CHAPTER SEVEN
The pounding on the door had the three men grinning at one another.
“Boys, I think we have company,” said Red.
“And I don’t have the tea kettle on,” frowned Bullett.
With his pistol in his hand, the others with their rifles pointed at the door, he pulled the door open wide and brought the gun up under the chin of the man standing in front of him.
Gino froze, his eyes wide as the men behind him backed up a step.
“Hello, fellas. Any reason why you’re pounding on my fucking door at 0400?” asked Red.
“We’re looking for a girl that your buddy left the club with tonight. Marissa is her name and according to the license plate, your buddy’s name is Joey Dougall.”
“Never heard of him,” said Bullett. “That license plate is mine. Bought the truck from a guy that deployed a month ago.”
Giamanco’s men stared at one another, unsure of whether to believe the man or not.
“You’re in the Army?” asked Tony.
“Army? Yeah, you might say that,” said Bo. “We’re Army Rangers.”
Now the men understood. They were a different breed, a different caliber of soldier. They might outnumber these three men but their skills couldn’t be matched.
“Where’s the girl?” asked Tony.
“Told you, mister, ain’t no woman here,” said Red.
“You guys are hiding something and we’ll find out. When we do, you’re not gonna like what will happen to you,” said Tony. “We want the fucking girl. She owes us money.”
“Sounds like your problem, not ours. Now, get off my doorstep or I call the MP’s, the locals, and the state police. After that, I’ll be calling the feds,” said Bullett.
Tony stared at the three men, then looked back at his own men. He nodded several times, then backed up.
“Fine. We’ll leave. For now. But when we find your friend and the girl, you’re all dead.”
“You’ll forgive me if I’m not scared,” smirked Bo. “I mean, that was a great act and all. Very Sopranos like, but it didn’t have the juice it needed.”
“You got a smart fucking mouth, kid,” said the older man.
“Kid? Dude, I’ve seen more shit in my lifetime than you could possibly imagine.
I’m not a kid and don’t make the mistake of thinking of me as one.
See, I know a million ways to kill you and your little cheer squad and hide the bodies.
I suspect you boys know a bit about that as well.
But I’ve got an entire fucking Army backing me. Literally.”
Tony was literally chewing on the inside of his mouth afraid of what he might say or do.
“Boss wants us back at the house,” said one of the men. Bo smirked at them, waving them backwards with his fingers.
“Run along, now. You don’t want to be late. Boss might get upset and dock your pay.”
“Fuck off,” said Tony. “Let’s go.”
They watched as the men pulled out in the very stereotypical black sedans.
“They sent seven guys to get one girl,” said Bo. “They want her for more than the money.” The others frowned, waiting and watching.
“Now what?” asked Red.
“Now, we wait and see if Joey needs us. I’m with you guys, something is fucked up.”
The sun was coming up over the ridge and Joey desperately needed coffee but first he needed to get some clothes for Marissa. He turned to look at her sleeping form, noticing the long, bare legs stretched out on the seat. Her blonde hair covered her face and his body reacted.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
She stirred beside him, slowly sitting up. At first, she said nothing just looking around at the scenery. When she turned to see his face, tears welled up in her eyes.
“Don’t hate me, Joey. I couldn’t take it if you hated me.”
“Hate you? Marissa, I don’t hate you. I don’t understand how all this happened, but I don’t hate you.”
She was quiet then reached over to turn the heat up in the truck. He could only smile inwardly. She was practically naked other than the sequined thong still covering part of her ass.
“We’ll stop and get you some clothes,” he said. She nodded and then pointed to a thrift store.
“They usually open early,” she said. “I’ve had to use them these past few months.”
He pulled into the parking lot and sure enough, the lights were on. Behind his seat, he grabbed a black duffel bag. Pulling out a pair of black sweats, he handed them to her.
“They’ll be huge, but you can tighten and tie them for now. I have some slides, but they’re going to be too big, too.”
“It’s okay. I can make do until we find something,” she whispered.
She shuffled alongside him as they entered the store. There was an older woman working the counter but she said nothing to them. Right away, Marissa pulled two pairs of jeans and two sweatshirts from the rack. Since it was a thrift store, it didn’t even total ten bucks.
“Get a few more things. Tees, sweaters, sweats. You’ll need something to sleep in as well. Oh, and undergarments. Wait. Do they have unused undergarments here?”
“Yes,” she smiled. “They’re not very sexy but they’re comfortable.”
Sure enough, there were rows of packaged underwear and brand-new bras. With their arms full, Joey grabbed a wool coat for her as they paid for their purchases.
“I’ll pay you back, Joey.”
“You don’t have to pay me back,” he said grabbing the things.
Outside in the truck, he nodded for her to get in the back and change. A few minutes later, she was dressed in the jeans and sweater, a new pair of socks on her feet and a barely worn pair of hiking boots.
