Anybody's Daughter (Angela Evans Series No. 2) (18 page)

B
rianna stared at the clothes spread out on the bed. Freda had ordered her to put them on, but Brianna didn’t want to touch them, much less wear them. It wasn’t just that they were slutty-looking. Based on the smell, they’d recently been worn by somebody else.

The door flew open and Freda charged into the room.

“I told you to get dressed!” she shouted at Brianna. “We gotta go. Do you want me to make a call and have somebody pick up your mother?”

Brianna lowered her eyes and slowly shook her head.

“Okay, then. Get dressed. Now!”

Freda stood there, hands on her hips and waited.

Brianna shimmied out of the shorts they’d given her and picked up the skirt. It was no bigger than a hand towel.

She reached for the top, but Freda stopped her. “Take off your panties. You won’t need underwear around here.”

The tears began to flow as Brianna eased out of her panties. The top she was supposed to wear looked like a sequined bra. Her breast weren’t big enough to fill the cups.

“Here.” Freda shoved some pads at her.

Brianna didn’t reach for them because she had no idea what they were.

Freda huffed loudly, then pulled her by the arm and stuffed the pads down her top. Then she took Brianna roughly by the chin and patted her face with foundation, laying it on thick to cover her bruises.

“Ow!” Brianna winced, still sore from Clint’s punches.

Freda ignored her pain. She painted her lips with an apple-red lipstick and coated her top lids with fuchsia eyeliner and brushed her lashes with mascara.

Brianna had always wanted to wear makeup, but her mother insisted that she wait until her sixteenth birthday. Now she didn’t care if she never did.

“You sure bruise easy,” Freda said, stepping back to admire her handiwork. “Now we gotta do something with that wild-ass hair of yours.”

She roughly raked a comb through Brianna’s hair, then brushed it back and pulled it into a bun on top of her head. “The fellas are gonna love you. You might be able to give Shantel some real competition.”

Freda pointed to a pair of high-heeled shoes. “Those are for you. You can fit a seven, can’t you?”

Brianna didn’t respond. She just robotically stepped into the shoes. She’d wanted to wear high heels too. These were a size too big and way too steep. When she took a few steps, it felt like the ground was moving.

Freda shoved a glass in her face. “Here, drink this.”

Brianna could smell the strong scent of alcohol. She felt so weary and defeated that she simply closed her eyes and chugged it down. The hot liquid burned her throat, but she didn’t object or cry out.

“We’re taking it easy on you since it’s your first time. We’re only setting you up with blow jobs for now. Don’t worry about being perfect. They’ll like whatever you do.”

* * *

Clint and Brianna pulled up in front of a shabby motel. Brianna felt like she wasn’t in her own body and her mind kept wandering off. She wished the alcohol would make her go to sleep. Then she could just wake up when it was over.

Though it was hard for her to think, Brianna had come up with a plan. When she was alone with her client, she would tell him that she was only thirteen and beg him to help her escape. She suddenly felt hopeful.

Clint walked her to a room on the first level. “If you’re planning on doing anything stupid, think about your mother. If you mess up, I’m personally going to rape her myself.”

And my Uncle Dre will kill you
, she thought.

The room looked as raunchy as the one on the video of Shantel.

“Just have a seat,” Clint said, backing out of the door. “Your client will be here in a minute.”

Brianna sat down on the edge of the bed, facing the door. Whatever it was that Freda had made her drink was finally kicking in. She felt like she could float away. At least she wouldn’t have to have sex with the man, just a blow job. She would close her eyes and do what she needed to do to protect her mother. She owed her that after disobeying her. And anyway, she was going to beg the man to help her escape. He probably would once he’d heard how they’d kidnapped her.

I can do this,
she told herself.

When the door opened, a short Latino man entered, followed by Clint.

“Treat this dude right,” Clint said. “He’s a good client.” He backed out of the room and closed the door.

“Muy bonita!” the man exclaimed. He reached out to squeeze her breast, but she jerked away.

“They told me this is your first time.” His face dripped with lust. “I love virgins! I pay triple para tu.”

Brianna gasped.

In order to save her mother, she had prepared herself to give the man a blow job. But Freda had obviously lied to her. She would not give up her virginity to this sicko.

“You have to help me!” Brianna cried out in a hush, fearful that Clint was outside listening. “I’m only thirteen years old. They kidnapped me. Please, can you call my mother and tell her where I am?”

The man laughed. “Yes, senorita. I be glad to do that. Soon as we get done.”

The man unzipped his pants and stepped out of them. He wasn’t wearing any underwear. Brianna stared at the revolting object that sprang out from a mound of wiry, black hair.

A nasty boy at school had sexted his penis to her. But Brianna had never seen one in real life before.

She started to sob. “Please don’t…I can’t…Please.”

