pull away, I leaned to her. “Please, why did you ask if she was okay? Is she in trouble?” Heidi’s lip trembled, and I squeezed her hands. “Heidi, I’ll protect you. I’ll take you to my place right now, and you’ll be safe, but you have to tell me.”
“They set her up,” Heidi whispered.
“How?”
“When she didn’t go back to Tyson last night after he gave her the chance, he sent someone to hurt her, but something went wrong, and the damn goon got hurt. Now Tyson is fuming.”
My blood ran cold. The rapist, it was a setup. While I was helping Candy, who ended up taking my help and throwing it back at me, Evie was being attacked. If it weren’t for Frank, who knows what would’ve happened to her.
I had a pretty good idea, and the coldness in my blood began to boil, and a white-hot rage rushed across my vision. I had to force myself back into the moment, so I wouldn’t crush Heidi’s hands in mine.
“How do you know this?”
She glanced around again. Her eyes seemed to never stop moving around the bar. “Us girls, we talk, you know? And even though I’m… no longer working, I still hear things.” She stuttered through the next sentence when I stared hard at her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know Evie had someone who was looking out for her. Otherwise, I’d have told someone. It was planned, so there were several of Tyson’s guys. One would rape her and let her go, then when she made it to the next street over, there’d be another one, and another…” There must have been a change in my face as her voice trailed off, mumbling something about puttinga trainon Evie.
I didn’t need to know the ins and outs of all the terminology to figure out what that meant.
A night of torture for her, one attacker after the other.
“Where is she now?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Probably with Tyson, if not willingly, then…”
I stood, holding my hand out. “Come with me.”
With more hesitancy in her eyes, coupled with a touch of resignation that still tugged at my chest, she took my hand and shrugged. “What more can you do to me, right?”
“I’m not going to hurt you, Heidi.”
She studied me. “I believe you.” And as I led her out the door, checking behind me to make sure we weren’t being followed, she added, “But I’ve been wrong before.”
EVIE
So, I guess this was how I died.
At Tyson’s hand.
Not at all shocking, but still, a bit of a bummer.
My head was still spinning from the vodka and starting to ache, although I’m sure that was more due to the slap and the subsequent knock to the head than the alcohol. Maybe the alcohol was even helping, who knows. I was in Tyson’s office because all good managers need an office.
It was an apartment, slightly less shitty than my old one, but twice the size and on the top floor, so the views were spectacular. I had a lot of time to admire the views as the chair I was tied to was facing the window, the sunlight streaming in and highlighting all my scars, scars which I’m sure would be added to before long and before my untimely demise. What a shame. Another young life lost at the edge of the city, where you can get your thrills and life is cheap. Well, at least I knew what love might feel like even if it was only for a while. Better than what it would’ve been if I had died without ever having met Zaqiel.
Although I couldn’t help but think I wouldn’t be in this position if I hadn’t have met him. Sure, I might not have had that moment of happiness, but I also wouldn’t have gone in search of something better. I’d have lived out my life, or at least the rest of the time I was young and pretty enough to sell, in perfect contented misery and numbness.
Flexing my hands against the arm of the chair, I tested the binds again, although I knew it was useless.
The apartment was empty. He’d gone todeal with some business, whatever the fuck that meant. But he had laughed. At least he knew I’d be here when he got back, he said.
So, I had a lot of time to think.
Too much time.