“D-do you have a comb or brush?” she asked.
“In the bag,” he said nodding toward his duffel.
She grabbed the brush and ran it through her long blonde hair, then tied it up with an elastic holder.
“It’s as good as it’s going to get,” she said with a small smile. He stared at her and she squirmed. “What?”
“You’re beautiful. You’re more fucking beautiful than the last time I saw you and that’s pretty damn beautiful.”
“How can you say that? You saw me. I was stripping,” she said in a choked voice.
“You were doing what you thought you had to do. I guess what I don’t understand is why you didn’t trust someone. Your parents, your brothers, me. We would have helped.”
“They threatened everyone, Joey. They said they could get to anyone and it would be my fault.”
“You know who we are, Marissa. You know what we do. No one will get to us,” he said still sitting in the parking lot.
“Okay. Okay, so I was wrong and I know that now. But what do we do? He’ll come for me.”
“There’s something else here. Something else he wants. Did he sell the girls?”
“You mean prostitution?” she asked.
“That, or did he actually sell them to buyers?” She froze for a moment, the tears building again.
“I-I don’t know. I never thought of that. He kept saying I had to dance a while longer for him and then my debt would be paid but there was no way. I wasn’t making enough to pay that debt. The most I could hope for was running away.”
“He would have killed you,” said Joey shaking his head. “What were you doing at Duke? I mean, what were you studying?”
“I was working on my master’s in chemistry, weapons chemistry.”
“Shit,” he muttered. “Did your roommates know that?”
“Yes. They asked questions all the time but they didn’t understand any of what I was telling them. In fact, at one point I thought one of them had stolen my notebook but I found it a few days later.”
“What was in the notes? What were you writing about?”
“It was for my master’s final project. It wasn’t my choice. My professor gave us the assignments. I was to write about the gas chambers and tortures of World War II and how they could have been improved.”
“Improved?” he frowned. “What sort of fucking psycho is he?”
“A very, very deranged one,” she frowned. “I was already mixed up with the gambling when he was fired from Duke. I don’t know what happened to him but other students complained about his assignments and tactics as well.”
They sat in silence for a while longer. The soft playing of the radio made Marissa turn to look at Joey.
“It’s almost new years’. I missed Christmas altogether,” she said. “Heck of a way for me to start a new year.”
“Maybe it is. I’m going to fix this for you, Marissa. We’re going to fix this. I called home. I called your father, grandfather, all of them. My dad and others are coming to help.”
She started to protest, started to yell at him but knew it would do no good. They knew now. She would have to face them all.
“Then maybe it is a good time to start a new year,” she whispered to herself. “You promise you don’t hate me?”
“I promise. In fact, I told your father that I love you.” She stared at him, unsure if she’d heard him correctly. “I mean it, Marissa. I’ve loved you for a while now. In fact, before all this happened I was planning to come to Raleigh to see you and spend the weekend.”
She said nothing, just staring at him, then looking off across the parking lot. She looked back at him and then slapped his arm.
“All this time. All this time you’ve been so close and you didn’t once reach out to me. Not once! Do you know how lonely I was? How desperately I wanted to talk to someone? To talk to you!”
“You wanted to talk to me?” he frowned.
“God, why are men such assholes? Yes. To talk to you, Joey. I was lonely long before all of this. I was scared, I wasn’t making a lot of friends, I was drowning in my studies, and I knew I’d fucked up at home. I needed a friend, more than a friend and you’re all I thought about.
“When Mom said that Bailey had gotten engaged, my heart sank. I just knew it was you. Then when I heard it wasn’t you, I had hope. I thought of calling you so many times but they took our phones and destroyed them.”
“You’re sure they destroyed it?” he asked.
“That’s what you’re worried about?” she yelled.
“Sorry. No. That’s not all I’m worried about,” he smirked. He pulled her across the seat, putting his arms around her. “Marissa, I’ve wanted to ask you out for years now but you were never home. I sent you e-mails, text messages, anything I could and you didn’t respond.”
“I-I didn’t get them,” she said shaking her head. “I swear. I never got one.”
“Okay. It’s okay. You’re here now and I’m not letting you go. Not unless you tell me to. If you say you don’t want to try, you don’t want this to work out, I’ll take you home and walk away. I’ll take care of this for you and never look back.”
“No! No, please don’t do that. Joey, I’ve been in love with you since I was a kid. I was shy and awkward and not like the others. I didn’t know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to do it. Just when I thought I was getting my life on track, all this happened.”
“You’re in love with me,” he smiled. Marissa laughed.
“Yes. I’ve been in love with you a long time. But you said you were in love with me, too.”
“I fucking am,” he said lowering his mouth to hers. They shared a long, passionate kiss and she pulled back when her stomach growled.
“I think I’m also hungry,” she blushed.
“Me too. Let’s get some food and then we figure out where we’ll hide until this is done.”