by Dale Mayer
“Like everything, it’s easy to forget, and you turn around, and weeks have gone by since you did your last session.”
“I get busy at work,” she said quietly, “and then I just blank out. Like you said, weeks have slipped by, and I didn’t notice.”
“Of course,” he nodded. “I’m the same way. But right now I have a moment, so I’ll take it.”
“Since Jerricho’s outside, checking things out around us,” she said, “will he pick up food?”
“He will,” he said.
“Any update?”
“No,” he said, “not really.”
She rolled her eyes at him and headed back into the bathroom. She held up her clothes and said, “I really don’t want to put on these old clothes.”
“Sorry,” he said. Then he stopped. “I have a clean T-shirt, if that would make you feel better.”
Her head popped around the corner. “Would you mind?”
He shook his head. “Nope, we have new clothes coming.” He got up, walked to his bag, pulled out a simple white T-shirt, and handed it to her.
She smiled and said, “This is a huge gift.” She stepped back into the bathroom. And, when she came out again, she was decently covered, with his T-shirt swimming down past her hips.
He grinned. “You look like my best friend’s kid sister.”
She looked up at him in surprise. “Funny. I didn’t even think about you having a girl as a friend when you were younger.”
“I don’t anymore,” he said, with a gentle smile, “but we were close while we had each other.”
He didn’t elaborate, and she didn’t ask, but she looked at him questioningly a couple times.
He knew what that was like too. Because, when you got to know each other, you didn’t really think about all the family ups and downs that came with other people’s stories, but it was what it was. He’d loved her dearly. He hadn’t been there when she’d been killed in a car accident, and that had broken his heart, but it was good ten years ago now. So, although he kept her close to his heart, it didn’t tear him apart anymore. When he saw Eva still looking at him, he smiled and said, “I’m fine honestly. She was killed in a car accident over a decade ago.”
She nodded slowly. “Still it’s hard, isn’t it?”
“As you know,” he said, “it’s hard to lose anybody you care about.”
“Yeah, that’s why I want to go see my father,” she said. “The homesickness is really strong right now.”
“To be expected, when you were locked up for however long.”
“Right, and just knowing that I’m heading there and that I’m almost there, it’s so damn tantalizing.”
“We’ll get you there,” he said.
She nodded. “You know what? I believe you now.”
He burst out laughing. “Well, thanks for the trust,” he said.
“Yeah, I should have trusted you earlier too,” she said, “but, for whatever reason, just with everything happening, it was really hard.”
“I would expect it to be,” he said. “Nothing like this is ever easy, and just so much is going on around you that you don’t get a chance to adjust.”
“No adjustment at all. We’re just from one place to the next and then Paul and Marge. It was just really hard,” she said sadly.
He looked at her. “And how are you handling it now?”
“I still think it’s hard, but I’m dealing.”
He nodded and said, “Good.” He straightened out, shook his body, looked at her, and asked, “Would you mind if I stepped in and had a shower?”
She shook her head. “Go for it,” she said. “Who knows when we get another one?”
“Exactly.” He walked to his bag, grabbed a change of clothes.
She watched, as he walked by, and said, “I’m so jealous.”
“You’ll get new clothes tomorrow,” he promised.
She shrugged. “I have a new shirt now,” she said. “I’m almost wealthy.”
Still chuckling at that, he walked into the bathroom and closed the door.
Chapter 10
Eva didn’t know what to make of him. There was something so very personal about him, but, at the same time, he was a little more aloof and kept himself just that little bit disconnected from everything around him. But then she should recognize that because it’s exactly the same damn thing she did.
Then the door opened again, and he stepped out, just wearing his jeans, and he handed over her earrings.
“Oh, my goodness,” she said, jumping up to take them. “I always forget. I take them out, and then I completely forget about them on the counter.”
“Well, here they are,” he said, and he stepped back in.
But it wasn’t fast enough for her to actually tear her gaze away from the incredibly muscled chest that he’d presented. He could have been a model for any of those romance covers that were everywhere. Or maybe one of those firefighter calendars. He was built. But then, given the job he did, she guessed fitness was of prime importance. She put her earrings on and walked to the window, where she could stare out.
She’d always wanted to do more traveling but hadn’t expected to do it in this cloak-and-dagger method. As she stood here, waiting for him to finish in the shower, she wished she had her own personal laptop or phone, where she could check emails too. Just even to surf the web and to check out the news that she’d been disconnected from for a long time. She looked at his laptop, wondering if she could use it, but, since she hadn’t asked, she didn’t dare.
Just then she heard a sound outside in the hallway. She got up and walked closer to the door, wondering if it was Jerricho but didn’t take a chance by opening the door. She stepped up to the door, wondering if she should let Diesel know. She heard another weird scraping sound, as if somebody were sliding along the hallway.
When the bathroom door opened beside her suddenly, she almost let out a squeak. Eyes wide, her hand over her mouth, she pointed at the door. Diesel, still wearing just jeans, with the towel around his neck, nodded and stepped forward. He used the towel to dry off the shaving cream off his chin, but he appeared to be completely unconcerned.
