“Tonya… that’s her name?” He asks her.
“Yes.” Shay is sure as she nods her head.
“What happened after that?” I ask her as I ignore Emmett.
“Marlana told her what I saw…” her chin shakes and a tear drops down her cheek. “A week later I was raped in the locker room at school by Halbert. He told me to keep my mouth shut or he would make the raping a regular thing. I was scared, so I kept my mouth shut. But then Marlana began to blackmail me. She had a copy of that rape and the way she filmed it made it look consensual. But I promise you it wasn’t!”
“I believe you.” I tell her and place my hand on her shoulder. “This is what’s going to happen, I’m giving you my number and you are to call or text me if you get anything about this from Marlana. Even if you feel like something bad is going to happen. I will pick you up and bring you to Ember’s, she’ll protect you.”
“She hates me.” She moans.
“No, she just takes a while to trust.” Emmett tells her as I nod in agreement.
“Okay.” She whispers.
After we drop Shay off at her house, we sit on her street and wait to see if we notice anyone familiar lurking around. Being in Ember’s Mercedes makes it easier to blend in.
“Tonya,” Emmett breaks the silence. “That was the name of the prostitute your father had for Travis.”
“What?” I snap my head around.
“Yeah,” he scrubs his hand down his face and lets out a heavy breath. “The one he forced him to fuck.”
“Maybe Tonya needs a visit too.” I murmur.
“Any idea who Marlana’s father is?” He asks me.
I laugh and throw my head back, “it’d be funny if it were my father, that’s what you’re thinking, right? Add incest to the pot.” I shake my head and chuckle. “Her father lives in Toronto and trust me I know it’s her father, she looks exactly like him.”
His hand slaps my chest and he directs my attention to a familiar car driving towards us. We slide down a bit in our seats and watch as a recognizable purple head passes by us.
“They are watching her.” Emmett says on an exhale.
“Yeah.”
I pull out of where we’re parked and head home. Looks like we have ourselves another issue.
8
I don’t know if I’m more excited about learning Shay’s secret or the prospect of killing Marlana and her dirty whore of a mother. I don’t know what the fuck I’m saying, obviously it’s killing that bitch and knowing what her mother did to Travis just gave them a gruesome end.
“Em,” Vin’s voice breaks through my thoughts of blood and purple hair.
“Hmm?”
“What should we do about Shay?”
“I don’t trust her,” I shrug. “But I don’t want anything to happen to her. Maybe we should hit up Marlana’s house by the end of the week.”
Everyone nods and I notice Travis looking a little down. Lately, he’s been stronger and not so susceptible to depression but I know that anything can set someone over the edge. I get up from my seat at the table.
“Travis can I show you something in the office?”
He nods and follows behind me. I lock us inside and sit at the desk while he sits on the sofa.
“What do you want me to do about this?” I know what I want to do but I also know it has to be his decision.
“I’m not sure.” He looks torn. “She was a victim too, right? He told her to take it from me, to let me do to her what he did.”
“I don’t know about ‘victim’.” I shake my head. “It didn’t sound as though she hated participating in the rape of a boy. Because that’s what it was.”
“I know. I also know he threatened to kill her if I didn’t. I’m sure he said the same to her.” He drops his head to his chest. “Maybe we should find out more information before we decide anything.”
“With your situation aside,” I interject. “Shay was raped by Halbert because Marlana told her mother. That is something we can’t ignore. We also can’t ignore the fact that Marlana filmed it and then continued to blackmail Shay for years. Remember the party? She blackmailed Shay to release the video of Vin and I.”
“Right.” He nods. “I know they’re not good people. I just don’t want to be the one that decides their fate.”
“No problem.” I nod. “I would love to be the one that does. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine. Just sad that I grew up around some of the most vile people. I can’t believe how fucked this little town is.”
“We’re going to fix it.” I assure him.
“I know.” He nods. “I’m going to go continue on your grandfather’s things. Thanks E.”
I nod and watch as he leaves the office. His step is a bit lighter than when he first came in here and I can only hope I relieved a bit of his burden.
Vin and I are seated at the back of the courtroom watching the latest sentencing Judge Watkins hands down to a first time drug offender.
“Twelve years.” He hits the gavel and I want to scream as I watch the young black man being hauled away. The systemic racism in North America is so blatantly in people’s faces and yet all of us turn a blind eye. Easier than dealing with the repercussions of fighting against the most corrupt system.
I seal his name into my memory-Rodney Jones-and vow to do something about that unfair sentence.
“Piece of shit.” Vin grounds out, his jaw clenched tight as he watches the Judge get up from his seat.
“We’re going to hand him a sentence too, Baby.” I pat his knee.
Judge Watkins is a severely overweight man. I watch as he literally waddles out the fucking