“I won’t hurt you, senorita. Open your legs. I’ll be bery, bery gentle.”

He reached out and ripped off her top. The padding fell to the floor.

Brianna crossed her arms, covering her breasts.

He laughed. “Poquito chi chis! I like!” He took a step closer.

“Wait!” Brianna held up a hand. “I’ll—I’ll give you a blow job. She dropped to her knees as she’d seen Shantel do in the video.”

The man’s smile widened. “Okay, okay. Bueno, bueno!”

With all the bravado she could muster, Brianna took him into her hands. He felt warm and slimy and smelled of cigarettes. Thinking only of her mother, she closed her eyes and guided him toward her lips.

The second he shoved himself into her mouth, Brianna gagged and reflexively clinched her teeth. She froze, unable to move.

The man screamed so loud, the furniture started to rattle. It took several seconds before Clint burst into the room.

“What the hell are you doin’?” he yelled.

He tried to pry Brianna’s mouth loose while the man shouted in Spanish.

Brianna heard all the yelling, but couldn’t react. She was quivering and sweating, stuck in a trance-like state.

The last thing she remembered was Clint’s fist coming straight for her face.

D
re and the seven men crowded into the living room of his apartment off Slauson and LaBrea had spent the last two hours crafting a plan to get Brianna back.

After the trip to Brianna’s school, Dre had called Clint and agreed to pay the twenty-five grand. Actually, he had no problem doing that if it guaranteed Brianna’s safe return. He could exact his revenge later. But Dre wasn’t stupid enough to take Clint or The Shepherd at their word. Men who snatched little girls off the street and forced them into prostitution, couldn’t be trusted. Therefore, Dre had to do things his way.

“I say let’s just walk into the club with guns blazing,” Apache suggested. “That’ll send a message quick.”

Dre massaged his forehead. “Whatever we do, we need to be smart about it. This dude Clint is weak. If we get him alone, he’ll break.”

“Most definitely,” Mossy agreed.

Gus, Dre’s former cellmate, asked a question. “So what you wanna do? Snatch the guy and make him talk?”

“Yeah,” Dre said. “That’s the plan.”

Terrell and Bobby, guys from Dre’s old neighborhood, nodded their agreement.

“That’ll definitely get their attention,” Bobby said.

D’wan, a buddy of Mossy’s, held up his hand. “Wouldn’t it be easier to follow the dude home and grab him there?”

“Probably,” Dre said. “But I’m tryin’ to send a message. I want to do this on The Shepherd’s turf.”

“Hold on a minute, everybody,” Dre’s brother Anthony was leaning against the wall, taking it all in. “We can’t do anything illegal.”

Everybody stared at him in disbelief. Out of respect for Dre, they held their tongues and waited for him to respond.

“What we’re about to do definitely ain’t legal,” Dre said to his brother. “I told you before you came over here, I got this. You’ve always been squeaky clean. If you wanna stay that way, you should leave now so if this blows back on us, you won’t be a part of it.”

Anthony scratched his forehead. “I want to help get Brianna back too, but…”

Dre walked over to his brother and threw an arm around his shoulders. “I know that. But you don’t need to be here. Just go home. I’ll call you as soon as we get Bree back.”

Anthony shrugged. “Well, if y’all don’t really need me…”

Apache mumbled something indecipherable as Dre escorted his brother to the door.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll handle it.”

They could all see that Anthony was eager to leave. His face relaxed the second Dre opened the door, freeing him.

“Man, Anthony is a punk!” Apache said as soon as he was gone. “He was always the first one to run from a fight even when we were kids.”

Dre stopped Apache with a hard look.

“Don’t say another word. He’s still my brother. I’m not blamin’ him for wanting to stay on the up-and-up. Anybody else here got a problem with what we’re planning to do?”

Dre took his time sweeping his eyes around the room, making eye contact with the remaining six men. The looks he got back were sure and strong.

“Terrell and Bobby, I want you to head over there a little later and case the joint. If Mossy or I try to do it, they’ll recognize us. In the back near the men’s room, there’s an emergency exit door. When the time is right, I want you to grab Clint and shove him out into the alley. Maybe you can catch him coming out of the men’s room.”

“Won’t the alarm go off when that door opens,” Bobby asked.

“It didn’t when they threw us out of it,” Mossy said. “Messed up a perfectly good pair of pants.”

“I’ll be driving Mossy’s van, waiting for you in the alley with the engine running,” Dre said. “What I don’t know is whether one of the bouncers will be guarding that door. I doubt it. But that’s what I need you to tell us. Text me when you find out.”

“We got you,” Terrell said.

“Okay, then. Gus and D’wan, you’re going to drop in much later. I want everything to go down around one-thirty in the morning. The club will still be pretty crowded then. I need you to start a fight. While the bouncers focus all their attention on breaking up the fight, Terrell and Bobby can grab Clint.”

