Chapter 31
CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE
Sawyer
The dark threatens to pull me under. I wake, my eyes darting around, trying to remember where I am.
Where I stupidly fell asleep. I have been on the run for three days, out in the middle of nowhere, and I closed my eyes for a few seconds.
I don’t know how long I was out, but I have to keep moving.
They probably think I’m dead. When I jumped, I literally jumped for my life.
The water should’ve killed me at this temperature, but there’s something inside of me that has a will to live that confounds even me.
My brother. My mom. They keep me going. Seeing them again is all I live for, all I want.
To tell them I’m sorry, that I never meant to hurt them, that I should’ve known better.
I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I was a kid.
I didn’t understand the word grooming, or that I’d be trapped in this hell hole for more than ten years. And then my time came: to live or die.
After the years of repeated drugging and abuse, I sometimes wish I were dead.
Somehow, I made it through. I kept the parts of me that were good locked away where nobody could find them.
Nobody could have that part of me because that was for my people, and my people only.
And if I didn’t see Mom and Joel again, I would take it to my grave.
But I have to keep moving. If they find me, I’m dead, for real this time.
That’s what they do with you when you’re no longer useful or making money. This is what I am now; a shell of my former self, my childhood stolen because of one mistake. But I can’t think about that now. All I can think about is getting away.
I glance around, I’m in the middle of the woods, up ahead I’m sure I hear something… Squinting through the darkness, I hear the faint rumble of a truck.
Holy shit. I’ve almost made it.
I scramble to my feet, tripping over because I’m not steady. I land on my hands and knees, but I tell myself to get up. Get the fuck up now!
All the hope I have left inside me surges me on and I climb back to my feet. Freezing. Tired. The clothes on my back are sodden and filthy, but I’m alive. I scramble through the scrub, desperate now.
I must be near the highway. I’ve nearly made it. I see lights. I’m not gonna make it… I have to make it. I can’t go back there. I will never go back there. Moving faster, I use any ounce of energy I have left inside me and I scramble up the embankment.
It would be ironic if I jumped out onto the road and the truck fucking hit me. What a way to go after all of this. Right now, I can taste freedom.
I glance behind me, not because I think anyone is there, but out of habit.
There is no one coming, asshat, so move it!
I climb, my hands grappling at the muddy ground as I haul myself up.
And then I’m on the road, waving my hands as the lights get closer.
I hear the truck sound its horn and the gears begin to slow.
I have no idea where I am. I don’t stop calling out and waving until I know the truck is coming to a standstill. I stagger to the front of the huge hauler, and the driver opens the door. He jumps out.
“Holy shit kid…” he trails off when he sees me. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
I wave a hand. “I’m unarmed. Please, please, help me.”
“Are you hurt?” he asks. Thank fuck for truckers.
I think how to answer that… emotionally? Oh, I’m damaged goods. Physically, well the scars will heal. They always do.
“I’m… I’m… I wanna go home.” But do I? Where the fuck is home now, it’s been more than ten years.
He races back to the cab, then returns with a blanket and wraps it around me. “I’ll get you to a hospital. Jesus, kid.”
“T-thirsty,” I tell him. Two days without food or water. I’m malnourished as it is and my body feels weak, but it didn’t fail me.
He disappears again then brings back a bottle of water. He hands it to me and I chug it down, spilling it down my chin.
“What happened to you?” he asks, standing back to assess me. I’ve no doubt I look like something out of a horror movie.
“I was trafficked,” I tell him, not holding back. “I escaped two days ago. They probably think I’m dead and aren’t looking for me, but please don’t leave me here.”
“Not gonna leave you,” he says. “Let me help you into the cab, I’ll find help.”
And he does. A stranger in the night saves my life and I never even got his name.
I wake with a start, Pipes nudging me in the ribs. “You okay, bro?”
“Fuck,” I mutter. “I-I was dreamin’.”
“Uh, most people do. Sounded like you were bein’ chased by a bear.” He frowns, then glances at me. “Was it about… that place?”
I scrub a hand over my face. “It doesn’t matter.”
We’ve been staking out Regi’s place. The son of a bitch still thinks the deal went ahead because I only just tore out Barry’s heart.
Having Forest’s phone was helpful in more ways than one.
I traced one of the photos he sent a few days ago to a nice, modern apartment in the downtown area.
His home. Right now he’s just finished playing poker because that’s how much he gives a shit about what happened tonight.
He thinks everything is gonna be okay, but it’s not.
My phone buzzes and it’s Cash. “You want this done, we do it now,” he says.
Just when I thought this was all gonna be over, Regi slipped up. He trusted too many people in a very small pond. And now I get to kill him.
