AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He starts to cry. “They’re holding my parents hostage.” He begins to do more than just crying, he’s bawling.
“Who? The mafia?” I ask, horrified.
“I can’t say.” He shakes his head over and over again. He looks so distraught, I can’t stop myself from going over to him and rubbing my hand along his back.
“Tell me and we’ll be able to protect you, what do they want?” I ask him.
His body starts shaking as he wails. “Oh no, oh no. You are a spy, aren’t you?” He pulls himself away from me. “Shit, have you bugged this room?”
“No, why would I? I’m not that kind of…” Crap, am I really admitting this? “That’s not what I do. Has the Russian mafia sent you to me?”
He doesn’t respond, he just looks frightened of me. I can’t imagine how scared he must be. I lost my parents a while back but I know I’d do anything to protect them so I can sympathize with him.
“What do they want?” I ask him.
“They want to know who you’re working for…” he says.
Shit.
Chapter 19
Julissa
It’sbeenawhilesince I’ve slept so I’ve snuck away into my office to crash on my couch. Snow’s words are playing in my mind and I’m trying to silence them. He had some nerve comparing me to the likes of him and the other mucky bastards. I’m nothing like them and I won’t allow the doubts pushing through to succeed in creeping up on me. The desperation for sleep I’m experiencing is making it a lot easier to ignore as my heavy eyelids become harder to open. Just as I’m about to nod off, the door to my office bangs open and shut. I clutch my weapons and jump up, the sleep blur vanishing from my eyes to see Jaya.
“What the fuck, kid? I could’ve shot you,” I say.
She marches over to the visitor’s chair before my desk and slumps down in it. I yawn before realizing the time and shouting, “Why aren’t you at the border?”
She scoffs.
“You think this is a joke? How can you leave your station unattended?” I round the table to look into her face.
“What’s the point? Whether I’m there or I’m not there, the slimeballs slip on through. And you don’t give a shit, or you’d let me kill them, so stop with the crap,” she screams.
I understand her frustration so instead of getting in a screaming match with her, I slump into my swivel chair. I’m also too tired to raise my voice or glare at her. “Okay, you’re right. Something needs to be done. I can’t kill them, myself. I couldn’t look them in the eye, not when I care so much for them, but I can’t cut them loose and I can’t just continue to turn a blind eye, so I’ll gather a group of recruits and test their loyalty again before ordering them to get rid of them for me.” I sigh from the weight of that admission.
“You’re just buying time. I already volunteered to do it, why do you need to test other recruits and blah blah blah?” She turns her lip up at me.
She’s kind of right. I am buying time. I know it goes against everything I stand for to allow what’s happening at the border to occur with my knowledge but when it comes to people you care about, it’s a lot harder to order a hit on them.
“Why do you want to kill them so bad, huh?” I ask, resting my head on my desk.
“What kind of question is that?” I hear the snare in her voice.
My head shoots up from the desk as I stare at her. “Answer it.”
She rolls her eyes.
I drag my body upright to sit up in my chair to command her respect.
“Jaya, don’t be fresh with me. Answer the question,” I repeat.
Her lips begin to tremble and her tough girl facade starts to crack, much to her dislike. She groans aloud and gets up from her chair to walk away from me, no doubt because she doesn’t want me to see the tears fall.
“You don’t understand what I’ve been through. I ran away from home when I was thirteen. My parents didn’t have time for me so they pawned me off on my grandparents who were too old to actually care for me. They thought their outdated rules were some kind of lit guardianship. I started hanging out with the wrong crowd, got into some trouble and my grandparents told me that I should either stop being friends with those people or leave. So I left. I spent a few days with a few friends until their parents got tired of me always being there. Eventually, I started living on the street. Within the first night, I was approached by creepy men offering me money for sex or drugs for sex.
It was terrifying, I couldn’t sleep and I was always running away from someone. I also got offers from a few people offering me a place to stay but I didn’t know them so I wouldn’t go until winter came. I was quick to take up offers to stay the night with a few of the people who approached me but most wanted sex in return. I’d give them what they wanted and I’d run away when it became too hard to bear. Those people never came looking for me, they got what they wanted. So that kind of became a means of survival when I needed a place to stay or some food to eat. I figured that as long as I could always get away after, I’d use what they wanted from me as currency. Until one day, I tried to run away and it turned into my worst nightmare. I got caught by the trash I slept with the night before and he decided to punish me by inviting his friends over to gang-rape me.”
