by A. Gorman
“Even if I did end it with Patrick, you still would sell me?” I question, trying to make sense of everything.
“Yes,” he says as his cold brown eyes stare at me.
He takes his hand and runs his fingers down my face to my collarbone. His fingers play with the lace on my blouse and dips behind it, fondling my breasts. “Mmm. Maybe I’ll just have to have a taste of you before I let you go for good.”
“Please, no, Victor,” I beseech, squirming away from him
He yanks me up by arm and kisses me hard. I feel nothing as bile threatens to come up, and he pulls away angrily. Backhanding me with his right hand, he throws me back on the floor.
“You’re such a cocktease. Always teasing me with those stares and touches.”
“I promise you, I wasn’t. I’m sorry it looked like that.” A faint ring of a cell phone stops him from answering. Victor digs around in his pants pocket and pulls out a cell phone and smiles.
“Looks like your daddy and boyfriend went to the police and they are sniffing on the wrong trail. So I’m sure they will be texting me soon with the money delivery,” he says, laughing. Chills run down my sore spine because I know this isn’t going to end well for someone.
“I’ll be back in a bit, my little bitch. I have some errands to run before tonight’s bidding starts.” He blows out the candle and darkness surrounds me once more.
My only hope is that someone finds us soon…
I sent Addison home from the station a few hours ago to shower and get some rest, and she said she’d return if new leads come in. She’s upset that I wasn’t going home and doing the same, but I refuse to leave. I don’t care if I haven’t showered or changed clothes in almost two days, neither has Emily, and I won’t rest until I can do so with her in my arms.
Twenty hours after reporting Emily missing, the police might have a possible lead on where she is, but they have to go through the proper chains of command to get a warrant to investigate the lead. We don’t have time, because it’s getting close to 6 pm. Ken and I overheard where the house is located. From what I can gather, it’s a known house for human trafficking, but has been vacant in the past months.
The house is located on the Southside of the city. Ken and I tell the detectives that check in on us often that we are going out for some fresh air and decide that we are going to check this place out on our own. The heat outside leaves me almost breathless as we exit the police station, and the unrelenting sun is beating down. I hope it’s a sign that we are going to find Ems. We get in his SUV and head to the closest home repair store for a few supplies.
Ken buys a few things in the store; crowbar, hammer, baseball bat, and he had a Taser in his vehicle already, which will come in handy if we do need to break in. I’m positive that Victor that has her, but I don’t have any hard evidence.
We leave the store without drawing attention to ourselves, get in Ken’s SUV, and drive south. The area isn’t far from where we are, maybe a fifteen minute drive, and it’s close to the interstate. He drives onto the interstate and speeds to the exit, signaling to quickly exit the interstate five minutes later.
As we turn onto a side road, the area looks run down with old houses that have boarded up windows and roofs that are missing or caving in. After twenty minutes of slowly driving up and down the side roads, Ken takes another right. He drives slowly down the road and a house that looks like it’s had someone in it recently sticks out.
“Ken, I think that’s the house on the right. Look how the weeds are trampled down around the garage and the brush is flattened by the porch.”
“Yeah, none of the others have noticeable signs that someone’s been around the property.”
“I wonder if we can find some way to look in without being seen,” I ask, looking at the house for any other signs of activity.
“Possibly. Let’s look at the other houses down this street,” he states as he continues driving down the street at a slow rate of speed.
“Yeah. Then we can go down the block to the right and park, then come around from the backside of the house.”
“Okay. Sounds like a plan,” he says as he slowly drives down the road, looking at the houses meticulously as he drives by.
He turns the corner and parks his SUV on the right side of the road. From where he parked, you can’t see the house in question, but from the alley that runs behind this house, you can. We get out quietly and Ken manually flips the lock button before shutting his door.
As we slowly walk onto the property, the brush and weeds snap under foot as we walk around the vacant house, and I hope that they can’t hear the snapping stems echoing around us. Pausing to listen, I don’t hear movement inside of the house, so I try to find a window or something open to look into the house.
There’s a crack in the side window panels, but I’m not able to see inside of the house. The crack is big enough I can hear someone inside talking. A few minutes of silence go by and I hear her voice. Emily. She’s in there, and I can tell she is scared. I need to get Kenneth, and I walk to where he’s at on the other side of the house, thinking of a plan in my head before I make it to him.
“She’s in there and I’m positive that Victor is in there with her,” I whisper to him.
“Do you think he has a gun?” he murmurs back.
“More than likely. He’s probably expecting the cops or even us.”
“How do you want to do this?”
“I’m not sure, because I don’t know if there’s anyone else in there with Victor.”
“Maybe we should call the police and wait for them?” he asks, worried.
“I don’t think we have the time.” I look down at my watch. “It’s almost five thirty, and he wanted a call by six.”
“Okay. Let’s go back to the SUV, call the cops, and grab the weapons. We need to rush the house. I think that’s the only way we are going to be able to do it.”
“That works for me.” We jog back to the SUV and I grab the baseball bat while he calls the police, letting them know that we’ve found her.
“They said they dispatched some officers to the location and not to enter on our own.”
