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Alexander took the long route home. The ferry would have a short wait, but he wasn’t sure how it would look; a middle-aged man with two young women, one in a short, tight dress, and the other with tangled hair, a bruised face, and cuts on the side of her mouth.
He did make a stop at an oversized truck stop on the interstate, a few exits east of Baytown. The place was not crowded and, other than an admiring stare from a few truckers, no one paid much attention to them. After a quick trip to the bathrooms, they were on their way.
“Bonnie, what do you know about her?” Alexander said, looking in his rearview mirror at the girl in the backseat.
“My name is Bonita. They told me I should use Bonnie. The girl? Not much. I’ve seen her around. Most of the girls stay in a house down the street. I didn’t see her there very often. I think Angel kept her at the bar in a back room. He didn’t let her go to the house with the girls.”
“Any idea why not?”
“He was trying to get her to work for him. She must be a stubborn girl.” Bonita looked back at the girl. Her arms were crossed in front of her and she was trembling. “Are you okay? Do you need a fix?” Bonita asked in Spanish.
Without looking up, the weary girl shook her head.
“I think Angel was staying with her,” Bonita continued in English. “For sure, he was raping her at first. She was a beautiful girl. I heard him say he was getting tired of fighting her. He was shooting her with heroin, which was another reason for keeping her. Usually, once a girl gets hooked, she’ll do anything for a hit. I mean anything. Not that girl. Look at her, she’s got to be hurting. She won’t ask for a fix. I brought some smack, in case she needs it.” Bonita held up the cigar box she’d brought with her from the back room.
Alexander was not crazy about having heroin in the car. If he was stopped, explaining two hookers and a box of drugs would be challenging, even for a retired FBI agent. He glanced at the girl again. Her hair was matted, hanging in her face. “Will she be okay? Do we need to take her to an emergency room?”
“It will be hard for her, but she should be okay. She’d been held quite a while. What I heard was Angel would shoot her up several times a day. Even though she’d fight, he’d get it in her. After a few days, he’d stop. She’d start crashing like she is now. I’m clean now, but I can tell you that coming down is hard when you’re addicted. He’d tease her, tell her he’d give her a taste, all she had to do was, uh, work for him. She wouldn’t. When she was about to get over the withdrawal, he’d start shooting her up again. It didn’t matter. If anyone was going to fuck that girl, two other people had to pull her legs apart. Again, I only heard about it, didn’t see it, but I understand that is exactly what they did a few times.”
“Unbelievable. I can’t imagine anyone treating another person like that. I’m so pissed off. I should’ve smashed that weasel’s head against the bar.”
Bonita put her hand lightly on top of Alexander’s. “You saved her, and me. Thank you. Relax, you’re going to squeeze your steering wheel to death.”
“I didn’t realize I was gripping it so hard.”
“That’s better. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about him anymore. It upsets you.”
“Not right now, but later. I want to know everything about him and anyone else who keeps the girls or runs a bar – even the guys who pick the girls up from the boat. I want to know everything you know.”
“Why?” Bonita looked quizzically at him.
“Why? I want to shut him down.”
“What about the girls?”
“What about them? They’d get away from the likes of Angel and men like him.”
“But having sex is all they know. It’s all they can do. Where would they go? Yes, it’s awful most of the time. If you do what they say, they treat you okay.”
“And if you don’t, they beat you and drug you.”
“That’s true.”
“Your choice is to have sex with strange men or get beat up. That’s not living.”
Bonita began to tear up. She wiped her eyes with the fast-food napkin Alexander handed her. “It’s not. You’re right. It’s horrible. I haven’t had a boyfriend since I came to the US. I’d like to go on a date, a real date, with a nice man. That will never happen when you work in clubs. You meet a guy, get him to buy a few drinks, he pays, and you go have sex.”
“Your life will be better. I promise.”
“Thank you, Mr. Alexander.”
“Call me Alex.”
