Confused, I make a face. “What? How? What do you mean?”
“But you freaked out and ran to Bobby. I couldn’t let him see me of course. I was this close to going back in.”
The weight of this hangs in the air between us: if Bobby had seen him, I would be dead.
“Well, you should have told me…” I trail off, lamely.
“Hey Annie! It’s me, Tommy! Got a minute?”
I frown. He smirks and standing up in one fluid motion, steps to the cooler. “I’m going to let you go, but I don’t know how.”
He stares at me. I’m flabbergasted. He’s right. He wouldn’t have been able to tell me had I not run and screamed for Bobby. He probably would have had to cover my mouth from screaming while he whispered into my ear that he was here to help me. I would never have believed him.
“Why didn’t you stop your father before he got to me?”
“We didn’t know where he was. He wouldn’t tell Bruce ahead of the abduction. We’re normally in on the plan when it’s been a robbery. But Dad had lost it–I’m sure you noticed–and he wasn’t behaving like himself. More suspicious. My ratting on him probably caused that, too. I had to take care of this myself. It was on me. And if I was back in jail, Bruce wouldn’t have called the cops right away. He was too hungry to lasso up my pop ourselves. This is family history we’re talking about. These things run deep.”
I guess this happened the only way it could have, which is a total mind garble.
“So why are you telling me all of this? Are you looking to me for a solution now?”
He opens up the cooler and tosses me a beef jerky. I catch it as he says, “I’m looking to you for forgiveness.”
My mouth slackens. I’m speechless. He smiles the tired smile of a man who doesn’t think what he’s asking is possible. Grabbing another beef jerky, he closes the cooler and walks to stand by the entrance, the sunlight outlining his silhouette.
Leaning against the rock wall, he takes a bite, waiting for me to say something. When I don’t, he says, in a thoughtful voice, “I want you to forgive me, because I’m sorry.”
Careful with my tone, I say, “It’s hard to do that, Tommy, under the circumstances.”
He pops another piece of jerky into his mouth and chews for a second, considering this. “Right about now, my cousin has called the cops and turned my dad in. He was the one who kidnapped you, not me. Am I right?” I don’t bother to point out the obvious, that I’m still kidnapped. “I’ve rescued you and I’m going to let you live. So I want you to see this as a leveling out, if you will. A clean slate. Canceling out–that’s what I meant to say. Canceling out what I did. I’ve made it right, in my own way.”
Careful not to antagonize, I use my softest voice, losing all the edges. “Well, it might make it right if you called Brendan and told him where I am.”
Tommy’s brow furrows. “Believe me, I’ve thought of that. But how do I do that without alerting them to my whereabouts? That’s why I’ve decided I’m bringing you with me. It’s the only way”
“Tommy, what are you going to do with a pregnant woman who you don’t like and a baby showing up who will freak you out?”
“You’re not so bad,” he mumbles, his lips spreading in a smile. “I deserve a second chance! Everyone is capable of anything given the right circumstances. If someone harmed that baby of yours, when it was five for example, not now. I’m not harming the baby; don’t look at me like that. But if that happened, what would you do?”
Without hesitation, I shrug, “I’d kill them.”
“Exactly. See?” Tommy’s flexed finger jabs into the air between us. “All I want to do is get to Canada, marry some nice girl, and start a new life.”
With my hands joined at the wrists, I hold onto my belly. “Well, why don’t you go and then when you’re a ways away, call Brendan, tell him where I am, and throw the phone away. Ow!” I cringe under the agony of what feels like a knife slicing into me.
Tommy pushes off the wall. “I could do that. But how do I know you won’t tell them where I’m headed?”
“Go to Mexico! If you leave and promise to call my husband, my lips are sealed anyway. I’ll be so fucking grateful that I might even write to the governor asking them to let you go! Oh man! This hurts. Ow!” I lower my head and squeeze my eyes against the pain. A pool of liquid pours out in a circle around me, darkening my skirt and the purple comforter. My eyes fly open and I look up at my captor. “Uh oh.”
