Odd Man
Fiona
Ten minutes later, we’re all in Maddox’s office. Thankfully, the curtains are closed. I didn't need all those snakes adding to the reality of today.
Though, why do I care? I’ll probably be dead in a few days. I need to find time to write a letter to Daria before I do this. She already knows it’s going to be dangerous. She only agreed to leave for Gemma.
She’s going to be so mad at me. But I can’t come back this time without my friend.
Being in this room with a bunch of scary men staring at me isn’t a new experience. Though this group is a tiny bit more intimidating than it normally is.
Telling them about what happened to me…that’s the scary part.
“Is someone going to tell me where The Spider is so I can kill him?” How Vex isn’t jangling as he walks with that much metal on him, I have no idea.
“The Spider was dead.”
My words bring a hush to the room.
“Or so I thought when my best friend stabbed him.” They don’t need to know all the details, but maybe I need say it all out loud.
“There has never been a day in my life when I didn’t know The Spider. Where I didn’t fear him. I was born as his property, because he owned my mother and wanted to use me to control her. It worked. She did whatever he said until she died. Then I took her place.”
This is harder than I thought. Harder than I ever thought it would be.
Strong arms engulf me.
He whispers in my ear, “You don’t have to do this.”
“She can’t be forgotten.”
Max kisses my hair. “Then tell her story.”
He probably thinks I’m talking about my mother, but I’m not. I nod, stepping out of his arms. “Every day The Spider owned me was filled with pain, degradation, and hunger. I thought about killing myself over and over again. But I never could quite build up the strength to do it.”
“The day I stopped thinking about it was the day my best friend arrived. She was everything I wasn’t—fearless, brave, and strong, not just mentally but physically.
The Spider didn’t buy her to sell. He bought her to keep for himself.
But it didn’t matter how he tortured her, or how much he starved her, she would fight him with every ounce of strength she had. ”
“He loved that as much as he hated her for it. I think he was obsessed with her. All I knew was I wanted to be her. But I settled for being her friend instead. His men never saw me as a threat. I was always the one who did what I was told. So, no one noticed when I started giving her some of my food. No one thought anything of it when I would go treat her wounds. I was so docile next to the untamable beast that they never bothered me.”
“She told me once that he was either going to kill her or she was going to kill him. Just the thought of someone killing him seemed impossible. But she believed she would do it, or die trying. That was until he found her mother and sister. He bought them from a private collector. The mother was half dead and already lost to the world of the living. So, The Spider killed her in front of her daughters as a warning. Daria was so small, I don’t know how she survived.
But from that day on, Sweetums did whatever he said. ”
“Sweetums.” Vex’s voice echoes through the room.
One minute, he’s by the bar. The next, he’s two inches from my face. “WHAT WAS HER NAME?”
“Back off.” Max pushes his way between us.
“Move or die.”
Um, what?
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you need to back off of my woman.” Max pushes him back.
“Move or die.” Vex’s hand moves to the gun by his side.
The name. He wants me to repeat her name. “Sweetums.”
Vex’s entire body shakes. “You can’t be talking about her.”
I’ve never seen or heard that name before or since. “She said her brother named her.”
“Where? When? You need to tell me. Where did you see my sister?”
Vex has a sister?
“The last time I saw her was when she went to kill The Spider more than sixteen years ago. I thought she was dead all this time, but I was wrong.”
“My sister drowned eighteen years ago.”
“Sweetums has a five-year-old daughter named Gemma.” I peek past Max’s body to watch a man crumble before my eyes.
“She’s alive. She’s alive.”
Payne approaches Vex’s side carefully. “Why don’t we let Fiona finish telling her story? It will help us find Sweetums.”
Vex lets Payne move him back to the bar.
But Max doesn’t move. “You can start whenever you’re ready.”
After that almost heart attack, they expect me to finish.
“After The Spider killed Sweetums’ mother, he kept Daria to use her to control Sweetums. And it worked for a while.
” I take a deep breath and hide behind Max’s back.
Vex isn’t going to like what I’m going to say next.
“Daria had been starved before she arrived, but with a little food and a bunch of care, Daria started feeling better. That was until Sweetums said ‘no’ to The Spider. She tried so hard to be docile. But it wasn’t in her nature.
The Spider picked up Daria and shook her so hard I thought he was going to snap her neck.
” The bruises are something I will never forget.
“He damaged her trachea that night. The ‘doctor’ who was drunk came in to fix her. Instead, he almost killed Daria. That was the night Sweetums decided The Spider was going to die, whatever it took.”
When she told me, I couldn’t believe anyone would think it was possible to kill him.
“There were things going on in the outside world affecting The Spider’s business. Men were dying. People were murmuring. There was a night when half of the men were out on a secret mission, and Sweetums decided it was time.”
The Day Sweetums Died
“Fiona—” Sweetums whispers through her cage. Her black eye is almost healed. “—do you think you can get me that knife from the kitchen?”
I want to say ‘no’. I want to go back into my cage and cry. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Then I need you to get it tonight. Right before the men go out. He’ll release me then.”
“If you bring a knife, he’ll kill you.”
She shrugs. “Maybe, but while he’s distracted, I want you to run. Take Daria with you and run as fast and as far away as possible.”
“But—But…I can’t leave you here. You’re my best friend.” My only friend.
“You have to. It’s the only chance Daria has at living. He’ll kill her. You know that.”
He kills everyone. Death hasn’t scared me in a long time. Living though… “But you’ll die.”
“So the two of you can live. Saving my sister and my best friend is worth dying for. And if I don’t try this, I’m just going to die anyway. We both know it. One day, he’s going to get bored of me, and either kill me or sell me. Which do you think I’d prefer?”
“Fine. I’ll get it for you.”
“And you’ll take care of Daria? Raise her and protect her for me? You’ll see that she has a normal life?”
What is normal? “I will.”
“Then it will all be worth it.”
Will it? Will a world without her be worth anything?
Present Day
“And that is when I failed her. I got her the knife. But I also got one for myself. I was determined to help her. To kill him and save her life. So the three of us could escape together.”
If only I did what I said I would do. If only I wasn’t a coward.
“But when the time came, I froze. I couldn’t bring myself to fight.
To save her. She knew. She understood. Sweetums forgave me even though I will never forgive myself.
Right before she went at him the last time, she mouthed, ‘run’.
And something snapped inside of me. I picked up Daria, and I ran.
We never stopped running until we ended up here on Willow Street. ”
Regret eats me up inside. “That’s why I need to be the one to help save her.”