“Just keep looking at the ocean little bird. Keep watching the waves, then just talk.”
A moment passed, and she felt his arms grow tighter around her.
“It’s weird you know. Our stories. They are a lot the same,” she whispered, thinking about his story and hers.
Then she continued.
Telling him everything that she was afraid of.
Everything that she hoped wouldn’t send him running.
“My father had always liked to gamble. My mother would yell at him when he got home when I was younger. Later she didn’t even try. But by then she always smelled like booze. It’s weird you know. I used to have this perception of what my family was like. But now, looking back, I can see how wrong it was. Like how we were all afraid to speak up against him. How my brothers were treated differently than me. How my mother looked worn down more and more each day.” She sighed, weaving her fingers through his at her chest.
“Anyways, I think he got in with the wrong people and Ernesto bought the loan. At least that’s what Ernesto used to say. It makes sense though.”
“How old were you?” She could hear the grit in his voice, as if he was clenching his jaw hard enough that it made it hard to talk.
“I was sixteen when he first came to our house. But he didn’t come for me then, father said he was there on business. I didn’t really know anything about it, but a few weeks before my graduation my father decided to take me with him to do something special for my birthday. It was weird, ’cause he never took me anywhere, but I was too excited to question it. He drove me to the airport and never looked back. I kept screaming for him, but Ernesto just laughed at me. Said that I was his property now.”
“You know that’s not right, right? Nobody can own a person.”
“I do now, but not then. It wasn’t until Rosita came that she helped me to see that it wasn’t okay.” She sighed, then went on.
“My family wasn’t very worldly before I was taken. We went to a small church school in our town, and hardly ever went anywhere outside of it. We were sheltered in a way, I guess. Or I was sheltered. Maybe not so much my brothers. I was always treated a little different. I can see that now. How father controlled us. How terrified my mother was. I didn’t see it then, but I do now.” Her voice shook as she talked, the memories evoking feelings that she had long tried to bury just to survive.
“Easy, little bird, just breathe,” he murmured, holding her tighter, and she tried to let the feeling of him steady her. “Just keep talking.”
“He was often not there at all. Ernesto I mean. Which was a good thing. His guards and the people around me would report back to him. The doctor, the guards, they all helped to keep me there. It was like a prison. I just didn’t know how to get out. But when he was there …” She trailed off as her body started to shake harder.
“I don’t want to talk about this if it’s too hard for you.” He whispered into her hair, but she shook her head. She needed to do this. For him, and for her.
You can do this.
“No, you deserve to understand what it is that you are getting into.”
“Whoa … hold up!” He pulled her shoulder back making her look at him as he leaned around her, a frown on his face. “Whether you tell me or not I’m not going anywhere. Okay? And second off, I had an investigation done, so I know a lot of what happened anyways.”
“Why are we talking about it then?” she snapped, her back going straight as anger filled her.
“Because, little bird, if we are going to move forward, I need you to trust me. That means trusting me with the good and the bad,” he said softly, but it did nothing to soothe her frayed nerves.
He doesn’t understand,she thought.
“You’re not going to want me afterwards,” she muttered, shrugging out of his hold and facing forward. It was just too hard to look at him right then.
“Trust me, there isn’t anything you could say that will make me leave. I used to be an Enforcer for the Mancini Family. For the Mafia. There isn’t anything that I haven’t seen or done.”
“Dominic is in the Mafia?” she asked with a frown.
“Not anymore. It’s a long story, but he was lucky he was able to get us out. His father used his contacts so that we could walk away. It doesn’t mean that we are choir boys now, it just means that we aren’t tied to that lifestyle anymore.”
“What is an enforcer?” she asked.
“An enforcer makes sure the rules are followed. In my case it often had to do with other families. If there was a problem with them, Sergio would send me out and I would fix it.”
“Like with Ernesto?”
“Yes, little bird, like with Ernesto. I was sent to infiltrate the cartel, to determine why they were working against Dominic. But along with that, I found you.” She leaned back into him at his words, giving him her weight.
