Finders Keepers Series: Part I

by Daya Daniels

  He looked at me and then closed his eyes for a long moment.

  “I know you know some details but not all of it. I want to tell you.”

  “Okay.”

  “I considered Nina my friend. She was my friend but she tried to turn me into a whore, Gabriel.

  “She invited me to what was supposed to be a surprise birthday party for me. We’d gotten in a huge fight a few weeks before, when she was high. She threw a cake at me. Nina apologized and promised to make it up to me once my birthday rolled around.”

  “Okay.” He turned to face me.

  “Nina blindfolded me and took me to this building. She said it was all a surprise.”

  Gabriel nodded as he listened intently.

  “When she took off the blindfold, I was in an office with a large desk in front of me. There were three men there lounging around on leather chairs, smoking.

  “Two of the men’s faces I hadn’t seen before but one I think I remember from the café where I worked. I think he tried to ask me out once. There were no introductions. I wasn’t given any names but Nina said they were her friends.

  “I had a bad feeling but I didn’t listen to my gut and I stayed there. Nina then poured everyone some champagne in celebration and we all sat and talked for a while. Then a few minutes later Nina said she had to use the bathroom and she didn’t come back.”

  Gabriel’s eyes were on fire while he listened to my story.

  “When I tried to get up and look for Nina, the man there that I remembered seeing before stopped me. He sat down beside me, cornering me on the sofa and began to kiss me. I was so scared. I told him to stop.

  “The first time he did stop for a minute. Then he asked me if I’d prefer to do it in private. He said maybe I’d be more comfortable. I said no. He ignored me and started kissing me again.

  “When I tried to stand up the second time, he pulled me back down to the couch hard, squeezing my arm. I asked him to let me go and I tried to stand up again. That’s when he started to get rough and threw me back against the sofa.

  “I started to scream and he squeezed my face so tight with his hand I thought my eyeballs were going to pop out.”

  Gabriel knelt on the floor in front of my chair.

  “I tried to fight I really did, but when I fought back it only made things worse for me. I begged, I really did but they wouldn’t listen. They forced me to do things that… They did things to me that were…Gabriel, they…” I said listening to my voice crack, unable to finish my sentence. “They were all so strong. I-I wasn’t strong enough.”

  “It’s an instinct to fight, Lily. I’m glad you fought. They will never forget you.”

  I paused for a moment and swallowed.

  “I must’ve passed out. When I woke up, I was in a different place and my clothes were ripped off.

  “The faces all looked new to me at first when I saw them. I was groggy like I’d been drugged or something. It took me a moment to remember what had happened before I ended up there alone.

  “I guess they threw me there after they moved me from the office room which was destroyed because of all the fighting and the blood. I could barely move.”

  “Where was Nina?”

  “I don’t know but when I woke up she was there. She’d come back for me. I begged her to help me get away from them and she left me there, again, and ran. I could hardly walk on my own and my arm and ribs were broken and she left me, Gabriel.

  “Then the men, they came back. The one that broke my arm wanted to have sex with me again,” I sobbed out.

  “I came, Gabriel. When he fucked me, I came. All these months I’ve been wondering what the fuck is wrong with me! The one that broke my arm, when he fucked me again, I came and I hate myself for it. I hate myself!”

  I sniffled loudly, wiping the tears that dribbled over my lips.

  “He gloated about it when he felt it. It was fucking humiliating,” I mumbled.

  “Lily,” he warned. “It was only a physical reaction—you couldn’t control it. It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean you enjoyed it.”

  “This was all because of Nina. They promised her something for me. I don’t know exactly what, maybe drugs, but Nina knew what was going to happen to me.”

  He looked deep in thought as he listened to me.

  “When they threw me out in the snow, I just wanted to die. I didn’t have anything left.” I steadied my voice, forcing myself to continue to speak. “I always just feel so disgusting, Gabriel, like a whore! I can barely touch myself sometimes. I make myself sick,” I said angrily.

  “Lily, please don’t do this to yourself,” Gabriel said, bringing me close to him.

