12. Chapter Eleven
Chapter Eleven
Ali
I was placed with Vivian Little when I was thirteen. At first, everything was perfect. It was one of the better foster homes. I was fed daily, had nice clothes, and the house was small but clean. Vivian made sure I went to school and even let me help work in her clothing store after school for a little spending money. She didn’t mind that I was quiet, and my nightmares didn’t seem to bother her. While I wasn’t happy about being in the system, I was okay about staying with her—until she met Dennis.
Just after my fifteenth birthday, she met him at the local coffee shop. At first, he seemed nice and polite. But it all changed when they got married three months later. It started with him hitting her, controlling her money, and making life difficult. We had to move because he would spend all of the bill money on drugs and alcohol. Vivian didn’t have the strength or the means to leave him anymore. I begged her to send me back to the state and even threatened to tell my social worker about the abuse.
She told me that if she sent me back, Dennis said he would kill her. Then, one night, Dennis told me the same thing when he walked in on me screaming at her that I would tell someone about what he was doing. I was scared, truly frightened for the first time since the night my family was murdered. I promised to keep my mouth shut, and I did. I thought he would continue to ignore me, but I was wrong.
The first night he came for me was the night before I turned sixteen. He said he wanted to give me my birthday present early. I didn’t want anything from him. I fought him, screamed for Vivian to help, and even begged my parents or Caleb to save me. But no one came. No one came to my rescue that night as he brutally raped me. He took something from me that night that was never his to have. The next morning, I knew Vivian heard me because she helped clean me up and took me to the clinic for birth control and the morning-after pill. Dennis came home that night, and I found a single Lilly on my pillow.
My door would open like clockwork every night, he would come in and the next day I would find a flower. After the first month, I stopped fighting him and taught myself how to disassociate during the assault. I would go back in time to memories of playing with Caleb, shopping with Mom, or watching movies with Dad. Five months after my seventeenth birthday, I didn’t get my period. I knew what was going on. So before I went home from school, I bought a pregnancy test; sure enough, there was a little plus sign. I hid it because if Dennis found out, he would beat me until I lost the baby.
While I wasn’t ready to become a mom and didn’t want to carry his child, there was no fucking way I was going to let him kill it either. So, I started to plan my escape. I was too scared to go to Leon because I was afraid Dennis would kill both me and Vivvian before anything could happen. Dennis always told us how he could make it look like an accident, and I believed him. One night, while I was supposed to be at work, I was searching the dark web at a friend’s house. Link—my one and only friend—had heard that there were people out there who would help you disappear for a certain price. He was also amazing at everything computer related so he knew where to look.
That’s when we found a guy who went by the name of Demon. Link helped me contact Demon. Two days later, I heard back from him. He emailed me with an address and a time to meet. Link came with me because I didn’t want to go alone. The address was to an abandoned house on the other side of town.
“Are you sure about this, Kate?” Link asks, pulling me closer. “I told you I would go to the police with you. You don’t have to do this. You being pregnant is all the evidence you need that the sick bastard has raped you.”
“Link, he will kill her. Plus, he has friends in the police force. This is the only way.” I’ve thought over every possible way to end this, and this is the only way.
“And he won’t kill her when you fucking disappear?” Link asks the one question I’ve been worrying over.
The two-story house looks ominous in the white moonlight. While it’s abandoned, it’s not run down. There aren’t any broken windows or trash that you normally see when houses are abandoned. I open the front door stepping inside. The air is dusty and smells of musk.
“He might, but this way, if Demon is good at his job, Dennis won’t be able to find me,” I say, feeling a small amount of guilt over leaving Vivian.
“Or we could just make him disappear.” A dark voice comes from somewhere to my left. I scream and jump back into Link, who also screams but pulls me behind him.
“Who the fuck is there?” Link asks, his voice shaking, showing how scared he is right now.
