By now I’d almost forgotten I was a victim of an abduction. I continued to disguise myself when I left the motel, but for the most part I just assumed people had forgotten about me. I was okay with that. I didn’t want to be found.
There were always new people coming and going, and I did my best to avoid them. I knew what Grizz was. He was a criminal. So were the majority of the people he associated with. I despised that the man I loved earned a living illegally. The only way I knew how to deal with it was to ignore it. It wasn’t always easy.
I’d been living at the motel for almost a year. One day in particular I heard a loud fuss out by the pit—yelling and hooting. Lucifer and Damien were barking. Grizz walked out to see what was happening. When things didn’t quiet down, I went out, too. It took me a few minutes to assess what was happening, and when I did I was horrified.
It was a young couple. He was getting beaten and she was getting raped. Grizz was just standing there talking to some guy and ignoring everything that was happening. The dogs had stopped barking because Grizz had commanded them, but other than that, there was still a frenzy of activity and yelling. I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Apparently, this young couple had been tricked into coming back to the motel. The guys who did it didn’t want the couple; they wanted the couple’s motorcycle. And they made sport of the young guy and his girlfriend for kicks.
I walked right over to Grizz and interrupted him. “Can you please stop this? Do you see what’s going on?”
He looked at me hard. “Not your concern, Kit. Go back inside.”
I looked around for someone I might recognize, but there was no one. Where was Grunt, Chowder, Moe? I saw Monster, but he was enjoying himself too much. He must have raped the girl before I got out there because he was zipping up his jeans while simultaneously kicking the young guy in the ribs. I was outraged. Not my concern? I was witnessing a rape, for goodness’ sake!
“Grizz, please stop this. I’m asking you to stop it for me.”
Grizz nodded at the guy he was talking to. I recognized him now. His name was Chico. I’d noticed him at the motel once or twice before. He didn’t wear a gang jacket.
“Miguel, end it now,” Chico said to one of the guys sitting in a lawn chair. Grizz and Chico went back to their conversation.
Thank God, I thought, willing my hands to stop shaking. Before I could thank him, I watched the man called Miguel walk over to the girl who was lying on the ground and sobbing. I jumped. Miguel then walked over to the young man who had just been beaten and was also lying on the ground.
His way of ending it was by putting a bullet into each of their heads. I’d just witnessed my first executions.
* * * * *
It happened so quickly I couldn’t even react. I was in shock but knew better than to show any hysterics to Grizz in front of these people.
I walked quickly back to number four and shut the door behind me. I leaned against it and was taking deep breaths and battling nausea when it opened and I fell backwards into Grizz’s arms. He caught me and took me inside.
“You shouldn’t have come out.”
“Really? Really Grizz? What the heck was that? You were just standing there while a guy was being tortured and his girlfriend was raped?” I struggled to control my rising voice. “How could you let that happen?”
“Wasn’t my problem to deal with, Kit.”
“This is your place, Grizz. These are your people.”
“Chico and his crew aren’t my people. Miguel is his guy. They were setting up a delivery. Those kids were collateral damage. Not my problem. Not yours, either.” He stepped past me to the couch and sat down.
I followed, hands on my hips. “So what you’re basically telling me is you had no problem blinding Monster to save a kitten, but you wouldn’t stop the execution of two innocents? Grizz.” I paused for effect, my heart pounding. “You nodded your head and two people were executed.”
“Kit, they weren’t mine to deal with,” he said and flipped on the TV. “You asked me to end it. Not my problem how he chose to do it. You don’t like what goes on out there, then stay inside. Got it?”
I couldn’t believe it. I thought I’d seen a different Grizz. A sympathetic Grizz who rescued kittens and listened to my kind of music. Someone who made sure his young wife went to church every Sunday.
I couldn’t believe how naïve I was. He was all of those things, but I kept forgetting that he didn’t get to be the leader of this gang by being soft. He was hard. He was cold-blooded. He was ruthless in his pursuit of what he wanted.
I took his advice. I stayed inside as often as possible.
* * * * *
I racked my brain for days afterwards, trying to figure out if I could’ve done something different. Of course I could have. I could’ve walked into that motel room and called the police. But would it have saved those two people? No.
More than likely, Grizz would have received a tip of his own before the police got here, and I might have ended up in the swamp with the others. I didn’t really think that would happen, but I couldn’t let myself imagine what Grizz would do to me if I really made him mad.
