by A. M. Wilson
I bring my face within inches of hers and lock my gaze on her tearful eyes.
“We can’t do that. We can’t tit-for-tat the guilt. We both did things to the other. Horrific things. But Dani….” I brush away the tear dripping down her cheek with my thumb. “We can’t heal if we hold on to the blame. It’s not your fault.”
“I should have refused.”
“Refusal was to die.” I give her shoulders a small shake. “Compliance was to survive. And we fucking did, baby. We survived.”
“It’s so ugly that we have to bear the physical marks.”
Using my weight, I press her body into the bed and brush my lips against the scar on her shoulder beneath the strap of her tank top.
“A few inches inward, and this would have killed you. It’s a beautiful reminder that you survived.”
Dani sucks in a sharp breath. I encourage her to turn over with my hands, and roll the cotton shirt up her back. With one hand, I hold the material at the base of her neck, and with the other, I brush a fingertip along each scar from the whip. The thickened skin appears as a mockery. I see what she’s feeling. I feel it too, but I will it away.
“I made these. And I will spend the rest of my life proving to you how sorry I am and that I will never hurt you again. But you are anything but ugly.” A tremor infiltrates my voice on the last word.
Bending low, I gently place my lips against each scar. Dani’s breath hitches as I worship from one to the next, wishing like hell I could erase them for her and knowing I can’t. The best I can do is remind her every chance I can that she’s more beautiful today than she was yesterday.
In the end, our need for sleep gets delayed by an hour as our desire to heal the other takes precedence. Once I start worshiping the skin on her back, I can’t stop until I’ve worshipped every other place on her as well.
And Dani returns the favor.
We sleep soundly, naked and entwined, the way we should have for the last twenty years. When we wake, the morning feels brighter than it has in a long time, knowing that’s exactly what we’ll do for the next twenty years and beyond.
Hopefully for the rest of our lives.
34
Dani
With my hand thrown up to cover my mouth, I watch the horrific scene play out in front of me. Reece is lying on the filthy mattress with his hands tied to the pipe above his head while Bolt slowly lowers her body over his. She doesn’t have on a stitch of clothing, and neither does he. Blood drips down his arms as he thrashes about, trying to knock her off. She laughs maniacally and doesn’t stop her descent.
I try to move to go to him and help—the thought of Bolt, or any woman, touching Reece sends shards of pain to my chest so sharp it feels like razors are slowly gouging out my heart. No matter how hard I try to move, though, I can’t. My body is frozen in place. I’m not able to move an inch. I’m not even sure if I’m breathing or my heart is beating.
Reece’s roar fills my ears. Bolt is seated fully on him, a look of pure rapture on her face. Bile rises in my throat, and I briefly wonder if I’ll choke to death if I vomit since I’m not able to move. The thought quickly leaves my mind when Bolt turns her head to look at me, her deranged eyes telling me she’s very much enjoying the pain she’s causing both Reece and me.
“You had him first, but it’ll be me who has pretty boy last.” I watch with revulsion as her tits bounce with her quick up and down motions. “I wonder if he’ll plant his little seed inside and leave me with a mini Bolt?”
More bile threatens to come up, but I manage to swallow it back down. “No!” I scream, but I’m not sure if it’s just in my head or if the sound really left me.
Bolt flashes her teeth and turns back to Reece. From the other side of her, she picks something up from the mattress. Something flashes in the dim light of the room, and my whole world tips on its axis when she holds up the same knife she made me use to carve my name into Reece’s back. Reece’s eyes widen when he sees it.
“Dani!” he bellows. “Where are you?”
“I’m here, Reece!” I yell back. “I’m right here!”
He either doesn’t hear me, or my yells are only in my head, because he frantically looks around the room. His eyes pass over the spot where I’m standing, and it’s only then I realize he can’t see me, let alone hear me.
Bolt touches the tip of the knife to Reece’s chest and presses down. A bead of red trails freely after the jagged line she cuts into him.
