“You’re Filipino?” She asked, and Callista nodded.
“Do you speak English?” Callista shook her head.
“Do you know how to speak Filipino?” I asked Cosette in a murmur, and it was her turn to shake her head no.
“I can understand a little when my dad speaks it, but I can’t form complete sentences,” she replied.
“What did she say about the ring, little vixen?” Siege asked.
“She said a kind man was bringing her here when they got stopped. Before he was… killed, he told Callista to run and find the gate with the symbol on the ring.”
Siege and Dex’s eyes darkened, taking the news that one of their men was killed while saving this little girl.
“What can you remember from the place you were in? The route on the way here?” I asked after the grim silence that fell on us, trying to see if she would understand this time without C having to translate. Thankfully, it looked like she did.
“Wala. Madilim. Malaki. Minsan may mga maingay naalarmo parang barko. Ang alam ko lang, madami kaming nandun. Ako pa lang nakakatakas. Sinakay ako sa truck kaya di ko nakita dinaanan namin.”
Cosette sighed. “She said, ‘Nothing. It was dark. And big. Sometimes, there’s an alarm or… abrawny man? All I know is that there’s a lot of us there, and I’m the only one who escaped. I was put inside a truck, so I didn’t get to see the way we went through.’”
“Anything, Callista. Any colors? Was it in a building? Underground? Did you see any trees? Plants?”
I tried to list everything that she could’ve seen on the way out, but if she was put in some kind of enclosed truck to hide her from the bad guys, I don’t think she’ll be able to give us anything.
“How about…amoy?” Cosette asked this time, and Callista closed her eyes as if to think back on what she could remember.
“Amoy ulan.”
Cosette’s brows furrowed, muttering the word ‘ulan’ again and again as she grabbed her phone and I watched her translate the word she forgot.
Cosette then raised her head, looking at Dex, hoping the answer was enough to help him find the location they’d been looking for.
“She said it smelled like rain.”
36
COSETTE
“Idon’t even know how to talk to her.”
We were observing the little girl, Callista, while she was watching Disney on Dex’s flat-screen TV, sitting on the couch like an actual child should.
I still can’t believe that she’s gotten out of potentially being human trafficked, and don’t get me started on how she probably watched the undercover Azul man get killed.
The guys have been trying to assuage my concerns ever since we stopped with the questions, not wanting to traumatize her even more. She’s been through enough, and she needs reprieve, not more recalling of what happened to her.
Siege tightened his arms around me from behind, while Dex held my hand, massaging my fingers the way I loved that only he could do.
“I think you just have to follow your instincts, little vixen. You’re actually handling this very well,” Siege said from behind me, planting a soft kiss on my nape.
“Yeah, but I feel like we should do more to help her get through this. I don’t know howshe’shandling this the way she is.”
I see Nero finally come back from the kitchen, placing another plate of sandwiches on the coffee table in front of Callista. She hasn’t been able to stop eating, and honestly? I love that for her.
She was so thin, and it makes me feel relieved that she’s eating so well after suffering God knows how many days.
“Do you want anything to drink?” Nero asked her, playing the role of a butler though he didn’t mind, and Callista replied with “water,” in her thick accent.
Which makes me think.
