by Bella Jewel
We arrive at a large, two-story home. Her sister must have married a rich man, because this place is fucking huge. We get out, and I stare up at the dark house. Nobody is home. I wonder if she’s truly allowed to stay here or if she’s just that pissed at me she needs any reason to get away. Her sister probably has no idea she’s staying here.
Whatever, it isn’t my problem anymore.
“Could you walk me in?” Indi asks, staring at the huge house like she wants nothing to do with it.
“Yeah,” I tell her. “Yeah, I’ll walk you in.”
I walk her toward the house, and she pulls out a key and unlocks the front door. We step inside and she flicks a light on. The place is massive, bigger than anything I’ve ever seen. It goes back as far as it goes up, it’s that big. Expensive furniture lines the wooden floors, and the kitchen is bigger than my fucking apartment, I swear to fuck. I don’t even want to move in this place.
“Did you want a drink before you go?” Indi asks me, fidgeting a little.
“Not really, I think it’s best if we both go.”
She pauses, like she’s searching for something to change my mind, then she says, “Please, I need to talk to you about something. I’ve been thinking a lot about this baby, and I want to discuss it further, because you’re right, it isn’t working how I thought it would.”
She actually agrees that having a baby might just be a bad fucking idea for us?
I narrow my eyes and stare at her. Is she being legit, or is she just telling me what I want to hear so I’ll sit down? Either way, I’ll hear her out. Because if she is legit, it’s definitely something we need to talk about.
“One drink, and then I’m goin’.”
She nods and points to the sofa in the living area. I don’t want to sit on that expensive leather fucking sofa, but I do. I walk over and sit on the edge of it while Indi clatters around in the kitchen. A minute or two later, she comes back with a glass. It contains a dark liquid and some ice.
“Jack and Coke,” she tells me, “I know you like it.”
“Thanks,” I mutter, taking it from her.
She has a glass of water in her hands, and she’s still fidgeting as if she’s nervous. Her eyes darting around the big home, always landing back on me once they’re done.
“Look,” she says, watching very intently as I sip the drink. She’s on edge, like maybe she doesn’t want to say what she’s about to, but she knows there really isn’t many other options. “I don’t really want to give up this baby, but I am also smart enough to realize you’re not into it. You’re never going to be into it. And I might not get the support I was hoping for.”
“Was never goin’ to let you suffer, Indi. I would have helped, I will help, but I made my feelings clear. Never said they were right, but I feel them all the same. I’m not ready to be a dad, but I won’t leave you on your own if you decide to keep it.”
She nods. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, I’ll talk to the doctor tomorrow. But I will consider all options, now I understand it isn’t really an ideal situation.”
Respect her for that.
Can’t be easy to even think about, let alone discuss.
“Just know I’ll never force you into doing something you’re not comfortable with,” I tell her, “but I can’t promise anything more than financial support if you decide to keep it, either.”
She nods. “What about Erin?”
“What about Erin?” I ask her, taking a big sip of the drink to calm my nerves that are already starting to buzz with frustration.
“She’s an issue for me, Finn. She is going out of her way to paint me in a bad light, I don’t like it. If I keep this baby, I don’t want her around.”
Calm. Finn.
Calm.
“Not your decision to make, though, is it?”
“No, but …”
“No nothin’,” I growl.
My head spins.
A quick spin, enough to stop my words from coming out of my mouth.
I take a moment to breathe through it, shaking it off. Must have drank to the drink too fast.
I keep talking, “Erin is what I want. Nobody will dictate how that’s goin’ to go for me. Not you, or anyone else.”
Indi looks frustrated as she stands, and snaps, “What about me and the baby?”
“I thought you were considering other options for the baby?” I growl.
She’s playing games.
Should have known she wasn’t going to have a decent conversation with me.
Why in the fuck is my head spinning so much?
I need to fucking go.
“I’m leavin’,” I growl, standing, but I miss my step and stumble a few paces. What the fuck?
I turn to Indi, and my vision starts fading in and out, like I’ve been … fucking drugged.
“Did you fuckin’ drug me?” I demand, but my speech comes out slurred.
Whatever she gave me, it’s good, and it’s moving fast.
My whole body has gone numb, my legs are shaking, barely holding me up, and my head is spinning.
I’m going to go down, I know it, and she fucking knows it.
Evil fucking woman.
“I swear to fuck,” I slur out, “You’ll pay for this, Indi.”
“I’m sorry, Finn,” she says, when I go to take a step forward and my whole body goes tumbling backward, smashing hard onto the ground.
I can’t get up.
I can’t even fucking move.
My vision is fading out quickly, but not quickly enough to see Indi standing over me.
“I’m sorry. I had to.”
Then, everything goes black.
~*~*~*~
I come to and I’m fucking cuffed to a huge ass drain pipe.
It takes me a minute or two to realize I’m in a basement, a big fucking basement. I look around at the red bricks and the heating and watering systems. It’s filled with junk and old furniture. My hands are pulled behind my back, and the cuffs are wrapped around the drainpipe running down from the house. I could break it, but I feel weak as fuck, like my body just isn’t coming out of its drugged state.
