41. Shane
41
Shane
T wenty-four hours wasn’t much notice to get my plan in place, but when that druggy bitch told me my sweet Katy agreed to meet her again, I knew it was finally my chance.
How easily Babs was to manipulate. All she wanted was a high, and I still have plenty of connection from being a street cop that I’ve been able to supply her with the good stuff and not the cheap bottom-of-the-barrel crap she’s used to. A quick trip to a salon and a clothing store and she suddenly looked like mom of the year.
Fucking pathetic.
I glance in my rearview mirror at the back seats, knowing the treasure that lies just behind them. My Katy is quiet. Her determination in the bathroom was a turn-on. She didn’t fight like that when I took her in the alley two years ago. She had been a helpless little doe. Much like Spencer. So easily pliable.
I know high school girls come through this parking lot for lunch. Such innocence just strolling around without a care in the world, naive to their surroundings. The girls usually come in pairs, but I’m patient. I’ll wait for the right gem to come alone.
It doesn’t take long before my present arrives. A pretty brunette strolls through the parking lot, more preoccupied with her phone than noticing any danger. Time to turn on my boyish charm. I flip my hat backward and pull the zipper half down on my hoodie to give myself a lazier appearance.
The brunette walks inside, and I wait on the side of the building. She doesn’t keep me waiting long. My fingers tingle from the adrenaline of the anticipation.
“Hey, excuse me?” I rub the back of my neck to look insecure and innocent and flash her a half smile. Brown eyes look up at me from her phone.
“Oh, hi.”
“I was just wondering if you’d seen a debit card lying around out here. I must have missed my pocket when I was putting it away, and I swear I’m blind because I can’t find it.” I shrug my shoulders and look around me, making sure no one is in the area.
“Um, no, sorry. I wasn’t really paying attention.” She chuckles and waves her phone in a knowing gesture.
“Damn.” I sigh heavily, letting my shoulders fall. “I feel like I’ve looked everywhere. Would you mind being another set of eyes and helping me out? I got gas, then walked next door to get lunch, but I lost it before I could order my food.
“Um?” She looks down at her phone, assumingly to look at the time.
“You probably have to get back to class. Thanks anyway. I don’t want to be a burden and take up any more of your time.”
Take the bait, pretty girl.
“Sure, I can help for a minute or two. It must be around here somewhere.”
Perfect. I just need to get her in front of the alley and—
Beeeeeeeep.
“Shit.” I look up to see the light I’m stopped at has turned green, and I was lost in my favorite memory of my Katy. Shame I didn’t get to finish the daydream. The surprise that made it an impossibly perfect moment. Spencer’s arrival.
I can’t help but smile as I drive through the quiet suburban neighborhood I’ve called home for the last year. A few phone calls to the right people, and I was able to get use of an old safe house that the city still owns. I offered to take over the utility payments, and they were all too happy to unload those bills. Fucking bureaucracy.
The garage door opens as I pull into the driveway, and I push the button again to cocoon us in darkness. No one outside these walls will be the wiser that I have my feisty baby mama in the trunk.
Stepping out of the car, I stretch from side to side, knowing she probably won’t go willingly into the house. I’m eager for the next battle. My hand runs along the side of the car, and I bang the trunk before hitting the button on the key fob to pop it open. I ready myself to grab my gun if she puts up too much of a fight, but much to my dismay, she lies there quietly.
“Hello pretty girl. We’re home.”
Katy squeezes her eyes closed. Black lines stain her cheeks, letting me know she’s been crying. Pity I didn’t get to see it. There’s still time.
“Only little bitches cry.”
“Shut up.” I scrub a hand over my face, wiping away the voices.
“You’re never going to be good at anything being such a pussy. Man the fuck up.”
“Fuck off. I’ll show you who’s a man.”
Reaching into the trunk, I grab a handful of Katy’s hair. It was effective earlier to get her to do what I wanted. Her eyes widen, protesting the pain, but she makes no sound, and I’m disappointed.
“Out you go.” I grab her legs to help her sit up, but I have to do most of the lifting to get her out of the trunk.
Katy’s eyes bounce wildly around the garage. There’s little light to see anything, but I know where everything is without sight and guide us to the door that leads into the kitchen. A keypad adorns the door, and the lock beeps, allowing us entry.
I direct Katy to sit on a kitchen stool, and she glares at me. I’m a little disappointed she isn’t putting up more of a fight.
“Before you get any ideas of trying to escape, the doors only open with a keycode both in and out. This is a safe house, so none of the windows open, and there are no knives anywhere to be found. I know you’re resourceful, but unless you plan to try to dig a hole with a spoon, there’s nothing here to use as a weapon.”
She stares back at me in silence. Is it calculating or defeat?
“You can’t even scare a teenage girl. What good are you?”
A growl escapes me, and Katy’s brows scrunch at my random noise. I turn my back on her and squeeze my eyes shut. I’ve come this far, and I’m so close to getting my son. Keep your shit together, Shane.
Turning around, I open a drawer and pull out a burner phone. Another perk of this safe house. These things are like cockroaches. They seem to multiply in every drawer.
“Smile pretty for the camera.” She closes her eyes and looks down, doing the opposite of what I asked her. At least there’s a spark of defiance in her. She isn’t completely defeated. I snap a picture anyway. Surely, her bodyguard knew what she was wearing at that gym. He only has eyes for her. It’s a shame I didn’t take him away from her that night in the rain. I thought for sure he would have bled out.
A shiver runs down my spine as I remember hearing Spencer’s voice over the car speakers. Her fear and the thrill of getting what I wanted while knowing she couldn’t stop me.
