by Amber Nation
I made it into work a few minutes before my shift started and I didn’t hesitate to tie my apron around my waist and set out making fresh coffee.
Today was an unusually slow day for The Diner so I made sure to keep myself busy by making sure all of the counters and tables were continuously wiped clean and all of the condiments and metal napkin dispensers were filled.
Wanda had just stepped through the door to the kitchen to go outback to take her break and I was finishing up with a customer.
Tipping up the coffee pot making sure that I got the last of the hot brown liquid into the cup placed on the table in front of my customer, I smiled to them and said, “Please let me know if you need anything else."
I turned around and directly into a brick wall of a chest as a hand wrapped around my upper arm, digging into my flesh.
Slowly tipping my head to where I could look into the eyes of the owner of this body, I couldn’t believe the set of ice cold eyes staring back at me.
I took two steps back trying to get away from the person when I felt the handle to the coffee pot slip from my grasp and quickly fall to the floor, breaking into hundreds of tiny little pieces.
“P…Pate," I barely got out through my trembling voice.
“Tsk. Tsk. Sheridan," he leaned towards my ear and said. Having his hot breath on my skin made me tremble in fear.
This wasn’t happening.
This couldn’t be happening.
He continued on, “I’m going to give you five minutes to get this mess cleaned up and out into my car willfully before I come back in and drag you out myself, making a scene. And if you don’t come out on your own, there will be consequences for little Ben." My eyes bulged out of my head and my legs felt as if they were going to crumble.
How did he know about Ben?
He placed his hands on my cheeks and directed my face up to where I was forced to look in his eyes. “Do I make myself clear?"
“Yes, sir," I said instantly thrown back into being that scared woman who felt inadequate and insecure.
He let go of my arm and left as quickly as he came leaving me a terrified shaking mess.
I could feel the walls begin to force in on me, but I couldn’t let them, I didn’t have time. I couldn’t let anything happen to Ben.
I turned towards the kitchen to see Archie looking at me through the serving window.
I glanced down towards my feet at the broken shards of glass, “The coffee pot slipped out of my hands. I’ll get the broom." Lowering my head, I went to retrieve the broom and dustpan to dispose of my mess. Luckily this wasn’t the first time so hopefully no one would be none the wiser.
I had to quickly think about what to do because I didn’t have much time remaining. The thing about Pate was when he said he was going to do something, he would do it. So I had no doubt in my mind that he would come back into The Diner and drag me out kicking and screaming. He had never done anything forcefully to me in public, but he’s had several months to stew on my leaving. And here to think that I thought that I was completely safe and now out of harm’s way. But now I had to protect Ben. No one would come between my son and me anymore.
I went behind the counter retrieving my purse and walked through the swinging door that led towards the kitchen. Archie had his back to me busy making food and cleaning the grill so he had no idea that I was picking out a knife from the butcher block and slipping it into my purse.
If things came down to it, I wouldn’t hesitate to take matters into my own hands.
“Uh Archie. Something came up and I’m going to have to leave. I’m sorry for it being such short notice."
He had stopped what he was doing and turned around to face me. Giving me a stern look, “Are you sure everything is ok?" Archie was more like a second father to me rather than a boss. He had that protective instinct.
I tried to let out a lighthearted giggle, but I was pretty sure that I failed, “Everything is fine. Nothing to worry about."
“Well alright, call and let us know if you need anything." The vibe he was giving off led me to think that he didn’t believe my lie. Even though I had never been any good at lying, I didn’t know what else to do.
I knew my time was quickly running out so I rushed through the glass and metal front door to the diner making sure to keep my purse close to me at all times.
True to his word, Pate was standing in the concrete parking lot, casually leaning against his car as if he wasn’t about to commit a crime.
Apparently I wasn’t walking fast enough for him so he stormed over to me and grabbed my arm once again as I tried to cower away from him.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Sheridan."
He opened the back driver’s side door before he wretched my purse out of my grasp and threw it on the other side of the car. Then he proceeded to yank my arms behind my back and secure my hands together. Feeling the hard plastic bite into my skin, I knew his handcuff of choice was a zip tie.
My brain was working overtime trying to think of various ways to escape.
Pushing down on the top of my head to get me to crouch down, he placed a hand on my upper back and shoved me into the backseat in the same manner as my purse. That’s all I was to him, an object to do with as he saw fit.
Looking back through the window, I saw his smooth the wrinkles out of his suit jacket and unbutton the one button that held it together in front of his stomach so he could move a little more freely. Then he glanced around and all I could do was hope that someone saw the assault that just occurred.
Pate opened the driver’s side door and smoothly slid behind the wheel to his luxurious car and cranked the engine. He wasted no time leaving the parking lot and going in the direction of wherever he was taking me.
I was laying on my side, which wasn’t comfortable at all and there was no possible way for me to move to be able to sit up and see where we were going. I hoped to God that he wasn’t going to take me back to his house out of Brown County.
It didn’t take him long before I saw him adjust the rearview mirror to where he could see my face and I could see his.
