Jeannie’s jaw clenched. “Well, none of that will matter soon.” She walked back toward the kitchen.
Whispering to Mama Hen, I asked, “Did she just admit to human trafficking and conspiracy to murder? She wants to kill Hawk?”
“Don’t forget, she plans to kidnap you. Well, kidnap you harder. I guess she already did. I still don’t trust she didn’t have plans for Penny, but they kept her guarded at all times.”
“Why didn’t I know about the women? How many have gone missing?” I asked.
“Over the last year or so, at least a hundred that I know of. Not sure if it was happening before that. And could be more. The news don’t run every missing woman, especially sex workers.”
My stomach churned. “But she’s a woman. How can she do that?”
“Evil doesn’t discriminate, hon. But if I had to guess, her momma is running the show. Her prissy ass is just a mid-level worker bee with a stick up her ass and a chip on her shoulder.”
“That man earlier. He said he was going to get the next group ready. Do you think they have women somewhere?” My voice cracked. “We have to find them.”
“Shh, not so loud.”
“Sorry,” I whispered, “but we can’t just let them take them.”
“Well, first things first, we gotta make sure we get out of here alive.”
Nodding, I looked over my shoulder. “If we work together, I can take him and get his weapons. I don’t think there’s many outside.”
“Are you sure? He’s a big guy.”
“You make sure she stays out of my way, and quiet, and I can do it.”
She sighed. “I can take her. But if we need her quiet, I need her to come back this way. I’m tough, but I can’t run that fast. All it’ll take is one good scream from her and we’ll be swarmed.”
“She’ll get bored of him soon. She likes to run her mouth,” I said.
“I can’t believe I didn’t know something was up.”
“Hey,” I said. “Lots of people can act very well. She had this planned out probably, but wasn’t anticipating me. Everyone drops their mask eventually.”
“Well, thank God you showed up. She was planning to kill my son after she killed my man.”
“We’ll get her. I promise you.” I wanted to reach out, to take her hand. She was face to face with the person who killed her husband, her Old Man. And it was someone she trusted. And I was face to face with a sociopath who wanted my husbanddead. A heartless traitor to women.
Growing up how we both did, I couldn’t understand how she could perform such atrocities. Men already held so much power. Women should stick together. Although, I’d seen time and again too many women only out for themselves and would step on all other women to get what they wanted. I knew I had a great level of privilege, but I still wouldn’t be able to send another woman to be used as nothing more than a piece of meat by disgusting men for money. While I never thought I’d want to kill anyone, in the matter of minutes, a deep rage had grown within me. She wanted revenge, but I wanted justice. And in our world, justice wasn’t decided by a group of strangers in a courthouse. It was decided by us.
I was stewing over the ways I’d love to distinguish her pitiful excuse of a life when I thought I heard something familiar.Loud.Rumbling.
Looking over at Mama Hen, her eyes lit up.
Jeannie ran towards the front window and peeked out. “Shit. Get her!” she shouted.
The man’s footsteps rushed me and I glanced at Mama Hen. “Now.”
We both jumped from the sofa and Mama Hen ran towards Jeannie. I turned, the man just feet away.
They struggled behind me and a thud shook the floor as they landed. I had to act fast, though, so I couldn’t look back. I rushed him, going straight for his groin with a strong kick. He doubled over with a grunt just long enough for me to pop him in the jugular in two quick shots of the side of my hand.
He was still bewildered when I spun and sent a kick right to his diaphragm, hoping to knock the wind out of him.
He stumbled toward me, trying to grab me with one hand and his pistol with the other. But I grabbed his left wrist, then gave a high kick to right hand and sent the pistol out of reach.
He finally tried to call out for help but his voice was broken. There was a commotion outside, gunshots firing what sounded like all around us.