He listened at the door, and she heard the same scraping sound. He nodded, handed her the towel, walked to the front of the door, and opened it suddenly. She jumped around the door to take a look at what was going on, just as she heard sounds of a fight. Before she realized it, she was being pushed back out of the way, and he was hauling a young male in his arms into the motel room. His hand was over the man’s mouth, but it wasn’t necessary, as he was limp in Diesel’s arms. He put him on the kitchen chair and said, “Don’t get close to him.”
She instinctively stepped back. “Is he involved in this?”
“I have no idea if he is or if he just thinks that it might be a nice place to find some booty,” he said.
“Meaning wallets, purses?”
He nodded. “Add on to that list cell phones and even the clothes on your body.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m not kidding,” he said. “This is Manila. Everything’s for sale here, but you must have goods to sell first.”
She shuddered and walked back to the little kitchenette, where she poured herself a glass of water. It wasn’t the cleanest-looking water, but no notice about a boil advisory was posted, and certainly no bottled water was around.
She sipped it, realized it tasted fine, and had a big glass. “What will you do with him?”
“Ask him a few questions,” he said. “Don’t worry. I won’t beat him up.”
“Good,” she said cheerfully. “I really don’t like the sight of blood.”
“Seriously? You do stem-cell research, and you don’t like the sight of blood?”
“Well, not fresh,” she said, with a grin.
He just nodded. He picked up his phone, took a photo of the guy, and sent it off.
“And what’ll that tell you?”
“Whether he’s got a record, if he’s
into breaking into hotel rooms, it’s hard to say. And maybe it’ll tell me nothing.” He dropped his phone nearby.
Eva said, “The problem now is, he’s unconscious, so you can’t ask him anything.”
He looked at her, smiled, and said, “A smack across his face will wake him up.”
“I doubt it,” she said.
“He’s more or less just trying to play dead, thinking he can make a run for the door.”
At that, she walked around and looked at the young man. “He looks like he’s out to me.”
“Of course he does,” he said. “He has to keep looking that way too.”
She shrugged; he motioned her farther back. “You really think he’ll jump me?”
“Well, I would,” he said. “So, yeah.”
She just stared at him in shock, and then, all of a sudden, the young man burst from the chair and headed for the door. And he almost made it.
But Diesel grabbed the back of his shirt, hauling him into the kitchen and slamming him back into the chair. He looked at the kid and said, “I said, sit. This time stay there.” He looked at her. “Like I said, give them an inch, and they’re trying to take a yard.”
Just then came a knock on the door. He looked over at the kid on the chair, pointed at him, and said, “Sit.” And he walked to the door and opened it.
Jerricho walked in, carrying bags of food. He stopped when he saw the kid at the table. “I didn’t know we had company,” he said, with that dry tone of his. “I would have brought more food.” He walked to the far side of the table, put the food down, looked over at Diesel.
“Unexpected company. Unexpected and unwelcome,” he murmured. “And we’re not sharing our food with this kid.”
“Good, so I’m just in time for the interrogation.”
“Well, if the kid’s smart, he’ll tell us exactly what he knows, and he gets to walk out of here with all his teeth and his limbs attached.”
The kid immediately stared up at him in shock. “I don’t know anything.” Although a bit garbled his English was clear enough to understand.
The two men just nodded. “Of course you don’t. Let’s say, that’s how you guys work. Great, you take a few bucks to go in and check out the apartment, see what they’ve got, scoping around. We let you go because there’s absolutely nothing too scary about you, and then you come back with your buddies.”
The kid looked at him in horror.
“Right?”
He shook his head immediately. “No, of course not. I would never do something like that.”
“Well,” Eva said, “the alternative’s much worse.” She walked over so she could study him closer. “You know what? An awful lot of seasoning is in your eyes for somebody supposedly so young.”
“That’s common here,” Diesel said. “The trouble is, I want to know who sent him and why.”
“Probably for our laptops most likely,” Jerricho said.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I think it was to kill us.”
At that, the kid looked at her and jumped up immediately.
Diesel pressed him back into the chair. “I said, sit!”
“I don’t have anything to do with murder,” the kid yelled.
She looked at the age creases in the corner of his eyes and at the world-wearied look in his gaze, and she said, “I don’t believe you.” He was probably sixteen, but he looked like he was over twenty. A hard life will do that to you.
“Honest,” he said, trying for an earnest look. He looked at the other two and said, “Okay, okay. I was told to come in, case the joint.”
“Now that you have, what will you tell them?” Jerricho said, with a laugh. “You can tell them that the two guys caught you, so you couldn’t figure out what was here. Or will you tell them that you found a laptop, cell phones, and a pretty young woman?”
At that, the kid had the grace to look ashamed. He looked over at her and said, “Sorry, it’s part of the deal.”
“You tell others if there’s a female?” she asked in horror.
He just shrugged. “Women sell, are valuable,” he said.
