“I’m not sure it will ever look like that again after bleaching it for four years. Benny wouldn’t even recognize me with my natural hair.” I reach for my eyelid and take out the dark brown contacts that I’ve had to be conscientious about keeping in, revealing my green eyes.
“You did an amazing job at changing your appearance.”
“It was all Dominic. He had it meticulously planned for months. He couldn’t wait to finally live a life free from Vincent.”
Instantly the phone begins to vibrate and ring in my hand. The name Vincent flashes across the screen. Dominic may have called him dad to his face, but behind the picture he never felt the bond of what a dad should be. How could he with a monster like that?
“Where is my son, Vincent?” I scream at him into the receiver before I can comprehend what this plan was all along.
Vincent laughs, “Oh, Addy, or should I say, Vada,” he seethes. “I see you haven’t lost your spunk after all of these years. But where are your manners? I raised you better than that.”
I grind my teeth to control my anger before speaking again. “You did nothing to raise me. Now, where is my son?” I ask more calmly yet with a stern tone this time.
Vincent makes a tisk tisk sound. “Addy, you’ve known me long enough to know that I don’t operate like that. You give me something I want and I will give you something you want in return. In this case, you want to know the well-being of your son. MY grandson that I have to say, I am deeply hurt that I never knew about. I mean, you could have at least sent me a birth announcement,” he says while laughing at his sick joke.
“Why would I tell you about your grandson when you killed your own son?”
“Now now, that is just hearsay, Addy my love, just like it is just hearsay that you and Dominic killed my brother. But, what do I know?”
“What do you want from me Vincent? I will give you anything as long as you tell me my son is okay,” I cry. I’m angry that I let him get to me. Isaac reaches for my hand but I jerk away from him.
“Anything? Hmmm. This could be fun.”
“Anything,” I answer him through gritted teeth.
“Meet me tomorrow evening at dusk. The address is 5555 Oceanbay Avenue. Come alone and Benny will stay unharmed.”
“Okay, I’ll be there.”
“Oh, and Addy, wear something nice. I may just be having my first big Miami grand showing. Rossment has been in hiatus for four years now as I regrouped. We wouldn’t want to disappoint the girls.”
“So it’s a job?”
“Well of course. No one was better influences than you and Dominic. It’s a shame he turned on his own father and tipped off the FBI a day before you two lovebirds ran off. That’s actually what tipped me off to you guys. He couldn’t have just been happy with running away with you, could he? He just had to try to bring me down in the wake of it. Because of that, he unfortunately had to go down, too. That boy always was just like his mother. Fitting they ended with the same demise.”
My heart aches as if a knife has been shoved into it. I knew he wanted to contact the FBI, but we had agreed it would be best if we waited a little while until we were settled into our new place and identities. He always was an impatient one. I know his heart didn’t want to wait any longer than it had to on helping free all those girls. He never told me that he tipped them off. A little piece of me wishes I could have seen Vincent’s face when he was raided, though.
“Can I please talk to him now?”
“Oh, that I cannot do, Addy. He isn’t with me at the moment anyway. He’s with my new business partner, Shayla. She’s keeping him safe, for the mean time that is, don’t worry.”
“Vincent, is he scared? Can you please ask her to sing, You Are My Sunshine, if he can’t fall asleep? He always falls asleep to that.”
“Vivi sang that to Dominic,” he trails off. I didn’t even think to put the two and two together that Dominic’s own mother sang that to him. “Be there at dusk, and he will be unharmed.” Then the phone goes dead.
I cover my mouth with my hand to hold back a sob as the other drops the phone to the bed.
“Benny? He’s okay?” Concern is written all over Isaac’s face.
“He is. Vincent doesn’t bluff. It’s not his style. Benny has to stay unharmed for him to get what he wants, and that’s me. I trust that he’s okay. I’m just sad that he’s probably scared and I’m not there to make him feel better. I can’t wait to hold him in my arms again. I’m never letting go once I do.”
“I’m coming with you tomorrow, wherever it is you told him you would go,” Isaac tells me with hardened eyes. “You are not going alone.”
“No, you’re not,” I tell him assertively. “This is my fight, Isaac. I have to do it alone.”
“I won’t let you go alone. You’ll never make it back out alive and you know it.”
I let him hold me as I cry into his chest. I know he’s right. I just have to do all that I can to make sure Benny does make it out alive and far from Vincent. Same for his newest victims, I can’t let him hurt anymore people.
After letting me cry out my fears, Isaac finally speaks. “I know a lot more than you think about Vincent Rossi. This is the case I studied while in the Police Academy. That’s the case that made me want to be a detective, Vada.” He looks into my eyes and hesitates before speaking again. “Adaline.”
I cover his lips my fingers as I shake my head at him. “Adaline is long gone and never returning, please call me Vada.”
He nods his head in understanding and then gently presses his lips to mine. “Okay, Vada,” he replies softly against my lips.
“Tomorrow is your first day as a detective. You’ve waited almost your entire life for this. I won’t let you throw all of that hard work away. I know they only give one chance.”
“I don’t care about anything but finding Benny. Even if it means I lose the new position. Benny matters most to me.”
