Page 12 of Outcast

That little chihuahua was closing in. I needed to pick up the pace.

I entered the side door of Little Love Hall and headed straight for the administrative offices.

"She deserved it!"

Ah, there was Molly. I didn't know every single girl, but Molly had already been in trouble a number of times. First, stealing rolls from the cafeteria. But who cared about that? When I found out, I yelled at the cooks to give them more food. Then she cheated on a written test. Amorette had handled that issue, but I spoke to Molly later.

Life is hard. Take all the help you can get and use every singlefucking resource you can. But don't get caught. That’s how we stayed alive and thrived.

"Molly," I said as I stepped into the office.

Ms. Garcia, the house mother, stopped her rant and Molly glanced up. "Ms. Aguilar!"

She ran straight to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

Damn. This kind of stuff got to me every time. It was like shocking myself with experiences I never knew I wanted. No one in the Dirty Dogs would even dare to touch me like this. Not the Dirty Dogs’ precious princess.

"Ms. Aguilar, Molly is being reprimanded for fighting. I already notified Ms. Black." Ms. Garcia spoke with a heavy accent. She was as local as we could find, and for the most part did a good job, but like Amorette, sometimes she got lost in the rules.

"I need a word with Molly. Amorette is behind me. You can discuss it with her." It would give me a few extra minutes without the bestie bringing up things that made me stabby.

"Of course." She twisted her lips to the side. Most likely she was confused on why she'd need to talk to Amorette again. As long as she did it, it didn’t matter what she said.

I touched Molly's shoulder and she backed away. Pointing to the conference room behind her, she took the hint and led the way. There was a large rectangular window next to the door that was perfect for me to stop Amorette in her tracks if she tried to come in.

Molly didn't sit at the table. I didn't ask her to. Amorette was insanely intense on not forcing the girls to do little things like that. She wanted them to have as much control as possible unless they were in a class setting.

I, however, took a seat facing the window.

"Ms. Aguilar. I started the fight, but those other girls are nasty! You should hear the things they said to me!"

Molly was one of the girls who had been saved from the Gallery. Well, not the actual Gallery, but the girls who were being trained for it.

I was so fucking glad Amorette and her men had shut that operation down. The Dirty Dogs weren't innocent.Papáhad dabbled in the skins business himself, but now all the girls were locals and paid for their services. That I could stomach.

What happened to the girls at the hands of the men running the Gallery...

That also made me stabby.

Molly was only twelve, taken from the streets in Texas. Blonde hair, big blue eyes, and mean as a snake. She had her own set of rules and she really didn't like it when the other girls broke them.

"What did I tell you?" I asked. If she wanted to tell me what happened, I'd listen, but there was a bigger lesson here.

"Keep my nails filed so they're sharp as hell."

I pressed my lips together to stop my laugh. "That's important, but not what I meant."

She squinted one eye. "Don't let no bitch keep me down."

"Nope." I beamed. I'd really imparted some wisdom on her. I'd have to have Amorette add these nuggets to the manual she'd written. The code for the girls.

"Don't get caught."

"Right. Use all the resources at your disposal, butdon'tget caught. You wanted to punish these girls?"

Amorette stormed into the office, her face red and her blue eyes blazing. Ms. Garcia engaged her, but she stepped toward the conference room.

I raised a finger and she stopped, glaring at me.

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