GATESVILLE, Texas When Lici met Joseph at a friends party in Killeen, Texas, in 2015, she was a 14-year-old whod run away from foster care. She liked him from the start. He was kind and just seemed to get her; they both had rough childhoods and he didnt wince when he saw the self-inflicted cuts on her arms. Joseph made her feel safe, often buying her food and clothes. She says they became friends with benefits and it just felt right.

Her mom, Alyson, introduced them. Alyson couldnt provide Lici with a stable home Lici says her mom was addicted to drugs and had lost custody when her daughter was 5. But she could show her daughter how to survive on her own. Alyson had already set up Lici with men whod pay for sex, and Joseph, 18, an alleged pimp, could be even more useful.

Soon after he met Lici, Joseph proposed an idea: Hed hook her up with johns in motel rooms and then hed rob them. Lici needed the money and felt loyal to Joseph, so she agreed. But she soon saw his darker side. He could be abusive, she said, hitting her when he felt betrayed. Sometimes he took more than his fair share of the money.

At first, the robberies went as planned. Then, one night, things went terribly wrong and she and Joseph ended up behind bars.

Lici, a nickname HuffPost is using to protect her privacy, didnt see Joseph as her pimp. They were both just trying to survive together. But under the law, Lici was a victim. As someone under 18 who was paid for sex, she met the legal definition of a trafficking survivor . And any adults who helped her find johns qualified as her traffickers, or pimps. Joseph and Alyson are identified by pseudonyms and didnt respond to HuffPosts request for comment.

Licis story is much more common than most Americans want to believe.