by Dana Mason
“I don’t have time for this shit,” he said, his breath coming in pants and water dripping from every part of him. He threw her to the floor, and she arched up as her head hit the side of the boat, but before she could move, he flipped her onto her stomach and yanked both her hands behind her back. She had to twist to keep her arm from snapping.
She didn’t stand a chance against him. He was so strong, so damn big. She felt like a mouse fighting off an angry lion. He tied the same scratchy rope around her wrists again, but tighter this time. It pinched as he tightened the rope, forcing her to cry out.
He threw a fist into her back and knocked the air from her lungs. Bailey gasped, and, with a stark realization, she began to sob. He was going to kill her. His roughness was proof of that. He had no concern for her whatsoever. When he grabbed her legs, he twisted her so her face pressed into the floor of the boat. He pulled again, forcing her body into a stretch, then began tying ropes around her ankles. When she released another quiet sob, he squeezed her ankles together tighter.
“Shut up,” he said, but his voice was different and he was panting heavily There was something wrong with him. She didn’t know what, but he wasn’t right. He was on something, and it wasn’t just adrenaline or from the exertion of their fight.
He knotted the rope around her ankles and left her there, facedown, her head wedged against the base of the driver’s seat and the paneling along the interior of the boat.
Bailey couldn’t move. He left her in that awkward position, her body arched and her feet hanging from ropes. Then he grabbed her hands again and tugged. She felt the ropes being tousled around and pulled tight again. She tugged on her feet, then on her hands, trying to roll into the fetal position, but the rope only became tighter. Jesus, God! He’d tied both her feet and hands to anchor hooks on the boat deck, leaving her tethered like a caught fish.
Seconds later, he threw the blue tarp back over her. Her hands and especially her feet were going numb, and all she could do was pray to God they reached their destination. She didn’t know how long she could stay in this position or how much more she could take.
This thought made her tears start up again. What had happened to him? This wasn’t the Dex she’d known and loved.
When the boat slowed, Bailey tried not to panic. She was so hot; sweat dripped from every part of her. The day was easily nearing a hundred degrees, and being covered by a heavy tarp while under the sun made her dizzy and sick to her stomach. The boat movement and the speed at which he drove didn’t help either. He didn’t slow for rough waters, making it feel like she was being tossed around on concrete.
His speed decreased even further, and she prayed he was stopping soon. She felt the maneuvering and then the bump on the starboard side as they came upon what must have been a dock. Bailey couldn’t hear anything except for Dex’s movement around deck and the tiny splashes of water lapping against the side of the boat.
A moment later, the tarp was lifted off her, and she gasped for breath. Dex quickly untethered her from the anchor hooks and threw the tarp around her, tucking her inside.
“What are you doing?” Her breathing increased as she realized he was trying to wrap her in the tarp. “Dex, I won’t be able to breathe.”
He grabbed a fist full of her hair and tugged, so they were face to face. “Shut the fuck up and let me do this. The longer it takes to get you out of this boat, the longer you’ll be suffocating in the tarp.”
He haphazardly wrapped the tarp around her body on the floor of the boat. The heat and lack of air made it unbearable, but the more she struggled, the rougher he was with her.
“If you as much as squeak, I’ll knock you unconscious.” As he said this, he threw her and the tarp over his shoulder.
Bailey tried to stretch and work out the kinks from laying in an awkward position for so long, but Dex held her tightly.
She followed his commands and didn’t speak, and really, there was no point. The dock had only one other boat tied to it, and that was an old aluminum fishing boat. Before he’d covered her eyes, she tried looking around for help, but they were in the middle of nowhere. She couldn’t even be sure which side of the lake she was on since she didn’t see where he’d left from or which direction he’d navigated the boat.
Bailey couldn’t breathe. It was stifling inside the tarp. Dex carried her like that for a few minutes and then up a few steps before tossing her down onto what felt like a bed. She was no longer outside, or at least, not out in the sun. She twisted in an effort to unwrap herself. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her feet were bound together tightly. She thought she might be in some kind of trailer or something like that. Everything shifted when he walked, so it wasn’t stable enough to be a house. Finally, she was able to wiggle enough to get her head out of one end.