“Do you honestly think that I’m stupid, Sheridan? I saw the look on your face whenever I mentioned Ben. I don’t know how you thought you could keep it a secret from me. Being a lawyer, I can find out just about anything about anyone."
My chin began quivering and I was on the verge of tears, I thought I had covered my tracks with everything with Ben. But I did just leave him with my parents.
“I will admit that I didn’t know about him until after you left, but before then I didn’t have any need to dig into your parent’s information while you were with me. But when I found out that I had a son that you hid from me, I was shocked and then appalled. It didn’t take much time for me to figure out that you had changed your name. Sheridan," he glanced back up through the mirror to where I could see the pity in his eyes, “did you not think I couldn’t find you? You changed your last name from Meinshein to Nichols? At least next time change your first name as well to make it a little more challenging for me. I just had to bide my time until the right moment to come get you. Of course, you were always around Mike Jameson and by looking through his personal history, I could tell that he was a ticking time bomb that I really didn’t have the patience to deal with. So I waited, weeks turned to months, then once you brought the boy here and Jameson was no longer coming around I knew it was now my time. But you began hanging out with someone new, my initial thought was that you were quite the little slut, but then I checked Deputy Ethan Bradley out and that boy is as queer as they get."
I didn’t want to hear him slandering the people that I cared most about, but I really didn’t have any other option. I should have just taken Ben with me in the beginning and ran off to Mexico, where we would’ve been completely out of sight. To think that I could’ve left him in harm’s way by leaving him with my parents almost made me physically ill. I could feel my breakfast wanting to make a reappearance, but I had to qu
ickly swallow it down. I knew Pate and the one thing that he absolutely hated was a mess. That would probably earn me the beating of a lifetime and then I would be forced to clean it up.
On second thought…I tried to quickly formulate my plan. I didn’t know if it would work, but I had to take any chance that I could at this point.
I thought of him hurting my friends and loved ones and the sickness feeling was overwhelming once again that I just let it happen. I proceeded to throw up all over his floorboard.
“What the fuck?" Pate screamed before he craned his neck to see what just took place in his backseat. “God dammit, Sheridan." I knew his tolerance for puke was nonexistent. I felt him take a sharp turn to where I was sliding towards the door, my head first. I could just see my purse on the floor in front of me, but I had no absolute way to reach it with my hands secured behind my back. And if he wanted me to clean up the mess, he would have to let me go…
He threw the car into park before he peeled himself out of the seat. I saw his menacing face right before he jerked the backdoor open, covering his face with his free suit clad arm, to try and deter the smell. He had a weak stomach, so I knew that the stench was getting to him. I was really surprised he wasn’t retching.
I felt his cold, clammy hand on my bare calf before he drug me out. He luckily moved his hand from my leg to one of my arms so I could stand up. But the feeling of being on my own two feet didn’t last long before he shoved me to the ground.
“You dumb bitch!" he spat out in my general direction. “I really don’t know why I made such an effort to find you when you are absolutely useless."
“Why did you then?" I yelled out before I had a chance to think better of it. His glare became more threatening and I knew that I had done it. I had messed with a sleeping bear and now he was up and ready to attack.
He lifted me up to where I thought he was going to put me back on my feet, but he kept lifting me to where I was even with his face, my feet dangling barely reaching the ground from my tiptoes.
“Because you are mine, Sheridan! Mine!" I smelled the lingering effects of tequila and tried to turn my face to where I wouldn’t directly feel the harshness of his words or his breath, but he shook me until I looked back at him.
My body slammed against his car, my face leaning on the hot metal of the roof before he bent down to retrieve something from the center console. Pate made sure to yank at the zip ties to make them dig into my wrists before he used something to clip it off. I instantly moved my hands to the front of my body which was still pushed up against his car.
He jerked me around to where I was now facing him and my back was now forced against the car. “You will clean this mess up," he pointed to the back floor board. I guess I didn’t make the confirmation that he was waiting for, because I was so relieved for my hands to be free so I could possibly carry out my plan. So with the same hand that he was pointing with, he proceeded to backhand me across my face. I raised my hand to my cheek where the after effects of the slap stung my face. I felt a wetness form in the corner of my mouth and brought my hand away to see that he drew blood. This man had drawn blood for the last fucking time.
But he wasn’t finished, holding onto me on my shoulder with one hand he reared his other back and punched me in the stomach, knocking my breath clean out of me.
Grasping my stomach, I pulled away from his hold and began coughing and trying to catch my breath, taking deep gasps.
“That’s so you don’t try anything. You will clean up your mess that you made with your own clothing, then we will go on about our merry way." He turned on his heel and walked a few feet away from me.
I finally caught my breath enough to where I could stand upright once again, but not without pain. I was surprised that Pate took it so easy on me, but then again after I get his precious car cleaned up that might be a different story.
My hair had now come out of my twist that was secured on my neck due to his unnecessary roughness, but everything to Pate was justified.
