Playing with Fire

by Amy O'Neill

  Noelle shook her head. “He didn’t have to say much. And I know how things really can be. I’m here today because I was running for my life from an abusive man. I know how it can be.”

  Noelle watched as Rosa’s shoulder slumped. “I want to believe him. He really has stopped going to the bar and he isn’t drinking at home. People change, right?”

  Noelle slowly nodded. “Sometimes, yeah they can. But sometimes the thing that needs to change is us and how we see things. I know it took a lot of years for me to see I deserved so much more than how I was being treated. Trent treats me like I matter, like I’m the most important thing in his universe. He wants you to have that too.”

  Rosa looked over her shoulder to where Trent’s father leaned against the house. She turned back to Noelle and shrugged slightly. “Maybe this is the right time for us?”

  Noelle didn’t know enough about the situation with Rosa and her husband and she wasn’t about to let her experience with Lenny cloud her judgment or advice. “You have to do what you feel is right in your heart. But please listen to your head too.”

  Rosa nodded. “I will. Do you think Trent is serious?”

  Noelle nodded. “I know he is. I can’t speak for him on his reasoning, but I know what my family and friends thought about my ex. I didn’t want to listen or hear it and then I didn’t want to deal with the ‘I told you so’. But sometimes our loved ones can see the bigger picture.”

  Rosa wiped at a tear. “I just want to be happy. I want everyone to be happy for me.”

  Noelle rubbed Rosa’s arm reassuringly before giving her a hug. “Trent will be happy for you if you are genuinely happy. He doesn’t think his father can give you that happiness.”

  Rosa wiped at another tear and framed Noelle’s face with her hands. “My son is very lucky to have a woman like you. I can see how much he loves you.”

  Noelle felt the tears in her eyes again. “Well I love him right back. He just wants to see that same love for you in someone’s eyes.”

  Rosa nodded. “Thank you for talking to me. Take care of my son. I hope to see you both again soon.”

  Noelle gave Rosa another hug and then waved goodbye. When she got into the car, she didn’t look at Trent as she buckled her seatbelt.

  Finally she turned to him and was surprised at the smile on his face, dimples and all. “Thank you for that. You didn’t have to do that.”

  Noelle nodded. “Yeah I did. For too long I was quiet about my own situation, but maybe I can use what I’ve been through to help others. They say things happen for a reason, might as well make it a reason I that’s useful, right?”

  Trent nodded and kissed her. “You make me fall in love with you more every second. I’m a lucky man.”

  Noelle winked at him. “Oh you’re about to get even luckier if you’d just shut up and get this car moving.”

  Noelle let out a laugh as Trent pulled out of the yard and hit the gas so hard that the tires spun, leaving a cloud in their wake.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Trent kissed Noelle goodbye the next morning, but she didn’t wake up. He stole one more look at her before he closed the bedroom door. Her hair splayed out on the pillow around her and her creamy skin stood in stark contrast to his black bed sheets.

  He debated playing hooky today, but knew Marshall wouldn’t let it fly. As Trent left the house, he did one final check to make sure all the doors and windows were secure, not that he needed to worry since Lenny and his dad were still locked up as far as he knew. But it made him feel a little better about leaving Noelle all alone.

  Traffic was light for a Monday, but then again it was still an hour before most people would be heading to work. Trent hated this time of year just because the days were getting shorter and all it made him want to do was sleep.

  The thought put his mind right back on Noelle and he was grinning when he walked in the back door of the precinct. He nodded in greeting to some of the other officers as he walked through the locker room.

  Marshall poked his head in and pointed to Trent. “Torres, I need to see you in my office when you’re done here.”

  Something in his tone made Trent’s stomach start to knot. He had a feeling he wasn’t gonna like this. He finished putting on his shoes and hurried out after Marshall.