I went over it and over it in my head. If I told, would it save future people from being murdered in cold blood? Maybe. But what else would happen? Did I want to go back to my old life with Delia and Vince? Did I want to see Grizz, Moe, Chowder or Grunt in prison? Did I want to see Blue go to jail and his family fall apart? What about Fess?
The truth was I didn’t know the extent of the criminal activity that went on here, but it couldn’t have been worse than murder. Could it?
I tried to engage Grizz in conversation about it, but he never indulged me. “It’s better for you if you don’t know certain things” is all he said.
After the incident with Chico and his crew, I noticed Grizz was trying to be more accommodating with me, if that was possible. He already spoiled me. But there was something different in the way he treated me after that day. I can’t explain it, but I certainly felt it. I think even though he put his foot down and refused to discuss it, he secretly worried that what I saw that day might have put me over the edge. Maybe he was concerned I would stop loving him. I wasn’t sure.
But then something happened and I knew my suspicions were correct.
It was a Saturday afternoon a week later. We were getting ready to leave for the west coast for church. I was packing an overnight bag. The weather was supposed to be good, and Grizz wanted to take his bike. He was standing at the foot of the bed and had just asked me if I would rather drive my car. I told him no. I loved my car, but I loved riding with him more. That seemed to make him happy, but quite honestly, it was true.
Just then the door burst open and Moe ran in, frantic. Tears ran down her face. She grabbed Grizz by the arm and pulled him towards the door. She didn’t have to do much pulling. We both were on high alert and ran outside as quickly as possible.
When we got outside we followed her over toward the edge of the motel, and that’s where we saw him—Damien. The big dog was lying on his side, and Lucifer was prancing around him excitedly, crying and whining. We heard the problem before we saw it.
A huge rattlesnake was coiled and made a lunge for Lucifer. Lucifer was able to avoid it and just kept barking and pacing. As soon as we got close enough, Grizz put up his left hand and waved me back. Before I realized it, he pulled out a gun that had been shoved into the back of his jeans. He killed the snake in one shot.
“Probably protecting her nest,” he said. “Otherwise, she would’ve bit him and slithered off. Not stayed around for a fight.”
I didn’t know anything about snakes, so I just nodded like I knew what he was talking about.
He told me to get my car. I ran for number four and grabbed my keys. I ran to my car and got in. I started it and drove toward him. He was carrying Damien. He told me to get in the passenger seat. I put the car in park, jumped over the column and waited for him to lay Damien across my lap. Just then, Chowder came out and asked what the commotion was all about.
“Call the vet, tell him rattlesnake bite. Looks like two bites, maybe. I’ll be there in ten minutes.” Grizz turned to Moe and said, “You can’t come.”
I think she was already expecting this, but I could tell she was hurt and worried about Damien. It made more sense to me when we drove up to the vet in Davie. Of course Moe couldn’t come. If she had been part of a rural community and raised horses, it was likely someone from the vet might have recognized her.
Chowder must have talked to someone, because they were waiting for us when we pulled up. Grizz parked and came around to pick Damien up off my lap. They were waiting with a gurney, but Grizz ignored them. After realizing Grizz wasn’t going to lay Damien on the gurney, they ran up the front steps past him and opened the door. We followed the two vet technicians in and passed through the waiting room and into one of the treatment rooms, where Grizz laid Damien on a table. The vet was there and told us to wait outside.
We didn’t go back out to the waiting room, but instead sat in two chairs just outside the door. I didn’t notice if there were other patients waiting when we rushed in, but it didn’t matter. I would think a deadly snakebite would take precedence over the other appointments.
We waited for what seemed like forever, but wasn’t really long at all. The vet came out and explained he was treating Damien intravenously with anti-venom and heavy doses of antibiotics. Damien had to stay at the clinic for at least a week. They would watch the area around the bite marks and make sure he continued to respond positively to the treatment. He expected Damien to make a full recovery, but it was still too early to tell. He told us to go home and give him a call in the morning. It was going to be a long week.
Grizz shook his hand and opened the door for me to go out into the waiting room. He stopped at the reception desk and told the girl we would handle the bill the following day. She batted her clumpy mascara eyelashes at him and said that would be fine. We made our way through the waiting room, not really noticing anyone who was there.
Grizz was holding the door open for me to go outside when I heard a voice.
“Ginny? Ginny Lemon, is that you?”