I hadn't been asleep all that long when I heard a click from the other side of the room. The door squeaked as it was pushed open, and I opened my eyes, seeing a shadowy figure enter, shutting the door behind her.
"Jenna?" I asked, my voice thick with sleep. I flicked on the lamp on the bed side table and saw her standing at the end of the bed, staring at me, her eyes empty and blank.
"You alright?" I wondered, rubbing my own eyes to get them to focus properly.
She climbed onto the bed and crawled across toward me, pulling the blankets off, then knelt over the top of me.
I stared up at her, in confusion, at the emptiness in her eyes as she stared down into mine. She crossed her arms over her body, gripping the hem of her shirt, and pulled it off over her head, leaving herself completely naked.
"Okay," I said slowly, and she took both my hands, placing them against her waist, putting her own against my shoulders. I snatched mine away, sitting up. "What are you doing?"
"Don't speak," she told me, gently pushing against my chest. "Tell me what you want me to do."
"I want you to..." I had to really force myself to hold her gaze, keep my eyes on hers rather than the curves and contours of her body.
Was I dreaming this up? She was so beautiful, it couldn't actually be happening, but it felt so real. The warmth that radiated from her body was definitely real, her breath as it tickled my skin when she whispered in my ear definitely wasn't a dream, either.
"I want you to put your shirt back on," I told her. "I told you already, I don't expect you to do that."
She just stared at me.
"This afternoon," I reminded her, "you told me that you weren't going to do this. What happened to that?"
"I want to," she said, her voice devoid of any and all emotion, her eyes just as blank and expressionless.
"No, you dont," I argued. "It's like this is the only way you know how to ask for help."
She blinked, but didn't try to tell me that I was wrong.
"If you want me to help you, just ask me," I continued, glancing down at her, at the bruises across her thighs, running my hands down her sides. Fuck, she was thin. "You don't have to do this."
She stared at me for a moment, studying me, trying to work out if I was telling her the truth, and I saw a flicker of emotion come back into her green eyes.
"Please help me?" she begged, and I smiled, running the back of my hand over her hollow cheek.
"Wasn't that easier?" I asked.
Jenna nodded and quickly pulled the shirt back over her head, avoiding looking at me the whole time, but I noticed the look of relief that had taken over the blank, empty stare.
I expected her to leave, now she knew she was free, and go back to the spare room, but she laid down beside me, tracing her finger along the sheets, hesitating.
"What's the matter?" I asked her, laying down beside her.
"Are you gay?" She wondered.
"Gay?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow. "No, why? Did I give off that impression?"
"I just thought," she hesitated again, then shrugged a shoulder. "I thought that, maybe, you were in love with Clyde."
"Uh uh," I told her, and it was all I could do not to burst out laughing. "Only Bonnie is that patient, or crazy."
Man, I couldn't wait to tell him about this.
"What about Bonnie?" She pressed. "Do you love her?"
"Of course I love her," I said. "But I'm not in love with her. There's a difference."
"Oh." She lowered her eyes again. "Then why..."
"Why did I reject you?" I guessed when she trailed off.
"Yeah."
I sighed.
"Didn't you want to leave that all behind?" I reminded her.
She nodded.
"Then, that's why," I explained, hoping that she'd drop it.
I could tell that she wanted to trust me, but she still wasn't entirely sure that she could. It wasn't her fault, I suppose. Her mother sold her into human trafficking just to save her own ass, then the person who she thought would protect her and look after her completely dipped out on her. Fuck knows how she was treated by the people who bought her after that.
Jenna stayed there, laying on her side, seeming lost in thought, until, eventually, she drifted off to sleep.
My own eyes had gotten unbearably heavy, so I switched off the lamp, thinking about the morning. I was supposed to go into work tomorrow, with Clyde, and I wasn't sure what to do with Jenna.
I didn't want her at the shop, in case those guys came back, looking for her, plus she would be bored out of her mind, but I really didn't want to leave her here.
Maybe, I could ask Debbie or Katy or someone to keep an eye on her tomorrow, I decided. She'd obviously gotten in with the Specters, maybe she even had some friends there? I'd bring it up with her in the morning.
It didn't take long after deciding that for me to fall asleep again, not waking again until the alarm went off in the morning, and the sheets beside me where Jenna had slept were cold.
***
"The craziest shit happened last night, man."
I was just arriving at the shop after dropping Jenna off with Katy. Debbie was out, but Katy had been more than happy for Jenna to be there with her. They'd dissapeared together before I was even gone.
