Can Everyone Tell?

"Of course, baby." Leigh stood up so Nick could sit, and she settled back down in his lap. She put her arms around him possessively and looked defiantly at Tandy.

Tandy thought that the way Leigh was sitting on her dad's lap was, well, weird. Not like twenty-something-year-old daughters are supposed to sit on their dad's laps. She started, "Wow, you guys-"

Leigh cut her off, snapping, "Don't you worry about us. Talk!"

Tandy was rattled by her sharp tone. "Umm, okay. I guess we should start with your version of things."

Leigh said, "MY version? Okay. You were my best friend since preschool, twenty years later I had a boyfriend and two months later I walked in on you fucking him, then the two of you ran off together, got married, and moved out west. Did I leave anything out?"

Tandy took a deep breath and said, "Yeah. You left out a lot, starting with the fact that you didn't walk in on me fucking him. You walked in on him raping me."

Both Leigh and Nick recoiled as if they'd been slapped. Leigh said, "What? What?! Rape?"

"Tandy continued, "It wasn't a violent attack rape, but he was blackmailing me, coercing me to do it. So as far as I'm concerned, that's the same as rape."

Leigh was still skeptical. She said, "Okay, first of all, if it was 'blackmail', what the fuck could he have on your innocent ass that would make you betray your oldest friend like that? And secondly, if he's blackmailing you, why the fuck would you run away and marry him?"

At this point, Tandy's eyes welled up. "You remember that week just before, well, before it all happened, I told you I went to a party, but I didn't remember anything?" Leigh nodded. "I remember walking in, I didn't know anybody there, and there was instantly a drink in my hand. Next thing I remember, I was waking up the next morning. I didn't know where I was, and I wasn't wearing anything except some underwear that wasn't mine. The only person there was this girl I didn't know. She helped me find some clothes and gave me a ride home. Then a few days later, your 'boyfriend' asked me to come over to his house to plan a surprise for you. He said it was for you, so of course I went. When I got there, he told me about the party, and how I did all kinds of disgusting things, and that it was all on video. He showed me the video... it was awful! There were five guys and they all... every one of them... It was so sick!

"So he told me that if I had sex him, he'd delete it. I said you were my best friend; I couldn't do that to you. He showed me in the video where he was fu- uhh, having sex with me, too, and said if I didn't do it, you would be the first person he'd send the video to, followed by my dad and then my job. He said he'd even put it up on my Facebook page. I reached for the phone, and he just tossed it to me, and said, "Go ahead. It's already up on the Dark Web, and you'll never find it. And I have access to it and can delete it whenever I want." He kept looking at his watch, and said it was now or never, so I did it. Not two minutes after it started, you walked in. I threw on my clothes and ran out after you, but all I saw was your car speeding away."

Tandy broke down and started crying, huge, gasping sobs. Her whole body was heaving painfully as she re-experienced her ordeal. She kept trying to say how sorry she was, but she couldn't speak. Leigh and Nick both went to her to comfort her. She cried for several minutes before she could continue.

She said, "That night, he called and told me to meet him at his house the next day and he'd delete the video. But something just felt wrong. I mean, even more wrong than what had already happened. So I grabbed some clothes, stole all the cash my dad had lying around, went to the ATM and took out as much as I could, and ran away. Middle of the night, and I just left."

"You left town?!" gasped Leigh.

Tandy nodded and said, "Yeah, I figured I was ruined here, and my life was over. My only options, as I saw it, was run away and start over somehow, or..." and she motioned slitting her wrists. "I actually considered that, but I couldn't do it. So I walked to the bus station and took a bus to anywhere. I ended up in a little town in Kansas. I never heard from Tyrese again. I was too afraid to try to contact anybody here, so I don't know what happened to him."

Nick said, "Somehow he managed to spread a rumor that you guys were in love and had run away together to get married. We believed it, since we never saw either of you again. And I guess your dad believed it too, because no one heard differently."

Tandy said, "I ended up staying with some really nice folks out there. After I got settled and we really talked about what happened, Jamie, that's the husband, thinks that if I'd gone there when he asked, I would have never been seen again. As in, I would have been kidnapped and trafficked. He thinks Tyrese wanted Leigh to see us, so she'd totally cut ties with me. He'd send the video to my dad, so he'd disown me, his slut-whore daughter. I'd be alone and cut off, and I'd never be seen again outside of some slave whorehouse. Lucky for me, I was just weak and ran away." She shook her head sadly. "Leigh, I'm so sorry," she added. "This all happened so fast, and I, I never, I..." she couldn't finish without crying again.

