“Kara is off-limits to them already. So is Karen. So are the children. What do you think they’ll do to you when they found out you killed me, and they have to go back to whatever they used to do to take care of themselves?
“My guess is that they probably won’t like you very much.”
“So all you want me to do is go to the back of the bunker with you a couple times a day?”
“Sorry, it’s not that simple.
“Parker told me that if I professed my love to one of his men that the other men would respect that and would back off willingly.”
“Yes. It’s part of a soldier’s honor. And we may be convicts, but we were all soldiers first.”
“Good. I want you to start going back to the back of the bunker with me two or three times a day. While we’re back there we can probably become friends. If not, then at least uneasy allies.
“Tomorrow I’ll start telling the others that I’ve fallen in love with you. That we want to be together.”
“And all I have to do is play along?”
“All you have to do is play along.”
He thought about it for a minute. He didn’t like the idea, but he had to admit she made sense.
It was just a matter of time before the others noticed he had no interest in her.
He was perhaps lucky they hadn’t noticed already.
“Okay,” he said. “Just understand that if you share my secret with anybody, I’ll kill you before they kill me.”
“Good. I’m going to go out there with the others. I want you to wait a couple of minutes and then come in and grab me by the arm.
“Drag me back to the back. Tell me what you’re going to do with me. Make it into a spectacle, so your friends remember it.”
Santos may have been a convicted felon and escaped inmate. He may have been part of a cruel gang of thugs who swept through towns and the countryside, taking what they wanted by force.
But in the end he was at least smart enough to know that Sarah held better cards than he did.
Their ruse worked. After they reentered the main part of the bunker half an hour later a couple of his friends actually high-fived him or slapped him on the back.
For the time being, he was still part of the boys’ club.
And Sarah, when she started telling the others she had fallen in love with Santos and he with her, would finally be safe from abuse once again.
Chapter 41
Sarah found Lindsey in the bunker’s tiny laundry room, scrubbing the men’s clothing.
“Honey, can I talk to you for a minute?”
“If it’ll keep me from having to wash these animals’ underwear, you can have all the time you want.”
“Hey, at least the underwear isn’t covered with blood. Yesterday I washed some jeans that had blood all over them. That struck me as odd until I remembered they belonged to one of the men who dragged the bodies of Jason, Jacob and Mason into the woods.
“I couldn’t help it. I vomited, knowing I was touching the dried blood that once ran through some good friends of mine.”
“I know, mom. I wish there was some way to escape.”
“Don’t even entertain that thought, honey. Right now we’re going through hell, but at least we’re still alive. The human spirit can survive anything. But we have to get through this with our family intact.
“I don’t want your father to come back with Beth just to find out we were shot trying to escape.”
“Mom, since you mentioned Dad… do they know yet that he’s coming back here?”
“No. And they can’t find out. If they know he’s coming back they’ll send people into the woods. They’ll ambush him as he drives up the road. He won’t have a chance, and neither will Beth. They’ll almost certainly kill her too.”
“Do you think there’s a way to warn him?”
“Not unless he calls in, and we can get to the radio to answer it before one of the thugs hears it. I’ve been trying to hang around the radio room as much as I can.
“You should do the same.”
“What do I do if he calls in and I’m close by?”
“If any of the thugs are around, don’t do anything. You’d give away that we know somebody on the outside.
“They’ll figure that anyone with access to a radio is a threat to them. They’ll likely torture you to find out who you were talking to.
“If there’s nobody around, grab the microphone and warn him. But keep it short. Tell him the bunker’s been taken over, just like Karen’s farm was.
“Then turn off the radio and get away from it before he can answer.”
“Why?”
“Because once you go into the radio room you can no longer see out the doorway. You have no way of knowing when one of the thugs will come walking down the hall and might hear your conversation.
“If they know he’s coming, or even suspect it, they’ll kill him for sure.
“Just letting him know we’ve been taken hostage will be enough. He’ll take it from there.”
“Okay. But I miss him so much. It’ll break my heart not to talk to him.”
“I know, honey. So do I. But there’s something else I need to talk to you about.”
“Okay. What is it?”
Sarah looked around to make sure no one was within earshot.
“Honey, this is very hard for me, so you’ll have to forgive me if I can’t get through it all at once. Okay?”
Lindsey took both of her mom’s hands and said, “Take your time. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Honey, you know that several of the men have been taking me to the back of the bunker and doing things to me. And making me do things to them.”
“I know, Mom. I cry myself to sleep every night thinking about what you’re going through.”
“I think I’ve found a way to put a stop to it.”
“What? Really? How?”
“I’ve made a deal with one of them. He has no sexual interest in me at all. He says I’m not his type and I believe him.
“But he has a secret he’s keeping that he’s desperate not to get out. I know his secret. So we made a deal.
