Chapter 5

I dug my watch out of my pants when I sat back down and saw that it’s almost four in the morning. A few guys have passed out and a few more are getting dressed. It looks like the party is finally over.

I told Tawny to get dressed and I started putting my clothes on. I was buttoning my shirt when Taylor went over and stood by the girls. He looked at me and said, “I don’t think I can let you take them, Karl. I can’t take the chance.”

I wasn’t all that surprised. But I was a little disappointed in him. I said, “What are you going to do, Taylor, kill them?”

He just shrugged and I said, “I am afraid I can’t let you do that.”

The others, at least the ones who are conscious, had all stopped drinking or dressing or whatever they were doing and were watching us closely. Tubby was one of the ones who has passed out and I figured that as long as the others don’t come at me all at once I can handle as many of them as I have to. I doubt if many of them will be backing up Taylor though. We might be a rowdy bunch. But we weren’t murderers.

I moved cautiously over to where Taylor is standing over the girls. He watched me closely and when I came to a stop he said, “I can’t take you in a fair fight, Karl. I know that. But my dog can.”

I asked, a lot more calmly than I felt, “Are you gonna sic your dog on me, Taylor? Have you gotten that fucked up? Maybe you need to go sit down and sober up a little, man. We’ve been friends a long fucking time.”

Taylor shrugged and said, “I like you, man. But I don’t want to go to jail for kidnapping and rape. I’ve been watching you with these girls, Karl. They’ve been turning you into a world class wuss.”

I shook my head and asked, “Did you ever kill anyone, Taylor? It’s harder than you’d think.”

He stared at me for a minute and said, “I imagine it is. But I don’t want to go to prison.”

We aren’t getting anywhere with this conversation. This is just going to keep going around in circles. I said, “Step back, Taylor. I’m taking the girls.”

Taylor stepped back and as soon as he was out of the way he yelled, “Devil! Sic ‘em boy!”

There was a flurry of motion from my left and that crazy fucking dog was running at me with a look in his eye that almost made me wet my pants. I wasn’t unprepared though. I reached into my back pocket, pulled out that taser and hoped I could time it right.

The dog got close enough and leaped for my throat from about eight feet away. I reached for his throat as he flew through the air and I managed to hold him off for just long enough that I was able to come up under him with the taser. Time almost stopped for a couple of seconds as I pulled the trigger and the dog began to spasm and then he dropped to the ground like a rock.

I kept my eye on Taylor but he was too shocked to move. I saw the dog scrambling to get up and I let him have it again. This time he lay there twitching and whining and I stepped back and looked around to make sure the others weren’t getting involved.

I told Tawny to get the girls into the ATV trailer and I hurried over and picked up their clothes. Tawny helped the girls up and as she pushed them across the clearing she grabbed her camera out of Mel’s hands. They jumped into the trailer and we went as fast as that thing could go to Taylor’s house. I went inside and got the rest of their stuff from a closet. I put the girls in my truck and we followed Tawny to her house.

They struggled into their t-shirts and jeans while I drove. After they were dressed they relaxed and it was quiet in the truck as I followed Tawny’s car down the road.

I was startled when Rosa rested her head on my shoulder and put her arm around my arm. Juanita is quiet now, staring straight ahead. But Rosa is crying quietly and holding my arm.

I pulled my arm out of her grip, put it around her shoulder and pulled her close. I’m probably the last person on earth who should be trying to comfort her. But she held my hand, kissed it and whispered, “Thank you.”

I leaned over, kissed the top of her head and said, “Don’t thank me, Rosa. I’m one of the two men who got you into that. I want you to know I’m more sorry than I could ever explain. I’m going to regret what I have done to you two girls for the rest of my life.”

She looked up at me and said, “If you hadn’t been there he would have killed us. You gave us food and water when he wouldn’t. You stopped that man from beating Juanita with the club and you took that taser away from them. You did a bad thing, but I don’t think you are a bad man.”

Looking back on my life I can’t really say I agree with her.

We rode in silence the rest of the way and then Tawny and I had to help the girls inside. As soon as we were inside Tawny asked, “Would you girls like to come take a shower? I have to wash this gunk off of me. The smell is getting to me.”

I said, “Wait, Tawny.” I turned to Rosa and said, “Sweetheart, we need to call the cops now. They’re going to want to use that stuff for evidence so they don’t want you to wash it off. I just need you to promise me one thing. There’s no need to drag Tawny into this. We can leave out the fact that she was there can’t we? She didn’t do anything to you.”

