by Nicole Fox
“Mommy!” she screamed and continued thrashing in their arms.
They tossed her down and she landed on the hard ground with a thump. She rubbed at her arm, still crying, and scampered over to Vanessa.
“Oh, look who’s awake,” one of the men said.
Vanessa didn’t recognize the voice. She didn’t have time to try to figure out an escape plan or a way to keep Opal safe. The man jabbed her arm with something sharp. A needle. As he pushed down the plunger, everything started to fade to black again.
Her blood pounded loud in her ears. They would hurt Opal, and she would be unconscious. She tried to fight it, tried to keep her eyes open and will herself to stay awake, but the drugs were too strong. She was helpless. There was nothing she could do for her daughter.
Opal’s voice, calling her name in a terrified whisper, was the last thing she heard.
# # #
Hunter pulled up to the apartment complex and saw swarms of cops pouring in and out of the building. He jumped out, not even bothering to lock the door behind him or make sure it was closed fully. The yellow line of caution tape meant nothing to him. He jumped over it, and took the stairs two at a time.
Her door was wide open. It wasn’t just open because cops were all over, either. It was hanging on its hinges by a few shards of wood. Someone had kicked it in. His gut clenched. So many horrors might lay beyond that door.
He pushed past the cops, ignored their protests, and barged into the apartment. There were clear signs of a struggle. A lamp knocked over, a bullet hole in the wall. Who’d done that? He saw no bodies.
He went room by room, frantically searching. Nothing in her bedroom, nothing in Opal’s room, nothing in the kitchen or bathroom.
“Hey, you can’t be in here!” a cop yelled at him.
“Where are they?” Hunter asked, finally coming to a standstill in front of the cop.
“Who?”
“Vanessa, the woman who lives here. There was a man here, too, Nicholas. Where are they? Did you find them?”
“What’s your name?”
“Hunter. I’m Vanessa’s boyfriend.” He wasn’t sure if that was really true. They hadn’t discussed it or made anything official, but if they were in love with each other, they were something, weren’t they?
The cop nodded. “We didn’t find her, but Nicholas was here when we arrived. He’s pretty shaken up, but from what we could gather when we interviewed him, she was taken.”
“By who? Where? How?” His heart was still racing. He couldn’t decide if this was good because she was alive or terrible because now she was under their control, being held hostage.
“I don’t have that information. Nicholas didn’t know the men who took her. Said they were wearing masks.”
“She wasn’t hurt in any way? What about the bullet hole?” He pointed to the damaged wall.
“According to Nicholas, there was a struggle, and she tried to shoot her attackers, but missed. From what he could tell, she was drugged, but not otherwise harmed.”
“Thank you.” Hunter spun and dashed back out of the apartment as fast as he’d run in. He had to find her, but he had nothing to go on.
Outside on the lawn of the apartment building, in the midst of police and waiting press and watching neighbors, he spotted Nicholas sitting on the edge of an ambulance, sipping water. He looked white and had a blanket wrapped around him. He must be in bad shape. The pussy had probably never been in a fight in his life.
Hunter walked over to him. “You okay?”
Nicholas shook his head and gave him a wide-eyed stare. “It was horrible.”
“What happened exactly? The cops didn’t tell me much, and I need all the details I can get if I’m going to save her.”
“She’s gone. Three men kicked down the door. She tried to shoot them. They put something over her face, and then she was gone.”
“And where were you in all this?” Nicholas could have tried to help her, if he’d been willing to carry a gun, he could have shot one of them. He could have at least called 911.
“I… I…”
“Where you in the room when the door was kicked down?”
He nodded.
“What did you do?”
“I… I was just so scared.”
“Did you hide?” The rage started to boil in his veins. This pansy man had done nothing at all to save the love of his life.
“No. I… I was in the corner.”
“What, cowering like a baby?”
Nicholas’s lip quivered and he had to look away. “This isn’t part of my job description. I don’t deal with violence. I don’t like it. I’m a pacifist. I don’t believe in war, either.”
Hunter rolled his eyes and clenched his jaw. “So, you didn’t try to help her? You sat there and watched her fight three men and did nothing?”
“There was a pizza guy.”
“Huh?”
“Before the men came, a pizza guy came. We didn’t let him in, and we told him we didn’t order a pizza and he left.”
“Okay. And?”
“Thought you should know.”
“I couldn’t care less. They were checking to see if she was home. Obviously. What did you do while my girlfriend was fighting off three attackers, fighting for her life?”
“I just… couldn’t. I was like a deer in headlights. I didn’t know what to do. I thought if I did anything, it would make it worse.”
“So you sat there and watched an innocent woman be attacked and did nothing? Did you at least call 911?”
He shook his head slowly. “A neighbor must have. I heard the sirens coming. My phone was in my pocket, and I didn’t want to move to get it. I didn’t want them to see me or know I called the cops.”
