Forever Found (Lost #3)

CHAPTER 27

ADDY

The sound of a woman’s voice, followed by a soft giggle had me startling awake and looking all around me. I was in the cage again, and the dried blood on the cold, metal base beneath me reminded me of the ‘session’ I had been in the horrors of when I blacked out. I didn’t know how long ago that was, but my shoulders were agony from being bound to the large hook in the ceiling of the torture chamber Hilton called his ‘playroom.’

I pushed myself up to sitting as the sound of the woman’s voice somewhere close by continued.

“No, it’s totally fine. I’m gonna raid my dad’s wine cellar. He won’t even notice. He has a ton of unopened bottles down here. Is Tony still coming?” the soft voice chattered, sounding happy and excited about something.

I had never heard a voice other than Hilton’s, and my own screams and my begging for him to stop, since the day I had been dragged down there. Now here was this girl – Hilton’s daughter maybe? It was my one and only chance for escape I told myself.

“HELP!” I screamed with everything in me. My throat was raw from screaming and crying as Hilton tortured me hours earlier, but my determination pushed the sound out of me, and I rattled the cage hard too, making a ton of noise she had to be able to hear if I could hear her as well as I could.

“Who’s there?” I heard her call hesitantly.

“IN HERE! PLEASE, YOU H-HAVE TO HELP ME!” I wailed with two years’ worth of desperation. That was how long I had been taken, or so I thought from the count I had tried to keep on the days that had passed. The last year had been spent in this cage and with the monster who had bought me from the auction – Hilton. He had truly shown me the meaning of the word suffering in the time he held me.

I couldn’t hear if the girl was coming closer, because I was rattling the cage constantly in the hope it would bring her to wherever I was hidden, somewhere in the basement of my monster’s house.

The door to the small room I was in was tentatively pushed open, and a girl, who looked to be a teenager, stepped in and looked to where I was chained in the cage, with utter horror.

“What the fuck?” she gasped as she slammed both of her hands over her mouth.

“Please get me out of here,” I pleaded. I knew the terrifying sight I had to be to her. I was completely naked, chained at my wrists and ankles to short restraints at the corners of the cage. My back was covered in marks from Hilton’s whip, some of which I could feel were now bleeding again with the movements I had made. I hadn’t washed in days and I knew I was a mess of old dried blood, tear tracks and so much more filth and depravity.

“W-who are you?” she whispered as she lowered her hands enough to speak, but remained rooted to the spot she stood in.

“Addy…m-my name’s Addy. I…I was kidnapped. I need to get out of here. Please help me. Please!” I cried as tears ran down my cheeks.

“Who did that to you?”

“A man…he bought me at an auction after I was kidnapped. He hurt me…and he raped me. His n-name is Hilton,” I hurried to explain, terrified she’d just close the door and run away.

“Hilton?” she whimpered. “My dad? My d-dad…he did this to you. He ch-chained you up like that?”

“If this is your dad’s house, then yes, he did this to me. He bought me as a sex slave from an auction.”

“How long?”

“I’ve been here a year at least. M-maybe longer. Do you live here?” I asked her as I tried to calm myself enough not to terrify her further.

“N-no. My dad and I…we don’t get along. I live with my mom. I just…I came to take some wine for a party. I never….I didn’t think he’d do this.”

“I’m so sorry you have to find out like this, but I need help. If you don’t help me escape, he’ll kill me one day. I’ll die here. Please can you help me? Please?” I begged.

“I knew my dad was an asshole, but this….this is sick,” she cried as she slammed a hand over her face again like she might vomit.

“What’s your name?” I asked her.

“Libby.” Her eyes met mine and they were filled with tears, her hands shaking at her sides. “How do I get you out?”

“There’s a keypad. Do you have any idea what the code would be?” I asked, trying to keep my calm, but my heart was racing and adrenaline was surging through my body at the idea of having an opportunity to escape.

“Maybe. He has the same six digit codes for his security alarm on the house and for the entry panel out front. Do you think it could be that here too?” she asked shakily.

“Tell me what it is,” I whispered as I moved to a crouching position I knew I could reach the keypad from. It wasn’t like I hadn’t tried a million combinations in the damned thing before in my effort to get out.

“0-8-0-9-6-8. His birthday,” she recited as she stepped a little closer. I tapped the number into the keypad, feeling for the buttons since it was above me so I couldn’t see it. When the code was followed by a beep and the sound of the lock releasing, I cried out in relief and fear in equal measure. Now I had to get out of the cage and out of this damned house before Hilton came back.

“It worked?” Libby squeaked tearfully.

