Chapter 43
forty-three
. . .
REAGAN
I came to consciousness slowly—and regrettably.
My head pounded, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, which seemed to be stuffed with cotton.
Even without opening my eyes, I knew I was somewhere unfamiliar.
But I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten here.
Gathering myself through the jackhammer in my skull, I attempted to take stock of my surroundings with my eyes still closed.
The surface I lay on wasn’t soft, exactly, but not as hard as the floor would be. The fingers of my good hand twitched against it, and some sort of rough fabric scratched against them.
I strained my ears and was greeted by the sound of distantly running water.
And breathing.
Fuck. I wasn’t alone.
“C’mon, Rea Rea,” a voice whispered. “I know you’re awake.”
My eyes flew open, and I shot upright, the pain in my head forgotten as my attention locked on my reflection across the room.
No, not a reflection.
My twin.
“Lainey!” I cried.
I scrambled off the mattress, trying to get to her, but my progress was stalled halfway there.
Looking behind me, my blood lit with fury.
There was a fucking manacle hooked around my ankle and bolted to the wall.
“What the fuck?”
“Shut up,” my sister hissed. “Keep your voice down.”
Quieter this time, I said, “What the fuck?”
“The real question is, what the fuck are you doing here?”
“Oh, right,” I snorted. “Because I asked to be here.”
My memories came back to me all at once.
Leaving Crew and Aspen’s reception to go up to the house for some much-needed silence.
The conversation with Aspen.
Walking across the driveway, the struggle, the prick of pain in my arm, which I now realized had been the sting of a needle.
Goddesses, how long ago had that been? How long had I been here?
My heart rate ticked up, breath growing shallow.
I swept the room, searching for any indication of the time. Nothing hung on the walls, but the world beyond the small, ceiling-level windows was dark.
We were in a basement, then, and I could’ve been here for mere hours…or days.
The basement, I realized with a start, looked identical to the one from my recurring nightmare. Right down to the floral wallpaper and shag carpet.
“Glad you’re not dead, by the way,” I said to Lainey absently.
Lainey crawled toward me until she reached the end of her own restraint, then dropped onto her stomach and stretched out to her full length, a hand extended toward me. I mirrored her, and when we reached for each other, our fingertips barely brushed.
The simple touch was a balm to my soul.
Despite our circumstances, Lainey grinned.
“I fucking knew you’d find me.”
I gestured to my restraint. “Not the rescue I imagined.”
Lainey asked, “How long have you been in town?”
I returned with a question of my own. “How long have I been here?”
“Maybe six hours? Hard to be exact when I don’t have a watch, so that’s my best guess.”
Okay, not as long as I expected.
Squeezing my eyes shut, the ache in my brain penetrating the adrenaline coursing through me at seeing my sister alive, I tried to focus.
“So it’s early on Sunday, the…”
“Twenty-seventh,” Lainey confirmed. “Now, when did you get to town?”
“June seventh.”
“I fucking knew it,” she crowed happily, then shifted closer to the wall behind her, where I could make out a series of hash marks scoured into the wood paneling.
One of the marks was circled.
“How did you make those?”
Holding up her hands, I took in the state of her nails.
Several of them were broken and cracked, but a surprising number of her acrylics had managed to hang on through four months of growth.
“If I ever make it back to Tennessee, I’ll have to tip my nail girl more next time.
These fuckers will not come off. But that’s not the point.
“I swear to Aphrodite,” she continued, invoking her favorite goddess and tapping the gouged oval, “I felt when you got here.”
Exactly how I’d always known she wasn’t dead.
She tapped another, maybe five days later, and stated, “And this night, I—”
“I had a dream,” I cut her off. “Of this place.”
Clapping excitedly, she said, “Oh my goddesses, it fucking worked?!”
I nodded. “It felt so real, I immediately told Finn about it.”
Lainey smirked. “So you did reconnect with your sexy soldier after all.”
“I did,” I whispered, my heart aching at the thought of him. He had to be going out of his mind, wondering what happened to me.
“You love him.”
My sister knew me better than anyone. Even after four months apart, I wasn’t surprised she’d immediately figured it out.
“I do. And he loves me,” I said, my grin growing to match my sister’s. “Which means he’ll come for us. Goddesses, it’s good to see you. We’ve been looking for you for months.”