“Got it,” D’wan said.

Dre looked at his watch.

“Mossy, I need you to check out the abandoned warehouse where we’re taking him. It’s in Gardena on Maple off Alondra. A dealer I know used to operate out of there. Most of the neighboring buildings are empty too. But I want you to make sure. I need you to be there to open the doors for us. Also, check for any surveillance cameras in the area.”

“Sounds like you’ve given a lot of thought to this,” Terrell said.

“I have,” Dre replied.

“What about me?” Apache asked.

“You’ll be in Mossy’s van with me.”

“Aw man! I wanna see some action.”

“You’ll see plenty of action. I’m gonna let you make him talk.”

That put a big smile on Apache’s face. He whipped something out of his back pocket and waved it in the air. “This little gadget right here,” he said, holding up a stun gun, “can make a mute man speak.”

Mossy frowned and scratched the back of his neck. If he had his way, Apache wouldn’t even be in the room.

“I don’t want to rain on this parade,” Gus said, “but we gotta consider the fact that grabbing this dude could put your niece in even more danger.”

Dre had already considered that. He prayed that Loretha was right. That the rumors of The Shepherd ordering others to kill for him were just that.

“I have to take that risk,” Dre said. “After we do something as brazen as walking into his club and snatching his boy, he’s gonna understand that we mean business.”

“Are you one hundred percent sure that he really has your niece?” Gus asked.

“He’s supposed to be sending me a picture. He thinks he’s about to get twenty-five grand, so I’m sure he will.”

“So instead of the money, you’re gonna try to trade Clint for Brianna?”

Dre shook his head.

“Naw. From what I hear, this dude doesn’t care about anybody but himself. He’d sacrifice Clint the same way he would one of the girls he’s pimpin’. I want Clint for two reasons. One I think we can get his weak ass to tell us where Brianna is. And two, if The Shepherd thinks we’ve gotten Clint to spill the beans about his operation, that gives us a whole lot more leverage than twenty-five grand.”

C
lint yelled a string of expletives as he dragged Brianna out of the motel room and hurled her into the backseat of his Escalade.

“You stupid little bitch!” He climbed into the driver’s seat and glanced back over his shoulder. “You need to get with the program!”

Brianna cowered on the floor, mentally blocking out his tirade.

She tried to remember what had happened before Clint punched her in the face. She did remember having her teeth clamped tightly around the man’s penis. She must have briefly passed out. When she woke up, she saw the man hopping around the room as if his feet were on fire.

Brianna knew that she would get another beating when they got back to the house. She was scared but also a little numb. Maybe Freda would give her another drink. That made everything a little easier to handle.

The car finally came to a stop inside a dark garage. Brianna had no idea where the house was located. Clint had made her cover her head with a black pillowcase during both legs of the trip. A door in the garage led directly into the kitchen. Because she’d been forced to lie on the floor in the backseat, it was impossible to signal anyone for help.

Clint hopped out and opened the back door of the SUV. Snatching her by the arms, he started lugging her toward the back door of the house. One of her four-inch pumps flew off and hit Clint in the groin.

He bent over and winced.

Still a little high, Brianna giggled.

“I bet you won’t be laughin’ when I get your ass inside!” Clint yelled.

Freda met them at the door. “How’d she do?”

“This bitch is crazy. I don’t know why Shep even wants to fool with her. She nearly bit that dude’s dick off.”

Clint powered past Freda, dragging Brianna behind him.

“What are you gonna do?” Freda asked, following after them.

“I’ma kick her ass until she gets the message.”

“Don’t mess up her face again,” Freda warned.

Clint yanked her down the hallway and into one of the bedrooms, with Freda following after them. When he hurled her onto the bed, Brianna’s shoulder hit the wall. She yelped like a wounded puppy. Clint left the room and returned seconds later with an extension cord.

The prospect of another beating snapped Brianna out of her drunken haze. She hopped off the bed and cowered in a corner of the room.

Freda jumped in front of Clint, shielding Brianna.

“Hold up, Clint. You’re too upset. You need to calm down. You can do this later.”

“No, I need to do this now. Get out of my way.”

“Shep just called,” Freda said. “He needs you to call him back right away.”

“He can wait.”

Freda didn’t move. “No, he can’t.”

Clint was breathing hard, his chest heaving up and down. Beads of sweat trickled down the side of his face.

The standoff lasted several seconds, then suddenly, as if he was out of energy, Clint stomped off.

Freda turned to Brianna, who was balled up in the fetal position, massaging her shoulder, too shell-shocked to cry.

“You owe me, little girl,” she said, wagging her finger at Brianna. “I only stopped him because I knew he was mad enough to kill you.”