How the fuck did Indi get me down the stairs?
Fuck me.
I don’t even want to know.
My head fuckin’ kills, thinking that probably has something to do with it.
“Indi!” I bark, but my voice is harsh, rusty, fucking tired.
What the fuck is she doing? Why am I in here?
She can’t be fucking serious right now?
Did she honestly drug me and tie me up?
I should have known better, I honestly should have.
Something about Indi has been off from the start. Even though she was nice and had everyone else fooled, she always made me question her, and I should have trusted my gut, but I didn’t and here I am.
Erin knew.
She knew and she tried to tell me, but I didn’t take that warning strongly enough.
Now I’ve been kidnapped by a fucking tiny woman.
I’ll never live this down.
“Finn.”
I jerk my head to the left to see Indi walking into the room, a bottle of water in her hands. She walks over to me, kneeling far enough away that I can’t do anything, not that I can do much with these cuffs, and uncaps the water bottle, holding it to my mouth. “Drink, you’ll get sick if you don’t.”
I shove my head to the side, causing enough force to knock the water bottle out of her hand, sending it flying onto the ground where it empties its contents as it rolls away. “I’m not drinkin’ a fuckin’ thing you give me. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why am I in here?”
She looks hurt by my actions, but she didn’t honestly think I’d sit back and let her fucking kidnap me and be a good little boy about it, did she?
“Have you lost your fuckin’ mind? People go to prison for this shit!”
She moves backward and sits on the floor, far enough away I can’t even reach her with
my legs. “I had no other choice! You wouldn’t believe me, Finn.”
“Believe you about fuckin’ what? Your fake pregnancy! You’ve lost your mind! Fuckin’ lost it!”
“I haven’t!” she screams. “All I wanted was for you to give me a chance, and you wouldn’t. Erin came along, and you just tossed me aside like I meant nothing. You didn’t even want our baby!”
“There is no fuckin’ baby!” I roar.
She flinches and clenches her fists. “There will be whatever I want there to be.”
She’s fucking mad.
“You let me go, and we can walk away from this with no problems. You don’t, and someone will find me and you’ll get locked up. What’s it goin’ to be?”
She shakes her head, smiling a little. “Nobody knows where you are. Nobody knows I have a sister. She’s away for six weeks on a vacation, she doesn’t even know I’m here. So, you tell me, Finn, who is going to come and take you?”
Fucking insane bitch.
“What’s your plan? To keep me here and then what …”
“Isn’t that obvious? I’m going to get pregnant.”
Fuck me.
You’d never read about this crazy shit in a fucking book, and here she is, actually thinking she’s going to have my baby.
“Over my dead fuckin’ body.”
“I know how you work, Finn. You can’t live without sex. After a few weeks, you’ll be desperate. It won’t take much, a small drug, just enough to bring you out of your angry state, and you’ll make love to me.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I hiss, jerking at my cuffs.
This drainpipe is stronger than I thought, but I’ll bring the fucking wall down if I have to.
“You don’t remember, do you? You honestly don’t remember?”
“Remember fuckin’ what?” I roar.
She shakes her head. “In all the time I lived right across the road from you, you and your brothers still don’t recognize me?”
“Why the fuck should we?”
“Because I used to walk behind you all to school every single day, or we’d take the bus together. I was meant to go to prom with you!”
I shake my head. I never even wanted to go to prom, fuck, I didn’t go. I have no idea what she’s talking about.
“I have no idea who you are! I didn’t even fuckin’ go to prom.”
“Bullshit!” she cries. “I tried to talk to you once at a party. Gosh, I had been obsessed with the Knight brothers for so long. I used to think you were the most handsome men I’d ever seen. You especially, you intrigued me. One night at a party, I tried to talk to you, after so many years of trying to smile in your direction and get your attention, I finally got the courage to go up to you and say hello. I told you who I was, I told you that I would like to date you and go to the prom with you, and do you know what you said to me?”
Fuck me.
I remember none of this.
What young man remembers anything he said when he was probably drunk, and stoned, possibly both. I don’t remember half the parties I went to. I was a teenage boy for fuck’s sake, I was out of it for at least three quarters of them.
“I don’t remember this shit, Indiana.”
“You laughed, fucking laughed in my face, and said ‘sorry, you’re not my type. I’m not going to the prom, good luck to you.’ Then you walked off. Then you dated my half sister. The one who owns this house. I was heartbroken when I found out. I refused to ever ‘meet’ her new boyfriend. You just didn’t notice me, and all I wanted was to be noticed. She always got what she wanted, but not me. Back then, I was just this plain girl with braces. Nobody cared about me.”
Her fucking sister?
I dated her sister?
What the hell kind of twisted story is this?
“Who the fuck is your sister?”
“Rose Shackles.”
I blink. Fucking Rose Shackles? Went out with her for no more than a month, fucked her a few times, and then moved on. Never even knew she had a sister.
“You’re Rose’s sister?” I mutter. “I never saw you.”
“That’s because I lived with our mother, but we had different fathers so she lived with her dad.”
