I could hold my own if I had to and my years on the football team had kept my body well conditioned, but I never in a million years thought I’d be doing any of the stuff that I find myself doing lately. I even look different in my own eyes these days when I look in the mirror.
There’s a definite change, not only in the new physique the harrowing training Mancini had put me through had gained me, but also the look in my eyes. The innocence was all but gone, an innocence I didn’t even know I still had.
Now, after rescuing two girls from the clutches of hell, I don’t think I can ever go back to being the same. I didn’t realize until now how naïve I was. So naive that I didn’t even know these things were still happening in the world.
Most of the girls who weren’t much older than Caitlin were running away from their home country to escape a regime that treated women like brood mares and second-class citizens.
That’s not the problem, them running away; the problem is the underground organization, a network of different groups that was supposed to help these girls find safe passage to a new life in the west, either here or across the border in Canada.
Only thing is, someone or a whole lot of some-ones in that organization had seen them as easy prey and instead of escaping to a life of freedom, some of these girls were finding themselves being trafficked into a life much worst than the one they were trying to escape from.
I don’t know how Mancini infiltrated, but I know that Track had found an in through the computer and we were now able to follow their every move online. That’s how we were able to rescue the two that we saved. Where they went after that I have no idea, like I said, we were all working on different things that made up the whole with another team handling that leg of the Op.
Caitlin has no idea about the change because I’ve been able to keep it from her. Not only because of Mancini’s orders, but because I don’t want anything that ugly touching her ever. I’m with her dad on that one.
In fact, after seeing firsthand what beautiful impressionable young women can suffer if they fall into the wrong hands, I’m coming to understand him more and more.
Twice I’d left her sleeping with Facetime open, and came back to watch her sleep until the sun came up and she didn’t have a clue that I’d been gone. That’s the only stipulation I made when I went all in with Mancini. No matter what, I have to be there in the evenings for our nightly chats.
He’s been pretty good with that stuff so far. In the evenings after class I get my homework out of the way, sometimes here in my dorm, sometimes at the desk Jace had set up for me in his tenth floor office. Then we’d spend a few hours working on whatever Mancini had going on, before it was time to head back here to call her.
It isn’t always easy keeping the new me hidden from her, especially after I’d just come from spending hours pouring over some horror that yet another young girl had endured. But I could feel the changes all the same. It’s like I’m slowly becoming someone else.
And each time I see her face, each time we talk, I can’t help but wonder what all of this have to do with her. Mancini’s still not talking, but I can’t help thinking that there’s something there.
You see, I’ve been putting the pieces of the puzzle that is Mancini together in my head bit by bit and the guy does not do or say anything without meaning or purpose, not so far as I can tell anyway.
And if I’m right, then Mr. Lyon’s refusal to let her go away to school a year early will take on new meaning. I wish it was just because of me that he was holding out, and not because our girl is in some kinda danger.
I’d love to call Catalina and ask her what she meant when she said he won’t let Caitie come unless I can protect her, but that’s not how our arrangement works.
If I call there asking for her it’ll give away our secret and I’ll be left out in the cold. All these things are playing havoc with my mental state as I sit on pins and needles needing answers. And I get the feeling that Caitlin doesn’t have a clue about any of this. I’m pretty sure that although she likes to keep certain things from me that something like this isn’t one of them. At least I hope not.