  I held a hand out to his chest to keep him back. I covered my mouth quickly trying to stop it, but the vomit came in full force, pushing through my fingers and spilling out onto the hardwood floor right in front of me.

  Meridian, Idaho

  Six Months Earlier

  “This is the last extension I’m giving you for payment. I want my money, Nina,” Dawson said calmly as he stared into Nina’s frightened eyes.

  This was the fifth time in a month that Nina had been tracked down. Nina had been dragged in off the streets by one of Dawson’s employees to explain why she hadn’t paid up the money she owed him in full. It was an old office building that Dawson Pritchard was building an extension onto. It was the hub of his operations on the west side of Meridian, Idaho.

  “To date you owe me eighteen thousand, seven hundred twenty-three dollars and fifteen cents. That’s for blow and crank I’ve already given you, including credit,” Dawson explained.

  Nina knew she didn’t have that kind of money to pay Dawson back and she had no way to get it. Her plan when she left Dawson’s office was to grab Lily from Birdie’s Café where she was waitressing and to run. To skip state and never be seen again.

  “Nina,” he said in a warning. “I know what you’re thinking but if you run I’ll come after you and when I find you…”

  He didn’t finish his sentence, allowing Nina’s imagination to complete it.

  “Dawson, maybe I could work if off some way. I do anything and everything,” she said staring directly at his crotch smiling.

  He gave her a look of disgust. “No, Nina. Your dirty pussy won’t get you much with me. But...I’d take your friend Lily if you think you could arrange it.” Nina considered it for a moment.

  He was five foot eleven, at least one hundred and seventy pounds with sandy blond hair and grey eyes. He was handsome she thought, but he was insane and that scared her.

  “If I set it up, Dawson, can we make a deal that you’ll wipe everything clean?” she asked, desperate and tired of being beaten up and tossed around by Dawson’s men.

  He smirked.

  “Dawson, you can’t hurt her. Please just make it good for her, you know. Lily’s not a whore. Lily’s a good girl. She’s not like the rest of us.

  “I can get her to do this if I just talk to her, but you have to promise me, Dawson. Promise me that you won’t hurt her,” she pleaded.

  “Okay, Nina. It’s a deal. Lily’s a sweet girl. I won’t hurt her. I don’t anticipate any problems. If you could get Lily to spread her pretty little legs for me, I’ll wipe the slate clean, plus throw in some blow for you. How does that sound?”

  Nina would have said anything to get out of that building in one piece.

  “Okay, Dawson,” she agreed.

  “Make sure Lily is wearing something red when I see her and that she is wearing her beautiful wavy hair out. But, Nina, if you fuck me. If you fuck me, Nina. I’ll kill you,” Dawson said gripping her red hair so hard that it started to pull away from her scalp. “Tomorrow.”

  She nodded vigorously while her eyes welled up with tears.

  “Good. You bring Lily here tomorrow, at twelve.”

  ~

  “If you don’t think I can help you, Lily, then why did you come?” Dr. Lin took off her glasses, placing them on her notepad, and
gave me a small smile.

  I shifted uncomfortably on the sofa across from her. I couldn’t believe I agreed to do this. It was stupid. I didn’t see how spilling my guts to a complete stranger was going to help me sleep.

  “I don’t know. I guess I was curious.”

  “Lily, anything you tell me is confidential. Nothing that we talk about leaves the four walls of this room,” she said.

  I fiddled with the ends of my hair.

  “Have you ever talked to anyone like me before. A doctor?” she asked.

  “Yes, but a long time ago. It never helped,” I said evenly.

  Dr. Lin was young. She had porcelain white skin and her black hair was cut in a severe bob.

  “I know a little bit about you already but why don’t we focus on what’s bothering you the most then,” she said.

  “I have difficulty sleeping,” I tod her honestly. “I have nightmares sometimes.”

  She observed me closely while I spoke. “Have you always had them?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But after—”

  “It got worse,” she said simply while nodding.