“Glad to see that worked out well for you.”
“I didn’t ask to be assaulted and drugged,” I hissed.
“And I didn’t ask to be held prisoner in this That ‘70s Show-looking basement for months, but here we are.”
“Are you okay? Did he…” I trailed off, the thought too horrible to voice out loud.
Lainey shook her head. “We’ve got ourselves a jailer with a conscience and a relatively straight moral compass, all things considered. Says he won’t touch me until I ask.”
“Which you never will.”
“Bingo.”
“We’ll be out of here soon,” I promised.
“I hope you’re right,” Lainey said. “Because now that he”—she pointed toward the ceiling, where I could hear our captor moving around upstairs—“has both of us, I’m afraid we don’t have much time.”
“Who the fuck is this guy?”
“His name is Lyle Tucker.”
The name tickled my brain, but I couldn’t figure out why. Did I know anyone with that name? I didn’t think so, but something about it seemed familiar at the same time.
“Tell me everything,” I breathed.
Before she could, though, the door at the top of the stairs creaked open, and heavy footfalls landed on the steps, descending toward us.
I hadn’t known what to expect—after all, I’d never been abducted before—but it hadn’t been him.
I’d never known his full name, but I knew exactly who he was.
“You son of a bitch!” I screamed, shooting up and rushing toward him, only to be yanked back by the shackle around my ankle. I landed hard on my stomach, the air leaving my lungs in an oof.
“Hello, Reagan,” he grinned. “Welcome to the Tucker farmhouse.”
Tucker.
Tuck.
Tuck, Crew’s co-worker at the firehouse.
Tuck, who had come to my rescue after my accident—the one he caused, I now realized.
Tuck, who I’d danced with last night—before he attacked me in the dark the second I was alone, drugged me, and chained me up here.
Everything started clicking into place.
The notes, the message on my mirror.
“You attacked Aria,” I gasped in horror.
“In my defense, I thought she was you,” Tuck explained. “Seems strange Finn fell for a woman who could so easily pass for his sister, but I guess I have no room to judge.” He glanced pointedly between me and Lainey. “I am also not immune to your allure.”
“I will fucking kill you,” I seethed. “Of course, if Finn doesn’t get to you first.”
He grinned, a boyish expression that made it even more difficult to look at him as someone capable of harming me and my sister. He was a first responder, for crying out loud. Had dedicated his life to saving people.
“Your little boy toy won’t be a problem,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “We’ll be long gone before they figure out I’m the one who took you.”
“Fuck you,” I spat.
He turned to go, pausing with his foot on the first ascending tread, and winked at me. “Only if you ask nicely.”
Then he disappeared upstairs.
“What the fuck.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Lainey replied.
As succinctly as I could, I explained who Tuck was to me—to the Lawless family.
“I was dancing with him at Crew’s wedding last night,” I hissed, still in disbelief.
Lainey pouted. “I missed all the fun.”
Though there was absolutely nothing comical about this situation, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I wish you could’ve been there.”
“I can’t wait to meet this whole ridiculous family when we get out of here.” She sighed. “And now I suppose it’s my turn to spill.”
And she did. About the abduction, how she’s been locked in this basement for the last four months.
She hadn’t exactly been living in squalor, she explained, gesturing to the small vestibule off the side of the main room.
I got up and walked toward it, finding I could also reach it.
Inside was a stand-up shower, toilet, and the rough foundation of a vanity with an aged porcelain sink and copper pipe as a spigot.
That was good, though. Though he’d made it so we couldn’t reach each other in the main room, he apparently hadn’t considered the possibility that we could within the bathroom.
Lainey reached my side and threw her arms around me, squeezing me to her. I hugged her with equal fervor, tears slipping down my cheeks as I did. We weren’t safe yet, but we were together, and that was a major blessing.
The main area and the mattresses we’d both been provided appeared clean. Lainey herself didn’t look too worse for wear, though there were deep, dark crescents under her eyes, her cheeks more hollowed out, the bones of her arms more prominent—like she hadn’t been eating enough.
Not to mention, she was pale, her skin a shade it likely hadn’t been since we were children. Like she hadn’t been let outside once during the entirety of her captivity.