Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141255 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 706(@200wpm)___ 565(@250wpm)___ 471(@300wpm)
“Dare, I… it’s so...”
“Please, baby. I need details. I need them now. I know it’s probably gonna break you to talk about this shit, Angel, but I’m here. I won’t let anything happen. You need to enlighten me so that I can deal with this shit. Give it all to me. Let me take care of you. I’ve got you. You break and I’ll help you get back together, okay my baby? It’s okay to break. I’m here. Trust me to look after you.”
He leaned down and took my hand and got me to my feet. He kissed my forehead. “C’mon, let’s get into bed.”
He held me close. I slithered down to his belly and planted my cheek on it and stared up at him. He had such a gentle and caring look on his face. It was hitting me straight in the soul. He tucked my hair behind my ear and jerked his chin up, urging me to start. It took me a minute but I found my voice.
“I do trust you. I do.”
“Okay, baby. Go.” He jerked his chin up.
“I was having fun in Thailand. Teaching, hanging out with other teachers, some other expats my age. We hung out in this nightclub and a lot of Americans, Canadians, and Brits went there. That’s where I met Jason. He managed the club. He was handsome. He liked me. We started to date. He wanted to get serious like really fast. It freaked me out but we were having fun, so I kept trying to keep it light. He was more serious than I was, though. This Thai woman who was the cleaning lady for the nightclub pulled me aside one day. She was always giving me weird looks and stuff and then one day Jason and I fell asleep in the office after the club closed. That’s the night he proposed. I laughed it off, thinking he was just drunk, and then he got emotional about it. I calmed him down with sex and we fell asleep.”
I glazed over for a second in remembrance, but shook it off.
“Anyway, the next morning he was in a mood because I hadn’t accepted and said he had to run an errand so I went to leave to go back to my place and the cleaning lady warned me. She told me that Jason’s family was involved in slavery and that I should steer clear. She begged me not to out her. They didn’t know she spoke English so spoke freely enough around her to tip her off, I guess. She said she thought I was a nice girl and didn’t want to see me tied to that. So I tried to back off from Jase and then he proposed to me again, sensing I was pulling away. He was really desperate the second time. It was creepy. He was talking in riddles and saying things to the effect of that I’d be sorry if I didn’t pick him because that’d change everything.”
“Keep going. You’re doing good, my baby.”
I took a big breath and let it out slowly. “I freaked me out, the conversation with that lady, so I was gonna quit my job once I got out of Thailand. I told no one. They must’ve been watching me because I got flagged at the airport, put in this little room, and the next thing I know I’m in that little room with Jase and his uncle, who I hadn’t met yet. They were trying to play things carefully with me, see if I knew anything.”
“Then what?” Dare prompted when I stopped talking, trying to breathe through my nerves.
I swallowed. “I told them I had an emergency back home and was just flying back temporarily. They didn’t buy it. The woman who warned me was brought in and I knew that they’d figured out she’d told me. Mr. Frost left me alone in the room with Jason and Jase tried to sweet-talk me. Obviously, they weren’t convinced that I didn’t know anything, so then his uncle took over and told Jason I was off limits, that they had to pull me in. Jase freaked and grabbed the gun from a guard and shot the woman in the head who told me. Right in front of me. He pointed the gun to his uncle and his uncle talked him down but then overpowered him and pistol whipped him until he was knocked out. The uncle took me. I tried not to break. I used to be so strong, but then they showed me–”
I was shaking. He pulled me up by the armpits so I was beside him and tight against him. I couldn’t see his face for the last part because I was right against his chest.
“They kept working on breaking me and then they showed me that they had Holly. My 15-year-old sister, Dare. They fucking had her bound and gagged on a plane and were threatening to bring her to Thailand. That’s when the name I was born with, that person, she ceased to exist. That’s when I became Felicia. I had to be Felicia so she wouldn’t have to be. Please don’t make me tell you the rest. Please. Mr. Frost kept me to teach Jason a lesson and I didn’t think Jase was all that dangerous. I thought he… he…”