“It’s more than that, Tobias. I think Janelle is the grandmother, reincarnated. I did a search. His grandmother passed away on Janelle’s birthday.”
I can’t help it, but my eyes widen at the idea.
“There’s more. She had this in her hand.” She holds out a small pendant. It looks like some sort of a yin-yang symbol, but instead of one side being white and the other being black, both the sides are covered in flames. One side is covered with a blue flame and the other side is orange flames.
“What is that?” I ask, running my finger over the sliver edges.
“That is a pendant his grandmother gave me. She told me she’d wanted to give it to Etash since he’d found his Twin Flame, but since he and his Flame had passed, she was giving it to me. She knew I would find its rightful owner one day.”
I look up from the pendant to Kari. Her face is white.
“Tobias, I lost that pendant years ago.”
It’s my turn to go pale. “Then how did Janelle...?”
“I don’t know,” Kari whispers.
My head spins as I try to absorb all of this.
“What did Janelle say to you... when she spoke in the strange accent?”
My heart rate accelerates waiting for her to answer.
“She told me I needed to find you. She said you’d be here, at this bus stop. She’s the one who told me to leave her with Ms. Skillings. She said it was imperative that I be with you or all would be lost.”
My limited source of air becomes thinner, and I start to cough despite my desire not to.
Kari suddenly blinks as though she’s remembering something. She rushes to her bag, digging around for something. “Janelle also said I needed to bring you this.” She opens her hand to reveal my inhaler.
I look from the inhaler to the look in Kari’s eyes. She’s scared by what she heard my daughter say, and after everything I’ve heard today, so am I.
Slowly, I reach out with trembling fingers and take it. How did she know I was going to need this?
Popping off the top, I take in the healing mist, allowing it to coat my lungs. After a few inhalations, my lungs are allowed to expand. The burning subsides to just a memory far faster than normal. After an attack like this, I should be flat on my back with my mask on for at least a day, but I’m feeling remarkably strong.
“Did Janelle tell you anything else?”
“Just that we need to find the building with that sign she drew. And that we need to hurry. Jada doesn’t have much time left.”
Listening to the advice of an apparently reincarnated Indian woman, I push up off the bench. My nostrils flare with a newfound fury and we set off together to find Jada.
Chapter Sixteen
Jada
The smell of the dye in his hair as he thrusts his tongue in my mouth overpowers the spray on his chest, which keeps me lucid and nauseated at the same time. After several sloppy kisses, he finally removes his lips from mine and I plaster on a smile. Satisfied with himself, he goes back to the task at hand: camouflaging me for my kidnapping.
“Once your hair is done, I’ll go and get Janelle, but don’t worry, I won’t dye her hair. We can just cut it short and dress her like a boy to throw any onlookers off our tail.”
I bite my lip hard to keep from screaming at him to leave my daughter out of this.
Hawk sighs, contented. “Our new life will start tomorrow,” he says, brushing his fingers against the line of my scar. I force myself to lean into his hand and not shrink away.
“I’ll find a way to fix your face too. I’ll make everything better, Jada. You’ll see.”
I swallow the lump that’s lodged in my throat. Time is running out. If my escape doesn’t work... No. It is going to work. It has to.
Hawk kisses my cheek gently before he finally lets go of my hands and buries them into my hair instead. After a moment, he tells my blond good-bye.
Behind me, he starts to prepare the dye. The chemicals mix together; their overpowering scent fuels the need to finish the task at hand. I glance over my shoulder to watch him work, trying to be seductive.
While he stirs, his expression shifts. His eyebrows crinkle. He cocks his head to the side, looking at me. Panic begins. Slowly, he sniffs the air. He stirs the mixture a few more times, then lowers his nose to the bowl. Shit! When his jaw hardens, I know he’s piecing it together. His eyes narrow on the bowl. He takes another inhalation and turns to look at me, making me cold.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, trying to keep up the failing act.