“He and I are going to pretend we’re lovers.
“I will profess my love for him and he’ll profess his love for me.
“But it’s imperative when you hear me say I love him that you don’t freak out. That you don’t look shocked. That you don’t mention Dad.
“And most of all, that you don’t believe it.
“Because none of it’s true.”
Lindsey looked at her feet. She hated deceit and she hated being deceitful.
But this was for a good cause.
This would save her mother from being raped or sexually assaulted several times a day.
“You have my word, Mom. When you tell me you love him I will hug you and congratulate you and tell you how happy I am.
“Who is he?”
“Robert Santos.”
“Santos? The gay guy?”
Sarah was shocked.
“You know?”
“Mom, two of my best friends in high school were gay guys. They were partners. You remember them, they came to my birthday party.”
“They were gay?”
“You couldn’t tell?”
“No. I thought they were just friends.”
“Mom I love you and all, but you’re absolutely clueless sometimes.”
“Do you think any of the other men know that Santos is gay?”
“Duh… not if they’re anything like you.”
“I feel slightly dumb.”
“Ya think?”
“Shut up, you. Respect your mother.”
“I doubt if they know. They seem to treat him the same as everybody else. But if they do know, it still might not be an end to your crazy scheme.”
“How so?”
Lindsey laughed.
“Maybe they’ll think you’re trying to convert him.”
Chapter 42
&nbs
p; As it happened, Sarah spent a lot of time in the back of the bunker with Robert Santos.
And they became friends of sorts.
As a gay man, he wanted and expected nothing from her.
As a straight woman, that was fine with her.
So instead of doing what everyone thought they were doing in the back of the bunker, they played cards and talked.
She did, as she promised, kick his ass at poker.
“Tell me how you came to be in prison, Robert.”
“I had an addiction to gambling. I was stationed in Oklahoma, and they have a lot of casinos there.”
“I thought they only had casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.”
“You don’t get out much, do you Sarah?”
She smiled. “I guess not.”
“If you go into Oklahoma, they’re all over the place.
“Anyway, when I was stationed at Fort Sill I used to visit the casinos a lot on the weekends. And even though I almost always lost, I still walked in each time thinking I was going to win big and get all my money back.”
“You must have played poker there. Because you really suck at it.”
“Ha ha. No, poker wasn’t my thing. I spent all my money at the blackjack and craps tables.
“See, the way they get you is by making you think you can get your money back. You win a couple of hands and they cheer for you, they bring you free drinks, they tell you what a brilliant player you are.
“Then when you lose a few hands, they fall completely silent. Or they tell you the next hand is all yours.
“You don’t realize what they’re doing until after they sucker you in. They get you craving the attention as much as the money. And you keep on playing until you’ve lost every dollar you won.
“And then you keep on playing until you’ve lost every dollar you came in with.
“Then they tell you damn, you ran out of cash just as the luck started to turn in your favor.
“They tell you if you only had enough cash for a few more hands you’d certainly win it all back.
“Then they try to be helpful by reminding you there are a bunch of ATM machines over in the corner.
“I got so hooked I started taking leave to go to the casinos. I spent pretty much my whole paycheck, and couldn’t pay my bills. I started calling my mom and dad and asking them to send money.
“I swear, Sarah, I never lied to my mom and dad in my life until I got addicted to gambling. Then I made stuff up every time I called. I’d say my car broke down for the tenth time. Or somebody hacked into my bank account and cleaned me out. Or that I had a lot of cash on me and I got robbed. And a hundred other lies, whatever I thought they’d believe.
“I was an only child. My folks spoiled me rotten when I was growing up.
“But they were good parents too. If they’d known I had a gambling problem they’d have cut off the money immediately. But they didn’t know about addictions, and they’d never known anybody hooked on gambling. So they kept on buying into my crap and kept on sending me money.
“They were retired and on social security. They had a little nest egg set aside, but not that much. I didn’t know until later they were dipping into that nest egg to send me money.
“And honestly, I didn’t care where the money came from as long as it kept coming.
“Over the course of about three years I wiped out their entire nest egg.
“Just a few months after that my dad died of a heart attack.
“My mom couldn’t keep up with the mortgage and other bills. Not on her social security. I had to move her into a nursing home. They gave her sixty lousy bucks a month and took the rest of her social security check. Medicare paid the rest of her monthly rent.
“Sixty bucks a month. She bought her own soap and shampoo and got her hair done once a month at their salon and then her money was all gone for the month. What kind of crappy way is that to live?
“Once they were no longer able to give me money I started stealing. I figured if I went off post they’d never find out.
“I started shoplifting tools and electronics. Then I pawned them or sold them for half what they were worth.