“Dani! I need you!” His pleads fracture my heart. “Why did you leave me?”
It’s all too much. Bolt cutting open Reece as she laughs hysterically, and Reece thinking I’m not there to help him has my mind going haywire. Internally, I kick and scream and fight against the invisible force that’s keeping me from reaching him, but on the outside, all I can do is stand there and watch as the life force slowly drains out of the man I love.
More blood appears, and I swear it’s me who Bolt’s slicing with her knife. I feel the deep grooves and piercing stabs on my flesh. I would rather it be me than Reece. I would take his place in a heartbeat.
All of a sudden, the scene changes. I’m lying down, but instead of the dirty mattress, I’m on a dirt floor. Reece is hovering above me. The expression on his face is gentle, like he used to look at me when we were teenagers when we made love. One of his callused hands is cupping my face, while his other is slowly moving down my side and over my hip.
Something seems off with him, though. His face is pale, and the bones in his cheeks are too pronounced. My heart stutters, and I lose my breath when his lips crack open with a smile. Blood coats his teeth and dribbles out the corner of his mouth.
“Reece,” I croak.
“Everything’s okay now,” he whispers.
A line of blood slides down his chin and drops onto my cheek. My hand shakes when I lift it to wipe it away.
“Why are you bleeding?”
“Because that’s what they want, and we have to give it to them.”
My brows pucker together. “Who?”
Just as I ask the question, I feel eyes on us. Looking over Reece’s shoulder, I’m horrified to find people standing there. Turning my head from one side of the room to the other, I see more people standing about. The room is full of them. There has to be at least twenty or thirty, and they are all wearing the same sick lecherous expressions.
“Don’t look at them, Dani,” Reece says, pulling my attention back to him. “Just feel me and pretend they aren’t there.”
“I don’t think I can.”
Reece puts his face closer to mine, and my eyes widen when blood starts coming from his nose and eyes.
“You have to, or she’ll make me hurt you.”
Out of nowhere, Bolt appears at the top of my head. One minute, my hands are lying limply at my sides, and in the next, she has them pinned to the ground above my head in her bruising grip.
“Do it, pretty boy, or I’ll make you bleed her dry,” she hisses, her spit landing on my chin.
“I’m so sorry,” Reece whispers remorsefully, right before a sharp pain stabs me in my lower stomach.
A hoarse scream leaves my lips, and I bolt upright in bed. Grabbing the sides of my head, I grip my hair and yank hard, trying and failing to get the terrifying images out of my mind. My stomach cramps, and I’m seconds away from puking up the dinner I had tonight when something warm and soothing surrounds me from behind.
“Shh… I’ve got you,” Reece’s rough voice sounds in my ear, blessedly replacing Bolt’s sinister tone. “Jesus, Dani, you scared the shit out of me.”
“I’m sorry,” I croak through a dry throat. My head is still in my hands, but I’m no longer tugging at my hair.
His heat leaves my back, and a moment of panic steals my heart. I jerk my head up, intent on begging him not to leave me, but he’s only adjusting so he can lift me onto his lap. He brushes back the sweaty hair sticking to my cheeks before reaching for a half-filled glass of water on the nightstand
.
“Here. Drink some of this.”
I take the glass and gulp the rest of it down, the cool liquid feeling heavenly in my dry mouth. Reece replaces the glass on the nightstand.
“How often are you having nightmares?”
Reece and I have only been back in Westbridge for a few days. I haven’t officially moved in with him yet, but I spend most days here, and I’ve been in his bed each night.
I bury my face in his neck and breathe in his woodsy scent. “Not as often as when we were first rescued, but way more than is to my liking.”
“I’m so sorry, baby.” He runs his hand up and down my back. “I wish I could do something to take them away.”
“Only time can do that.”
He’s quiet for a minute before he asks hesitantly, “Do you want to tell me about them?”
