Chapter 14 Kelsie
Chapter fourteen
Kelsie
I woke to the bite of metal handcuffs around my wrists, lying on a frigid cement floor. Someone moved nearby, shuffling around. My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and my thoughts were still sluggish from the tranquilizer as I pieced together what had happened.
Kidnapped by my stalker.
Ryker. Bleeding.
The baby.
Pressing my hands to my stomach, I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping she would be okay.
Looking around, I found myself in a large, dimly lit room, like a basement or a cellar. It smelled faintly earthy, with the sharp tang of new metal. The walls and ceiling were a glossy, fresh steel, untouched by rust.
Along one wall were plain metal shelves packed with food—cans of beans and corn, tins of Spam, bags of rice and potatoes. Stacked in one corner were cases of bottled water, a first aid kit, and rolls of bedding. The only door was on the opposite side of the room, composed of heavy metal.
“Glad to see you’re awake, my darling.”
I flinched at the sound of Olson’s voice—oily slick and sweet. When I turned around, he crouched in front of me, holding out a bowl of soup. His right eye was swollen purple from where Ryker had hit him.
I scoured my memories, trying to place where I’d seen him before. But I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Olson’s expression faltered at my confusion and he placed the bowl of soup on the floor instead.
“You don’t remember me, do you?”
“I—I’m sorry. I don’t.”
He tapped his name tag.
“Joaquin Olson. Janitor at the Brightwater Fitness Center. We work across the street from each other. I wave to you every morning.”
Vaguely, I remembered him now. But I never actually met him, let alone interacted with him. It was a small town. The same faces ended up at the grocery store on a Friday night after work every week. That didn’t mean I knew him, or anyone else I recognized in passing.
“Is that how you got into my apartment?” I asked, motioning to his uniform.
Olson shrugged.
“No one pays attention to the janitor. I could be wearing a goddamn pink feather boa and bright orange swimtrunks. They won’t look at me. I’m invisible. It’s like a superpower.”
A shudder rippled up my spine. It was chilling to hear him speak so calmly about it, as if he was talking about the weather or the price of milk.
“But why me?” I asked. “We haven’t even spoken before now—”
Olson shook his head empathically.
“That’s not true. That’s not true! Back in May, you had a toy drive at the day care over the weekend. You were wrestling with this big box of toys and I noticed. I saw you. I crossed the street to help and I’ll never forget what you said.”
He was smiling now, practically giddy as he told this story.
“What did I say?” I prompted.
“You’re my hero.” He laughed. “Those were your exact words.”
I stared at him, baffled. That brief interchange meant the world to him.
And it was nothing more than a passing moment.
There was no sincerity to it, no weight behind my comment.
I simply said it off the cuff of my sleeve, overwhelmed with the toy drive, trying to get that damn box out of the back of my little car.
Grateful to a stranger who offered to lend a hand.
“What do you want from me?” I demanded.
Olson dug into his pocket, retrieved a piece of paper. Smoothing out the creases reverently, he proudly held it up for my examination.
A certificate of marriage, between Joaquin Olson and Kelsie Halliday. Horror grew thick in my throat and I struggled to breathe. This man I didn’t know—this man who kidnapped me—wanted to marry me.
“All it needs is your signature, my darling,” he said. “And then it’s official. We’ll be man and wife. We can live down here, in my bunker I’m building for us.”
Bunker.
Jesus, this was getting worse by the minute.
Olson scrambled to his feet with excitement and gestured to the shelves.
“There’s plenty of food to eat. Warm blankets. I’m still ironing out a few kinks, like the shower system and sewage. But soon—very soon—we won’t have to bother with the outside world anymore.”
A knot tightened in my chest. I needed to stall for time. Ryker already knew I’d been taken. By now, Noah would have heard the news. They were smart, skilled, trained men and they would be looking for me.
Although, getting trapped in an underground bunker would make it infinitely harder to track me down, they wouldn’t give up. For years, I had been sandwiched between them, and I knew from personal first-hand experience that they were the most stubborn men I’d ever met.