“What? Is that pee? Why didn’t you tell me you had to go?”
“That’s not pee.” I look down at my belly, wondering at my baby’s timing.
“Then what is it?” he cries out, horrified. “Is the baby okay?!”
Sighing, I nod. “He’s fine. He just decided he doesn’t want to go to Canada. My water broke. The baby’s coming, Tommy.”
Chapter Nineteen
Brendan
And then there were four.
We’ve called the number Rebecca gave us, but there was no answer. I then phoned the police and told them about it, and they traced it and located it in the city, but now Sergeant Lewis has called me back to say with his smoker’s voice, that they found it. “But I’ve got bad news. It was in a gutter under fallen leaves, discarded probably right after the call.”
Shaking my head under the disappointment, I mutter, “Thank you anyway.”
“Let us know if you find anything else. That was before the kidnapping, so I doubt he’ll call Ms. Wells again.”
With my eyes on Rebecca, I tell him, “I understand. Thanks.” Hanging up, I lay the phone down and look at Mark.
We’re all sitting around the dining table, and Nicole sighs. Rebecca glances to her and back to me, her almond-shaped brown eyes defeated. “I’m so sorry I didn’t call you.”
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I told you,” she starts to defend.
“Sorry. No. I mean, in the city. Why aren’t you in Arizona?”
She fiddles with her nails, glancing to the half-drunk tea in front of her. She’s dressed nicely, with her usual sophisticated elegance, her long brown hair tied up in a twist like she’d been somewhere special. I’m expecting to hear about a charity fundraiser she was in town for, but she surprises me. “I’m seeing someone who lives in the city.” She meets my eyes. “I guess I just can’t stay away from this place,” she smiles. “It keeps calling me back! He’s a nice man. Normal. Good, you know?” She glances around the table.
“Ah.” I feel nothing, almost as if I were talking to a stranger. The old jealousy I might have felt in regards to her, has vanished. “Well, that’s great.” I stand up, mumbling a noncommittal, “I’m happy for you. You guys have got to be bored stiff waiting here with me. Why don’t you go see some sights or something?”
Mark makes a noise and Nicole stands up. She walks over and embraces me. I lay my head on her shoulder and break down. “It’s okay,” she whispers, patting my back, and squeezing me tightly.
Rebecca’s phone rings.
Nicole releases me and I turn, rubbing my nose once as I stare at the screen. Rebecca’s eyelashes rise. “I don’t know this number.”
I lunge for it, but Mark beats me to it, his arm flying out to grab the phone off the table. He hands it to Rebecca and warns us, “Don’t scare him off! If it is him.”
She gulps, clearing her voice before she slides the phone open to answer the call. “Hello?” She’s staring at me. Nobody is breathing. “Hello?” She nods. “Hi Tommy. How are you?” I start to pace like an animal, my eyes on that phone. Mark rises to keep me at bay, both of his hands up.
“Brendan!” he whispers.
“Merry Christmas to you, too. What?” Her shoulders relax. “Okay, here.” She holds out the phone. “He wants to speak to you.” Looking to Mark and Nicole, she explains as I snatch it from her hands. “He could hear my voice was odd.”
“Tommy?! You motherfucker, where’s Annie? She had better be okay!”
Tommy’s voice is gravelly and low. “I haven’t hurt her. I want you to know that. Annie, tell him I haven’t hurt you.”
I hear my wife call, “Brendan?! I’m okay! But honey! Jacob’s coming!”
With my face contorted with overwhelming relief, I tell the room, “She’s okay. The baby’s coming. She’s okay!” They’re all standing now, and they react to the news. “Tommy, If you’re calling, that means you’re giving up where she is. Is that right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m coming! Where are you?”
Chapter Twenty
Tommy
Vision: blurred. I’m so fucking freaked right now, I can’t even see straight.
