“Hey little lady, need a ride?” I surveyed the trucker. He seemed harmless enough. Worst thing he would do was make me blow him. Charlie’s face popped into my head unbidden. Before Charlie, I hadn’t given myself much value. A blowjob here, a blowjob there, who cares. If someone took it without asking, not a big deal.
Charlie made me see how wrong that was.
Charlie made me see a lot of things.
I glared at the trucker and put my hands on my hips. “What’s it to you?”
“Nothin’,” the trucker responded. “It’s rainy and wet out, tryin’ to do a good deed.” I stared down the long, windy black road. If I didn’t get in, I may as well have signed my death warrant.
“Fine.” I lifted my foot to the ledge, grabbed the handle, and climbed in. The trucker smiled at me before putting his foot on the gas.
“Zero’s sure gonna be happy when he sees what I’ve found.” I opened my mouth in silent shock, prepared to fight, but it was too late. The trucker hit me over the head and everything went black.
* * *
No.
I refused to accept it.
It could not be happening.
No.
Not again.
I buried my head in my hands. The headache, the horrible pounding from where the trucker had knocked me out, was nothing compared to the utter despair I felt. I saw the gray walls, the dirty mattress, and I knew instantly what had happened.
I’d traded in love for cataclysm. I didn’t need to lift my head and look to know who it was. I recognized the stench. I recognized the footfalls. I recognized everything. The room was slightly different, but the feeling had been burned into my head only weeks before. It would stay there forever.
“Welcome home, cunt.”
8
CHARLIE
Shit.
Shit. Fuck. Shit. Goddamn, motherfucking cunt, motherfucking shit.
I’d lost her.
I screamed, barreling my fist into the wall and making a large dent in the plaster. I should have run after her right away. By the time I’d gone it was too late.
I’m a goddamn motherfucking idiot.
He has her.
I fucking knew he had her, because the fucking trucker that had taken her had told me so. After looking through the security footage of all the gas stations within a ten-mile radius, I found the trucker that had taken Vera.
He squealed like a fucking pig. Too bad his squeals didn’t know shit about where Cruz Zeros was hiding.
“I don’t know shit, man!” the trucker had said, coughing up blood. “It’s all over the ground! Said he’d pay big mone
y if we brought his bitch back alive so he could fuck her one last time before—” I punched him across the face when he said that and after that he was useless. I put a bullet in his skull and threw him in the river for the gators to eat.
The only good information I’d gotten from him was that Zero had had a bounty out on Vera and wanted her alive so he could kill her himself. Of course I checked his old spot out, but Cruz Zeros had enough brains to move, unfortunately. I’d told Vera Cruz was looking for her, but it had been a lie, a trick to get her to stay. I didn’t believe that fucker would actually try and get her back.
I’d underestimated him.