“Sophia, please, calm down,” Trent pleads and grabs my shoulder to get me to stop rocking.
Unable to stand his touch, I rip myself out of his grip and try to scoot away from him. Only to realize there’s another fucking man beside me. Some patrolman I don’t recognize who’s been quiet the entire time.
“And that little bitch is back there, crying her eyes out over fucking scum and showing her true colors,” Dickers says.
“Shut the fuck up, Dickers,” Trent snaps at him, but there’s not nearly as much anger behind it this time around. In fact, he sounds a little worried.
“Shut the fuck up? Why should I shut the fuck up? Because you don’t like all your mistakes getting called out?”
“Fuck you,” Trent grumbles quietly.
“No, fuck you, boy. Fuck you and your stupid fucking white knight bullshit!” Dickers roars, back to yelling and pounding on the steering wheel. “Chasing after and saving a girl that doesn’t even want your ass! If you would have just let her go. If you would have just accepted that shit happens and let her be sold off, none of this shit would have happened!”
Getting angry again, Trent curls his hand into a fist and yells back, “I couldn’t just let them sell her!”
“Why? Why not? Stupid whore put herself in the position in the first place. You know she got grabbed down in the wrong part of town? Probably whoring herself out with her friends while you were out on the beat, protecting people. It was her own damn fault!” Dickers says with disgust.
Trent shakes his head in denial. “I couldn’t let it happen. She didn’t deserve it.”
“You didn’t care about any of the other girls, did ya?” Dickers counters. “Or the kids. You knew the shit that was going down, and you knew what you signed up for. We all did before we sold our souls to fatten our bank accounts. You didn’t give a shit about any of the others, but you just had to screw everything up for her. And for what? You didn’t even get to ride in on your white steed and save her. That other fucker did. And she don’t want you, boy. She wants him. We’d all be better off if we just fucking got rid of her.”
As hurt as I am, some of what Dickers is yelling is piercing through the pain-filled fog that wants to swallow me up.
I knew from what I read on my father’s laptop that Trent was involved with the Russians. But I didn’t think for a moment he actually knew about the Russians grabbing women and children.
The fact that he did…. That he and Dickers both knew what was going on and fucking profited off it, starts to make me so angry, my grief is starting to fade away. Replaced by the burning desire to make them pay for what they did before I leave this earth.
Make them pay before I take my last breath and join James.
Trent’s face turns blood red. “We are not getting rid of her!”
Dickers chuckles. “Why? Because you still hope she’ll somehow magically fall in love with you? Or maybe you just want to fuck? Maybe you hope that she’ll finally spread her legs for you in gratitude and it will be that magic pussy you’ve been searching for your whole life.”
“Fuck you,” Trent sputters, the veins in his forehead so prominent they look like they’re about to burst.
“That’s enough,” Jacob cuts in, sounding a bit angry himself.
“Enough? Enough?!” Dickers repeats incredulously. “It’s not enough. Not when she’s a liability we can’t afford. You realize that, right? You realize she can screw us all?”
The car falls quiet for the first time, and I know they’re all chewing over the idea of me being a liability.
Turning to Trent, I sniffle and plead, “Please don’t let him kill me, Trent. Please.”
Trent’s attention jerks to me, and I try to scoot closer to him.
Dropping my voice to a whisper, I add, “I don’t want to die.”
Dickers chortles.
Maybe if Dickers didn’t chortle, Trent wouldn’t buy my little act. But his hatred for the man must blind him to my true intentions.
His jaw tightening with determination, Trent assures me, “I won’t let him hurt you.”
“No one is hurting anyone,” Jacob says, backing him up.
“Who said anything about hurting her? We don’t have to hurt her to get rid of her,” Dickers suggests. “We can make it painless—”
“She’s Cronin’s daughter, Dickers,” Jacob says, as if he can’t believe he has to say it. “Jesus.”
“And Cronin’s dead now,” Dickers snaps back without missing a beat. “Dead because he stuck his nose where it didn’t belong and pissed off the Russians. Dead because your dumbass of a son fucked everything up and tipped him off for her. And now your dumbass of a son is going to get us all killed to have her.”
Trent stiffens beside me, and the fact that he doesn’t snap back at Dickers for calling him a dumbass tells me he’s unsettled by what Dickers said.
Even Jacob is quiet for a few seconds before he says, “We’ll discuss this later.”
“Yeah, later.” Dickers chuckles. “When we’re already six feet under the ground. Right next to Cronin.”
“Dickers—” Jacob starts to warn before Dickers cuts him off, sounding more serious.
“Look, I thought I owed it to him too, to save her from those fuckers. But she said it herself, she didn’t want to be saved. And now? Now that she’s heard what she’s heard? It’s her or us. Pick.”
Silence falls over the car again, and I can almost feel the last seconds of my life ticking away.
Maybe… maybe if James wasn’t dead it would actually bother me. But it doesn’t. The only thing that bothers me is that I might not get to hurt any of them before they take me out.
“Damn you, Dickers,” Jacob finally growls, and I know he’s turned against me.
I glance over at Trent, wondering if he’s finally turned against me too, but he only looks confused. Like he doesn’t understand yet.
“Now or after we stop at the station?” Dickers asks, as if the matter is settled. “This is our exit.”
Dickers hits the blinker to turn right, but the blinker just clicks and clicks.
At first, I wonder if it’s because he’s waiting on Jacob to answer, but then Dickers curses. “Stupid fuck beside me won’t let me get over.”
Jacob sighs, sounding tired. “Speed up and go around him.”
“Can’t,” Dickers says. “The fucker in front of… Fuck!”
“What?” Jacob asks.
I feel the car start to slow a little only to speed up again.
“We’re fucking boxed in!” Dickers growls. “They’ve got us surrounded.”
20
Sophia
“Fuck!” Dickers curses and slams his phone down on the console between the front seats.
For the past five minutes, he’s been trying and failing to reach someone on his phone.
“No answer?” Jacob asks, unable to keep the concern out of his voice.
“Can’t get ahold of Harris, and no one else is picking up,” Dickers growls, his hands squeezing so tight around the steering wheel his knuckles turn white. “There’s goes all our fucking backup.”