“Tell me you love me.” His words are slow. Methodical. Fierce.
“What?”
He drops the bowl and is in front of me in a second. Yanking out a plastic tie from his back pocket, he waves it in my face.
“I said tell me you love me.”
My heart beats frantically in my chest.
“I—I love you,” I whisper, but the smallness of my voice betrays me.
He snarls at me. “You little wench. You thought you were gonna trick me, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I sputter, pushing my body hard against the chair.
“Don’t lie to me!” he screams. The veins in his forehead throb against his flesh, showing the fullness of his rage.
Foolishly, I try to make a run for it, but he lunges for my hands the second my butt leaves the chair, anchoring me in place. Tears begin to fall down my face as I struggle against his weight. He pushes me back into the chair with his knee.
I’m rendered helpless, and he yanks my hands behind my back and locks my fists in place. He leans hard against my chest as his hands work blindly to fasten my wrists to the dowels of the chair.
“Hawk, stop, please!” I cry, but he grabs my face in his hand and holds me still.
“I should kill you right now for that.”
His face blurs behind my tears.
“Then do it,” I cry. Death would be better than being caged again.
“Shut up and let me think!” he shouts at me.
He sinks to his knees to bind my feet too, but not before I get in a few good kicks.
When he’s locked me down, my body begins to convulse. My plan has failed. I’m stuck here for as long as he wants me to be.
Hawk
I told you she didn’t love you. She’s been playing you for a fool! You can’t let her get away with that. You need to punish her, Hawk! Make her suffer! Make her love us!
“Argh! I was so stupid!” I kick the table beside me. It flies across the room and splinters against the wall as it breaks apart. “You thought you could play me, didn’t you? Well, guess what? I’m smarter than you are. You’re mine, Jada, and you’re never going to leave me. Do you understand? Never!”
That’s it! Make her fear us!
“Shut up! I can handle this!” I say, kicking at the couch as I pace.
I will not let Seth tell me what to do. I don’t need his advice and I don’t want him in my head.
Let me help you tame her!
His voice is screaming in my head and I just want him to stop. Tearing at my hair, I scream again, hoping he’ll just go away.
You can’t ignore me, Hawk. I’m part of you. The strong part. The part that Jada wants. No wonder she coils away from you. You’re pathetic, a weakling. Jada needs a real man. She needs me.
“No!” I shout, laying my fist through the drywall. Immediately, I feel blood pooling along my knuckles, but I don’t remove my hand. In that instant, Seth isn’t in my head. It’s quiet, and I don’t dare move.
Feel better now? his voice taunts.
I rip my hand out of the wall, wishing I could rip this thing out of my head instead.
Across the room, Jada stares at me. I can see it in her eyes. She thinks I’m weak. Just like Seth said. Just like my parents thought. I’ll show her who is in control here. I’ll show them all!
“I tried to do this the easy way, Jada. But now you’ve left me with no choice.”
M
arching past her, I go into the kitchen and dump a few bottles of water over my head to get rid of the dye. I can’t risk her not being in my full control, which means the dye needs to go.
Great pools of darkness cover my once-white tee as the color rinses out of my hair. I cross through the living room as the water drips down my chest like giant spider webs. When I reach the front door, I open it.
“What are you doing?” she yelps.
“Getting that stench out of here so it doesn’t ruin the rest of my plan. You think you’re so smart, Jada, but you’ll see. I’ll make you understand. You should never underestimate me.”
As fresh air circulates into the room, I dig around in the bag for the T-shirts I bought for our disguise. I pull the stupid tourist shirt over my wet head. We’re leaving today, damn it.
I pull hers out too, and something metallic in the bag catches my eye. Brilliant. I pull out the large pair of scissors.
Walking back over to her with the edge of the blades tapping against my lower lip, I smile. This will be perfect.
I grab a fistful of her hair and yank it. She screeches in pain. Seth likes the sound of her in pain. I hate to admit it, but her screams are kinda growing on me, too.