  I looked around the large room that reminded me of a cozy den. The walls were covered in cream and white wallpaper and were decorated by numerous picture frames, filled with Dr. Lin’s various degrees and diplomas in psychology and psychotherapy. There was a framed picture of her and a little boy on her desk. Her son, I assumed maybe.

  “When we refuse to confront the things that bother us when we are awake, they tend to manifest themselves unconsciously in our dreams.

  “It’s a way of your psyche forcing them to the forefront. It’s nearly impossible to ignore your feelings and hope the problems just go away on their own. Eventually, the things that bother us come out sideways, as they say…physically too sometimes,” she said, as I caught her observing my shaky hands. I tucked them between my legs.

  “What are the dreams about?”

  “My parents. Sex. Being buried alive in a trash heap.” I laughed. “That’s the one that scares me the most.”

  Dr. Lin squinted her eyes at me curiously. “That’s interesting,” she mumbled.

  I squirmed again uncomfortably in my seat.

  “Why don’t you talk to me about sex, Lily, if you’re comfortable,” she said. “Do you enjoy it? Did you enjoy it before what happened to you?”

  I’d only had sex a few times before and only with two men. The encounters were years apart and I could barely remember what happened. I didn’t have a lot of experience in that department but I knew what I liked. The men I’d been with never hurt me or forced me to do anything I didn’t want to.

  “I guess I did. It was good when I wanted it.”

  “The fact that you orgasmed bothers you, I’d imagine.”

  I nodded, silently looking at the floor.

  “It’s possible, Lily, that despite the fact this particular man’s touch was unwanted and he was hurting you, he still touched some sort of embedded sexual response in you. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Dr. Lin continued. “If his actions and his method of approaching you sexually were similar to what you experienced or enjoyed in the past, it would make sense that your body would respond.”

  I thought about it for a long moment. I always liked it rough. I always like to be fucked from behind but I never wanted to be physically hurt.

  “I never liked being hurt,” I said in a small voice.

  “Of course not, Lily, but sometimes the brain and the body have a hard time separating from each other. Please don’t blame yourself for it,” she explained. “Tell me about Gabriel.

  “Are you sexual with him? Do you have sex with him?” she asked.

  “I am but we never have actual sex—the full act.”

  Dr. Lin crossed and uncrossed her legs while she listened. “You seem annoyed about that, Lily.”

  I took a deep breath, wrapping my arms around my waist. “I guess I am…annoyed with myself.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I can’t move forward,” I snapped, glaring at her.

  Dr. Lin stared at me and my eyes started to tear up. “That’s probably enough for today, Lily. Come and see me on Thursday and we can talk more.” She handed me a tissue and gave me a pat on the leg.

  “Isn’t this a bit early, Abigail? To be shopping?” I asked, checking the price tag on a crib which shockingly read three thousand seven hundred dollars. I dropped the tag like it bit me. Abigail and I moved slowly through the department store. There were rows of baby items on each side of us.

  “No, I don’t think so. Plus, I like to be prepared. This is our first baby. We don’t want to leave anything until the last minute,” Abigail said.

  She was only four months along but you could see her body had slightly changed. There was a pregnancy glow about her.

  “Lily, have you ever considered having children?”

  I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever thought much about it honestly. I never really had a boyfriend or anything or looked to get married and settle down so it’s just not something I’ve thought about,” I said honestly.

  She turned to look at me. “You’ve never had a boyfriend?”

  “Nope.”

  “Well, Lily, I think you would make a wonderful mother.”

  I was grateful for the compliment but I still didn’t believe it to be true.

  “Abigail, that’s really sweet of you to say that. I think the same of you.”

  She settled on a furniture set for the nursery that was nearly eight thousand dollars. I cringed when she set her bright blue credit card down for the cashier to swipe.

  “Jacob doesn’t usually give me a budget,” she said pushing her credit card back into her Fendi wallet. “Did Gabriel give you a credit card?”

  “Yes, he did.” Abigail’s face lit up.

  I hadn’t thought about it much since he’d given it to me.

