Chapter Fifteen
Fuck… I never thought to look into that bastard’s family, and now they're after Ayla. I don’t know who or what they want, but it was them.
I recognized the barbed wire and snake tattoo on that guy’s inner forearm when he was first getting out of the tagless car.
It looked a little like a Corolla, which doesn’t matter much.
It’s probably stolen. I don’t know who the other two are, but him…
it looks just like the fucker that raped Tabitha had.
In hindsight, I should have looked into who his family was and who he ran with, but I can’t change that. I do need to figure out why the fuck he is fucking with Ayla. She has nothing to do with that soulless motherfucker's death.
“Hey,” Tabitha says when she walks into the living room. “Holy… wow, this place is a wreck.”
“Yeah, just piling everything in here to put into a dumpster tomorrow,” I say. “Listen, I think Joe’s family knows how he died.”
“Who is Joe?” Reid asks.
“Uhm… The man who raped me a while back,” she says, staying focused on me. “What do you mean? Is this why you asked me to come over?”
“Ayla and her childhood best friend, Giovanni, left here to go get some cleaning supplies and food. Reid and I got here, and the door was unlocked, but Ayla swore she locked it. Gio’s parents lived across the road until they died.
He has a camera up that sees the front drive and door.
Three men in black masks got out and came in here.
They were here for maybe five minutes and left. ”
“How do you know it’s the same? It could be anyone,” Tabitha bargains.
“One of the men has the barbed wire and snake tattoo on his forearm, Tabby,” I tell her. I can see in her face that there are only so many reasons a family gets something like that together.
“You got assaulted by someone in the mafia, and now they’re after Ayla?” Reid asks..
“No,” I say. “I murdered someone in the mafia for raping Tabby, and now they are after Ayla.”
“What?” Ayla says from the staircase landing. “They were here to hurt me?”
“Ah… I’m not sure,” I say. “I don’t know why else they would have come here. I’m not even sure how they know you are connected to me… I just recognized the tattoo.”
“Can I see it?” Tabitha asks.
“Yeah,” Giovanni says from behind Ayla on the stairs.
He gets his phone from his pocket and finds the video before handing it to Tabitha.
We all watch her stare at his phone. The tattoo itself isn’t nefarious, but the fact that it’s often used to symbolize control and ownership is honestly terrifying.
I am no saint, but these men… We just have to make sure they cannot get to her.
Tabitha’s breath catches for a moment, and it confirms what I’m already suspecting.
Human traffickers are targeting Ayla.