“I can’t promise that. If I hear something going on, I’m going in.”
“I’ll be right there with you.”
“Let’s go,” he says as we run back to the house.
The steady tap of Victor’s fingers on the wood table top is frazzling my nerves. He’s antsy and what nerves I have left are quickly zapping away with his unease. I have no idea what’s going to happen to me or the others that are being held captive in this shack. The soft cries of the girls break me more and more with each passing minute, I wish I could comfort them, but the bindings on my arms and legs prevent me from moving.
A silence takes over the room, like the calmness before a storm, and I refuse to let myself believe this is the end of my freedom, my life…our lives. I take a deep breath, trying to remain as calm as I can.
“Fuck this. Come on, little slut. Let me show you what you’ll need to get used to taking whenever your master requires it.”
All the air rushes out of my chest.
“No! She’s a child. Don’t take her, take me,” I breathlessly yell as he pulls a young girl lying by Tasha up by her ponytail.
“Trying to be their savior, Emily? I think it’s a little too late for that, but since you’re willing now—”
Splintering wood echoes through the room as pieces of the door come flying into the room, allowing sunlight to filter into the room, and I see Patrick rushing through the door with a baseball bat in his hand. Victor is stunned for a moment and scrambles for the gun on the table beside the candles. Before he can fully clutch the gun, Patrick knocks him to the floor with the bat under his jaw, choking him. The gun falls out of reach of Victor’s hands
Behind Patrick, my dad enters the door, carrying a crowbar, and looks around the room before he spots me. He rushes over me and tries to get the bindings off my hands and arms. He
frees my hands; I look to Patrick and think everything is under control…until he screams out in agony.
Everything goes to slow motion; Victor is wielding a knife and he stabs Patrick repeatedly until the hold on the bat slips from his hands. The wooden bat falls to the ground with a reverberating thud. Dad turns around quickly, swings the crowbar, and hits Victor in the head with a sickening crunch as Patrick slumps down on him, leaving him incapacitated.
“Patrick?” I scream. “Patrick!” I yell as Dad rolls him onto his back. Using the bloody crowbar, he moves the knife from Victor’s reach and ties his hands together with the bindings that were on my wrists.
“Emily, put pressure on his wounds,” he says as he helps me with the ties on my legs.
“I can’t see where the bleeding is coming from,” I say as I frantically look for the wounds. The faint sounds of sirens are in the distance and I pray there’s an ambulance with the police that are on their way.
“Just press where you think they are.”
I nod and press down where I can. Patrick hasn’t moved since Victor stabbed him and I don’t even know if he’s alive. I watch his chest, watching for his breathing and I see the slow rise and fall. He’s still with me.
“Patrick, stay with me, babe. Help will be here shortly.” Tears run down my face, and everything around me starts to blur.
“Police! Hands up,” shouts a male officer as he enters the room. I refuse to move.
“Ma’am, I said hands up,” he yells at me.
“Sir, she was the one that was held captive and he was stabbed while trying to get her out. Please get multiple ambulances here. There are other girls here and I don’t know if they are hurt or not. This guy over here is the one that had them…” His words fade out and all I concentrate on is the slow rise and fall of Patrick’s chest, which gets slower and slower and stops.
“Nooo! Patrick, please don’t leave me.”
“Ma’am, can you please move. I’m a Medic,” a guy says as he comes in from nowhere. I look at him, not understanding. “Ma’am, you need to move.” Dad places his arms around me and picks me up, and pulls me away from Patrick.
“No, put me down. I need to cover his wounds,” I yell out, trying to kick out of my dad’s hold.”
“Emily, the medics are helping him now. You need to get looked at.”
“He’s coding,” the medic yells at the woman with him.
“What does that mean?” I run over to them after getting free of my dad.
“Ma’am, please get back so we can save him.” They rip his shirt off and one medic starts doing compressions while the other places pads on his chest and hooks him up to a machine.
“Clear!” The machine goes through all these prompts and I hear, “Shock is advisable.” The medic presses the button. “Shocking now.” His body jolts up, and the medics start doing CPR again.
“I got a pulse, let’s load him up.” I look at Patrick with a tube in his mouth and wires on his chest.
“I’m going with him,” I yell as they put him on a stretcher and wheel him.
“Ma’am, I have questions for you. We’ll get you to the hospital once we get things figured out here,” the officer says as he grabs my arm. My dad comes up beside me and puts his arms around me.
“Ems, we will get there as fast as we can. We would only be in the way right now and we need to help the girls that are here.”
I lean into him, as everything around me starts to spin… Dad gently places me on the floor. I hear a little voice call out my name.
“Ms. E…”
I lift my head up and turn around.
“Tasha, come here sweet girl.”
“Ms. E., it is you. You’re okay,” she rasps out as she runs over to me as the police let her go. “I was so afraid, Ms. E. Somehow I knew you would save me. I love you.”
“I love you too, Tasha.” I hold the frightened child in my arms tightly as I pray that Patrick doesn’t leave me behind, too.
