by A. D. Roland
It was going to happen. It always did.
“He’s going to untie me and then I’ll have a chance.”
West’s eyes were bright clear, despite the dark bruises and dried blood. The blood vessels in his right eye had burst, staining the white red. “Mattie, no.” He’d figured it out. What she meant. “No.”
“Afterwards, he always lets his guard down. He always makes a mistake.”
The look on West’s face broke her heart. “Mattie--“
K groaned and sat up. He scrubbed his palms against his cheeks and stretched. He squinted in the darkness. “Having a nice little chat over there? Shut the hell up, Mattie. Damn.”
“Sorry, K,” she called.
Dawn’s light filtered through the high windows, making everything in the room lighter. Emeline stirred, moaning. She sat up and promptly vomited into her lap. She wasn’t tied up. K didn’t see her a threat. Mattie wracked her brain, trying to figure out a way to use that to her own advantage.
Emeline wasn’t strong enough to attempt to fight her way out. She wasn’t fast enough to try and run.
She wasn’t brave enough.
“Oh God, oh God,” Emeline whimpered. “Where am I? Are you going to steal my kidneys?”
Mattie sighed. Girl was dumb as a bag of rocks. Definitely couldn’t be relied on to help in a rescue attempt.
K crouched next Emeline. “Look over there, sweetums.” He pointed at Mattie and West. Emeline’s eyes bulged and her mouth dropped open.
“What do you want?” she whispered.
“Money. Lots of it.” K grimaced. He pointed at her lap. “You threw up on yourself.”
“I’m sorry,” Emeline whined.
“We’re going to have to take that dress off,” K said. At his post at the door, Logan chuckled.
Emeline crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. Tears ran down her flushed face. “No, please.”
Silver flashed in the wan lighting. K’s knife. He made quick work of the thin straps of Emeline’s club dress.
“He won’t hurt her,” Mattie whispered, soft as a breath, to West. “Trust me. I know how he works.” It was a way to break Emeline down, as if she could put up a fight to begin with. He’d humiliate her until she was a blubbering pile of skin and bones.
West stiffened and turned away.
K taunted Emeline until she rose on unsteady legs and let her dress drop to her feet. When she stood naked except for a pair of flimsy panties and her lacy bra, he laughed. “You’re too skinny for me. All bones.” He latched a hand around her wrist and dragged her to the couch. He pushed her down. She curled up in the farthest corner, trying hard not to cry.
K loomed over Mattie. “Time to get started, Mats.” He grabbed the shoulder of her shorts and hauled her to her feet. After a long night of sitting, pins and needles rendered her legs almost useless. She wobbled and staggered forward. K hung on to her arm and kept her from toppling over.
Watching her, he pulled her cell phone from his pocket and dialed. When it started ringing, he held it to Mattie’s ear.
McKendrick himself answered on the second ring.
“Where’s the money, Mr. McKendrick?” she asked. The cold tone of her own voice disturbed her.
“It takes a little while to gather that much money, Mattie. Let me speak to Emeline.”
“He wants to talk to Emeline,” she said to K.
Emeline looked up, eyes wide. “Dad? Daddy! Daddy!” Her voice rose to a fevered pitch. She stood and reached for the phone. K shoved her back to the couch. She tripped over her own feet and landed on her hands and knees. Mattie watched her see West for the first time. While Em scuttled across the concrete floor towards him, Mattie returned her attention to the phone and McKendrick’s frantic pleas to leave Em alone.
“I can’t transfer that much money in such a short amount of time. It takes days to get bank approval. Please don’t hurt her. Please, I’ll get you the money.”
Mattie relayed the message to K.
Through the windows high in the wall near the roof, she watched the wind sway the branches of an old live oak. She hung up on McKendrick. “K, listen. I know where I can get some money.”
K perked up. “Where’s that? Don’t tell me, buried in the backyard.”
“No, in an orange grove. Under an big oak tree.”
“You’re lying. Why the hell would rich people bury money under a tree in some loser’s backyard?” Mattie sighed.
