Her heart

25

"Take a seat. Make yourself at home" Ray instructed as we entered his living room. Since Victoria insisted on going to his place earlier, nobody was in there yet. It was just us. We convinced Zack and Travis to come too.

"You said you'll tell us more details about the place we were at. I'm listening" I said on a bold tone even though I was scared on the inside.

He sat down on the couch and lit a cigarette. He inhaled deeply looking in his lap then exhaled.
"What do you want to know exactly?" He asked

"Why is that place so dangerous?" I looked him in the eyes

"What have you seen while being there?" He asked

"I thought I'm asking the question" I tried to sound convincing but I immediately changed the look in my eyes when his stared right at me

"Just a dude and a girl getting out of a car. We assumed that he was the one I talked on the phone with but we're not sure" I informed him

"What do you mean the one you talked to?" He leaned forward placing his elbows on his thighs. Then I realised that maybe I let out too much information slip out.

"I-I've found this phone number...I had no idea what it was and-"

"Where have you found a phone number and why would you call it?" He seemed to get suspicious and I had no idea if I should have lied or not

"Baby, calm down. Ava only tried to see whose phone number it was because he found it in Noah's car" Victoria tried to calm him down

"Exactly. When I called he gave me those details and I wanted to see where it was going. I wasn't planning on meeting him anyway" I tried to explain

He scoffed and rubbed his forehead looking in his lap then raised his head to look at all of us.

"You have no idea what shit you've got yourself into. You are lucky ya'll were smart enough to stay in the car"

We stood in silence and looked at each other like we were small kids being yelled at by our teacher for doing something bad.

"And what exactly does that mean?" I found courage to ask

"The guy you've seen is a human trafficker. He's a part of a bigger organisation that forces women into prostitution. Is it enough information for you to stop asking questions now?" He said it all so serious with no emotion in his voice.

I simply nodded because I was too overwhelmed by the unbelievable information I just got hit with. Question started to rush through my mind again but I was to scared to go any further.

Not by the massive guy I was supposed to get answers from, but by the answers I could have heard.

Why was that phone number in Noah's car? Were those girls related to this cruel thing? How was he related to this whole situation? How does Ray know this stuff ?

We were all looking at each other while he just got another blunt. He raised one brow and looked at us

"Before you assume anything, I know that shit because some of their people buy drugs from me. But I do not agree with their shit and I think it's disgusting and none of them are real humans. I don't consider myself friends with them but business is business"

After his words, Victoria seemed mad and she looked at him in disbelief. I totally understood her point of view but I was worried about other things.

I had two options at that moment. I could have stayed up and said goodbye, going home and thinking about everything alone, or staying and having fun with some people I've never seen before, forgetting about everything for at least a night. Getting drunk was included in the second option too.