My nose tingles at the next reminder that I didn’t complete my task. I glance at Katy, remembering the blinding pain when she reared her head and broke my fucking nose. I was so proud of her, but I never expected her to grab a gun from the glove compartment. That wasn’t something I could have predicted. Or her lack of hesitation when she pulled the trigger and a bullet seared through my arm.
I slam my hand on the counter at the memory, making Katy flinch. I had to let her go and leave. There was no way I was getting her out of that car and into mine when I didn’t have use of my arm.
“Fuck.” I rub my arm over the bullet wound and open the refrigerator for a beer. I chug it down in a few long pulls and toss it in the blue bin by the garage door. That was two years ago—two long years.
I dial a number into the phone that I know by heart and type a message before I hit send on the picture. I smile knowing it will torture him to know I have her.
Katy watches my every move as I stalk closer. Her breath hitches as I straddle her legs and run my knuckles along her cheek. She’s wearing a brave face, but I see the fear behind her eyes.
“You know. We could just let Spencer keep Owen and make another one.” Her body begins to flail under me as I trail my fingers down her neck and over the front of her shirt.
“Ah. There’s my little fighter. Keep it up. You’re making me hard.” Her body stiffens as I knew it would. I step away, and her body sags in relief.
Pulling out my knife, her eyes widen. As I get closer, she tries to slink away, but there’s nowhere to go. She has nothing to worry about. I won’t hurt her unless she makes me. Katy’s eyes follow the knife as I cut the strap of her purse, and she gasps.
“I need to make sure you don’t have anything in here to hurt yourself.” A smile lights my face at the very first thing I see. I pull the stuffed bunny out of Katy’s purse, and she whimpers when I close my fist tightly around its midsection. Laughter escapes me when I feel the tracking device hidden inside.
“Sometimes I’m a real genius.” I stab into the back of the bunny, and Katy whines as I tear apart Owen’s precious toy. Her eyes widen as I pull out the device the size of a quarter and place it on the table in front of her.
I see the moment she realizes the true betrayal of the woman who birthed her. I quickly noticed the navy stuffed rabbit that went everywhere with Owen. He was never without it. It grew with him from his infant seat to the strollers on walks and carrying it in his hand when he could walk alongside Katy.
The day Babs met with Katy at the coffee shop and handed my gift to her, I nearly came in my pants at the exhilaration. Watching the red dot on my phone wherever it went had become my biggest thrill. I may not have always been able to track where Katy was, but she wasn’t my priority. Owen was.
“It’s a shame that I won’t need this soon.”
Katy’s head shakes in disbelief. Her eyes plead for answers, asking why, how?
“Oh, Katy dear. Your mother is a druggy slut. It’s easy to slap lipstick on a pig and motivate it with food. Oh, don’t look at me like that. Did you honestly think, after nineteen years, she’d suddenly cleaned up her act because you gave her a grandchild? Fuck no. That was all me. That woman hasn’t been sober since the 80’s, probably earlier. She does clean up nicely, though. I thought about giving her a spin, but she looks like she’s a leach and would get too attached.” I look Katy up and down, licking my lips at the memory of her. “Besides, I prefer the younger model.”
“Stop playing with your food, you lazy piece of shit.”
I spin to the refrigerator and grab another beer, chugging it faster than the first. I have a job to do if I want to get my boy, and I need to think straight.
“Let me show you to your room. It’s all yours if you decide to stay with me and Owen and be a happy little family. Otherwise, the accommodations should be to your liking for your short-term stay.”
Grabbing her bicep, I pull her up, and she comes willingly. More tears spill down her cheeks at all the information I just gave her. It’s a lot to process. I’m honestly a little disgusted when I think of how easily Babs tossed her daughter to the curb.
We come to a door in the hallway with another keypad. Punching in the code, I listen for the beep and turn the knob. The door opens to a plain room. White walls and curtains cover a window facing the back of the house. The bedspread is floral and smells musty from sitting in here unused. A door leads to an en suite bathroom, and another is a closet that’s long been empty.
“If you promise to behave, I’ll give you back your hands. Can you be my good girl?”
Her body winces, but she nods her head. I pull the tape off her mouth and enjoy the whimper she gives me. Using my knife, I slice between the plastic of the zip ties, and they snap apart. Katy rubs her wrists but stays silent.
“I’ll let you know when I need your services again. Until then, enjoy yourself here.” The door locks behind me and I pause at the sound.
“Please don’t lock the door. I don’t want to be left alone. Please, father.”
I know it’s no use. It never is. I’ll take his silence over his words or hands any day, but the unknown of how long I’ll be locked in here is what terrifies me.
I slump against the door, slide down until I’m seated, and wrap my hands around my legs. I didn’t mean to kill the cat. It ran in front of my bike, and its back leg was broken. The bone was sticking out, and it was crying for help. I helped it.
“You don’t belong around people. There’s something wrong with you,” my father told me when he found me in the garage with the body. I couldn’t convince him I had killed it out of mercy. Hadn’t I?
Father told me I was destined to be alone. No one in my life could ever love me because I’m sick in the head. I’ll prove him wrong. I’ll be a better father to my son than he ever was to me.
As I walk down the hall, I stop at the nursery I have set up for Owen. It’s everything I wanted as a child. Glow-in-the-dark stars line the ceiling, and everything is navy in color, just like his Bun-Bun. Unlike the closet in Katy’s room, the one in here is full of toys and clothes, and I even made sure to pick up several packs of the colorful star stickers that he likes as a reward. He’s going to be so happy here.
Katy has been with me for over two hours now, and I haven’t heard from her worthless mother. I hope they took and tortured her for information. She knows nothing more than I wanted her to know, and that was jackshit. I have the bunny with the tracker, and I have Katy. Soon, I’ll have my boy, and life will be complete.