Her gaze went from to Diesel, back to the kid, and again to Diesel. “Is he serious?”
“He’s very serious,” Diesel said. “Women are a valuable commodity.”
She shook her head slowly. “Please, no,” she said. “I don’t want to think of this place being into slave trade.”
“It’s not slave trade,” the kid protested. “The women do what women do.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
He looked at her, frowned, looked over at Diesel.
Diesel smiled at him. “You should probably answer her question.”
“Women. They have sex with men,” he said. “That’s what women do.”
She sat down with a hard thud. “Is that all you think women do?”
“Sure,” he said. “What else?”
“Wow,” she said. “I don’t even know where to start, but I’m a scientist for one.”
At the term, he looked at her, confused. “Scientist?”
“Yes,” she said in a dry tone. “I work in a lab, where I find cures for diseases. But I think the disease that you have is a lack of humanity.”
He obviously didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, and that just made her realize how much worse this really was. She looked over at Diesel. “Will you let him go?”
“Well, we’ll have to,” he said, “but not too fast. I think we’ll leave him in a ditch somewhere.”
He immediately jumped out of his chair, and Diesel immediately slammed him back down again.
“I don’t care what you do with him,” she said. “You could throw him where men do what men do.”
At that, all three men looked at her, and Diesel asked, “What does that mean?”
“Well, if he wanted me for what women do,” she said, “then I think you should want him to do what men do.”
“What’s that?”
With a hard voice, she said, “Shit on the world. Find a great big toilet, and dump him in it,” she snapped.
The two men looked at her with serious expressions on their faces.
She rolled her eyes. “No, I’m not talking about you two,” she said, “but nothing in this kid’s attitude makes me want to stay here.”
“Good thing we’re not staying,” Diesel said. He looked over at the punk. “Who’s your boss?”
“I don’t have one,” he said immediately.
“Who you’re scouting for?”
“No one.”
“Too late,” she said. “You already said that you were sent in. Who sent you in?”
He stared at her, looked over at the men, and just shrugged.
“That’s fine. Get your team to deep-six him. He’s just a waste of money. There’s only so much clean air and water on this planet, and this guy doesn’t deserve to have any of it.” She walked to the food, opened up the bags, and sniffed. “Wow,” she said, “this smells delicious.”
Jerricho took the containers out of the bag. “I just brought a selection,” he said, “street food mostly.”
“Fine, a little street food works for me,” she said.
There were no plates, but he had picked up chopsticks, so she opened up one of the containers and started in on it.
The kid looked at her and said, “I could have some food too.”
“You could,” she said, “but you know what? Women do what women do, and I’m not sharing because that’s not what women do. As far as I’m concerned, you’d better shut up and get the hell out of my sight before I get really angry with you.”
He stared at her. “You have no reason to be angry with me.”
“How many women are you responsible for dumping into a brothel?”
“Well, some we hire out,” he said, with a shrug, “after we use them ourselves.”
“Jesus,” she said.
Diesel looked at the kid and said, “You better shut up right there. The Western worl
d doesn’t appreciate rapists and sex traffickers.”
The kid looked at him and said, “In Manila, it happens all the time.”
“But that doesn’t mean it should happen,” she snapped. “That doesn’t mean the women are willing.”
“Doesn’t matter if they are not,” he said, almost bewildered. “It’s the way the world works.”
“Here maybe,” she said, tossing down the chopsticks, suddenly her appetite no longer existed. “But it shouldn’t.”
And she stood, walked to the bathroom, and closed the door. She stared at herself in the mirror, knowing that sex trafficking of women and children had happened the world over, but to think that this guy admitted to it, and knowing that the police system was so bad right now that it probably wouldn’t do any good to call the cops on him, she sat here for a long moment, wishing she was anywhere but here.
When a gentle knock came on the door, she called out, “Come in.” The door opened, and Diesel, standing there, leaned against the doorjamb. “Are you okay?”
She shrugged. “It’s a cesspool of humanity out there,” she said. “I really don’t want to be touched by it any more than I have to.”
“He is part of a bigger issue here.”
“Which is why I doubt there’s any point in calling the cops on him, is there?”
“I didn’t say that,” he said. “I think we’ll turn him over to one of my teams, and they can collect the entire gang, see how far the roots of this go. It will only be one of the Hydra’s heads, but it would be something.”
She looked at him gratefully. “Do you think they’d help?” she cried out. “Just to think of all these young women thrown into their sex-for-hire system is enough to make me puke.”
“Well, he’s out cold right now because I got tired of listening to him talk,” he said. “Come on out and finish eating.”
She looked at him and shook her head. “My stomach’s not very happy.”
“Well, we’ll be leaving soon,” he said, “so I need to make sure that you have a nap and that you have food.”
She groaned, as she got up from the edge of the bathtub, where she’d been seated, and walked back out again. Happily, she realized the idiot was tied up and unconscious. “I’d really appreciate it if you’d keep him that way until we leave.”
