Chapter 40
Forty
“ I t’s so romantic, isn’t it? All the flower petals sprinkled around. Is this how your whore normally fucks you?” Abby forced her eyelids open, staring around in a complete state of confusion. She tried to stand up, but something held her in place. Blinking furiously to clear the fog in her vision, Abby’s stomach rolled at the sight of ropes bound tightly around her wrists.
Her gaze jumped around the room, until it landed on John. Oh no. He was tied up just like her, except he wasn’t in a chair. No. John was tied to their bed, his head lolling to the side. Bile forced its way up into her mouth and she fought with everything she had to stay still and silent. Laura was facing John, and she hadn’t noticed Abby was awake yet. She needed to use that to her advantage.
After a few more intentional blinks, the room stopped spinning. If John was in the room with her, where the hell was Katy? Why wasn’t she there too? Every ounce of her being was being torn in two, trying to think of a way to get to John and also make sure Katy was somewhere safe.
Saliva pooled in her mouth and tickled the back of her throat. Shit. She couldn’t stop the cough that shook her body.
“Ah, the sleeping princess is finally awake.”
“Laura. I don’t understand.” Her voice was hoarse, cracking from the dryness that had originally caused her to cough.
“I’m just returning the favor, Abby.”
Warm weight landed on his lap and pressed down into him. Abby must be trying to wake him up. She’d get no complaints from him, except maybe that his head was throbbing a bit. He fucking loved that she felt comfortable enough to initiate intimacy with him.
“You seem like a soft bitch, wanting all the warmth and romantic gestures. Of course, I can’t complain about the candles. Fire has always been a sort of addiction for me. It was thrilling getting to pull the alarm at Sal’s. Watching all those firefighters run in thinking they were going to be battling big flames. Instead they found poor, weak, doe-eyed Abby. I could have done some real damage if I had time to plan. It was all just too spur of the moment. I should have known you’d be like a cockroach. Fucking nuclear bomb proof. We’ll take care of that tonight. I stopped my knee-jerk reactions. This plan is Abby-escape proof. You won’t be able to ruin another family. I won’t let it happen.”
He didn’t recognize that voice. Were they watching something on TV before they went to bed?
“John, please wake up. Please. Don’t do this, Laura. You don’t have to do this!”
Laura? He instantly went on high alert. Why did Abby sound so panicked? John groaned with pleasure as she rolled her hips over his erection. Jesus, she felt so good. He needed to open his eyes and see her, but he was so fucking tired.
“Shut the fuck up, bitch. How do you think it felt to know that you were tearing my family apart, you whore? And every day I had to see your fucking ugly face and your disgusting scar on display… what the fuck did he see in you?”
“Who?” His skin crawled when he heard the tears in Abby’s voice.
“MY FUCKING HUSBAND! Knowing you seduced him and then, when it destroyed our family, you just got your happily ever after. Well, it will not happen. I’m going to have your man, and you can watch as he calls out to me in ecstasy. You can see how it feels to know your man found heaven inside some other woman’s pussy.”
“Laura, I don’t know what you think happened, but I don’t know your husband. I honestly didn’t even know if you were married. Honey’s dad has never come to school before, and I’ve only ever slept with one man. The one you are currently assaulting. Please stop before you go further. Please, I’m begging you. John doesn’t deserve this. Please!”
God, he hated hearing the tears in her voice, but nothing was making sense. He tried to reach out to her, but his arms didn’t move.
“Abby…”
“John. It’s not me. I’m so sorry. It’s not me, baby. Wake up! Please, John, wake up!”
“Shut the fuck up.” Abby’s weight lifted off his lap, and the mattress shifted as she moved away from him. “I should have known you’d need to be gagged.”
Her words washed over him and a sickening thought bounced through his mind. It wasn’t her voice.
It wasn’t her voice.
Holy shit. It wasn’t her voice.
John’s eyes finally opened, the room spinning as he tried to focus and make sense of the scene before him.
His stomach rolled as the panicked look on Abby’s face hit him square in the chest.
“I should have known you wouldn’t remember fucking my husband. I read the messages you sent him on that disgusting dating app. Your little innocent act was all there in black and white.”
“Dating app? N-No. I didn’t go out with anyone who was separated or divorced. The only man I went out with said he was single and never married before. You have to believe me, Laura.”
“The thing is, Abby, I really don’t. You’re a fucking lying bitch. He told me what you two did. How you asked him to pretend to be someone named ‘Luke’.”
Bile rose in the back of Abby’s throat as she swallowed thickly. Luke was a nightmare in more than the obvious way.
“Your husband drugged me! I-I was so sick. I didn’t go home with him. I spent the night with John.”
“He told me how it was a game you were playing. You wanted to role play with him. The innocent bitch fresh out of college. You asked him to go along with the disgusting idea that he’d spiked your drink so you could live out some fucking horrific fantasy. And then he brought you back to the home that we used to share as a family and you fucked him on MY bed!”
“He lied. Whatever he told you was a lie! Ask John. Just wait a few minutes until whatever you drugged us with wears off and ask him!”
