His Taste Box Set: The Pine Grove Complete Collection

by Hamel, B. B.

  I know now. I learned a lot these last two weeks. I’ve figured it all out.

  But here I am, stuck in a cage again.

  I knew going in that store was wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself. At least I got a little something to eat, but still, I’m stuck in a cage and I’m afraid I’ll never get out.

  I don’t know if I can trust that policeman. I don’t know if Rhett is telling me the truth.

  But he’s the first man I’ve met that made me want to trust him. Most men are dangerous, but Rhett…

  Well, he’s dangerous too. But he’s also handsome, really handsome, and his smile makes my stomach do flips, and his arms make me want to reach out and touch them.

  It’s stupid and I know I should be afraid. I should probably try and run, or maybe tell someone else the truth.

  Instead, I want to trust him. I want him to be true to his word. For once in my life, I want someone to actually try and take care of me.

  So I stay in that cage. It’s dark, but not too dark. I’m good at passing time in my head, humming songs to myself, closing my eyes, trying to sleep.

  I wake with a start when the lights come on suddenly.

  The door to the hallway opens. I sit up as Rhett stalks into the room, looking tired, but he perks up when he sees me.

  “There she is,” he says, grinning. “Did you get some sleep?”

  I nod once, watching him warily.

  “Good,” he says, and leans up against the prison bars. “Did you think about my offer?”

  “I know what you want,” I say, my voice almost a whisper. “But you should know that I’m… inexperienced.”

  He stares at me and barks a short little laugh. “That’s great.”

  “Great?” I arch an eyebrow.

  “Listen, you have plenty to learn, and I have plenty to teach you. But that’s not all I care about, you know.”

  I stare at him. “Why else make that offer?”

  He shrugs. “Because I’m generous.”

  It’s my turn to laugh. “I don’t think so.”

  “Okay, fine. So, what will it be?”

  “I’ll come with you.” The words tumble from my mouth and part of me wishes I could scoop them back up. Going with him is a mistake and I know it, deep down in my core.

  Maybe most people aren’t demons or angels, but I think Rhett is one or the other. I just can’t tell which one yet.

  His eyes sparkle as he smiles at me. “That’s good enough,” he says, and slides a key into the cell lock. “Come on then. Let’s get you home.”

  He unlocks the door and I step out into the hall tentatively. He grins at me and gestures for me to follow.

  “Wait,” I say, hesitating.

  He looks back at me, eyebrow raised. “Now’s your chance,” he says softly.

  I bite my lip, not sure what to do. If I follow him, I’m trading one kind of prison for another…

  But looking into his handsome face, into his gorgeous eyes, I think maybe, just maybe, some prisons are better than others. And if I have to choose, I’ll choose something that might actually…

  Oh, god. Something that might actually feel good.

  I think I’m sick. Maybe I really am broken.

  But I nod once, and he smiles brightly.

  “Right this way, miss,” he says, opening the door.

  I follow him back through the station. Nobody glances in our direction. He moves purposefully, nodding at people in welcome, a smile on his lips. I follow closely, heart beating fast, praying that nobody stops us.

  “Chief!”

  A man steps around a desk. He’s young, slightly shorter than Rhett, with dark hair and dark eyes. He’s handsome too, though in a different way, more wild looking.

  “Detective Evans,” Rhett says to the man. “You have something for me?”

  The detective looks in my direction but turns back to Rhett.

  “Couple sets of prints,” he says. “Lab’s running them now.”

  “Fibers? Hairs?”

  He nods. “Some of both, but it’s a store. There’s a lot of stuff in there. We won’t know if anything’s worthwhile just yet.”

  “Good. Keep me updated. We need to get this thing solved fast.”

  The detective nods and I feel his dark eyes turn to me. We walk past, hurrying away from him, and I swear he stares at me the whole time.

  We finally make it outside. Rhett leads me to a police cruiser, and he opens the back door for me. He smiles when I don’t hesitate to get inside.

  He drives away from the station. We head out of town, not talking as the buildings turn back into trees.

  The house is about twenty minutes outside of town down a long, gravel road, tucked behind maybe a couple acres’ worth of forest. It’s in the middle of nowhere on the side of a hill, made from long wooden slats with huge windows along the front.

  It’s a pretty house and I can’t help but stare at it. “You live here?” I ask.

  He nods and turns the engine off. “I like the privacy.”

  I bite my lip. “Any neighbors?”

  He grins at me and cocks his head. “What do you think?”

  He gets out and opens the door for me again. I follow him up to the house, climbing some steps and walking across a short deck. We step inside and I can’t help but look around. It’s relatively neat, with pictures on the wall, some deer heads mounted above the fireplace, and some guns hung crosswise between them.

  It’s a typical hunting lodge type vibe. I don’t get that feeling from him at all, but he seems totally at ease in the space, so it must really be his.

  I linger awkwardly. He takes off his utility belt and lays it down on a table before turning to me.

  “Welcome home,” he says.

  “It’s… nice.”

  He laughs a little. “Well, you won’t be staying up here, of course.”

