Chapter 45
Go on with life, as normally as possible.
Keep moving forward.
We’ll have it all settled as soon as possible.
Chief Weller’s promise rang through my head on repeat as I tried to do what he said. Part of me was doubtful, unable to trust anyone anymore, pushed down by cynicism put there thanks to life’s cruel ways.
I kept telling myself that I did have to keep moving forward, though, because I had worked too damn hard to let the whole ordeal steal my progress. Which was why I was sitting in a lecture hall, two weeks away from finishing my degree and being done with school altogether.
It was the last place I wanted to be, but I had to at least show up for the notes, even if I understood nothing my professor was saying over the manic thoughts running through my head.
Chief Weller had called Travis and told him he had called Danny in for questioning an hour ago. With each clock tick above my professor, I waited for a text from Travis to tell me the whole fucking thing was over.
We got him.
He’s in jail.
You’re free.
That was what I needed to hear so that I could finally feel like I could breathe again. Never mind the fact that I needed to hug my kids. God, my eyes watered even thinking about how badly I ached to see them, how badly I missed them.
My nose burned even as I forced in a few deep breaths, trying to keep them from falling in the middle of my class. The last thing I needed was to start sobbing in Professor White’s lecture, he already hated me.
Feeling the edge of a panic attack curling its sharp claws into my mind, I got out of my chair, making a silent exit out of the lecture hall so I could get myself under control. Thankfully, the hallway outside was empty as I walked toward the emergency exit to get some fresh air.
Again, I was so over everyone watching me. The lurking stares, hushed whispers, and snide comments were enough to make my skin crawl. I just needed a few minutes of silence to get my panic under control.
Then I’d go back to living my life as normal as possible.
After I took a few minutes for myself.
The skin on my neck prickled to life as I got to the end of the hallway, a millisecond before I felt the weight of eyes on my back. Glancing over my shoulder, my breath caught in my throat when a pair of eyes from my past stared back at me, from only a foot away.
“No—” I gasped as Danny slammed his fist into the side of my head, disorienting me. I crumpled in the next heartbeat, my body going numb from the sheer power behind the punch to the soft part of my head behind my ear.
Fuck.
My brain felt like I was looking through the water in a pool as I rolled over onto my back, looking up at the ceiling.
Danny’s sadistic face blocked my vision, his smile stretched too wide, too sharp. “Miss me, baby?” He hissed as his hands gripped my hair, pulling me across the floor toward the exit.
No.
No!
My voice was stuck in my chest, paralyzed with disorientation as I tried to grab at the door frame he pulled me through. His sick chuckle, with the edge of mania lacing it, assaulted me as I saw a black truck idling at the curb a foot away.
Fight, Frankie! For the love of God, fucking fight!
I knew what would happen if he got me into his truck without anyone seeing. The emergency exit he pulled me through was at the back of the building near the faculty parking lot, which was almost empty by this time on a Friday afternoon.
Fuck.
Fear gripped my heart so hard I thought it would stop beating completely as he opened the back door and lifted me into it, shoving me face down on the floorboard behind the front seats.
He was so much stronger now than he had been before, and even then, he beat the daylights out of me every chance he had.
I was in serious trouble.
Finally, my body reconnected to my brain, as fear took over and I kicked my feet out at him, fighting to get my body out from the cramped space, but I was still sluggish.
“No, Danny. No!” I screamed as something wrapped around my ankles, and then they were bent toward my ass and within the next second both of my wrists were shackled to it, hogtying me.
His body pressed against my back, and his hot breath hit my neck, making me freeze with fear as nightmares assaulted me from times in the past when he would immobilize me like this.
“Mmh, I missed you, baby. I missed you so fucking much. But you’ve been so bad.
So fucking naughty. A whore. A slut.” His hips pushed against my legs, and I could feel his hardness, making bile rise to my throat.
“I’m going to make you pay for it.” I screamed again, right before he shoved a rag into my mouth and then duct taped it there, muffling my screams to near silent grunts.
“Every single thing you did for them, you’re going to do for me.
You’re going to make it up to me, Frankie. You’re going to make this right.”
I sobbed against the rag, flailing against the floorboards as he pushed his dick into my leg again and then chuckled.
