Nightingale: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  The third day was always the hardest. The first, I could usually force myself to be strong and think of all the things I could do when I was old enough to get away from the senator. I didn’t have any big plans. I would work at McDonalds if it meant that I never had to see him again. The second day, hunger really set in and I started craving peanut butter sandwiches or hot dogs, anything that could fill my stomach. But I still had those hopes that when I finally got away, I could do whatever I wanted. The third day, a day like today, I didn’t even have the energy to think about food, let alone getting away from the senator. My head was still pounding and my whole body ached from being thrown down the stairs. I sat staring toward the top of the stairs, hoping that today would be the day that he opened that door and let me up.

  I was drifting off to sleep when light peeked in from the top of the stairs. I scrambled to my feet, but the door shut quickly. I heard something bouncing down the stairs and it smacked into my feet. Hesitantly, I reached out to see what it was and was relieved when I felt the bottle by my feet. I snatched it up and twisted off the cap, drinking down as much of the water as I could stomach. It was a mistake though. After a few minutes, my stomach churned painfully and I twisted to the side, just in time to throw up what I had just drunk.

  Tears slipped down my face and I brushed them away, swearing that I wouldn’t cry. I had done this before. I had been down here more times than I could count and I had only broken that first time. I closed my eyes and laid down on the concrete floor, waiting for the moment that someone would come back for me.

  More time passed, and I couldn’t remember anymore what day it was. When the door finally opened, I was so tired that I couldn’t even open my eyes. I just laid there and prayed that whoever was there would help me. I heard the heavy footfalls on the stairs and I felt myself being lifted, but I still just couldn’t open my eyes. The arms that held me were gentle, so I knew it couldn’t be the senator.

  I was laid down in my bed and moments later a bottle of water was pressed against my lips. I didn’t want to drink. I was too afraid that I would throw up again, and this time, I was in my room. The senator would probably throw me back in the basement if I got sick in my room.

  “Come on, you have to drink,” the gruff voice said. I peeled my eyes open and saw one of the senator’s guards sitting on the edge of my bed. He was one of the nicer guards, but I didn’t trick myself into thinking that he cared what happened to me. If he did, he would have come for me sooner. He was probably concerned that I wouldn’t look okay for the next time the senator needed me.

  I took the drink he offered, but I only took a few small sips. The guard tossed a small loaf of bread on my nightstand, along with a few bottles of water and headed for the door. That was the last time I saw him.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  I stayed in my room for three days. I had a bathroom attached to my room, so I didn’t have to venture out to see anyone. Someone had knocked at my door on that first day, and when I got up to answer, I saw a tray of food waiting for me. That was how I got my meals ever since then. I didn’t leave the room for fear that the senator would have me thrown back in the basement. I didn’t want to be alone down there. It was hard enough when I was down there not to let the darkness get to me. It was even worse when I woke up in my bed in the middle of the night. Down there, I could make myself believe that everything was okay. Up here, I dreaded the thought of being thrown back down there. It didn’t make sense. I should be more scared when I was down there, but for some reason, being up here was even worse.

  Curiosity got the better of me on the third day and I decided to leave my room. I wanted to see my mom, thinking that maybe this time she would see me and decide that we couldn’t stay with the senator anymore. I cracked the door open to see if anyone was in the hall, but it was empty. I slipped down the hallway, making sure I stayed close to the walls. I was just outside my mom’s room when I heard the senator’s voice. I should have turned around and left, but I heard my name and needed to know what he was saying.

  “That kid is more trouble than he’s worth, and the mother isn’t any better.”

  “Sir, we need to work with what we have. Your support has increased by twenty percent since you married. We can’t afford to waste that on a divorce.”

  “Who said anything about a divorce?” the senator snapped.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I know someone who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.”

  “Okay,” the man said hesitantly.

  “Reid will disappear one night-”

  “Wait, is she going to be in on this?”

  “Of course not. She would never go along with it. Reid will disappear and she’ll be distraught over her missing son. We’ll make sure that he’s missing for at least a few months. That should get a huge sympathy vote for me. Then, one day, we’ll catch a lead and the boy’s body will be found in the woods. His mother will be so out of her mind with grief that I’ll have to put her in a mental institution. That way I get rid of both of them, but I gain even more support.”

  “That’s really fucked up,” the man said.

  “I have to do what’s necessary. They’ve both become a liability.”

  I held my breath the whole time I backed up to my room. He was planning on getting rid of me and my mom. As soon as I was back in my room, I started to pack up my backpack. I thought about going to talk to my mom, but if she hadn’t helped me yet, what were the chances that she would do anything now? I shoved a change of clothes in my backpack and the small bag of bread that was still on my nightstand. I had one bottle of water left that I also shoved in. I didn’t have any money, but I would rather run and live on the streets than stay here waiting for someone to come for me.

  I ran to the window and shoved it open. The guards were on a tight schedule around the property. I watched them many times when I had nothing else to do at night. I knew that in ten minutes there would be a guard that walked past my window to the other side of the house. But if I hurried, I could get down there and run to the tree line before he moved my way. That was pretty much my only chance of getting out before tomorrow. And I didn’t know if I would still be here tomorrow if I didn’t try and run for it.