“I don’t need to ask him. I’m sure he’d lie to protect you. As soon as he turned me down in the supply closet, I knew I’d have to take more drastic measures than just sleeping with your man.”
A shrill ringing cut through the air.
“Shit.” Laura reached into her pocket and took out her phone. She smiled at Abby as she walked to the door. “Don’t go anywhere.”
As soon as the door clicked shut behind Laura, Abby started frantically pulling at the restraints. The dry, frayed rope dug into her skin, but she wasn’t going to waste a single second. That was her chance to get free. To get to John.
She rubbed the rope back and forth over the square edge of the chair’s arms, praying that the frail nature of the rope would work in her favor. She didn’t focus on the pain, only on the promise of saving her family.
“Abby, stop. Your skin…”
“I can’t stop, John. She’s going to kill us, and I won’t let her take you from Katy. My…” She sucked in a sharp breath before biting down on her lip to stop the scream from bubbling through. “I have to do this. I can do this.”
“It should be me.”
She shook her head. He was weak from being drugged. John had taken a couple cookies with him. If he’d eaten them all, he got a much higher dose than she did. Her head hurt, but it was nothing compared to how disoriented she had felt when she was drugged at the bar.
“She drugged us, but I’m coming out of it. I can do this.” Abby let her mind drift back to the first date they went on. The night she became John’s. She didn’t focus on the fire burning through her skin. She didn’t pay attention to the tears streaming down her face or the ragged way she was breathing. Nothing else mattered except making sure John was there to see Katy grow up. She wouldn’t be the reason the two people she loved most in the whole world were lost to each other forever.
She rubbed the ropes back and forth on the edge of the chair as fast as she could. The fibers tore through her skin and the ropes turned wet from the blood seeping out of her wrists. That in turn burned her battered flesh more. Each second Laura was gone was a blessing, and she didn’t want to stop, even with the pain at an unbearable level. Something deep inside told her it was her only chance.
“Finally.” A sob of relief bubbled in her throat a few minutes later as the rope around her right wrist broke. There wasn’t time to stop. With her now freed arm, Abby went to work on her other restraints. It took longer than she wanted to get her other hand free, but once that was done, her legs took almost no time.
Jumping from the chair, she rushed towards the bed, ignoring the slight spin that whirled through her head.
“Abby. Let me see your wrists.”
“Not now,” she choked out. She’d have new scars, but it didn’t matter. Not if John got back to Katy. “Shit, these are tighter than mine were.”
Jumping from the bed, she pulled the drawer open in the nightstand. “Where is your pocket knife? It’s not in here…”
“I took it after I tied him up.” Laura’s laughter filled the room. “You really are full of surprises, you little bitch. Unfortunately for me, that phone call was filled with rather unpleasant news, which means we need to speed this along.”
Her hand flew at Abby, grabbing her head by a fistful of hair and dragging her away from John.
“Let her go!” he roared. Abby twisted and kicked with all her might as Laura hauled her back into the chair.
“Abby. Focus!” She could hear the pleading in his voice. The words snapped her mind back to their training. If they were going to make it out of this, she needed to stop running on emotions and focus on the task at hand. Incapacitate Laura, get John free, find Katy, and get the hell out of there.
As Laura crouched down to place the ties back around her tattered wrists, Abby looked up at John. His gaze never wavered. He nodded once and she didn’t hesitate. Throwing her entire body on top of Laura, she brought her fist down in a fury, cracking it directly into her nose. Blood poured everywhere as Laura screamed out in pain. Abby jumped up, ignoring the pain etched in her bones as she swiped the knife Laura had set on the dresser, and ran towards John.
A second later, her face slammed off the floor, the knife slipping from her fingers. She barely had enough time to turn to avoid breaking her own nose. Laura’s hand was firmly over her ankle, her nails digging into Abby’s skin. She kicked her free foot backwards without purchase.
Laura climbed up her body, her hands pushing punishingly into Abby’s body. She bucked and kicked as wildly as she could, but none of the moves John had practiced with her worked.
“You worthless, homewrecking, ugly ass bitch. You’re going to pay for breaking my no—” Abby rolled, so fucking sick of hearing that psychopath talk. Her leg hit the side table, a candle tipping it onto the floor next to the bed. Her heart stopped as flames licked up the sides of the table. The heat from the splashed wax scorched her face, and she screamed.
“John! We need to get out of here!!” She got to her feet and frantically began pulling at the rope that still had him tethered to the bed.
“I don’t fucking think so.” Laura flicked out the switchblade. “An accidental fire taking you out is just about the perfect cover for me.”
“You are sick, Laura. You need help. John is all Katy has! How can you want to take him from her?”
“You’re right. Too bad he can’t leave. He knows what I did. So he has to go too. I have to think about Honey. She can’t be without her mom.”
“AND KATY CAN’T BE WITHOUT HER DAD!” Abby screamed.
“She won’t be, bitch. She’ll go with the two of you. Your little family will stay together, which is a HELL of a lot more than you fucking deserve!”
“Where is she?! Give me the knife to cut him free. I will make him swear on Katy’s life to NEVER say anything about what happened here. The two of you can walk out of here after he gets Katy. It’s only me that needs to be hurt.”
