In the next heartbeat, the boy rushed him and was in his arms, wrapped around him tighter than any clothing or chains Kel had ever worn.
“I thought you were . . .” Tears spilled into the boy’s blond hair and Kel hacked into his own currently feeble mind, dredging up any memories at all he could find about his mother. Maybe she was the key?
Maybe she knew how to get them all out of here?
Dammit! If they hadn’t erased so many of his memories, he’d know this shit already.
Nothing surfaced no matter how hard he tried to recall more moments of her.
Besides, if she knew how to get out, wouldn’t she have already done it by now?
He held Robbie tight with one arm, stroked his back with the other. “Does it hurt when I touch you? Does it sting?”
“No.” Robbie tipped his head up and looked at him with adoration. “When mommy touches me, it hurts though.”
“I know, Peanut. I know.” He kissed the top of his head repeatedly. Why couldn’t he stop crying? “I know how that feels.”
He relished the idea of being able to touch his son without causing him undue pain. Oddly, it felt comforting to him as well. It didn’t prick and electrocute his skin to caress this little peanut’s scrawny arms and bumpy back.
His mind went back to Casey though. He’d refused to touch her, and now he wished he hadn’t.
What if he never got to see or hold her again?
He was hugging his son right now, and he couldn’t stop. He was family.
Casey was, too.
And he’d missed the opportunity to shower her with affection and comfort her when she needed it most.
She probably felt abandoned, emotionally hiding out like Robbie just had under the available furniture.
Yet, instead of going to her, holding his hands out and using soft, soothing tones, he chained her up and turned away.
His heart broke apart, and he whimpered as he rocked his son.
All he could do was focus his pain, this piercing feeling into a new found resolve to do the opposite with this little guy with him now.
“When they bring me food, you’re going to eat all of it, okay?” he told his son.
The boy nodded and sighed as he got comfortable in Kel’s lap.
“I know you don’t know me yet, but can you believe me if I tell you I love you?” Kel’s heart swelled and overflowed with so many emotions he could barely breathe.
“Yeah, I can.” The little boy played with a chest hair of Kel’s; apparently it was tickling his nose.
“How?” Kel chuckled then rocked the boy back and forth some more. His emotions were riotous inside him; all over the place.
“’Cause I already love you, and Nana Marie told me you loved me. She loves you, too.”
“Marie? Is that your grandma’s name?” Kel said it silently again: “Marie.”
“Mmhmm.”
“That’s a nice name.” Kel’s throat constricted but he managed to hum and close his eyes; savor this moment of closeness and warmth.
“She’s super nice. I really love Nana Marie. She keeps me warm at night and keeps the rats off me.”
“Rats?” Good lord—this was beyond repulsive. He never had rats in his cage growing up.
“Yeah, they’re ugly. I kick at them, but she said don’t do that. She picks them up, and when I’m not looking, I think she eats them.”
“Unnnngh!” Kel swallowed to keep from vomiting.
“I think she was really hungry. She made me eat her food like you want me to. Are you gonna eat rats, too?”
Kel shook his head and hugged his peanut tighter. “Shhh . . . Let’s not talk about yucky stuff right now. Just tell me you’ll listen to me when I try to protect you.”
“I will, Daddy. I promise.”
And that was when Kel broke down crying harder than ever, but smiled the entire time, because here in this hell hole, he’d found a family he never knew he had. He found the love he’d always missed out on, and found a little soul that had stroked his breaking soul back to life.
* * *
Kel wasn’t sure how many days he’d been locked up, but time dragged, even though he had Robbie to keep him company.
He wasn’t sure where Casey was since they refused to answer his questions. It was killing him to imagine what they might be doing to her.
Was she even alive anymore?
Every time he considered the ways she’d reached out to him, helped him, his heart would feel ripped wide open.
Then he’d go back to speaking to his son, hounding Hannah to irritate her, or he’d simply lie in the middle of the floor of his prison cell and hum to himself. The vibration helped him drown out the hideous icy fingers of dread swirling in his system.
There was no more talk about his mother from Hannah, so he had to question himself on whether she was dead at this point, too.
To pass the time, Kel did inane things like running his hands up and down the bars, straightening out springs on the bottom of the cot frame and then recurling them back in place. He did that particular task over and over again since it took a little more time and concentration, and in this moment, it was driving him mad to think about how Casey might be alone and crying. What was happening to her? And why wouldn’t they bring her back to him or at least say something about her?
Snaaaap!
A spring broke off into his fingers.
An idea struck him, and he smiled.
Robbie was napping on the mattress so he had to be careful.
Snaaaap!
Snaaaap!
Snaaaap!
Systematically, Kel broke off every other spring and straightened them one at a time then lined them up under his leg so no one would see what he was doing. It was all hidden under the shadow of the bed.
Before long, he had about twenty sharp tiny metal spears.
His fingers worked at twisting them two at a time, joining them together to fit almost like brass knuckles around his fist.
This might work.
He flipped the tips out, making sure they were perpendicular to the edges of the loops.