Before I slid back into the backseat of his car, I looked around the vacant parking lot to see if I could tell where we were. Nothing caught my eye because there was literally nothing around. We must have been on the outskirts of Brown County. No trees or shrubbery in sight so my first idea of making a run for it was nixed. There was no place for me to run to so it would have made it less than difficult for Pate to quickly catch up with me especially since I would’ve been on foot and him in a car.
I untied my apron from around my waist so I could begin cleaning up the mess, no telling how long he would give me. I very carefully glanced his way to only find him on his cell phone. Good, so he wasn’t paying close attention to me.
I reached for my purse taking out my cell phone and first dialed Tessa’s number. I couldn’t hold the phone to my ear in case he turned to check on me, so I laid it in the seat and hoped that after waiting a few seconds she would have picked up.
I knew that I couldn’t talk long or too much, so I kept it very brief and to the point. “Tessa, help me!" I said at almost a whisper then hung up the call. I didn’t know if anything would come of it, but at least someone would know that I was in trouble.
Sliding my phone back into my purse, the knife that I took from The Diner was staring me back in the face. I looked back to make sure Pate was still on the phone, in which he was. I contemplated if I wanted to be that person, to take matters into my own hands. I was fearful for my life and for my son’s life. It would be worth it in the end to not have to constantly live in fear or worry about Pate lurking in the shadows for his perfect chance.
Who knew what would happen to me if I didn’t take this chance. I had made my decision, I just hoped that it would be the right one.
I finished cleaning what I could of my sickness and slid back out of the car the same way I came in. I slowly and meticulously moved towards Pate, who still had his back to me and his phone to his ear. He never could live without his phone being attached to his hand and at this time I was purely thankful for it.
I pulled the knife out of the pocket to my uniform dress and I continued creeping as quietly as I could. I prayed that he wouldn’t take this moment to turn around and check on me, if so I would have to react much more quickly than I intended to.
I dug deep down and tried to remember all the times Pate hurt me, either by forcing me to have sex with him or literally beating me. I brought all of those feelings that I felt and what I was going through to the surface and went with it.
I wasn’t going to be the victim anymore. If there was any one thing that I had learned from my time being with Mike and being away from Pate, it’s that I was brave. I was a brave woman fighting for her freedom and to keep myself, but most importantly my son safe.
Drawing the knife up, I was ready to strike, but at the very last moment Pate started turning around. But he had no idea that I was right behind him, ready for that element of surprise.
Mike
It had already been one hell of a shift and I finally had my first moment of the day to rest. I took what time I could to lay outstretched on my cot with my arms folded behind my head just looking at the ceiling. I had never really noticed all the cracks that were apparent, but then again this building was pretty old.
In Brown County, all of the emergency services were housed in one building in a centralized location in town. That meant that the Sheriff and Fire Departments, the Ambulatory services and dispatch were altogether. It made sense to have it together and being each service had different floors for their rec rooms and cots, it worked out. I hardly ever had to deal with Ethan Bradley and when I did I just made sure to keep my distance.
Still staring at the ceiling, I thought back over the last few weeks without Sheridan in my life. It was back to being dull and lifeless as it was before she came into my life. I hadn’t even really seen her since that night at Emmy Lou’s. I had heard through Brock that Ben was now living with her and that his wife and mother had been taking turns watchin
g him.
It was hard to hear Brock go on and on about how well Ben and Blake played together. Being so close in age, I supposed that it was good that they each had someone to play with.
I was happy for Sheridan even if the feeling of jealousy outweighed that happiness. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad that she finally had her son with her, but it should be me with her and not Ethan.
The intercom came on and signaled that we had a call but that both ambulances were needed. Great, I thought to myself as I hopped up off of the cot, another bad wreck was the first thing that ran through my mind. I hustled down the stairs to the bay where the ambulances were kept and climbed in the passenger seat where Todd was already ready and waiting in the driver’s seat.
“I guess it’s bad enough that we need both buses, huh?" I asked Todd as I pulled the seatbelt across my lap and latched it securely.
“Yeah, but the location doesn’t make sense. It’s just outside of Brown County, where there is basically nothing left. Remember when they tore down those empty buildings a few years ago because of the squatters? That’s where it is. There is really only empty parking lots."
As we bypassed the town, I was beginning to feel more and more uneasy about all of this. Something was niggling in the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to like what was going on.
My phone rang on my hip and it was Sheriff Hennings so I didn’t hesitate in answering it. Sometimes he called us ahead of time to relay what the situation entailed.
“Jameson," I answered into the phone.
“Mike, its Charlie. I just wanted to give you a heads up on the scene that you will be coming upon." I heard him take an audible swallow.
“It’s Sheridan…"
A million different thoughts raced through my mind and in the end every single one had the same outcome. I couldn’t lose her. I had already lost Hannah, I couldn’t lose Sheridan too.
“Todd, you’ve gotta step on it. It’s Sheridan, you’ve gotta move!"
There was no way in hell that it would take us those twelve minutes to get to her. Even with it being a little farther than the runs that we were used to, there was no way in hell that I would let it take us that long.