“Okay, Alex.” Bonita leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re the first man I’ve kissed in years. I don’t remember the last time. I hope you don’t mind. Thank you for helping us.”
Alexander was surprised by the kiss. It lasted longer than a customary peck on the cheek. He wondered if she was telling the truth about it being the first time she’d kissed a man in years. Or was that gentle, warm, moist peck on the cheek how she got men to buy her drinks?
He glanced in the rearview mirror again. Their backseat passenger appeared to be sleeping. He thought again about the kiss Bonita planted on his cheek. Sensual was the word that came to mind. His heart was racing. He’d never been so affected by a simple kiss.
“Where are you taking us? I should have asked a long time ago. This looks isolated.”
“My place. Don’t worry, it’s not out here in the boonies. It’s on the beach. Well, a street off the beach. You’ll be safe. Another girl I rescued is staying with me too. She jumped off a boat to get away from the people who were delivering girls to work at the bars.”
“She was okay?”
“Waterlogged. Scratched up. Dehydrated. She’s fine now.”
“She is lucky too. Like us.”
Alexander shrugged. “Somebody would have found her. I’d like to think most people would do what I did.” He slowed to make a right turn onto the road that would lead them to Bolivar. “I think I asked this. If you told me, I don’t remember. Do you know her name?” He motioned toward the girl in the back.
“No, I don’t, and I don’t know if Angel knew it. If he did, he never used it. He called her the ‘stubborn bitch’. Mostly ‘bitch’ for short.”
“I sure hope she’s not mentally broken. I mean, to the point where she won’t trust us or, even worse, try to harm herself.”
“Oh, God. I hope not.”
“I’ll need your help. We may have to watch her twenty-four hours a day for a few days. You’ll have to talk to her and find out how’s she’s doing. You’ll have to convince her she is safe with us. Think you can do that?”
“I will try.”
Alexander, Bonita, and the girl rode in silence for a few miles.
“How much farther?” Bonita said.
“Not long. Five minutes.”
“That’s good. I like your little car. It’s so cute but bumpy. It doesn’t ride smooth like the big cars the men drive us around in.”
“That’s how they were designed. They’re fun to drive. Like driving a go-cart.”
Bonita inspected the knobs and toggle switches on the MINI in silence.
Alexander turned onto his street and into his driveway. “Here we are. Can you help me with her?”
“Sí.”
Alexander parked and walked to the passenger side. When Bonita got out, he pulled the lever to lean the seatback forward, clutched the girl by her shoulders, twisted her ninety degrees, and pulled her over the seat and out of the car.
The girl looked around and began to fight. “No. No. No,” she said over and over again as Alexander held her tight against his body. She threw an elbow connecting with his jaw. He staggered slightly but held tight. The girl kicked violently at Bonita when she approached to help.
“Calm down,” Bonita said in Spanish, shielding herself from the girl’s kicks. “Please, calm down. He is not going to hurt you.”
The girl put up a heroic fight, but her energy was quickly expended. She collapsed in Alexander’s arms. “Terminemos con esto,” she muttered in a soft, defeated voice.
“No te va a joder,” Bonita said.
“What’d she say?” Alexander asked.
“She said, ‘Let’s get this over with.’ I told her that you were not going to fuck her.”
The girl was small, a tad over five feet tall. In her malnourished condition, she couldn’t have weighed ninety pounds. As Alexander carried her up the beach house steps, he remembered the amplifiers and speakers he’d schlepped up the same steps. Some weighed more than twice the girl he was carrying.
The temperature was in the mid-nineties, along with the humidity. Most residents of the beach community were busy enjoying the air-conditioned comfort of their beach homes, so it was unlikely anyone witnessed Alexander drag a woman, kicking and screaming from his car and carry her into his beach house.
“I’m going to put her in the back room. That’s where my other guest, May, is staying.” Alexander went into May’s room and laid the girl on the bed.