“I told you, it’s not the backyard. The orange grove. And they...they buried it out there alongside...” She lowered her voice. “They buried it with the body of the real Elaine.”
Against the metal wall, West cleared his throat. Mattie glanced at him quickly. He had an expression on his face that screamed, What the hell are you doing? She met his eyes and hoped he got the psychic message somehow. Trust me. She and K might walk into that grove together, but only one of them was coming out. And it ain’t going to be you, Kirkland.
He smacked her suddenly upside the head, knocking her off-balance. “You’re a fuckin’ liar, Mattie.”
“No! K, ask him. He knows.” She pointed her finger at West.
“I don’t know shit,” West said, his voice thick with blood and emotion. K laughed, a harsh, cold sound, and struck out at Mattie with his foot. “Bitch. He doesn’t even like you anymore. You’re all mine, you know that? I’m the only one that’s ever going to be able to put up with you.”
Mattie turned her face away from his rough, playful shove. “Stop it, K.” He swiped at her again, yanking her hair. Again she tried to avoid his hand, but the couch was in her way. Frustrated, she hunched her shoulders and buried her face against the ratty, musty old cushions. K wouldn’t stop until he had her in tears, begging him to quit.
“It’s out there,” West said simply. “By the tree.”
K stopped tormenting her and glared across the dim shed. “What?”
“There’s fifty thousand dollars buried with Elaine under the tree.” West sounded like he was talking with a throat full of sand. K pulled out his gun and leveled it at West’s head. West’s eyes looked so empty, so dead.
Mattie bit back a sob. “K, what are you doing? Leave him alone. K!”
“Shut your hole, Mattie. Your squealing’s getting on my nerves.”
“If you hurt him anymore, I won’t tell you where it is!” Mattie kicked K’s leg. Fast enough to make her head spin, he pistol-whipped her once across the side of her head. The blow knocked her to the floor. The pain pinned her there, just inches from West’s foot.
Her head ached so bad she thought she was going to puke.
“She doesn’t know where it is,” West said, staring K dead in the eye. “I saw it all, when I was a kid.”
“Why the hell should I believe you?”
West shrugged. “I really don’t care, actually. Kill me, kill her, whatever. Either way, it won’t get you the money.”
K laughed and holstered his gun. He sat down on the couch, perched on the edge with his elbows on his knees. His hands dangled between his legs. “I warned you about her, West, my man. She’s a man-eater. She’ll rip your heart out.”
West only gazed at Mattie with a heart-breaking mix of pity, pain, and betrayal. “West,” she whispered against the cement floor. After holding her gaze for a long moment, he looked away.
Mattie closed her eyes, hoping she wouldn’t cry. She wasn’t sure what was worse—his pity or the fact that there wasn’t a single flicker of emotion in his eyes.
You did this. You brought him here.
K hauled her up and plopped her down on the couch next to him. He patted her leg possessively. “Now, tell me where the money is.”
“The tre--the money’s in the orange grove on West’s land.” Treasure she almost said. Like it was some sort of pirate adventure. Blood trickled down her cheek from the wound across her temple. She knew better than to investigate the injury. K would send her off to clean up when he got tired of seeing blood r
unning down her face.
“You’re a born liar, Mattie. How do I know you’re not pulling one over on me?”
Mattie shrugged. “Why would I make you go all the way out there if there wasn’t money, K? Don’t you think I know better than to do something so stupid?”
Grudgingly, he admitted. “Yeah. You do know better. You know what wild-goose-chases cost you. And by the way, don’t talk to me like that. You better show respect where it’s due.”
“Sorry.”
“I don’t think you are, but we’ll take care of that later. Right now I want to know exactly where the money is.” Lightning fast, K shoved her off the couch, to her knees, one arm twisted behind her back. That didn’t hurt. What hurt was her fingers, which he had wrenched backwards.
Mattie hollered and tried to pull away, but that made it even worse. “Now, bitch, tell me where the money is!”
“I don’t know! They never told me!” He pushed further, putting more pressure on her left pointer finger. The pain was blinding, breathtaking.
