The Bodyguard: A BWWM Bad Body Romance(20)

Juliet could only wonder where it had come from.

“Starting the recording in thirty seconds then. Are you ready, Juliet?” Though Simmons face was kind, Juliet didn’t know if she’d ever be ready to talk about the horrors she’d been through. But this, she knew, was about so much more than her. There wasn’t any decision to make.

“So, for the record, Juliet, we need you to state your name and age - and also what you think the purpose is for recording this conversation.” Hank was surprisingly businesslike once the recording started, and the change gave Juliet pause for a moment.

But just a moment.

“My name is Juliet Brown. I’m twenty seven years old and I’m here because I was romantically involved with Solomon Aguiler for almost ten years.”

This was it. Once she started this, there was no turning back.

“Is there any information you have that you think we would find particularly valuable, Juliet?” When Hank’s grey eyes met hers, Juliet expected to see hellfire and duty there. Instead, she saw an odd note of sympathy that she was sure she must have imagined.

“I’m...not sure.” That was the honest truth. “In all the time I was with him, I saw some pretty horrible things. He did horrible things...to me and others. But I’m not sure if that’s the information you want.”

Hank and Simmons shared a glance that Juliet couldn’t quite decipher before he continued. “It’s a start. Just begin wherever you like. I’ll stop you when I have questions.”

Well, he certainly wasn’t going to make this easy for her. Juliet hesitated for a moment longer before deciding that she should just start at the beginning and go from there. It would, she realized, be the first time she had ever told her story to anyone, so she wasn’t precisely sure how to go about it.

“I met Solomon when I was eighteen.” Juliet clenched the edge of the table hard enough to distract herself from the nervousness in her gut. “I’d just graduated high school and I was singing at a club on the weekends when I wasn’t at my part time job. I had always planned to go to California to try and get my start in the business, but things were going alright for me here, and I had my parents’ support, so I stayed. He came to my third or fourth show, sat in the first row. I don’t think he took his eyes off me for the entire set. After that first time, he never missed another show. He would buy out the entire club and bring groups of his high rolling friends. The owner of the club loved it - she used to call me her little star in the making...and Solomon went about charming anyone who would stop for long enough to talk to him.”

Good God, she’d been trusting in those days. Juliet remembered thinking that Solomon had to be her perfect mate - a man God had crafted just for her. The minds of eighteen-year-olds were curious things.

Idiotic things.

“He was twenty five, so you’d think every adult with a brain would have been looking out for me, but the man was so goddamned suave. At that point, I had no idea who he was, of course. He bought me nice things, came to all my shows. He was my boyfriend, for all intents and purposes, and he worked his way into my inner circle bit by bit until everyone was on his side. I was totally and completely over the moon about him...so much so that I didn’t notice the destructive things he was doing until I was in up to my neck.”

“What kind of destructive things?” Hank interrupted, his tone carefully neutral. Juliet lowered her gaze to the table as she answered him. It was easier if she didn’t have to look at anyone for this part.

“At first it was just suggestions. He’d tell me what he’d like me to wear, ask if it was alright if I went places with him and did certain things. After a few months, it was less asking and more telling. I only wore the clothes he bought me. There was no question of being where he said to be when he said to be there. If I ever had second thoughts about what I was doing, he’d just ply me with gifts and bullshit words until it all went away….He liked the idea that I was a virgin. That he would be my first. After it happened, he got possessive. So much so that even I realized there had to be something wrong with him.

“By this time, I was spending more time in his circles than with my own family and friends. I’d even fallen into the habit of making excuses so I could be with him more, and when people started to question it, threats came. By that point, I realized that all the fancy parties Solomon had me singing at - all the places he took me to wine and dine...they were drug hotspots. He’d meet with important members of his organization and do business over meals and drinks - and I wasn’t allowed to say a word. I was a pretty little ornament on his arm - expected to be seen and not heard.”

“Could you tell us the names of these places?” Hank inquired, his voice low. “And just how often Solomon frequented them?”

Juliet didn’t hesitate to do so. She’d been to the steakhouses and bars so many times over the years that their names were almost second nature to her. She got through a list of about fifteen places before Hank cut her off, his expression slightly incredulous.

“All these places? Even up until recently?”

Juliet nodded. “He didn’t take me with him so much in the past year or two, but I still knew where he was going.”

“So where were you, then?” Hank arched a brow, resting his forearms on the table as he spoke. “In the past two years, I mean.”