Page 22 of Betraying Bexley

Chapter 4

It seemed, still, the only person making any headway with Bex was Bronx, so it was his turn. Eito had taken the time to prepare lunch for Bex that morning. The only downside? He didn’t know what she liked to eat. So, he went with fresh foods. A small salad in one portion of the box. Sliced fruit in another. He added deli meats and cheese in another, rolled together as little breadless sandwiches. By the time he finished, he had two layers of snacks and food packed away in the delicate bamboo bento box.

He placed the container in the middle of a cloth napkin the tied it together. His mother used to make his lunch in the same manner, until she died. She'd been sick for longer than she let on. If his father knew about it, he didn't say a word, of course, he had an image to uphold. Plus, his father had a harem of women at his night club that he liked to bang on the side, so it didn't matter if there was anything wrong with his mother. By the time Eito figured out how sick she was, his mother died.

Leaving him on his own.

He supposed that was when he joined the ranks of his father's business then after a few years, broke from his father and started his gambling venture. He snorted. It'd been so stupid of him. He could blame it on being angry and mourning the loss of his mother while his father banged as many chicks as possible, but in the end, it was his negligence that got him caught up in a raid. However, if he hadn't been caught, he would have never met his new family. He didn't say it much, but he liked being a part of GIP. Sure, it wasn't the ideal situation, and he did miss his friends, but GIP gave him purpose.

“Nice, what’s in it?” Jacolbi came up beside Eito.

“Food. Snacks mostly.” He shrugged. “I figured since no one, but Bronx, was making headway with Bex, I’d try today.”

“Cool. We had a moment yesterday. I think I could have gotten her to talk if the fucking teacher hadn’t interrupted.” Jacolbi frowned.

The dragon drawing. They’d all seen it at some point during school. It’d been a bold move considering it matched the phoenix on her prosthetic. “School is making this hard, but we have to keep at it and hope our persistence pays off.”

Jacolbi frowned. “She warned Alé off of her yesterday. I don’t think she understands what’s happening around her yet.”

“Or, she’s so afraid of what will happen if she deviates from the plan, she can’t accept what her eyes are seeing. I have a feeling the truth is right there at the tips of her fingers, but acknowledging it, means turning her back on her father.”

“She could be worried about having the shit beat out of her again too,” Jacolbi added.

“Sure enough. I can’t imagine the sheer terror of knowing if she did something wrong, even if it wasn’t her fault, she’d be abused.” Eito stared at the bento box. There was a fine line between discipline and abuse. His mother had been the one to teach him affection while his father had been the disciplinarian. Had Bexley ever known a shred of what it meant to be loved or cared for?

“Your parents weren’t like that?”

Eito shook his head. "No. My mother was gentle and kind. My father, ruthless, and a bastard. He took advantage of my mother's kindness and in some ways, used it against her." He stepped away from the counter with the box in hand. "Anyway, I don't like to talk about it."

"Right. Sorry, man. All of us have some shit to deal with. I get it." Jacolbi pointed to the lunch box. "She's going to like it."

“I hope so.”

At twenty, going to a preparatory school for the rich, never crossed his mind. He was expected to graduate and come work for his father. College wasn't even an option. So, sitting through boring classes, at some point, begin a friendly relationship in hopes of garnering information about Bex's father, seemed a bit out of his league. He had nothing in common with the students at the school. They were rich, entitled brats. Of course, once upon a time, the same could have been said about him too.

If he hadn’t been caught.

However, unlike the majority of the kids in the school, he’d been a self-made millionaire by eighteen. He’d been ten feet tall and invincible until his place got raided. The Yakuza would have protected him. Unfortunately, he’d gone up against his father. He’d taken on a new set of clients, kids like him, pulling business away from his family. His father saw it as a slight to him. Eito saw it as making money and maybe a little bit—okay a whole lot of a grudge against his negligent father, who used his mother and never mourned her death.

Eito supposed, had he went to his father and begged for forgiveness, while also following the tradition of removing his pinky as an apology, things could have been easier on him, but, again, if his father couldn't do the same, there was no reason to even throw himself on the mercy of his father. Instead, he threw himself on the mercy of the court. He agreed to join the Gang Intervention Program and when the time came, he'd help Jamie. So far, it'd been the best decision he'd made. This mission though, it had its challenges, to say the least.

Getting Bexley to open up to them was nigh on impossible. She had a stutter. He’d heard it while she talked to Bronx, which explained some of her hesitancy. However, the fear of what would happen to Bexley also kept her from saying much. He hated it for her. Deep down she wasn’t weak. In fact, of all of them, she had to be the strongest to endure the punishment inflicted on her frail body. Yet, he hated Bexley too. She held all the answers and she refused to speak the truths her father ground into her.

He also didn’t trust her. They’d been there for almost a month now. Raul was in the wind. He killed Iliana’s parents, killed other members of his cartel, and Bexley remained silent. She couldn’t have been oblivious to who her father really was. She had to know her father had disappeared. Unlike the others who’d given Bexley space, he’d gone to the cleaners to check the place out. It was shuttered. Closed for good with a for sale sign in the window. Bexley wasn’t working. She was hiding. Or preparing to leave the minute her father came back to town to get her.

Yeah, sure, he read the files. He understood Los Trios and Pueblo wanted Bex and would do whatever it took to get her. He understood she was a fount of knowledge when it came to Nieto’s Cartel. But, parts of the file rubbed him the wrong way. Like, what was the point of Raul selling his daughter? It would give her the freedom to talk. Why hadn’t he killed Bexley when everything went down? Her ending up in the wrong hands could mean the end to Raul’s cartel. It could also put his associates in the crosshairs of other syndicates. All of the loose ends begged the question; were they missing something? Had they overlooked some small bit of information with all the connectors they’d already found on The Bitches?

He’d contemplated all of it over the last several days, most especially while Bexley lay sleeping in Alé’s room. With all the research he and Alex had done, they’d come up empty. There were money transactions between Pueblo and Anderson along with payments to Los Trios as well and a thing called OPUS. Nonetheless, the payments were never the same and never deposited on the same day, which made even less sense, but they were there. Also from the intelligence they gathered about the sex trade shipments and the sales, the deposits they could locate, might be finder fees and cuts of the money after the women and some men were sold. The money might not have a thing to do with Bexley.

Unfortunately, that answer also didn’t sit well with Eito either. Even if the evidence was too clean and lined up too well with Bexley and the shit she’d been through, there had to be a ring of truth to the idea Bexley sat in the middle of this scheme. Whether she was bait or a willing participant, none of them would know until Bexley started talking to them. Either way, if his hypothesis was true, they were screwed. They’d always be a step behind whoever controlled the machinations of this hideous operation.

“You look lost,” Bronx said, joining him as he walked the halls of the high school heading to his first class of the day.

“Not lost. I’m in deep concentration.” He cut his gaze in Bronx’s direction. Bexley had taken to Bronx like a fish in water. He supposed he saw it. Bronx had a happy disposition. She had a hold of her life and knew where she was going. She was the complete opposite of Bexley too.

“Your turn today, huh? You going to eat lunch with us then?” She motioned to the bento box he carried.

“Yes. Jacolbi failed.”

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