by Tammy Walsh
I glanced across at Traes who sat high in his saddle, eyes wary and alert, looking for any sign of danger. Tears sprung to my eyes.
It had been my decisions that brought this whole situation down on Cleb and Traes. If I’d just done things differently, if I could have been more honest from the start, none of this would have happened.
I turned away and tried to focus on something else. Our arjath had a missing leg and limped along. It was not pronounced and didn’t bother Cleb.
Traes took the other arjath while Waev walked alongside us, his powerful weapon tucked away in his shoulder bag. But he kept the blaster pistol in one hand in case we came across more trouble.
“Are there any more kidnappers?” Traes had asked me when he pulled back from hugging me and Cleb.
I shook my head.
“No, just him,” said. “Just one man.”
Just one man.
And he’d managed to tear this family apart.
When I came across him with Cleb in his room, his grip so tight I feared he might accidentally harm Cleb, I did everything he asked.
I shut the door, crossed the room, and put my hands behind my back so he could attach the restraints. He did the same with Cleb, who had tears running down his face.
“There’s no need to be afraid,” Asshole said. “As long as you behave yourself, nothing will happen to you.”
Just like when you chained me to the wall in your shack. Had I done anything to deserve that punishment?
To Cleb, this was all part of the story I’d told him. Asshole was a bad guy like one of his toys. They would be taken back to his lair and locked up, beaten, maybe tortured.
The reality wasn’t much better.
Asshole put a gag in Cleb’s mouth. Then he put one in mine.
“We don’t want you making any noise now, do we?” Asshole said.
Maybe we couldn’t make any noise, I thought, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t communicate.
Asshole lifted Cleb and placed him on the windowsill. I hastily bent down and snatched a handful of Cleb’s spy figurines. They were the closest things to hand and small enough to use hide inside my clenched fists. I felt at them, counting them out. I had around six, maybe seven. If I could leave a trail, someone might find it.
Asshole was strong—even for a Titan—and hefted me in a fireman’s lift. He added Cleb on his other shoulder. He climbed out the window and scaled down the trellis. He placed us, feet down, on the grass.
Warm yellow light spilled across the grass and stretched along the ground. I considered running into it to get someone’s attention, but there was no room for failure. He would punish me, or worse, Cleb, if no one spotted us.
Asshole was very careful when he took us through the forest. He paused often, listening for noises in case someone was creeping up behind us. Every so often, I dropped one of the spy figurines, letting it tumble from my grip when Asshole wasn’t looking.
How did Asshole think he was going to get away with this? Did he honestly think Traes wouldn’t track him down? He’d entered Cleb’s room and left behind hair, fingerprints, DNA. He was from this world. Surely, he must have known. But then, logic was never the providence of madmen.
Asshole didn’t look concerned. In fact, he looked quite calm.
I watched as he peeled semi-solid sticky goo from his fingertips and dropped them on the forest floor. He did the same with a mask he was wearing on his face. The moment it made contact with the damp leaves, it curled up on itself, fading to nothing.
Asshole caught me staring.
“It’s useful when you don’t want to leave evidence behind,” he said. “This is not my first rodeo.”
This is not my first rodeo.
What was he saying? That he’d done this before? That he had kidnapped innocent people?
That didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was the foresight. He wasn’t as stupid as I thought he was. It meant he wasn’t incompetent and might get away with this.
He might succeed at taking me and Cleb so far away they might never find us again.
And that terrified me, but not for my sake.
If he captured and took me away, that would be bad enough. It’d been my problem from the get-go. But now I’d brought it down on Cleb too. He didn’t deserve any part of this.
If anything happened to him, it would be because of me.
I muffled around the gag in my mouth. I wanted to tell Asshole that it wasn’t too late. If he let Cleb go, I wouldn’t fight or struggle. I would go with him and do as he asked. This had nothing to do with Cleb. He didn’t need to be part of this.
In response, he waved his hand in my face.
“It’s no use pleading, girly,” he said. “The boy is worth too much to let go. I can get a good price for him from the rich Titan. More than I’d ever get for you. You’re more of what you might call a long-term investment. I’m going to whore you out to every guy that comes calling. After I get my taste, of course.”
He ran a disgusting finger along my jawline.
I turned away from him.
“There’s no use in fighting, girly,” he said. “But go ahead and try. It makes it more interesting for me.”
I wished I could have spoken to Cleb, could have told him to turn back and run. I would run into Asshole and kick him in the shins. I could distract him while he made his break for it.
But it was wishful thinking. I couldn’t speak to Cleb, and even if I could, Asshole would lay me out with a single blow to the head. Cleb was small and a full-grown Titan would catch up to him easily.
And maybe even hurt him.
Above all, I couldn’t let that happen.
Cleb might have to live roughly for a few days but Asshole would get his ransom. Then Cleb would be free.
Then it would be just me and the disgusting Asshole. I’d escaped from him once. I could do it again.
I dropped another figurine and covered the noise it made with a timed footstep.
“Maybe you can help me out with something,” Asshole said.