“I’d take the money back to the casinos. I’d walk in telling myself, this is the day I win it all back and then some. This is the day I hit it big and get my mom out of that damn nursing home and into her own place again.
“I was spiraling downward faster and faster.
“Then one day a guy I was selling a stolen laptop to asked me if I’d ever sold drugs.
“I told him no. I’d never even done drugs, much less sold them.
“He said he was a dope dealer. And that he was looking for someone who could get onto Fort Sill to sell dope to the single soldiers in the dormitories.
“I told him no way.
“Then he said I could make twenty grand a week.
“I had this plan. Looking back it sounds like the worst plan in history, but when you’re addicted to something you don’t think clearly.”
He stopped long enough to take a sip of whiskey. Liquor seemed to loosen his tongue.
“Anyway, I figured if I made a hundred grand I could walk into the casino and go up to the sports book and just start betting on long odds.
“I’d find a game where the odds were twenty to one or better and put ten grand on the long shot.
“If that didn’t pay off I’d find another game like it and do it again.
“My thinking was that there are upsets all the time in college football. Surely one of those long shots would pay off and give me more seed money to do it again.
“I thought by the time the weekend was over, betting first on the college games and then on the pros, that I’d walk out of there with a million dollars or better.
“Mom’s house was still on the market and I had this big dream I was going to buy it back for her, for cash, and get her out of that damn nursing home.”
“Obviously your plan didn’t work out.”
“I never had a chance to try. The guy who claimed to be a drug dealer was actually CID… Criminal Intelligence Division. The Army’s version of the FBI.”
Chapter 43
Santos paused before going on. He was really struggling with what appeared to Sarah to be a long-delayed confession of his sins.
Finally he took a deep breath and continued.
“They set up this elaborate sting. The guy gave me ten little packages of dope in tiny zip-lock bags. Each one was no bigger than a postage stamp.
“They told me to go onto Fort Sill and to try to sell the dope in the dormitories for sixty bucks each. And that I got to keep half the cash.
“I knew a lot of guys and figured this was gonna be a piece of cake, you know?
“I didn’t know they were watching my every move. And the first ten guys I talked to were swept up and told to sign affidavits saying I was trying to sell them dope.
“Then they busted me for dealing.
“It turned out it wasn’t even dope. It was powdered sugar mixed with rock salt.
“I figured that since it wasn’t real dope, and that I never actually sold any, and that I was a first offender, I’d get off with maybe probation or something.
“Boy was I naïve. I didn’t realize that it was a big time felony. And that since Fort Sill is a military installation, it’s also a federal offense. See, they were smart. If they told me to peddle it to soldiers off post, I probably would have gotten probation.
“But they sent me on post on purpose. Then I was looking at ten to twenty years hard time.
“They screwed me big time.”
“Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, Robert. But you actually screwed yourself.”
“Yeah, I guess. Hey, can we talk about something else for awhile?”
“Sure. But first I have to tell you this. You made some bad mistakes. You did some stupid things. But that doesn’t make you a totally bad person.”
“Yes it does. I put so much stress on my dad he
had a heart attack. I put my mom in a damn nursing home. She died while I was in prison, and as far as I’m concerned I killed her too. I never had a chance to apologize to her. They wouldn’t even let me go to her damn funeral.”
“As I said, you’re not a bad person. You just made some very bad decisions. If your mom and dad were here now, they’d tell you they still love you and to stop beating yourself up over it. And you know I’m right. You just won’t admit it to yourself.”
“Again, Sarah, can we please talk about something else?”
She relented.
“How about we talk about somebody else?”
Santos looked at her and smiled.
“I was wondering when you were going to get around to it.”
“Around to what? I don’t understand.”
“I was wondering when you were going to get around to asking about Parker.”
She laughed, though she was just a tiny bit unnerved.
“Well I was taking about Parker. How did you know?”
“Because it’s obvious you’re fascinated by him. And maybe infatuated by him. I think you wish he’d chosen you instead of Kara so you could do the sex thing with him.”
Now she was flushed a bright red.
“Have sex with him? Infatuated by him? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Oh, I’m not, I assure you.
“You see, us gay guys are very keen when it comes to reading people. It comes from years of scanning crowds and reading faces, trying to determine who else in the crowd is also gay.
“After awhile we learn to read people pretty damn well. We notice things you aren’t even aware you’re doing.”
“Okay, I’ll play your silly game. Like what, for example?”
“Like quickly straightening your hair when you see him at the end of the hallway, headed your way. Like twirling your hair with your finger while you’re talking to him.
“Like laughing at damn near everything he says, even when it’s not funny.
“And like gazing into his eyes like a teenaged girl with her first crush.”
“Oh, stop it. You’re absolutely insane. I was just curious about him, that’s all. I asked about your story, and I’m sure as hell not infatuated by you.”
A Tearful Reunion Page 15