“Tell me where it is, Matilyn. I’ll break every single finger, then start in on your face if you don’t fuckin’ tell me.”
Sobbing, Mattie could only shrug. The pain had wiped her mind of everything except getting away from K. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know!”
With a snap that Mattie heard as much as felt, he broke her finger. She shrieked from the agony that radiated up her entire arm. He planted a knee in her back and pushed her face-first into the gritty cement.
Before the pain could get any better or any worse, K added to it by giving her pointer finger the same treatment. Adding insult to injury, he snatched the heirloom wedding band set off her ring finger and threw it into the shadows.
Nearly undone by the pain, Mattie sucked in deep, dusty breaths. Particles from the ancient carpet adhered to her wet face, to her teeth, her tongue. A nice little numbness began to sift through her veins. When K pushed her too hard and hurt her too bad, she slipped into a peaceful place. He couldn’t hurt her there. It didn’t matter what he did to her body, he couldn’t touch her mind, and it drove him insane.
As if watching from above, she watched him flip her on to her back and straddle her body. Silent tears ran down West’s face. He pulled at the eyebolt, his entire body bent forward. Em huddled on the floor at his side, her face buried in her hands. From far, far away, Mattie heard her screaming into her hands.
West surged against the zip ties holding him to the wall. Something snapped and he tumbled forward. He lunged, but Logan tackled him like a linebacker and knocked him into the wall. West slid down the drywall, leaving behind a thin bloody smear. Dazed, he shook his head, one hand going to his forehead. The broken zip tie hung from his wrist, wet with blood from a cut on his wrist. Logan kicked him in the gut, once, twice. Emeline kept screaming.
Finally Logan turned away from West. Emeline threw herself over his prone body. He struggled to get up, to move. His pained gaze met Mattie’s.
Don’t watch, she tried to tell him. K clamped a hand over her mouth and reached for the button of her denim shorts. Please don’t watch, West.
Her pain got K hot. In the past, she’d tried not to scream or cry. But West was watching, and he knew he couldn’t do anything to help her. She started to weep. K smirked and used his knife to poke a hole in her shirt. He ripped it away. Bare, even more vulnerable, Mattie gave up.
It was easier. She floated up, away.
Her drifting self laughed at him. He couldn’t touch her here, and he knew it. Enraged, he smashed his fist down on her broken fingers. When it only worked the weakest cry out of her, he jerked her to her feet, her shorts sliding down her hips. Pushing her ahead of him, he called his thugs.
While he took her body outside, her soul stayed in the shed, next to West, stroking his hair and trying to soothe the forceful sobs that tore though his solid, familiar body. This is how I survived, she whispered to him. Outside, the parts of her that couldn’t escape screamed. Sometimes, the things he did to her were too awful to keep in silence.
***
Mattie woke on the floor of the shed, half-naked, bruised and bleeding from places she shouldn’t be bleeding from. West and K were talking. Rather, K had a gun to Emeline’s head and West was frantically trying to talk him out of shooting her. The pain in her fingers made her want to scream. More pain cut through her mental haze. Cramps echoed around her belly. Her hands were still free. She cupped one hand over the worst of the pain. The baby…
She clenched her eyes shut. There wasn’t anyway she was making it through this. No time to dwell on what she was losing.
Familiar with what K was doing, Mattie knew it was just a game. Get one person to turn on the other. Use one lover against another. She just wasn’t sure who the players were, this time, or what the prize was. When K looked over at her and gave her a wicked grin, she knew.
He’s proving something to me. This is for my benefit. Suddenly very clear to her, she realized the money was only part of K’s plan. He’s doing this to break me.
Seeing West begging for Emeline’s life was doing a great job of it. No matter how hard she tried, Mattie couldn’t find her peaceful place, couldn’t separate herself from the agony of watching him play right into K’s game.
“It’s under the tree, under the heart,” West finally half-shouted, after K put his gun away and resorted to using his knife. He traced swirling patterns along Emeline’s slender white throat.
