“See, I think that’s where you are wrong. I can have you locked up for the rest of your life.”
“I want a lawyer,” she demanded. She knew her rights. She didn’t have to say shit without a lawyer present. He laughed a full blown, throw your head back laugh. The stupid fucker laughed at her. She slumped back on the sofa and cockily crossed her ankle over her knee.
He kicked her shoe back to the floor. “Who are you?” he asked. Should she tell him? She didn’t know what to do. She needed her father or Julius.
“Did you kill my father?” she asked.
“I wasn’t the one to pull the trigger, but I think we both know that you are not a decedent of Romano Chavez. What’s your name?”
“Aquilla Jade Chavez,” She answered.
He laughed again. “We can sit here for days if you want. It doesn’t mean shit to me.” She was confused. What the hell did he want from her? “I’m going to ask you one more time. What is your name?”
What the fuck? That was her name. “I just told you,” she smartly replied.
“Goddamnit, there is no fucking Aquilla Jade Chavez on this fucking earth…Anywhere. You’re a liar,” he screamed. Damn this guy was wound tighter than a ten day clock.
“Malone!” Seri chastised with a look and a shake of her head, telling him to back off.
Aquilla’s face dropped. Now she was really confused. “Are you a slave here?” he asked.
“Chattel,” Seri, or whoever she was, corrected. “They weren’t treated that way.”
“Are you a personal Chattel here?” he rephrased.
“No, I have my own room here. I have never done anything with men here.”
“Except for Julius Chavez, right?” Seri asked.
“Yeah right, him and you,” She spit out with a vengeance. Seri turned instantly red. “You stupid fucking bitch. You fucking low life whore!” Aquilla screamed at Seri as she tried with cuffed hands to come off the couch and go after her.
“That’s enough,” Agent Dick Face scolded. She didn’t falter. She came from a long line of malicious criminals. If he would take these fucking handcuffs off, she would shove her shoe right through is Adam’s apple.
“What is your real name?” he asked, getting ticked off. “And I don’t want to hear that you are some girl that doesn’t exist either,” he added.
“That’s my name, I don’t have another name.” She assured him. Where the fuck was Julius? Why wasn’t he there blowing the heads off of every last one of them?
“Agent Malone,” a man said, coming into the room with a manila folder. He dropped it to the table. Agent Malone and Agent Seri walked over to see what he had found. Aquilla wanted to see too, she was sure they had been marauding her father’s office, looking for clues.
“She’s telling the truth,” Agent Malone said, looking to Aquilla. What did he have? What were they looking at that had their attention?
Agent Seri sat in front of her next. She had her shot records, school transcripts, passports, and her birth certificate. This wasn’t making any sense. There was no record of an Aquilla Chavez, but she had the documents to prove it. Who was this little girl? She held up a picture of Aquilla when she was around three or four. It was a colored picture from a newspaper clipping. There was no description to the picture, just the cut out picture of her around 2 or 3 years old. Seri flipped it over, looking for a date or some sort of clue. There was nothing, just something about a Relay for Life run in New York. Her hair was even blonder back then.
“This is you, do you remember this picture?” Seri asked. She must have been in New York then, but why was her picture in the paper?
Aquilla didn’t know what to say. It was her, she knew it was her. She just didn’t know why or where it was taken. Why was she in the newspaper? She said the only thing that would come to mind. “Fuck you, Seri,” she sneered. She wasn’t answering her questions. She didn’t fucking know how.
“My name is Sarah,” she stated, resting her elbows on her knees and leaning into Aquilla.
“And you miraculously speak perfect fucking English too,” Aquilla indicated right back, remembering her broken English when she had met her, right there in that room.
“I’m trying to help you here, Quill.”
That pissed her off. Her father and Julius were the only two people that called her Quill. She hadn’t earned that respect. She reacted. Seri reacted faster. As soon as Aquilla brought her leg up to kick her in her teeth, she tackled her to the floor. The fucking bitch was tougher than the three guys she had already assaulted. She crammed her elbow into the side of her face, trying to calm her thrashing body. Aquilla stilled, she wasn’t going to win.
She pulled her back to her feet and tossed her back to the sofa. “We can do this all night,” she stated. “I’m trying to help you here.”
That’s what Aquilla chose to do. She tightened her lips and slid to a laying position on the sofa. She wasn’t saying a word. Seri got up with an exasperated breath.
Aquilla’s mind whirled as the three agents studied her. She thought about what they had said. She wasn’t Aquilla Chavez. Who the hell was she? She wondered where Julius was. They hadn’t gotten him, she knew that to be fact. They wouldn’t be asking her where he was if they had him. She thought about Valdez leaving her to fend for herself. She would have never come back to the house had she known it had been raided by the feds.
Chapter 7
Where the fuck was Valdez with Aquilla? Did they have them? Did he stick to the plan and get her out of there? Julius had been waiting for almost four hours. He ditched his cellphone, far into the ocean, not wanting to be traced. He had no way to find out. He couldn’t go back to the house. He knew they had it guarded tighter than Fort Knox. He was starting to panic. He couldn’t live without her, especially now that his father had gone down for him. He distracted the sons of bitches so Julius could escape. He almost turned back when he had heard the gun shot. Maybe he wasn’t dead. Maybe he was just injured. Where the fuck was Valdez?
He should have gone with her. The thought of them having her and interrogating her about something she had no clue about, made him sick to his stomach. Would they hurt her when she wouldn’t talk? She couldn’t fucking talk she didn’t even know anything. They made sure of that. Would they rough her up, thinking she was lying? Julius paced back and forth, wearing a path in the dark woods. How long was he going to wait before he had to get out of there? They were hunting him, he knew they were, he wouldn’t be able to hide out here much longer before they would find him. Nothing could make him feel as bad as this, he had shot men point blank in the forehead, and that was still not even comparable. This was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. He was leaving her. It was going to be daylight soon, there was no other choice. After rationing with himself, he decided it was best that he left. There was no time left he had to get off the island. He couldn’t come for her if he was in prison or wound up dead. He would come for her, he would fucking find her, one way or another.
He unburied the boat and started the engine, heading toward Anguilla Island. He couldn’t even turn back and look at Jamelia Lei. Julius kept his eyes focused on the black water. He was fucking leaving her there to fend for herself. If he ever saw Valdez again, his life would be in his hands.
Aquilla sat up sometime during the night. She didn’t even remember falling asleep. The room was dark except for a golden light illuminating from a small lamp in the corner. She wanted to run her fingers through her tangled hair and stretch. She couldn’t, her hands were still confined behind her back. She saw Agent Seri sitting in a chair with her elbows on her knees, staring at her. Agent Dick Face was in a recliner sound asleep.