Violet Grenade(80)

"You went out with Cain last night," Madam Karina says. It isn't a question. The porch seems to drop out from under my feet, and I grab onto the bench's chain, thankful for the support. "I have little spies everywhere."

She knows where we went. She knows what we found.

I'll never leave this town.

I wear a mask of indifference while fighting a wave of dizziness. The madam nods toward the empty end of the bench, asking if she can take it. I look away, communicating that I don't care what she does. When her weight settles in next to me, the entire half of my body that she touches goes numb.

"I know the temptations boys present, but you must trust me when I tell you they bring nothing but trouble."

I turn and face her, confusion tightening my features.

She raises a hand and strokes the delicate skin beneath my eyes. "But I suppose you learned that the hard way."

Understanding dawns on me. She thinks Cain and I snuck off to be together last night, and that he inflicted the damage to my face. Relief floods my body, and I find the courage to breathe again. Knowing I need to respond, I say, "I feel like I can't trust anyone."

Not entirely a lie.

"Oh, Domino." Madam Karina slides her arm around my shoulders. "Don't say such things. You can trust me."

I touch a hand to my throat. To the place she sent me a message. That's what it was. She was showing her dominance-like an alpha wolf pinning a pack mate to maintain the hierarchy.

She withdraws her arm and folds her hands in her lap. "I've already apologized for what I did to you. And I told you the doctor is calling on me. I'm sick, sweetheart. Can you understand that?"

Ellie's face springs into my mind. Her bruised face, her busted lip. A figure that must have once been voluptuous and healthy, now shrunken from inadequate meals. She clung to those bars and begged for this woman's forgiveness. Said she'd work for Madam Karina for however long she wanted, if she'd only let her out. 

The woman who's soothing me with her false words is the same woman who'd throw me away like a used tissue if I upset her enough.

"I understand," I whisper, fury swirling inside my chest. "But how can you be sure the doctor will make you better?"

Madam Karina reads my question as true concern and replaces her arm around me. "Don't you worry about that. Not for one second. I will get better. I'm not going anywhere, and neither are you." She opens her free hand on my thigh, and I stare down at it. Bile rises in my throat as I place my own hand in hers. She squeezes and lays her head on top of mine. We rock in silence as crickets violin their legs and the bench creaks back and forth. My muscles are clenched and my mouth painfully dry when she says in a lullaby voice, "You're Mama's sweet girl, aren't you?"

I clamp my eyes shut and try not to scream. Wilson folds himself around my mind in a protective barrier, growling.

"Yes," I say. "I am."





Chapter Fifty-One

Pink Elephant

Moments after Madam Karina leaves me alone on the porch, Angie steps outside. She doesn't look in my direction, but she doesn't head toward her tractor, Black Betty, either. She just shoves her hands into her pockets and scrunches her face like she's solving a riddle.

"I'm okay," I tell her.

"That's not why I'm out here."

"Yes, it is," I say. "It wouldn't hurt you to be more direct about your feelings."

Angie huffs. "Feelings. What good they do anyone I'll never know."

I roll my eyes and attempt a smile though I'm rattled to the bone. Angie's Dobermans jump around near her tractor, nipping each other on the back and rolling in the dirt like newborn pups. My eyes are still on them when she takes two quick steps toward me and withdraws a peppermint from her pocket. She won't even look at me when she hands it over.

I take it from her. Roll it between my palms. "I found the girls, you know."

Angie shoots a glance toward the house.

"They're in jail cells in the basement of the municipal building," I whisper.

Angie curses under her breath. "I figured that's where they were, but I wasn't certain."

"Why didn't you do something if you knew, Angie?" I can't help the accusation in my voice.

"Because I would have ended up like them if I had, and none of us would be better for it." Angie turns her face away, ashamed. I can feel the fear and regret rolling off her, though it does little to lessen my disappointment. I can't imagine not trying to help.

I have to help.

Angie looks once more at the house and lowers her head toward mine. "If you have a chance to leave this place unnoticed, you do it. You do it, and you don't ever look back, not for nothing and no one." Angie surprises me then. Grabs my arm and pulls me up from the bench and into an awkward hug. I feel her hand lowering, but before I can register what it is she's doing, Madam Karina bursts through the door.