Page 155 of Unspoken Lies
“You don’t seem to understand who I am,”el Tigremurmurs, his lips curling in anger. “Let me tell you then, little girl. I’m going to make you scream, hurt you, rape you, and then leave you for dead on the lawn of that fancy house you live in, just like your stepfather did to someone I cared about. You’re what’s wrong with this world. Over privileged little shits.”
I continue to gaze at him, non-plussed, despite the shiver of fear I feel at the mention of rape. It won’t come to that. Even if it does, I’ll survive. I have to. I have people to live for.
“I see,” he growls, pulling a knife from his boot to begin picking his nails. It’s an intimidation tactic. I’m the adopted daughter of Emil Reyes. I sleep next to serial killers. The weeks of soaking up their attention and love have helped to shore up my strength.El Tigrecan get fucked.
I try to get a feel for where I am without my eyes leaving him through my peripheral vision. Stone walls surround me, and I think I may be in some kind of cellar due to the musty smell filling my senses. If I’m underground, I wonder if that’ll mess with the signal. However, Ignacio found me when I was buried under six feet of dense soil.
They’ll find me.
El Tigre’sfist reaches out fast as lightning, and my head snaps back as he punches me. My chair flips up again, and his hand grabs the seat between my legs to slam me back to the ground.
I’m panting as I struggle to get my vision to settle, my eye already swelling as I stare somewhere near his head. At least, I hope that’s true. Everything feels blurry and doubled. If he can do that with a single blow, I can’t imagine what he can accomplish if he decides to truly beat me.
I guess there won’t be any naked Twister tonight. A giggle erupts that’s incredibly inappropriate and dangerous. Fuck, only I would get loopy during an incoming concussion.
“Fucking stupid girl,” he groans. “Eschuchame!”
“¿Qué quieres?” I mumble back.
“Ha, your fancy education also teaches you Spanish,” he grumbles. “Do you know why you’re going to die?”
“Please enlighten me,” I gasp, blinking furiously. Fuck, there must be like eight of him. My ears are also ringing, a sure fire way to get stabbed because I didn’t hear something Tiny Dick had to say.
“Your father won’t stop fucking with my business,” Tiny Dick roars. If I can keep thinking of him like this, I won’t burst into tears. I can be strong. I can make it through. “I thought if I wasn’t in Portland, he wouldn’t notice. I wasn’t expecting him to expand.”
I force myself to breathe through the pain, make it work for me so I won’t pass out from fear. I can’t disconnect from this or dissociate. It’ll get me killed. I’m sure of it. I have to stay in the present, something my mind typically refuses to do.
I’m known for checking out when things get hard, a throw back to previous trauma.
El Tigreis from Portland. Fuck. This means Emil has run into him before. The anger and hate doesn’t make sense otherwise. He called Emil my father, and while he isn’t, I’m not giving this man a damn bit of information. He can think whatever he wants.
“Do you remember a shooting in a fancy school parking lot?” Tiny Dick asks.
My breathing hitches, because there’s no way I wouldn’t. I didn’t have anything to do with the deaths of those men, but there’s no way they could have lived after attacking Liliana and I. My stepfather wouldn’t allow it.
He told me it had been mostly handled, but it appears that Mr. Tiny Dick is unexpected.
“Yes,” I rasp, in an effort not to be hit again. His hand is curled in a fist, and he clearly doesn’t have a problem with hitting women. “I was walking to my car. I did nothing wrong by doing that.”
“No, my brother was ordered to strike where it would hurt your father. The Mullen gang wanted to push into his territory, make him nervous. My brother was a white passing Latino who joined a gang to get himself some sort of respect. He was wrong. It just got him dead,” Tiny Dick grunts. “You were Emil Reyes’ new shiny possession. He put a target on your back the second he married your mother. Just another casualty of a drive by.”
“Maybe their shots shouldn’t have gone wide,” I say stupidly. Fuck, I didn’t mean to say that.
His meaty fist hits me again, and I have to force myself from whimpering as he allows the chair to fall on its side. My legs are spread wide and tied to the chair’s feet. Unfortunately, the chair crushes my right leg, causing me to scream. My body weight is pinning it to the ground, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
“Fucking soft white girl,” he mutters, grabbing the back of the chair to lift me as if I weigh nothing. “Sientate alli y callase.”
My chest is heaving from the pain, my eyes leaking tears down my face. My leg aches, but I choose to use it to keep from passing out.
“My little brother was everything to me,”el Tigresays. “Your father and his executioner took him from me. Stupid turf wars between two different worlds.”
From what I understand, Garret Mullen chose to attack without provocation. He deserved to die for trying to hurt Liliana and I. However, I keep my mouth shut, even going so far as to press my lips together. My ears are ringing now, and I have to really concentrate to hear him. The last thing I need is for him to beat on me some more because I wasn’t listening.
My eye is swelling shut, and my tears hurt as they escape. It figures that my body is punishing me for something I can’t control.
“I was going to pin this entire drug operation on the great Emil Reyes,” Tiny Dick says proudly. Oops. Turns out I’m beginning to weave in and out consciousness and I’ve clearly missed some of his diatribe. “I wanted to piss off the authorities by pumping the date rape drug into Santa Barbara and the precious college kids with their important parents.”
Not all the kids who attend UCSB are rich. It’s a ridiculous assessment from a man with a giant chip on his shoulder.