Help yourself, asshole.
“I can’t decide if you’re the best or worst thing that’s happened to me,” he said. “Get this. It’ll really make you laugh. You were never meant to belong to me. I was never meant to be your master. Your real master was a successful lawyer. But you see, he had this little flaw. He liked to gamble. He can’t help himself. He sees an opportunity to earn easy money, and he takes it.
“So, one day he comes to me, unable to pay one of his bad bets, and instead has to give me something else. A gift, you might call it. You. He brought you along in your shiny new pod. I didn’t want you. I didn’t have a need for you. But he made me see the upside. You could cook and clean for me, be my comfort woman. I never found you attractive. Far too skinny. But one day, when the bar threw me out early, I came home and realized maybe, in the right light, you weren’t as hideous as I thought.”
That was the day I escaped. When I bashed him over the head and chained him to his wall. But I was still reeling from his earlier revelation.
I was payment for a bad debt? That sure made a girl feel special.
I wondered how I’d ended up in his possession. He was not rich and I didn’t think buying an abducted woman could be cheap. He had no money, so it was always a bit of a mystery.
Sometimes mysteries are better than answers.
I put it out of my mind. It didn’t matter anymore. I no longer belonged to him and I never would. My heart, soul, and body belonged to Traes, and always would.
I dropped another figurine. I needed to be careful and ensure to space them out. I had no idea where we were heading. Asshole hadn’t indicated how far we would be going. Maybe he had a shuttlecraft stored away somewhere. I doubt he’d brought his old truck. I didn’t think it was capable of interstellar travel.
I took a step forward and bumped into Asshole.
He glared down at me with his twisted pockmarked sneer.
“I think you dropp
ed something,” he said.
My insides turned to water and my legs felt weak.
He viciously spun me around, yanked my clenched fists open, and dug the spy figurines out of my grip. He waved them under my nose.
“What’s this, huh?” he said. “A few toys to play with between your whore clients later?”
He hurled the figurines across the space, and with one smooth motion, backhanded me across the face, knocking me to the ground.
Cleb, incensed with rage, barreled into Asshole, head-butting him in the groin and kicking him in the shin.
No!
Asshole grabbed Cleb by the scruff of the neck and hoisted him off his feet. He brought him up so he stared at him nose to nose.
“Think you’re a big man, do you?” Asshole said with a growl.
Cleb kicked and flailed with his legs but he couldn’t connect with Asshole, who screwed up his fist and would beat Cleb if I didn’t do something. He might even accidentally kill him.
Still a little groggy from his blow, I tasted a little fresh air around the gag and worked it free with my lips.
“Hurt him and you’ll never get your ransom!” I yelled.
Asshole glared. He kicked me in the gut.
I heaved and hurled over the ground.
Asshole peered closer at Cleb, who still had that angry look in his eye. He put him down on his feet.
“You’ve got heart, kid, I’ll give you that,” he said. “But you listen to me, little lord. If you make a fuss, if you make problems for me, I’m going to have to hurt your lady friend here. And you don’t want that do you?”
Cleb’s anger faded instantly. Asshole might have just poured water over a fire.
“There’s a good lad,” Asshole said. “This doesn’t need to be unpleasant. I’ll even let you have one of your toys.”
He held up the one remaining figurine in his hand. It was the main character, Captain Titan. Cleb looked at it with yearning. It wasn’t for the sake of the toy. It was because he wanted Captain Titan to rescue him, or to inhabit the role and become the great spy himself and save the day.
But he was just a little boy.
Asshole tucked it in his pocket.
“You’ll get it when we reach our destination,” he said. “Behave yourself and no one will get hurt.”
Asshole got to his feet and helped me onto mine. He would soon put the gag back in my mouth, so I needed to act fast to say something that might help.
“You don’t need to do this,” I said. “Traes has a lot of money. He’ll pay a lot for us. You don’t need to go one step further.”
“I know he’ll pay,” Asshole said. “But I need to get organized to make sure he doesn’t try to hamstring me.”
“This is between you and me,” I said. “Leave Cleb out of this.”
“Too late,” Asshole said. “You made him a part of this.”
He shoved the gag back in my mouth before I could bite back a response.
What hurt the most was I knew he was right.
Cleb struggled to catch his feet by the time we reached the tower. With my hands restrained behind my back, I couldn’t carry him, so it was left to Asshole.
He grumbled every step of the way and insisted to go to the very top of the tower. It gave good views over the surrounding area. But we had no food, no water, so I doubted we would be there for long.
I sat with my back to the wall. It felt cold, craggy, and damp but if it meant I could support and hold Cleb in my lap, so be it.
I wished there was some way I could escape, some way I could rise to the occasion, but with my hands tied behind my back and Cleb to think about, what could I do?
I had to wait for the right opportunity to present itself. In the end, it was Traes and Waev who held the advantage. They blew a hole in his chest three inches wide. The plasma bolt was so powerful it scorched the stone wall.