Leigh hugged Tandy close and said, "Oh, Tandy, no... I'M sorry. I hated you for so long, and it turned out I wasn't a victim... YOU were the victim, of a horrific crime. But we're gonna find him, and we're gonna make that motherfucker pay. You can believe that!" Leigh had murder in her eyes.

Leigh asked, "So how did you wind up back home?"

Tandy said, "Jamie was just about to open up a little diner in town, and he was gonna let me work there. But then the pandemic worsened, and everything looked like it was up in the air, so he decided not to open right then. But he helped me get a job at Target and find a place of my own, and that was okay for a while until they cut back, too. Jamie and Madison, his wife, had just had a baby so I really couldn't impose to move back in, though they did offer. Madison's friend, Courtney offered, too. But I was tired of being a leech. I was smart, I have a degree, I shouldn't be homeless. So I sucked it up and called my dad for help. I thought he hated me, too, but he was thrilled to hear from me, and he immediately sent me money to get home. I got home a few days ago, but it took some time to get up the courage to come here and face you."

Leigh said, "Wow... this is all insane! So what's next?"

Tandy said, "So like I told your dad, I just wanted to tell you the truth. If you can, I beg you to forgive me. If you can't, I'll probably save up money and move back to Prisskin, Kansas. I didn't come her to caus—"

Leigh grabbed her friend and hugged her tightly. "Forgive you?! Tands, you have nothing to be forgiven for. That animal did this to you, and nobody knew. No, sweetie. I beg YOUR forgiveness. I should have at least given you a chance to tell me. I'm so sorry. Tandy, please forgive me. And I'll make it up to you. I will personally make that motherfucker pay. I swear it!"

"I told Jamie and Madison all about you, and how badass you always are. He thinks Tyrese wanted to do this to you but was afraid you'd really fight back. I've never been as strong as you, Leigh, and I guess he knew I wouldn't put up much of a fight." She shook her head sadly and added, "I guess he was right."

Nick said, "You walked away from everything and everyone you ever knew with just the clothes on your back. Then you walked back into town to face whatever it was that was waiting for you, even an angry best friend. No matter what anybody says, all that took guts. And now you're not alone. If you want us to, we're gonna help you get his ass."

Leigh was visibly shaken about what her friend had endured, and Nick had his arms around her, comforting her. Tandy noticed their body language, that they seemed less like father and daughter and more like a romantic couple. "You know, you guys would like Jamie and Madison. They're a lot like you. In fact, I think they're just like you," she said, looking at Leigh meaningfully.

Leigh's eyes narrowed, and she said, "What do you mean by that?"

Tandy raised her hands peacefully and said, "Look, maybe this has nothing to do with you guys, but Jamie and Madison are married, and Madison is also his daughter. It's a small town, and it's one of those open secrets, but nobody bothers them. For a small town in Kansas, it surprisingly progressive. There's a few gay couples, a couple of interracial families, and a father-daughter couple. At least in Prisskin, it's 'live and let live'."

Leigh looked at Nick and said, "Can everyone tell?"

Nick shrugged and answered, "I don't know... Hopefully just YOUR friends. Hey, didn't you say they have a baby? Is it, you know, their baby?"

Tandy smiled as she remembered the little girl. "Mm-hmm, little Alicia Mixon. Sweetest thing in the world, and perfectly healthy. Everybody loves her. Jamie and Madison are really happy, and they look happy just like you guys. So congratulations. I'm really glad you found true love, especially after that fucking monster."

Nick said, "A monster we're gonna slay. I already have some ideas of how we can start."

*****

Nick Westen wasn't really rich. His investment holdings were barely over a million dollars, and he was less than a half-million dollars liquid. But his home was paid for, he'd managed to put Leigh through school without a cent of debt, and he owned all his cars outright. His chosen profession was sales, but he hadn't pitched a product or made a sale in years. But he would tell anyone who would listen that he wasn't good... he was lucky.

