Chapter 126: Debt
*Debt basically enables people to live a lie. – Rachel Cruze*
The call that Alexander Devonshire dreaded came later than he had expected. With everything that had happened, he had expected to get the call before Christmas. And then after he lost his position. And every one of his specially chosen officers lost their jobs.
But now, it had come.
He made Regina prepare a full four course meal. They would describe the guests as old college buddies in town for the night. She made a large meal that the four of them enjoyed. After the dishes were cleared, the men moved to the living room.
“You said,” Jose Gutierrez spoke with a cold voice as he sat on the brown leather couch, “that nothing would happen. You said that you had everything under control.”
“It’s the damned state investigator and sheriff.” The former police chief complained.
“We cannot take them both out.” Miguel Delgado pointed out. “You need to get our product back.”
Alex shook his head. “I can’t. the police did a raid of where we were keeping it and it’s all gone.”
Regina entered the room and silently sat on her knees on the floor next to her husband. He reached over and rested a possessive hand on her head. The two Columbian men looked at each other before looking back at the docile woman.
“Maybe,” Alex grinned, “we can find a compromise?”
“What do you propose?” Jose asked.
“I see that you are eyeing my wife.”
Fear flooded through Regina. She kept her eyes down so that they did not see her fear. Or the tears that she was fighting to keep back.
He wouldn’t really let them take her, would he?
Anymore, she wasn’t sure.
“She is very well behaved.” Miguel agreed. “How are her skills with her mouth?”
“Would you like to find out?” Alex asked.
They spoke in Spanish for a few minutes and Regina began to tremble in fear. Alex leaned in close to her. She hoped for words of comfort. A quiet promise that it would never happen.
“Get ahold of yourself. You’ll do whatever they want.” He warned her quietly. “Or I’ll kill you myself.”
Keeping her head down, she nodded.
“You have daughters?” Miguel asked.
“No. We only have two sons.” Alex replied.
“Your sons have wives?” Jose grinned.
“Yes.” Alex replied and prepared to call his son and have him send his wife over to the house. That is if Amber had not snatched the girl away from her husband.
“Young?” Miguel grinned.
“Twenty-two.” He said and watched as the other two men spoke again before nodding. He walked into the kitchen and called Patrick.
“I need Candy to come over and entertain my guests.” Alex said as soon as his son picked up the phone.
“Good luck. No one has heard from her in over six months.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Alex hissed into the phone.
“What did you want me to say?” his oldest son demanded. “I got mad and kicked her out and instead of coming back like she always had, she disappeared into the wind.”
“What the hell?” He asked. “What about Anna?”
“She’s about to have a baby.” He grumbled over the phone.
“Fuck.” He hissed out.
“Call Rachel.”
“Yeah.” He hung up with his son and called his nephew. After a few minutes, Regina was sent to watch the children while Rachel came over to entertain the men.
Once again, she knew better than to argue and simply got dressed once the other woman arrived.
“Do you know who you are going to entertain?” Regina asked Rachel quietly.
“What choice do I have?” The younger woman asked. “They take care of me. Of my kids.”
“We’re all going to end up dead before this is over.” Regina lamented as Rachel stepped out of her closet.
Presenting her bruised back to the other woman, she quietly asked, “Zip me?”
“Did Hank do this?” she asked quietly as she zipped up the black dress.
Rachel nodded. “This is our life.”
“What if there’s a way out?” She whispered in the other woman’s ear.
“How?” Rachel whispered back.
“You have something here.” Regina said and then turned on the water before whispering again. “You speak Spanish?”
Rachel nodded. “I didn’t even see that spot.”
The older woman smiled as she whispered. “Learn as much as you can tonight. I’m going to try to get us out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know for sure.” Regina admitted. She knew that if Rachel went and told the men about this conversation, she was dead. They both might be. She didn’t know this woman very well. But was certain that she did not want her daughter to end up in the same life.
Early in the morning, after Rachel returned, sore and battered, Regina went to the store. She texted her husband and told him that she was getting stuff for breakfast. He gave her a time to be home by and she knew that she had to utilize the time that she had to her advantage.
She was sure that the early morning stock boy thought that middle aged woman had lost her mind. She carefully removed the small phone that Amber gave her before placing her own phone in her purse. Then she placed the purse in the freezer.
It was what Amber had done. Someone must have told her about it. Told her what to do. She had known Amber for years and trusted her. The last time that she saw her sister-in-law, she had looked healthy. Well fed.
Not scared.
As the phone powered up, she wondered what that felt like.
Not to be scared. To know that you won’t get beaten simply because of your husband’s mood. To feel free to do whatever you want to do. To leave and go where you want. For however long. And see who you want.
Regina was trying to remember, had she ever felt that way?
Maybe when she was really little. Before her father’s angry hand landed on her. Before the man came to train her how to please her husband. It was the year she got her first period that she started having Saturday appointments with the man.
How to dress.
How to stand.
What to say.
*Things* to do in bed.
The screen finally lit up and she went to the phone book. There was only one number programed into the contacts list.
There was no name. No picture.
The only thing that it said was *Information* and a toll-free number.
She didn’t have time to contemplate her actions. It was now or never. She clicked the green button and held it to her ear.
Soon enough a rough masculine voice, sounding as though it had been disturbed from sleep answered.
“Information.”
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