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Alexander Christian laid on his back watching the ceiling fan slowly rotate, gently circulating the cooled air around his bedroom. He glanced at Bonita, sleeping on the opposite side of the king-size bed, the sheet tucked under her arm, exposing her shoulders. A slight tan line ran across her back. He looked back up at the ceiling fan and recalled the past twenty-four hours.
May had stayed by her sister’s side most of the day, only leaving to have lunch with Bat when Briana was sleeping. Bonita had selected a Carl Hiaasen novel from the shelf and spent the day curled up on the couch reading. Alexander could hear her chuckle occasionally and wondered which of Hiaasen’s antics she was laughing at.
As tempting as it was, Alexander had resisted the urge to interrogate Bonita. He wanted – needed – to know what she knew about the bars, the operation, and the people who ran them. But it was a special day for the girls – the sister’s reunion and Bonita’s freedom – and he didn’t want to spoil it. What he needed could wait another day.
Bonita stirred, rolled over, and scooted next to Alexander. She laid her arm across his chest. “Good morning,” she said.
“Good morning. How’d you sleep?”
“Great! I love your bed. It’s so comfy. I like sleeping with you too.” Bonita rolled on top of him, sliding one leg over his and bracing herself on an elbow. She caressed his chest with her other hand. “Alex, you didn’t talk to me much yesterday.”
“I know. You were reading and I thought maybe it best to let you enjoy the day without talking about...uh—”
“Me?”
“No. I was thinking about the bars and the girls at the bars.”
“What do they call that thing nobody talks about?”
Alexander scratched his head. “The thing nobody talks about? I don’t know.”
“Yes. The thing everyone wants to talk about, but nobody does.”
“Oh, the elephant in the room?”
“Sí. Yes, that is it. Do we have an elephant in the room, Alex?”
“Bonita, what do you think the elephant in the room is? Is there something you want to ask me?”
“No, Alex. I feel there’s something you want to ask me. Maybe about my past?”
Alexander felt a lump in his throat. He did want to know about Bonita but, at the same time, he didn’t want to know. He was curious how she knew. “I won’t lie to you. Maybe a couple of times yesterday or last night, I wondered about how many men you have been with and what you did with them, but then I look at you. There’s an old saying, ‘If you don’t want to know the answer, don’t ask the question.’ I don’t want to know. If we met another way, not in that bar, and I found out later what you did for a living, yeah, it might be different. But I know what line of work you were in and I’m okay with it. I don’t need...don’t want any details.”
“You’re so sweet, Alexander Christian. I’m happy you walked into my bar.”
“I’m happy you came with me.”
“I am too. Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot.”
“What do you do for a living?”
“I’m in law enforcement.”
“What?” Bonita instinctively recoiled, rising on one elbow, covering herself with the sheet.
“I was anyway. FBI agent. I’m retired.”
“Oh, my God. You almost gave me a heart attack.”
“Why? Did you think I’d bust you after last night? Not a chance. I might put you under house arrest.”
“House arrest? That sounds like fun.” Bonita purposely evaded the first question.
“It does. I’ll have to think about your sentence.”
“Maybe life?”
“Maybe. But seriously, I do need to ask you some questions. Are you up to talking about it?”
Bonita rolled onto her back, put her arm over her eyes, and bit her lower lip. “I guess so. What do you want to know?”
“How did you end up working for Angel?”
“I was sold to him.”
“What?” Alexander couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.
“Well, not him. I was bought by the guy that owned the bar before Angel. Then Angel bought the bar and I went with it.”
“They actually bought and sold you? And you knew it?”
“Yes, we are put on a stage and auctioned.”
Alexander clenched his fists and took several deep breaths. “They auctioned you, like cattle? Who did?”
“I should start at the beginning. I grew up in the slums of Cartagena. Some men approached me and said they would take me to America where I’d have a better life. They brought lots of girls and it was a long journey on a bus then on a boat. I got to know the other girls well. When we got here, they said we had to work to pay them for smuggling us in.
