This gets my attention and I immediately go rigid. I may have been absent for the last five years, but I’ve been home long enough to know how crazy Ainsley is about her routine. She never misses school or work unless absolutely necessary, and I know for a fact she isn’t the type to not at least call if she isn’t going to be somewhere.
Worry pools in my gut.
“You think something’s wrong?” I ask Finn, my voice tight.
“I don’t know. I’m trying not to jump to a worst case scenario but I can’t find her. She’s not with Lily. She’s not at any of her usual hang out spots. And her phone goes straight to voicemail.”
“Maybe she’s with another friend. Maybe she needed some time alone, away from everyone.” I try to think this through rationally and keep my composure, even though internally I’m starting to panic a little.
“So she just decides to pull a no call no show at work?” He gives me an incredulous look. “We both know that’s not something Ainsley would do.”
“So what the fuck do we do?” I ask, a sick feeling turning in my stomach.
“We widen the search. I’ll call Lily, have her call around to some of Ainsley’s other friends and co-workers. I’m going to drive around, see if I can find her car.” He runs a hand through his hair. “You head to the house in case she shows up there.”
I nod in agreement, standing to clasp his shoulder. “We’ll find her. I swear it,” I promise him, knowing we don’t have a choice. There is no other option. Neither of us will rest until she’s been located safe and sound.
He gives me a stiff nod before turning and taking off out of the office with me fast on his heels.
——
“Hey, Lil, anything?” I stop pacing and set my gaze on Lily as she ends the call she was on and heads up the front steps of the porch where both Finn and I are standing. The look on her face only adds to my uneasiness.
It’s been hours. We’ve been everywhere. Up and down every street. Knocking on doors, talking to neighbors. Lily has called everyone she can think of. There hasn’t been any sign of Ainsley.
It’s nearing ten o’clock now. It’s been nearly twenty-eight hours since anyone has seen Ainsley. The more time that passes, the more restless I become. I’m trying so hard to remain positive, but I find my optimism waning with each minute that ticks by with no word.
“That was Matt. He was at work and just got my messages. Apparently, Ainsley stayed at his place Friday night after she left here. He said she left yesterday evening to come home and get some clothes with the intention of returning, but she never came back. Matt said he tried to call her a few times but figured something happened to change her mind about coming back. He assumed he would hear from her later.”
“Fuck,” I draw out, having hoped that when Matt finally called her back we’d know more than we did before. Unfortunately, all we’ve learned is where she was Friday night.
“We have to be missing something.” Finn shakes his head. “Can you think of anyone else? Anyone she’s had any contact with recently? Anyone we’re not thinking of?”
“Well, I have one more person I could call, but it’s not likely he’ll be very helpful. He and Ainsley aren’t exactly on good terms.”
“Who?” Finn asks.
“Oscar.”
“The baseball player Oscar? The one Ainsley dated in high school. I thought he was off to college in another state.”
“He’s home for the summer,” I interject. “Ainsley and I ran into him when we were leaving the movies a couple weeks back. Intense dude.”
“Intense doesn’t even begin to cover it.” Lily’s brow furrows.
“What?” Finn questions. “What are you not telling us?”
“Let’s just figure out where he lives and talk to him.” Lily brushes Finn’s questions off. “Let me make another call.” With that, she spins around and heads back down the steps.
I watch with bated breath as she paces the front yard, her cell phone pressed to her ear. She’s on the call for less than two minutes before she announces that she has an address.
“Ryland and I will go check it out. You wait here in case Ainsley shows up.”
“Absolutely not,” Lily argues. “I’m not going to sit here going out of my mind with worry. I have to do something. Besides, I know more about Oscar than either of you. And, I think he’ll be more likely to talk to me than either of you. We can leave a note on the door for Ainsley to call us if she comes home.”
Finn mulls it over for a few seconds before agreeing to Lily’s demands. She jots a quick note and tapes it inside the screen door before joining Finn and me in the car.
We don’t have to GPS the address. Turns out Oscar lives a few blocks away, and given that Finn and I grew up in the neighborhood, it’s an area we know well.
When we pull up outside of the small brick ranch, Finn and I both turn back to Lily who’s sitting in the backseat.
“You two stay here,” she tells us, climbing out of the car before either of us have a chance to respond.
The car is eerily quiet as we watch Lily approach the house. It’s late, but there appears to be lights on inside so I’m hopeful that someone is home and awake.
From where we are on the street we have the perfect view of the front door, so when a middle-aged woman answers, we are able to watch the exchange. Unfortunately the woman is the only person Lily talks to before she turns around and heads back to the car after a few short moments.
“Anything?” Finn and I both ask in unison as Lily climbs back into the backseat.
“That was Oscar’s mom. She hasn’t heard from him since yesterday.”
“That can’t be a coincidence, can it?” Finn asks, his gaze darting to me.
“No, I don’t think it is,” Lily interjects. “Apparently, Oscar has been lying as well. His mom was confused when I mentioned that I knew Oscar was home for the summer. According to her, he’s been home for months. Something to do with his baseball scholarship. Yet when Ainsley ran into him at the end of May, he told her he was in town for a baseball tournament. Given what his mom just told me, that was a lie.”
