Page 170 of Justice II

“And it ain’t like you one of my sons. You’re a girl. Back in the olden days this is what men did. Got the most bang for their buck by selling off their virgins for marriage. But in this case you ain’t gettin’ married.”

He looked at me, then went back to counting.

I lunged toward him, but the man holding me jerked me back.

“Please!”

I hated hearing that come out of my mouth. I wanted to bite somebody, hurt somebody badly enough that they had to let me go. Instead, I was crying while my father counted money.

“Is Justice Banks going to come looking for me?” Genie asked.

“Like I said, no one knows she’s here. And I’m about to take this money and leave for DR. As far as he’ll know, she ran away.”

Real tears rained down my face. This was a feeling I’d never felt before. It was true fear and it was underlined with regret. What did I do?

What was I thinking? I tried to sic this man on Justice and he was plotting to sex traffic me. This is how it ends for me?

No.

At the end of the day Justice loves me. He’ll come and find me. He’ll come and rescue me.

“Bye, Stacie,” Tavares said as he turned and walked away.

“MY NAME IS STORIE!” I squealed.

He just waved his hand and moved on with a pep in his step. He took that money and got in his car like I was nothing. The tape went back over my mouth before I could say anything else.

Genie dragged me toward another car. I twisted around, trying to catch Tavares’s eye, but he was in his beat-up whip, turning the engine over.

He didn’t even turn when I screamed.

I hit the inside of the second trunk and kicked while somebody held the lid open. There was a hand near my face, then the same strange heaviness came over me.

I kept fighting it. I needed to stay awake.

The lid slammed shut, and I reached toward it before my arm dropped beside me. In my heart I knew Justice would forgive and find me.

54

Justice

It had been a week since Storie went missing, and the cops had no clue where she went. All they knew was she skipped school and caught a bus. She got off at a particular bus stop but that was the last anyone had seen of her.

There were several businesses in the area: cafés, restaurants and auto body shops. But none of them had any damn cameras because they were in the hood. After that she just disappeared.

Was this lil girl fuckin’ with me? Had she run away to pull some elaborate plot? I couldn’t be sure of it.

“The phone still hasn’t been recovered,” the detective told me.

He was sitting across from me in my office while his partner stood near the door. They had been here long enough for me to know they weren’t bringing anything new.

“Did she ever mention wanting to leave?” he asked.

“No.”

“Any disagreements since she came home?” he pried.

“She’s fifteen. We disagree on plenty.”