“Right, of course not. Save yourself. Gotcha. Did you at the very least happen to look out the window after they drugged her to see which way they drove off?”
Nicholas’s eyes were wide again. It seemed clear from his expression that he hadn’t even thought to do something like that. His mouth popped open, but he said nothing.
“And our government trusts you to protect children in dangerous situations, to make sure they’re safe? If a child had been taken, would you have cowered in fear and just watched that, too?”
Nicholas was close to tears. Hunter could see his eyes getting glassy. He was so pissed, he could rip his head off. But he didn’t want to push the man. He might still have some say where Opal was concerned. He seemed to be dealing with enough, and not handling anything well.
“You know what?” Hunter clapped a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure you did all you could. Thanks for your help. Let me know if you think of anything else or find something out. I have to go find Vanessa and Opal. I hope they’re both still alive.”
Hunter ran to his car, trying to decide his next course of action. He had no idea where she could be. He didn’t know of any sort of headquarters Jeremy had, and if he was dead, he might not be running the show now anyway. Who knew what they’d do with Vanessa. Did they have Opal already or was part of the plan to torture Vanessa into telling them where she was? It would take an awful lot for that to happen, he knew. She’d already been tortured for years at Jeremy’ hand for her daughter’s sake.
But then he got a flash memory. Jeremy, in the hotel room. I know where Opal is, and I already have someone on their way to get her. It was Hunter’s only lead. If they hadn’t gotten Opal already, he could save her. If Jeremy had gotten to her, maybe there were clues of some sort that would help him find Vanessa.
There was just one decision he had to make, and it might be the hardest one of his life. Did he give up searching for Vanessa to rescue her daughter? He might be able to track Vanessa with her phone, but that would take time, and he’d already spent too much here, trying to get answers. She might not even have her phone on her. His heart rejected any course of action that wouldn’t lead him to find Vanessa right this second. But when it came down it, this is what Vanessa would want. She w
ould tell him to save her daughter. And maybe, if he was lucky, it would help him find her, too.
He got into his car, his gut turning, and headed in the direction of the farm house, still having no idea where Vanessa was, if she was safe or alive, and making no move to find her.
Chapter Thirty
Vanessa
Vanessa opened her eyes, the light burning them, and her head still pounding. The ropes were still tight on her wrists, digging in painfully. This chair was too hard, and she’d sat in it too long. Her bottom ached, and her back, and her feet and legs. No part of her wasn’t in some pain or discomfort.
As her eyes focused, everything became worse. In her darkest nightmares, she couldn’t have envisioned the situation that was before her. She thought at first that she must be dreaming still, because it couldn’t be true.
In front of her sat Jeremy, holding Opal in his arms as she sat on his lap. Her daughter’s face had thin lines running from her eyes down her face and she looked terrified and worried. But she seemed unhurt. There was no blood at least. Emotional hurt didn’t show on the outside as easily as bruises and cuts. Vanessa tried to give her daughter a look that said things would be okay, not to worry. But she doubted it looked anything like that. Vanessa was full of worry and doubt and she didn’t believe for a second that things would be okay.
“Oh, look who’s finally awake,” Jeremy said.
A man beside her pressed a gun to her temple. Any thought of trying to comfort her daughter went out of her head. There was no look she could give that would make Opal think this was okay.
Vanessa swallowed hard and tried not to cry. That wouldn’t help anything. “Do not kill me in front of my daughter.”
Jeremy laughed. “Always the concerned mother, aren’t you? How sweet.”
“Jeremy, please. Just don’t do it in front of Opal. Take her in another room. Do one thing for your daughter’s sake. Don’t make her witness this.”
Jeremy put his hand on Opal’s head and stroked her hair. The sight of it, of him touching her daughter in a way that was meant to be tender, made her sick. Her teeth ached, she clenched them so tightly. In that moment, anything she’d told Hunter about keeping him alive seemed absurd. How could she ever think that was best? Maybe if she would have been okay with it, he would have killed Jeremy already, and they wouldn’t be here. She’d failed her daughter again. She hadn’t hid her in this city well, and Jeremy had found them. She hadn’t hid her at Mari’s well enough, either, and he’d found her. And she hadn’t even taken out the biggest danger that faced them both. She deserved to die. She couldn’t keep Opal safe, and she couldn’t keep her from this madman.
“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Jeremy said, still stroking Opal’s head. “My daughter trusts me, don’t you, Opal?” He paused to smile at her, then Vanessa. “She knows I would never ever hurt Mommy, don’t you, Opal?”
Opal looked to her mother, then glanced sideways at her father, not sure how to answer. Of course, Jeremy didn’t really expect her to. Opal had seen him hurt Mommy more times than she could count. Probably more times than she knew. Kids had a way of seeing things their parents didn’t want them to see. They figured out too much and saw too much, and it always hurt them deeper than anyone knew. And now, she was about to witness the most violent thing she could.
