“There is nothing I want. I have everything that I need here with my true family. You have no idea what father got like after you left for college. He had started to become demented and cruel. I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew what those two bastards did to me. Father was always pissed off because none of the boys he introduced me to were good enough for me. Honestly, they are good enough to be with pigs. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure the two that raped me are good buddies of yours. You probably knew I was raped before Felecia even told you.”
“Sister dear, I could care less if you fucked them or were raped. As far as I’m concerned, I have no family. For that matter, Felecia, I had always considered you mine. I see now you were just a dick tease all those years. I was stupid enough to believe that I would come back to find you still waiting for me. Don’t you remember our true loves kiss when you turned sixteen? That was my vow to you.”
“Yes, I remember that kiss. It felt like I was kissing my brother. I never once told you that I was in love with you. I never ever said that I would be here waiting for you other than as your friend. I’ve known for a long time that I would end up with a woman. You would have known too if you hadn't quit coming around like you did. Don’t act all rejected now when it’s been over five years since I heard from you.”
“You know what you bitches deserve each other. Cock teasing whores who have children out of wedlock. You will both be sorry. I swear if it’s the last thing I do, you will pay for betraying me.”
“Steven, get the fuck out of my home with your bullshit threats. Don’t you ever bother coming back here either. You are no longer welcome here. Oh, and for your information, you are trespassing. Once I started my business, I found out who owned this cabin and the thirty acres of land surrounding it. I own this property now. If you come back, I will have you arrested and thrown in jail.”
“Felecia, you really are a stupid bitch. You may own the land and the cabin, but I won the town and the police. You see, when father died, there was an emergency meeting on who would take over as mayor of the beautiful city of Huntsville. It was in father’s will that he wished for me to take over. Because I had an education in law, the fools on the town council agreed. So, all I can say is good luck getting anyone to help you. If you fuck with me, your little business will disappear too. I can make damn sure no one here ever buys another thing from you.”
With that, he stomped out of the house leaving, Delilah and I both in a whirlwind of what the fuck just happened.
“Well, I can now say I understand why you never wanted me to meet your family. I met Steven when I was very young. My parents had died and the foster home they had put me in was horrendous. I remembered this cabin from coming here with my dad. I ran away from the foster home and I’ve been here ever since. A few times, I probably would have starved or frozen to death if it hadn’t been for the things that Steven brought me. He was always so sweet and kind, then as he got older, he started to change. Bitterness took over where there had once been a kind boy who helped me.”
“That’s because he hated our Father. I guess I should say step-father since he adopted us after our parent’s died. There has always been a mean streak a mile wide in Steven. I’ve always been afraid of him and the things that he would do. I hate that he knows where we live. I can’t believe the town council agreed to make him mayor. That bastard can make our lives a living hell if he wants too.”
“All I can say is bring it on mother fucker. He has no clue what I am capable of when I am pissed off. If he hurts you or Arabella, I promise he won’t live long enough to hurt anyone else. I can damn sure make sure no one ever finds his worthless body either.”
We spent the rest of the day talking and making plans to make sure that we were safe from Steven and his wrath.
Chapter Five
A few weeks passed without further incidents or visits from Steven. Maybe he had bigger fish to fry and had decided to leave us alone. We had spent the day with Theoval. He had gone fishing and brought some of the best catfish for us to have a big ole fish fry. We all ate until so much that we could barely move. Delilah and I filled Theoval in on our unexpected visit from her brother and the new town mayor. We told him about Steven’s threats against us. It was everything we could do to keep Theoval from going after him right then and there. Especially after we told him what Steven had said about Arabella. She is the apple of Theoval’s eye and no one dare do anything to her without answering to him.
After Theoval left to go home, Delilah and I got Arabella ready for bed. Once she was sound asleep, we snuck out of her bedroom. Finally, alone, we got ready for bed ourselves. It had been a little over a week since we had made love the last time. Today had been such an incredible day that I wanted to end the night, making love to my wife.
She sat there, brushing her hair. Walking up behind her, I took the brush from her. Taking my time, I made sure that the bristles not only got the knots out of her long blonde hair, but they scratched her scalp as well. Brushing her hair to one side, I leaned over, kissing her neck. Slow sweet kisses that led me to her earlobe where I nibbled before going back to kissing her neck. By this time, I had dropped the hairbrush and had started to unbutton her blouse with the other hand. Turning her head so that I could taste the sweetness of her lips, dipping my tongue into her mouth as if I were searching for honey. Delilah sets my blood on fire like no other.
Breaking the kiss, Delilah stands, turning in my arms so that she can start to undress me. Before me stands the body of a Goddess. You would never know that my wife had given birth to our daughter. Her hourglass figure had me mesmerized as she led me to the bed. Laying down together, our kisses went from sweet to passionate in no time at all. Our hands roamed over each other’s bodies as if we were playing the finest of violins. Our breathing became shallow as we stoked the fires within each other.
