Once I’ve dropped onto the couch Jackson walks out and sits on the chair opposite me.
“Is she in trouble?” he asks softly. I can see the look in his eyes. He’s worried about her.
“Honestly, I don’t know yet. I need to know how she knows this fucker first,” I admit to him.
“Who?” he asks.
Before I even have a chance to respond my little hellfire comes out dressed in tiny assed shorts and a t-shirt and says, “Alvaro Diaz.”
“That’d be the one,” I say with a smirk. Whit sits on the end of the couch with her legs tucked under her. She takes a deep breath and looks up at me with sad eyes.
“A long time ago my dad was into a lot of drugs. He was a dealer. He brought a lot of lowlifes around our house. It wasn’t any surprise and it sure as hell didn’t surprise me when the Cuban drug lord showed up one day,” she takes a deep breath before speaking again. “My dad had debts, and Alvaro was there to collect. Dad didn’t have it, which wasn’t a surprise either, but what did surprise me was that Alvaro realized dad had me.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. No fuckin’ way!” I roar as I tug at my hair. Jackson doesn’t get it; he won’t get it. He isn’t like us. I run my hand down my face before looking up into the most beautiful eyes I’ve even seen in my life. It tears at my heart to see the pain in them. I don’t want her to finish, but I know she has to. She needs to let it out. She’s held onto this for so fucking long that it’s tearing her apart.
“I’d just turned fifteen. Dad, well, he traded me for his debt.”
The words barely leave her mouth when I’m on my feet. My hands are fists at my sides and my muscles are corded tightly. Everything in me wants to go after him full force. I want to watch him bleed. I want him to pay for what he did to her; what he still continues to do to her. Goddamn it! Whitley crawls across the couch, rising to her knees to grab my hands in hers. Fifteen? So fucking helpless at that age.
“I need you to sit with me Mason. I don’t think I can finish if you don’t.”
Her words are like a slap to the goddamn face. They’re a spark to a flame that’s already burning. I take a deep breath and drop back onto the couch next to her. Whit surprises me when she climbs into my lap and wraps her arms around my body. I can feel her trembling. Shit! I don’t know if I can do this. After taking another deep breath, she continues.
“It lasted for a year, maybe a little longer. He let his guys fuck me too. It wasn’t always Alvaro, but somewhere inside this fucked up head of mine I really thought he loved me. I thought that’s why he shared me. I didn’t know any different. I’m so fucking stupid. I should have known,” she screams.
I squeeze her tighter holding her even closer against my body. That’s where she got the fucked up idea of fucking everything in sight. She doesn’t know any better.
“Oh my god Whit, I am so sorry. You never told me any of this,” Jackson says rushing to sit next to us on the couch. He grabs her hand holding it in his as she tries to swallow her tears.
“He came into the bar. What did he say to you?”
“He said that I was always his and that he didn’t want to see me with trash like you,” she says softly with her voice hitching.
I sigh and lean into her. Pressing my nose into her neck, I simply inhale her. This shit is worse than I thought it was. So much fucking worse. How the hell did she get wrapped up with such a piece of shit? How did he hurt her when she was only a child? There are so many questions racing around in this head of mine that I don’t have any answers to. I hate it. I want to fix it for her, but how?
Chapter 22
Whitley
I let him hold me as tears prickle my eyes. Jackson keeps my hand held in a tight grip, not having a clue what to say. I can’t blame him. Feeling Mason holding me is perfect though. It’s calming.