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“What changed?” My voice sounds raspy when I speak.
“Without getting into much detail, I will share with you that he betrayed me on a personal level, as well as a business one. The personal one occurred first, but it took a while to untangle all the mess that came with it. When he decided to go around my back on a business level as well, he became careless, and he finally gave me the perfect opportunity to take him out.”
His words don’t sound as vicious as his tone of voice. It makes my hands start shaking in an instant, and I can’t focus. This is not a man that one should cross. The fact that I may have crossed him by mistake does not make a difference to him.
“I needed the help of the Savages MC in order to put my plan into application. Hawk was their best man for the job. He did just as he was asked.”
I feel my eyes tearing up, and now I have a hard time looking at him anymore. Just hearing Hawk’s name evokes too many emotions inside of me. I miss him already, after only hours of being apart. The fact that I know I will never see him again is also weighing on me heavily.
“His mission was to make your acquaintance at the strip club,” Devereaux explains. “Once that happened, he was supposed to give you information purposely, knowing you would share it with Bricks.”
I wrap my arms tighter around my backpack and drop my forehead on top of it. I regret so many things right now. The only silver lining in all of it is my meeting Hawk and his mother.
Taking a deep breath, I lift my head and look straight into Devereaux’s eyes. I’m not sure what I was expecting to see in them, but definitely not compassion.
“Lala told me the Savages were running sex trafficking rings.” My voice gets shaky when I start explaining. “Then Bricks and Snake came to see me. T-they s-scared me,” I stutter. “T-they threatened to hurt me if I didn’t help them.”
Devereaux nods in understanding. “Unfortunately, that’s exactly how they operate. And they knew you’d be vulnerable and have no means to fight them.”
“What will happen to me now?” Tears stream down my face. “I have nowhere to go. Hawk told me to get on a bus and go as far away from here as I can. I don’t know where.”
I pause and try to recompose myself. My arms and shoulders feel numb as I still have a tight hold on my backpack full of cash.
“I have money,” I tell him in a shaky voice. “I saved every penny I could so that I could have something to fall back on once I stopped dancing. Hawk told me they might track me, and if I call the guy who takes care of investing it for me, they will take it all.”
I sound incoherent even to my own ears. I can’t even imagine what Devereaux can put together from what I’m saying.
“He said they will be able to find me like that. What am I going to do?”
I should be angry at Hawk and Devereaux as much as I am at Bricks and Snake. Between all of them, they ruined my very existence. It’s not like I had a good life to begin with. But they managed to turn it into a pile of trash. But that is only fitting since that’s what everyone seems to think of me. I am just the trashy girl who gets naked and occasionally has sex in exchange for money.
Unaware of what’s going through my head, Devereaux looks at me with pride.
“That was incredible smart of you, Miss Santiago,” he praises. “I have a daughter who is not much older than you. I’d like to think that she would be just as smart if she were in this type of situation, but I somehow doubt it.”
His words manage to warm my heart despite the fact that I doubt he would ever allow for his daughter to be in the situation I found myself in over the last four years. I can only picture a composed young woman who has steel running through her veins, just like her father who is now sitting in front of me.
“It may have been smart of me, Mr. Devereaux.” I sound like I am once again about to burst into tears. “But I didn’t take into consideration how easy it would be to have all my accounts hacked. My financial security blanket could be taken away from me in the blink of an eye.”
He watches me thoughtfully for the longest time.
“I would never allow for any of that to happen to you.”
I snort at hearing that and can’t resist the urge to roll my eyes.
“I don’t know you well enough for any of what you’re telling me to mean anything to me, Mr. Devereaux.”
His eyebrows raise in surprise. I can tell he is amused by me.
“You know about me as much as you know about Hawk,” he points out. “But you did trust him when he told you to run, and when he told you not to use your electronic devices.”
My mouth opens and closes a couple of times as I try to come up with a smart response. But he knows he got me there, and he knows that my connection to Hawk ran deeper than just him using me.
I feel stupid again for just assuming that I had a deep connection with Hawk. Then I remind myself that he trusted me to be with his mom while he was gone. And he did try to help me run away.
“Is Hawk in trouble?”
I can’t get out of my head the picture of his president telling him that he had three hours to make it to the club. Being late was not an option, and I am worried sick that he ended up being late because of me.