  Marshall looked up from his paperwork and motioned for Trent to close the door. Once that was done, Marshall tossed down his pen, rubbed his hands over his face, and let out a curse. “Look, there’s no easy way to say this so here goes … Lenny and his father got out of jail late last night.”

  Trent dropped into a chair in disbelief. “How the hell did that happen?”

  Marshall shrugged. “I guess Mr. Dunlap pulled some strings and somehow got Judge Douglas to release them on their own recognizances.”

  “What? They had guns pointed at us, they wanted to kill us. I know I already asked this, but how the hell did that happen?”

  Marshall leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Dunlap told him it was official police business. That his son was job shadowing him on a missing person’s retrieval and they feared the victim was in danger.”

  Trent swore again. “Douglas is such an idiot. So now where are they?”

  Marshall shrugged again. “We don’t know. Once they left lock-up they caught a cab back to the hotel to get their car. Other than that, who knows where they went.”

  Trent was out of his chair and nearly out the door before he called over his shoulder. “Sorry Chief, I gotta run. I need to make sure Delphine is alright and then get to Noelle.”

  Marshall followed him down the hall. “Take Fitzer with you for crying out loud. You know you gotta do this by the book, otherwise these morons are gonna get away again.”

  Trent glared at him for a moment before relenting. “Fine. But I swear if Delphine or Noelle get hurt, someone is gonna pay.”

  Marshall shook his head. “This has to be business. Stop letting your feelings get involved here. Keep emotion out of this and you won’t be as likely to slip up. All they need is one misstep to get off scot-free.”

  Trent nodded. “I know, dammit. I gotta go.”

  He hollered over his shoulder for Fitzer and was out the door and to their patrol car before his partner appeared. Fitzer was still tucking in his shirt and fumbled with his seat belt.

  “Who the hell lit a fire under your ass today Torres?”

  “Judge Douglas. He let tweedle dee and tweedle dumb out last night. We have to go make sure Delphine is alright at the motel.”

  Trent turned on the sirens and peeled out of the parking lot as if the hounds of hell were on his heels. Within minutes they were at the motel. Everything looked normal, but he knew looks could be deceiving.

  A quick check of the parking lot showed no vehicles with out-of-state license plates. Trent told Fitzer to stay outside and keep an eye out while he went into the office.

  Delphine was sitting at her desk and chain-smoking like there was no tomorrow. At least that’s what it seemed from the looks of the over flowing ashtray. “Oh, dear God. I am so glad to see you.”

  She got up and threw her arms around him. Her slight frame was shaking. Trent hugged her back. “Shh. It’s alright. What happened? Did Lenny and his father show up?”

  Delphine nodded. Trent pulled her away and escorted her back to her seat. He crouched down in front of her and asked, “What did they do?”

  Delphine wiped at her eyes and rubbed her hands on her knees. “Lenny showed up just after midnight and was pounding on Noelle’s door again. So I went out with my shotgun, again, and told him to leave. That’s when his father grabbed me from behind and taped my mouth shut. They brought me back here and then screamed and yelled for the next few hours.”

  “Screamed and yelled? About what? Trying to find out where Noelle was?”

  Delphine nodded. “Yeah, and I might have said a few unladylike things in reply that they didn’t like much.”

  In spite of her tea
rs, Delphine laughed. “It was pretty comical now that I say it out loud.”

  Trent just shook his head. “Did you tell them anything?”

  “No. I didn’t say a word.”

  “Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you call the police after they left?”

  Delphine looked toward the door and then back at Trent. “You only missed them by about half an hour. They left and drove south of here. I haven’t seen them since. And the older one told me they’d be keeping a look out on the place in case I called the cops. Lord only knows what they are gonna do.”

  “What were they doing while they were here besides yelling?”

  Delphine motioned toward her laptop. “Lenny’s dad was on this looking stuff up. He said ‘got it’ and they took off right after that.”

  Got it? Trent gave Delphine a questioning look, but she just shrugged. He walked over and opened the laptop. Trent swore at seeing his name and home address on the monitor.

