Deceptions

by Dana Mansfield

  “I love you, Pretty Penny,” she whispered. “Please return to us. We need you to come back. I need you to come back.

  * * *

  Chapter 18

  Jack’s head pounded when he woke up. The Employer ordered he and Penny be given sleeping pills at night. Jack didn’t understand this. Yes, they were having problems sleeping but why did it matter to the Employer if they were sleeping or not? Wouldn’t the Employer prefer them to be tired? Was it because they spent the time in the dark talking? Probably. Whatever the reason, they were each given two sleeping pills. They worked quickly. Penny was out within ten minutes and a few minutes later Jack followed suit.

  It was almost nine, much later than he usually rose, and their oatmeal was already sitting on the low dresser. The sleeping pills knocked both him and Penny for a loop. In fact, Penny was still asleep. He stumbled into the bathroom, relieved himself, and then splashed cold water on his face for several minutes to try and shake off the fog that was still trying to hold onto his mind. He dried his face and went to check on Penny. She was sitting up, dazed.

  “You look like I feel,” he said and sat on the edge of the bed.

  “Damn,” she muttered and rubbed her face against her right forearm. “I feel a little sick,” she admitted. “And my head is pounding.”

  “I think the sleeping pills were a little strong,” he deduced and she nodded. Jack went to their breakfast trays and picked up the two mugs of coffee. “This should help a little.” He held the white mug to her lips and she took several long sips.

  “Better,” she said after a few minutes. “I am not looking forward to that again although I guess it was nice to sleep through the night.” They ate breakfast, brushed their teeth, and Jack made the bed while Penny did her walking. The bed was the only place in the room to sit other than the floor and Penny insisted it be made during the day. He didn’t mind doing the task although he could see it bothered her a bit when he didn’t quite get his corners as sharp as she did back at the house. They sat back down on the bed and Jack sighed as a terrible heaviness hit him.

  It was Leo’s tenth birthday. Although they had missed Millie’s birthday, missing one of the birthdays of his children was much harder.

  “Why is this not ending?” he asked.

  “I never would have thought this would have lasted this long,” Penny added, her voice a little shaky. “I just can’t imagine what the kids are going through today.” A few tears escaped from Penny’s brown eyes and Jack didn’t stop his own from falling. “I wonder if Millie and Danny found Leo’s birthday present we already bought for him in the gift closet,” she said. “Or did they find the Hanukkah presents?”

  “I was looking forward to seeing Sofochka open up her American Girl doll. She has always been so enamored of Annie’s,” Jack said. He smiled but he knew it was a sad one.

  “And you bought Millie that fancy camera and Sasha that new laptop,” added Penny. “I think he knew you got it because I caught him one day sniffing around the gift closet.”

  “He probably did know. It is harder to surprise the older kids.”

  They spent the next hour talking about what they planned to give the kids if they had not been kidnapped. Because of Jack returning to work, he would have needed to rely on Penny to do a lot of his holiday shopping. The band was supposed to spend the time between the Monday after Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas Eve doing promotion for the new album such as appearances with Jay Leno, Ellen, and the Today Show. They were to be technically off until the end of January when the first leg of their tour was set to start. Between the day after New Year’s and the start of the tour, they would be rehearsing at a warehouse in Philly.

  Penny’s gaze was far away. His mind thought back to the safe in his walk-in closet where he tucked the gift away he planned to give Penny for Hanukkah at some point since he was supposed to miss all eight nights due to promoting the new record. It was the kind of gift he’d never given her before. Most of the time, he gave her a boatload of gift cards to Macy’s or her favorite spa or, as was the case the last couple years, something she admired while they were out shopping for the kids. He always remembered the sweater set she looked at with something more than a passing glance or the book she passed up. It was the kids’ idea to buy her the hamsa necklace a year earlier but this time, he was giving her a piece of jewelry just from him.