Jeremy nodded to the gunman by Vanessa’s side. She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking this was it, she was about to die. In her final moment, she couldn’t bear to see Opal’s terrified face and Jeremy’s smile.
The gun moved away from her head. Was he going to shoot her somewhere else? She opened her eyes and let out a strangled gasp. The man had removed the gun from Vanessa’s head and was now pressing it against Opal’s.
Opal let out a whimper and fresh tears streamed down her face.
“No, no, no,” Vanessa said. “Kill me, kill me. Don’t hurt her. You can’t hurt her.”
Her mind spun. The world seemed to stand still and time itself crawled. Her ears were muffled and the loudest thing was a ringing through her brain that wanted her to black out and not see this. She couldn’t really believe this was going to happen. She couldn’t swallow. She could barely get out the words to plead for her daughter’s life.
“I figure it like this,” Jeremy said, looking down to inspect his fingernails. “I could kill you, sure. I could do it in front of the kid, but I don’t really want to make her suffer. After all, she wasn’t the bitch who left me and took everything. That was you, darling.” He gave her an evil smile. “And since you’re the one I really want to suffer, I thought long and hard about how I could do that. What would hurt Vanessa the most? What would ruin her whole life?”
Jeremy slid Opal off his lap and sat her on the chair. The gunman didn’t budge. He pressed the gun so hard into Opal’s temple that it made her head tilt to the side. Jeremy stood up and faced Vanessa, standing out of the path of the bullet that was planned for Opal’s brain.
“When you and my hit man hooked up, I thought at first, maybe that was it. I could kill him and that would make you suffer. You two seemed to be getting so close and all. I also thought maybe I could just disfigure you. Cut off a limb, throw acid in your face. Then Hunter wouldn’t want you and neither would anyone else.”
He paced a few steps and turned back to her. “But then, it came to me in a burst of inspiration. What do you love more in this world than your daughter? Of course, my original plan always was to take her from you and make you suffer that way. But the legal hassle, and there was always a chance you’d somehow find her and get her back. No, this was brilliant. I kill Opal, and nothing could make you suffer more. Oh, except there is more.”
He stopped to laugh.
“Here’s the thing, darling. Not only do you get to watch your daughter die and know it was all your fault, but take a look around you. You’ll be the only one here. The only one found near the body. When they test you and see all the drugs in your system, there’ll be no question. They’ll assume you turned to drugs to escape your horrible ex-husband. And of course, I’ll make sure they know about your history of drug abuse. How I should have seen this coming, I should have done something to help you when I still had the chance and could have saved my beloved daughter. They’ll assume you went crazy and killed her. Then you’ll be sent to jail, charged with the crime of murdering your own child. I don’t think your fellow prisoners will take too kindly to that, either. They’ll make whatever life you have left even more hell. And there I’ll be, on the news, telling everyone how horrible it was living with you, how you screamed at me and hit our daughter, how you needed help desperately, but refused to get it, no matter how I begged. I’ll paint the saddest story anyone could imagine. They’ll put you away forever, and the drugs will ensure that no one believes a word you say.”
He stopped to smile at her. It was a smile she recognized. The one he gave her right after he hit her. The one that said, aww, you’re hurt? Well, I’ve got you now. You’re under my control, and you can do nothing about it. The smile that said, “I will make you suffer and enjoy it.”
Well, he was right about one thing. Seeing Opal die would be the greatest torture he could ever make her endure. Nothing else would compare, and nothing else would matter. She wouldn’t care if she were alive or in jail or what happened to her. She would have nothing left to live for, and no reason to go on.
Her mind wandered to Hunter for a moment. And she did think, maybe having him would make things okay some day. But no. She would never be the same, and he wouldn’t want her like that. If she went to jail, he didn’t need to wait. If she didn’t, she’d probably end up in a mental hospital, and he shouldn’t have to deal with that, either. She would let him go and face a life of pain on her own, waiting for her time here to be through.
# # #
Hunter slammed on the brakes when his car reached the front of the farm house. He jumped out and ran to the door. Here, too, the door looked to have been kicked down. There were dents in the wood
where a foot might have hit, and it hadn’t been closed all the way. At least here there were no cops. So, not everyone knew about this place, then.
He tore into the main room, the living room. He expected to find signs of struggle, and they were there. Photos knocked over, furniture askew. He figured they came and took everyone, or took Opal and left Mari’s parents like they’d left Nicholas.
What he didn’t expect to find was blood. When he saw the first puddle, his breath caught in his throat. Who? Was all he could think. He approached the bedroom cautiously. The blood went from the hall to the bedroom. Maybe someone had been dragged or crawled, judging by the smeared trail.
He held his breath and stepped into the room. Two bodies lie on the bed, facing each other. They must not have been killed in this position. It looked more like a final embrace.