I peek around Link and see a tall silhouette step out of the shadow. It stops in front of a window, and the moonlight illuminates him. He has blonde hair that is pulled back into a ponytail. His jaw is covered with a short beard. I can’t tell what color his eyes are. But I can see that he is built like a brick house. His arms are so big that the lower part doesn’t touch his body when they are down by his side. I feel the dangerous aura around him from where I am.
“Demon?” I ask. Thankful that my voice doesn’t shake like Link’s.
“Kate, I assume,” Demon says, stepping forward to where he is again in the shadow. A lamp flickers to light. I step out behind Link and take a small step toward the man who I’m hoping can help me. Demon’s head raises, and I suck in a sharp breath. I’ve never seen someone with eyes black as the night sky without any stars.
“Your eyes are black.” I slap my hand over my mouth to avoid saying something stupid.
“They are,” he says, stepping back and lowering himself into a lone kitchen chair in the middle of the room. “So you need to disappear. Why?”
I wouldn’t let Link tell Demon everything, but it looks like I’m going to have to. I quickly tell him my story. Pregnant by my rapist foster father. Demon’s face grows colder and harder, and the dark aura around him shifts. His body goes rigid with anger with each word out of my mouth. Once I’m done, Demon stands and walks to the window.
“I can help you disappear, but it will take some time. Which I’m willing to put in the work. However, I have another option for you,” he says, turning around. I swallow my fear and wait for him to speak. “I kill him very painfully and slowly.”
As I slowly blink, the dark house fades, and in its place, Reed’s bright dining room comes back into focus. All the men are staring at me with different levels of anger on their faces. Reed looks like he is ready to commit murder right now. His face reminds me of the look on Demon’s that night. I reach out and lay my hand over his. Reed flips it over and laces his fingers with mine, squeezing hard, but I don’t mind.
“Is he still alive?” Leon asks tensely.
“Yes. I didn’t take Demon up on his offer to kill Dennis. I was able to hide my pregnancy for a while. I was always big, so therefore Dennis never noticed. He just said I was getting fatter. When he would come to my room, he would demand me to get on my knees and start to rape me from behind. Demon finally got everything I needed, and I got on a bus eight months pregnant. I had a whole new identity. Demon promised me that I would be able to live my life without having to worry about a social security number not being real,” I say, wiping the tears that have fallen away.
“Fuck whoever this guy is, we need him. If he is able to pull that off—” Gabe says, shaking his head.
We all fell into silence, processing what I said. Reed never calms down. Anger rolls off of him in waves, but he never lets go of my hand. “So are we thinking the Jeep was Dennis or the Ricci family?” Nick asks.
My eyes snap to Leon’s when Nick says the name of the family that killed mine. “It can’t be the Ricci family. They don’t know I’m alive, right?” I ask, frantically. It can’t be them.
Leon doesn’t look at me. Instead, he picks at his fingers. “Actually, they might be behind it. There is something I have kept hidden from you,” he says.
My heart starts to race so fast that my chest aches. Using my other hand, I rub my chest, hoping it helps. I can’t go up against a fucking mafia family. They make Dennis look like a fucking barn cat. “What?” I whisper, my voice breaking at the end of that short word.
“I think it’s best you just show her,” Reed finally speaks up for the first time. Leon nods, pushes his chair back, and leaves the room. Reed turns my head toward him. “Ali, I promise we will find out who is behind this and take care of it. Then I’m going to track down that piece of shit and kill him slowly,” he says.
“Reed.”
He leans forward to where our noses are almost touching. “No, Ali. He deserves to die, and he will. I don’t take kindly to people touching things that are mine. You might not have been mine back then but you sure as shit are mine now. But more than that, he touched you without your permission. He hurt you in a way that no one should be hurt, and for that, he dies.”
A throat clears behind us, pulling my attention from Reed. Leon is standing in the doorway with someone else. Someone who shouldn’t be here. Someone who can’t be here. I don’t understand how I’m seeing this. A small scream falls from my mouth, and tears stream down my face.