  Trent stood and yelled for Fitzer. “I want you to call Marshall and tell him they were here and held Delphine hostage. I need to get to my house. Frank used some website to find my address. I know that is where they are headed.”

  Fitzer called after him, “Do you want me to send a car to your house?”

  Trent nodded and was out the door. His mind raced. If they were thirty minutes ahead of him, they could have already grabbed Noelle and taken off.

  The other thought he had was even worse. If they got there and she fought back, he could be walking into a blood bath. The knot in his stomach got larger.

  Noelle jumped out of bed at the sound of someone pounding on the door. She looked at the alarm clock and saw it was just after seven. A quick look to her right confirmed that Trent wasn’t there.

  She waited a moment to see if maybe she could hear him walking around downstairs, but the knocking continued and there were no other sounds coming from inside the house except for the pounding of her heart.

  Noelle got out of bed and grabbed a pair of Trent’s sweatpants from a drawer. She quickly put them on, along with one of his tank tops, and padded downstairs.

  She slowly tiptoed to the front door and tried to look out of the peephole, but it was black. All the other curtains were drawn and she knew whomever it was couldn’t see her, but she still tried not to make a single sound as she moved toward the front window to look out to see if there was a vehicle in the drive.

  As soon as she pulled the curtain back half and inch, she jumped back with a scream. A moment later glass shattered as a deck chair came through the window. Noelle jumped back and collided with the living room wall.

  Before she had a chance to run very far, Lenny was charging at her. “Leave me alone. Please just go away.”

  Lenny grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked. She had just stepped on the first stair and fell backward, landing against his chest hard. The thought of him touching her again made her skin crawl and she felt bile rise into her mouth.

  “You ain’t getting away from me again you bitch. We’re leaving. Now you can either do this nice and calm, walking out on your own two feet, or I’m gonna knock your ass out and carry you.”

  Noelle knew what his preference would be. She tried to jerk away from him, but his grip was tight and she could feel the hair being ripped from the follicles. “Fine, I’ll walk. But you ain’t gonna get away with this Lenny Dunlap. This ain’t Arkansas and these cops don’t play by your daddy’s rules.”

  His hand was fast and hard across her face. The taste of blood filled her mouth from the impact.

  “I thought you woulda learned a long time ago when to shut your mouth. Seems I need to get a little more hands-on with teaching you that lesson.”

  He reared his hand up again, but his father called from the window. “That’s enough, boy. We gotta get outta here before her little boyfriend tracks us down.”

  Noelle prayed Trent would show up right that second with a few dozen of his police friends, but other than the random barking of dogs, the morning was quiet. Not even a hint of siren broke the air.

  Lenny unlocked the front door and motioned for Noelle to walk out. When she stood still, he lifted the bottom of his shirt and revealed the handle of the gun tucked into his waistband.

  Noelle’s heart dropped with every step she took. She knew her survival was in question, she’d always known it, but now it was in immediate jeopardy.

  Lenny opened the back door on the passenger side and nodded his head. “Be a good girl and get in the freakin’ car.”

  An elderly woman came out of the house next door. “Is everything okay?”

  Frank held up his hands and flashed his badge. “Everything is fine, ma’am; just some official police business. Don’t worry, just run along back inside.”

  She smiled politely and nodded. For a brief moment her eyes met Noelle’s and she paused. But Frank cleared his throat and she hurried back inside.

  Lenny leaned down and rested his arm on the hood of the car. “Now you just get real nice and cozy back here ‘cause it’s gonna be a long ride.”

  Noelle clenched her teeth. “You know he ain’t gonna rest until he finds me safe. You know that, right?”

  Lenny snorted. “I ain’t scared of your little friend. And don’t think I don’t know you screwed him. You’ll pay for that too you little whore.”

  He spat at her and slammed the door shut. Noelle closed her eyes and willed herself not to breakdown, to not cave in to the fear. She needed to be strong if she was going to survive.

