by Maegan Abel
I swallowed hard, the horrible cottonmouth that always accompanied my hangovers was tainted with the bile rising from my stomach. I needed to get home and talk to her. I had to know why. I moved quietly through the room, spotting Lili's purse and shoving it into the back of my jeans before tugging on my shoes.
The redhead made a sound, a soft moan that triggered a deluge of partial memories.
I had Mandy bent over the bed, tugging her hair as I took her deep.
The door opened but I didn't slow my pace.
A redhead stood in the doorway, her eyes wide as she stared, but Mandy didn't notice her.
I raised a hand from Mandy's hip, beckoning the redhead forward, realizing it must have been the uptight roommate. A part of me assumed she would back out of the room but she stepped inside, letting the door close behind her.
They both followed directions well.
And, just like the professional that I was, I was gone before they woke.
"Are you going to tell me what the fuck happened last night?" Tish dropped into the shabby kitchen chair across the table from me. I shook my head but he reached out to touch the cut on my cheek. I'd just gotten out of the shower and the sinking feeling I'd had since the hotel turned to rage when I saw the few injuries on my face and took stock of the bruises and swelling on my knuckles. I leaned my head out of Tish's reach, glaring at him.
"Leave it the fuck alone." My voice was rough from lack of sleep and thick with emotion. I didn't want to admit I was worried about Lili because I was still too angry to let myself be worried.
"I'm not going to leave it alone. You staying out all night is one thing, but where the hell is Lee? Kas said she and her date were going to meet you at Lust," Tish said, crossing his arms as he leaned back, the chair groaning its protest under his large frame.
"She didn't come home?" I asked as I shoved away from the table, heading down the hall to confirm his words. Tish's chair scraped the tile as he stood to follow. Lili had trust issues that ran much deeper than mine. She didn't stay out all night. If I had a date or went out to find one, I was usually gone overnight. Lili refused any form of intimacy, including sleeping with someone. She gave me shit about it all the time. She always told me that it was leaving yourself unnecessarily vulnerable.
"I thought you guys were together,” Tish said as I pushed open Lili's door, glancing at her unmade bed.
"Why the fuck would we be together? What do you think we’d be doing all night?" I raised my voice, not caring since I knew we were the only ones in the house. If Kas were here, she would've been the one interrogating me rather than Tish. I stalked toward my room. Would she have stayed the night with Adam?
Tish just raised an eyebrow at my questions as he stood in my doorway. It took a moment for the meaning behind his lack of words to sink in.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I fought the urge to punch something by locking my hands behind my head, stretching my sore shoulders. Fuck, my body ached. I must've given those girls something to remember. Too bad I couldn't remember it.
"Don't give me that. You two have been one step away from it for a while," Tish said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Not a chance," I spit the words through clenched teeth and Tish narrowed his eyes.
"Did she do that to your face?"
I sighed, knowing Tish wouldn't give up until he had the truth. He cared too much about Lili. He was worried. Telling him meant he would be pissed. That was a good thing, though. She deserved for us to be pissed at her.
"Nope. That would've been her date. Adam."
Tish grabbed my shoulder, turning me to face him. "Adam? As in, Adam Crawford?" His eyes were wide.
"That would be the one. Motherfucker was working hard to provoke me. It was intentional, him showing up with her." I took a step back and popped my neck, trying to keep myself calm as the absolutely mind-piercing rage I'd felt at seeing his hands on her spread through me like a plague.
"What the fuck?" Tish looked completely confused. "Why the hell would Lili even speak to Adam?"
"That's one of the questions on my list, trust me." I moved to the dresser to check my phone, telling myself it wasn't worry I felt for her this time.
"Have you tried calling her?"
I sighed as I slammed my phone back on top of the dresser, the keys and change in the small box rattling. "She left her purse at the club. After the fight, she ran out with Adam." I grabbed the purse from my dresser and tossed it across the room to Tish. "Her phone, wallet, everything."
"Well, we know she'll have to come home for it then. We can ask her when she shows. You know, there might be a logical explan—" Tish started but I quickly cut him off with a look.
"Don't you think I’ve been trying to figure that out? What excuse could she possibly have for this?" My voice was loud and Tish didn't have an answer, he just shook his head and stepped aside, clearing the path so I could finish getting ready for work.
It felt like the longest day in the history of the world. I had decided to take Lili's purse with me in the rig so she couldn't sneak to the house for it while everyone was at work. I waited all day to hear something, texting Tish several times to see if she'd shown up. Nothing. I was worried which led me to bar hopping around some of her favorite places Friday night. I asked around about her, but didn't get any hits. No one had seen her and she still hadn't come home.
By Saturday morning, staying awake in the rig felt like it was taking everything I had. I didn't want to be so worried about her. I wanted to stay angry. But, it bothered me that she hadn't been home for her phone.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on or just continue this moody-fucker bullshit?” Jackson asked, hopping back in the rig while I stared at my phone on the dash. I'd been debating crossing a line, but I wasn't sure I was ready to go that far yet.
"Lili hasn't been home."
"Have you heard from her?" He knew enough not to push me today. Yesterday I'd snapped when he tried to defend Lili and apparently he could tell my mood hadn't improved.