“If you bring the cops with you, you don’t want to know what I’ll do,” I warn my ex friend, if he ever was that. I’m bluffing, but he doesn’t have to know that. I won’t do anything but run. There’s no way I’m hurting a pregnant chick, and what I said to her was the truth. The person I was that night–all the anger I felt–that person is gone. I just want my freedom.
“I won’t tell the cops. Let me talk to her.”
“No. Don’t tell the cops and you’ll get to spend the rest of your life talking to her, understand?”
He says, with gritted teeth, “Yes.”
“Good. I’m at the cave, B-man. You know the one.” He swears under his breath as Annie looks up at me, sweat dripping down her neck. “Bring towels and a blanket. Some fresh clothes. A couple pillows.”
“Get her to a hospital, Tommy!” he shouts.
“It’s too late for that.”
“I’m bringing a doctor with me.”
“How are you going to do that without someone alerting the cops? Now, do I have to remind you what kind of person I am?”
I can almost hear him planning my murder. After a moment, he growls, “No cops. No doctor. I’ll bring everything she needs.”
“Brendan!” Annie yells. I give her a look.
“Annie!” he yells in my ear. “What’s wrong?! What does she want to tell me? Answer me!”
“Alright! Calm down.” I look at her. “What?! I’m not giving you the phone, so just yell what you have to say.”
She rolls her eyes and yells to him, “What’s Rebecca doing there? What the hell?”
I grin. At a time like this, that’s what’s on her mind? Lady after my own heart.
He stammers, “Tell her Rebecca came to help. I’m bringing her with me. She’s delivered babies before.”
Rebecca cries out in the background, “I have?”
This interesting little lie I choose to keep from Annie. I yell, “WITHOUT THE COPS!”
“Fuck you, Tommy. I’ll do what you say, but if you’ve hurt her or my child, I will spend the rest of my life hunting you down.”
My eyebrows go up and I look down at his wife. “I told you we’re all capable of anything, didn’t I?” She glowers at me, guessing correctly what Brendan’s said. I hang up without another word. “He’s on his way. And with Rebecca, too. Now isn’t that interesting? Do the three of you hang out?”
Annie glares at me, then cries out as a contraction engulfs her. I take off my sweater and fold it up to wedge under her head, tugging down the bottom of the white t-shirt where it rose up. “Okay. I’m undoing the handcuffs…” Her condition has made me feel very helpless, so I unlock the damn things anything to make her a little more comfortable, ridiculous as that sounds. “Alright. It’s done. He’ll be here in a half hour, give or take. Can you wait that long?”
“Take me to a hospital, Tommy!”
“No can do. Think about it, how would we get you down the hill? You could barely make it up it.”
She cries out as another contraction bends her body. “I hate you!!!”
“Now now… you don’t want to say that ugly word with the baby listening.”
Annie glowers at me, holding on her stomach. “If yours is the first face this boy sees, there will be hell to pay.”
This rude statement triggers a thought: my face can’t be seen by anyone. I have to get out of here. This is my only chance.
Walking to the small cooler, I bring it to her, along with the two remaining bottles of water. “I’m taking off.”
Her eyes go wide. “You’re what?!”
The frightened look in her eyes cuts me to the core. Kneeling down, I say, “Look. He’s going to be here very soon. He’ll probably have the cops with him.”
“He said he wouldn’t!”
“And I’m not going back inside, Annie. I told you, I can’t. Would you? Would you go back into a place like that?” She doesn’t argue. “Right. This is my chance to be free. I have to take it. Do you understand?” Her face goes rigid. “What’s your son’s name? Jacob, is it?”
“I don’t want to tell you!” she cries, bending again. “Ow!!!”
Kneeling in front of her, I look at her with earnestness. “Well, it’s a boy. You did say that. So just hear me out. If when he grows up he makes a mistake but then makes it right, would you want him to spend the rest of his life in prison? Would that be what you wanted? Now, I know my parents don’t give two shits about what happens to me. But you’re a better person than they are, and you’re going to be a better mother. I saved your life today, Annie. I escaped prison and put my own life and future on the line to do it. So, am I supposed to go back into jail now that it’s done? Picture your son having a second chance, wouldn’t you want him to take it?”
