"Yeah, maybe. Let's just keep dis to ourselves for now. OK, Vin?"

"Sure, Tony. But I don't like that asshole."

"I don't like him much either, but like I said-"

"I know, I know," Vincent interrupted. "The family comes first. Always has and always will. That's what we're all about."

"Right, Vincent. That's exactly right," Tony confirmed. But it didn't stop him from worrying about Maggie's fate at the hands of the prick that had just driven off with her.

Chapter One Hundred One.

When Seth woke Maggie up the next morning, her head was throbbing. During the entire ride back to Kensington, Armando had berated her. He'd promised to hurt Seth if she dared to do anything other than what she was told to do. She'd stayed up for hours imagining the horrible things he'd told her would be done to Seth.

"Come on, Aggie. I have to get to school. I'm gonna be late," Seth ragged at her.

"All right, all right. You're such a little nag," she said dramatically.

Juju sat on the edge of the mattress and handed Maggie a cup of instant coffee. "Rough night?"

"Yeah. Armando lost his shit on me. He can be such a jerk," Maggie reported.

"Oh yeah? What'd he freak out about?" Juju asked.

"Oh, these two guys at Doubles said if I ever needed anything, they'd help me. He overheard them in the parking lot." Maggie lowered her voice to a whisper. "Armando threatened to hurt Seth if I didn't do exactly as I was told. I stayed up practically all night worrying about it. I wonder if my life will ever be my own. I mean, sometimes it feels like this will never end. I can't see any way out of it. I'm eighteen. I have a lot of years left in me before I'm not useful to them in this business. By that time, I'll be a dried-up old hag."

Just then, Seth raced out of the bathroom. "Come on, you guys! We need to leave," he demanded.

The two girls quickly pulled on warm clothes and left the apartment. Seth was in a particularly talkative mood that morning.

"Aggie, it's going to be Christmas soon, and I wanna buy Joey a present. I was thinking I could buy her something to keep her hands warm. She always shoves them in her pockets and says they're freezing," Seth explained.

"I think we can manage to buy her a pair of gloves. We can probably get her a scarf and hat to match. How's that sound?" Maggie offered.

"Oh, man, really? That would be great. 'Cause you know she's my girlfriend, and I need to take care of her. Mr. Jenson, my gym teacher, says good men treat women nice. Anyways, Mr. Jenson says if we work really hard, we can do whatever we wanna do," Seth said.

"Well, Mr. Jenson is a very smart man. But I think when he says good men treat women nice, he means that you need to show them respect. It's not really about buying presents for girls," Maggie explained.

"I know that, Aggie! I'm not stupid, you know. I just wanna buy her a present so she knows that I love her," Seth stated in a serious voice.

"Well, listen, little man," Juju butted in, "I don't care what Maggie says. I want people to buy me presents. I want everyone to buy me presents," Juju yelled, opening her arms to encompass the entire world.

"I don't know if we'll have enough money to buy you anything for Christmas, Juju. After we buy Joey a present and me a present and Aggie a present, there probably won't be any money left to buy you anything. Right, Aggie?" Seth teased.

Maggie joined in on the fun. "You know, you're right, Seth. After you buy me that diamond necklace that I've been eyeing at the jewelry store down the block, there won't be any money left to spend on Juju. I know! We'll have no choice but to put coal in her stocking."

"Oh, really? That's the thanks I get for helping you two geeks?" Juju squealed as she ran after Seth and began to tickle him.

Seth was rolling on the ground, trying to get away from Juju. He suddenly broke into a coughing fit, and Juju backed off and helped him to his feet. His face was drained of color.

"Seth? Do you feel OK?" Maggie asked.

"Yeah, I just feel like my brain is spinning."

"Come over here and sit down," Maggie instructed, leading him to a bench. "Drink some juice." She handed a small bottle to him.

"I hate orange juice, Aggie. I don't know why you make me drink it," Seth complained.

"Because it's good for you, that's why. Now drink," Maggie commanded.

Juju was completely unconcerned. She always rode Maggie about mothering Seth too much. "You know, he's gonna grow up to be a pussy if you keep hovering over him all the time. He's a tough kid until you come around, then he turns into some needy little weasel," she'd lecture.

"Um, Seth, if you're done faking, can we get going?" Juju said, mocking him.

Seth turned and gave her a big smile. "I wasn't faking, Juju. That was for real."

"Yeah, sure. And I have a million dollars. That's for real, too. Come on before Maggie licks her finger and combs down your hair. You're smothering him again, Magster!" Juju teased.

"Ha! Very funny. I'm not smothering Seth. I'm simply concerned about his well-being. One of us needs to be mature here, and it certainly isn't going to be you," Maggie shot back. Then she poked Juju in the ribs. "And don't call me Magster again. It's an ugly name."

Maggie knew that was the wrong thing to tell Juju, who skipped ahead, chanting, "Magster, Magster, Maggie is the Magster!"

Juju stopped and turned to Seth. "What's up with the coughing? You've been having coughing sprees since I met ya. You're a little hacker, is what you are...keep you're damn germs to yourself," she teased Seth giggled. He liked Juju's sense of humor, and he liked that she wasn't too serious about everything. Sometimes, though, when they needed to pay the rent and didn't have enough money, Seth thought Juju should be more serious. But even then, she would play it off and tell both of them to stop getting their panties in a wad.

"Who the hell else is going to rent this lousy rat nest? They'll get their money as soon as we can get it together," she'd told Seth and Maggie several times.

Finally, they spotted Joey walking toward them. As they got closer, they all noticed that she was limping. Seth sprinted over to her and gently seated her on the curb.

"What happened, Joey?" Maggie asked with alarm.

"Thelma happened. What else?" Joey said without emotion.

Juju bent down in front of Joey. "What hurts?"