“No,” I responded and I pushed my fingers under my glasses, rubbing at my eyes as if I could rub away the exhaustion. I hated wearing my glasses to work but I was too worn out to bother with my contacts this morning.
"So?" he asked, staring over at me. I grabbed my phone and stared at it a moment longer, my fingers poised over the keys.
"So, I'm going to break my own rule," I said, typing a quick text before I could change my mind.
Just let us know she's okay. That's all we ask.
I hit send, my hands shaking. Contacting Adam made me feel physically sick. Hate wasn't a strong enough word for the emotion that I felt toward him after this. I'd given up hating him a while ago after deciding he wasn't worth any part of my life anymore. I ignored his empty threats about getting Conner taken from me permanently. He finally got the picture that I was done playing games and he quit texting me. I hadn't heard from him in probably six months and my life was finally starting to fall into place. Until he fucking showed up again.
"You texting Adam?" It wasn't really a question based on Jackson's tone, but I nodded anyway.
I was spared responding further when the radio crackled and a call came through for our sector. A car accident. I pushed myself and my problems from my mind and focused on doing my job.
It was nearly three hours later before Jackson and I climbed back into the rig outside the emergency room. I sighed, rubbing my hands over my head a few times to try and shake off the events of the day. There were days I loved this job and days I hated it. Today was almost hate. The little boy laying on that operating table was too close to Conner's age for me to shake it off completely. They said he should pull through but he may not be able to walk. Parents who didn't properly secure their children in car seats were the number one reason for my bad days.
But, no parent should ever have to go through what that mother was going through right now. The thought was enough to make me pull out my phone to call Liz
zie's parents. I wanted to talk to Conner.
When I unlocked my phone, I had a new text. My heart sank when I opened it. It was a picture. From Adam. A picture of Lili looking in a mirror as she brushed her teeth. The picture looked to be taken from outside a bathroom in a hotel room. The large mirror across from the open bathroom door reflected her full body from the back. She was wearing only a pair of men’s boxers. Her face looked content through her reflection in the wide mirror above the sink, which cut off her front just below the neck.
"What's wrong?" Jackson asked as he climbed up beside me.
I hit the back button on my phone, reducing the picture from full screen but not deleting it. "Apparently, Lili is fine."
"What did Adam say?" Jackson started the rig, raising his voice midway through the question to compensate for the rising sound outside.
"He sent a picture. One I'm not entirely sure she knew he took but… she looks fine to me," I said, looking out the window as Jackson pulled out of the ambulance bay.
He didn't say anything else, leaving me alone with my thoughts while he drove.
Saturday night, when Tish and Kas came in from work, Kas came straight to my room to tell me she'd heard from Tish that they guy Lili had been out with was Adam. She asked a few questions, but the shock for both of us had been when she told me that the guy Lili had been dating had introduced himself to her as Jordan.
"Jordan is Adam's first name. He hasn't gone by it since third grade," I replied, squeezing the bridge of my nose.
Lili didn't know she was with Adam.
The realization of that should've made us all three feel better, but it didn't. He was lying to her. That made it worse. Why was he doing this? We spent most of Saturday night out looking for her, splitting up after coming up empty-handed at her work. In the entire time I'd known her, she'd never called out of work. But, Shannon said she was sick. By the early morning hours, we still had nothing.
Sunday I was barely conscious of the hours passing at work. The lack of sleep was making me useless.
By Sunday evening, I'd received a total of seven pictures from Adam. I hadn't told anyone other than Jackson about them, not wanting to explain how much they were bothering me to Tish or Kas. They ranged from a close up of her face while she slept, to a shot of her barely covered by a sheet as she sat in a chair near the window, looking out at the mountains. She didn't look upset, distraught, or scared in any of the pictures, so I had no reason for the anxiety I continued to feel. He apparently didn't want to hurt her, but he had to have some motive behind this. Adam was devious and vicious, no one knew that better than me.
I went by her work again, frustrated when it was a dead-end. Nikki said they were slammed and Lili had never shown up. No call, no text, no anything.
I stayed, a part of me hoping she was just running late. Even if she showed up with Adam, it might alleviate some of the unease I was feeling. Nikki asked what I knew during lulls in the crowd, keeping my drink full as the night wore on. I told her to keep it from Shannon but, as far as we knew, Lili had run off with Adam and we had no idea where or why. From the look of the pictures, they were still in Vegas somewhere, but we'd called all the hotels we could think of and were unable to find any record of them under either name.
I finally had enough around ten-thirty. I texted Adam as I left Lili's work, taking a cab to another favorite place of mine.
We need to know she's okay. We won't stop looking. Have her at least call.
It was as polite as I could be, although throwing in the foul names rolling through my head seemed appealing in my current state of mind.
The place I went was where Lili and I had spoken for the first time. It was a seedy hole-in-the-wall called Silver Moon that held good memories for me, though I hadn't been back much since Lili quit working there. When I stepped inside, I remembered why. This place was about as rundown as the off-strip side of Vegas could get.
