Trina shook her head. “When I looked in that van and saw what I’d done, I looked over at her. I was so shocked that I just stood there for a good long time. When I looked back over where she had been standing, she was so shocked too. And she looked like she was scared of me. I looked inside that van again. I still couldn’t believe what I’d done. I still couldn’t believe it. But when I looked at her again, she was gone. I don’t know if she ran back in those woods because she was afraid of me, or where she ran. I just know she left me there.”
Reno opened his suit coat, placed his hands on his hips, and leaned back against the bedroom wall. He was outdone. He was through.
“What’s the girl’s name?” Tommy asked her.
“Latoya Brunson.”
“Hey, wait a minute,” Sal said. And then he looked at Mick. “Wasn’t that the name of the girl Douglas told you and Reno about? He couldn’t remember her last name, but he remembered her first name. He said Tree told him that girl was there that night or she knew something about it.”
Trina nodded. “She was there.”
“But how did Javon find out?” Sal asked her.
“When I got back to the house after driving around aimlessly, he told me Scotty was in L.A. to collect on a debt. He said he’d be back in a couple days and that Von was to keep an eye on me and his girls. But Von had always been decent to me. And when I saw him, I broke down and cried. He held me. Even after I told him that I had harmed a family, including children, he still held me. And he never asked me what happened or to give him details or none of that. He was in a bad place too. Scotty had him doing things he said he never thought he’d ever do. It was just all bad.”
“When did he fuck you?” Reno asked her.
Mick looked at him. He understood Reno’s anguish, but that was uncalled for. “She’s still your wife, Reno,” he reminded him.
Reno jerked his head away from Mick, like he wasn’t trying to hear that right then. He was hot. He couldn’t help it. But he was hot.
But because Trina knew she deserved his heat, she answered him. “A couple days later,” she said. “It was late at night. Scotty was still gone. He got in my bed. He knew I wasstill traumatized and he knew I wouldn’t fight it. And I didn’t. I had no fight left in me.”
“So you’re saying he raped you?” Reno asked.
Trina shook her head. “No. It wasn’t like that at all. I just didn’t care what he did to me. That’s what I meant.”
“Why didn’t you tell me, Tree?” The bitterness that had been in Reno’s voice was now replaced with pain and anguish. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“How could I tell you something like that, Reno? Look at y’all. Look at all of y’all! Look at the way you’re looking at me yourself, Reno.”
They all were staggered by her revelations and there was no way for them to hide it. Especially Reno.
“How could I tell you,” Trina continued, “when I couldn’t even accept it myself? I still can’t accept it!” She was full-out crying now. “Only a monster would have done what I did. A monster! Why do you think I paid them three million dollars the first time they blackmailed me? How could I ever even admit such a horrific thing out loud?!”
Mick stood up. And when he did, so did everybody else in that room except for Trina. Reno was already standing. “Have you heard from Latoya since that night?” Mick asked her.
Trina shook her head. “I never seen her or heard from her again. All I know was that she left Nevada. And I didn’t know that for a fact, but that was what Javon said he heard.”
“Did you keep the video or those photos those blackmailers gave to you after you paid up?” Tommy asked her.
Trina shook her head. “No. I deleted them off my phone. I wanted nothing to do with any of that.”
Tommy reached out his hand. “Give me your phone. Things are rarely completely deleted.”
“But that video was a year ago.”
“It still can’t be totally deleted. Where’s your phone?”
Trina had to think about that.
“Where’s your phone?” Sal asked her too.
“I don’t know. I guess it was left at that motel.”
“Great,” said Sal. “Just great. CSI probably has it now.”
“If they have it,” Tommy said, “I’ll get it.” They all looked at him. They often forgot that Tommy was once a high-ranking cop in his former life. “I know a guy,” he added.