  I feel a little spike of anxiety. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I can’t just let you wander around.”

  “I promise, I won’t—”

  He laughs and steps toward me suddenly. I’m surprised and stumble backwards, running up against the wall behind me.

  My heart’s beating fast as he gets close. I don’t know what this man wants, why he’s getting so close, but…

  There’s something about him. Something in his eyes. Something in the way he moves.

  I can’t help myself.

  “I don’t trust you yet,” he says softly. “You think I can just leave you? I know you’ll just disappear the first chance you get.”

  “I won’t, I don’t—”

  He steps closer, taking one wrist. I gasp and he lifts it up above my head, standing close to me. His fingers grab my other wrist and keep it pinned down at my side.

  “Enough,” he says, breath hot on my neck. “You’re going to follow my rules, little Emma. You made a promise, and now you’re going to follow through with it.”

  “I didn’t promise,” I say defiantly.

  I expect him to hit me. Every time I’ve talked back to my father, he slapped me. I’ve been slapped so many times I’ve lost count.

  But he doesn’t. He just tightens his grip on the wrist above my head and brushes his lips against my neck.

  “You did promise, little Emma,” he whispers. “You’re staying here. And in exchange, I’m keeping you out of prison. Don’t forget that.”

  I glare at him as he releases my wrists. I’m breathing fast and staring at him, and some crazy part of me wants him to take my wrists again, to pin them both above my head, to kiss my lips hard enough to hurt just a little bit.

  “Come,” he says, turning away from me.

  I follow him after a second. He leads me through the house and into the hall. There’s a big door there with a lock on the outside. He opens it and flicks on a light.

  Stairs lead down into a basement…

  “Go ahead,” he says gently. “It’s not scary. I promise.”

  I start down the steps. They�
�re carpeted and don’t make a sound as I descend.

  I expect cold concrete floors, cinderblock walls, maybe even chains.

  Instead, it’s entirely finished. The walls are white, but there are pictures on them. There’s a couch, a television, and even a little kitchen area toward the back. There’s another door off to the left.

  He follows me down. “Kitchen, living room, and there’s a bedroom back there.” He points at the far door. “Bathroom’s through there.”

  “It’s… an apartment.”

  He nods. “Yep. I had this built a while back, when I thought…” He trails off. “Anyway, here it is, all yours for now.”

  I can’t help myself. I let out a little laugh. “Does… it all work?”

  He cocks his head, making a face at me. “Of course it works.”

  “I mean, I get my own TV?”

  He laughs gently. “You sure do.”

  I laugh along with him, feeling genuinely excited for the first time in a long time.

  My parents didn’t let me watch much TV. We had one in the house, but it mostly played Fox News or the bible channel. I never had my own TV, never had my own anything.

  And now here I am, in my own little apartment. I can use this stuff as much as I want while I’m down here.

  I know it’s a prison. It’s a comfortable prison. But it’s also like a paradise.

  “Go ahead and get settled,” he says. “I have to go back to the station, but I won’t be late.”

  I look back at him. “I can just… stay here?”

  He grins. “That’s the deal. There’s some food in the refrigerator and some in the pantry. I’ll bring more when I have time later, but you should be fine for now.” He cocks his head, watching me closely. “Do you need anything else?”

  I shake my head. “No. This is good.”

  “Okay then. Door up there will be locked. You can try and break it down if you want, but you’ll just hurt yourself. There’s no other way up, no windows, nothing like that. I’ll check back on you later.” He turns and heads toward the stairs.

  “Wait,” I say. “You’re not… leaving me down here for a while, right?”

  “I promise I’ll be back soon,” he says. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t leave you alone for long.”

  I nod at him and I’m not sure if that makes me feel any better or not.

  He turns and leaves. I hear his steps softly on the stairs. The door shuts upstairs, and I hear the lock slam shut.

  I look around my new apartment. It’s my prison, my cage, but… it’s a comfortable prison. It’s the nicest damn place I’ve ever lived in my whole life.

  My parents can’t hurt me down here. They can’t beat me, scream at me, try and exorcise the demons from my body. Maybe I’m at the mercy of Rhett, but at least I have a couch and a kitchen and a bed.

  Maybe this won’t be so bad. I’ll stay until it all blows over, and then…

  Well, I don’t know what happens next. I don’t know how long I have to stay down here.

  I just hope he doesn’t leave me alone for long.

  4

  Rhett

  The Fast Fresh is still crawling with people when I arrive not long after leaving Emma.

  My mind’s still down in that apartment with her. I wonder if she’s afraid, if she’s comfortable, if she’s too cold. I hope there’s enough food for her. I bet she hasn’t had a decent meal in a while.

  Hell, I’ll cook for her later.

  I step under the police tape and start looking at the scene. It’s much like I remember from the night before. Blood on the floor from a struggle, footprints from someone stepping in it. At least the body’s gone now.

  Evans looks up as I step into the room. He must’ve stopped back at the department to change clothes. Of course he’s spending all his time at the scene. The guy’s a good detective.

  That could be a problem.

  “Chief,” he says.

  “Detective.”