“It worked. Now I need something to cut the locks on these chains. Do you know if there are tools down here? We need bolt cutters or something like that?” I asked as calmly as I could.

“I…I’ll look. I’ll be quick,” Libby gasped, and then she was running from the room, dropping her bright pink, sparkly purse to the ground near the door. The poor girl was little more than a kid and she had been dragged into the depraved, sick mess her father had orchestrated. Her life would never be the same again after discovering this about her father and I knew it, but I had to be selfish. It had been two years of torture, abuse, and terror. I couldn’t not take my chance to escape.

Libby returned moments later with a huge pair of bolt cutters in her hand. Her eyes were red and she was gasping for breath as tears poured down her face, but she simply swiped them away with the sleeve of her thin jacket and looked to me.

“Will these work?” she asked, and I nodded eagerly, holding up my wrist so the padlock that closed the metal cuff around my skin was visible. Libby stepped forwards and I helped her to position the cutters in the right place, then she cut. Once the first was open, the other three went fast, then I was finally free.

Libby held out her hand and I shakily rose to my feet and stepped from the blood stained cage and rose to my full height, wincing at the pain that stabbed from the cuts on my back. My wrists and ankles were raw from the cuffs too, and standing actually hurt after being curled in the cage for so many hours, but I didn’t have time to waste. I had to get us both out of the house before Hilton came back. I wasn’t leaving Libby to face his wrath now she knew what he was. She’d have to come with me. I needed to get to the police and tell them everything. The thought terrified me, but not more than the idea of ever going back in that cage.

Libby dropped my hand and ran to her large purse in the corner. She pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of spandex shorts and handed them to me.

“Sorry. I wore them for practice this morning, so they’re not clean, but it’s all I have,” she told me. I didn’t waste any time as I pulled on the shorts, then the t-shirt, not even taking the time to notice the condition of them. It was just a relief to have clothes.

“Thank you,” I told her as I pulled the t-shirt down over my back, the fabric feeling like barbed metal against my open cuts. “Come on! We have to get out of this house before he comes back,” I added as I grabbed her hand and started to run out of the door of that tiny cell and entered a cold, dark hallway.

“This way,” Libby whispered as she moved in front of me and pulled me to another door. When we walked through it I found myself in the larger space of the basement. The door that Libby closed behind us was actually a shelf filled with tools and boxes of junk you’d expect to find in a garage. It opened like a door and behind it was the secret space I had been hidden in.

Libby and I ran hand in hand through the basement and up the long narrow staircase that opened up into the modern, bright kitchen above. The sun shone brightly in the windows and I had to cover my eyes, not accustomed to the brightness. The last time I had seen the sun had been before I was sold to Hilton. Any time I had been moved, or Hilton dragged me to one of his sick parties, it had been at night, in the darkness and shadows.

I kept a hand over the top of my eyes to try and shield them as I worked to keep up with Libby as she pulled me behind her. I was weak – having not eaten for days – and my body was bruised and uncooperative, not to mention the pain, but my adrenaline pushed me to keep moving.

We were an arm’s length from the front door when the tell-tale beep of an access panel had us both freeze in place.

“Fuck. He’s back,” Libby hissed, then she wrenched me back the way we came, running through a luxurious lounge, and right through to the adjoining room which was obviously Hilton’s office. She pulled me behind the desk and I crouched down to hide beside her. She opened the top drawer of the desk on the left side and I watched on with shock, and relief as she pulled a small handgun from the drawer and set it in her lap.

“It’s loaded. I almost shot myself with it when I was a kid. He always keeps it in his desk,” she whispered so quietly I barely heard her.

“Hello?” Hilton called. “You here Libby?”

“Shit!” she hissed. “I disarmed the security alarm. I’m the only other person who has the code.”

“Libby?”

“Stay down,” she whispered to me, then she stood, holding the gun in her left hand, her finger over the trigger as she put it behind her back and called out, “In here, dad.”

My body shook so hard I was sure Hilton would hear me as his heavy foot steps pounded on the hardwood floors, coming closer.

“Ah, there you are. What are you doing here?” he asked, sounding instantly suspicious.

“Looking for you,” Libby told him, but I could hear the tremble in her words, so I was sure he could too.

“Well, obviously I wasn’t expecting you. You haven’t answered my calls for months now. Have you come to apologize?” Hilton asked.

“I have nothing to apologize for and you know it,” Libby snapped angrily.

“Then we have nothing to talk about. You should leave. I have a meeting I need to be at shortly.” Hilton was close now, likely just on the other side of the desk to where I cowered. I was terrified for both Libby and I.

“A meeting? Really?” Libby questioned angrily. “You sure you don’t mean you want to get down to your sick cell in the basement, to hurt that poor, innocent woman down there, some more?”