“They took us to a bar and made us stand on a stage and take our clothes off. When we weren’t fast enough, some guys just ripped our clothes off. There must have been ten or fifteen men looking at us, all whooping and hollering. They came up to the stage and touched us. Some even pulled back our lips and checked out our teeth. They moved us to the side of the stage and brought us back to the middle, one at a time. That’s when the bidding started. The man that owned the bar before Angel bought me and another girl, took us and told us what we would be doing. I remember him telling us he’d treat us good, but we had to work. If we didn’t, he would take us back and resell us. He said the next buyer wouldn’t be so nice and we’d end up working anyway. We both decided we’d work for him. It’s not like we had much of a choice. He told us we’d be living with a bunch of other girls in big houses close to the bars. A car would bring us to the bar and take us home. He said if we left either building without one of the guys, we’d be picked up by ICE and deported.”
“So you stayed and worked for him?”
“Yes. There were a lot of young American Latinas working the bar too. I mean really young, like fifteen or sixteen.”
“You’re kidding! When you say American girls, you mean girls born here? How’d they manage that?”
“Yeah, the girls were local. Some didn’t even speak Spanish very well. They were young, but they were experienced. I was twenty-two, but those girls knew so much more than I did. They’d been having sex for a few years, and they watched a lot of porn. They’d do as many men as they could a night and they got paid well. Not like us, we didn’t get anything because we were paying off our smuggling fee. I heard the girls bragged at school, telling their friends how easy it was and how much money they made. The cops found out about it and raided the bar. All those young girls claimed they were trafficked and forced into it. Nothing happened to them, but the owner went to prison. Angel made a deal with him, bought the bar and us.”
“You didn’t get arrested in the raid?”
“No, it happened early in the day. Those girls worked after school, but they had to be home before it got too late. Most of us didn’t get to the bar until after they left.”
“I have a good idea what happened. You don’t need to say anything else if you don’t want to.”
“I’m okay. It kind of feels good to talk about it.” She wrapped her hand around Alexander's and held it. “So Angel bought the bar, but people stopped coming after the raid. I mean, a few did, but not many. That was a couple of years ago. Men started coming back, and Angel hired some women to come and just dance with the guys. When they asked for sex, he’d send them up to the back where the girls that were forced to have sex were. He did okay, but the bar never made as much as it did before the raid. So Angel had to buy cheap girls. That’s how he got Briana. She’d been bought several times but she wouldn’t work, so she’d be sold again. Word got out and Angel bought her cheap. Nobody wanted a drugged-up rag doll. He’d had her about a month when you showed up. I didn’t mention it before, but I heard he kept her chained up and fed her dog food. They do that to the other girls too, the new ones.”
“Jesus,” Alexander said. He slid one arm under Bonita’s shoulder and the other around her waist, causing the sheet to fall off of her. It was the first he’d seen her naked in the daylight. He did a double-take when he noticed the tan lines on her breasts. The contrast was much more dramatic than the line across her back. He had assumed that she was naturally bronzed due to her Latin heritage. The pinked-white of the unexposed skin was surprising. He pulled her close and held her. “That’s incredible. I can’t imagine what those girls are going through.”
“I’m sure I left out a lot. They’re still doing the auctions too. They rotate the location so they have less chance of getting busted. They held one in my bar a few months ago. The girls arrive all dressed in skimpy dresses then they’re told to get naked and the guys inspect them. Just like they did me.”
Alexander continued to hold Bonita close but noticed she seemed quite calm and collected. Maybe she’s like a dog that’s been beaten too much and she has no feelings. He pressed on. “Do you know where the houses are that the girls live in? What about the other bars, do you know where they are?”
“Sure. The cars that picked us up and dropped us off made the rounds. I know all the locations. I know most of the people who run the bars too.”
“You know who they are or you know them personally?”
“I know who they are. A few I’ve met. I mean, if they came into the bar, they would talk to me.”
“To bust the bars, you will need to tell the authorities everything you know. Can you do that?”
“Uh...I guess so. What will happen to me?”
“You’re a victim. I wouldn’t think anything would happen to you. Why do you ask?”
“I don’t know. I was there.”
“You should be fine. I do have one last question. While you were there, were you always in the bar or the house you stayed at? I mean, were you able to go outside at all?”
“No. The only time we were allowed outside was when we were going from the house to the bar and back. Why? Is that important?”
“Not really. I was just curious.”