Chapter 19 #2
The sterile scent of bleach on the concrete had clung to my nose, and even now, a year later, there were days when I could smell that sterile, cold stench.
There had been no windows and the only light had come from a flickering bulb dangling from a single black wire.
The room had been pitched toward a floor drain in the center of the room.
That drain had been the scariest thing in the room. Because it didn’t take much imagination to know what they rinsed away.
“I cried,” I said softly. “When they shut the door on us, I was sure I’d die in that room, so I cried.” For the pain my death would cause my parents. For the camping trips I’d miss. For the adventures I’d lost, all because I’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Three hours away from home, I’d sat beside an unconscious Scarlett, a stranger at that point, and cried.
A river of tears had poured down my cheeks, but there were still days when I felt more coming. Like I hadn’t drained the well. Maybe if we’d had to stay in that basement, I would have emptied it all out.
“Scarlett woke up eventually. After the music started.”
“She said they had a party.”
“Yeah. The music was so loud it shook the walls.” But thank God for that music.
That party was likely the reason we were alive.
“When Scarlett woke up, she told me where we were. One of my roommates at school is from Ashton. She’d tell me about the Arrowhead Warriors.
I’d tell her about the Tin Kings. The rumors at least. The other girls we lived with thought it was so interesting that we each had a motorcycle club in our hometowns. ”
Leo closed his eyes, shaking his head. He was comparing himself and the Warriors. It was written on his face.
“You’re not them.”
“Cass—”
“Have you ever kidnapped two innocent women?”
“No.”
“Because you’re not them.” I gave him a sad smile. “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this.”
“No, babe. That’s my own shit to work out. It’s not going to happen today. Hell, it probably won’t happen this year.”
I’d be here, if he needed my help to work it out. For the coming year and all those after. I’d be here to show him that he was a good man.
“What happened after Scarlett woke up?” he asked.
“I tried to keep her awake because I knew she had a concussion. We talked for a bit and then he came in.”
“Tucker.”
I cringed at his name.
The FBI had told me about Tucker Talbot when I’d asked what was happening to the men who’d kidnapped us. Agent Brown had explained that he was the president of the Warriors and would be facing trial.
“He threatened Scarlett. He broke her phone. He said he was going to wait until after the party when things quieted down, then we’d ‘have some fun.’” I shivered, burrowing deeper into Leo’s arms. “I see his eyes sometimes in my nightmares. Dark and evil. He would have killed us with a smile on his face.”
“He can’t get to you,” Leo said. “You’ll never see his face again.”
“Scarlett spit on him. I was so scared, I hadn’t even had a chance to make sense of it. But now, looking back, I wish I had too.”
“That’s my girl.”
“He would have killed us.”
Leo nodded. “Yes, he would have.”
“He would have tortured us and probably liked it.”
He hummed his agreement.
“Still think you’re like him?” I met Leo’s gaze, daring him to agree.
He sighed and shook his head.
“No, you’re not.” I stood from his lap, feeling the sudden urge to move around.
Leo had been right, talking about it was freeing. Rehashing the kidnapping was almost like walking away from it. Seeing it through a mirror and picking it apart.
If I was lucky, I’d see it this once, I’d give it a long, hard stare, then move on. But if the nightmares didn’t go away, if I still had a hard time leaving the house on my own or standing in my parents’ driveway, then I’d get counseling.
I couldn’t put all of this on Leo, time and time again.
This once was enough.
“I fell asleep at some point,” I told him. “The adrenaline crash or fear, I’m not sure, but when I woke up, Scarlett was awake too. We talked for a little while about nothing. She asked me about school. Then this couple came in and they started having sex against a wall.”
Another first. That night, it was like the blinders to real life had been ripped away. It hadn’t been television. It hadn’t been a book. My naivety had simply shattered, like a glass being dropped from a ten-story building. Only dust remained.
