Chapter 15 Holland #2
“I learned that about you really fast. You’re a good man, not just when things are easy, but when it counts.
Even when you have to get your hands dirty for the people you love.
I needed that. Thank you.” I scanned the room, grounding myself in the reality that I was at home, no longer confined within the suffocating walls of a cell.
Though my body had been liberated for years, my mind remained shackled.
A part of me was still imprisoned there …
haunting my dreams and occasionally manifesting as vivid hallucinations.
“Ally and I were waiting for our chance when they let both of us out of the cell at the same time. Sometimes they would sell us together to whatever man was into sisters. One guy liked us a lot and he visited often. We just had to try to get enough strength to overpower him. We hoarded what little food we were given, then tried to gauge when Mikael might visit soon. We ate as well as we could the week before, praying our plan would work and we could finally be free to start a new life together. We only dreamed of those days, and never spoke of it not happening. But the night before when we were told Mikael would be there the next day, a man that went by the name of Sal opened up our cell and drugged us. It wasn’t a pill this time though, it was a needle.
I remember him taking our pillows with him.
Somehow, he’d learned we’d skipped pills and hid them.
We’d been caught.” My words trailed off, my grief consuming every part of me.
“I woke up the next morning. Ally didn’t.
She’d died in her sleep of an overdose.”
“Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. I wish I were there to hug you. We did hear you say her name, but we weren’t clear on who Ally was.” Dad sniffled through his tears, as mine flowed freely down my cheeks.
“I wish you were here too, but the reason I told you this is because there’s a man from that place. He’s found me. His name is Draco, and he’s dangerous.”
Dad visibly stiffened at my words. “Does he know where you are?” His tone was clipped, dangerous.
“Yes. I’m dealing with the situation, but you need to know he’s out there in case he shows up at your house or if he tries to plant himself in your lives. I should have told you, but I thought he might …”
I shook my head, furious with myself for pretending he would simply go away. “I thought he would lose interest, I guess.” It wasn’t the entire story, but I didn’t want to tell Dad about Kip. Not yet anyway. “It’s being handled, and I can’t tell you any more than that.”
Dad nodded slowly. “I understand. I won’t ask questions about that part of it even though I want to hunt the bastard down and deal with him on my terms.”
“Thank you. There’s more. Cooper, my ex-boyfriend, is in town as well. He showed up at my office yesterday, and it wasn’t a good visit.”
“Goddammit,” Dad swore. “Is he going to be a problem too? I can make some calls, Holland. I can handle that problem for you.”
Even though Dad hadn’t ever told me he had some connections, I’d put two and two together with little things he would say over the years.
“I need to take care of it, Dad. If I need you, I promise I’ll let you know. For now, I want you and Mom to stay safe. I’ll send you a picture of Draco. It’s an older picture I found online several years ago, but he hasn’t changed much.”
He leaned back in his chair. “I’ll need to tell your mother. I’m sorry, Holland, but she needs to be on alert.”
“I understand. That's why I wanted to tell you everything now.”
His shoulders tensed as he leaned forward again. “Why is Draco here? You’re a grown woman with a new life. Does he want to kidnap you again?”
“I don’t think so. He was always into younger …
” I couldn’t finish my sentence, or I would throw up.
Visions of the horrors I’d witnessed and lived through surged through me like a relentless tidal wave, clawing at the edges of my sanity, threatening to tear it apart.
My palms grew slick while my chest tightened, and I gasped for air.
I was torn between wanting to push through and wishing I could walk away from it all.
“I don’t understand.” His intense gaze never left mine.
Dad’s voice tugged at me like a thread unraveling my skin. But it couldn’t reach the part of me that was buried six feet under.
“I don’t understand,” he said again, slower this time. “Why would Draco come back after all these years?”
My body went cold. Not just fear. Recognition.
“I think …” I struggled to speak, the words sitting on the tip of my tongue. I tried again. “He’s here because of me.”
Dad’s spine went rigid. “What does that mean?”
I swallowed back bile.
I saw it—That night. That room. The flicker of firelight against metal. The sound of something wet hitting the floor. The way my hands wouldn’t stop shaking afterward. The silence. The screaming. The silence again.
But the memory never came clean. It was a smear. A blur. A locked door in my mind that leaked blood under the frame.
“I got out,” I whispered. “And I wasn’t supposed to.”
Dad’s features blurred on the screen.
“I don’t know why he waited. I don’t know why he’s here now. But if he’s back … it’s not for forgiveness.”
My fingernails dug into my palms until the skin broke.
“I think he wants to finish what they started.”
Draco knew the truth—
What I did to escape.