None of what happened in my dream actually happened in that basement. And I’ve thanked God for that many times over. Each time Bolt opened one of our doors, I couldn’t help but wonder what hideous thing she would have us do. One of my fears, one I never told Reece about and don’t plan to tell him, was that she would force herself on Reece sexually. I’m not sure if my mind could have handled something like that. As horrible as our time was and as painful as it was to hurt Reece and have him hurt me, I was glad it was one of us and not her doing the torturing. We at least had some control over it.
Reece told me about the cameras and how there were deranged people who watched as it was happening and got off on it. Had even paid money to do so. Thank goodness something was close by for me to throw up in because there was no way I could have held the vomit back. Of course, working in law enforcement, I knew of the twisted and sick minds who walked among us, but I never thought I would be part of their games.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I block out those thoughts and focus back on the now. We’re no longer in that place. Bolt is dead, and that hideous website has been taken down.
“I would rather not,” I tell Reece, then kiss the side of his neck to soften my refusal.
“Okay.” He tucks the sheet around my hips and leans back against the headboard. “But I’m here if you change your mind. Can you promise me something, though?” I nod against his neck. “Promise you’ll talk to your therapist about them if you’re not already.”
I’ve already had my records transferred to a new therapist in town and have my first meeting with her next week. “I promise.”
We sit in the dark for a while. The only sound filling the room is our breathing and the whirl of the ceiling fan. Despite the dream that woke me, I haven’t felt this peaceful in a long time, and it’s all due to the man who’s silently soothing me with his soft hands and his quiet breathing in my ear.
My eyes are just drifting closed when Reece suddenly sits up. He picks me up and sets me on the edge of the bed. “Come with me.” He gets up and grabs my hand, tugging me with him.
“Where are we going?” I ask, perplexed by his abrupt need to do whatever he wants to do.
“There’s something we need to take care of. I think it’ll help us both.” He tugs me toward the closet. “Put on some dark jeans and a dark long-sleeved shirt.”
I do as he suggests, going over in my head what he could be planning. Nothing comes to mind.
“What’s going on, Reece?” I ask after I slip a dark blue shirt over my head.
Instead of answering, he picks up his phone and begins typing on it. Once he’s done, he shoves it into his back pocket, then looks up at me. “You’ll see once we get there, but I promise, this should have been done a long time ago.”
With that, he grabs my hand and pulls me from the room. We stop in the kitchen.
“Make us a couple of travel mugs of coffee. I need to put a few things in the truck. Meet me in the garage when you’re finished.”
With a frown, I watch him go through the mudroom and out the garage door. I have no idea what he’s planning, but something tells me it’s important and not to question him further.
While the coffee is percolating, I go out to the living room and find my shoes by the door. After slipping them on my feet, I go back to the kitchen and pull down a couple of travel mugs from the cabinet above the coffee maker. I note the time on the stove reads two thirty.
It’s not long before I have the mugs filled, and I’m carrying them out to the garage. Reece is just closing the tailgate to his truck when I close the door behind me. He meets me at the passenger side door.
“Thank you, baby.” He takes his mug and bends down to give me a kiss. Pulling back, he opens my door, and I climb inside.
Thirty minutes later, we turn down a familiar street. My palms start to sweat, and my heart plummets to my stomach.
“Why are we here?” I strain to ask, my eyes jerking to Reece. “Why would you even want to come back here?”
Reece pulls off the road behind a cropping of trees. Shutting off the truck, he turns to face me and grabs my hand. I want to yank it away and demand he take us out of here, but I’m frozen in place. The house that haunts my dreams is only a few hundred feet away, but I can feel the evil radiating off it.
“Do you trust me, Dani?” Reece asks quietly.
I force my eyes away from where I know the house sits beyond the trees to look at him. My answer comes immediately. “Yes.”
He squeezes my hand. “Then I need you to trust that I’m doing this for both of us. I promise that what we’re about to do will help us close this chapter of our lives.”