“You’ve been snooping, Libby. You know how I feel about that,” Hilton scolded, his voice taking that cold tone I knew intimately. Libby cried out as she was wrenched from where she had been stood close beside me, and I leapt up, ready to help her.

By the time I was up, Libby was pulling the gun from her back, her father holding her by her other arm, his hand poised to slap her. He saw the gun coming to point at him, and reached for it. I didn’t even think as I ran around the other side of the desk and came up behind him. I grabbed the arm of the hand he now had around the gun and pulled it hard, forcing him to release his grip as he struggled to get free of my hold. He turned to look at me in shock, as Libby managed to lift the gun and fired one single, deafening shot. Blood exploded over the both of us, then Hilton dropped to the ground with a loud thump.

“Oh God! Oh God!” Libby gasped as she slammed her blood covered hands to her face to cover her eyes, the gun still clutched in her hand.

I looked down to where Hilton was slumped on the ground, blood pouring from a large chest wound and soaking into the sickly buttercup yellow shirt he wore. His eyes were open and lifeless, and it was blatantly obvious he was dead.

“Libby,” I gasped as I reached for the gun she held in her hand. “Y-you have to run…leave. No one c-can know you were here,” I told her shakily. She had saved me. I wouldn’t allow her to ruin her life further by being arrested for killing this worthless monster.

“No. What about you?” she sniffled as she moved her hands and looked at me with so much fear.

“No one knew I was here either. We both need to run, okay? Someone likely heard that shot, so the police will be here soon. We don’t have any time.”

“I sh-shot him,” she whimpered.

“He was a monster, Libby. He would have killed me, and I’m sure there were others before me. You did the right thing, okay?”

“The gun?”

“I have it. I’ll get rid of it. You leave now. Find somewhere to clean up and get rid of the clothes you have on. Don’t tell anyone about any of this, you hear me? You did the right thing and you are not going to be punished for it. You were never here, right?”

“I w-was never here,” she agreed with a tearful nod.

“He took my life and so many others, Libby. Don’t let him t-take yours too.” I told her as I pushed her purse into her arms and led her to the door. As I opened it I could hear distant sirens approaching. Libby and I shared one last, long, meaningful look between us. We didn’t know each other and we never would, but we had shared a harrowing and life changing event that neither of us would ever forget. We ran down the steps, me pulling the door of the house closed behind me. I lingered long enough to see Libby get into a red car and speed away, then I set off running.

I had no idea where I was going or what I needed to do. I was covered in blood, a murder weapon in my hand and running on adrenaline alone. Being back out in the world, the bright light blinding me and cars all around me, was terrifying after being hidden in the dark and depraved places I had spent the last two years trapped in.

I don’t know how long I was running, the gun still in my hand, but my panic was so great I never even realized I needed to get rid of the damned thing.

The sound of police sirens getting closer upped my fear and panic. The sun blinded me as I ran recklessly, in a desperate bid to cross the busy road ahead of me. A huge impact sent me flying into the air and I landed hard on my head, then everything went black.

I opened my eyes and sat up with a huge, loud breath in. It wasn’t enough and I found myself spluttering as I tried to just breathe. Panicked, I looked around me and realized I was home, in my room. It was still daylight outside the windows, but there was no sun, the sky dark with gray clouds.

I slid to the edge of the bed and sat there with my feet on the soft rug below, my head down in my hands as I tried to catch my breath.

Libby was running through my mind over and over again. She had saved me and she had killed her monster of a father to get me out. How had I forgotten her and all that she had done? How had that memory slipped so far away from me?

I got to my feet and went to the bathroom to rush through what I needed to do, straightening my wild hair into a ponytail and brushing my teeth, the monotonous task helping me to focus my mind and calm myself down. I needed to find Libby. I needed to know she was doing alright after everything. Had she even told anyone what happened?

I practically ran from my room and down the stairs. I paused when I got halfway down and saw Jordan on the sofa, his laptop open before him. I knew he would be working. The center was due to open in just over a week and he had a ton to do, especially since he refused to leave the house and me, to go and check on progress in person.

“Jord!” I said way too loudly as I started leaping down the stairs again. He turned to glance at me, then shot to his feet and rushed my way.

“What’s wrong, Addy?” he asked, panicked.

“I…I need to use your computer…please. Can I?” I cried all at once. My breaths were short again from the exertion of running down the stairs.

“Just slow down. Take some deep breaths for me. You’re gonna pass out, princess,” he soothed as he reached up and palmed the side of my face gently.

“Sorry. I…I just I remembered something and I h-have to check something…someone. Please?”

