Forbidden Fruit by Erica Spindler Read Free Book Online Page B

you…help me?”
    â€œI’ll try,” Santos said, though he doubted he could give her what she really wanted—a safe place to sleep, freedom from fear. He sat back down. “Where do you want to go, Tina?”
    â€œHome,” she whispered, her eyes filling. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap, fighting the tears. “But I can’t.”
    He understood. He pursed his lips in thought. “Where are you from?”
    â€œAlgiers. My mother and—”
    The scream of a police siren ripped through the night, stealing her words, punctuating the quiet like an obscenity.
    â€œOh, my God!” Tina leaped to her feet. She looked wildly around her, the way a trapped animal would, as if seeing her surroundings for the first time.
    Santos followed her to her feet. “Hey, Tina…chill. It’s okay. It’s just—”
    A second siren followed the first, then another after that. The squad cars passed close to the building, flashes of red-and-white light penetrated the darkness, squeezing through cracks and crannies, creating a weird, frightening kaleidoscope. It was as if a dozen cop cars had descended directly on top of them.
    â€œNo!” Tina screamed, covering her ears. “No!”
    â€œIt’s okay…Tina—” Santos put his hand on her arm, and she whirled to face him, her face a mask of horror. In the next instant, she tore free of his grasp and ran for the door. Santos ran after her, catching her a moment before she reached it. He put his arms around her and held her tightly.
    Hysterical, she fought him, kicking and crying, pummeling him with her fists. “Don’t! You have to let me go! You have to!”
    â€œYou’ll hurt yourself.” Santos dodged her blows as best he could, wincing as her fist caught him in the side of the neck. “Dammit, Tina, the stairs are—”
    â€œThey’re coming…he sent them! He—”
    â€œHe who?” Santos got a hold of her upper arms and shook her. “Tina, nobody’s coming. Nobody’s going to hurt you. Listen, they’re gone, the sirens are gone.”
    She crumpled against him, sobbing, shaking so badly he thought she was having convulsions. “You don’t understand. You don’t understand.” She curled her fingers into his T-shirt. “He’ll send them…he said he would.”
    After a while she quieted, then totally spent, went limp in Santos’s arms. He led her to a corner, to a mattress shoved against the wall. She sank onto it, curling into a ball of despair.
    Santos sat next to her, his knees drawn to his chest. “You want to talk about it?”
    Although she remained silent for a long time, something about her breathing, about the way she caught her breath every so often, as if preparing to speak, made him think she wanted to. Finally, she did.
    â€œI thought…they were coming for me,” she said dully, her voice drained of everything but despair. “I thought he had sent them.”
    â€œThe cops? You thought the cops were coming for you?”
    She nodded and curled herself into a tighter ball.
    â€œBut why?” Santos murmured, almost to himself. “You thought he sent them. Who?”
    â€œMy stepfather. He’s a cop.” Her teeth began to chatter, and she hugged herself tighter. “He told me if I ever…tried to get away from him, he would find me. He said he would find me and…”
    She let the last trail off and Santos could only imagine what the man had promised he would do to her. Judging by her fear, it had been bad.
    Even worse than what he had probably already been doing to her. The bastard.
    Santos laced his fingers together. “I live with my mom. She’s pretty cool, but my dad was a real prick. He used to beat me. He’s dead now.” Tina didn’t say she was sorry; because she knew he wasn’t. Kids who had lived through hell understood each