Pulling in a shaky breath and fortifying my strength, I nod.
My limbs are stiff when we get out of the truck. It’s not until we round the back of it that I realize we’re not alone. Niko and Aislin step out from behind their rental car. Niko’s expression looks intense with his jaw set and his brows a firm line. Aislin looks about how I feel. Even in the low light of the moon rays peeking through the trees, her face appears pale, and if I’m not mistaken, she looks seconds away from fleeing.
I walk over to her and grab her hand. She looks at me in relief, and some of the tension fades from her features. Before I checked myself out of the hospital, Aislin and Niko came by to visit a few times. Over the course of those visits, Aislin and I sort of bonded. Reece’s and my time in captivity wasn’t as harsh or as long as Aislin’s, but it was still very much traumatizing. Because of that, we felt a kindred spirit in each other.
“How are you doing?” I ask, noticing her body trembling.
“Other than getting the heebie-jeebies by being here, I think I’m okay.”
I turn to look at the two men as Reece opens his tailgate. “Any clue what they’re planning to do?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Aislin shake her head. “No idea.”
My breath stalls in my throat when Reece lifts out the first gas can. His eyes lift to mine as if he heard my sudden intake of breath. Niko takes out a second can and sets it on the ground beside the first. They grab a few more things out of the bed of the truck before they pick up the cans and walk toward us.
“We’re going to burn down the house, aren’t we?”
“Yes. It should have been taken down years ago.” His eyes slide to Aislin and Niko before coming back to me. “And I can’t think of four people more deserving than us to get the job done.”
As much as I would love to see the structure burn to ashes, there’s no way I would want any of us to get caught. People go to prison for years for arson.
“We could get caught, Reece.”
Niko steps up, his arm firmly around Aislin’s waist. “A lot of tourists are in town right now. The news of Reece’s and your abduction and Aislin’s captivity is nationwide. Most people who live here would love to see the house burn and would watch with glee. There’s actually a petition out right now to have it bulldozed. The tourists who have heard of the atrocious crimes would say nothing if they witnessed it themselves. So long as we’re careful and not seen, there are too many people around who could have started the fire. There’s v
irtually no way to pinpoint who did it.”
One thing I’ve learned living in a small town such as Westbridge, even back when we were kids, is that the citizens tend to stick together. Niko is right. Except for a select few, the people of this town hate the crimes committed against Aislin, Reece, and me, especially after years of hard work cleaning up the town. They want no reminders of what happened here. And I’m okay with that. If I could, I’d wipe those thirty-three days from my memory in a heartbeat. Burning down the house will help with that. And maybe it’ll help Aislin, Reece, and me move beyond our horrific pasts.
“Okay.”
Picking up the gas can and bag in one hand, Reece grabs my other, and the four of us start our trek until we’re directly in front of the house. Thankfully, the houses on this street are spread out with enough vegetation growth between each one that we can easily stay in the shadows. Once word spread of the horrors Aislin endured in this house, most of the residents vacated this area, so there aren’t many people around anyway.
Niko and Reece carefully take in the surrounding area before they lead us across the street. Creepy vibes slither down my back as we approach the ominous structure. My palms begin to sweat, and my heart thumps against my sternum. But I straighten my spine, refusing to let this house have any more control over me.
“You and Dani stay here,” Niko says when we stop at the corner of the house, hidden in the shadows. “Reece and I will go in and douse the place.”
They leave us and walk to the back of the house. I step closer to Aislin, worried about her mental state, but when I look at her, her expression is filled with determination. The woman was held by a madman for fifteen years. It amazes me how strong she is.
I don’t know how the guys managed to get inside without breaking a window, but a few minutes later, they return from around the back. We move away from the house a good twenty feet before Reece holds out a long matchstick to me, and Niko does the same to Aislin.
“Are you all ready?” Reece asks, holding up a lighter.