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In fact, she held Nicole co that the police pull her in for questioning and force her to give up my whereabouts When that didn’t work, because there was no indication of foul play (athered up all my stuff and dumped it on Nicole’s front lawn My mother had yelled at Nicole, called her a whore and self-serving rich girl She had calledsoht Still, Nicole reassured ht, call iven a da didn’t care I wanted to live I wanted out of this hell

What I needed was cash, lots of it A hundred grand to be exact "Holy shit Livvie! How aet that kind of ht now" Not what I needed to hear I had looked up at Tiny and Javier, one of them looked expectant, the other worried his eye on the door I wish it had been only Javier at the bar, he seeain, he also left me there to be captured

"I need that h and al "I don’t knohat he’ll do towhen Tiny took the receiver and made it very clear ould happen to h Everywhere I turned these days I was someone’s property

He looked down atback at him But I knew since my own mother had failed to help me, it was all too likely the cops would care even less Especially in a poor, drug-run country like Mexico I had a choice between bad, worse and excruciating It was no choice at all

"We’re leaving--now"

I didn’t bother asking where We drove, too fast foroff but I still had a small sliver of hope that this fked up plan would work, and I’d be free As Tiny’s bike slowed down, my heart sped up

We were headed toward Chihuahua Nicole wouldto do it I had no idea Worse, I didn’t know if she could do it I only knew she had told Tiny she’d be there with theme time But first we had to ’ I was not at all excited to meet more people like Tiny, but as usual I had no choice and no say I pulled Caleb’s jacket closer tofor me? And why did the idea fill me with both a sense of dread and hope? Hope for what? For a iven hio eventually I blinked, hard You did the right thing Livvie This can work, it can

As we pulled up to the run-down house I heard several voices laughing, shouting, orchatter as loud rock ot off the bike Tiny laughed as he walked to the door

"Watch yourself little girl, you don’t want that bike fallin’ down on you" I didn’t think it was too damn funny

He opened the door to the house and let out the only thingthan theevery decision I had ever h the doorway All conversation ca woman, turned to stare at me I tensed at their blatant scrutiny, ly aroused

"Everybody, this is Jessica," Tiny introducedhis cash in his head most likely I decided to use a fake name, for no other reason than I didn’t want anyone to know my real one "Nobody fk with her," he looked at me lasciviously, "unless she wants to be fked with" Still silence, except for the long version of Noveh crappy boom box speakers I shrank further inside Caleb’s coat, another coretted decision This whole fking thing isted irony Tiny turned tothe introductions, "Jessica this is Joker, S, Kid, and his bitch, Nancy"

Who the fk cared? I sure didn’t I just stared blankly at all of theave a snide look, as if I called her a bitch as a greeting

I said nothing Growing up poor and in LA taughtYou can’t look weak, but you can’t look too defiant or soe And fk withonly a few of the eyes briefly before just staring off, not responding and just giving an indifferent and vague nod of acknowledghand onhysterical for ato freak out, not when I needed to be aware

"Nancy, why don’t you take Jessica here and get her so to eat before we pack up and ride out I want to ht fall"

Nancy rolled her eyes at Tiny and then looked at , "Well come on then"