Tawny exclaimed, “Karl! Are you out of your fucking mind?! They’ll put you in prison for twenty years!”

I ignored her and pulled Rosa into my arms and said, “Can you leave her out of it for me?”

Rosa put her arms around me and said in a quiet voice, “We can’t call the police. And I don’t want you to go to jail.”

I smiled at her and said, “And I don’t want to go to jail, Rosa. But I guess that’s where I belong. People who do what I did need to be punished. And look at Juanita. That poor girl is going to need help. She...” I couldn’t finish my sentence. I shivered in disgust at what we had one to her.

Rosa was crying again and she said, “Wait.”

She went over to where Juanita was standing as though waiting for someone to tell her what to do. She spoke to her quietly and much to my surprise Juanita joined in the conversation. They talked quietly, almost emotionlessly for several minutes.

While the girls talked about god knows what, Tawny came over and stood behind me. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed my back. After a minute I turned around and held her in my arms. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said, “There’s a lot more to you than I thought.”

I smiled and said, “Don’t give me too much credit here, babe. When Taylor suggested taking those girls and doing what we did with them I thought it was a good idea. And all week long, when I thought about what we were going to do I got excited. That was wrong and I guess I deserve to pay for that.”

Rosa had finished her conversation with Juanita. She came back over and stood beside us just in time to overhear my conversation with Tawny. When I said that that I need to pay for what I’ve done, Rosa exclaimed, “No!! No you don’t. It was bad that you went along. But once it got started and you saw what was happening you didn’t like it. And you saved our lives.”

I sighed and said, “Yeah, I saved your lives. But look at Juanita. That poor girl may never be the same. And what you went through ... look, all this talking isn’t making it any easier. I just need you to promise me that you’ll leave Tawny out of it.”

Rosa said, “I talked to Juanita. She doesn’t want to talk to the police. She is too embarrassed. And she doesn’t want you to go to jail either. She knows that you saved our lives and were nice to us when all the others weren’t.

Christ! How do you get through to these girls!

Rosa went on to say, “And besides, even if we didn’t mention Tawny, the others would. It would come out that she was there and that she was there willingly. You want to protect Tawny? Then we need to leave the police out of it.”

I looked at Juanita and said, “Rosa, look at that poor girl! She is going to need help to get over this. Look at her eyes!”

Rosa was unswayed. She started to speak but then she turned to Tawny and said, “Can we have a drink of something? Do you have any of those beers?”

Tawny smiled and went out to the kitchen. She came back with four beers and a bottle of Tylenol. She passed them out and after they had each taken a couple of tablets and had a sip of beer, Rosa pulled me over to the couch and pushed me down into it. She sat on my lap and put her arm around my neck and said, “Juanita is really suffering. But she is strong. I am strong. We will get over this. We have each other. Neither one of us can tell our parents what happened tonight. We couldn’t tell them; we couldn’t tell a doctor or a lawyer or a cop or a room full of people in a courthouse. We have agreed that the best thing to do is to forget that it happened.”

I stared at her for moment and then I asked, “What will you tell your parents?”

She sighed. She took another drink of her beer and said, “We will tell them that we were kidnapped coming over the border and we were raped by a couple of bad men. We don’t know who they were or where they took us. We escaped from the back of their van as they were trying to take us back into Mexico. We got a ride with a nice Mexican family to my house. We had a hard time. It is over. They won’t want the details and they won’t want us to call the police. That is how things work in my world.”

I’m embarrassed, but I’m getting all choked up. I pulled her close, held her tight and said, “I don’t expect you to ever forgive me. I wouldn’t even ask it. But I want you to know that I am so very sorry for what I did. And for what I didn’t do. I am sorry for who I was.”

She lifted her finger and wiped a tear from my eye. I haven’t cried since I was a baby! She kissed me and said, “Don’t cry. It’s over. You did a bad thing but you made up for it. Never forget you saved our lives. We won’t.”

Tawny got up and said, “Come on, girls. Let’s go take a nice, hot shower.”

They filed out of the room and I sat on the couch and thought about what I did to two innocent young girls. I don’t know what to do now. I know that the whole gang of us belong in jail. Me and Taylor more than all the rest of them. I honestly have never before realized what an asshole I have been most of my life.