"My ankle."

"Let me see." Juju got right down to business.

Joey lifted her pant leg, and Seth gently removed her worn canvas sneaker. Maggie could see the swelling even before Juju took Joey's sock off.

"Can you walk on it?" Juju asked.

"Yeah, if I walk really slow," Joey explained.

"Good. It's probably just sprained. You guys stay here, and I'll run to that drugstore a couple of blocks back and get something to wrap it with," Juju said.

As Joey, Seth, and Maggie sat on the curb talking, a car came to a screeching halt in front of them. Startled, Maggie looked up. Rock was getting out of his car.

"What the hell are you two doing with Joey?" he demanded.

Maggie spoke before the others had a chance. "Juju and I were just walking to meet one of her customers, and we saw Joey limping down the street. We made her stop and sit on the curb. It wasn't her fault. I think she has a sprained ankle. Juju ran to get something to wrap it with," Maggie explained, hoping he'd buy her story.

Rock looked closer at Joey's ankle. "What the fuck did ya do now?"

"I didn't do nothin'. It was all Thelma's fault. If she wasn't so high all the time, maybe she'd stop batting me around," Joey screamed.

"Who the hell are you yelling at?" Rock asked, his expression turning deadly. He stepped closer to Joey and gave her a hard slap on the top of the head.

"Owww!" Joey cried.

Seth jumped to his feet, forgetting how cruel Rock could be, and stood in front of Joey. "Leave her alone!" he said in a steady voice.

"You're fuckin' kiddin'. Sit the hell down before I break you in half, you little moron," Rock warned.

When Seth didn't back down, Maggie stood quickly and planted herself between the two. "What's up, Rock?" she asked.

"Get in the car. We gotta talk," Rock commanded.

Maggie scurried into the car as horrible thoughts about Seth bounced inside her head-the same awful thoughts that had kept her up the night before.

"I understand two men offered to help ya last night. You and me are gonna take a little ride 'cause I need to understand what cha told them to make 'em think ya needed protecting," Rock said. Red-hot anger seeped from his words.

Maggie remained silent. She was buying time. She needed to come up with a lie that Rock would believe.

Chapter One Hundred Two.

"I'm waitin', bitch! You better start talkin' fast," Rock exploded.

"It's not a big deal, Rock. Some of the other girls told me if I make up a sob story, the men at the bar would give me bigger tips. All I told those two guys was that my parents died suddenly, and I was left all alone with no family. I told them I was trying to save money so that someday I can pay for college," Maggie said.

"What's that gotta do with offering ya help?" Rock said, smelling a lie.

"That's what these guys do. All of them are the same. They want to come into the bar and rescue the girls. It's all just a part of their fantasy. They think it will make me pay more attention to them. Besides, they were drunk, Rock," Maggie lied.

"Well, Armando didn't think they were drunk, and he took it as a threat. Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna cut ya some slack this time, but only 'cause I ain't got no proof that ya told those two idiots anything about me or my men. But here's what you're gonna do. Tonight when you go back to that bar, you're gonna tell those two Italian pricks that if they so much as look in Armando's direction again, they'll be dead," Rock snarled. His brow was scrunched as he pushed his face closer to hers and waited.

"OK, Rock. I'll let them know. I swear," Maggie promised.

"Good. And another thing. If I find out you're lying and plottin' to leave, I'll kill Juju and Seth. I'll let ya live so that you can regret your decision to fuck me over for the rest of your pathetic life. Then I'll sell your filthy ass to the nastiest dudes I can find. I know a lot of them, too. Now get the fuck outta my car," Rock demanded.

Maggie quickly grabbed the door handle and shot out into the street. Rock got out and glared at Maggie over the roof of the car. "Don't say I didn't warn ya. There ain't gonna be second chances this time."

Maggie nodded and rushed back to Seth and Joey.

"What did he want?" Seth asked, feeling protective.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Everything's fine," Maggie assured him.

Seth challenged her. "I don't believe you, Aggie. I can tell you're upset."

Just then, Juju returned with an elastic bandage to wrap Joey's ankle. She looked from Maggie to Seth and back. The tension was palpable.

"What's going on? What did I miss?" Juju asked.

"Rock just made Aggie get in his car, and she came back upset," Seth snitched.

Juju studied Maggie's face. Seth was right; something was wrong.

"Everything OK?" Juju asked her.

"Everything's fine," Maggie stated calmly.

Juju knew that Maggie would talk about it later. "Little dude, she's cool. Let's take care of your girlfriend, Joey."

Juju's comment brought a smile to Seth's lips. Then Seth started barking out orders. "You need to be really careful with her. Her ankle already hurts, and I don't want you to make it hurt more."

"Really, Seth? Yeah, 'cause I went all the way to the drugstore so I can buy this 'thing' so it would hurt Joey more," Juju shot back. "How the fuck does this thing work?" she asked, looking at Maggie and hoping she'd take over.

Maggie stepped in and took the bandage from Juju. "Give me. I know how to use it. Just sit back and learn from the master," she bragged.

As Maggie wrapped Joey's foot and ankle with the bandage, she explained that it couldn't be too loose or too tight. The other three watched as she applied the bandage like an expert.

"And you know all this from...?" Juju asked.

"Well, I learned it from books, but there have been times when I actually had to practice the technique," Maggie explained.

"I remember," Seth said sadly. "You always had to fix Shana after men did bad things to her."

Maggie hadn't thought that Seth remembered much of their life under the control of John William. But now she realized that she'd been fooling herself. How do you forget living in the bowels of hell? How do you pretend that all the pain and torture never existed?

"That's right," Maggie answered, not wanting Seth to feel dismissed. "I had to learn a lot of things so I could help Shana."

Joey broke the silence. "My ankle feels better. Thanks, Maggie."