  I crawled out the window and grabbed onto the drain pipe. I thought it would be easy, but I quickly lost my grip and fell to the ground. The wind was knocked out of me, but I pushed myself up and made myself move. I didn’t stop until I was in the trees on the edge of the property. I stopped to catch my breath and watched for any sign that someone knew I was gone. I waited five minutes, but didn’t see anyone running around looking for me. Maybe the senator wouldn’t even care that I was gone.

  I had to make it outside the city. That was my best chance of getting away. I didn’t dare go to the police. I knew the senator would make things worse for me if I was caught. I just had to keep going and hope that I could get out of the city and find someplace new to live.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  I shot up in bed, sweat dripping down my face and my heart pounding in my chest. I had dreamt that I was back in that basement. I flicked on the nightstand light and glanced around the room. I was in the panic room at Reed Security. I wasn’t in the senator’s house. In fact, he was dead and so was my mother. I was safe. Still, my body shook from the dream and I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I would see the dark basement and feel the walls closing in on me. No matter how many times I had been down in that basement, coming back up was always worse.

  I got up and went into the living room, trying my best to be quiet. I didn’t want to wake up Florrie and Alec. They would worry about me, and I didn’t want them to. With them, I felt like a normal kid. I could be myself without them knowing what happened at the senator’s house. I never told them, and I didn’t plan to. I knew they wanted me to open up to them, but they were separate from my old life, and I wanted to keep it that way. To them, it was like I didn’t trust them, but i
n reality, I was trusting them to keep me away from what my life had been.

  I turned on the TV and stretched out on the couch. The light helped me to push my dream to the back of my mind. I found a Christmas show on the Hallmark channel, figuring that it was supposed to be fun and joyful, and that would help my dream disappear. Within an hour, I felt myself drifting off to sleep. When I woke up, Alec was sitting in the chair across from the couch, staring at the TV, but not actually watching it.

  “Did I wake you up?”

  He turned to me and grinned. “No, kid. I was getting up to train.”

  “Oh. Is Florrie awake?”

  “Yeah, she’s in the shower. Couldn’t sleep?” he nodded toward the TV.

  I shrugged. He nodded, obviously wanting to ask me more questions, but he didn’t.

  “You know you can talk to me, right?”

  “I know.”

  “There’s nothing that Florrie and I wouldn’t do for you.”

  I knew that he wanted to help, but I just couldn’t talk to him about that stuff. I liked that he didn’t know everything that had ever happened. When he found the senator was the one I was running from and why, he was so angry. I didn’t want him to be angry. I liked both of them so much, and I just wanted to be normal with someone.

  “I think I’ll go get ready for school.”

  I stood and walked toward my bedroom, but Alec snatched my hand and pulled me toward him as he stood, wrapping me in an awkward hug. I hadn’t gotten a hug in years. It felt so weird to be getting one now. But I really liked it, and Alec made me feel safe. Slowly, I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest. I felt like such a sissy for needing this, but it felt right. I must have stayed like that for a good five minutes before I finally pulled myself away from him and slunk off to my room. When I came out fifteen minutes later, ready for school, I was smiling.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  I was struggling with my math homework. I was technically a freshman in high school, but the teachers said that I needed harder classes. So, I was doing the harder work, but sometimes it felt like they had it wrong. I couldn’t figure out how to do these problems and I didn’t want to ask for help yet.

  “Hey, Reid. How’s it going?”

  I looked up at Kayla and my mouth dropped. She was so pretty. Like, the prettiest girl I had ever seen. I really liked her, but she was older than me by four years. She already had the body of a woman, but I still had the pudge of a kid. I mean, I was skinny and everything, but I didn’t have muscle like Alec. I was nowhere near that. But I wanted to be like that someday. I wanted to have so many muscles that no one like the senator could ever push me around again.

  “Uh…hey, Kayla.”

  She smiled at me and my heart sped up. She was so pretty. I couldn’t stop staring.

  “Do you need help?”

  “Sure,” I said quickly, not wanting her to leave yet. I loved having Kayla around. I knew that something had happened to her a few months back, but no one spoke of it. For a while, she wasn’t around, and I didn’t know what happened, but then she came back to school and started training again. Sometimes she would freak out and run away. I wanted to chase after her, but the one time I tried, one of the teachers told me to leave her alone. For some reason, I really wanted to know what was bothering her. It wasn’t like I could help her at all. I was just a kid. But I felt like there was something about her that I felt some kind of connection with.

  “Okay, so Geometry.” She sat down next to me and her leg brushed against mine. I swallowed hard when I felt myself hardening. I had felt it before around her, but I always ignored it. I couldn’t do that now, not sitting right next to her.

  She was talking to me, and I knew I should be paying attention to what she was saying, but all I could do was watch her mouth move. I had begun to think about her at night when I was drifting off to sleep. A few weeks ago, I had woken up after having a dream about Kayla. My pajamas were wet and it kind of freaked me out. I did some googling, because there was no way I was talking to Alec about that stuff, and I was amazed at what I found. So, the next night, I tested a few things out, and man was it amazing. But I couldn’t do anything about that right now.