Well fuck.
This just gets worse.
“You can’t honestly still be hangin’ onto somethin’ that happened in fuckin’ high school? I was a dick to everyone, don’t take it personally.”
She laughs, shaking her head. “I had forgotten about you, but then I went for a job interview at Rumbin’ Knights and guess who was running it? Lincoln. I couldn’t believe it. It was like a sign. He showed me some interest, I thought maybe, just maybe, the universe was actually giving me what I wanted when I was a kid. Then you walked in one day, and you didn’t even look in my direction. It wasn’t until a week later you finally said hello.”
“So you fuckin’ dropped Lincoln and turned your sights onto me?”
“Lincoln was interested in Shania, but you … you were single, there was no one in your life. I knew I had a chance. I knew you’d look at me now, so I started talking to you, and you know what happened after that.”
“Yeah,” I growl. “I’m sittin’ in a fuckin’ basement with a looney.”
She growls, and snaps, “I’m not crazy, Finn Knight! You drove me to this.”
“Fuckin’ how?” I roar, jerking my cuffs once again.
“Because you fucked me, made me think there was a chance, and then left, a-fucking-gain, for another woman. You weren’t even giving me a chance to show you who I am. You refused to even try. No matter how kindly I asked. Not even a damned look. Just like you didn’t look back then. So, I came up with a plan. All I needed was some time with you, quality time, and you’d see I was worthy …”
Fuck me.
This is not happening.
“So you faked a pregnancy…”
I knew it, all a-fucking-long I knew it. I should have trusted my gut. Should have trusted Erin. Should have trusted anyone but fucking Indi.
“Yes, I faked a pregnancy. But, it was only temporary. When you got to know me, I was planning on making it happen. Something like that would make you spend time with me, and when you did, I knew you’d like me because you’d finally give me a chance. Then Erin came into the picture and painted me the way she painted me, and now you despise me …”
“Indi,” I say calmly. “You need fuckin’ help. Serious help. Nobody is paintin’ you in any certain way except yourself. You’re the only one doin’ this. The only fuckin’ one. No amount of babies, time together, or anythin’ else will make me interested in you because you’re not what I want!”
“You did want me!” she snaps. “Until her. You did!”
“To fuck, Indi!” I bark.
She flinches. “No. We talked. We connected. We had a good time, Finn.”
Fuck.
This goes far deeper than me, she’s just fixed her sights on me. I’d love to fucking know what happened to Indi in her life. Whatever it was, it has crushed her self-esteem. Not to mention it’s clear she’s carrying some sort of mental issue around. Combined, it is making her crazy. I need to get the fuck out of here, before she actually does something crazy. Something that will glue her to me forever.
She’s not right in the head, that much is clear. I’m not judging whatever the hell made her this way, hell, I’m not fucking judging her, not really, but it’s clear now that she’s not thinking the way I am, and because of that, I have to be careful how I approach this. To get her to let me go, I’m going to have to suck it all in, and think.
Clearly.
“Look, Indi,” I say, trying to keep calm. “I did like you, but not the way you want me to. I can’t change that. You can’t make me feel somethin’ I don’t feel. Not even with a baby. Let me go and we’ll talk properly.”
She laughs, shaking her head. “Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid Finn, because I’m not. If you just give me a chance, you’ll see that we can build something
together, you and I.”
She’s not getting it.
“There will never be a you and I,” I say firmly. “And there will never be a baby.”
She smiles, pushing to her feet and standing.
“We’ll see about that.”
23
ERIN
“There’s nobody at her house,” I tell Slater, who is on the phone I’m holding in my hand, as I stand out front of Indi’s place.
No one is home.
In fact, it’s clear nobody has been here for a few days. The lights are out. The shades drawn. Not a sound to be heard. Lucy even climbed up and tried to peek in the windows, just in case for some strange reason she had Finn strapped to a bed somewhere. But, from what she could see, nobody is home. Which leaves us empty handed.
Lincoln checked the hospitals.
Nobody has had a patient in called Indiana. She’s not at any of them.
Which means they never went to the hospital.
Which means she has Finn somewhere.
How the hell she managed to get Finn, and keep him, is something I can’t quite figure out.
But then my mind would never go towards doing something so crazy, so maybe that’s why I don’t have it in me to figure this out.
“Fuck,” Slater mutters. “Where the fuck would she be?”
“I have no idea,” I say, my voice full of concern, “but wherever she’s taken him, it isn’t to her place or his. Maybe we need to call Lincoln, see if anyone at the garage knows if she has any friends, and where they live. Oh, and we should check her employee records. Maybe she’s got an emergency contact we might be able to track down to find out where she might be.”
“Good thinkin’,” Slater says. “Ellie and I will head over to the garage now. You and Lucy meet us there, we’ll come up with a new plan.”
“Sounds good to me. Has anyone tried calling her phone again?”
“Yeah, it’s off.”
“What about tracking it?”
“Damon is onto it, but he said he’s unable to grab it yet. She must have already considered that someone might track their phones and made sure that couldn’t happen.”