The Squad

She didn’t seem the least bit wary of me when she dropped my hand and moved to one of the long tables in the room. Watching her, the ease she had about her, and putting it together with everything I’d seen since I came here, I felt some of my fear of the unknown and prejudice leave me. It was hard not to when faced with someone like her. I could tell just by being in her presence that no one had ever touched her in an inappropriate way. I smiled at the thought that if these men and women were indeed what they seemed, then maybe, just maybe, my luck had turned for the better.

My mind came back into focus, and I watched her as she pulled on a pair of gloves before grabbing vials and bowls out of drawers, not having the first clue what I was looking at until I walked to the other side of the table across from her and started reading the labels. “Hey kid, are you supposed to be messing with this stuff?” I started to move to take the sulfuric acid from her hand. Instead, she passed me a pair of goggles and gestured for me to step back.

She put on her own goggles and a mask to protect her from the fumes. I watched in silent awe for the next few minutes as she mixed things in a steel bowl, her little face tight with concentration. I got excited when I realized what she was doing. “Hey kid, teach me how to do that!”

She stopped mixing but didn’t turn around to face me right away. “Aunty Roxy, I heard the others say you’re really good at fighting.” The smile she turned on me was not the smile of an eight-year-old; there was something ancient behind her eyes. “I’ll teach you how to do this if you teach me how to fight. “I swallowed hard and nodded as I wondered just what the hell I was getting myself into.

LYON

“You sure this is a good idea, Mancini?” I watched my kid mixing who knows what in a bowl as she drew her latest mark in.

“Yep! I know if anyone can break through her barriers quickly, our Catalina could.”

“Dafuq, do you have my kid doing down there anyway?”

I guess the fuck forgot that I wasn’t supposed to know about this when he turned on his little spy camera for the rest of us to see. “She’s not doing anything down there that she doesn’t do at home.” He has a point. We watched for a few minutes more until Jason showed up on camera standing outside the door Mengele had left open, probably by mistake.

He didn’t alert them to his presence, just stood there watching them, watching her. “Oh damn, turn it off. It feels almost like intruding on a private moment. The kid’s got it bad.”

“I see an island wedding in the forecast.” Tyler walked over to the mini-fridge to grab some bottles of water to toss around the room. “My thoughts exactly.”

Jason

I almost gave myself a heart attack when I came back to the room and found her gone. Although in my rational mind, I knew that there was no way for her to get off the island, I couldn’t help feeling the initial jolt of fear in my gut. I’d spent the better part of the last twenty-four hours dwelling on her life and all the shit she’s been through, so I’m sure that has something to do with the panic I felt.

My mind hasn’t been consumed only with what those monsters had done to her as a child, but with the way, I’d found her. That shit kept me up most of the night. I know firsthand what it’s like to live on the streets, and I hadn’t done it for even half as long as she’d had to. That shit is stuck in my craw and makes me want to peel the flesh and rip out the bones and tendons of the ones who harmed her with my bare hands.

Her paltry attempt earlier to get me to see what she thinks is her true self backfired spectacularly. If she thought I would see her as soiled, as damaged goods and want better, she’s sorely mistaken. It only made me want to cherish and protect her more. Not only because of my body’s reaction to her, that knowing that I felt when I first picked up her scent. I think I would’ve wanted her without that added bonus because she’s the most gorgeous fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

Her Korean features are dominant though there are obvious signs of her Caucasian heritage as well. A sexy as fuck mix that makes her more exotic than most to my eyes. I know all she sees when she looks at herself in the mirror is the taint that others had put on her, but I don’t see that shit, and I’m looking forward to the day when I erase it from her mind, or at least when it’s no longer the thing that she thinks defines her.