“If I can’t dye it, I’ll have to cut it.”
Wrenching back her head, I slide the blades near the roots cutting off her locks. The sound of the metal sawing through her coarse hair is empowering. She cries, and I can’t help but smile.
You own her now.
Each pile of hair that lands on the ground gives me a rush like I’ve never felt before. He’s right. I am in control now. She has to do anything I want.
As I cut, I show no mercy, yanking her head to my will. It’s exciting hearing her cry out in pain. Maybe she’ll learn not to try and trick me again. I am her master now.
She’s yours, Hawk. Yours. You’ve broken her soul. She’ll do whatever you want now.
“No,” I whisper. “She’ll do whatever we want.”
Tobias
The road leading to the campus is overgrown with weeds and grasses that have wormed their way through the once-pristine tar. The buildings around it, though abandoned, still cling to the air of greatness they once held.
The Depression hit colleges across the nation pretty hard. People were being laid off; families couldn’t make ends met. Students couldn’t afford to pay for tuition and employers couldn’t swing the higher wages of graduates, so one by one, colleges started folding. It’s only now that businesses are starting to recover. Perhaps one day this college will open again, but for now, it’s a place of decay and unfulfilled dreams.
A large cast iron gate closing off the main entrance looms before us. When I put my hands on the gate, I expect to feel resistance, but to my shock, it opens. Looking down at the lock, it’s clear someone has cut the chains.
“They’re here,” I whisper.
As I push open the gate, the metal grinds against its rusty hinges, crying out in seeming discomfort. I look over at Kari. She’s clutched her hand against her heart, confirming she’s just as scared as I am. Together, we walk past the gate and into the unknown.
Our steps are hesitant at first, as though we think Hawk may swoop in and attack us at any moment. But I keep reminding myself that he has no way of knowing we know where he is, so he wouldn’t be lurking in the woods, waiting for us.
Gradually, my feet begin to move faster over the cracked pavement, anxious to find their target. She’s here. I can feel her.
Behind me, Kari struggles to catch up. The sound of her panting chases after me. I probably should slow down so she doesn’t have to exert herself, but I can’t stop. Not when I’m so close.
The only sounds on the campus seem to be the two of us, yet each step we make thunders against the pavement, potentially giving up our location. My ears strain to pick up anything that might be Jada, but all that registers is the sad cry of the wind. At a large oak tree, I come to a full stop to get my bearings.
“Should we split up?” Kari asks.
“We should, but my damn e-port battery is dead. We’d have no way to stay in contact. Let’s just keep walking. I’ll be able to sense her if we get close enough.” I hope.
My eyes rake over the vastness of the campus. It appears to spread out forever. This could take all day!
Kari seems to read my mind. “If he’s got her in a frat house, that should narrow our search down. Those are typically placed on the outskirts of the campus,” she points out.
Nodding, I set my sites to what looks like the Alumni House. The rest of the campus should be fanned out behind it.
“Okay. So that’s where we’ll start,” I say, pushing my feet toward the brick building that looms large before us, a shadow of the greatness it once commanded.
When we manage to pass the Alumni House, we get our first glimpse of the area we’ll need to cover. It’s at least several city blocks large. There are cracked roadways that lead in four separate directions. My heart sinks. They could be anywhere.
“We’ll find her, Tobias. We’ll find her.”
As we walk, Kari and I start to figure out how the campus is laid out. The classroom buildings seem to run down the center of the grounds, while the living quarters are sprinkled on either side. Dormitories are mixed in with frat houses, not just on the outskirts like we’d hoped, making the search span over a larger area. We only have a few more houses to check on this end before we’ll have to cross over and try the other side. One way or another, however, I’m finding Jada before this day is out. I just hope when I find her, it’s not too late. My gut tells me time is not on my side.
Taking a shaky breath, I steal another puff off my inhaler before we start walking again.