Bonita quickly sat beside her and brushed the girl’s hair out of her face. “You’re safe. No one is going to hurt you. Do you understand?”
The girl nodded.
“Do you need anything? Something to eat, water? Alex, if she needs food or water, do you have anything for her?”
“Yes, of course. For you too, if you’re hungry.”
“Thank you. I’m fine.”
Bonita turned back to speak to the girl in the bed, but the girl was already asleep. Alexander and Bonita tiptoed out of the room, closing the door behind them.
“If she wakes up, will she freak out?” Alexander asked.
“Maybe. I don’t think she’ll know where she is or how she got here. Should I stay with her?”
“If you’d like. Are you tired?”
“Not too much. I’d rather stay with you.”
“I’d like that too. Would you like something to drink?”
“You want to buy me a drink?” Bonita flashed the same sexy partial smile she showed at the bar.
The smile was intoxicating. Alexander could not believe how beautiful this woman was. “I’d love to buy you a drink. What would you like?”
“I don’t know. What are you going to have?”
“I’m having Scotch.”
“No, I don’t like Scotch much. Do you have tequila?”
“I do. Straight or mixed. A Margarita, maybe?”
“On the rocks would be nice.”
Alexander chose his finest aged single malt. For his guest, he picked Don Julio Blanco Tequila. Not being a tequila drinker, he bought it for the rare occasion he had a guest who was. He was not sure how discriminating his current guest was, but he’d start her with it. After a couple, he’d switch to the more moderately priced Jose Cuervo Tradicional Silver.
Bonita was looking out the French doors when Alexander handed her the glass of tequila. She held up the glass. “Here’s to you, Alex. Thank you.” Without moving her eyes from his, she clinked her glass to his.
They did not break eye contact while they took a sip of their drinks. “Oh my God,” Bonita exclaimed, looking away from Alexander to her glass. “This is amazing. What is it?”
Alexander wished he’d given her the cheap stuff. The expensive stuff had just broken the mood. “It’s Julio Blanco.”
“It’s so good. If I get alcohol at all in my drinks at the club, it’s the cheapest crap they have. It tastes awful. I love this.”
“I’m glad you like it. On another note, I have some women’s clothes in the back bedroom. You’re welcome to look for something you’d be more comfortable in.”
“You don’t like this?” she pirouetted so Alexander could look at her.
“It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful. I thought you might want to change.”
“No, I’m fine, for now.”
“Shall we sit?”
“Sure.”
Alexander turned on the stereo once they were settled on the couch. Soft jazz began playing at a background listening level. Bonita moved closer to Alexander. She faced him, with one leg under her which made her closer to his height. She crossed her other leg, her knee partially resting on his thigh, then ran her hand up to his shoulder and caressed the back of his neck. She looked him in the eyes and raised her glass. “You make the toast this time.”
Alexander raised his glass next to hers, hoping she wouldn’t notice it trembling. “Hmm,” he said. “Okay...here’s to the future.”
Bonita took a sip without breaking eye contact. When Alexander lowered his glass, she leaned forward and kissed him.
“That was wonderful. I have not kissed a man in many years,” she said and kissed him again.
Alexander’s head was spinning faster than his heart was beating. It occurred to him this gorgeous girl might be working, following up on what could be a lucrative payday since the earlier encounter had been interrupted by the ruckus at the bar. Another couple of drinks, a few more kisses, and he would be reaching for his wallet. It was also possible she felt she owed him. Making love to him might be the only way she knew how to repay him for taking her away from the bar. He didn’t like either scenario, but he preferred the second. The girl didn’t owe him.
“Bonita, you don’t have to do this.”
She scooted on top of him, sitting sideways on his lap, her knees pulled close to her body. She twisted her torso toward him and put her arms around his shoulders. “You don’t want to make love with me?”
“No. I mean...yes. I do. But no, I don’t know.”
