Truth or Lies? by A. Gomez (books to get back into reading TXT) 📕

Oh shit! Heaven help me! I couldn’t let this happen! I eyed him up and down. He didn’t appear to have a gun on him.

I shoved Betty back into the bathroom and yell for her to lock the door. Gator Leg was already at the bathroom door and hit it open, knocking Betty to the floor. I grabbed him by the back of his hair, trying to get him away from her but he hit me in the face with the back of his hand, knocking me to the ground, disorienting me for a moment. I got up, trying to get my bearings. He had her pinned on the bathroom floor, tearing her pajama bottoms and panties off.

“No!” I shrieked.

Betty was screaming for help, calling my name. That fucking Gator Leg, Frank, was sitting on her, trying to keep her from getting away while he undid his pants. I was pulling my hair by the roots, looking around frantically for a weapon. The scissors! Insight hit me as I recalled seeing a pair of scissors in the bathroom drawer. I ran to the drawer, fished them out and without thinking, I stabbed Gator Leg in the neck. He took ahold of one of my arms, allowing Betty Lou to wiggle out from under him. I pulled the scissors out and stabbed him again, this time in the throat. He made a guttural sound and stared into my eyes. I took the scissors out one more time and stabbed him in the throat again, twisting the scissors in his throat this time. Blood was everywhere and I felt the urge to vomit. He let go of my arm and fell to the floor with the scissors still in his throat. He hit the floor with a thud, his eyes still staring at me. Blood was everywhere. I looked down at my hands. I had blood on them and my shirt. My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking. I couldn’t believe I killed another man without thinking twice. Don’t go into shock, Isabel Grace, I told myself. I leaned over him to check his pulse and noticed my gun was peeking out of one of his pockets. I quickly got it out, wrapped it in a towel and placed it under the sink closest to me.

Betty Lou was in a far corner of the bathroom, whimpering and crouched down in a ball. I got to her and knelt beside her, gazing at her all over, making sure she was okay.

“Did he hurt you?”

“No,” she whispered with a quivering voice.

“Did he…” I couldn’t find the words, my face contorting at the memory of him on top of Betty.

“No,” she answered, “he didn’t rape me. You stopped him before he could.” She hugged my neck tight, her little body shaking and trembling.

I stood her up and we turned to head out but stopped in our tracks. Debbie and Victor Chang were at the entrance of the bathroom, staring at us and the dead man on the floor. I knew it. I knew the defendant Jill was prosecuting wasn’t just another child sex offender. I knew he had to be involved in this somehow. I was right. Here he was… Debbie’s boss… the head of the Chinese Triads for the greater Chicago area. He was not very tall but not short like Gator Leg either, more average height I would say. He had straight, dark hair that was severely parted to one side and very round glasses that accentuated his Asian eyes. He was a slender man with a very round face. He looked to be in his fifties. Maybe? To look at him, one would never guess he was a ruthless sex trafficker. He was wearing a polo with khakis and looked like anyone’s next-door neighbor… or perhaps an engineer. He was the epitome of the old adage, “never judge a book by its cover.”

He continued to glare at me, his expression unreadable. Debbie looked like she was going into shock. Seriously! She worked for one of the most horrific organizations in the world and this was a shock to her? The silence was deafening. I needed to say something so Betty Lou and I didn’t get separated. I needed to spin this somehow.

“Mr. Chang.” I took a deep breath. “This man, whom you employed, has been stealing from you.”

He stared at me quizzically, his eyes darted between the dead man on the floor and me.

“What I mean to say is, these girls are your property, they belong to you and therefore you decide what happens to them and for how much. You set the price. Well, it seems to me that Ga… um, Frank has been ignoring all of that and taking liberties with your property. He has probably been raping most, if not all, the girls that come through here without your knowledge and without paying you for their services. That’s stealing, in my opinion,” I declared. “This man worked for you, not the other way around. He knew better than to cheat you, yet he ignored that and did it anyway. I suppose he didn’t respect you enough to not steal,” I emphasized the word steal. “Furthermore, from what I saw, I suspect he’d been beating or inflicting some sort of injuries on these girls, your property, hence forcing Debbie to take them to a hospital to get treated, further exposing you. It can leave you vulnerable to exposure, raising suspicions at the hospital.” He stayed quiet, eyeing me. My heart was racing. I was praying that what I said resonated enough for him not to kill me.

“She’s right, Mr. Chang,” a small voice from behind them piped up. “Frank raped me when I first got here and Miss Debbie had to take me to the ER for medicines because he gave me an STD. That’s why I couldn’t work right away.” Debbie turned her