19. Petra
The sense of dread overcomes me before I even open my eyes. I already know that I’m in a bad position before I make myself aware of what it is. Unfortunately, this time around, there are no forgotten memories. I know that Nathan kidnapped me for Jake and that he was bringing me to him. I might have been knocked out for a while due to whatever he gave me, but the memories haven’t gone anywhere.
“P–Petra? Are you awake now?” I know that voice. I know it. “I’m so sorry, Petra.”
I snap my eyes open, blanching because even though this room is dark, it’s too bright for my poor sensitive eyes. It’s only the all too familiar voice calling my name over and over that forces me to see.
“Dad?” My blood runs icy cold the moment I lay eyes on him. My father is in a terrible state, so badly beaten that I can hardly stand to look at him. It’s painful to see him knowing that he’s been through the worst. Jake has done this to him, I just know it, but still, I can hardly believe it. I was married to him, I thought that we were going to last forever. How could he turn out to be a monster? “Oh, my God.”
I keep darting my eyes away because of all the blood and bruises surrounding my father. One of his legs looks all twisted wrong as if it might be broken. Vomit floods my throat at the sight of him. It’s like a nightmare come to life. Even more so with him tied to one chair and me attached to a pole. But if we stand a chance of getting out of here alive and if my dad ever wants to recover, we need to see each other.
“I’m so sorry that you are h–here, Petra,” my dad stutters, spurting blood out of his mouth as he does. I try not to throw up purely from the fear that spitting up blood might mean it’s too late for him already. “I tried to protect you, I really did. All I wanted to do was save you from him, but I failed.”
“What happened to you?” I whisper. I really need to know it all. “What did he do?”
“You can see what he did, but it doesn’t matter.” He shakes his head at me. “It doesn’t matter if he kills me. I just want you to get out of this. He shouldn’t have done this to you. He should have let you go.”
“I am the target, Dad,” I insist. “You are the one who shouldn’t be caught up in this. He wants to sell me.” I hang my head low. “I guess that’s what’s going to happen now. I will get sold off.”
“No,” Dad growls pointlessly, like he has any choice in the matter. We’re both out of control here. “No, I won’t let that happen. I will give him what he wants. He can have the family money. I am not letting him do that to you. I can’t. It’s my duty as your father to protect you from all of this… which is why I failed.”
“It isn’t your fault that I ended up here, Dad.” I try my hardest to reassure him. “Wherever here is.”
“It’s some warehouse that Jake owns. He thinks that he had me knocked out when he piled me in here, but I was awake. Some disgusting place that I assume from the blood stains all over the floor in the other room is where he does all his criminal stuff.” A deep and fearful shudder tears down my spine. “And he did some… some terrible stuff to me.” Dad looks down where I can see that where his fingernails once were, it’s all just blood and torn skin now. That sight makes me want to shrivel up into a ball. “He demanded your location. I didn’t want to tell him. Even though Max told me, I didn’t want him to know. I didn’t send you away to protect you in the thought that I would then tell them where you are.” He begins choking on his own sobs, which drags tears down my face also. “I don’t know how long I was here. I don’t know what they did to me. I think I was drugged at some point, and I guess I must have said something.”
“Oh, Dad.” I’m crushed, disappointed, but I get it. Jake is a fucking psychopath. “It isn’t your fault.”
“It is,” he howls. “It is, and I will never forgive myself. Which is why I have already decided that I will do whatever it takes to get you out of here alive. I will die if I need to, to keep you safe.”
I shake my head hard, refusing to accept that as even an option. “No way. This is my fault. I’m the one who fell for Jake. I’m the one who married him and brought him into our family. You need to get out.”
Dad shoots me a look. “I don’t think you understand, Petra. This has all been going on for a long time.”
“What?” I narrow my eyes at him. I don’t like the sound of this at all. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about Nathan. He’s the one who dragged us all into this. He started it.”
“But Nathan isn’t the one who introduced Jake to me or anything like that.”
“No, I know.” I’m pretty sure that Dad is still crying. “I didn’t know that Nathan was even connected to Jake until recently. I didn’t put it all together. I just knew that Nathan had dragged us into something he shouldn’t have. But I didn’t even blame him, that’s the worst thing. I got that the deal sounded too good to be true. I thought that Nathan was fooled just like me. I thought that the Mob had him tricked.”