Bonita gave him a deep, hot, passionate kiss. “You don’t know if you want to make love? Is it because of what I am?”
“Because you’re a beautiful woman?”
“You’re funny. That’s sweet, but you know what I mean.”
“Bonita, my dear, what you were is the furthest thing from my mind.”
“Why don’t you want to make love to me?” she asked as she stroked the stubble on his chin.
“I want you to want to. I don’t want you to feel you’re obligated.”
“Oh, Alex, I do want to. I have not wanted to make love with a man in forever. I don’t even remember the last time I wanted to. When you walked into the bar today, my heart fluttered. It really did. It has never done that. Ever! At first, I was going to pretend I wasn’t a bargirl and we could drink, but nothing else. I didn’t know what I should do. Could you tell?”
“Uh, no, I didn’t notice. You were wonderful.”
“I got that crazy notion out of my head. Guys don’t come to bars like that to meet girls to take home to their mothers. But I still wanted to be with you. It was the only time I wanted a guy to buy me a drink. You know, I usually don’t let guys touch me the way you did. Not until they’ve bought me several drinks.”
“I’m sorry about that. I wanted to let you know I was interested. I didn’t want to come right out and ask. I was afraid you’d think I was a cop.”
“I was about to proposition you.” Bonita took a drink, ran her tongue across her upper lip, and tilted her head to look at Alexander. “Would you have come?”
“Probably way too quickly.”
Bonita began laughing hysterically. “I was not expecting you to say that.”
“To answer your question, yeah, I would have gone to the back room with you. But I swear I’d have tried my best just to talk to you.”
“Talk to me?”
“Yeah, I’m looking for some Cuban girls who were smuggled in last week.”
“Cuban girls? Yes, I have met some. I hear there is a lot of them. They’re spread out in different bars and live in a couple of buildings. Why are you looking for them?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll tell you all about it later, if that’s okay?”
“Fine with me. You really wouldn’t have fucked—” Bonita blushed. “I’m sorry. I...”
“It’s okay. I’m a big boy. I’ve heard the word before.”
“I know, from me earlier today, but this is different. I’m sure you’ve never had a girl you just met ask you why you wouldn’t fuck her.”
“No, I probably haven’t. Don’t worry about it.”
“Alex, I don’t want to be that girl in the bar. I want to be a better person.”
“You’re on the right track.” He was pulling her close to kiss her when the door opened.
Bat was the first in. “May and I saw your car – Holy shit!”
Bonita quickly pulled her dress down between her legs.
“I...I guess I should start knocking. Should we come back?” Bat said, trying not to make eye contact with Bonita and embarrass her more.
May stopped in her tracks and, unlike Bat, stared at the couple on the couch.
“No,” Alexander said as he helped Bonita slide off his lap. “Uh, Bat, May, this is Bonita. Bonita, this is May Diaz and Bartholomew Farnsworth the Third.”
“Call me Bat. It’s nice to meet you.” Bat had to raise his head to look Bonita in the eye.
“Nice to meet you too,” she said, shaking his hand. “Nice to meet you, May.”
“It’s nice meeting you. I hope we didn’t interrupt.”
“No, we were just having a drink,” Bonita said, trying to regain her composure.
“I need a refill. Does anyone else want a drink?” Alexander asked.
“No,” Bat said. “The sun is starting to go down, and May and I were going to take a stroll along the beach. She wanted to change clothes.” He raised an eyebrow at May, hoping she would follow his lead.
“Oh, yeah,” May said, finally getting Bat’s signal. “I’ll want to change clothes. Let me go in and change.”
Alexander laughed. “You don’t need to go. Bonita is going to be staying with us a while.” He took note of Bat’s confused expression and added, “It’s a long story.”
May studied the tall, sexily dressed woman with Alexander before heading to her room.
Alexander called after her, “By the way, there’s a girl in your—”
May let out a spine-chilling scream. “It’s Briana!”