  She wiped the spittle from her hair and then wiped it onto the headrest in front of her. The smile was hard to hide when Lenny got in and rested his head right on it without a clue. It wasn’t much, but it did give her some satisfaction to demoralize him as he had her.

  Frank got into the driver’s seat and within another moment he was pulling away. Noelle looked out the back window and prayed to see Trent, but there was nothing.

  “Might as well stop looking Noelle. He ain’t coming for ya. You already gave him what he wanted, I bet he could give two shits what happens to you know. Maybe if you were a better lay, but ya ain’t.”

  She closed her eyes again and rested her head against the window. Lenny could say all he wanted, whatever he needed to make himself feel big. But she knew the truth.

  Silence filled the car and stayed there for hours as they traveled east, back toward Batesville. Noelle rested when she could, but mostly she kept focused on getting back to Trent and starting a life with him.

  Sometime in the early afternoon, they pulled over to a roadside stop so she could relieve herself. The thought of running didn’t cross her mind, at least not there where the land was flat and bare for as far as the eye could see.

  Lenny took over driving duties and they didn’t stop again until they grabbed dinner a truck stop on I-40 just east of Albuquerque. Noelle wasn’t allowed to go more than two feet without one of them by her side.

  All through their dinner at some greasy spoon dinner, she kept her head down and tried to keep from looking around. Though she wanted to just scream out for help, she knew they would shoot her right there. At least if she made it back to Batesville, Trent had a better chance of finding her. Hell, she didn’t even know where she was at the moment, let alone to expect him to figure it out.

  Lenny and Frank debated pulling over and resting for the night, but Frank won the debate and took over driving. By nine in the morning, they were pulling up Lenny’s dirt driveway.

  For some reason, when Noelle looked at her former home, all she could see was pain and sorrow, and a sense of the end. Would this be where she took her last breath? Lord, she hoped not.

  Frank walked her into the house and handcuffed her hands behind her back. He shoved her backward and she landed with a thud on the laminate floor. The stench of beer and cigarettes hung in the air, mingled with the pungent smell of rotting food from where a half-eaten bologna sandwich was left on the counter.

  “Sure is nice to have m
y maid back. You got weeks of cleaning waiting for ya. But for now you just stay right there.”

  Frank laughed at Lenny’s joke. “Alright, boy, I’m going home to rest. And try not to let her run off again. Next time I ain’t carting your ass all the way to California.”

  Lenny waited until Frank pulled out of the driveway, then he slammed the door and mocked his father. “Make sure she don’t run off. What the hell. Does he think I’m a moron?”

  Noelle knew not to answer that question… or at least not to answer it with the truth.

  Lenny kicked off his boots and dropped down into his chair. He lifted the leg rest and let out a sigh. “Ain’t it good to be home, babe?”

  Noelle stayed silent. Lenny dropped his leg and nudged her in the head with his foot. “Did ya hear me down there?”

  She nodded and tried to wiggle out of striking distance. She felt sick at the way she’d let herself be treated that way for so long. For him to think nothing of tying her up and leaving her lay on the dirty floor like a dog … she truly felt nauseous.

  Lenny turned on the television and flipped through the channels incessantly for nearly an hour. Just as Noelle was drifting to sleep, the telephone rang.

  “Get that for me, babe.”

  After a moment he chuckled to himself and waved toward her. “Nevermind, I wouldn’t want you to get up and run off. You just stay right there.”

  He answered it and a moment later was cussing like a sailor. She could hear Frank on the other end, but couldn’t make out the words. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good. At least that’s what she gathered when Lenny ripped the phone from the wall and hurled it across the room.

  The handset broke into several pieces and bits of plastic rained down around her. She ducked her head and shut her eyes. Lenny’s stomping feet made the floor vibrate as he got closer.

  A moment later he snatched her up by her hair and threw her on the couch. “You bitch! You told that Mexican where the hell we lived?”