Free SCARRED by Faith Price Page B

and his companions. Lawson looked down at the girl.
          “How old are you?”
          Her terrified eyes grew larger when she looked at Lawson’s face. She shook her head and began to sob softly. Luis touched her arm and she slid a few inches away from him. He began speaking softly to her in Spanish. She answered hesitantly.
          “She’s fifteen. Ted picked her up at the bus station. She ran away from home.”
          My God, she’s another Serene.
          “Ted, do you speak Spanish?”
          “A little.”
          “Did she agree to perform sexual acts for money?”
          Ted eyed him nervously and drank from his whiskey bottle again. “She’s learning.”
          “Did she agree, I said.”
          “I told her what the fuck to do! I don’t care if she understood!” he spat, “Besides, some guys like the way she cries the whole time.”
          “Because they’re raping her, you animal.”
          The calmness of Lawson’s voice caused everyone to be completely quiet. All eyes were on him, and they knew that nothing good could come out of this situation. The men on the couch shifted their weight slightly to make weapons inside their jackets a little more accessible.
          Lawson never took his eyes from the girl as he spoke to Luis. “Ask her where her home is and why she ran away.”
          The girl spoke quietly to Luis and looked at Lawson again before quickly staring at the ground again.
          “She said she’s from Fredericksburg. She was trying to get to her Aunt’s house, but ran out of money.”
          Lawson nodded. “Luis, find out if this child has any belongings and then put her in our car.”
          Ted stood and pointed his finger. “Now look here, mother fucker!”
          “No, Ted, you look!” Lawson was on his feet before Abidemi mocking Ted by pointing his finger too. “That child is going to make it to her Aunt’s house, and you’re going to pay for what you’ve done to her and Serene, and any other women!”
          Ted narrowed his eyes almost to slits and kicked the coffee table out of his way. “I should have smeared more than just shit all over your walls!”
          They room fell into the kind of hushed silence that follows a big secret being revealed. One of the guys yanked on Ted’s arm and hissed up at him, “What are you doing? ”
          Ted jerked his arm away and sneered at Lawson. “Don’t make any difference. He’s not going to do a damn thing!”
          Lawson’s hand moved quickly and Ted was still grinning smugly as the bullet tore through his neck. The next few moments were chaos. Luis grabbed the screaming girl from off the floor and ran from the room with her. Abidemi shoot both men on the couch in the chest as they were reaching for their guns and trying to stand. Lawson had been right, one second was all a person needed.
          Lawson took several steps and stared at Ted’s dying face. Both hands were clutching his neck, but he was bleeding out fast. He could only make gurgling noises that pushed small sprays of blood from his lips. Lawson felt no pity. He turned and looked at Abidemi.
          “Finish this quick, ok?”
          Abidemi nodded and began walking down the hallway to find the hiding women.
    * * * *
          Lawson didn’t make it back to the hotel until after two in the morning. He was bone-tired but filled with a kind of joy because the little girl named Rosa had been pulled from the streets. The deaths of all the other people in that house meant nothing to him. Abidemi would ensure nothing could be traced to any of them. Southside had at least twenty unsolved murders every year. Ted’s place was a known drug and whore house. The police wouldn’t waste much time with it.
          As for the girl, she would spend the night on a Greyhound and her Aunt would be waiting for her the next morning. Luis