As I took a seat near the back, my phone buzzed. A picture message. Great. I opened it and nearly flung my phone across the bar. It was a shot of them kissing, the phone obviously being held out by an arm as they stood beside a window. It was dark outside, the mountains in the distance illuminated by the full moon.
"Fuck," I grumbled, tossing my phone onto the table. Rather than ordering a single shot of tequila when the waitress came over, I asked for the bottle. I knew she would resist, given I was already on the tipsy side, but I also knew I had the power of charm. And I used it. Minutes later, the bottle was in front of me and the shot glass was being refilled. Time after time.
"Stop moving." I can feel myself trembling as I try to squeeze the hand holding mine. "Just try not to move." I need you.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Fight or Flight
LILI
I knew I couldn't avoid the blow, but I tried to spin to lessen the impact. Jordan was faster. He caught my side, taking us both to the carpeted floor of the hotel room. His weight pinned me as I struggled to free an arm. When I saw how close his face was to mine, I reacted automatically.
Using my forehead, I rammed into his still swollen nose causing his blood to gush over both of us.
"Bitch!" he bellowed, his grip loosening.
I freed my arms immediately, using them as leverage to buck my body, throwing him off. Rolling away, I jumped to my feet and bolted for the exit. He slammed into me from behind and the force threw me into the hard wood of the door.
I cried out as the fingers of my right hand bent backward against the wood, a sickening crack sounding in the room, but I managed to keep my head from hitting the door.
"Don't fight," Jordan said, his lips against my ear as he used his weight to hold me to the wood. I struggled as he pulled an arm behind my back. I heard the sound of something metal and glanced over my shoulder. Handcuffs.
He leaned against the arm that was pinning me across my shoulders and I waited for my moment to strike. As he tried to snap the cuff onto my wrist, I pulled my foot up, catching him between the legs with my heel.
He yelled a string of profanities as I struggled, finally breaking free of his one-handed grip. Trying to put distance between us, I backed away toward the bed. He watched me closely, analyzing my every movement.
"What do you want from me?" I tried to keep my voice even, my mind running through all my survival and self-defense training. I knew I needed to keep him talking or keep talking myself. He eyed me carefully but didn't speak.
"Is this about Zane? I mean, he's just my roommate, Jordan. I don't know what happened between you guys, but it doesn't involve me," I said, trying to come up with a way to talk him down. But, he didn't seem crazed. Calculating, yes. But not crazed.
"This is about you," Jordan spoke after a moment of quiet. I could barely feel my fingers, my right hand was going numb. That was better than the pain, at least. "Zane has been texting me the last few days, you know. He was pretty worried about you."
I backed away further, causing Jordan to step forward. A few more steps and I could bolt around him for the door.
"I sent him some pictures I took of you. Just, you know, so he wouldn't worry."
The pure menace in Jordan's voice, coupled with his words, caused my heart to drop.
"You took pictures of me?" My voice trembled, giving me away as I watched him move another step closer.
"That's the interesting part," Jordan said, swinging the loop of one of the handcuffs around his finger as he watched my reaction. "I thought there was something familiar about you so I did a quick internet search of your picture."
I barely heard him over the sound of my heart hammering against my ribs.
He took another step and I ran, catching him off-guard as I sprinted past him toward the door. He caught my arm and tossed me to the side, throwing me off balance. I fell hard, the side of my head cracking loudly against the small, round marble table near the corner of the room. Pain blurred my vision and pulsed behind my ear. I opened my mouth, a soft cry escaping as I blinked to clear t
he tears.
I saw a blur of shiny black against the maroon carpet beside me and realized it was where I had kicked off my heels after the night at the club. I sat up, scooting myself slowly to block his view of them.
"There are some people out there willing to pay big money for you to be returned to them," Jordan said as he came closer. I knew this, of course, but the thought that I'd been figured out again made me panic.
I tried to ignore his words as I watched him, desperate to keep my line of thought away from which people he planned to return me to.
I wrapped my fingers around one of the shoes and threw my leg out, lifting it to trip him. He fell, his weight landing partially on top of me. I squirmed to free myself but he raised up, pinning my arms under both his knees as he wrapped his fingers around my throat.
"You need to calm the fuck down." He was trying to make me pass out. That much was clear. I bucked wildly as the black spots began popping up, floating around in my vision and expanding.
I finally yanked my left arm free, reached up, and raked my nails along his face, aiming for his eye. He fell off me, scrambling to get away before I could do any serious damage. I gasped oxygen into my burning lungs, grabbed the shoe, and hurdled over him as I made another attempt at the door. He was faster. He tackled me from behind, pinning my arms and throwing me off balance again.
We slammed into the floor-to-ceiling mirror behind the door, my forehead making contact with the glass since I couldn't use my hands to break my fall. My body crumpled to the ground as the shards of broken mirror rained down around me.
Dizzy, I blinked but couldn't clear my eyes before the first blow came. His foot landed hard against my right side, causing me to cry out. Black spots appeared at the edges of my vision again as I finally saw the blurry outline of his figure. I lifted the shoe quickly, pounding it into his shin before he could kick me a second time. The force of the impact sent the stiletto flying from my weak grip.