The spell was broken when we heard a window crash and Arabella starts to cry. Not even bothering to dress, we both made a mad dash for the baby’s bedroom. When we entered the room, it was empty all but the shattered glass and a piece of Arabella’s blanket on a portion of the glass that was still in the window. I could still hear her crying, even though it grew fainter. Throwing on my clothes and boots, I ran out of the house and towards the sounds of my daughter shrieking.
By the time I caught up to them, we had reached the road. Before I could do anything, the car that my baby girl was in had sped off down the road. Running as fast as I could back to the cabin, I called Theoval. We were going to need his help if we were to find our daughter. It only took him twenty minutes to get to the cabin. Delilah was hysterical and I was furious. I wanted to punch something and smash everything around me. The mother fucker who had the nerve to do this is as good as dead when I catch the son of a bitch. I’m so lost right now that I don’t even know how to console Delilah. Theoval burst in the door to find two hysterical women.
“Tell me what happened as quickly as you can. Time is of the utmost importance right now if you want to get Arabella back.”
Delilah tried to speak but broke down crying instead. I sat beside her wrapping my arms around her, then looked at Theoval.
“It was a typical evening. After you went home, we cleaned up the house. When that was done, we put Arabella to bed. When we knew she was asleep, we went into our room for some adult alone time. We were in there maybe ten minutes when we heard a loud crash, then Arabella started crying. We ran in there and she was gone. The only thing left is the shattered glass and a torn piece of her blanket. I jumped into my clothes and followed the sounds of her crying. By the time I got to the road, whoever had snatched her was already in a dark silver car speeding off so that I couldn’t catch them. I came back here and called you.”
“Did you get a look at the tag on the car? Which direction was it going? Did it head towards town or was it heading away from town?”
“It was too dark to see the tags, but the car was heading away from town. The only reason I know it was dark si
lver was because it passed through an empty spot in the trees so that the moonlight shined off of it. How are we going to find her, Theoval?”
“I already put the word out to all of my buddies that are drivers. Now I have to let them know that it’s a dark silver car. Could you tell if it was a two or four-door?”
“It was a two-door car. Damnit, Delilah, do you think Steven is behind this? Would he actually take our child or pay someone to steal her for him just to punish us?”
“Oh my God, Felecia. It has to be him that’s behind this. If he has Arabella, we will never see her again. Steven would never admit to taking her. Even if we can get proof that he did it, that fucker will never tell us where she is.”
“Delilah, listen to me, we are going to get out daughter back. I swear it on my life. I vowed to you the day she was born; I would never let any harm come to her. If Steven took her, I will make him tell me where she is.”
“Ladies, all of my buddies are out riding the roads. I’m going to go join them. The more people we have searching for her, the better chance we have of catching who did this. You should call the police and report the kidnapping. Even if they are in your brother’s pocket, at least make it official that she was taken.”
“Thank you, Theoval. Please thank all of your friends for us. I’m going to call the police now. Delilah is in no shape to talk to them. It’s going to be bad enough when they come out here to investigate. Our paradise away from everyone and everything has been destroyed along with our child being stolen.”
I gave Theoval a hug before he went out the door. I told Delilah to get all of our paperwork together. Marriage license, birth certificate, adoption papers, and the deed to the cabin and surrounding property. When the police get here, I’m not leaving anything to chance. As soon as she left the room, I called the police station. The person on duty said they would send someone right out.
Almost an hour later, a squad car comes pulling up to the cabin with two officers in it. They both got out laughing, joking and drinking cups of coffee. The bastards stopped and had donuts and got fresh coffee instead of coming here right away. Steven had stuck to his word and made sure that we weren’t going to get a lot of help from anyone in this town, especially the police. The officers came in, looked around, took our statements, then told us that they would be in touch as soon as they heard something.
Delilah and I were both bewildered when they left. The officers literally did nothing. No pictures, no fingerprints, they didn’t look around outside for footprints. They literally did nothing at all. All we can do now is pray that Theoval or one of his driving buddies sees or hears something.
Hours had gone by without hearing anything. I couldn’t take the quiet crying that was coming from Delilah anymore. I grabbed the cell phone and called Theoval to see if they have had any kind of luck. That turned out to be a big bust. He nor none of his friends have seen the car or heard any chatter.
The days started speeding by until they became weeks. Before we knew it, weeks had become months and still no news. Delilah and I had finally decided to get in touch with the news station from the next town. Steven may run Huntsville with an iron fist, but he doesn’t run that town. That afternoon channel 13 news from Clarksville had their van outside of our home. Reporter Jennifer Houston had her cameraman set everything up inside of Arabella’s bedroom for the interview.
That was the second to the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life was to retell the story of our daughter’s abduction. Begging for anyone who has seen her or may know of her whereabouts to please contact us. Poor Delilah could barely speak through the whole interview. She has lost weight and the spark in her eyes has been dimming the longer we can’t find Arabella. I’m afraid of her giving up on finding our daughter and on life. I can’t lose them both. All I can do is pray that someone sees the story on the news tonight and calls in with the information that we need to find her.
Since we don’t have a television, Theoval came over and picked us up so we could watch the news at his house. When six o’clock rolled around, we were all glued to the television. The first ten minutes were about things going on in the state, then came our piece. I was shocked when I saw how terrible I looked myself. Here I’ve been worried about Delilah and Arabella and not taking care of myself.