Asshole lay there, his unblinking eyes staring at me. His features curled up into a smile of victory.
Yes, he might have failed in kidnapping us, and yes, he was now dead, but the effect he had on me, Cleb, Traes, and our futures was absolute.
I would bear this black mark on my conscience for the rest of my life.
But with him died my secret. My slave past.
No one ever needed to know the truth.
And yet, my stomach churned. Could I live the rest of my life without telling Traes the truth? Could I ever truly be happy knowing I had lied to him? That everything I’d done led to both me and Cleb getting kidnapped?
These were the very same thoughts that ran through my mind as we drew up to Traes’ house. Rich morning light kissed it, making it glow.
Warm and welcoming, and yet, might it mark the end of my time here?
The guards saw us coming and hurried down the steps to meet us. They took the arjaths by their harnesses and held them steady.
“Give them as many treats as they want,” Traes said, dismounting. “I owe them a debt I can never fully repay.”
Grinning broadly, the guards bowed and took the arjaths back to the stables.
Traes approached a second pair of guards that descended the house steps.
“Take fresh arjaths east,” he said. “Go to Quill’s house next door and tell him that in one of his dilapidated watchtowers, at the very top, he’ll find a dead body. It’s the kidnapper who took Bianca and Cleb. Have his men help you load the body onto a cart and bring him here. He may have been a criminal but no one deserves for their body to be eaten by rats.”
The guards saluted and took off.
I disagreed with his last statement. I thought Asshole deserved everything that came to him. I guess I was less forgiving than Traes. I wondered if he would be so understanding if he knew everything Asshole had done to me…
Traes carried Cleb and kissed me on the cheek. Then he led us inside the house.
We were met with applause as we entered. It began loud and then quietened when they saw Cleb in Traes’ arms. They were suddenly distraught.
“He’s fine,” Traes said. “He’s asleep.”
The servants sighed with relief. They shared grins and slapped each other on the back. We all shared in the immense sense of relief.
“I’m sorry we’re not wearing our uniforms, sir,” one of the servant cooks said. “We got up in the middle of the night.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Traes said. “I’m just pleased you all helped. We never would have found them without you.”
Praise was a rare thing in Traes household. They basked in its warm rays.
The servants eyed Waev with his shoulder bag, camouflage jacket, and hat. None of the servants had ever seen him dressed like that before. He held a secret, one that he’d kept very close to his chest ever since he’d been there.
And he wasn’t the only one.
“Would you like a cup of tea, sir?” Waev said to Traes.
And just like that, they reverted to their previous roles.
Traes braced Waev with a hand on his shoulder and nodded.
“Yes, my friend,” he said. “That would be wonderful.”
Waev clicked his heels and marched in the direction of the kitchen. He was hounded on all sides by the rest of the house staff, who would want to know the intricacies of how they managed to find Bianca and Cleb, and why he was wearing such unusual clothes.
No doubt he would tell them an altered version. I ought to know—I happened to know something about alternate versions.
Suddenly, Traes and I were alone. The entrance hall had never felt so large before.
“You should go upstairs and rest,” he said. “I’ll send for the doctor. When he gets here, he’ll go up to see you right away.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “Nothing a good bath and a long sleep won’t fix.”
Traes handed Cleb over to a thick shouldered guard.
“Give him a quick wash and put him to bed,” he said. “He needs his rest.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard said and c
arried him up the stairs.
Traes closed the space between us and took me in his arms. He held me close.
“Wait,” I said. “What about the servants?”
“I’ve decided to be open and honest about our relationship with them,” he said. “With everyone. I want you to be my lady.”
I wasn’t sure I heard him right.
“What?” I said.
“I want you to marry me,” he said. “I know it’s sudden but I can’t deny how I feel about you. Don’t you feel the same way?”
Yes, I did. With all my heart.
But there were too many lies between us, too much I hadn’t told him. Him saying this was like being hit by a freight train.
“Wait,” I said. “This is too fast. There are things about me you don’t know. Things you might not like—”
He took a step forward and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Nothing else matters. Only that you and Cleb are safe. You bring out the best in me, bring out the best in Cleb. You are the missing piece in my life, and perhaps, with time, I can be the missing piece in yours.”
You already are.
“We don’t need to rush into anything,” he said. “We never need to feel forced to do anything we don’t want. Tonight, I almost lost you and Cleb. It was the most terrifying experience of my life. I never want that to happen again. I want to keep you and him safe forever and always.”
The tears spilled from my eyes and down my cheeks. I wasn’t embarrassed or shy about showing them. The words he was saying, the way he was looking at me… it was what I always wanted to hear.
I was so happy.
And yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about the lies I’d told. I had a dirty black mark inside me, this knowledge of the truth, of what it might mean to him if only he knew. It was not right he should love me without knowing everything about me, warts and all.
He needed to know the truth about how we had met and the circumstances that’d brought me there in the first place.
“Now I need to go to my study,” Traes said.
“You’re not going to work now?” I said incredulously.
“Of course not,” he said. “I have to tell everyone we found you.”