She scanned her dark surroundings and realized she was right; it was a small camping trailer. A very dirty and…oh, God, the smell was awful. Mold and dead animal. She gagged a little, then tried breathing through her mouth. But when she heard raised voices, she stilled, hoping someone else was out there. Yes. Two voices. Someone else was outside.
“Help! Please, help me! I’ve been abducted! I need help! Please!”
A second later, the door was thrown open and heavy footsteps approached. Dex stormed into the room, fists flying. Bailey buried her head in the disgusting mattress beneath her and tried to curl up. He didn’t aim at anything in particular, just threw punches, hitting her arms, her back, and the final two blows to the back of her head.
Each punch stole her breath, and with each blow, Dex muttered obscenities at her. “You bitch. You will not ruin my life, you fucking nosy bitch. I’ll kill you myself if you don’t keep your mouth shut.”
“Hey, hey, you don’t need to do all that. She’s just a little thing. She’s not going anywhere.” The voice sounded odd, like the man speaking was missing several teeth.
Bailey felt the shift. The entire rig leaned as Dex moved away from her. Then she heard another thud.
“Hey, damn it!” Feet scuffled along the floor, and the stranger said, “All right, lemme go. Lemme go!”
The rig shifted again, and she felt everything vibrate as something hard hit the floor. “If you want your money, keep your fucking mouth shut and do what I’ve told you to do,” Dex said breathlessly.
“All I was say— Hey, no, man. We have a deal. All I meant was, you don’t need to damage her.”
“What difference does it make?” Dex said, and the words sank into Bailey’s muddled thoughts, making her even sicker.
“You said I could do what I wanted, right?” Snaggletooth must have smiled when he said it. Bailey got a hint of joy out of his words.
“No. I said you have to get rid of her. There’s no negotiating that. I want her dead by this time tomorrow. If this bitch surfaces, I’m coming for you next. Got it?” She heard a slight slapping noise when he said it. “I need this bitch to disappear for good. She has the potential to ruin my entire life.”
Bailey sobbed silently and said, “Dex, don’t do this.”
The trailer shifted again, and Dex pounded toward her, smacking her open-handed several times. “I told you to shut the fuck up.” He hit her again. “All you had to do was stop looking. All you had to do was mind your own business and stop the freaking search for your family. But no.” He reached down and snatched her up by her hair. “You wouldn’t listen to me when I told you to stop. But I can’t let you do it any longer. There’s no fucking way you’re handing over any DNA to the FBI on Monday.”
Bailey closed her eyes. She heard every word he’d said, but the pain from his abuse was blurring the edges of her consciousness. She opened her eyes again to meet his and mumbled, “I don’t understand.”
He laughed at her, but she couldn’t find the humor. “Remember that talk we had about consequences?” he said, pulling her hair tighter. She gave a slight nod, unable to so much as grimace. “Well, now you’re living your consequences. You’ll
never find your father, and that fucker will never find you.”
“What?” she asked. Completely confused.
“I have too much riding on this, too much to lose, and I refuse to be the loser after putting up with all his bullshit over the years. I will see my payday even if it means getting rid of you first.”
Bailey flinched when Dex pulled back his fist to hit her again, but he didn’t follow through. He only laughed at her and pushed her back down onto the bed before turning back toward Snaggletooth.
As he walked away, he pulled a roll of wet bills out of his front pocket and handed them over to a pair of dirty, aged hands. “That’s half. You get the rest when it’s done.” He glanced back at Bailey then said, “Within the next couple of days, she’s going to be all over the news as a missing person. That gives you only about twenty-four hours to take care of business.”
“If you’re so set on seeing her dead, why don’t you do it yourself?” Snaggletooth scoffed. “I ain’t wantin’ to do no killing. I had other plans for the girl.”
