by Sharon Sala
“It’s about time,” Adam muttered, and then kicked the side of the bed, jarring it and her. “Wake up, Shelly McCann!”
Shelly moaned. She was so hot she couldn’t breathe, but someone was calling her name. Her lips parted, but she couldn’t make a sound.
Someone lifted her head. “Drink,” he said. She felt water on her lips, then her tongue, and swallowed.
“Wake up, Shelly McCann!” Adam yelled again.
She tried to lift her hand to her mouth, only to realize she was tied up at the wrists. Her heart started to pound. Something was wrong! What had happened to her? Who were these men?
“Give me that damn water!” Adam shouted, and snatched it out of Yuki’s hands and turned it upside down, sloshing it all over her face, in her eyes, up her nose, down her throat, then threw the empty bottle into the corner of the room and yanked her upright by the hair on her head.
Shelly screamed, then choked as she was dragged into a sitting position. She kept blinking, trying to clear her vision, and then when she did, she wished she was still unconscious. She didn’t know these men, but they knew her, and likely they knew Jack.
“Who...are you?” she whispered.
“I ask the questions!” Adam said, and slapped her, which started her swollen lip to bleeding again.
Shelly moaned. God give me strength.
“Where is your husband, Jack McCann?” Adam asked.
Shelly started crying. “Dead... He’s dead.”
Adam frowned, then slapped her again. “You lie. Tell me where he is or I will kill you.”
Shelly looked up, straight into Adam Ito’s face. Blood and tears were flowing.
“Then kill me. At least then I’ll be with him,” she whispered, and felt the room beginning to spin. “Hot...too hot. You can’t kill me. Heat will kill me first,” she mumbled, and fell forward off the bed onto the floor, unconscious once more.
“Worthless bitch!” Adam screamed, and kicked her in the ribs. “Put her back on the bed, and this time, do what I say and tie her up.”
“I need rope. These ties are too short,” Yuki said.
“There’s rope in the car and you know it! Go get it!” Adam shouted.
Once more, Yuki went to the car, returning with a yellow nylon rope.
He untied the cloth rags from around her hands and ankles and used the rope to tie her to the bed. Now she was spread-eagle upon the thin, filthy mattress, as helpless as a woman could be.
Yuki saw her as the victim she was and looked away, ashamed of his part in this farce. His brother was crazy if he thought this was going to work, but he didn’t know who was crazier—Adam for thinking he could get his revenge without getting caught, or him for being a part of it.
“You! Guard her!” Adam said.
Yuki grabbed Adam’s arm as he started to leave. “Where do you think you’re going? You will not leave me stranded here. You will bring food and water for the both of us now, or I’m walking and she can die in here on her own. Then you will have accomplished nothing! I know how to get myself on a plane.”
Adam yanked his arm free and stormed out of the room with his cell phone in his hand. Right now he hated his brother almost as much as he hated his father, but he couldn’t do this alone. So he would get food and water.
Once he’d left the property, the urge to keep driving and leave all of this behind was real, but his need for revenge was stronger.
He drove to the first truck stop he came to, fueled up the car and then bought a sack full of snack foods and a case of bottled water. All of this food was disgusting to him, but he knew Yuki would eat it. By the time he left the truck stop he’d also had the foresight to purchase toilet paper, a roll of paper towels and a cheap Styrofoam ice chest that he filled with three bags of ice.
He had a heart-stopping moment on his way back when he looked up in his rearview mirror and saw a police car behind him coming fast with red lights flashing.
Then when everyone else began pulling over to the outside lane and stopping, he did the same. To his relief, the police car flew past on its way to an emergency elsewhere.
When the rest of the traffic began moving again, so did he, and the next time he stopped, it was to open the doors to his warehouse to drive in.
The sun was moving faster toward the horizon. It would be dark within a couple of hours, maybe less. He had no intention of spending the night in this filth, so he needed McCann’s wife to start talking.
Eleven
Yuki was miserable in this heat. He’d already shed all of his clothing except for his undershirt, shoes and pants. Sweat was pouring out of his thick black hair and running into the rolls of fat on the back of his neck. His clothes were sticking to him, and the filth in this place disagreed with his sense of propriety.
He felt sorry for the woman tied to the bed. Her breathing was shallow and he could barely see the pulse in her neck. She was a beautiful woman, and she was likely going to die.
When he finally heard the doors opening again, he ran out to meet his brother.
“Stuff is all in the back. I’m going to close the doors,” Adam said, and ran back to the entrance, while Yuki began carrying the food and the sack of paper goods into the office.
Adam grabbed the case of bottled water and followed.
“Did she wake up?” Adam asked, as he set the water down.
“No. She’s barely alive. Something is wrong with her. She said the heat would kill her. Maybe it will save you the trouble,” Yuki said.
Adam cursed in his native language, opened a bottle of water and shouted, “Wake up, Mrs. McCann,” then poured enough water on her to bring her to consciousness.
Shelly choked, then gasped, then opened her eyes. Oh God. I thought this was just a dream.
Adam leaned over the bed. “Where is your husband?”
Looking for me, I hope. But she didn’t say what she was thinking. Instead, she let her eyes tear up again before she answered. “They said...his body washed out to sea.”