“What are you getting at? Do you think Oscar might know where Ainsley is?” I cut her off.
“You met the guy.” She narrows her gaze at me. “I don’t think he just knows where she is. I think he’s involved somehow.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Finn turns all the way around in his seat to be able to see Lily.
“There’s more to Oscar and Ainsley’s relationship than you know about.” She kneads her bottom lip between her teeth. “I wasn’t friends with her when they dated, but apparently a little while into their relationship he started to become really controlling. Like, wouldn’t let Ainsley even talk to another guy without going into a jealous rage. It got bad enough that she eventually ended things with him. He stalked her for a while after that and things got physical a couple of times. He would show up where she was and make some random excuse for being there. Ainsley was scared of him. And even before he supposedly came back, Ainsley had expressed some concern to me on a couple different occasions that she felt like she was being watched. Just last week she said something. I thought it was her still being a little freaked out over the break-in, but now I’m wondering if maybe someone really was watching her. I mean, if Oscar’s been in town this whole time, it would make sense, right?”
“So you’re telling me that a guy who used to date my sister, a guy she was afraid of, has been lying to everyone about where he’s been and now he’s missing and so is my sister?”
Lily swallows hard and nods.
“And you didn’t think to mention any of this sooner?” he bites, fear and anger lacing his voice. “You didn’t think that maybe mentioning that my sister had some crazed stalker following her around might have been information we needed to know?”
“I didn’t even think about it. I was thinking she was probably with one of her friends or something. I never considered tha
t she could be in actual real danger.”
“So what the fuck do we do now?” I intervene. “How do we find him?”
“I asked his mom if she knew where he might be. She said he spends a lot of time at his grandpa’s fishing cabin off of Old Mill Road.”
Finn and I exchange a brief look before he’s facing forward again, forcing the car into drive.
“Did you get an address?”
“I did.” She rambles off the house number.
With that, Finn punches the gas.
Chapter 25
Ainsley
My head bobs forward, jolting me from sleep right as exhaustion starts to take me under. I can’t fall asleep. No matter how badly I want to. No matter how badly my body screams for it. I have to stay awake.
I force my eyes open and slowly lift my head, scanning the room for the thousandth time since I’ve been locked in here. I have no idea how much time has passed. I don’t even know if it’s night or day.
My mouth is so dry the corners of my lips have started to crack and I’m fairly certain I’ve lost circulation in both of my hands from the position they’re tied in. I can barely feel my fingers at all.
When I ran out of my house, all I could think about was how the two people that mean the most to me had been lying to me for years. It seemed unforgivable at the time. Now, it seems so ridiculous that I would be laughing at myself if I wasn’t in so much pain.
It’s funny how one moment things seem life or death and the next you realize what life or death really means. Because truthfully, right now, death seems like a very real possibility. I haven’t eaten or had even a sip of water since I arrived here. I wish I knew how long ago that had been. I wish I knew what was happening. I wish I knew why this was happening.
I have no idea where I am. Only that I was forced to drive out to Old Mill Road before pulling my car into an abandoned barn. After that, I was blindfolded and traipsed through a heavily wooded area for a couple of miles. I could tell because I could see the path through the bottom of my blindfold and could feel the branches and shrubs scratch my arms as the foliage became thicker.
One thing I do know is who brought me here.
Oscar...
He may have worn a mask and tried to disguise his voice, but I wasn’t fooled. I’d recognize him anywhere. The gritty rasp in his tone that’s impossible to cover up. The scar on the back of his right hand that he got when he wrecked his scooter as a kid. The smell of his cologne.
I spent months of my life loving that smell. Now it makes me sick to my stomach.
He may think he’s smart, but I know it’s him. I know it without a single doubt. The only real question now is what he plans to do with me now that he’s got me here.
Ryland’s face flashes through my mind.
Does he even know I’m missing?
Is he out looking for me?
Has he noticed I’m gone?
These are the thoughts that have plagued me over the last several hours. But also the thoughts that have given me a semblance of hope. Because if he knows I’m missing, if Finn knows, that means they’re looking for me.
I jump when the door at the top of the stairs swings open. Each clunky footstep makes my pulse spike higher and higher until I feel like there’s no way my heart could possibly beat any faster.
When Oscar comes into view about halfway down the staircase, I have to resist the urge to scream for help. It’s a natural reaction, but one that won’t get me anywhere. I’ve tried over and over again and all it’s done is to further irritate my already raw throat.
“Oscar,” I practically whimper when he steps in front of me.
At least now he has the balls to show his face.
To the blind eye, Oscar looks like every other good-looking all-American guy. He’s perfected the act. The do gooder. The scholar. The athlete. The dream son. But who he shows the world is not the person he actually is. I’ve learned this the hard way.
“How it pains me to see you like this.” Oscar runs the tip of his index finger down the side of my face, making every inch of my skin crawl.
“Please, Oscar. Please let me go. I’ll give you anything you want. Anything. Please. Just let me go.”
