Page 65 of Stay, Swear.

“Fuck, it’s the fourteenth isn’t it?” He doesn’t wait for a response before he continues on. “It’s fine, whatever, you have to learn someday. Come on kid. Thanks for dropping him off, Tripp.”

Tripp steps in front of me shielding me from our father, “Not a chance old man, I’m staying.”

He shrugs and walks by us to his old Ford F-150, it’s just as beat up as my brother’s Chevrolet S10. “Suit yourself, get in the truck.”

Our eyes clash, a silent discussion on what to do, we never leave the house. He gets drunk, tries to pry into our lives and more often than not it ends in blows. It won’t for long though, Tripp and I have started exchanging cleaning a local MMA gym in exchange for free classes. His days are coming. We hesitantly make our way to the truck and climb in the back, neither of us wanting to sit next to him. He glares at us from the rear view mirror, “Phones. Now.” We begrudgingly hand them over.

This also isn’t new. He takes them when we get here and we get them back when his alarm goes off at seven twenty. It’s his power move so our mom can’t get in touch with us. It’s also how he ensures we don’t leave once we’re here. Yeah, he’s a grade A prick. We head down back roads that I know nothing about, in silence, twisting and turning, taking so many turns that I confuse myself and could never get back on my own. I’m assuming he’s doing that on purpose to throw us.

About fifteen minutes later he pulls into what looks like an old ranch. There’s two barns, a horse stable, a few sheds, and a big ranch house. It isn’t outstanding by any means, but it looks a whole lot better than both our shitty houses combined. He parks the car behind three other vehicles before turning back to us.

“It’s about time you two become men, and learn to take over your old man’s business one day.”

“You work on a ranch?” I ask, confused, because I have no idea what the piece of shit does. He just barks a laugh at me and gets out of the truck.

Tripp grabs my shoulder before I can move out of the truck.“Do not leave my side, do you hear me, Jake? I’ve heard whispers of what he might be into. If it’s even half of what I’ve heard this is going to be the roughest twelve hours of our lives.”

My hands begin to tremble as I nod in agreement. We exit the truck and follow my father back to one of the sheds, three men are standing around the front of it. All various heights and weights, but all equally as slimy looking.

“What do we have here? Did no one tell me it’s bring-your-kid-to-work day?” The tallest of the men says, which doesn’t say much as I’m six one and tower over him. The other men laugh, as my dad snipes back.

“Says the man who’s kid is here everyday, huh?” The man’s nostrils flare in annoyance but he doesn’t say anything else. “This is Tripp and Jake. They’re here tonight to learn. They’ll observe and maybe dip their toes in. We’ll see how the night goes.”

The men just nod before giving us a tour of what seems to be just a normal working farm. There’s livestock, farm equipment, and the inside of the house is big… old, but not in bad condition. The taller man, who I’ve learned is named Robert smiles over at me, “So what do you think? Maybe you want to dip your toes?”

I’m thrown by what he means because it’s not like anything groundbreaking is happening, at the same time I don’t want to be rude so I just nod, “Yeah man, seems cool.” A condescending laugh slips past his lips.

“Good. Come on, I’ve got something else to show you.” I look behind me for Tripp, but he’s talking to one of the other men, Eric, I think.

“Hey Tripp.” I call to let him know what’s going on. He ends his conversation with Eric immediately and makes his way over to us. “Uh, Robert wanted to show me something else really quick.”

“Great, I’ll come with.” He says with no room for argument in his tone. Robert just nods, lets the other men know where we’re going, and we all end up making our way to the back shed. I figure that’s where they hoard their drugs or something. Shit I’m not getting into, but when Robert opens the door to the shed I almost vomit.

There are rows and rows of women and children in cages, some multiple people to one cage. There’s a door on either side of the far back wall. Tripp gags as I just watch in horror. “What is this?” I barely choke out, turning behind me looking for my dad. Jerry’s eyes lock on me with that same evil smirk he gets right before he tries to put me through a wall.

“This, my son, is the family business. We make more money than you’ll ever see in a lifetime and we get first dibs on whoever we want. Those two doors in the back lead into two rooms. We have two whores in them for you both now. If you’re ready. You don’t have to.” That’s all I hear before I bend over and throw up right in front of my feet. That’s rich, if we want to, where the fuck is their choice in the matter? I’m going to get them out of here tonight, or I’m going to die trying.

Phoenix

Present Day

Jax has tears running down his face. He takes a minute to catch his breath and calm down enough to finish the story. I’m shaking so hard my teeth are chattering. Kieran and Declan are coiled tight, like deadly vipers ready to strike. Kieran grabs my hips and pulls my back tight to his front. Declan lays his hand on my shoulder, a show of silent support. Noticing thathe’s ready to continue, my body turns rigid as I get ready to hear what I’m sure is another tragedy of Robert and his fucked up friends selling their own children.

“That night, Tripp and I decided we were going to wait until everyone passed out, and we were going to free everyone. It didn’t take long for them to get plastered and start dropping like flies, succumbing to the insane amounts of alcohol in their systems. We snuck back down to the shed and started opening cages but no one would move. I didn’t know it then but apparently this was a mind game they liked to play, trick them into thinking they were free then punish them when they tried to leave.

One girl, they called her Thirty-Three, told me if I was serious, to go open the back door. Twenty-seven was in there, and she’d never miss an opportunity to run. So, Tripp and I unlocked the door, and waited in the shadows. Sure enough, less than three minutes later, a too-small-to-be-her-age teenager came bolting out of the room. She looked around at the eyes staring at her and swore she’d be back for everyone. Then she was gone.”

I bend over, put my hands on my knees, and dragging in ragged breaths as I process what he’s telling me. Kieran rubs my back in comfort as Dec flexes his hand on my shoulder. My escape, that was him. How? How did he end up here? Does he know it’s me? He picks up before I can ask.

“We waited out by the shed for about twenty minutes before heading back to the house. We were almost there when Jerry popped up out of nowhere. He had watched the whole thing go down. Said the only reason he wasn’t going after you was because he wasn’t dying in those woods. He took us back to the shed and grabbed one of the girls. It was the girl who toldus to let the one in the room out. She couldn’t have been older than twelve or so. He took her with us and we went back to his place.

When we got there he took us to the woods line behind his house and shot the little girl, execution style. He beat both of us for what we’d done and told us we could never tell anyone what we saw because we’d be accessories to his crimes. The next morning we were on the way to the police station when we heard on the news that they found the little girl we set free, rescued the others there, and had arrested her captures.

There was nothing we could do for Thirty-Three, she was already gone. So we decided to not say anything. I went off to college on a scholarship before going to law school and now my position at Philip and Grant. Jerry popped up here almost a year ago, they got everyone there that night, except for him. He just needed to remind me to keep my mouth shut. It wasn’t necessary, I wasn’t talking. Tripp saw Robert and David on the security cameras today, and that’s why he came barging in. We aren’t stupid Brittany, that strawberry blonde hair, and those steel eyes are hard to duplicate. We’ve just been trying to keep you safe. It’s why I freaked out last weekend. Robert and David had been seen there a few weeks ago, I just didn’t want them running into you. It scared me and I lashed out. I’m sorry.”

Tears stream freely down my face as the only question I can think of replays over and over in my mind. “He killed Thirty-Three, you’re sure?”

“I’m sure. I’m so sorry. I can tell you where she’s buried if that’ll help you grieve.” I can’t even listen to whatever else he says because all I hear is that we’re going to have to tell everyone at Kieran’s house that Riley’s really gone.

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