“What’s going on?” Asher asked as he strode into the room from the kitchen, Adam right behind him.

“Addy remembered something. She wants to look it up on my computer, which she can…” Jordan said as he looked to me again with a sigh, “…when she’s caught her breath a little.”

“You had a flashback?” Adam asked as he walked around my brother and positioned himself behind me, wrapping his arm around my waist.

“A dream…o-or a nightmare, I suppose. It doesn’t matter. I remembered what happened and I have to check. There was a girl…Hilton’s kid. I have t-to know she’s alright,” I panted frantically.

“What did you remember, sweetheart?” Asher questioned.

“Hilton. How I escaped. I had help,” I told him more calmly.

“Okay. Sit down for a minute while I see if Kane can get over here. He’ll want to hear this too,” Ash said.

“But Libby…”

“Whoever you want to check on, Addy, Kane is the man to do it. He’ll find whatever you need to know,” Jordan told me and I nodded, knowing he was right.

“Okay,” I agreed as Adam led me to the sofa and sat down, pulling me onto his lap. Jordan ran off and returned a minute later with my favorite soda in his hand. He sat on my other side and opened the can for me, placing it in my still slightly trembling hand. I calmed as I sat there between the two of them, but my need to know about Libby and what had happened to her did not ebb at all. I wondered how old she was? Old enough to drive, but barely, was my guess. I had put so much on her young shoulders and I was frightened for her after the carnage she ran from.

“I’m here,” Kane said as he came jogging into the house in long basketball shorts and a tight fitting muscle t-shirt. He’d obviously been getting ready to work out, I assumed. “You okay, angel?” he asked as he dropped to his knees before me and framed my face with his hands.

“I will be. I just…I need you to find this girl for me, Kane. I have to know what happened to her,” I explained.

“You will. I’ll find her,” he assured me as he rose up and kissed me chastely on the lips.

“Is Jenny alright?” I asked, hating that he’d had to leave his sister for me.

“She’s asleep right now, but she’s feeling better. She knows she’s safe here,” he told me, and I nodded, relieved she was calmed enough to get some rest.

“Okay,” Asher said as he jogged down the stairs with Eli right behind him. “You ready to tell us what you remembered, little dot?”

Eli walked past the back of the sofa and leaned over it to briefly hug me from behind, before he took a seat in the armchair in front of the window. Asher walked over and perched on the arm beside him, then they all looked to me expectantly.

“I honestly don’t know how I forgot this for so long,” I started as I leaned forward and placed the soda on the large glass coffee table before me.

“You had a bad head injury, Addy, from that car hitting you. The doctor told us it was normal for you to lose some memories,” Eli reminded me.

“I know. I just….it was a big thing to forget,” I sighed.

“Tell us, baby. We’re all right here with you,” Adam soothed as he wrapped his arm around me again and pulled me into his side. I lay my head against his bicep and smiled when Jordan placed a warm hand over my thigh.

“I know how I got away,” I began. “I was in that cage…restrained. Hilton…he’d hurt me until I passed out, and then I guess he locked me in there. I was woken by the sound of a girls voice. She was on a call, I think. She…she didn’t live with Hilton. She lived with her mom and she wasn’t talking to her father, but she’d snuck into his house to steal some wine from the basement for a party. Libby…that was her name.”

Kane had moved so he sat on the floor before me, facing me, and he reached for my ankle and circled it with his hand as my voice started to waver a little. I glanced to him with a shaky smile, then took a deep breath to continue, “I started screaming for help, knowing if I could hear her, she had to be able to hear me. She f-found the hidden door and came into the cell. She was so scared and shocked. I could see the horror on her face as she looked at me, shackled to that cage, naked and bleeding. She was young…too young.”

“She must have been brave too if she helped you escape,” Jordan told me, and I nodded.

“She was. I told her how long her dad had been holding me there, and I begged her to help me. Once she got over the shock, she did. She told me the code he used for his alarm system, and that worked to open the cage, then she…she ran off and f-found some cutters. She had to cut the cuffs from my wrists and ankles.

“She had some clothes in her purse, so she gave them to me to put on. I got dressed and we set off running. I wanted to get her out of the house before her monster of a father came back,” I explained.

“But he came back,” Asher guessed.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “We were almost at the door when he started unlocking it. Libby dragged me to the office and we hid behind the desk. Libby…she knew Hilton had a loaded gun in his desk and she g-got it out.”

“Deep breaths,” Adam prompted me and I realized I was gasping once again between my words. I paused to take some deeper breaths, then looked to Kane again.