  “So, do you understand that?”

  She looked at me and her eyes sparkled like diamonds. I was so lost. I nodded, pretending like I had paid attention to everything she said. She smiled at me, and it felt like I became a ball of mush just by looking at that pretty smile. I thought about kissing her, but I didn’t know the first thing about kissing. I’d have to look that up online first. I didn’t want my first kiss to suck.

  She continued talking and I continued staring. It wasn’t until a shadow fell across us that I even remembered that we weren’t the only two people in the world. I tore my eyes away from Kayla and looked up into the angry eyes of Coop. I swallowed hard and slid a foot away from Kayla.

  “Kayla, Becky wants to see you,” he said, staring me down the whole time.

  “I just saw her.”

  “Well, she wants to see you again.”

  “Alright, we’ll finish this up later. Okay, Reid?”

  I nodded, still not looking at Kayla. I had seen that look before on the senator’s face, and I had a feeling I knew what was coming.

  “Do you have a staring problem?” Coop asked as Kayla walked away.

  “No, sir.”

  “Do you want to tell me why you’re staring at my daughter like you want to fuck her?”

  I had read about that recently, but I hadn’t really thought about doing it too much yet. I was still trying to figure out everything else.

  “Sir, I didn’t- I mean, I-” I started sweating and I couldn’t form a thought to save my life. Part of me was terrified that Coop was going to beat me just like the senator, but the other part of me was just scared because I was staring at Kayla and I had been caught.

  He grabbed my shirt collar and hauled me out of my chair, his face absolutely terrifying.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Alec shouted.

  Coop dropped my shirt collar and I shuffled away from him. “I caught the kid staring at my daughter.”

  “And?” Alec walked up behind me and placed his hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze. Even though I was still in the line of fire, I wasn’t scared with Alec at my back. I knew he would protect me, even from his teammate.

  “And he needs to knock that shit off.”

  “Back the fuck off. He’s fourteen. What the fuck do you think is going to happen?”

  “I think we both know the answer to that,” Coop snapped.

  “Look, I’ll talk to him, but think about this realistically for a minute,” Alec said calmly. There was a tension building all around me and Alec pushed me off to the side. “Why don’t you go find Florrie, Reid,” Alec said, leaving no room for me to argue.

  I didn’t complain. I didn’t want to stay around Coop any more than I needed to. I grabbed my books and ran out of there, not bothering to look back.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Alec

  “What the fuck are you thinking?” I spat at Coop. The man was losing it. He was yelling at a fourteen year old kid for looking at his daughter.

  “He was fucking staring at her, and we both know what the fuck teenagers think about.”

  “Not that teenager,” I said, pointing to the door that Reid just bolted through. I couldn’t believe that he had just threatened Reid. He was the last kid on earth that Coop had to worry about. Hell, he looked like he was going to shit his pants when Coop turned on him.

  “You didn’t see his face,” Coop argued.

  “Look, he probably was staring at her, but that kid is not your average teenager. I can guarantee that he doesn’t know half the shit that you did when you were his age. And why the fuck did you put your hands on him?”

  Coop sighed and ran a hand over his face. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I saw that look on his face and I flipped out.”

  “I get i
t, man, but you can’t put your hands on him. He was fucking terrified. I don’t know what the fuck he’s been through, but I know it was fucking bad. Half the time he doesn’t even sleep through the night because of nightmares.”

  “Fuck, I just lost it. I just…”

  “I know, but after everything that Kayla’s been through, after all the nightmares, why the fuck would you do that shit to a kid that’s been beat on?”

  I knew he felt terrible. I could see the shame on his face, but I also knew that he was still fucked up. “Fuck, I’m sorry, man. I just get so worried about her.”

  “I know,” I said, gripping his shoulder, “and I’ll talk to him about it, but that kid is not someone you have to worry about. He’s obviously got a crush, but that’s as far as it goes. And I can guarantee that he would never hurt Kayla.”

  “I don’t even like him looking at her,” he grumbled.

  “Relax. One day, Kayla is going to bring home a man, and you’re not going to like that man. You’re going to be pining for the days that my kid was staring at her like she hung the stars.”

  “Just don’t let me catch him staring at her again. He’s too young, and it’s creepy.”

  “Like I said, I’ll talk to him.”

  Coop shook his head and stalked away. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. It wasn’t really funny. He had plenty of reasons to be protective of Kayla, but Reid was harmless, and I could sooner see him flipping out over liking a girl than actually kissing her.

  “Something funny?” Florrie asked as she walked up to me.

  “Yeah, Coop’s losing his shit because Reid was staring at Kayla.”

  Florrie burst out laughing, then covered her mouth, shaking her head slightly. “So, that’s why Reid came running past me like he had just seen a ghost.”

  “Yeah, Coop hauled him out of his chair-”

  “He did what?” Her whole demeanor changed and she flipped into this monster that was ready to fight for her kid.