My eyes land on his tattooed arms which brings a thought to my mind. I reach down to the bottom of his shirt and lift it off of him.
“Vada, I don’t think this is the right time for this. You are still in shock.”
“No,” I tell him shaking my head at him. “That’s not what I’m doing. I run my hands down his arms. “This may work.” I say under my breath while talking to myself.
“What are you talking about?” Isaac looks beyond confused at what I’m doing.
“You can go, but not with me. I need to go alone. But you can come later undercover, as a buyer. We need to get the right outfit, but this,” I say pointing at his arms, “these will help this plan work. We’ll need to do some detective work of our own tomorrow. We already know where it’s going to be, but we need to get an in. We need to figure out the code word for you to get into the auction. During the end of the auction, I’ll create a diversion. That’s when you come into play. I need you to grab Benny.”
“What makes you think he’ll even be where the auction takes place?”
“He’s the grand prize that Vincent will dangle in front of my face to make sure I’m on my best behavior and do all that I’m supposed to do. He’ll be there. There was a woman at the café with Vincent. I think that’s who has him. They’ll probably be sitting in the corner of the room, somewhere in my sight. When you go in, you need to make sure you are close enough to grab him once I do what I do.”
Isaac’s face looks at me with disgust. “I may have done police work for several years now, but I’m sure this is probably the most heinous thing I have ever heard about. I can’t believe auctions of this kind really go on. It’s like modern day slavery.”
“That’s exactly what it is. Those runaways you kept getting reports about? I guarantee this is where we find them, Isaac. That’s where most of the girls come from. I don’t know why I didn’t piece it together that Vincent was in Miami sooner. It’s truly sick, and I am ashamed to have ever been a part of it. But I promise you this, Dominic and I did everything in our power to help th
em back out to freedom. Many we were able to save, but there were also many that we couldn’t. That’s why Dominic was killed. Vincent just told me that he had contacted the FBI the day before we were going to leave and it was shut down. Of course, I’m sure Vincent let his men take the fall for him since he’s obviously a free man as we see.”
“Dominic sounds like he was an honorable man, Vada.”
“He was one of a kind.”
“We should get some rest, tomorrow is going to be a long day.” Isaacs pulls down the sheets and we climb into my bed. He pulls me into him as I lie my head down on his chest.
“Vada?”
“Mmhm?” I ask, although I’m ready to dose off, anxious to see my son tomorrow.
“What type of diversion are you planning on creating?”
“Don’t worry about it. Your goal is to grab Benny and get out of there as fast as you can and that’s it. Okay?”
“And are you planning on getting out of there, too?” his voice is strained. I’m sure the more he thinks about it, the more he is beginning to piece together somewhat of my plan.
“I’ll do everything in my power to do so. You just worry about Benny. Goodnight, Isaac.”
Isaacs takes a deep breath and slowly exhales.
“I love you, Vada.”
I selfishly allow him to say those three words to me even though I know how hard it was for him to work his way to saying them himself. The three words I still can’t force out of my own mouth even though I know one hundred and ten percent that I love him, too. I’ll more than likely never make it out alive tomorrow if my plan works. Benny will though, and that’s all that matters. Isaac will go on to raise him, just as Gloria did for his mom. He’ll be an amazing father to Benny. I know he will do all that he can to do as great as a job that Dominic or myself would have done. I can’t hurt him more by saying those three precious words to him when I know I more than likely won’t be returning.
Chapter Nineteen
I wake up tangled in Isaac’s arms and legs. The amount of intimacy I feel with him at the moment is unreal for just sleeping. We have so many things to accomplish today before it’s time for me to meet up with Vincent tonight, but all I want to do at the moment is savor just five more minutes of this feeling before I never get to experience it again. The mere thought of never having the chance to do this again pulls at my chest. I have no idea how or why God chose me to have not one, but two of the utmost caring men in my life that I have ever encountered.
***
“I hate that you still have to do classes. We all know that you’ve surpassed the homeschooling curriculum for your senior year,” Dominic says to me while sitting on the edge of my bed as I finish my Calculus homework. I’m more of a nerd than he is. He should know by now that I don’t mind.
“Only because I did half your work before you graduated,” I tease.
“Hey now, only English, you know how much I hate reading. Add in grammar and I’m done. Mrs. Alume was such a bore, anyway.”
“She’s not that bad. She passed you didn’t she?”
“Barely.” he says as he flops down beside me. “Hurry up, I’m bored. Vincent’s been gone in Florida for almost a week now and you’ve been holed away doing homework and taking tests when we have free range to do whatever we want.”
“If I pass this final I’m done early for the summer. Give me a break. I only have two more questions to finish anyway. You’re the most impatient person I’ve ever met, Dom!”
“I’m giving you five more minutes.” He taps his watch. “After that, I’m forcing you into your swimsuit so we can go to the pool. Then, I’m taking you to the nicest restaurant in town.”
Dominic’s phone rings. He pulls it out of the pocket of his cargo shorts and he answers it immediately.
