Angelica

Three

The last few days were a blur as I spent most of it cooped up in the library. I've avoided Ares and spent more time with Mateo and Diego.

" Let's go, Ares wants me to take you shopping. " Diego says as he plops down on the couch with me.

I put my book down before looking at him with wide eyes.

" Why would we do that? We got my clothes from my apartment. "

I've never been shopping. Other than the bins at GoodWill, that's as far as my shopping experience goes.

" Because you own only a handful of clothes including your work uniform. You need more clothes, and I have to get you a phone anyways so get up and let's go " he says.

" But what about mone- "

" Ares is paying. "

I begin to argue but that is short lived as Diego covers my mouth with his hand and shakes his head no.

We head towards my room and pass by the same woman that I saw in Ares's office not to long ago. She has on a long trench coat and looks at me with disgust.

I roll my eyes before pulling on another pair of Ares's joggers and a black hoodie.

Diego opens the car door for me before closing it and hopping in the other side. I immediately take in the red leather detailing and the headliner of the car has little lights in it. The car roars to life before we head towards our destination.

The hour passes by quickly and we are outside of the biggest and tallest mall I have ever seen. I feel slightly overwhelmed by it all but once I look at Diego he sends me a small smile, calming some of my nerves.

We enter the crowded mall and venture off to a store called H & M. Not knowing my size, I have to try on most of the clothes and I give Diego a small fashion show before picking out a few shirts, blouses, pants, and a few jackets.

Diego laughs at my antics as I blow kisses and bow at the ending.

Diego hands the bag to a large man that I didn't notice before and now that I am paying attention, there are four more men dressed in black as well, spread throughout the store.

We continue to walk to another store before a delicious smell hits me like a truck.

" What is that?! "

" Pretzels, want some? " he asks.

I nod my head as he leads me to a pretzel stand. We both order a cup of pretzels sticks before eating them as we walk around. I almost faint at how amazing these pretzels are, I'll have to learn how to make them.

As we eat, we enter a phone store and after another argument which I lost, I got my first phone. I gave the bag with the phone in it to the guard, not trusting myself to not trip and fall, breaking it.

We enter another store that is filled with many gowns and cocktail dresses.

"We need to find a dress for tonight. " Diego says throwing away his empty pretzel cup.

" What is tonight? " I ask as I throw away my cup as well.

" Tonight we are celebrating. There is another mafia, and they are into sex trafficking and children trafficking. We sent out a team to raid three of their warehouses, to save the women and children. It took a few months, but we saved 125 women and over two hundred children. The team returns tonight. " he says.

My heart wrenches as I think of all the women and children that are hurting right now. I can only hope that they are returned to their families and can heal from this tragic event.