We all sat around watching the pre-recorded interview crying. Not a single one of us had a dry eye. When they showed the picture of Delilah holding Arabella, both with enormous grins on their faces, I broke down. It was killing me, not knowing. Is she okay? Is she hungry? Is she being taken care of? The worst is she still alive? That last one haunts what little bit of sleep I get. The nightmares of her little lifeless body being found wake me up screaming every time.
Theoval was paying better attention to the television than I was. He caught my attention when he exclaimed at how the phones had started ringing slowly at first but had increased as the interview aired. By the time the interview was over, you could barely hear the next reporter speaking for all the calls. Please, God, let one of those calls bring our girl home to us. I sat there, hugging Delilah. I think we all prayed as hard as we could for a miracle. Of course, Jennifer had warned us that there would be a lot of fake calls. They would have to sort through them to find the credible ones. For us to be patient a little while longer because it could take a couple of days.
Once the news was over, Theoval took us home. It didn’t feel like a home anymore, just an empty shell where we waited to hear some kind of news. Anything would be better than this, nothing that has been going on for far too long now.
It had been a few days when we got a call from Jennifer. They had a possible lead. Someone had reported seeing a little girl that looked like Arabella three towns away from us. Delilah perked up as soon as she heard the news. She grabbed the phone and called Theoval to come to get us so we could go get our daughter and bring her home. I stared at her like she was crazy until she got off of the phone and explained.
“Felecia, it was Steven that took her. I also know where he dumped her to hide and for safekeeping. Apparently, he thought that Glen Rock would be far enough away that we wouldn’t find her, yet close enough for him to keep tabs on her. I had three nannies growing up, Keva, Cideria, and Willow. They live in Glen Rock and I know exactly where. We need to hurry before he catches wind of this and moves her again.”
“I remember him mentioning the nannies when we were kids. He seemed to be jealous or even hated them. Maybe a bit of both.”
“Father hired three of them so that one would be with me at all times. Steven would hurt me if I was left alone. They were more for protection than anything.”
Theoval arrived. We ran out, jumped in his car, then told him where we needed to go. It took us about forty-five minutes to get to the old women’s home. When we arrived, Theoval said he would stay in the car so that he didn’t scare them. Delilah and I got out of the car and started walking up to the house so we could knock on the door. Before we could even ring the bell, we heard a child crying inside. We both knew that cry.
Without even knocking, we opened the door and ran into the house straight to the sound of our daughter in tears. There in the living room were the three nannies and our daughter having a huge temper-tantrum. As soon as she saw us, Arabella stopped crying. Her little arms went into the air and she started squealing mama over and over again. The nannies turned around to see us standing there. One of them fainted and the other two both had looks of extreme shock on their faces. Why would they be shocked?
“Delilah, you’re alive? When your brother Steven brought Arabella to us, he told us that you had died in a car accident along with your husband. He said that with him being the mayor, he didn’t have the necessary time to raise a child and asked us if we would. He told us he would pay us well for taking care of her.”
“Cideria, not only am I alive, this is my wife, Felecia. Steven broke into our home in the middle of the night and stole Arabella from us. The cruel son of a bitch wanted t
o punish both of us for what he feels is a web of rejection going all the way back to his childhood. Now give me my daughter!”
Willow quickly picked up Arabella and brought her over to Delilah, placing our sweet girl in her arms. I couldn't stop crying to see my two angels together again.
“Ladies, we need to make Steven pay for this. Would you be willing to come with us back to Huntsville? We are going to call the state police and all the news stations to meet us at the mayor’s office. I want them all there when we confront that bastard. Can you imagine the hell we have been going through, not knowing if Arabella was even alive or not? It’s been the most horrendous experience of my life.”
The one who had fainted came awake when I was speaking. Keva looked at the other two, then they looked at us and in unison said yes.
We went back out to the car, so Theoval could take us back to Huntsville. Before we got halfway to his vehicle, he was out and running towards Delilah and Arabella. This is the first time in my life that I’ve ever seen a grown man openly cry. Delilah handed him, Arabella.
“How are you, my little princess? Your mommies and I have been so worried about you. We’ve all missed you something awful, my beauty!”
After giving her tons of hugs and kisses, he handed her to me. Finally, my daughter is back in my arms and the broken pieces of my heart are magically starting to heal. A portion of my heart has hardened to steel. After we got in the car and started driving home, Delilah and I made calls to the state police and all the local news channels. Once that was done, we introduced the nannies to Theoval. We explained what Steven had done and told them. These poor women are as innocent in all of this as we are. I noticed that Theoval and Cideria kept giving each other quick glances. It looks like more magic is happening today.
When we got back to town, the place was a madhouse. The state police and news crews were everywhere. When we got out of the car, we told the officers that were there everything that happened. We even told them that Steven admitted to forging Delilah and his father’s will. How he bragged about killing the old man and getting away with it. His letters of forgery to the town council that stated Mr. King had wanted Steven to follow in his footsteps by taking over as mayor.
The Dark Kingdom Anthology Page 34