“I gave you the opportunity to give me what I wanted.” He crouches down so that he’s eye level with me. “Instead, you chose to give it to someone else. Ryland, is it?” A wicked smile curls his mouth as he reaches behind him and pulls something from the back pocket of his jeans.
He waves the folded knife in front of my face, making a spectacle of the whole thing. And even though the last thing I want to do is react, I can’t help but jump when he hits a button on the side and the knife pops open, revealing a thick, at least six-inch-long, serrated blade.
“Yes. Ryland,” he continues, sliding the smooth side of the blade down my neck. “He seems quite taken with you. Not that I can blame him. Wonder how much he’ll miss you now that you’re gone.”
He slides the knife lower, stopping right above my collar bone, before pressing the serrated side of the blade into my flesh. I start to cry when it pricks my skin. I can’t help it. Tears flood my vision and my entire body starts to tremble in fear.
This is it. This is how I’m going to die. At the hands of a man I once trusted. At the hands of the person I gave my virginity to. Locked in a dark, dingy basement where no one can find me. With no way to make things right with Ryland or my brother. No chance to say I’m sorry or goodbye.
“Don’t worry.” He laughs, the sound dark and demented. “I won’t hurt you unless you make me.” He retracts the knife from my skin before sliding it lower, slicing open the front of my shirt to reveal my bra covered chest. “Mmm.” He hums before I feel his tongue slide across the top of my breast.
I cringe at the contact, thinking I’d almost rather have the knife there than his mouth.
“Oscar. Why are you doing this?” I plead with him when he pulls back and looks at me, a shadow of the person I once felt like I knew.
“Why?” His smile fades. “You know why.”
“But I don’t. I have no idea what I could have done for you to do this to me.”
“You know, I tried being the good guy. The guy I thought you wanted me to be. But then you pushed me, Ainsley. You pushed me too far. I had to have you and I wasn’t going to share you with anyone else.”
“But you left,” I point out. “You’ve been gone for over two years.”
“You’re right. I did leave. I tried to forget you. I tried to purge you from my system. But nothing worked. I couldn’t stay away. I kept coming back. Over and over I came back. I had to see you, even if you didn’t know I was there.” The way he says it makes my entire body quiver. “But every time I left it became harder to stay away. My grades slipped. I couldn’t concentrate on the field. I was under your spell and it cost me everything.”
“Oscar.”
“You.” He holds the tip of the blade directly under my chin, forcing me to keep my face level with his. “You cost me my scholarship. You cost me my future. And now you are all I have.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I whimper, too afraid to even attempt to move.
“You were a good girl,” he continues as if I didn’t even speak. “You were a very good girl. But then he showed up. He showed up and touched what is mine. You are mine, Ainsley. You’ve always been mine. From the moment I first tasted you. From the moment you gave me what no other man had touched, I knew you’d be mine forever.” He leans in so close I can feel his breath on my face. “But then I saw you with him. I saw you share what was mine. You let him touch you. You let him inside of you.” He runs his nose along my cheek, inhaling deeply as he does. “You let him have what is mine.” He pulls back a couple of inches.
“Oscar, please.”
“Oscar, please.” He mocks me. “You know, I came to your house to surprise you. I came there thinking you’d be happy to see me. Only you weren’t alone,” he hisses. “So, I took some mementos, though I mu
st say I was disappointed you had just done laundry. I prefer the smell of your pussy over detergent any day. But alas, I had to make do with what I could get my hands on. I knew you’d want me to have them.”
“It was you. You were the one who broke into my house.”
“Broke in?” he balks. “I prefer to look at it as entering without your knowledge. Though I did intend to make my presence known. That was before I realized what a lying, cheating whore you are.” His eyes grow darker.
“I didn’t lie or cheat on you, Oscar. We aren’t together. We haven’t been together in years.”
“You are mine!” he screams in my face. “You. Are. Mine!” he reiterates, stopping after each word to really drive his point home.
I want to argue. I want to tell him that he’s a sick, twisted, disgusting human being. That I could never be with someone like him again. But I know that will only further diminish what little chance I have of getting out of here alive.
I don’t know if Oscar has it in him to kill me. I don’t know if his psychopathic tendencies stop at harassment and abuse or if he’s full on deranged. But I do know that I don’t want to find out if I can help it.
So instead of fighting back, I try to lull him into a sense of comfort.
“I didn’t want him,” I tell him. “I never wanted him. I always only ever wanted you. But you left me. I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
“You’re lying,” he snarls.
“I’m not lying. Why would I ever want him? He’s a liar. A manipulator. A loser who spent the last five years in jail. He could never give me the life you could. I know that now.”
“And yet conveniently you’re just now figuring this out?” He tisks at me. “Oh my dear, Ainsley. I’m not nearly as stupid as you think I am.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid.”
“And yet you pitch me the most cliché argument there is.” He cocks his head to the side. “You should know me better than that by now.”
“Oscar, please. What do I have to do? I’ll do anything.”
A Thousand Cuts (CELL BLOCK C) Page 19
