Chapter 43 #2
“Every three days, he’d leave me alone for an entire day,” she continued, tapping her crude calendar, where certain hashes were marked with an X.
“Now that I know what he does for a living, obviously, those coincided with his shift at the firehouse. But when he was here, he was here.” She pointed at the nearby armchair, its ugly orange fabric faded and pilled, the cushion sagging in the middle.
“He’d sit there and talk to me. Sharing stories about people I didn’t know, reminiscing on memories I’d never been a part of.
It didn’t take long to realize he was pretending I was someone else. ”
I shook my head. “That actually makes perfect sense.” I explained about how Addie had profiled him. “We’re likely surrogates for someone he lost.”
“You look exactly like her.”
So lost in catching up, neither of us had heard Tuck come downstairs until he spoke.
“That doesn’t give you the right to hold us here. We aren’t yours to keep.”
“She”—he pointed at Lainey—“already gave herself to me. And, god, it was like having Nadine back in my arms.”
“But we’re not Nadine,” I protested, then switched to a different tack. “What exactly is your plan here, Tuck? To keep us locked in this basement forever, hoping we’ll eventually break?”
Instead of answering, he took a seat in that heinous orange chair, reclining back and resting his elbows on the wooden arms.
“Nadine and I were only twenty-three when she left. I thought we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. I even bought a ring. Instead, I came home from shift one morning to find everything she owned gone. She’d disappeared.
I tried to find her, spoke to her family, and asked the public for information on her whereabouts.
But I didn’t have much to go on, and she didn’t leave a single clue behind.
For a long time, I’d convinced myself someone had taken her. ”
“Like you took us,” Lainey muttered.
I snorted. “And all of her stuff? Fucking delusional.”
“About a year later, her mother delivered a letter to me at work. Stop looking, it had said. I left of my own free will. I just didn’t love you anymore. Heartbroken, I’d been forced to accept the fact that she was gone for good.”
“What’d you do to drive her away?” I asked before I could stop myself. Lainey drove an elbow into my side.
What? I silently asked her. Women don’t just pick up and leave without a word unless they have a damn good reason.
Maybe she realized he’s fucking crazy.
Rolling my lips between my teeth, I choked down a laugh. Not the time, Reagan.
“I did nothing!” he shouted, his eyes flashing with anger, the tendons in his neck flexing, jaw muscles jumping as he clenched his teeth together.
“I worshipped her. Gave her everything she could’ve ever wanted.
A beautiful home, an intense, all-consuming emotional and physical connection.
I was going to ask her to marry me. We were going to build a family.
“When you walked into the Swallow that night, right after I got that letter, looking so much like her, it seemed like the universe was giving me a second chance. And for my trouble, there were two of you!” He laughed, a bit maniacally, and I had to wonder how no one saw the obvious psychosis he suffered from.
Apparently, he was a hell of an actor. “So I set my trap, and Lainey walked right into it.”
My sister rolled her eyes and huffed out an annoyed sigh. “I just wanted to get laid.”
“I gave you the most passionate night of your life,” Tuck argued.
“You gave me nothing but an itch that still needed to be scratched. Which I saw to the second we got home.”
Lainey held out her fist for a bump, which I obliged.
Meanwhile, that night had been the most passionate of mine—until Finn and I reconnected. If he hadn’t flown off to a literal war zone after our night together, I had to admit—the chances were high I would’ve been back for more.
And now, he was all mine for life.
Funny how things worked out.
I thought Lainey’s immodest comments would piss Tuck off, but he appeared calmer than when discussing Nadine and her betrayal.
He continued his story unperturbed.
“I’ll admit, I was a bit disheartened when she completely spurned my advances after that,” he said, talking about Lainey like she wasn’t sitting ten feet away from him, his eyes focused on some middle distance.
“But I am nothing if not a persistent man, so I bided my time, hoping she would change her mind. When she didn’t, I’d been forced to take more drastic measures. ”
“You’re the ‘couple’ that booked a session with us.”
“Yes, Reagan. And I thought it was going to be you coming to Dusk Valley. That I’d have to take you and lure Lainey. Imagine my surprise when Lainey showed up instead.”
Though he’d now confirmed my longtime suspicion, I was somehow still surprised by the lengths this man had gone.
“How can you even tell us apart?” Lainey asked.
“I’ve spent years studying you. I could pick you both out in a crowded room with my eyes closed.”
Something oily and…icky sluiced down my spine with his words.
I was aware he’d been harassing Lainey with the incessant messages over the years, but I hadn’t been aware he’d been watching us both—studying us like fucking bugs under a microscope.
A quick glance at Lainey revealed her to be equally as appalled.
“So now what?” I asked. “You keep us chained in this basement forever like you’ve been keeping Lainey these last few months?”
Tuck chuckled, shaking his head. “Of course not, dear girl. Now that I’ve got you both, we’re leaving Dusk Valley.”
Lainey snorted, and we shared a look, my own thoughts reflected in her eyes.
We’re obviously getting the fuck out of here, right?
I dipped my chin in a barely perceptible nod. As soon as he comes within reach. Do whatever you gotta do to overpower him. Subdue him long enough for Finn to find us.
For now, we had to keep him talking.
“We’re not going anywhere with you,” Lainey said.
“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice.”
With that, he got to his feet and disappeared back upstairs.
“What the fuck?” Lainey hissed. “He’s even more delusional than I thought.”
“We need a plan.” My eyes darted around the room, searching for anything within reach we could use to aid our escape. Of course, Tuck had been thorough in removing any potential weapon from the area.
Understanding what I was doing, Lainey said, “You don’t think I’ve already done that?”
I glared. “No need to get snippy. I’m a fresh set of eyes. There could be something you missed.”
“I’ve been down here for four months, Rea. Trust me, I know this place better than our house in Tennessee.”
Having been so caught up in the current predicament, that I’d now found myself prisoner here as well, I’d failed to consider the exact toll all the solitude and monotony had taken on my sister.
“Goddesses, Lainey, I’m so sorry.” Unbidden, my eyes welled, tears slipping free and cascading down my cheeks. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come for you sooner.”
“You came as soon as you could.”
“I didn’t want it to be like this. We were supposed to find you and send the whole fucking cavalry in to get you. I wasn’t supposed to end up here too.”
“Look at me.”
I did, though reluctantly.
Now that we were back together, I was forced to finally confront the thing that had scared me the most about her return: that she would hate me.
That she would begrudge me my freedom all these months while she’d been held here, little better than an animal bound to the whims of its master.
That she’d be angry I spent these months falling in love while she’d been falling apart.
I saw none of that in her eyes now, felt none of it radiating from her.
There was only…gratitude.
Though a prisoner myself, she was happy I was here, that I’d been looking for her.
“You’re here now, and we can’t change that. But we’ve always been better together, and we’ve never needed a man for anything, right? Fuck those Lawless boys. We’re the heroes of this story.”
I choked on a laugh, vision blurring as I blinked, trying to expel and quell the tears.
“You know what?” I said, angrily swiping at my face, dashing away my weakness. “You’re right. Let’s fuck this guy up and get out of here.”
Lainey’s answering grin was downright feral, the kind she’d wear when we were kids and she was about to get us in a fuckton of trouble.
“Let’s do it.”