His teeth flashed as his smile grew in brilliance.
For a moment he questioned the validity of his idea, but then he knew what he was capable of, and if he was right, his son would outshine him on this one, too.
As soon as his son was awake, he would ask him about this.
“Go get her!” Hannah yelled at her desk, and out of nowhere, Johnathan was bursting through the door with Casey in his arms.
She was black and blue with whip marks on her bared thighs and they had her in men’s boxers paired with a white wife beater.
Kel lurched to his feet, and the moment the door to the cage opened, he had Johnathan’s throat in his crushing grip.
Johnathan grinned and slammed Casey to the ground, then stomped on her ribs.
Criiiick! Criiiick!
“Ahhhhhhhhwowowow! Casey screamed so loud, Kel had to shut his eyes for a second, but then something touched him from behind.
Tiny hands.
They reached up to him and handed him the metal barbs Kel had been playing around with.
Hannah was panicking over by her desk, presumably trying to find a weapon, but Kel had already slit open Johnathan’s throat with the little metal picks, and blood was raining down on Casey, writhing in pain on the floor beneath him.
Looked like he wouldn’t have to swallow down those looped barbs and shred his stomach to get out of this cage after all. He had planned for Robbie to fake doing the same so they’d remove him from the cage as well and take them to the infirmary. Kel knew his stomach, and knew it would heal not long after he vomited it up, but now Johnathan had changed the plan. There was no reason to harm himself when he could end this asshole right now and escape by being quick about it while Hannah scrambled around.
He dug the barbs deeper into Johnathan’s neck, and the light in the man’s eyes flickered then faded until he was turning into nothing
but dead weight.
Casey army crawled out from under the struggling men.
Kel dropped Johnathan, jumped over him, then made his way through the opened door. He shut the cage so Casey and Robbie would be safe, and then he was hurtling himself at Hannah over her desk.
She was fast and had secured the damned gun she’d used days ago to drug him with.
But the moment it was aimed at his face, he crouched down and sprung at her, crashing his shoulder into her chest like a football tackle.
She was shoved up against a filing cabinet, and screaming for help.
Kel’s bare hands jabbed at her ribs, splintering them as if they were twigs being broken down for kindling.
She gasped for air, and her screams were choked off.
His hands lashed out, grabbed her skull on both sides and craaaack!
Her head was smashed into the edge of the filing cabinet, and she went lax in his hands.
He released her, and she puddled on the floor like a sack of wet clothes. Without thinking, he leaned over, snatched her ID badge and shoved it in his back pocket.
Guards with guns ran into the room, but instead of aiming at him, they were aiming inside the cage, expecting to find him there.
Casey had Johnathan’s dead body in front of her and Robbie as a shield. It confused the guards for a few seconds; enough time for Kel to pick up the weapon Hannah had wielded.
He shot off round after round, hitting the guards in the neck, in the hands and head. All four of them convulsed immediately and dropped to the ground.
Kel snarled at them, and then grabbed a set of keys from one of the downed guards.
He leapt at the cage and told Casey between rushing breaths, “Get him out of here. You two run! I’ll find you later.”
“No! You have to come with us!” Casey moved out from under Johnathan’s corpse.
Robbie rushed him and clung to his leg. “Daddy! Don’t leave us!”
“I know you’re scared, Peanut, but I have to get Nana Marie.” He gave Casey a pleading look.
“We’ll come back for her.” She managed to heave herself up to standing and winced in pain as soon as she was fully erect. “There’re tons of guards in that hallway, protecting her room. We won’t be able to do this tonight. We need to get help—tons of weapons to free her. If we leave now, we can do it successfully. If we stay, we all get caught.” Casey hobbled over to him and gripped his arm. “This is it, Kel. We leave now or stay forever. And we have to do it quick before every guard out there figures out what we’ve done.”
He swallowed and ignored the icy death grip on his heart over the idea of leaving his mother behind.
“They might kill her if we leave,” Kel said.
“They won’t. You don’t know why they have her here still, but I do.” She yanked on his arm, and something was different.
There was no sting or any kind of lashing sensation on his skin. His eyes flung to her hand. She was like him now. They’d done it to her, too.
He wrapped her up in his arms. “No, no, no! Tell me they didn’t!” But he knew already—deep inside he’d always known that was what they were doing to her while they’d been separated.
“We can’t do this now!” She ripped her body out of his grip, picked up Robbie and moved past him.
The way she moved, he knew with a surety. She was already healing. They’d definitely fucked her up like they had him.
She moved with the agility of a jungle cat, grabbing guards’ weapons and chucking a few at him. Her head jerked to a window, and she set Robbie on top of a desk.
She flinched a little when she wedged the window open. There was obviously some pain there, but still . . . The way she was moving—a person with recently broken ribs would not be capable of this. Chances were they were achy and bruised—not cracked.
He followed after her. How did she know where to go? Where had they taken her that she knew so much?
She moved a chair under the opened window, peered up into it and then motioned for him to give her a lift.