“Hello….Uh huh….” He flips his Red Sox hat from forwards to backwards. I know this is a nervous tick he does, which worries me. “Don’t go anywhere we’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Who was that?” I can tell whatever the situation is, that it’s not good.
“Times up sweetheart, we have to go. Molly’s in trouble. Xavier beat her up pretty badly this time. She said she’s finally ready to get out.”
Thank goodness. We’ve been working on getting Molly to escape for months now. She was one of the youngest at just barely sixteen. I knew her from one of my old foster homes. She was the quiet little blonde hair blue eyed girl that followed me around everywhere I went. She couldn’t have been but five years old at the time, because I was almost seven. She’s a runaway. Something I would have probably become if I had been left in the system that long myself, which frightens me. It makes me wonder if I would have ended up one of these junkies all of the girls turn into after being sold into sex trafficking. Every time we tried to get her an out, she was never ready to go. I think it was a mixture of being scared of the escape but also the fact that she has nowhere else to go.
We make our way to Benson Street where a lot of the girls are housed by one of Vincent’s biggest buyers. It’s not monitored like all the rest of the buildings these girls end up housed at, probably because of the area it’s in. The street would be scary to me if it weren’t for Dominic right by my side. Trash, broken glass, and even sometimes needles line the alley to the entryway of the apartment building. Saying it’s a rough area doesn’t do it justice. Some of the girls working the street give us dirty looks when they see us near. They know we deceived them. We just have to wait until the right time to let them know we are really on their side, that we are there to help. I climb up the rickety, rusted ladder to the third floor where Molly is housed with Dominic following right up behind me. I push away the tattered curtains to the open window as I step over the windowsill. The tiny loft smells of stale cigarettes and mildew. I have to step over crunched beer cans, food wrappers, and who knows what else as I walk.
“Molly,” I call out but I don’t hear a reply. Dominic makes his way in behind me as we walk swiftly through the small loft, his hand never leaves the handle of his gun on his hip holster.
“I found her!” he yells from the bathroom.
I suck in a deep breath as I cover my mouth in shock. Not only is she covered in black and blue bruises from the beating she got just an hour or so ago, but her face is a light shade of blue. Her pale blue eyes are open, but not moving. A syringe lies right next to her arm on the floor.
Dominic checks her wrist for a pulse. His eyes close as he hangs his head low. Slowly, he looks up at me and shakes his head. “We were too late. She’s gone.” He grabs my shoulders and leads me back to the windowsill. “We need to get out of here. Now!”
“But we can’t just leave her,” I say to him as I look back behind me at her frail body one last time before climbing out the window.
The drive back home was silent.
Once we walk through the elevator doors to our penthouse, Dominic grabs the big porcelain vase that sits on the entryway table and heaves it up against the wall in rage, shattering it into a million tiny pieces.
“Why didn’t she just listen to us the first time we tried to get her out? Or the second or third time? I told her we were on our way. She didn’t have to go out like that.” He leans his back against the wall and slides down until his knees can no longer bend. Tears of sadness stream down his cheeks. “I hate that we had any part of her ever being in that position. Something so terrible that she couldn’t handle it anymore that she had to numb the pain. I hate that all of them have to numb the pain and probably think of taking their own lives each and every night.”
I bend down in front of him and grab his face so he will calm down and look at me.
“We did our best in our circumstances, Dominic. Try to think of the many lives we’ve already saved from this horrible crime.”
“I hate that I’m a Rossi. Be thankful that you never were cursed with this name.” He hangs his head down in shame.
“Look at me, Dominic! You are nothing like Vincent. You are k
ind hearted and the most selfless person I know. He can never take that away from you. All we can do is pray for forgiveness for any part we have played in this and make it our mission to right the wrongs.”
He finally looks up at me while drying his tears with his hands. “You’re right, Adaline. I promise I will make it my life’s mission to save as many girls as I can from this. We’ll bring Vincent down one day. He’ll pay for all of the lives he stole, including mine and yours.”
I kiss his salty wet lips. “I’m in. There’s nothing I want more than to see the fall of Vincent Rossi.”
***
Isaac stretches an arm out wide as he yawns and then pulls me closer to him to kiss the top of my head. “Good morning.”
“Good morning.” I smile back up at him.
“It’s Operation Save Benny Day,” he says trying to lighten to mood. “By the end of tonight, you will have Benny back in your arms.”
No, you will have Benny back in your arms. I think to myself.
~
“Where are we headed first?” Isaac asks as he lowers the roof to his convertible.
“I need to run into the drugstore on the corner to pick up a few things first.”
“Okay, I’ll run in with you. I need to grab an energy drink. I haven’t had enough caffeine today and have a feeling I’m going to need it.”
“I can grab it for you. I’m just buying new makeup. No need for you to go in and be bored as I browse.” I really hope he doesn’t push going in. I don’t think he will put two and two together of the items I’m buying, but I can’t risk that either.
“After that, we need head to a mall, preferably one that has designer stores. I need a dress.”
“You need a designer dress?”
“Yes. Back in the day it was much easier because my closet was full of them. I need to look my very best for tonight. Vincent Rossi only approves of couture.”
“You’re his pawn.”
“That’s right,” I answer. “Unfortunately.”
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