Page 25 of Tinley's Daddy
“Please, I can’t do it.” She straightened back up but pleaded with me. “I can’t tell you what they did to me.” She turned toward the agents. “You wouldn’t understand.”
CHAPTER 8
TINLEY
My head felt heavy, and all the energy had been drained from my body.
I hadn’t slept over two hours at a time in over two years. I felt like I could crawl underneath this table and sleep for days. I refused to talk about what types of dates I went on. The agents were going back and forth, asking me the same question in different ways, but throwing back vague answers proved exhausting and it made everyone at the table hate me.
I pulled the hood over my head to block out some of the chatter, but it was no use. I turned back and looked at Josh. His kind eyes were worried about me. Why?
He didn’t even know me. But all it took was one look and he was on top of it.
“Guys.” He stood up. “I think we’re done here.”
“No, we’re not.” The agent at the end of the table stood up. “Listen?—”
“No, you listen.” Josh pulled my chair back and stepped in front of me. “Agent Sparks, she has had enough.”
“Mr. Burroughs, you have to understand any information she gives us will not only help us find out who did this to her and those other girls but also prevent it from happening to another young lady.”
I barely held in a sob. He was right. I knew that, but I just couldn’t talk about it. Not with these guys. Not now.
“I get that, but what I don’t want to happen is her having to relive it on your terms.” Josh stepped closer to the nice one. “Let’s just give her some time.”
Josh and the agents had a stare off for what felt like forty-five minutes. It was more like forty-five seconds.
“Fine.” Agent Sparks nodded and turned toward me. “Let’s continue this in a few days. Okay?”
I nodded.
Josh faced me and reached out his hand. I took it and stood. We walked toward the door.
One of the agents scrolled through his phone. “I understand you’ve offered the other ladies a place to stay until we iron this out. Will Ms. Tinley be staying with them?”
“No.” We stopped near the door. “I’ll be taking Tinley back to Pittsburgh. Back to her family. We leave tonight.”
One of the agents had a problem with that answer, but we didn’t stay long enough to hear his concerns. We shuffled to the elevator and rode it back up to the eleventh floor. I had to double step to keep up with Josh. He opened the door and guided me in. I stood in the middle of the room, wringing my hands together. Josh paced around the room, gathering stuff.
“Can I help?”
His eyes grew wide.
“Uhm, yeah.” He pointed to a suitcase in the corner. It hadn’t been there when we left. “Why don’t you pack up your stuff in there. I really want to get out of this country.”
“Is everything all right?” I rubbed my stomach.
“Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine.” He rubbed my shoulder. It felt like he needed to touch me too. He bent down in front of me. We were eye to eye. “I know you don’t have any reason to trust me, but I promise you, I won’t let anything happen to you. And I keep my promises.”
“Always?” I grinned.
He reached for my face but stopped. He straightened back up.
“Always.” He motioned for me to move. “Let’s get packed.”
I nodded and went to work.
The task of getting packed up soothed me. I took all my new items and carefully folded them and placed them into the small suitcase. I took the toiletries and put them in a makeup bag. Once complete, I shut the case and zipped it. I dragged it to the ground and pulled up the handle.
