Crystal’s gasp told him he’d been right. Jenna’s rant had hit its target.
A few long moments passed, with Crystal attempting unsuccessfully to talk Jenna down. And as much as Shane regretted the younger woman’s behavior for Crystal’s sake, her motivation came through loud and clear. Shane wasn’t the only one who knew Crystal was in trouble. Nor was he the only one worrying. Jenna’s fear was at least partially behind why she was lashing out. He would’ve put money on it.
A slammed door brought an abrupt end to the conversation.
“Shit,” Crystal whispered. “That went great.” The sarcasm did nothing to hide the sadness in her voice. “I’ll be home after two, Jenna. Don’t wait up. Please try to get some sleep tonight. Okay?”
Silence.
A series of muffled noises followed until another door closed. Crystal leaving, presumably.
Which meant they would run into one another at Confessions.
Fanfuckingtastic.
Feeling like the ground was moving beneath his feet, Shane nodded to Marz, who turned down the feed. How could Crystal be forced to work at Confessions? And by whom? By this Bruno asshole? By Church himself? Jesus. Shane thought he’d been worried about her before. With five little words, Crystal had just confirmed that her situation was even worse than Shane had feared.
“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Marz asked.
Still reeling, Shane met the man’s concerned gaze. “Dude, I don’t even know.”
Marz pressed his lips into a tight line and shook his head. “Put the context of a strip club we know engages in human trafficking together with the comment Crystal just made, and it’s pretty damn clear she’s not fully free.”
“Debt servitude, maybe?” Beckett said in a tone full of ice.
The more his friends speculated, the more he knew they were right. Sonofabitch. The realization of just how seriously in trouble Crystal was made him feel like he was breathing crushed glass. And there went the thought he could remain detached.
Forcing himself from the downward spiral of his thoughts, Shane focused on another part of what they’d learned—their father. “Marz, can you go through the phone records? See if you can find Crystal’s real name. Then see if you can dig up who their father was and how he might be involved in all this?”
“Can do,” Marz said.
“So, it sounds like Crystal’s on her way to the club now,” Beckett said, rubbing at his scarred temple.
“Yeah.” Shane thought about how smoothly she’d handled his appearance in the club the night after they’d rescued Charlie. She could’ve freaked out or screamed or pointed or run away. A million things. But she’d masked her surprise, ordered him out without making a scene, and put on a good show to which no one gave a second thought. No reason to think she wouldn’t handle herself the same way again.
Except, now, Shane knew her, cared about her. The worry he felt was probably more about him than her. And wasn’t that a peachy revelation.
Easy cleared his throat and rubbed a hand over his bald head. When he wanted it to happen, the guy had a knack for fading into the background of a conversation to the point you almost forgot he was there. Seemed like he’d been doing it a lot since they’d reunited. “This sister could become a problem for your waitress friend,” he said. “She’s got a bit of a temper on her. If Crystal’s handsy boyfriend comes over, and Jenna loses it at the wrong time . . .” Easy let them finish the sentence for themselves. No matter how they filled in the blanks, though, the end results weren’t good.
“Sounds like she was just blowing off steam,” Shane said. “But point taken.”
Nodding, Easy said, “I’m not saying we do anything, but it bears watching.”
Murmurs of agreement sounded from all three of them, and Shane found himself glad to have their support where Crystal and her sister were concerned.
“All right. I need to shower and change if we’re going back out. These jeans are starting to chafe,” Shane said, to the guys’ amusement. He was halfway to the door when something occurred to him, and Shane turned back. “Hey, Marz?”
“Yo.”
“If you find out Crystal’s name, don’t tell me.”
“Come again?” Marz said, as Easy’s and Beckett’s gazes swung toward Shane.
He made sure his tone was casual, unaffected. “I just want to hear it from her first.”
Marz cocked his head and stared at him. Sure enough, a flash of recognition passed through the man’s eyes. Shane’s emotions had gotten involved, and now Marz knew it. “Whatever you say, hoss,” he said. “I live to serve.”
Shane nodded and beat feet for the door, silently thanking the man for holding back whatever commentary might’ve gone through his head a few seconds before. Last thing he wanted was for the team to worry he’d lost his objectivity because he’d gotten attached to the girl.
Even though, damn, he was kinda getting attached to the girl.
And wasn’t that a red-handed smack in the ass.
CRYSTAL WASN’T SURE how the sensation of emptiness could be so painful. But her chest absolutely throbbed with it.
Had she ever seen Jenna so angry before?
No. Not even the day her sister had seen those first bruises on Crystal’s arm though that day had been pretty bad, too. In her heart of hearts, Crystal knew Jenna was just worried. The girl had their father’s temper but, unlike him, was usually quick to forgive. Not this time. God, Crystal wasn’t sure how to make this right.
Not without dumping an anvil of worry and guilt on her sister’s shoulders. And no way that kinda stress would be good for Jenna’s epilepsy.
Because spilling to Jenna didn’t just put her sister in the position of having to keep her mouth shut and play her part convincingly, it also meant revealing that Bruno paid for Jenna’s medical expenses and explaining why their departure had to be secret. Which meant explaining how Crystal had been forced to work off their father’s debts. And that meant revealing the scars on her back that Crystal had gone out of her way to hide the past four years.
For a moment, memories sucked Crystal back to the night it had all started. Some of Church’s men had come to the house, nearly cleaned out from the previous day’s auction of their home and its contents, to inform her that the sale hadn’t raised enough to cancel out her dead father’s debts. Apparently, they hadn’t thought her cooperative or concerned enough—after all, the debts weren’t her fault—so they’d grabbed her and forced her into their van. Next thing she knew, she was locked in one of the basement rooms of Confessions. Tools of various sorts hung on one of the pitch-black walls—some she could identify and some she couldn’t.
And then the men had started coming.
The only saving grace in the whole thing was that Jenna had been away on the tenth grade’s spring break field trip to Philadelphia. Over Jenna’s protests, Crystal had insisted she go so she wouldn’t have to witness all their belongings being sold off. And thank God she had. Because if Jenna had been home that night, there’s every chance the Churchmen would’ve taken her, too. Somehow, Crystal didn’t think that Jenna’s being only fifteen and sickly would’ve stopped them.
Cold crept over Crystal’s skin, and she shuddered. It had been Bruno who rescued her from the basement and kept Jenna from landing there herself. Thank God their father, before he went to prison, had called in a favor for having saved Bruno’s life and gotten the man to promise to watch out for them. So Bruno had rescued Crystal and shielded Jenna to even the score and keep his word. But because he couldn’t let them out of the debt repayment, he’d arranged for Crystal to get other work at Confessions. That was when she started waitressing. And, after a while, dating Bruno.