So I scrambled for ways to keep Olson talking and distracted.
“Why?” I asked.
He frowned.
“Why what?”
“You said we won’t have to bother with the outside world anymore. Why?”
His eyes darkened and he turned away.
“Society,” he said. “It’s getting worse these days.
Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a good, obedient wife?
” His voice grew darker, menacing, spittle flecking his lips.
“They’re just unfaithful whores now. Nasty little sluts who sleep with all the men they want.
They have no idea what fucking loyalty means. ”
He was nearly shouting now. I recoiled, pushing back until I bumped against the wall.
Olson began pacing the length of the bunker, gesturing wildly.
“That’s why I had to save you. I had to rescue you and bring you here. To protect you and keep you safe.”
“Safe from what?” I prompted.
Olson stopped, with his back facing me.
“That biker,” he hissed. “The way he looks at you…the way he touches you…”
I pulled my knees up to my chest, sliding my arms around my middle protectively. Olson whirled around with fire in his eyes, jabbing a finger at me.
“And you—I know what you did with him. I know you invited him into your apartment. I know he stayed the night.”
Olson stepped closer, his voice trembling with barely contained fury. If he thought women were whores and sluts for sleeping around, I didn’t want to find out what he thought of me—pregnant out of wedlock by a man he loathed.
“You belong to me,” he spat. “I have to cleanse his influences from you first. One day, you’ll forget all about him and you’ll be very happy with me. I’ll prove it to you. Now eat.”
He nudged the bowl of soup closer to me. Wariness churned in my stomach.
Trust your gut, Noah and Ryker always said.
Well, my gut was screaming that I shouldn’t touch that soup if I wanted to get out of here alive. When I made no move to take the bowl, Olson grabbed it and shoved it in my face.
“I said, eat it—”
I turned my head aside and knocked the bowl away. It clattered to the floor, spilling steaming soup across the cement. Olson swore so loudly that it echoed off the bunker walls.
“Ungrateful bitch.”
I flinched and my shoulders tensed, braced for whatever came next. I bit my tongue until I tasted blood to prevent myself from crying.
“I’ve done all of this—everything—for you,” Olson ranted. “A little gratitude for my effort would be appreciated. That biker was a bad influence on you. He taught you things that an obedient wife would never do.”
I watched him pace back and forth, back and forth.
My teeth chattered from the cold and fear.
This man was unstable. Trying to predict his behavior or how he would react was impossible.
Anything could set him off. Judging by the hatred he had for Ryker, and his obsession with obedient wives, I had to keep my pregnancy hidden somehow.
Then Olson stopped and an eerie calm settled over him with a placid expression.
“I have to tie up loose ends. I have to kill him for attempting to ruin my future bride.”
Goosebumps rippled across my skin that had nothing to do with the frigid bunker, as cold as an ice box. It was like watching Olson flip a switch. Agitated and irate one moment, quiet and controlled the next.
Olson rushed to a work bench on my left and grabbed his knife, tucking it into his belt. Then he pulled a set of keys from his pocket, flipped through them, and unlocked the door.
“Wait,” I called with a jolt of panic. “Where are you going? You can’t leave me here alone!”
Ignoring me, he dragged the door open with a groan of metal hinges.
“Don’t worry, my darling. I’ll make that man pay for the things he did to you. No one will come between us again. I swear it. And when I get back, you can show me what a good wife you are by apologizing.”
I sputtered.
“Apologizing? For what?”
Olson’s eyes darkened.
“For thinking whore thoughts about that biker. Do you have any idea how close you came to becoming like the Jezebels and Delilahs of this world? You’re not unfaithful like them, Kelsie. That’s not you. I know you.”
He placed his hand over his heart with sincerity to punctuate his words.
If that was true—if he actually knew me as well as he claimed to—then he would have realized the hellfire that was about to rain down on his head for targeting me.
Olson pulled the door closed, and locked it with a thunderous boom.