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"I need you to tell entle intent "Tell me about your relationship with Javier You said he believes he is in love with you"
I nod in a slow, rapid motion "Yes He told me once that he was in love with me, but I know better He’s crazy Possessive But he protected h"
I don’t like to think about these things, much less talk openly about them I am ashamed and I hate myself for what they endured
"He protected you?" Victor asks, needing more information
"Yes I was off-limits to Javier’s men And Izel, well, Javier nearly killed her when she hit me in the face once After that, she wasn’t allowed to touch irls weren’t, too Hot showers and good food and I got to see places outside of the compound I even flew on a small plane with hiht Izel hatedfor a ‘stupid Aue passes over Victor’s features
"What kind of places were you taken?"
I shrug softly and letnervously around one another
"Soin, "he’d takeblue pools shaped like horseshoes and other strange things Javier said it was just to irls Sometimes we came back with a new one He would dress up in a nice suit and shiny black shoes just like yours" I glance down at Victor’s shoes briefly "He didn’t look like the scu in filth He is rich, despite what you saw"
"I gathered that o on:
"And of course he’d make me dress up, too"
I lower my eyes sha up and being treated like a princess That was how I always thought of it: a princess, as disturbing as the circumstances were
"I felt like an arm trophy"
"That is exactly what you were," he says and I look back up at hi about the men whose homes you were taken to?"
"Yes," I say with a nod "But I think they were vacation hos about how they were only in Mexico for a feeeks, or how they were heading back to California, or Nevada or Florida, places like that"
"They were Americans?"
"Some of them were, I’m pretty sure they were," I say "They didn’t have accents, foreign anyway They definitely weren’t Mexican, that’s for sure"
They may have been American, but I knew they wouldn’t help me like I hoped Victor would They were just as evil as Javier Two of them even tried to buy me from him No, none of them would ever have helped me escape so this is why I consider Victor the first Ae by association
"Do you reer now than I have ever seen hies to maintain an almost flawless une to recall and coht now, but I did hear their names on occasion when one would introduce one to another" I pause and say with erous bluish eyes lock on mine
"At the compound, or anywhere Javier could keep tabs on you and control you, you weren’t a threat to hier threat than anyone because you know too ht to think his for you; he probably never anticipated you leaving You being alive and free is a threat to his entire operation and anyone involved in it"
I think on it athe obvious truth of Victor’s words sink into my mind I may not have ever knohere I was kept in Mexico and even right noouldn’t be able to tell A held against their will, but I do know names, still hidden in the back of my memory, but they’re there nonetheless And I reh casual they still held iven to the right people could expose the and sex traffickers
"Larsaw, or maybe Larsen," I say suddenly as the naue "Gerald Larsen I remember he was the first American I was ‘shown off’ to when Javier took me to my first house He had white hair He was chubby But I was never directly introduced to anyone I wasn’t allowed to speak I learned their na to their conversations"
Victor looks deeply in thought and shakes his head suddenly
"John Gerald Lansen is the CEO of Balfour Enterprises and founder of the ainst woht at nificant you think it all is, could bring down a lot of high profile people I iht person--a vengeful sister, perhaps," he says, I know referring to Izel, "who decides to tell the right people, more than Guzmán will pay to have Javier killed and Javier knows this"
It hits me like a shock of electricity and I jump from the bed and try to rabbingat hie to hit him, but I’m not sure where as my fists move clumsily and in such a chaotic motion that my eyes can’t keep up within the scuffle