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I held her, telling myself she would never be lonely again. “My babe.”
Pops had received a text from our Road Captain, Si, AKA Sinner, for another rundown motel that wasn’t on an expected path to Austin. Vice was now driving and I was in the back with Elle sitting between Dagger and me again. Everyone was munching on some Taco Bell when Pops asked, “Precious, why is it that Lorenzo had girl magazines in his room?”
Chewing, I could see her mind spinning. “Uh, I actually have no idea. From the beginning, they were always there.”
My ears burned.
Pops swallowed a bite of nachos. “You’ve said you weren’t always in his room at night, ain’t that right?”
“Correct,” she answered, picking at her burrito. “Not even after he forced the engagement.”
Pops asked her, “When not permitted in his room, was it ever for only one night?”
Most likely thinking of the cell—dungeon—in the boat, Elle shivered. “No. At least a week or two at a time.”
Good God.
Pops added hot sauce to loaded nachos. “Precious, if this is too personal to answer, tell me to shut my goddamn mouth, but…” he exhaled, “Did he, uh, visit you during these times of being locked up?”
“Pops,” I warned, totally wanting him to shut his ‘goddamn mouth’.
“Boy, I didn’t ask you,” he warned.
Elle ignored me, wanting more of Pops’ scenarios. “Yes, he still visited me.”
Crumpling up what was left of my taco and the paper it was in, I sneered at my dad, “She’s had a shitty day. I ain’t in the fucking mood for this, old man. We all know what you mean by ‘visited’ her.”
Calmly, as if hoping to not irritate me even more, he nodded. “It’s just, even while your heart suffers, ya gotta protect. Feel me?”
Sometimes, I really hated when he was right.
Running tired palms down my tired face, trying to shut down my imagination as visions of her rapes tormented me, I admitted, “I feel ya, Pops.”
Elle was now captivated. “Legend, your questions…” She was desperate for any understanding of her pathetic living conditions. “What do you think all this means?”
“Well, you’ve warned me several times now that Lorenzo is very dangerous.”
Hungry for an explanation, she eagerly nodded. “Correct.”
He said, “Having been in the limo as he raced away from some of it, I’m suspecting you actually witnessed it.”
“Besides experiencing some of it?”
I cringed, but Pops was somehow sincere. “Yes.”
Elle, as if amazed someone was asking or caring about what she’d witnessed before, blurted, “I’ve seen rapes, threats, beatings, torture, and murder.”
The fact that she knew the difference between beatings and torture spoke volumes. A beating is usually for punishment. Torture is most likely to retrieve information.
Both of which meant something huge, and had the taco in my stomach fermenting.
As if reading my mind, Pops stared at me while telling Elle, “That, in itself, tells me a lot.”
She asked, “Like what?”
From over the seat, his expression was full of regret as he looked at her. “Lorenzo never intended to let you go.”
Not impressed with him stating the obvious, her shoulders slumped. “I’ve already told you that.”
