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“Rogue, wait,” Maddy calls after her, and she stops. “You never told us what the codeword is.” I watch the cogs in her head turn a little before she smiles.
“Slay,” she tells us before she leaves.
“I guess that’s the meeting over.” Maddy sighs, slumping onto the couch and picking up a flapjack from the table.
Alex gets a message from Squealer saying that they’ll be late back, and she reminds Maddy how much they have to get done back at the office. When all the girls start getting ready to leave Maddy’s, I prepare myself to leave too.
“You got any plans?” Grace asks as we step out onto the porch.
“No, no plans. Guess I’ll just wait for Screwy to come home.”
“You want some company?”
“That would be great.” I smile at her.
I flick the coffee machine on when we get inside because that's what everyone around here seems to do when they have visitors.
“Shaniya said I should speak to you when I’m ready.” I break the ice and take a seat at the table.
“I’d really like to help you if I can,” Grace takes over making the coffee. At least she knows what she’s doing.
“Everyone keeps saying that what I went through was such an awful thing, but I can’t remember a time before it. Don’t misunderstand me, I hated every second of what happened, but the worst thing about everything is not remembering who I was before. There was a girl called Clara I met on my last day there. She told me they used drugs, but I remember everything so vividly about the room. My trainer, and what I was taught. How I was humiliated.” I do nothing to stop the tears from spilling. I deserve to cry. Just thinking about what happened has fear creeping back inside me.
I wish Screwy was here. The tight feeling in my chest would go away if he was.
“I think I'm falling in love with him.” Those words come out spontaneously, and I feel like such a fool for setting them free. “I know how childish that sounds. He’s a lot older than me, and you're probably wondering how I can even know how it feels to love someone. But… my heart hurts when he’s not with me. I miss him, even if he’s just in the bathroom. Sometimes I catch him almost smiling, and I can’t describe how good it makes me feel to think that I might have caused it.”
“I don't think you're childish,” Grace shakes her head and smiles. “I’ve never seen Screwy smile before, not ever. He never used to speak a word to anyone, except his brother. Lydia, you're having an effect on him. A positive one.”
“Do you think it’s possible? Me and him?” I have a good feeling about Grace. I don’t think she’d lie to me, and I need an honest answer.
“In this place, anything is possible,” she laughs, placing a mug of steaming coffee in front of me.
“You wanna know how me and Brax met?” She sits in the chair opposite me with a wide smile on her face, and curiosity has me nodding back at her.
“Brax kidnapped me,” she tells me, watching for my reaction.
“You mean he saved you, like Screwy saved me?” I check.
“No… he kidnapped me from my home. Held a knife to my throat and threatened to hurt me if I didn’t go with him.”
“You’re kidding, right?” I feel my mouth fall open.
“No, but it turned out he did save me after all. The club was protecting me, but he didn’t know that at the time. Ironically, all that is kinda what led us to you.”
“How?” I ask, getting a strong sense that I might actually be about to get some answers.
“My mom and dad died in a car crash a few years ago. What I didn’t know about my mom is, that she was an undercover agent. She was working on bringing down an agency, one that traded in kids,” she explains sadly, and my breath catches in my throat when I think about children being treated the same way I was.
“Prez and my mom had a deal in place—Brax killed the leader of the organization, and we learned about another agency that was run by his brother. One that traded in women.” Her hand reaches out across the table to take mine.
“I’m ashamed that we didn’t push to help you all before. Prez lost his daughter a few years back, and apparently since Ella found her way back home to him, he’s been pretty protective over what happens around here. The man who was keeping you is powerful. He pulls a lot of strings with the people who the club trade with.
“I just wish I wasn't the cause of all this,” I sigh from the heavy weight of guilt. My presence here has put so many lives in jeopardy.
“Well, I for one, am glad you're here, not just because you’ve done something pretty damn magical to Screwy, but because my mom would have wanted to take both those brothers down, and now that's exactly what’s gonna happen.”
“Sometimes I just wanna forget all that’s happened in the past, stop worrying about what might happen in the future, and just live in the moment for a little while.”