“The heart?” K asked, scowling. “Trees don’t have hearts.”
“That one does,” Mattie said. “He carved it into the trunk for Elaine when he was a kid.” She was nearly breathless from the agony from her hand, from her violated body. No matter how much it hurt that he was begging for Emeline’s life, or how much her body hurt from K’s tortures, Mattie wouldn’t let anything happen to West. The deal had been sex and money. No emotional crap, and with the expectation that after she left, he would go back to Emeline. That was the deal, and she’d shook on it. “K.”
He looked up when she said his name. Moving slowly so she wouldn’t start bleeding—please, let that be from something they’ve done, and not something wrong with the baby—she put her shorts back on, wincing from the rub of the denim against her brutalized flesh. Getting dressed with one hand was complicated, but through the haze, she felt a little spark of pride. She pulled the ripped halves of her shirt together as best she could.
“What?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“So, talk.”
“Stop hurting her and I will.”
Reluctantly, K let go of Emeline’s hair. “Well?”
“I know where the money is now.”
“Finally done lying? Fine. Where is it?”
“It’s buried under the tree in a box with a lock on it. I know the combination. I’ll do whatever you want, give you whatever you want, but only if you let them go when you get the money.” Emeline whimpered and began to edge across the floor toward West. K laughed.
“Look at her, Matilyn. Look at him. He’s only got eyes for her. You should have heard the things he was promising me if I left her alone.”
Mattie shrugged. “I don’t care.”
“My favorite was, ‘You can have Mattie, take that bitch back where she came from, but don’t hurt Emeline.’”
Mattie used another shrug to hide the shattering of her heart. Oh, God, the peaceful place was finally coming back to her. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, the drifting part of her was curled up in the corner of the room, sobbing, blind and helpless. Another part of her stood next to her body, a hand on the cold upper arm, lending strength. It was this part of her she was looking for. This part of her could take anything anybody handed to her. She took a deep breath, and the strong part of her became the air she was breathing in.
Good. It was her ritual, the visualization. If she separated the parts of her, then she could survive. When the soft parts, the emotions, the wea
kness, the vulnerable bits, were all gone, she could take whatever K dealt.
“Me and him made a deal, K. It was all sex and money.”
K threw his head back and laughed. “You are quite the whore, Mattie. I always thought you were a little too mushy-gushy and lovey-dovey to handle something like that.”
Her seductive approach turned into a limping hobble, but she made it. With her uninjured hand, she stroked his too-smooth cheek. “After all you’ve done to me, nobody’s ever going to want me. Especially when there’s somebody like Emeline ready and willing.”
“Damn right.” K kissed her, plunging his tongue deep into her mouth with no finesse. She resisted the urge to gag. “You’re all mine.”
“I’ll make sure you get all the money in the box, and I know how we can get even more,” she purred, hating herself for moving so close to him, for touching him.
“How’s that?” His hands moved down to squeeze her buttocks. Mattie was pretty sure she was going to puke. “The body of that kid is worth millions to my grandmother,” she told him. “Three times what Emeline is worth to her own father. If Ruth Ellen finds out he killed Elaine, then he won’t inherit anything when she dies. Money means as much to him as it does to you. The body is right there, with the cash. All we have to do is send him a picture and let him know we know his dirty little secret.”
K grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. She winced. “Are you lying to me? Mattie, if you’re lying to me, I swear I’ll hurt you so bad you won’t ever forget it.”
Mattie forced a bittersweet smile. “K, honey, I’ve never forgotten a single thing you’ve ever done to me, and I never will.” He took it like a compliment, goosing her behind once more.
For an hour or so, everything seemed defused. K didn’t torment West and Emeline any more, and they were left alone, together, in the shadows by the wall. K and Mattie worked together in the deepening twilight of the shed, finally turning on another lamp to make up for the lack of natural daylight shining in the high narrow windows. He wanted every detail of the McKendrick family. When Mattie had made up enough crap to satisfy him, he lounged back and pulled Mattie against his shoulder, a terrible parody of the way she and West used to sit on the couch back home.