Laura lunged at Abby, and in a split second she knew what to do. Her foot kicked out, catching Laura in the stomach. The knife sliced down towards her, but she managed to throw her body backwards out of the way of the blade. With Laura on the ground gasping for air, Abby picked up the knife and sliced through the bindings holding John in place.
“We have to go. We have to go now.” The heat from the fire was overwhelming. Flames licked up the curtains and crawled along the ceiling. Smoke burned her eyes and throat. She dropped the knife to cover her face. “You need to hold on to me. We need to get to Katy.”
“My damn leg is still numb.”
“Come on, just lean on me.”
Abby slipped her arm around John’s back. They shuffled towards the door, John seeming to get stronger with each step.
“No!!” Abby screamed as pain bloomed in her calf. She dropped to the floor, taking John with her. Laura pulled the knife from Abby’s leg, lunging again with the blade.
Abby twisted, using her uninjured leg to catch Laura in the chest. Movement from John stole her attention for a second before Laura lunged again, her foot stomping down on Abby’s injured leg as she stood above her.
Blinding pain shot through her body, her vision tunneling as a desperate scream clawed its way out of her throat. She wanted to move. She wanted to fight back. But the pain from Laura twisting her foot down into the stab wound was too much for her body to overcome. She raised her hand up, the knife lined up perfectly to end Abby’s life.
“You fucking bitch. You take everything from me. EVERYTHING! And then you think there will be no consequences? You’re going to rot right in He?—”
An unimaginably loud bang shattered the battle of their grunts and groans as a large red splotch bloomed across Laura’s chest. It was then that Abby realized John had been in the closet. His gun was still trained on Laura. Holy shit. Flames licked up the walls and the heat was unbearable.
Laura crumpled to the ground, right as Abby’s vision went black.
“Abby! Are you okay?” Shit. His body wouldn’t be able to keep up with this much longer. He’d gotten her down the hallway. A few more steps and they’d be at Katy’s room. He could do this. He could get his girls out.
Her legs gave out and she slipped from his numb hands.
“Shit! Baby. Here. Get up.” His body shook uncontrollably and he fell to the ground next to her. “Fuck!”
“Go…” Abby pushed her bloody hand to his chest and shoved him. He saw the toll it took on her. She was fading again in front of his eyes.
“No! I can carry you and Katy. I’m not leaving you?—”
“YOU DON’T HAVE A CHOICE! We’re all about to burn to death. I won’t let you and Katy die because of me! I love the both of you too much for that. You have to go.”
“I can’t leave you!”
“YOU HAVE TO!” She coughed and her eyes filled with tears. “You’ve saved me enough, John. Get our daughter out of here! Go!”
John’s heart fell out of his fucking chest and shattered into a million pieces.
Our daughter.
He knew what it meant to be a father. He’d give his life for his daughter a million times over just to keep her safe. He knew that being a deputy meant he might have to give his life to keep a stranger safe. But he never expected to be in a position where he had to leave behind the woman he loved, the woman his daughter saw as a mother, the woman who completed their family, to keep Katy safe.
“There is no choice, John. Get Katy. I’ll keep going. Call for help once she’s safe.”
Flames licked under the bedroom door, the carpet melting and catching. It would eat the hallway up in no time.
“I’m coming back for you.”
“I love you, Deputy Handsome.” She smiled weakly and he felt tears stinging his eyes.
“I love you too, baby.”
John forced his legs to move. To ignore the way Abby coughed and sputtered in the hallway as he made his way to his daughter’s room. He threw the door open, bile surging towards his mouth as his eyes landed on her still body. Every heartbeat felt like torture as he stumbled closer, waiting to see the rise and fall of her little chest.
Just as he was about to scoop her up, he heard her exhale. John pulled his baby into his chest and swore as his foot tripped over the carpet. His shoulder slammed into the door frame, keeping him upright. He looked over at Abby, her wide eyes staring up.
“Is she okay?” Abby cried.
He nodded.
“Get her out of here, John. Go,” she begged.
“I’ll be right back, I promise.” He choked on the tears trying to escape. He turned for the living room and focused all his energy on getting out to the front lawn.
Throwing the door open, John’s legs wobbled and shook as he threw himself out of the house.
“John!” How had he not heard the sirens? Two fire engines and a whole slew of law enforcement vehicles surrounded his house. He stumbled down the sidewalk, his body straining to keep his precious daughter in his arms.
Hank ran towards him. “Fuck. What the hell happened?”
“Abby’s still inside! The hallway to our bedroom! Help her!”
John’s right leg, still partially numb from whatever drugs Laura had laced the cookies with, collapsed under his weight.
“Fuck!” he yelled as he started to fall.
“Whoa.” Hank lunged and grabbed Katy from him. Thankfully, he landed on his side, rolling a half turn until he was looking up at the sky.
“Katy… ambulance,” he wheezed. Hank took off running.
John forced his gaze towards his front door.
Come on. Come on, guys. Get her out. Get her out in time, please.
A firefighter walked out of the front door, arms empty, and John felt tears running down his face. She’d trusted him to save her.
Just one last time.
All they needed was one last time .