The world grows dark as my brother—my older brother who died when he was twelve— opens his mouth and says, “Hi Sarah.”
“Come on, Little One. Open your eyes.” Reed’s voice cuts through the darkness. Hands are gently cupping my face, pushing my hair away. I blink slowly, and Reed’s handsome face comes into view. “There you are. Do you think you can stand up?” He asks.
“Yeah,” I say weakly. Reed helps me sit up and then stand up. He stays in front of me, blocking my view. “Reed, I think I’m going crazy. I saw Caleb. But he died. I held him in my arms and watched him take his last breath. I cried and shook his lifeless body. The police had to pull me off him because I didn’t want to let him go.” I start sobbing and throw my arms around Reed’s neck.
“I know, Little One. I know,” he says, burying his face in my hair. “You aren’t going crazy.”
I pull away and run around him. Caleb has moved more into the room, and I launch myself through the space, and he catches me. “I’m so sorry, Sarah. It was the only way to keep you safe.” His voice, which was once high, is now deep, but it still has the same effect. It calms me instantly.
“How?” I cry into his chest. I always thought he would be tall, and I was right.
“Let’s sit down, and I will tell you,” Leon says. Caleb doesn’t let me go. His arm is around my shoulder, and I’m tucked into his side. I take my seat next to Reed, and Caleb sits next to me. Reed reaches over and takes my hand once again.
I look toward Leon and nod for him to tell me how the hell my brother is alive. “You’re right, Kate. Caleb did die that night in your arms. He was shot in the stomach before he fell. However, they were able to get him back on the way to the hospital. He underwent surgery and was in the ICU for weeks. When we knew he would make it, we did the same thing we did for you. We placed weighted bags in an empty coffin and buried him. Since it was a closed-casket funeral, it was easy. However, unlike you, Caleb was raised by an older FBI agent.
“Since you weren’t talking, Caleb was our best chance at finding out which members of the Ricci family were there that night. So Mitch, the FBI agent who stayed with Caleb in the hospital, decided he would raise him. We changed his name, just like you, and created his new identity. He goes by Max now. Three years ago, Max started trying to infiltrate the Ricci family. He was successful and has been a trusted member for the last year,” Leon finishes. By the time he’s done, my mind is racing, and my blood feels like ice. My brother is a member of the Mafia family that killed our parents and tried to kill him.
“Why would you risk that?” I ask, looking toward Caleb, refusing to see him as Max.
“Because not only did they kill Mom and Dad, but they took you away from me. After hearing what you went through, I’m more determined to take them out. Sarah, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to save you from that fucking monster,” Caleb says, wiping tears away from his eyes. I’ve never seen him tear up, not even when he fell off his bike as a kid and broke his arm.
“But you could die,” I say, not bothering to hide my fear or tears.
“I don’t fucking care. What’s done is done. I have the information we need to take them down, and it’s happening as soon as we figure out who is stalking you because it’s not them. They truly believe we are dead.” Caleb looks at Leon when he says this.
“How have they not figured out who you are?” I ask, worried about his true identity being figured out.
“Because I’m careful. The original Don of the Ricci family passed away two years after they killed our family. His son, who took over, never knew anything about our family. Most of the members don’t either. There is only one person left, and I haven’t seen him. The original killers are no longer alive, but the family needs to pay for their sins,” Caleb’s voice is cold as ice.
I want to ask what he means about the original killers, but I won’t. “So we focus all our attention on Dennis?” I ask.
“Yes,” Reed says, bringing my hand up to kiss it. “And this is where we say goodbye to you,” he says, looking at Leon.
“Max, I will be in touch soon. Kate,” Leon’s face falls when he looks at me, “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I wish you had come to me, but I understand why you didn’t. If you or the boys need anything, I’m one call away.” Finally, he looks at Reed. “Make that fucker pay.” With that, he turns and leaves us alone.