Page 25 of Demon
“Sure.”
She dropped her bottle in the recycling bin before pulling the two bottles from the fridge, popping the tops then carrying the drinks back to the living room where Gavin sat, having waited for her to return before continuing.
“Anyway, something felt off about the whole thing, so I did something I probably shouldn’t have, but considering what I found, I’ll never regret it.”
Ronnie wasn’t sure if it was his tone or his words that made her look up and pay closer attention.This was working out to be far more complicated than she’d anticipated.
“What did you do?”She looked over at him, nerves fluttering in her belly as she froze, looking at him, her beer bottle half tilted toward her mouth, but not yet ready to spill.
“I called in a favor.”He paused, meeting her gaze.It was hard for Ronnie to miss the regret there.“Rica, it’s bad.”
Ronnie’s breath caught in her throat.Slowly, she lowered her hand and the drink in it, her gaze never leaving his.He hadn’t called her that in years.Not since the last time her father had been raging through the house when they’d both lived there.That had been at least ten years ago.
Gavin had been on the front porch that day and had seen her father when he arrived from his day at work.She’d been in her room, lying across her bed and listening to her headphones while she sang along, much like any sixteen-year-old did.The next thing she knew Gavin had burst through the door, closing it behind him.He’d rushed her to get dressed and the next thing she knew he was herding her out the back door and to the beat-up pickup he’d bought a few months before.It ran, but not well.When Gavin had loaded her in the truck, he’d gotten in behind the wheel and the next thing she knew they were on the road.Together the two of them went to see Nan.They’d spent several days with her, Ronnie didn’t know what Gavin had told her, but when they’d gone home, nothing was said, as if the entire thing had been a dream.It had only been a few months after that when their mother had decided she was done.She’d packed up and left, leaving Gavin and Ronnie behind.Ronnie had never seen her mother again.
She’d wondered about it when she was nineteen and had looked for their mother, but found nothing.She didn’t know if her mother had dropped off the face of the earth or what, but it seemed like it.In the end, she’d determined, either her mother was using a name Ronnie didn’t know, or Ronnie just sucked at finding people.She didn’t have much experience then.She would look in different places now, but she’d long since decided that if her mother didn’t want her in her life, then Ronnie wasn’t going to go looking for that hurt.
“You okay, Rica?”Gavin laid a hand on her arm, drawing her back from the memory.
Ronnie shook her head, shaking loose the errant memory and turning her attention back to him
“I’m good.What was it you were saying?That this is bad?”She looked at him a moment, then looked away, not sure what to think.“How?”
Gavin took a deep breath and held it.Ronnie wanted to yell at him to just spit it out, but his use of the old nickname told her he needed a little time.And she was not going to like what he had to say.
While she waited for him to answer she couldn’t help but wonder if it was because of her father.What had he done now?
“Like I said, I called in a favor.I called a friend of mine who works for one of the federal agencies, which one doesn’t matter.”He paused.
Ronnie stayed silent.She could tell this was hard for him and she didn’t want to push him so hard he quit talking.
“He was looking into Jennings,” he waved one hand toward the stack of files, “and found something.”He stopped again.
Ronnie glanced over and found him staring at the ceiling, swallowing, as if what he had to tell her wasn’t just hard to say, but hard to know.She wished for a moment that he’d stop now.That he wouldn’t tell her what was wrong.But she couldn’t ask.If her slightly overprotective brother thought she should know, then she’d listen.
“Shit.I don’t know where to start.”
“Just spit it out, Gav.I know whatever it is, isn’t easy to say but the waiting is getting tedious.”
“All right.”He nodded several times, then he seemed to freeze.“You know how we discussed maybe Dad had hired someone to scare you off?”
Ronnie nodded but stayed silent for fear Gavin would lose momentum and not tell her what was going on.
“My friend, let’s call him Brian for now, just to make the conversation easier.”
“Ok.”She kept her reply short so he would continue.
“Anyway, I asked Brian to look into the two we suspected.He called me a couple of hours ago with what he found.”
Ronnie watched as he rolled his lips in and bit them.Whatever this was, it was bad, worse than she’d anticipated when he’d first said so.He wouldn’t be so reluctant to tell her if it wasn’t beyond anything he’d even imagined.
“Brian found that this Jennings is mixed up with a bad crowd, and I don’t mean like in school where the bad crowd is getting high in study hall and skipping class.I mean serious time, possibly even life sentence bad.And that’s not all of it.”He fell silent, just slowly breathing in and out for a few moments.“Dad’s in bed with them.When we thought we were throwing out crazy ideas that he’d hired them to scare you off, we weren’t as far off as we would have liked.”He took a long pull from his beer bottle then held it in both hands, slowly spinning it with his fingers as he continued to talk.“Brian has someone working on getting close to the group that Jennings is running with.They’re known for a lot of less than upstanding activities, including trafficking in drugs and people.Rumor is they’re not just bringing people into the country, but they’re kidnapping and selling women out of it too.”
Ronnie scowled, his meaning took a moment to register then her eyes went wide.“You mean…” she trailed off without finishing saying what she was thinking.“Dad’s involved in all that?”Her mind spun as she rethought every issue she’d had with him over the last ten years.Had there been any clues?Had there been any point where she could say his behavior changed?Things like that were easier to see when looking back, but she couldn’t think of anything.He’d always been a jerk, and he’d always treated her as not good enough, and Ronnie had never known why.Was it simply because she’d been born with out a penis or was it something else?
“I don’t know exactly what Dad’s mixed-up in.Only that he’s been a long-time known associate of more than one of these assholes.”Gavin shook his head, as if he just couldn’t believe what he was about to say, but he opened his mouth and said it anyway.“Anway, it’s worse than our dreaming up that he’s hired someone to scare you off.From what Brian’s contact told him, he’s sold you to them.I don’t know if it was to pay off some debt or if he needs cash, but the plan is to set up an ambush.They’ll let you think you’re taking that Jennings in, who by the way, there was never a bond out on him, or rather there was, but no one came in to back it.That’s Dad’s money on the line.”
Ronnie stared at her brother, mouth hanging open as she tried to think.Had he really just told her that whoever Jim Bob was hanging around with was supposed to ambush her?Then what?She didn’t know what to think.There was only one reason to sell women out of the country like Gavin had said.It wasn’t pleasant, she was sure, and she didn’t even want to think about it.