When I think back to how we even got here, it amazes me.
I’ve come so far, but I’ve never given myself a breather.
And maybe this is why. I don’t know if it’s because of the images I’ve seen in the last few hours— haunting my every waking moment—finally realizing that this was the man in charge of my kidnapping.
I’d never forget a face like that, even if he did change his name several times. This is just the cherry on the cake.
“I’m ready.”
“We’re in, and we’re out, make it quick. We wanna make it look like an accident. Tag and Harlem will take his bodyguards.”
“Roger.”
He hangs up.
I’m prepared for all of it, and it surprises me.
I don’t bat an eyelid when the boys take the two big men down.
I don’t remember hauling the man responsible for my pain up to his apartment.
Sucker punching him in the throat to shut him up.
I don’t remember telling him my name, and what he was responsible for, but I do remember him penning a note.
I remember that vividly. As much as I recall him flying off the balcony, finally meeting his maker.
We leave a string of pills, several of which he took before he flew, to corroborate the story. And then we leave. Me and my brother.
We’re silent on the way down the elevator, masks on, just in case. I’ll erase any and all footage as soon as I get back, but one can’t be too careful.
“Feel better?” Pipes asks as I meet his eyes in the mirrored doors.
“Much.”
“For a mafia guy, he was pretty lame.”
“Son of a bitch trusted too many people, that was his downfall in the end.”
His face when I told him what we’d done, what we’d keep doing.
Before I killed him, he drained his bank accounts — I mean I could’ve done it myself, but it was easy with a gun held to his head.
I distributed it accordingly to all of the charities I know to be legit, including several humane societies and a tech company who need funding for better security systems to catch predators.
He didn’t know I knew about the offshore account. That money will come in handy to help hundreds, if not thousands of other people when I set up a refuge for trafficking victims. Regi’s funds won’t go to waste, of that he can be certain.
“Wish we could’ve taken our time,” Pipes grumbles. “Son of a bitch had it comin’.”
“I agree, but suicide is easier, and less explainable on our part. The bodyguards will be fish food, but nobody’s gonna miss them.
Tag’s gonna disassemble the van and use it for parts.
” It kinda sucks we have to leave his luxury cars in the garage to not arouse suspicions, but we did take his Lamborghini for safe keeping, as well as several expensive pieces of jewelry and ten thousand dollars in cash from his safe.
Everything was made to look like he’d cleared his schedule before diving off the balcony.
“But you, are you okay?”
I grip his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “I have my family, all of you, so I’m always gonna be okay.”
He nods. “Let’s go home.”
“Home,” I say, and for the first time in a long time, I actually feel it’s true.
Nova
When I woke up and Sawyer wasn’t there, I panicked. Then I saw the note on the side table.
It read: I’ll be coming home soon, wait for me. I’ll be okay. Yours, Sawyer x
I know that means something happened because he’d never get up in the middle of the night and just leave me.
I dampen down the panic as I check the clock. It’s almost four am. I get up to go pee and splash water on my face. It’s hot in here, and I don’t want to go anywhere until Sawyer gets back. I need him to be okay.
He’ll be back. He said so. Sawyer wouldn’t say that if it weren’t true.
I also know life is full of risks, and sometimes things happen.
Bad things. If anything happens to him, I will personally see to it that whoever hurt him will suffer.
I’m not against vigilante justice. I stood by him willingly when he told me this may not be over, and I understand.
Sawyer does need closure. He needs to finally put the past behind him, and I don’t see how he can do that when his captors and the people who hurt him are still at large.
His heart is so heavy, so bruised, and I love him all the more for it.
I wish I could take the demons away, make them all suffer.
My phone pings with a message and I run back to the bed, grabbing my cell off the side table.
My heart races in my chest when I see that it’s Sawyer.
Sawyer
It’s done
I close my eyes, letting the sudden rush of peace wash over me. I know how disappointed he was last night, but I also knew how determined he was. If anyone can find this asshole, it’s him.
Me
I’m waiting for you. Like a good ol’ lady
I smile to myself, sitting back on the bed as I pull the comforter over me.
My panic subsiding as I take in what this means.
I hope that it’ll give him some closure, and at best, put his mind at ease.
I know it can never take away what happened, but the burden of all of it had to have been heavy all these years.
Sawyer
I love you
Me
Not as much as I love you. Hurry back because I need to cuddle
I snuggle back under the covers knowing nothing can come between us. Not after this. Even if he’d have taken weeks, months, years, I would’ve supported him no matter what.
Sawyer
Sweetest words I’ve ever heard