Clyde had already opened and had started on the yellow sedan we had booked in for a wheel alignment first thing that morning. He turned to me, his eyes bright with interest.
"Yeah?" He smirked. "And by 'crazy shit' do you mean sexy times with a flighty little blonde chick?"
"Do you ever think about anything else?" I wondered, raising an eyebrow.
"Not really," he admitted, and I groaned.
"But seriously," I continued. "I got her talking, and, she told me everything that was going on."
"Oh yeah?" Clyde glanced at me from where he was working on the sedan, raising an eyebrow and I told him everything that Jenna had said last night, about her mum owing money, being sold to that Lucas guy and how he used her to earn for him.
Clyde said nothing the whole time, all of his attention was focused on his work. I wouldn't have thought that he was even listening, if it wasn't for the scowl that twisted his face, or his sharp, angry movements.
"Fuck," he said when I was finished telling him. He shook his head, staring at the part he'd been working on, still scowling. "That's heavy shit, man."
"I know," I agreed.
"What's she gonna do?" He wondered.
"I dunno."
"What are you gonna do?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. You."
I frowned at him, not following. He rolled his eyes, and shook his head, smirking.
"You give Bonnie shit for bringing home strays all the time, but you're just as bad."
"What are you talking about?"
"You took her in, you took me in." He counted off on his fingers, then looked at me meaningfully. "At least cats don't come with the same kind of baggage that people do."
"Are you talking about you, or Jenna?" I grinned, but he didn't return it.
"You need to know what you're getting yourself into, with her," he told me, adopting the stern, older brother persona once again. "Those two suits we saw yesterday, I doubt that they're the only ones involved. In fact..."
He trailed off, seeming thoughtful for a moment, then racked his hand back through his hair, chewing his lower lip.
"In fact what?"
"You know why they came here, don't you?"
"I assume because we're locals?" I suggested, though, I was starting to feel uneasy.
Clyde was pretty cluey, very switched on when it came to this sort of stuff. I could see that he was figuring something out, and, already, I didn't like where he was headed.
"You reckon he was going around asking all the locals about his run away daughter?"
I shrugged.
"It'd be different if she was fifteen or something, but the girl's twenty, she can go wherever she wants," Clyde pointed out. "Imagine you were running an underground sex trafficking opperation for a second."
"I'd rather not."
"Fair call," he acknowledged. "But, if you were, and one of your girls got away, would you really be asking around about her?"
"So you're saying that she's lying?" I guessed. "Just because you think he wouldn't risk asking randoms about her?"
I almost laughed.
"Dude, you didn't see her when she told me."
"I don't think she's lying," Clyde said, lowering his voice. "And I don't think that they're asking around."
"What are you getting at?" I was sick of trying to work it out the way he obviously thought he had; I just wanted him to spell it out.
"They know we know," he said, like it was a solid fact. "They've obviously got eyes around the joint."
"You think someone told them they saw her with us?" I gave him a look. "No offence, man, but you're starting to sound paranoid."
"I think someone told this Lucas prick that we busted them with her in an alley and beat the shit out of them before they could bring her back," he said shrugging.
"Those guys the other night..."
"It had to have been," he crossed his arms, glaring at the ground.
"They couldn't just be three random guys who picked an easy target?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "Three guys against one girl late at night, all on her own? You watch the news, it wouldn't be the first time."
"I've only lived here a year and even I know everyone in this town," he pointed out. "I've never seen them before. It's too much of a coincidence."
It made sense, what he was saying. I didn't want to believe it, but I thought he might be right. Those guys who attacked Jenna must have been connected to the two suits who were here yesterday.
"But, we left them in an alleyway," I pointed out. "How would they know that they could find us here? They wouldn't be asking around, would they?"
I knew that the two of us were kind of easy to recognise in this small town, but if there were strangers looking for us, then, it would have gotten back to us by now, surely.
"They wouldn't ask," Clyde agreed. "I'm thinking that maybe we really should have dug their graves, after all."
"What?" I laughed. "You mean we should have killed them?"
He nodded, keeping a straight face.
"Dude, you're fucking mental sometimes, but you wouldn't kill anyone." I eyed him for a second, at the dark look that passed over his face. "Would you?"
He blinked slowly, his eyes giving nothing away, then just shrugged, turning back to the car, and I found myself once again wondering about the dark pasts of my two best friends.
"Maybe we need to watch our backs from now on," Clyde finally spoke. "We could have eyes on us."