He doesn't get a chance to respond, a light knock on the door stops the conversation and we turn to see Wrath and Marissa enter the room.
"Hey, girl," Marissa says. "Let’s go get some food." She reaches out her hand to help Nova up, then grabs the plate of untouched food from the table.
Nitro, Wrath and I watch the girls leave, waiting until the door is closed before we start talking.
"What the fuck was that?" I snap at Prez. "You asked her if they'd ever fucking raped her?"
"Watch your mouth," he tells me calmly. "I didn't technically ask her that."
"No, but it was implied," I say. I'm angry, although I'm not sure why. I wanted to know too, but I didn't think he'd just come out and say it.
"We needed to know, Ice. We needed to know just how far the abuse went."
"You think she told you the truth?" Wrath asks, and we both look over to him. It never occurred to me she might have lied. I'm pretty sure she was telling the truth and Nitro's response tells me he believes her too.
"Nah, she was pretty shocked when I asked. And very clear on her answer. When she told us about the beatings, she seemed embarrassed, but when I asked if it went further than that she seemed surprised that it would have even crossed anyone’s mind."
Prez turns to me. "What’s going on with you and her? Anything we need to know about?"
"Nothing, Prez. I just want to take care of her and the kid. Just like you." He raises an eyebrow, clearly not believing what I've said. "Don't get me wrong, she's hot, but I wouldn't go there."
"Why?" Wrath asks, surprised.
I don't have an answer for them. The truth is, I don't know why I wouldn’t go there. "I don't know. Maybe it's because she's too skittish," I say. Nitro lets out a laugh, followed by Wrath a second later. "What the fuck are you two laughing at?" I snap.
"You," they both say in unison.
"Yeah, she's fucking skittish, with good reason," Nitro states. "But we've been watching you. You watch her every move. You're there when she freaks, you make her a drink every morning when you've gotten back. And that’s after you've spent half your night in her room watching her sleep, like a god damn fucking stalker."
"I'm not a fucking stalker," I state.
"But you're not denying anything else," Wrath points out between laughing.
"I like her, I want to protect her," I tell them.
Nitro nods at me. "And we will."
"Really?" Wrath asks. “Even knowing who her uncle is?"
"Yeah. He ain’t some big shot, he's a street cop," Nitro says. He lets out a sigh, then looks between Wrath and I. "Seems he has a few scumbags on the force with him."
"What do you mean?" I ask, not liking the look he's giving me.
"There's a reason I asked her if she had suffered anything else." His gaze snaps to Wrath who sits up straighter. "There are rumours that some of his buddies like to erm… indulge in some sick shit."
"What the fuck do you mean by sick shit?" I snap.
"I mean there’s talk that they like to rape women and video it."
"What the fuck?" Wrath breathes out.
"Is her uncle involved?" I ask, not really wanting to know the answer.
"I don't know, I have Data doing some digging, but he's having to dig in places he's never been, and I think he might be struggling," he tells us.
"What do you mean digging in places he's never been before?" Wrath asks.
"The dark web, brother. Deep in the dark web. The shit he's coming up against is eating him up." Nitro stands and we follow. "I know what I want to do, I know what we need to do, but we need to take this to Church. Doing this is a risk, but the decision can't be ours."