Chapter Seventeen
Jada
I sit trembling in the chair. My hair is, presumably, all hacked off. I sit and wait for what will happen next.
Across the room, Hawk starts to pace again, gently tapping the blades of the scissors against his bottom lip as he walks. He’s looking at me, contemplating.
“I’ll buy you a hat.”
Tears run down my face as I curse my own vanity. What good is hair now anyway?
Without warning, he throws the scissors across the floor. They skid across the warn floorboards and land under the couch, useless to me. Not that I’d ever be let out of my binds again.
Methodically, he slinks over to the couch and lowers himself onto it, running his hands across his own short, dyed hair.
After a moment, he looks up, but his icy eyes aren’t looking at me. I’m not sure they’re looking at anything.. Watching him, I witness a glaze form over his eyes. That’s when the whispers begin. It’s slow at first but then builds to loud and angry bursts of a one-sided conversation.
“...told you... Listen to me... Stop it!... wasting time... Go get her... No... Do it, Hawk!... risk... He’ll be there... Use your knife, stupid.”
My mouth goes dry watching the man sitting across from me. His mind is truly not his own. And my life is in his hands.
“Fine!” he shouts so suddenly that it makes me flinch.
Like lightning, he rips himself off the couch and storms past me. He disappears into the second bedroom that I’ve never seen into. Something slams against a wall before he comes back with a small duffle bag and a stuffed pink elephant. Seeing the toy makes my stomach lurch.
“What are you doing?” I whisper, terrified by his answer.
He stuffs the ball of pink into the bag and flings it over his shoulder.
“I’m going to get our daughter. It’s time we start our life.” He digs into the bag and pulls out the knife he had earlier, which he slips into his belt with ease.
My heart leaps into my chest.
“No! Please! I’ll do anything you want. Anything. Please, please don’t touch my daughter.”
“Our daughter,” he seethes, walking to the door. “I’m doing this for us, baby. One day you’ll see that.”
Great aching sobs c
ome from deep inside my chest as I try to plead with him.
“Hawk, please! Don’t do this. She’s only a little girl!”
He turns his back to me and straightens his shoulders. “You brought this on yourself, Jada. The time for games is over. You and Janelle are rightfully mine. I’ve waited three years, in prison, for this day to come. I’m not waiting any longer. Our new life starts today.”
Without another word, he walks to the door, flicks the locks, and marches out, leaving me helpless, alone, and tied to the chair. The sound of the locks clicking back into place causes my body to quake. I thrash against the chair in the off chance I might break it, but it just hops gently off the floor and firmly back in place.
Tobias, please, please don’t be at home. Please say you’ve taken our daughter someplace safe!
Tobias
As we scour the campus, Kari keeps up a constant stream of random chitchat. It’s almost as though she’s afraid if she stops speaking, she’ll lose her grip on reality. My grip left the moment Jada did.
“Tobias, does Jada still... I’m not sure how to put this delicately—”
“No, she doesn’t cut anymore,” I say, scanning the tree lines.
“Oh, no. Um, I didn’t mean that, although I am glad to hear that. I—I just wondered if she was still taking those pills...”
I stop in my tracks. I didn’t know Kari knew about those.
“How did you know about that?”
Kari frowns. “By accident. She dropped her bag one day and I saw them.”
My eyebrows pinch together, remembering those days. Before we were together, Jada used to slip some of her dad’s prescriptions in order to forget the hell she lived in. It was while she was on those that she slept with Hawk—and got pregnant.
“She hasn’t taken those in years,” I say.
Kari nods, but I can tell there’s something on her mind.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“It’s just—did you know my friend, Naya, was given those same drugs by Seth? He used them to take advantage of her.”
I don’t mean to be insensitive, but I say, “So?”
“Well, think about it. Jada and Naya both were on that drug. Etash was stabbed in the lung, on the same side you have your ailing lung, and Seth...”
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