Her body slithered through the window, and then he helped Robbie get through it next. He poked his head through to see where they were going.
She caught his boy on the other side with ease, and even helped Kel when he snaked his way through the window, barely fitting through it.
They were in a dimly lit parking lot, and none of them had shoes on. This was going to make it difficult to run.
But Casey had other plans.
She motioned to the keys he’d stolen and then pointed at a big black van at the edge of the parking lot.
Unfortunately, it was directly under a parking lot light.
Fabulous. They’d head over there and be caught in an instant.
She yanked on his jeans, signaling for him to take them off.
He did, but gave her a questioning brow.
What was this woman doing?
She tucked her hair up into a knot while he stripped down to nothing but his boxer briefs, the same ones he’d been wearing for who knew how many days.
They probably smelled horrendous, and they had Johnathan’s blood on it.
She shrugged into his jeans, tucked her shirt in and then pushed Robbie over to Kel.
“What’s the plan?” he mouthed at her.
She put her finger to her lips and took the guard’s keys in her hands Kel had taken while inside.
With her shoulders pulled back and a gun tucked in her jeans pocket, she strolled casually through the parking lot over to the van.
Was she insane?
He put Robbie on his back in case he had to run after her and save her gorgeous, nutty ass.
But to his surprise, she unlocked the door, hopped right in like nothing was out of the ordinary, started the vehicle and drove off.
All he could do was anchor Robbie to his back and stand there gaping after the disappearing van.
Chapter 10
The searing pain from Casey’s ribs made her eyes water, and it made it that much more difficult to drive the van. She kept it steady somehow and found the two exits. She wasn’t about to have little Robbie in the car with her if they gunned her down. It was her job along with Kel’s to keep that little guy safe.
None of the guards seemed to take notice of her though as she gathered information.
She and Kel should be able to figure a way to get out of here if they could devise a plausible excuse for a woman driver with Kel and Robbie. Would they be dumb enough to listen to her?
And was she smart enough to find a convincing enough lie?
She parked the van and found another car to steal in case they were already looking for the van and had been informed of their jailbreak.
She jumped out of the van and her old days as a hell raiser came back to her.
Her fingers were deft as she broke into an old Toyota Camry, slipped inside and hot-wired it.
Hopefully the car would seem less suspicious.
She got the car started in no time, and as calmly as she could under the circumstances, drove back to the spot where she’d left Kel.
Only Kel was gone, and so was Robbie.
Shit! She pounded her palms on the steering wheel and turned around, but then she saw a flash of skin in the shadows a few feet ahead.
Of course he would’ve hid.
How stupid did she think he was?
She pulled up next to the bushes, rolled down the window and motioned for him to get in.
When nothing happened she whistled, “Pssst! Get in!” Her hissing breath sounded like a death threat.
He bounded out of the bushes, and all but ripped the door off, sliding Robbie into the back, then he got in the front, and put the car in park for her.
She opened her mouth to protest, but didn’t say anything because she was jarred about as he dragged her across the seat and then buckled her into the passenger’s side, switching places with her.
“Buckle up, Peanut,” he told Robbie without looking at him.
; The little boy in back hopped in his seat and was getting himself secured when Kel rammed on the gas pedal, plunging all their backs into their seats.
“I’m gonna crash right through my mother’s wall to get her out. Where’s she at?” His eyes were icy and focused on the road.
Casey reached out and set a hand on his wrist. “You can’t do that, hon. I know you want to, but she’s not in a room that’s connected to an outer wall like where you were being held. I don’t think they ever intended for you to stay there permanently, but they were scrambling because your mom was creating problems for them. She went psycho when she found out you were here.” She stroked his wrist, hoping it would ease the testosterone charging his blood and fueling his lust for carnage.
“We have to get her out!”
“I want that, too, but we need time to organize this. Let’s just get out of this place. I’m sure we’ve got to get past some more security before we’re completely free. I only saw two guards at each exit when I went to go check it out.” She gazed out the front window and for some reason there weren’t any alarms going off, no cars chasing after them.
“That’s where you went?” Kel asked, his voice tight.
“Yeah—I wasn’t going to risk the peanut being hurt.” She looked around in the parking lot and behind the car.
Still no one was pursuing them.
Only silence and the stillness of an ordinary night.
How unnerving was this?
“Fuck that.” He gunned it even more, and before she could question him on what he intended to do, they were veering off to the left, running straight through an eight-foot hurricane fence with barbed wire on top of it and they were careening out onto a frontage road.
Casey bounced around as they went over the curb, finally putting them on the asphalt where Kel pushed harder on the gas pedal. About a mile later her eyes moved from the mirror; no one was following. She looked to Kel. “Do you know where we are? Because I have no idea.”
“I think so. Just relax. I have an idea.” He slowed the car down to about forty-five and took a corner sharply at the end of the block.
A few more sharp turns down dark streets, moving through back-roads and then they were in the middle of the barrio.
Sleeves Page 15