“Ghost.” I grimaced. “That was his name or nickname, whatever. They kept calling Scarlett ‘Goldilocks.’”
“Her nickname from the time she’d lived there with her ex.”
“I guess. Ghost recognized her. He knew we were there, but he seemed to like having an audience. We were forced to do nothing but watch and listen. At first, the woman liked it. Then, she didn’t.”
When he’d slammed into her rear entrance, there had been nothing pleasurable about her scream. Her fingernails had scraped against the cement wall as he’d pounded into her.
If there was any justice in the world, Ghost would be sent to prison simply for how he’d treated that woman.
“Scarlett tried to take my mind off of it. She asked me about happy memories. I told her about camping with my parents. More about school. I don’t really even remember what I told her. It was so hard to think.”
At that point, I’d stopped feeling the tears as they fell. My body had gone numb.
I don’t want to die here.
That was what I’d told Scarlett, the one sentence I remembered with perfect clarity. I didn’t want to die in a basement. Not with people having sex at my side. Not without telling my parents how much I loved them.
“Scarlett promised we’d stay together. Until the end. And then the light went out. There was a loud crack and the music stopped. I was frozen, stuck there on the floor. And somehow, she thought to run.”
The memories went in flashes from there.
I’d clung to Scarlett as she’d led us through total darkness toward the door that Ghost and his companion had forgotten to close.
We’d managed to get the door shut before he came after us.
We’d made it to the stairs. Then Luke had been there with the FBI and I’d been swept away into the night.
“It was Scarlett who saved me,” I told Leo as he sat on the bed, watching me pace.
There was a stiffness to his posture, like he really wanted me closer, but he was fighting himself to let me have the space I needed.
“I’m sure the FBI would have found us anyway, but she got me out of that room.
She pushed me to keep fighting when I was ready to give up. ”
I hadn’t admitted that to anyone, not even myself.
On that cold basement floor, I’d nearly given up. Maybe if I’d known I was pregnant, I would have fought harder.
“That’s not how Scarlett describes it,” Leo said.
“She doesn’t talk about it much either. I’m sure she does with Luke.
Maybe Pres. But all I’ve ever heard her say was that if it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t have had the strength to get out of that room.
And if you had stayed, Ghost might have killed you. ”
“It was dark.”
“It only takes a moment. You both got out of that room on your own two feet. You fought for each other. From personal experience, it’s easier to fight for someone else than it is to fight for yourself.”
He was right. I would have fought for Seraphina if I’d known she was growing inside me then. Maybe the reason I’d gotten to my feet wasn’t because Scarlett had told me to run, but because we’d had to run together.
Whatever the reason, it was done.
The story was over.
“That’s it.” I shrugged, my feet stopping on the carpet in front of him. “I asked the FBI to take me to Missoula. I couldn’t go home without my parents there. Then I came back after I found out I was pregnant.”
Seraphina would likely never know that she’d saved my sanity.
I’d let myself be consumed by the pregnancy, my anger and frustration with Leo, and ignored the kidnapping.
Tucking it away. Now that it was free, there was a weight off my shoulders.
A pressure off my chest. For the first time in a long time, I could breathe.
“You were right. I should have talked about it before.” Then again, the only person who I wanted to have all of my past, present and future was Leo. “I love you.”
His eyes softened. “Love you too.”
“I don’t want to be afraid. I don’t want to live our lives always looking over our shoulders. I don’t want to worry that one day, I’ll go to pick up Seraphina from school and she won’t be on the playground. They can’t win, Leo.”
“Hey.” He stood and crossed the distance between us, taking my face in his arms. “They aren’t going to win. They aren’t going to touch either of you.”
“They might.”
“Yeah, they might. And we’ll be ready.”
I looked him in the eye, suddenly understanding why Dad had threatened Leo. No one fucked with our kid. “If they come after Seraphina, I’ll kill them.”
The corner of his mouth turned up. “Get in line.”