“Hilton…he knew she was there because she had disarmed the alarm and she was the only other person who knew the code. He called out for her. She told me to stay down, and then she called back to him. He c-came into the office and he was really short with her. She confronted him about the rooms in the basement and he…he grabbed her. He was going to hurt her, so I stood up. I wanted to try and help her. There was a struggle between us all, then Libby fired the gun.” I gasped for breath as a single tear ran down my cheek.

“It hit him in the chest and he died instantly,” Asher said, and I nodded.

“She s-saved me. She had to shoot him. He was going to…to hurt her. She didn’t do anything wrong,” I cried in defense of Libby.

“We know, beautiful. We all owe her everything,” Jordan agreed as he ran his hand up and down my thigh soothingly.

“What happened next?” Eli asked.

“I…I wanted to protect Libby. I took the gun from her and told her she had to leave. I told her to forget she was ever there and not to tell anyone. I could hear the police approaching and I was freaking out. I got us out of the house and Libby got in her car and drove away. I…I ran. I had the gun, and I was a mess. Hilton had been right in front of me when he was shot so h-his blood…it was all over me and Libby. I panicked when I heard more sirens coming close and I just ran. The sun was blinding me and I wasn’t thinking straight. That’s when I got hit by the car, and everything went black.”

“That’s why you had the gun with you,” Asher summarized and I nodded again.

“The police didn’t find Hilton’s body until the next day though, so the cops weren’t coming for you, Addy,” Kane added.

“It doesn’t matter now. I just…I have to know what happened to Libby. She was just a kid and she was a mess when she got in her car and sped away. I have to know if she’s alright,” I told them all.

“I’ll look into her right away. She shouldn’t be hard to find,” Kane told me as he got to his feet once again and stood facing me.

“I don’t want her to get into trouble. She s-saved me and who knows how many other girls like me. Hilton deserved what he got,” I said firmly. I had no doubt about that fact.

“Damned right he did,” Adam agreed.

“She won’t get into trouble, angel. Hilton’s murder case was closed up in the mess with the trafficking. No one’s even looking for is killer anymore. He was mixed up with some very sick bastards, any one of whom could have killed him,” Kane explained.

“Good.” I sighed with relief as I slumped against Adam, feeling drained all over again.

“While we’re all here, I just want to let you know Laura, Addy’s therapist, has written a report and forwarded it to the attorney I hired. He seems to think with that report there’s a good chance he can get you out of having to testify, sweetheart,” Asher told us all as he rose to his feet, but looked to me.

“But I should testify, shouldn’t I? What if he gets found not guilty because of me? What if he keeps hurting people because I let him go free?” I worried as I stared at my brother, urging him to be honest with me.

“It’s extremely unlikely he’ll be found not guilty, Addy. The lawyer I hired says the FBI have a mountain of evidence against him, including paperwork linked to the trafficking movements, signed off by him himself. The only reason your testimony was wanted, was to add a human element to it all, to truly win over the jury, but it’s not needed, and if that fucker goes free, it won’t be because you didn’t testify. None of this is on you, okay? It’s up to the FBI to make this case and they seem to have done that well this time.”

“So you don’t think they need me then?” I knew he’d told me the answer already, but my head was a mess and I could hardly make the dots join up.

“No, I don’t, sweetheart, and what’s more – I don’t want you walking into that court room. I know I told you I’d always allow you to make your own decisions, and I will, but I’d have fought hard against you if you wanted to testify. I know you’re strong, but you don’t need to deal with that trial on top of everything else right now.”

“I agree with him, princess. Leave justice to do its thing and let us take care of you, yeah?”

“I don’t think I can face testifying anyway,” I admitted.

“Then that solves that,” Eli declared with a smile.

“Come on. Let’s get set up for dinner. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m starving,” Adam said, changing the subject, much to my relief.

That night we all sat around the huge dining table for family dinner, even Jenny. She seemed to have pulled herself back from the fear she was dealing with that morning, and laughed and joked with my family happy. I liked her. She said what she thought, and always had a snappy come back to anything the guys threw at her. She also swore like a sailor and laughed with her whole body when something set her off. She seemed so free and open, and it made me wish I could be that way some day.

The meal had been exactly what I had hoped for, all of us laughing and chatting animatedly about nothing of significance. No one brought up any of the heavy stuff we’d been facing lately, and conversation was kept easy and fun. Adam had prepared an amazing pasta dish, which he and Asher devoured like they’d never eaten before. I even forced down the small serving Jordan had put onto my plate for me, feeling at ease and care free for the time I got surrounded by the people I loved. I had no idea if that was the reason I felt like I was more stable for the time being, or if it were the meds I had taken, but whatever it was, I was just grateful that the darkness inside of me seemed to have pulled back for a short while.