“I can’t wait to feel you break for me again. It’s been too long.”
With that, he got off my back and shut the door with a resounding thud that sounded a lot like a gunshot, ending my life.
He had me.
And I was utterly fucked. Hopelessness clawed at my throat as he started driving, pulling away from the school and racing down streets I couldn’t see to a destination I didn’t know.
If he took me, if he got free with me like this, I was dead.
I’d never see Emmie and Toby again.
I’d never feel the warmth of their hugs, or hear the joy of their giggles again.
Days ago now, I walked out of our home, waving goodbye, blowing air kisses at them in the window as I drove away to go to work, and I didn’t know at the time that those were the last memories I’d have of them.
I didn’t know those were the last hugs and kisses.
I would have held on tighter.
I would have made it last longer.
I would have memorized every single freckle on their perfect faces to hold me over, had I known.
Had I known then what I knew now, I would have told them how much I loved them more than the automatic reply I gave them on my way out the door, worried about work and life and everything else I had to do that day.
I would have meant it more.
Because it was the last thing they had from me.
I was terrified as Danny rushed through curves, hardly slowing down at turns before speeding off.
I tried to pay attention, mapping out the path he took as he raced through the drive, but I couldn’t see anything from the floor, and I couldn’t break through the ties around my ankles and wrists.
Yet I never stopped trying. The ties dug into my skin, burning the flesh, but still I fought.
He muttered to himself in the front seat, spitting menace my way as he slammed his fist into the steering wheel.
“You thought you won, huh?” He sneered, looking over the center console at me, “The police, DCFS, your new boyfriends? None of them matter!” He screamed, slamming his fist into my head again, even though I didn’t do anything, I couldn’t do anything but take it.
“You’re mine! You’ve always been mine! From the first moment I fucked your virgin body, you were mine! ”
I tried to scream, to fight, to break free. I couldn’t just stay still as he drove me further from my life, spiraling out of control with every mile he drove. As his rage grew, the insults he hurled my way became more vile. “You ruined everything, Frankie!”
I fought against my binds, feeling the hard outline of my phone in my jeans pocket, fumbling with numb fingers from the tight restraints as I finally worked it free.
I knew if he looked back over the console at me, he’d see me with my phone, so I tucked it between the seats the best I could and swiped my finger over the fingerprint. It vibrated in my hand, signaling that I got it unlocked.
I took a deep breath, forcing my brain to work as I used muscle memory to open the phone app without looking. I had no idea who I had called last, but pressed the call button twice to dial it, hoping it was one of the guys as I turned the volume all the way down so Danny wouldn’t hear the feedback.
Chancing one glance at the screen, I nearly screamed with relief when I saw Travis’s name with the timer started above it, meaning he picked up.
I forced the phone back into my pocket with the microphone up so he could hear everything. Even though I couldn’t hear his strong voice, I instantly felt brave knowing he was hearing me.
Hearing Danny scream obscenities at everyone around us as he drove, ranting his sick plans for me.
The truck made a quick turn, and I slammed my head into the door, making my neck burn from the impact, and then it came to a stop. The first full stop since we left the college.
Danny got out of the truck, and then the door behind me opened, and he pulled me by the ties on my ankles, ripping me from the truck and throwing me into the snow on the ground.
Instantly I recognized the worn paint on the back porch of my rental, and I looked around to see that he drove through the open gate as he stomped over to it, swinging it shut, locking us away behind the tall privacy fence.
I rocked, trying to roll over on my side to see my mom’s house, but the fence was too high from my spot on the ground. The cold wetness of the snow seeped through my clothes and soaked my skin, freezing me to the bones as Danny stomped back over to me, dragging me by my elbows.
I screamed, hot searing pain shooting through my shoulders as they bent in the wrong direction and then the wind was knocked out of my lungs when he threw me across the floor in the living room, slamming the glass sliding door behind him and locking us inside the house.
Earlier in the morning, I had stood in the same room, watching Chief Weller discover Danny’s hidden cameras with Travis and Eli’s warmth and strength around me, comforting me.
Now I was freezing cold, paralyzed with fear as he started destroying the place in his anger.