Dex grabbed the man by his shirt, leaning down so they were face-to-face. He was easily a full foot shorter than Dex. Bailey could see them both in profile. “I told you, I have too much riding on this. We made a deal. You already agreed. Do your job.” Dex’s eyes grew wide. “If I hear one peep from this bitch, I’ll hunt you down. Do you understand me?”
Snaggletooth nodded, his dirty hair flipping around. “Yeah, man. We have a deal.” He grinned and said, “No worries, man. I got it covered.”
Dex tossed him aside and stormed out of the trailer.
Bailey laid her head down, trying to clear her thoughts. Find my father? Did he say father? Panic started to consume her, but she fought hard against freaking out. Did he have knowledge about a father she didn’t know about? She took another deep breath in an effort to remain calm and think, even though her head was on fire. She heard Snaggletooth stand and stumble around before walking outside, leaving the door to the trailer open. A few minutes later, the boat started, and Bailey prayed both her abductors were on it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ryan stared at the tile floor, not sure his mind still functioned at full capacity. It’d been over twenty-four hours. Exactly how many more, he didn’t know. He’d lost count at some point. But he knew he’d been searching for Bailey for at least that long. They were in the police station, all blurry and yawning, but completely spun on caffeine. The detective was questioning Mae again. Another detective was visiting businesses along the highway, hoping someone had seen something. They were also checking local surveillance cameras to pinpoint where she’d last been seen.
He heard the door squeak open and looked up to see Mae being escorted out by Officer Barrett. Mae’s face was flushed; it was obvious she was upset. They all stood, and Lucas stepped up, wrapping Mae in his arms.
Officer Barrett approached Ryan and his dad with a frown. “Go home,” he said. “You’re not doing anyone any good sitting around here. Take her and yourselves home and get some rest. Stay by the phone, and we’ll call when we get something.”
Ryan shook his head. “I’ll go home when Bailey comes home.” He felt a hand on his back and turned to look into his dad’s eyes.
“Let’s go, Ryan. We’re only in the way here. Let’s go take a nap then regroup, okay?”
“I’m not—”
“Mr. Walker,” Officer Barrett said in a raised voice. “Go home. We can’t get any real work done while you’re on our heels.”
This time, it was Wade’s hand that rested on his shoulder. “Let’s go, man.” He tugged on Ryan. “We’ll check in later, but we’re going to need a little rest to be useful.”
Ryan’s eyes dropped to the floor. The thought of going home without Bailey killed him. He looked up at Officer Barrett and nodded. “Thank you. Please, please call if you find anything.”
“Of course.” He handed Ryan a business card. “Call me if you find anything.”
Ryan left the police station, but no way in hell was he going home to sit and wait. He had shit to do. While his dad drove, he pulled out his notebook and started taking notes. First, make a flyer with the most recent photos of Bailey. No, no, first, call the media and try to get them to publicize her disappearance. No, wait, he needed the photos and the flyer first. So…first photos and flyers, then the media. He needed all hands on deck. He could close El Lago. They had twenty-two employees at their disposal. He could get them all out with flyers. The more hands, the better.
Bailey Mae’s had another four or five employees that could help. He could get his dad to call all their friends to come help, as well.
When his dad parked, Ryan jumped out of the car and headed inside to grab his laptop. At the same time, he was scanning his phone for good photos of Bay. He had taken several in Wisconsin. The first one that came up was the one he’d taken of her sleeping in his bed a few days before. She looked so peaceful, he couldn’t resist taking her picture. He stared at it and prayed—begged—God to bring her home. He didn’t want to know what life without her would be like. When he opened his eyes to look at the photo again, he zoomed in on her lips and remembered kissing her goodbye in the morning. Well, that was yesterday morning. He stopped midway up the stairs and sat, unable to climb the rest of the way. He leaned forward and laid his head in his hands.
A few moments later, his dad sat next to him. “Ryan, take a nap, then we’ll hit your list.”
Ryan shook his head. “No time. I gotta go make a flyer.”