Back when he and his wife had first gotten married, even before she was pregnant with Leigh, Nick worked for a cellular startup. Their stock was publicly traded, and it had never once gone for higher than seven dollars per share. Then, during Nick's second year there, a clerical error caused one of the company's metrics to be reported incorrectly, artificially inflating certain numbers. The reporting was to the SEC, and the result was a bit of a scandal. Nobody died, nobody went to jail, and nobody got hurt. But Wall Street is a skittish mistress, and the scandal scared investors away. Within a week, shares tanked, and suddenly the stock was trading under one dollar, and whispers of 'buyout' were being floated. The company sent out the obligatory letters to all employees that, "This is a blip, we're fine, everything's fine, just stick with us while we fix this." Nick wasn't a senior executive... he was just a sales schlub tryn'na hit his sales quota often enough to keep his job. But even a marginally adequate sales schlub realized that the company which had bragged about their $3 billion dollars investment in infrastructure, wasn't gonna walk away and call it a loss because some computer tech fat-fingered some algorithm and got egg on everybody's face.

So Nick knew that if he could only come up with a few dollars to invest, he'd make it back plus a nice profit in just a few months when the scandal had blown over. While he didn't have two nickels to rub together, he knew that that was exactly what those rich white boys up in Chicago were gonna do, to the tune of millions. Oh well, he thought. An opportunity lost. But he did tell his friend Jake. Him and Jake had been nigh inseparable, at least until Jake met Meredith. She was this pretty little white girl who went to the private college across town. It was a wonder they ever met but it was apparently love at first sight. Jake had gone on to marry Meredith as soon as they graduated, and they moved to the ATL. Him and Jake still kept in touch occasionally, and that was how Nick gave him the heads-up about this stock opportunity.

Then, fate stepped in. Nick's dad was killed in a traffic accident. His car was hit by a truck driver who fell asleep at the wheel. His Pops had an insurance policy, and all that went straight to his mom, who needed it. But the truck driver's company didn't want a scandal so they quietly made a decent settlement offer to the new widow. She decided to give her son and new daughter-in-law a belated wedding present and gave them $25,000 to get a start in life. Her son was a good boy, if often unlucky, and his new wife was a wonderful girl, even if she was white. Nobody's perfect. It was time for them to catch a break.

As sad as the reason for the money, Nick realized it was a godsend. He gave fifteen thousand dollars to his wife -- to do whatever she though best for their little family, while Nick quietly invested $10,000 into CellQuist stock, at $. 84 cents per share. He called Jake and discovered that Jake told his father-in-law, who was skeptical, but after looking at the data, put in $25,000 of his own and fronted Jake $10,000. They all waited.

CellQuist quickly fixed the reporting bug, and operations smoothed about. A few weeks later, when no more problems presented, the stock started a steady recovery. But it didn't stop at $8.00. It soared to $20, and Nick was about to cash out, pretty pleased with himself. But then, it was announced that they were being bought out by a bigger player looking to consolidate the technology under one brand -- theirs. Their stock was holding steady at $55.00 per share. After the merger, there was a run up to $96 per share. Both Nick and Jake got dizzy from the altitude and they both sold. When Nick got the check, he straight-up passed out. After broker's fees and commissions, both he and Jake now had just over one million dollars.

Nick bought a nice-sized house in Orlando for cash, furnished it, and put all the rest in the hands of a trusted investment professional. Now, twenty years later, that nest egg had grown. He wasn't rich. But he was incredibly comfortable. As for Jake, well if somebody gives you a million-dollar stock tip, you stay friends with that guy. Whatever he needs.

That's how Jake found himself answering a phone call from Nick Westen on a cold Georgia evening a few weeks before Christmas.

"Good evening, this is Jake," he answered. He didn't recognize the number, so he put on his business voice.

Nick replied, "Is this Jake Steele?"

"Yes, it is. Who's this?"

"It's Nick Westen."

Jake yelled into the phone loud enough for Leigh to hear, "Is this Big Dick Nick, the Terror of the West?! How the hell are you, son? You ain't blown all that money, have you?"

"Well, my money's just fine, thank you very much, but I don't know about all that 'Big Dick' stuff,"

"It is!!" yelled Leigh.

Jake laughed, "Is that your girl Leigh? How the hell does she know? Oh, wait, what is she now, 22, 23 years old? Yeah, I guess she would know first-hand, wouldn't she?!"

Nick shot back, "The fuck you talkin' bout?! That's my daughter!"

"I know that! That's why I said it," Jake said, laughing.

"Mothafucka, get Meredith on the line! She'll straighten yo' ass out!"