  He’s looking down where the body was, crouching on his toes, leaning forward.

  “Something I don’t get,” he says.

  “Yeah?”

  “How’d he get so far?”

  I cock my head. “What do you mean?”

  “They fought back there,” he says, pointing toward the back hall. “My bet is, as he was closing up, the killer broke in and scared him. They struggled, and somehow he ended up all the way in here.” He pauses and looks up at me. “How?”

  I shrug. “Fuck if I know.”

  He sighs and stands up, stretching. “You responded last night, right?”

  I nod. “Yep.”

  “What’d you see?”

  “Nothing,” I say. “It was dark, nobody around. Saw the blood, the body, that’s it.”

  He grunts. “How come you didn’t stay on the scene?”

  I was waiting for that question. He was patient, walking me into it a little bit before asking, but I knew he couldn’t resist it.

  “I had something to take care of,” I say. “When the other units responded, I took off.”

  He frowns. “What was more important than a murder scene?”

  “Don’t you worry about that,” I say softly, staring at him. “Just you worry about this scene.”

  He stares back at me. His face is hard, but I can tell he’s confused. He wants a straight answer out of me, hell, he expected one. But he didn’t get one, because I don’t have a fucking excuse.

  Here’s the thing about being the police chief. You can get away with a lot… but there’s also a lot of scrutiny. Someone like Evans, he could make some problems for me if he really wanted to. I don’t think he has a reason to dig too hard, but you never know.

  He’s a good detective, after all.

  I show my face and walk around the scene, making nice with the troopers, asking questions. As far as I can tell, nobody knows the girl was here, and that’s exactly the way I like it.

  Based on what I’m seeing, I think Emma is probably telling the truth. Evans is right to wonder how they ended up so far into the building, and my guess is that the victim put up a serious fight.

  No fucking way Emma could’ve stood her ground against him. She’s small, maybe five foot five at most. He would’ve overpowered her easily.

  So that leaves her claim about another man running from the scene.

  Goddamn. She really might be an innocent bystander. I really might be keeping her safe from all this after all…

  After a few hours, I head back to my office and start on the paperwork. The thing about being a cop is there’s more paperwork than you’d ever expect. Most of my time is spent in front of the computer, typing shit up.

  I don’t stay long though. I can’t wait to get back to the house and see Emma. I’m not sure why, I don’t know the girl, and I don’t plan on fucking her just yet. I don’t plan on doing anything to her just yet.

  But I am curious about her. The way she reacted to the apartment was interesting. She’s clearly some type of drifter, running from some shit, and now I want to know what she’s running from. I want to actually know about her.

  Strange. I’ve never felt this way before.

  I finish up and head back. The house is waiting for me, quiet and dark. I turn on some lights and head into the kitchen, grabbing a glass of whiskey for myself before putting some water on to boil.

  I cook her dinner. I’m not a great cook, but I can make a half decent quick pasta sauce. I have some ground turkey, so I add that in there, and when I’m finished about an hour later, it smells pretty damn good.

  I unlock the door and head downstairs. I find her sitting on the couch, knees up to her chest, staring at the TV.

  She looks over her shoulder at me as I bring down the food. She jumps to her feet, staring at me like a wild animal.

  “I’m home,” I say. I put the bowl of pasta down on the table along with a fork, a spoon, and a napkin. “And I made some dinner.”

  She stares at the bowl, hunger in her eyes. Sh
e takes a step closer.

  “For me?”

  I nod. “Go ahead.”

  “You’re not eating?”

  “I’ll eat upstairs.”

  She looks a little disappointed. I smirk at that. She wants me to stay down here with her.

  “Okay,” she says.

  “Go ahead, sit down.”

  She walks over and slowly sits. She hesitates before taking a fork and digging in. She’s clearly still hungry, and I guess whatever I had in the pantry wasn’t enough after all.

  She digs in and looks up at me.

  “It’s good,” she says.

  “Good,” I answer, grinning. I hesitate there for a second before heading back to the stairs.

  “Wait,” she says. “You don’t have to go.”

  “I know,” I say softly. “I’ll be back. I have some clothes for you.”

  “Clothes?” Her eyebrows go up.

  “I grabbed some from the evidence room,” I say, laughing. “They won’t miss it.”

  “Are they… clean?”

  I nod. “They’re clean. I promise.”

  She bites her lip. “Okay. I’ll be here.”

  “I know you will.”

  I hurry upstairs, heart beating fast. Leaving her is hard, which is strange. I’ve never been attached before. I’ve never cared before.

  I shut the door and lock it. I head into the kitchen and sip my whiskey, picking at some of the pasta I left for myself.

  This girl is interesting. She’s naïve and inexperienced and I have no clue what she’s thinking. I mean, she’s being held captive in some strange man’s basement and yet she’s acting like it’s normal.

  God damn, it’s exciting, though. I think she might actually like it here. I think I can teach her to like it, at least, slowly but surely.

  A smile spreads across my face.

  Yeah, she’ll learn to love it. Because we never once agreed on when she would leave, and as far as I’m concerned, she’ll be here for as long as I want her.

  5

  Emma