He stood quickly and ran the rest of the way up the stairs and into his bedroom. He plopped down on the bed with his laptop, and while he waited for the computer to boot up, he started emailing the photos from his phone to his email address.
Once he finished sending the photos, he downloaded them to his desktop and got to work on the flyer.
Ryan woke with a start. He looked around the room, not sure what he was doing on his bed, fully dressed. The last dregs of sunlight were peeking through the open curtains—or were they the first?
“Fuck!” He sat up abruptly and grabbed the charging cord for his dead computer. After plugging it in, the damn thing booted up slowly. How the hell had he fallen asleep? Shit! Almost six-thirty in the morning.
He ran downstairs to throw on a pot of coffee and passed Mae asleep on the couch in the living room, with Lucas next to her on the floor. His dad was in the kitchen with Wade drinking coffee and watching the news on the small kitchen TV.
“Well, good morning, Sleeping Beauty,” Wade said.
“Hey, kid.” His dad pulled out a chair for Ryan. “Have a seat, and I’ll get you a cup of coffee.”
Ryan smacked Wade in the back of the head as he sat down. “What the fuck’s going on? Why are we just sitting around?”
Wade pointed to the TV. “We’re watching the shit show. Turns out Bailey has a dad living in Sacramento.”
“What?” He stared at the TV, not sure he understood what Wade was even talking about. “What the fuck?”
It was a recording of a news conference from the evening before. The main spokesperson was Agent Sharp, and standing next to him was a gentleman in his fifties. The headline read, “Missing Spatz baby found, but missing again.”
“That there is Bailey’s biological father, Alexander Spatz. He’s an economics professor from Sacramento,” Wade said.
Vince placed a cup of coffee in front of Ryan, who immediately picked it up and drank. Hot or not, he needed something to help clear his head. He looked at the TV again and stared at the man. He did see a slight resemblance. “Sharpe mentioned he had a match on Bailey’s DNA, but he wouldn’t tell me anything else.”
“Yep,” Wade said. “Turns out Bailey was stolen when she was only a few weeks old.
“Wow.” Ryan looked at his dad, and Vince nodded. “So they’re talking all kinds of shit at this news conference, but are they doing anything to find Bailey?”
Vince nodded again. “He’s already offered up a $50,000 r
eward for any news that leads to the safe return of his daughter. Also, the FBI has taken over the investigation into Bailey’s disappearance.”
“Anything else?” Ryan asked.
“They’re showing our flyer every few minutes.”
“Our flyer? We don’t have a flyer. I fell asleep before I got it done.”
Vince reached for the cabinet behind him and grabbed a stack of papers, and placed them in front of Ryan. “When you fell asleep last night, we decided to let you sleep. Wade made the flyer with a little help and some photos from Mae.”
Ryan looked from his dad to Wade. An overwhelming wave of thankfulness tore through him. He stood and grabbed Wade in a bear hug, fighting to keep his emotions in check. “Thank you,” he sputtered. “Thank you so much for saving my ass and getting that out there for me.”
“Come on, man,” Wade said, slapping Ryan’s back. “You’re thanking me as if I don’t have a vested interest. You think we don’t care about Bailey? You think this is you and only you out there for her?”
“No, no. Sorry. I just woke up feeling like shit for not getting it done. For sleeping when I have no idea where she is or what’s happening to her.” He pulled from Wade’s grasp and ran his hands over his face before collapsing into his chair. “I’ve let her down.”
“Ryan, you haven’t let anyone down,” Vince said.
“No, you haven’t,” Wade said. “We’re all here for each other. We all have each other’s backs. You’re not alone in this, and neither is Bailey. Stop acting like it’s the two of you against the world.”
Ryan nodded, fighting with everything he had to keep his tears at bay. “I’m sorry. I’m just so worried. I don’t know what to do. I don’t want a life without Bailey. I need her.”
Vince patted his back. “She’s coming home, Ryan. Don’t give up so easily.”
“You’re damn right she’s coming home,” Mae said, coming into the kitchen.