  “We should go shopping then! I need to buy Jacob some socks anyways. He loves to walk around barefoot and it drives me crazy!” Abigail hooked her arm in mine.

  I wasn’t comfortable using Gabriel’s money. He’d already done so much for me and I already knew I probably owed him now more than I could ever repay.

  “Lily, you look upset. What’s wrong?” Abigail squinted her eyes to look at me.

  “It’s nothing. Well, it’s just that I don’t have a job, Abigail. I can’t spend money like this. It’s not mine and I’m not contributing.”

  Abigail grabbed me by the shoulders and looked directly into my eyes. “Lily, Gabriel has money. Between the profits generated from the sawmill before he handed it over to Jacob, the copper mine in Butte and the coal mining operations in Montana, Gabriel has done well for himself.

  “He has money. Lots of it and he’s never had anyone to spend it on. All he does is buy guns.

  “If he gave you a credit card, then he gave it to you for you to use. Not for it to live in your wallet permanently. I know exactly where we need to go,” she said tugging on my arm lightly. I dragged my feet behind her through the mall.

  She insisted that we stop into a Victoria’s Secret store. I bought a few new lace panties and matching bras sets and two pajama rompers and a black slip. It had been a long time since I was able to buy anything nice for myself. The lingerie was pretty. I was enjoying the day and I relished in the girl time I spent with Abigail. After stopping in two more department stores, we stopped at a Starbucks.

  “So how did you and Jacob meet?” Abigail took the plastic top off her tea, blowing the heat from it lightly.

  “I was wild in college, like really wild. Jacob’s been trying to tame me ever since,” she snickered. “I was out one night with a bunch of friends, drunk of course, and partying like there was no tomorrow. I’d seen him a few times before but it took forever for him to introduce himself to me. But it was almost like he knew me already once he did.

  “Jacob was friendly and flirtatious. He was really easy to ta
lk to. The next morning, I woke up in his apartment. He told me I couldn’t leave.” Abigail laughed. “I’ve been with him ever since.”

  “Interesting,” I said.

  She giggled.

  “You’ve been married long?”

  “No, actually. We’ve been married for two years and sort of been together for nine. Are you and Gabriel thinking of getting married?”

  I laughed lightly, shaking my head. “Gabriel and I are just friends,” I said.

  She rolled her eyes. “I see the way Gabriel looks at you.”

  I sipped my tea taking in her words “He’s private I guess.”

  “He’s closed off, Lily—to everyone, except to you,” she said laughing.

  “I care about him.”

  She nodded in understanding and then smirked. “And you find him sexy as hell, right?”

  I closed my eyes for a moment and smiled.

  “Uh-huh.” Abigail grunted when she took another sip from her paper cup.

  I was attracted to Gabriel. I cared about him but I wasn’t ready to pick apart what any of my feelings meant. Gabriel and me together...if we were together, was complicated.

  I exited the bathroom to find Gabriel standing over the pink and white striped Victoria’s Secret bag holding one of the slips up in his hands like it was a specimen.

  “Shopping?” he asked with a smirk on his face.

  “Yes, just a little. It was Abigail’s idea. I’ll pay you back.”

  He twisted around at my comment and glared at me, clearly insulted by my words. “Lily, please buy what you want. You don’t need to pay me anything back. I’m glad Abigail took you shopping. Please buy yourself some nice things. It’s why I gave you the card,” he said letting out a sigh.

  He sat on the edge of the bed and took his hat off, then picked the camera up from off the bed. “Have you been using this?”

  “Yeah, actually I have. I think I’ve finished four rolls so far. I have some pictures of you as well.”

  He grabbed the camera and snapped two pictures of me. I posed for the first and made a silly face for the second shot. Gabriel gave me an amused expression. I walked towards him and went to move the bag off the edge of the bed and Gabriel placed his hand over mine and guided me firmly to sit in his lap. I nuzzled my ass between his thighs and leaned against his firm chest. He was warm. Every time he touched me, I felt it between my legs.