Jake said, "Oh, yeah, we ain't holla'd in a minute. Look, dawg, Meredith is fine, but we're not together anymore. It's been a couple, three years now."

"What did you do, leave her for Darby? I know she grew up fine, with her chocolate-milk ass!"

Jake stammered, "Uhhhh, whaaaat? Man, I... whatchu..."

Nick roared into the phone, "YOU DID!! YOU DID!! Mothafucka you frontin' just like I did a second ago. You did that shit!!"

"No I didn't!"

"Don't deny that shit! You sittin' up there playin' house with daddy's girl, ain'tcha?!"

Jake decided to own it. "Naw, we ain't 'playin' house.' This is for real. I put a ring on it, and a baby in it! You got a problem wit' 'dat?"

"Married?!"

"Hell yeah. Like Beyonce said, 'If you like it, you better put a ring on it!'"

"I ain't got no problems with any of that. But you gotta tell me how you managed to get married. I can't figure out how to do it. But that's a talk for another time. I need you help on a different issue, somethin' serious, yo."

"Whatever you need, Nick. So you and Leigh...?"

"Yep. Best decision I ever made! I just don't understand how you knew."

"Hell, I know my situation, so I was just fuckin' witcha, but damn, G, welcome to the club, dawg! Anyway, what's up and how can I help?"

"So like I said, Jake, this is serious. Leigh's got a good friend who fell into the orbit of some human traffickers," explained Nick.

"What?!" exclaimed Jake. "Did they take her?"

"No, but they wanted her to come over the next day, and she thought somethin' was up, so she skipped town and hid out. She just got back into town this week, and we're tryin' to help her get this bastard."

"So what do you need from me?" asked Jake.

"Well not you directly, but a few years ago, you introduced me to this computer guru guy. He—"

"Nate. Nate Rochester. He's my boy. He lives two minutes from me in the same neighborhood, we see each other all the time. Our daughters are best friends. And I guess I should tell you, they're in our little club, too," said Jake. He continued, "But what can Nate do?"

"Well they got her to go to a party, roofied her, gang-raped her, and put it all on video. They put that video up on the dark web where she couldn't find it, and then blackmailed her with it. What I was hoping was your friend could find the video, make a copy so we could use it for evidence, and then delete it off the web. But also find out where that motherfucker is now. Look, I'm pretty computer-savvy, but that Dark Web shit is no joke. I know a knucklehead was fuckin' around there, ended up doin' five for some kind of data crime. Five fuckin' years, dog! I wanna help Tandy, but this is gonna need somebody who knows what they're doing. You think I could ask him for help?"

No answer.

"Hello? Jake? You still there? Hello??"

Jake answered, "Sorry. I was texting Nate. Sent him a text that said, 'need your IT skillz to take down a dude who drugged raped, and attp kidnap a woman. U in?' He said hell yes. I'll set up a ZOOM for tomorrow at say, noon, and she can give Nate the info he needs to find this asshole. And if he's still on the planet, Nate'll find him. Then what? We go stomp his ass?"

"That's between Tandy and her dad. Maybe they go to the law, maybe not. I just want to help find him. He caused a lot of pain to my baby, so he gots to pay, you know? One way or another."

"Alright. We're in. Hey, are they... you know."

"Not as far as I know, but by the time all this is over, who knows? Probably. Hell, we're trendsetters. First it was white girls, now it's daughters."

They both laughed at the irony.

"Text me your email address and I'll set up the zoom call. We'll talk tomorrow, ah'ite?"

"See you then."

They had been sleeping together for over a year, living as a couple for all that time. They'd made love hundreds of times, in all kinds of settings, and there wasn't an inch of his daughter's body that Nick hadn't licked or kissed or suckled. But still, after all that, his heart always seemed to skip a beat every time he saw her come out of the master bathroom every night, wearing sleepwear, or lingerie, or like tonight, nothing at all, to get into their bed with him. That simple thrill was still as heady as when they first started. She was still his daughter, and the sheer naughtiness of it all still made his blood pump. Tonight was no different. As she slid under the covers, he pulled her close to him, luxuriating in the soft, sensuous warmth of her nubile young body.

She cuddled up to him, stroking his face lovingly and said, "Thank you, daddy, for being there for me tonight. It was really hard. And thank you for trying to help Tandy. This whole thing is crazy, and I'm glad we're together like this... it'll make it so much easier to get through."

Nick kissed her gently and said, "Anything for my baby girl. I just want you happy."