  He bought the simple bracelet while he was in New York a few weeks before the kidnapping at Tiffany’s. Jack wanted to make sure he found a bracelet she would wear, not one that was too gaudy for her and would stay in her small jewelry box. It took him less than five minutes to find the right one. It was sterling silver with a small heart that slid without effort along the delicate but sturdy chain. In the middle of the heart was a diamond. When he saw it, he knew it was perfect for her. It would also be an apology for how horrible he treated her. By the time she would have unwrapped it, he would have told her about the divorce and his retirement.

  But then, they were kidnapped.

  The door opened and William and James brought their lunch. Under William’s arm was a flat package wrapped in plain brown paper. He tossed it to Jack.

  “A present from the Employer,” he said, “to lift your spirits.” They left the room.

  “Open it up,” Penny said.

  “What do you think it is?” he asked and held it in his hands. It was bendy. “I think it is a magazine,” he deduced and ripped off the paper. Jack was right; it was a People magazine. For a long time, he stared at the cover.

  “Jack,” Penny whispered and reached out to touch his arm. On the cover were his six living children.

  His hands shook and he let the magazine drop onto the bed. It was such a shock and he wasn’t ready for it. The tears came and he scrambled off the bed and over to the window. Jack covered his face with his hands and cried. He felt Penny’s arms encircle him and he moved his arms around her. For many, many minutes he cried hard into the top of her head. His legs gave out and he sunk to his knees, still holding Penny. She brought his head to her chest and held him tight.

  “I’m so sorry, Jack,” she whispered. “You’ll get back to them; I know you will. This is just a horrible, horrible nightmare and I know it’ll be over. It has to be. We can’t give up hope.”

  “I miss them so much,” he cried into her t-shirt. “This has got to be torture on them. I hate the Employer, Penny, whomever the son of a bitch is.” Jack separated himself from Penny and bounced up to his feet. He stalked over to the camera and screamed into it. “Let us go, you fucking monster! Why the hell are you doing this? Why are you torturing my family like this? I hope you die, motherfucker!” Jack lost it and grabbed the nearest item – the ugly table lamp – and swung it across the room. It exploded against the door to the bedroom.

  “Jack, stop!” Penny yelled at him but he just pushed her away. He picked up one of the lunch trays and let it fly along with the second one. He was making an awful racket and mess and the alarm clock sailed towards and smashed the mirror of the low dresser. Jack couldn’t control himself; he was so angry and he’d kept the anger in too long. Again, Penny tried to stop him but he ignored her.

  “How dare you put my family through this!” he screamed at the camera and pulled one of the drawers out of the dresser and threw it up at the camera. There was a small electrical poof and the camera dangled by its wires. The door to the room opened and William rushed in with the others. Penny put herself in between Jack and them but William tossed her aside. She hit the wall hard and dropped in a heap to the ground. She wasn’t moving. It was just then that Jack realized what he’d done.

  “Oh, God,” he whispered as he stared at the still body of Penny. Within a few seconds of feeling the sharp pinch in his neck, he dropped to the floor.

  * * *

  Chapter 19

  I was still shaking. Jack was so angry. I had never seen him like that before and it frightened me. I tried to stop him but he just pushed me away. I was so
scared William would kill him but when I came to on the floor of the bedroom, I found Jack sprawled on the bed, knocked out. William entered the room and I feared my death was upon me. Jack certainly did a number on the room and insulted the Employer and I figured that was enough for my death sentence but all William did was place handcuffs around my wrists and order me to clean up the mess. I had two hours.

  The first thing I did was find the People magazine and place it carefully on the tall dresser. I wanted to read the article but not with a time limit looming. My head pounded from even the slightest of movement. I looked in the shattered mirror and saw the left side of my face covered with blood. The room was wavy before my eyes and I took a guess I had a concussion from my head hitting the wall when William threw me against it. I had pain in the left side of my chest; my ribs were hurt again. There wasn’t enough time to focus on my injuries, however. I was afraid of what would happen if I couldn’t get my job done in time.

