“He’s done this before?” I asked stupidly. “Brought traumatized girls to you?”
Tara sipped her coffee. “I run an abused women’s shelter in town. Most of the time I don’t bring anyone back here, but every once in a while we get someone who needs extra care. When they need extra, extra care, I call Bones. I’m glad to finally do him a favor. I owe him my life, but I ’spect he told you about that.”
I looked at her quizzically. “No, why would you think so?”
She gave me a knowing smile. “’Cause he’s never brought a girl here before, child. Not one that didn’t need my help, leastways.”
Oh! That pleased me, but I quashed it. “It’s not like that. We, ah, kind of work together. I’m not his, er, what I mean is, he’s all yours if you want him!” I finished in an insane babble.
There was a disgusted grunt from upstairs that didn’t come from the girl. I cringed, but it was too late to take it back.
Tara considered me with a clear, unwavering gaze. “My husband used to beat me. I was afraid to leave him ’cause I had no money and I had a little girl, but one night he gave me this.” She pointed to the scar near her temple. “And I told him that was it. I was done. He cried and said he didn’t mean to do it. Man said that every time after he laid into me, but hell, yes, he meant it. No one hits you ’less they mean it! Well, he knew I meant it when I said I was leaving, so he waited behind my car that night when I went to work. I finished my shift, went out to the parking lot, and he stood up and smiled while he pointed a gun right at me. I heard a shot, thought I was dead…and then I saw this white boy, looking like a goddamn albino, holding my husband by the throat. He asked me did I want him to live, and you know what I said? No.”
I swallowed my coffee in one gulp. “Don’t wait for me to judge you. In my opinion, he had it coming.”
“I said no for my daughter, so she’d never be scared of him the way I was,” she said, taking my empty cup and refilling it. “Bones didn’t just snap his neck and leave, either. He got me out of that flea-hole apartment I was in, gave me a place to stay, and eventually I got my own place and opened up the shelter. Now I’m the one helping out women who don’t have nowhere else to turn. God has a sense of humor sometimes, doesn’t He?”
That made me smile. “You could say I’m proof of that.”
Tara leaned forward and dropped her voice. “I’m telling you this because he must have taken a shine to you. Like I said, he don’t bring nobody here.”
This time, I didn’t argue. There was no point, and I couldn’t tell her that my presence was more necessity than preference.
Something the girl was saying upstairs redirected my attention.
“…made me call my roommates. I told them I’d met up with my old boyfriend and we were going away together, but it was a lie. I don’t know why I said it, I heard the words coming out of my mouth, but I didn’t want to say them….”
“It’s all right, Emily.” Bones’ voice was soft. “It wasn’t your fault, they made you say that. I know this is hard, but think. Did you see anyone else aside from Charlie and Dean?”
“They kept me in that apartment the whole time, but no one else came in. I have to take a shower now. I feel so dirty.”
“It’s all right,” he said again. “You’ll be safe here, and I’ll find all of the sods who did this.”
It sounded like he was out the door when she suddenly shouted.
“Wait! There was someone else. Charlie took me to him, but I don’t know where we were. It seems like I blinked, and then I was in this house. I remember the bedroom was big, wood floors, and it had red and blue paisley wallpaper. There was this man wearing a mask. I never saw his face, he kept it on the whole time….”
Her voice wavered. Tara shook her head in repugnance at what didn’t need to be elaborated.
“I’ll find them,” Bones repeated with resolve. “I promise.”
He came down the stairs a few minutes later.
“She’s settled down,” he said, more to Tara than to me. “Her name is Emily, and she doesn’t have any family to contact. She’s been on her own since she was fifteen, and her mates think she’s off with an ex-boyfriend. No need to tell them otherwise and put them in danger.”
“I’ll brew another pot of coffee and be right up,” Tara said, rising. “You staying?”
“Can’t,” Bones replied with a shake of his head. “We have to catch a plane this afternoon and we’re booked at a hotel. But thank you, Tara. I’m indebted to you.”
She kissed his cheek. This time, my gut didn’t knot. “No, you ain’t, honey. You keep safe, now.”
“And you.” He turned to me. “Kitten?”
“I’m ready. Thank you for the coffee, Tara, and for the company.”
“Wasn’t nothing, child.” She smiled. “You be sweet to our boy here, and remember, be good only if being bad ain’t more fun!”