Goldie and the Three Wisconsin Bears

Safe…

I take the sandwich, but hungry as I am, it tastes like dirt in my mouth. It’s too hard to eat in front of Nico. I feel so ashamed.

After swallowing down the first bite, I open my mouth to tell him I’m just going to eat in the room.

“Hold on,” Nico says before I get the words out. He heads toward the stairs at the back of the kitchen. “I was going to take the sandwiches upstairs, but I know Jeb and Mitch are going to wanna see you.”

“No, Nico, don’t—”

“Hey, Jeb! Mitch! Goldie’s up!” Nico calls up the stairs before I can finish telling him not to.

The next thing I hear is the rushing stomp of work boots.

Jeb hangs back when they come into the kitchen. But Mitch grins at me, sly and wide. “There you are. We wondered if you were going to sleep all day again. Thought you were supposed to be Goldilocks, not Sleeping Beauty.”

“Sorry,” I mumble, not knowing how else to respond to that.

I glance at Jeb, but he’s not even looking at me. Is he angry at me for the way I acted yesterday?

Tommy, who’d been mostly quiet until now, starts shouting in my head. You think any decent man’s going to want you. You’re lucky you tricked me into falling for you. No other man’s stupid enough to put up with a worthless slut like you.

“So, do you agree to the new terms?” Mitch asks.

“What?” I blink. Tommy was so loud in my head, I didn’t hear what he said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t listening.”

“She’s still not fully awake. We should do this later,” Nico says to Mitch. While frowning at me.

“Later when?” Mitch asks. “She slept through her last day.”

“What deal?” I ask, utterly confused.

“The deal about your car. Craig’s saying he still hasn’t been able to find the engine and the other parts he’d need to fix your Chevy Nova. Quite frankly, we’re all surprised that piece of shit made it as far as it did. You came here from Georgia, right? That was what was on the plates.”

He’s looking at me so intently, I know he’s fishing for information. Information I’m not willing to give. But more importantly than that, “Wait, are you saying your mechanic can’t fix my car?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what he saying,” Jeb says behind Mitch. “Not that it was worth fixing in the first place.”

These are the first words he’s said to me since coming downstairs. And my head swims. Desperate to have it not be true. Desperate to get out of here.

“I need my car,” I tell them.

“That’s what we’re trying to talk with you about. How about we buy you a new car? A nice one. In exchange for another week.”

Their offer makes me want to throw up. “No…no! I can’t stay here. I’ve got to get to Canada.”

All three of them visibly jolt.

“What?” I ask.

Nico and Mitch just exchange looks, leaving Jeb to tell me. “If Canada’s your final destination, that window’s closed. They shut the border down due to the pandemic.”

“What?”

“Yeah, yesterday, while you were sleeping,” Nico tells me.

His voice is a lot gentler than Jeb’s, but his words still hit me like a punch to the face. “You can’t get in now unless you’re a citizen.”

I’m not a citizen. All I have is my passport and a birth certificate with my Canadian mother’s name on it. That might have been enough before. But now…oh God, I was so busy slutting it up yesterday morning, I missed my opportunity.

“Don’t be upset,” Nico says in the distance. “You keep on performing like that, you can stay here as long as you want.”

My whole body curdles with shame at his words. Tommy’s not just shouting in my head now, he’s screaming.

“No, I can’t stay here. I’ll take a bus to Cynda in Missouri—no, I can’t do that. A motel. I’ll get a motel.”

I don’t realize I’ve spoken out loud until Mitch asks, “Who’s Cynda?”

I shake my head at his question. I’ve already said too much. “I should go. Just give me the money you promised me, okay?”

They all still.

And I add, “Please.” Whispering as Tommy screams at me.

“Listen, Goldie. How about if we buy you a car and give you fifty more thousand on top of what we’re already going to pay you?”

Mitch takes a step toward me. And I stumble back.

I can’t talk about this with Tommy screaming in my head. Can’t look at them. Can’t be here. I run from the room, my entire body ablaze with fear and shame.

Chapter Seventeen

JEB

The perfect fit. That’s what Mitch called Goldie yesterday when we were discussing how crazy she made us. And how to keep her.

Mitch is the one with the business sense. And he assured us that the drug dealer approach would work.

“You saw her this morning…the way she took Jeb and us on top. I guarantee you we can get her as addicted to us as we are to her. And if Nico gets her talking, maybe we can solve whatever problem she’s hiding from us. One more week. That’s all we need.”