She gazes at me, loathe to admit, “I’d do everything in my power to make sure he had that chance.”
I lean in, desperation all over me. I don’t want to leave her like this. What choice do I have?
“Please forgive me.”
Panting, she holds my eyes, lets out a quick exhale and drops her head. “Run.” She closes her eyes. “Run, Tommy. Go.”
Slowly walking to the mouth of the cave, I’m covered with guilt for leaving her like this, but I’ve got no other choice. It’s me or her.
“Tommy!” she calls over, scared to be alone.
Looking at her over my shoulder, I frown long and deep. “I should have taken you to a hospital. I’m sorry.” Without another word, I walk out into the sunlight, sliding my hand into my jeans pocket for the keys.
Chapter Twenty-One
Brendan
Mark’s rental car: going the fastest it’s ever gone.
The high, red peeks of the Golden Gate Bridge zip by above us, but not fast enough for me. I push the pedal to the floor and speed around someone doing eighty.
Rebecca’s gripping the dashboard, has been for miles, her knuckles bone white. “You don’t want to get pulled over.”
“Let them try and give me a ticket,” I growl. Mark, in the back seat, doesn’t say anything. He understands. “I told you ladies you didn’t have to come.”
Rebecca flicks an impatient glance to me. “No, I mean, you don’t want to waste the time it would take to explain, and then they’d follow you there if they knew, right?”
“Fuck!” I hit the steering wheel hard with my left hand, taking my foot off the gas a little, as much as my sanity will allow, which ain’t much. “I should have told them. I should have fucking told them! Mark, what would you do?”
Nicole’s eyes flick to mine in the rearview, from where she’s sitting beside him. Sharp-jawed and staring out the window, Mark says, “I’d try to grow wings. And no, I wouldn’t tell them. I couldn’t chance it.” He’s got Nicole’s hand in his. We’re all strung tight.
Rebecca’s body sways as I swerve around a slow-moving white sedan. “I wouldn’t have either, if that makes you feel any better. I know you’re asking him for what a man would do in this situation, but...anyway.” She stops talking.
“We’re going to have to get a cab for the way back. We won’t all fit back here,” Nicole mentions. Mark nods and for the rest of the bridge we drive in silence. As soon as we hit land, my heart picks up speed. Turning onto the street, I share a look with Mark through the rearview.
> His expression is like my own, determined and ready. “I can’t believe he took her here. What a putz.”
“He’s still holding onto the old days,” I mutter with disgust. “Tommy is about to grow up.” As the road winds upward, no cars compete with us for space. No one’s been here at the Army post for a long time, and as for the cave, its location has been passed down to only select people at State, a privilege that must remain secret. I haven’t been here since shortly after graduation, and if anyone’s been here since then, it’s just college kids.
With San Francisco Bay shimmering in the sunlight ahead of us, the tires screech to a stop and I jump out, muttering, “I’m going to kill him.”
“The baby first, Brendan,” Nicole warns, climbing out.
Rebecca jumps out of the car and runs after me. “Brendan! The baby is more important.” I’m already running.
I growl, “Don’t you think I know that?” Looking up at the hill, I shout in the direction of the cave, “ANNIE!! ANNIE, I’M HERE!”
Mark’s right behind me, carrying the large tote bag. We start the climb, our feet pounding the dirt and sending dust clouds behind us.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Annie
Seven minutes ago.
Alone, the cave feels far more ominous and threatening than it did. What if something happens and Brendan doesn’t come? What if he gets in a car accident? How will I take care of my baby? How will I cut the cord, wipe his face, keep him warm? Simple things like this that would have been handled by someone who knows how to do these things. The contractions are getting closer and the pain is beyond anything I’ve ever known. If anyone ever says women aren’t brave again, I will punch them in the face. Giving birth has got to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.
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