  I had to be careful walking around the destroyed room. There was so much broken glass and try as I might to avoid it, the puke green shag carpeting hid it well. I cried out and half hopped backwards from where I stepped. I lowered myself to the floor and examined the bottom of my right foot. I shard of mirror, about an inch wide and long, stuck out of my foot and blood seeped from it. I knew I had to attend to that before I continuing cleaning.

  “Son of a bitch,” I muttered and crawled into the bathroom. My head pounded even more and when I stood to grab the box of gauze and tape that was on the corner shelf, I almost fell over. It took me five minutes to clear my head enough to fix up my foot. I didn’t understand the reasoning behind William handcuffing me. I was already at a disadvantage as my hands and wrist were still giving me problems from being broken. It took longer than it should but I got the piece of mirror out of my foot and wrapped it with gauze.

  I limped back into the bedroom and almost fell over again. The pounding in my head was vicious and I returned to the bathroom to dry heave into the toilet. This wasn’t the first time I’d had a concussion but I couldn’t worry about that yet. The heaving irritated my ribs but I was afraid I was going to be hurt further if I didn’t start cleaning up the mess. I looked at the timer William provided; there was just an hour and a half left.

  Ignoring any pain in my hands and feet, I cleaned up our ruined dinner. It looked good, too. It was a Sunday and on Sundays we were served a fancy lunch. Turkey, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole stuck to the wall and door and matted into the shag carpeting. Our food was served on paper plates but we’d been given real dishes today; dishes that were now splintered into a terrible number of pieces. I used the trays to pile the ruined food on along with as many dish shards as possible. My fingertips bloodied as I picked up my pace as I passed an hour left. I couldn’t lift the trays with my hands and shoved them aside. When I did this, my knees erupted in pain. I hadn’t seen several shards of the mirror on the floor. I couldn’t stop, though; I had just forty-five minutes left. I didn’t care I was bleeding onto the shag carpeting.

  I used the drawer Jack hit the camera with and put the pieces of the lamp in it and limped into the bathroom to grab the wastebasket to work on picking up the broken pieces of mirror. This was so hard and I cut myself even more. My hands hurt and my fingers were bleeding but I couldn’t stop. As the timer beeped, I put the last piece of broken mirror in the wastebasket. I was drenched in sweat from fear and bleeding from my fingers and hands, knees, legs, and feet.

  William paid no attention to me as he ordered James and Landon to get rid of all the broken stuff. The wastebasket was returned to the bathroom and the drawer to the dresser. James brought in a ladder and spent several minutes fixing the camera. I watched him work from my spot on the floor where I had originally been thrown. When that was done, James left, leaving just William.

  “Now, to find out how severe we can go with Jack’s punishment,” he said and pulled out his cellphone.

  “No!” I cried and crawled closer to William. “Please don’t punish Jack. He couldn’t help his reaction. He loves his children so much and this is just killing him to be away from them. Please, please don’t hurt Jack,” I begged. William ignored me and when his cellphone announced the reply text, I upped my begging. “I’ll take Jack’s punishment,” I offered. “Don’t hurt him; hurt me instead. Tell the Employer I’ll take the punishment.” William looked down at me with an arched eyebrow and a sick smile. I wanted to vomit. He fiddled with his cellphone and another text came in.

  “The Employer agrees.”

  . . .

  Jack emerged from the thick fog surrounding him. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes were the remains of the shattered mirror and his meltdown rushed back to him. Seeing his children on the cover of the magazine took him so by surprise and he couldn’t control his anger. He trashed the room but it was now clean. The mirror was still broken, however, and there was no replacement lamp or clock and when he looked up at the camera, he saw it was fixed. Someone had been busy while he was out.

  Fear then gripped him. Should you try anything, even something you think is benign, and the Employer has authorized a bullet to Penny’s head. He had done something definitely not benign and Penny was not in the bedroom that he could see.

