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“No. Not really.” She sniffed. I handed her a tissue ‘cause she was getting ready to use her arm again and that’s just gross. “I mean, I did have a thing for him. Until he took me on.” She looked down at her hands. “I thought he was the kind of man I wanted. Good-looking. Rough. More than a little arrogant, but I kind of liked that about him.”
“What happened?”
“The first night we were together, he… hurt me. You know. During sex. I didn’t like it, but he just laughed and continued.”
I didn’t want to know. “What’d he do?” Fuck, my mouth!
She shrugged. “Tied me up. Gagged me. Whipped me. I couldn’t move the next day. Couldn’t lay on my back for days afterward. He humiliated me every chance he got. In front of any of his brothers who came over. He liked oral sex when they were here. And he liked to pass me around.”
“I take it that wasn’t something you wanted.” It wasn’t a question.
“I know that’s what club whores do sometimes, but I didn’t come here to be a club whore. I left that life behind to be here with Hammer. Once I got here, he told me I couldn’t leave because this was a secret place. That if I tried to leave, the club would kill me. After they all took a turn at me before I died.” I actually saw the gooseflesh pop up on her arms, the stress of reliving the conversation making her sweat.
“I take it you’d have done what he wanted you to. Hurt the girls. Because he would have hurt you worse.” I was careful how I phrased my question. Demand. Whatever. I tried to put sympathy into my voice, like I could understand that she’d made that decision. I wanted her to give me the truth because if she lied and I found out about it, I’d have to kill her. And I wasn’t altogether sure I could do it now.
She started crying again but shook her head vigorously. “NO! That’s the problem! There’s no way I could have hurt those girls! Not even to save myself. I’ve been waiting over a year for Byte or Crush to bring Rocket or Claw here to… to…” She shuddered. “I don’t want to die, but I couldn’t hurt children to save myself. What kind of person would that make me?”
“OK. It’s all right.” I tried to reassure her. “I believe you. But you understand I’ve got to check with Crush.”
“I know.” She sniffed, her voice sounding small and forlorn.
“I can’t promise everything will be all right, but I can promise you that no one is gonna torture you. Not if you didn’t actually do anything. I’ve been with Sunshine and Rainbow since Scarlet and Mars came to pick them up over a year ago. Granted, I didn’t spend much time with them, but they weren’t mistreated. That much I know. They never mentioned your name either.”
“I tried to stay as far away from them as I could. I knew I couldn’t hurt them, but I wasn’t sure Hammer didn’t have someone else in the compound watching them.”
“Why didn’t you tell Rocket or Claw, or anyone?”
“Claw was gone. I didn’t find out he was dead until Byte came for the girls. It was one of the few days I was watching them. I only did it when I had to because, if someone did hurt them, I didn’t want anyone to think it was me. That was when Byte told me he knew Hammer had me watching the girls and that Hammer expected me to hurt them if he gave the word.” She dabbed at her puffy, bloodshot eyes and wiped her red, runny nose. Her whole face was blotchy. Very unflattering. Girl wasn’t a pretty crier. Which might have been one of the reasons I believed her. You could never trust a pretty crier. “I’d only been here a few weeks before Hammer left with Scarlet. The only men I’d met were the men he brought home. The ones he shared me with.”
“Any of them hurt you? You know. Like Hammer did.”
She shook her head. “No. I got the feeling they thought I was there willingly. Which, I kind of was. Just not to be passed around like a piece of meat.” She scrubbed her arms like she was trying to get clean. Fury unfurled inside me and I actually pressed my hand over my chest to ease the ache.
“OK. Will you trust me, Gina?”
She shrugged. “Do I have a choice?”
Chapter Fourteen
Rocket
I knew the second she walked out of the house Lemon was in a snit. This wasn’t going to end well for someone, and I was really, really hoping it wasn’t me. She plastered on a smile and went straight to Effie.
“Hey, squirt. Gonna need you to stay with Gina for a while. That OK?”
“Sure! Maybe she’ll make cheeseburgers again!” Effie jumped into Lemon’s arms and hugged her tightly before going inside the house. Lemon followed her and returned a minute or so later. She headed straight for me, her shoulders back and the most determined look on her face I’d ever seen.
“Yeah. Someone’s gettin’ their balls busted.”
“You’re damned right, they are. Call fuckin’ church.”
I didn’t answer her. We got in the truck and I took us to a barn on the southern edge of the property we occupied.
“Why do I get the fuckin’ feelin’ this ain’t fuckin’ church, Rocket?” Yeah. She was good and fucking pissed. “We got shit to get fuckin’ straight. Startin’ with what the fuck really happened to Gina after she got here.”
“I’m gonna call church, sour puss. But first you’re gonna tell me what’s got you in such a foul mood.”
Then she told me everything about her conversation with Gina. By the time she’d finished, I was nearly as angry as Lemon was. I couldn’t show it. Not yet. I knew once I lost the tight control I had on my emotions bad things were going to happen.
