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Paisley
My throat was dry, and my head pounded like I’d been hit a million times. Memory poured into my mind at that point and reminded me I had been. I opened my eyes a little bit at a time to see the room I was in, moving about, as if I were on a boat. The smell around me told me I was in the middle of the ocean.
Flashes shot through my memory of the last time I was on a boat, causing my arms to pimple with goosebumps.
“Finally,” I heard a male voice I didn’t immediately recognize. I sat up, trying to avoid throwing up as my head pounded harder and harder. “They got you pretty good.”
I turned my head to look at the man I knew to be Percy. He hadn’t aged at all since the last time I saw him, the time he had saved me. I knew he was Halen’s brother, too. I couldn’t see the resemblance but I could see he had the same eyes as Halen. He was beaten pretty good too, and handcuffed to a pipe in the room. His wrist was red raw like he’d been trying to get the handcuff off.
“What’d you do to get locked up?” I asked him, sitting on the edge of the bed I’d been put on. I had no hand ties on though.
“Tried to do the right thing,” he shrugged. “It happens.”
“You’re the one who saved me last time, right?”
He nodded, slowly. “Yes.”
“So what is Zane’s connection to the shit you saved me from?” I asked him.
“Do you know much of what I’ve been doing out here on the water?” he asked me. “I mean all these years. Did Halen tell you anything about me?”
I shook my head, feeling like I’d been a fool all these years with Zane. He was part of this organization who had taken me at fourteen, who protected men like Jack.
“I was trying to track down the head honcho of this goddamn sex circle but I could only get to high ranking members like Jack. When I found out how young you were, and what he did to you, I knew Jack had to go. He had loose lips and he was starting to figure out who I was and what I was doing. I gave him to Halen to get rid of.”
“He didn’t.”
“I’m aware but he did serve a purpose, did he not?” he asked. I knew he knew what I’d done but I could also see he didn’t care, just like Halen hadn’t cared. In fact, he’d loved that side of me. It had made me feel so empowered, like I could do anything as long as I had Halen by my side.
I was an idiot. I should have just told him what my plan was. I should have believed in him. I could feel the tears burning my eyes, wanting to be shed but I refused.
I was stronger than this.
“So what is really going on?”
Percy sighed. “I found out, after years of trying to locate the big kahuna, that it just happened to be my father.”
“What?”
“My father is the head honcho of the operation trafficking young girls to wealthy men. Zane is his protege.”
“Zane knew about me?” I asked him.
“Yes, he knew exactly what had happened to you. He even paid your mother to keep you close. I believe you’re a key of some sort but I can’t figure out what.”
“A key?” All of this was overwhelming to say the least but I needed to know more.
“I think he thinks you know something, something that maybe your dad told you.”
“My dad was a drunk and a gambler,” I replied. “He wouldn’t know a damn thing important enough for all this shit.”
“Your dad was the town planner before your mother was given the job,” Percy said. “He knows a lot more than you think.”
“But he never told me anything.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. “I hear you’re a killer poker player. You weren’t born with that kind of skill.”
“So what, he taught me how to play poker and how to bluff when I was eleven. It doesn’t exactly qualify him for father of the year.”