  “Penny?” he cried out.

  “I’m in here, Jack,” he heard her respond from the bathroom. Penny’s voice sounded odd and when he rushed to the doorway, he stopped in utter shock.

  “Oh, my God,” he whispered as he saw her. She was laying limp on her right side next to the tub. She was naked and was trying to cover herself with the pajamas she had been wearing earlier.

  Her face was ashen white and her left eye almost swollen shut. Her bottom lip was split and fat. Above her left ear was a three-inch laceration along with one on her cheek that was almost as long. Both fresh and dried blood was smeared down her face and neck.

  Jack felt his stomach churn when he looked at her hands. They were bruised and swollen and a couple of her formally slender fingers crooked. There was a slight, not normal bend to both her wrists. And for some ridiculous reason, there was a pair of handcuffs around her broken wrists. The palm of her left hand was visible and Jack saw bloody and weepy burns. William had gone after her hands again.

  But it was her legs which caused his stomach to churn most. In addition to several cuts on her knees and legs, her knees did not look right. Not at all. Normally knobby, they were misshapen, swollen, and beginning to bruise in shades of blue and purple. The soles of her feet were bloody and her ankles looked a lot like her knees. They reminded him of blue and purple grapefruits.

  There was a lingering smell of something burned and when Jack took a step closer to Penny, he saw the burned remnants of something in the tub. There was enough of the cover left for Jack to see it was the People magazine.

  Jack sank down next to Penny. A tear escaped her right eye.

  “What…? They hurt…,” Jack’s voice cracked and he felt nauseous. “My fault…”

  “No,” Penny insisted in a weak voice. “Don’t blame yourself.”

  “She’s right, Jack.” Jack turned and saw William standing in the doorway, the infamous sledgehammer in his hands. “It was her own choice.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Please, don’t,” Penny said. “You don’t need to tell him, William.” Jack turned back to Penny. She had a sorry look on her beaten face.

  “What is going on?” he asked her.

  “See, Penny? He wants to know,” said William and removed Penny’s handcuffs. “Your outburst, Jack, was not appreciated by me or my team. It falls under something we can punish for and while I contacted the Employer to see how far we’re able to go, your Pretty Penny offered to take the punishment instead and the Employer agreed to this.” Jack would have felt better if someone had socked him in the stomach. His stomach roiled again and a shot of acid burst into his mouth. He knelt next to the toilet and heaved up the bile. He heard William laughing at h
im. It was one of the lowest points of this hell so far for Jack and William’s laugh irritated him as the maniac left the bathroom.

  Jack kneeled in front of the toilet for a long time, his mind and body numb. Penny took a punishment for him. No, not a punishment. It was torture; that’s what William had done to her and it was all because of him. All he wanted to do was protect Penny but his rash actions caused her horrendous pain. His soul ached and tears came to his eyes. For the second time on that awful day, he buried his face in his hands and cried.

  He cried until there were no more tears and his emotions were exhausted. Shame burned him up inside over what happened and he couldn’t even turn around to look at Penny. He felt so worthless.

  “Ivan,” he heard Penny say his name. Her voice was gentle but weak. There was no way he could face her but she knew him well. “You don’t have to look at me, just listen. Okay?” She paused and he knew she was waiting for some acknowledgement from him and so he nodded. “Don’t be mad at me for what I did. Don’t be upset with yourself for causing this. Don’t hate yourself for letting your emotions get the best of you. If you had no reaction to seeing the kids, I would have worried you’d given up ever seeing them again.” Penny paused and he heard her whimper a bit. Her whimpering turned into pained grunting and when he turned around to see what she was doing; he was shocked to see her trying to move towards him.

  Her face was set in pain and her teeth chattered but despite the obvious pain she was in, she continued to inch closer to him. Penny used her elbows and it took great effort on her part not to be able to utilize her hands or legs. Something inside of Jack kicked him out of his self-pity mood and he crawled over to her.