“What do you mean?” I demand, a little harsher than I intend to. “What happened? Tell me everything.”
Dad has the weight of the world on his shoulders, I can see it. I don’t think that he wants to tell me anything, but I’m going to push him. I have to push him because I need to know it all. I don’t know if it’s going to be meaningful, but we can’t leave here without my understanding all of it.
“A few years back when the business was struggling a little bit, Nathan was out scouting for business. He found this merger that seemed… well, looking back now, too good to be true. But since we needed that, we went along with it. I thought it would save us, and I assumed that Nathan was in the same boat.”
I gulp back the thick ball of emotion that lodges itself in my throat. I don’t remember any of this. I guess my dad did whatever he could to make sure that I wasn’t aware. But was that a good thing? I don’t know now. Maybe at the time, I would have preferred not to know, but now… well, now it seems that my father’s not being honest with me has somehow led our to both being here in this nightmare.
“But Nathan knew that they were criminals.” Dad tenses right up. I want to scream at him not to because he might make himself worse than he already is, but I can’t make the sound. “He knew that he was getting us involved with organized crime. He might have even known about the sex trafficking link, I don’t know anymore. I thought I knew that man, but now I don’t think I have ever done so. He’s a stranger to me, especially putting you in the middle of this, bringing you here after everything. He knows how much you mean to me. I just… I can’t believe it. It’s shocking to me. I don’t know what to say.”
“Did he know that Jake was involved?” I whisper back. “Did he let me marry him?”
“I don’t know,” Dad admits. “I would like to think not, but I don’t know anything anymore.”
I have no idea what to say to this. It makes me anxious to the core. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel, but it’s really just numbness. I don’t feel anything. The end is coming, and I feel nothing.
“Well, you didn’t know, did you, Dad?” He shakes his head, not even surprised that I have to ask him this. “No, I know you wouldn’t do that to me. Which is why we both need to try and get out of here. We can’t let Nathan win. Is he even here anymore? Or did he just drop me off to Jake and go?”
I want to crumble and fall apart here. I don’t even know if Jake has seen me yet, but just knowing that I’m under his control once more is awful. But I need to keep my head strong for Dad. He’s falling apart, blaming himself, and I don’t want that to happen. Not if we’re going to get out of here.
“Okay, Dad, we can’t get too upset about this at the moment,” I tell him strongly. “We need to find a way out of here. There has to be some way out of here. We just need to… to seek it out.”
“Jake has us locked in here,” he replies, clearly very dejected. “I have looked for every way out and there isn’t one. I’m pretty sure that victims have been kept here for a very long time. They are very experienced in this, so I don’t think there’s a way out of here. I don’t know what we’re going to do to keep you safe.”
I’m not getting deflated here. I won’t give up. I’m going to keep on fighting until we’re safe. There is too much hanging on here, too much to fight off. I just can’t let Jake win and sell me. I can’t.
“Dad, don’t be like that,” I growl as I fight off my ties. Not that I’m being very successful in it because they have got me really tightly locked away. “Don’t give up. We’re going to get out of here.” I suck in a breath, trying to steady myself before I suggest the last thing I want to. “Maybe we should get Jake in here. I might be able to talk to him and make things alright. I mean, we’re married, aren’t we?”
“Are you joking?” Dad gasps. “You don’t want to wind him up. You obviously haven’t seen the evil side to him, have you? He has hidden it from you. Well, trust me, you don’t want to see it. Look at what he’s done to me. I don’t think you want to end up like this. You aren’t the first woman he has attacked, I’m sure.”
That’s probably true. I don’t want to think about the terrible things that my husband has done to other people, but it could have been anything. And that could all be waiting for me. I do want to get him in here to try and sort things out, but at the same time, I don’t want to ever see him again…
“What was that?” Dad suddenly gasps, shaking me from my thoughts. “Did you hear that noise?”
“I don’t know.” I strain my ears. “Yeah, maybe. What do you think is going on?”
Dad shrugs his shoulders helplessly, but I can see the sheer terror in his eyes. “I don’t know, but it can’t be good. Nothing can be good in this place.”
Those words feel ominous and dangerously close to the truth. It does seem like something is going to happen here and now. Whatever the plans are, we’re about to find out.