Pacing back and forth as I need to get out of here soon, I’m not used to sitting around all day; even in prison, they have you up early, busy all day, and then locked down early for the night.
All this waiting for something to happen and needing to get away from here is starting to wear pretty thin. Of course, the skanks bringing meals wearing next to nothing and smelling of beer and sex is not helping my attitude.
Hearing the lock on the door turn, I position myself, so I’m facing the door. These skanks are not getting my back. I learned about that in prison.
A tall man I’ve not seen before enters the bedroom, carrying a tray with a coffee pot with the fixings, plus some kind of cake but pretty misshaped and looks like someone sat on it.
He must be about six foot three, well built with short hair and beard, brown eyes that have a friendly look, rather than the cold eyes I’ve seen for years.
‘My name is Ruger. Brought you a drink and not sure what that shit is but thought you might like somethin’ sweet,’ he says in a gravelly voice.
I nod but don’t speak; that’s what they are after me spilling everything. Maybe changing guys, they think, will loosen my tongue.
‘Do you need anythin’ else?’ he asks, ‘Need any clothes washing?’
Still, I don’t speak, standing firm and keeping my eye on him as he placed the tray on the dresser, turning to look at me once more.
He takes a step over to the bed and sits on the edge, giving me a nod to indicate I sit too.
I walk over to the window sill and take up the position I’ve had for the last few days. Looking out of the window at the men coming and going.
‘Sharp’s goin’ to want to speak to you, Mia. We want to protect you and get the truth told. If we can do that, you can get your name cleared and some compensation to get your life back,’ he states in a calm voice.
Turning my head to look at him, I still don’t speak, just take him in and the way he’s giving me the friendly vibes.
That is how the next forty minutes are spent, him trying to talk me around and why I should open up to them, I can tell he’s getting to the point he’s going to walk, and I decide I’ll say something.
‘Do you have any idea what it’s like working hard to get a career you love, to find the person that is supposed to be your everything and a daughter who, although is not blood, is loved as much as if they were?
‘When you’re stabbed in the back, not given a chance to defend yourself and then thrown in prison with a sign on your back that at all cost they should take you down.
‘The person that put that sign on your back is the love of your life, or you thought they were. Any idea at all?
‘Sharp and that club don’t give a shit about the truth. They proved that, and if they come here, it’s to get me back with them so they can take me out in a quiet place with no witnesses.
‘So don’t come in here giving me all your bullshit. It means nothing to me.’ and I turn back to the window and refuse to look or speak to him again.
Ruger leaves the room and quietly closes and locks the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts once more.
Zara
After finding somewhere to pee, I settle back down next to Target, and we eat a protein bar and a can of soda. Target keeps his eye on the compound and listens to me talking about anything I feel like because I get bored quickly.
Target taps my shoulder and hands me his binoculars, and looking through them I see Crack, my dad, and three others entering the compound.
‘That’s my dad’s club, and my dad is one of them. They must be looking for Miriam or me.’ I say to Target and hand him the binoculars back.
‘Don’t worry. We’ll keep doing recon for now.’ Target says.
‘What’s recon?’ I ask him, giving him all my attention.
‘Reconnaissance means we watch them without them seeing us,’ he explains, and when I nod, he turns back to watching again.
‘How long do we have to watch?’ I ask as I’ve not done this spying before, and I don’t know about his recon, but it’s spying to me.
Target turns and sits on his butt, leaning on the tree behind us both, ‘Well, we have to see who is coming and going. If we can guess what’s going on, we’ll have a better chance of getting in there and getting out again safely.’
‘Okay,’ I lean against Target and rest my head on his shoulder, ‘I think Cara was doing something bad.’
‘What makes you think that?’ he asks.
‘She was using her cellphone to take pictures of papers at the clubhouse. She went in the office when Sharp wasn’t around.’ I look up at him, ‘Someone called Snap kept calling her, and she was shouting at him. She couldn’t see how much money the club had and what the numbers were.’
‘I knew where she’s hiding the cell she uses when she talks to this man. I think they want to steal from the club.’
‘It sounds possible, Zara, but we need to tell them what’s happening. Do you think you can do that? I’ll be with you and won’t let anything happen to you or anyone hurt you.’ Target asks as he’s looking down at me.
‘If you’re with me, then I’ll do it.’ I say, turning to look back across at the compound, ‘Do you think they’re trying to find out what I know?’
‘Probably,’ he responds, ‘They just want to find you and this woman you call Miriam. I don’t know if they want to hurt her or not, but we haven’t seen her here now, have we? Maybe she’s still running.’
We settle down again and carry on spying. I have to smile a little as I know I was spying on people at the clubhouse, but maybe I was doing this recon Target talks about?
Around an hour later, my dad and the others leave the compound. They don’t look pleased; maybe that means they didn’t find anything out from the people in there.
‘Can you stay here quietly while I go do some looking around? Be still, don’t let anyone see you; we need to be unseen until we’re ready to walk over and speak to them.’ Target states.
‘Yes, I’ll be quiet and stay here,’ I reply, and I settle back against the tree while I wait for Target to come back.
He must have been gone quite a while because I’d fallen asleep. As I open my eyes, it’s dark and a bit spooky too. I sit up and can see the backpack because the moon is quite bright, so I take out a bottle of water and have a drink, then carry on waiting, but I’m getting scared Target has gone and left me or got caught by them across the road.
I’m just thinking I’ll go over to the compound when I hear a noise behind me and turn to see Target coming out of the bushes.
‘You okay, Zara? I was longer than I thought I would be, sorry about that,’ he says, smiling at me.
‘I’m alright. Are you alright?’ I hand Target a bottle of water and watch while he drinks the whole bottle, ‘I thought you weren’t coming back.’
‘I wouldn’t leave you on your own, Zara. I told you I’d look after you.’ he sits next to me, ‘There’s a lot of men going in and out, I saw some women, but they don’t look like the woman you talked about.’
‘You mean the club women, the nasty ones who don’t wear clothes?’ I ask, screwing my nose up.
‘Yea, those women,’ he smirks at me.
‘Miriam isn’t like that. She worked in a bank, and she had nice clothes, you know skirts and pants.’ I tell him, seeing her in my mind with her ponytail, pants, and white blouse.
‘You can clear her name, Zara. Even if she doesn’t want to go back to the club or be part of your life, you can clear her name, and that is the right thing to do.’ Target says, throwing his arm around my shoulders and wrapping us both up with the spare blanket.
‘Yea, I can, and I will. I just want to say I’m sorry,’ I tell him, ‘I don’t want to live with Cara anymore. Do you think they’ll make me?’
‘If you tell them everything, I don’t think she’ll be at the club anymore, so you won’t have to live with her. Also, you need to tell your dad or someone in charge that she hit you, and they won’t let that happen once they know.’
‘Okay, Target, I’ll do that as long as you’re with me when I do it,’ I tell him.
‘Come on, let’s see if we can get some sleep. It’s not cold, so we’ll be okay until morning.’ Target settles down next to me, and I lay listening to an owl hooting and the music from across the road playing. It’s not long before I’m fast asleep.