The rain gently taps against the window in my office, creating a haze over the mountains it falls upon. I start thinking about how much my life has changed in the past year, especially the past six months. I’ve taken so many things and people, for granted, and I ended up losing those things that meant the most to me. I have so many emotions rolling through my mind today. I go back and re-read what I wrote today.
Life without you is harder than I’d ever imagined. Our special moments together have helped me through the past few weeks without completely breaking down. I think you’d be proud of how I’m doing. There are so many things that I miss about you today. Our phone calls, our texts, our stupid jokes I’m sure no one got but us. I’m positive you are looking down on me and keeping me safe, as you always did.
The clouds seem to be crying along with me today, they miss your smiling face as well. What I’d do to hear your voice one more time…one more time to tell you how much I love you, how proud I am of you. I guess that day will come when it’s supposed to.
I never thought I would be here without you, to live life without you, but I’m trying to make the best of it I can.
I miss you today and every day.
Love—
“Ems?”
“Yeah, in here,” I holler out as I finish writing the last bit of my journal entry.
“Oh, sorry, gorgeous, I didn’t know you were writing.” He’s scent invades my space as he enters the room with the cup of coffee in the cup he bought me on our first date in his hand, and he places it on my desk.
“You’re fine. I was reflecting for a few moments before I start reading through the grant applications that we’ve received so far.” I take a sip of the rich dark roast he has perfected making. “I can’t believe it’s been six months since he’s been gone. It seems like yesterday,” I say as I look at the picture of Nate and me on my desk.
“Is writing to him still helping you through the process?” Patrick asks as he sits down in his office chair. I love that this office is big enough for both of us.
“Yes, very much and I think being part of the Nathan Jane’s Foundation will help too.” I smile as I turn my chair to face him.
“Sounds like you and your parents will do some amazing things for very deserving people.”
“You too, right,” I ask before I take a sip of my coffee, because I want him to be a part of the foundation too.
“Um…” Puzzlement fills his face.
“I need a numbers guy and I know of an extremely talented, well educated, hardworking CFO I would love to have my way with at this very moment,” I say, licking my lips.
“Oh, you do?” He smirks.
“Yes. Please, Patrick, please say yes,” I beg, slightly pouting.
He looks at me for a few moments, debating on his answer. Our eyes meet, and I know his answer.
“Yes.”
“I love you, Patrick,” I say as I jump out of my chair and sit on his lap, hugging him.
“I love you too, gorgeous.” He pulls my face down to his and kisses me with the same passion of our very first kiss, leaving me breathless. “As much as I don’t want to, I need to get ready to go into work and I guess put my notice in.” He slightly winces as he adjusts his still healing body in the chair.
“Are you sure you’ve had enough time to recuperate?” I ask as I get off his lap.
“Yes, I’m fine as long as I don’t overdo it, and I won’t. Kristin won’t let me.”
“You know her heart is going to break when you resign,” I say as he stands up.
“No, I think she’ll finally retire. She’s been there for thirty plus years,” he states as he walks out of the office, with me following closely behind him.
“She could always come to work for us if she doesn’t want to retire yet.”
“Now that’s an excellent idea. I’ll work on that while I’m there too.” He smiles.
“She would be a huge asset to the foundation. Thank you.”
“For what?” he questions me.
/> “Being amazing.” I put my arms around his neck, gently snuggling up to him.
“You’re the one that’s amazing,” he says as he lifts my chin, kissing me again. “I need to get going.” I pout.
“I know. I’ll drive you when you’re ready to leave.”
“Sounds good.” He kisses my forehead. “Want to join me in the shower?”
“I thought you’d never ask…”
“Funny. I’ll try to behave.” He winks.
“You have to, mister.”
“I know.” He pouts, knowing he has to restrain from sexual activity until his next doctor’s appointment, and he grabs my hand, leading me to the shower.
I turn the water on, brushing my teeth as it warms up. We both get in the shower; washing each other’s bodies, teasing each other as we do. Quickly, our time in the shower runs out and we rinse off so we can get out and dress.
“Hey, baby, are you okay?” I ask Patrick as I put my clothes on. He looks in deep thought.
“Yeah, trying to decide if I want to wear a tie or not.”
“Go without.”
“Okay.” He smirks as he finishes buttoning his white dress shirt.
“Are you ready then?” I ask as I slip on my flip-flops in the closet.
“Almost. I need to put my shoes on.”
“Black loafers?” I hold them up for him to decide.
“Those work. I won’t have to bend over a tie them.”
“I know. That’s why I suggested them.” I beam.
“Brains and beauty…” he says and kisses me on the nose.
“I can say the same about you too, handsome. Let’s go. I’ll treat you to Starbucks.”
“We can go to Starbucks but I’m buying.”
“Deal.”
“I love you, Emily.”
“I love you too, Patrick.”
He grabs my hand and we walk downstairs together. WE get into my SUV as it’s easier for him to get in and out of right now, and I put the vehicle in reverse and start our journey to his office. I hope that everything goes smoothly with his resignation.
My eyes focus on the road before me, but my thoughts drift to all the amazing things that the foundation is going to accomplish, and I’m going to have the complete support of my family behind me…including Patrick.