Page 28 of Hodge
“That doesn’t make sense. How old are you?”
“Twenty-nine. But there is a trust that’s in my name from my grandparents that I can’t get until I’m thirty.”
“You think that’s what this is about?” She shrugs.
“I don’t know, honestly. I don’t really care. I just want the money so I can get the hell out of here,” she adds. Fuck, this is more complicated than I originally thought it was.
“So you stuck around for the money?”
“I stuck around because I didn’t have a choice. Whatever the arrangement was with my dad, they meant business. They made sure I stayed in line.”
“How?”
“What do you mean, how?”
“How’d they keep you in line?” She drags her gaze away from mine, and I reach up, cupping her cheek so she has to look back at me. “How, Kemah?”
“By any means they saw fit.”
Chapter 14
Kemah
I don’t know if I feel better with Hodge knowing my business or not. It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, knowing I've shared something, but I can also see the anger in his eyes over what I revealed. His hand has stayed in place on my cheek as he looks deep into my eyes. Then he leans in and presses his lips to mine. His lips feel too damn good against mine to pull away.
But then he does. He breaks the kiss and looks at me.
“No one is gonna do that shit to you again. You hear me?”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do know that.”
“How?”
“Because you’re never goin’ back to that shit.”
“I don’t have a choice, Hodge,” I argue with him. He huffs and lowers his hand before running it over his face.
“So let me get this straight. You’re willin’ to go back to him, to be beaten and abused for money?” He asks angrily. He doesn’t get it. That money is all I have. That’s it. That’s my life right there.
“If that’s what I have to do.”
“For money?”
“Yeah, Hodge. For money! Don’t you get it? That’s all I have! I don’t have friends, and my family gave me away. My boyfriend,if you can even call him that, uses me and hates to even look at me. That money is my way out,” I tell him. He looks confused as he tugs at his hair.
“So what do you want to do here? You want me to take you back to him?”
“He sent me away. I’m sure they know that by now. I don’t know how I could even go back at this point.”
“And you’re mad about that?” he asks, noting the anger in my tone.
“You people ripped me from the van I was supposed to be in!”
“Do you know where that van and those women were goin’?” he asks calmly, but looks anything but calm.
“No.”