Adam drew back and slapped her so hard it popped her neck. Her eyes rolled back, and she was out.
Yuki laughed.
The sound startled Adam enough that he stopped and turned around.
“Why are you laughing?”
“All these years and I thought I was the stupid one.”
Adam doubled up his fists. “Are you calling me stupid?”
“You tell me! You want this woman to talk, and every time she regains consciousness, the first thing you do is knock her out again. That is very stupid behavior, big brother.”
Adam flew at his brother, but Yuki grabbed his wrist, yanking him around and pinning his arm against his back until Adam was shrieking in pain.
“You do that again and I’ll break it,” Yuki said.
“I’m sorry. Let me go!” Adam said.
“Since I’m not the stupid one, I think you should know that I don’t believe you are sorry on any level. Now wake her up, question her until you are satisfied she is either telling the truth or she’s lying and isn’t going to talk, so we can leave here.”
“Yes, alright,” Adam said, then when his brother turned him loose, he grabbed a handful of ice and packed it around her throat, then rubbed ice on her face before pouring more water on her face and neck. Finally, she began to stir and move her head from side to side.
“Don’t...” she mumbled.
Adam grabbed her by the hair and yanked her head around to face him.
“Don’t hit...” she begged.
Adam hated to admit it, but his brother was right. The woman was barely here...one eye was swelling shut. Her mouth was so bloody and swollen that he barely understood what she was trying to say, and her nose was obviously broken.
“Where’s Jack?” he asked.
“Under...sea. Gone from me...” Huge te
ars rolled down her face.
Adam pulled a knife from his pocket and cut her blouse straight up the middle, then cut her bra in the middle as well, revealing a wealth of bare flesh. He ran the point of the knife from her collarbone all the way to her navel, cutting just deep enough to make it bleed.
Shelly arched up off the bed, screaming.
“That was just a taste of what’s coming. If you’re lying to me, you’re about to pay for it dearly,” he sneered, and dug the point of the knife into her flesh while she howled in pain.
Yuki dived toward them, grabbed the knife out of his brother’s hand and threw it across the room, embedding it a good three inches into the wall.
“Not only are you stupid, you’re a monster,” Yuki said. “If you weren’t my brother, I would have already snapped your neck.”
Adam stood up, his hands fisted as he stared into his brother’s face. There were no words for what he was feeling, but he knew he was losing control. He turned around and grabbed one of Shelly’s breasts and pinched it until she screamed again.
“You want me to stop?” he asked.
Light was flashing behind Shelly’s eyes and she could feel herself fading.
“Stop...” she mumbled.
“Then answer my question! Where is Jack?”
“Dead...like me.”
Adam cursed. She was either telling the truth or willing to die to protect him. He’d leave her to think about it awhile.
“We go!” Adam said, and headed for the car. “If she’s still alive in the morning, we’ll talk to her again. If she’s dead, then that is the answer I get.”
“Wait. I want to give her another drink,” Yuki said.
He opened another bottle of water, drenching her face and hair, and then lifted her head and poured some down her throat. She swallowed enough to satisfy him, and then he straightened up and looked around.
“Stay strong, lady,” he said softly, and got back in the car.
When they shut the warehouse doors before driving away, Yuki felt bad. The rats... Oh no! He hadn’t thought of them. Now he was going to imagine the worst, but Adam was philosophical about the woman as they drove back to their apartment. If she was dead in the morning, then it was meant to be. If she stayed alive, maybe a night alone would change her mind about talking.
“I’m hungry. Keep an eye out for a place that cooks hibachi. I want sake and beef. What about you?” Adam asked.
Yuki stared at him. “Her blood is on your hands,” he said, and turned away.
Adam glanced down, surprised he had not noticed that himself. “Thank you. I will make sure to clean up before we go inside.”
Yuki shuddered. His brother was crazy. “Why do you call yourself Adam? Why not use your Japanese name?”
Adam frowned. “Because this is America. Sota is not a name of power in their eyes.”
“And Adam is a name of power?” Yuki asked.
“In their Christian religion, it is the name of the first man their God created. Adam was the first man. Eve was the first woman.”
Yuki nodded. It didn’t make sense to him, and he was glad he did not live in this country. But the moment he thought it, he sighed. He no longer lived in his country, either. He had no home.
“What if the rats get to her?” Yuki asked.
Adam turned to him in anger. “Stop talking about her! I don’t want to hear it again.”
Yuki frowned, but he didn’t argue. And when they finally found a Japanese restaurant that satisfied Adam’s sensibilities, they parked and went inside.
Adam and Yuki went straight to the men’s room to clean up, and then back to the hostess stand to be seated. The whole ambiance was what Adam craved. The decor was cheap, but the aroma from the food cooking was enticing. They were seated at a table with a hibachi grill, introduced to their chef and then entertained for the next hour by the chef’s knife skills and the tasty food he turned out.
Yuki was drawn into the experience to the point that for a while he completely forgot about the woman he had tied to that filthy cot.
It was late by the time they got back to their apartment. Showers and rest were in order, and Yuki went first without asking. But the ride back had resurrected his guilt about the woman they’d abandoned, and he was wondering if he would be able to sleep.
Adam could tell Yuki was still upset, and he wisely chose not to engage him in conversation. He watched him from the corner of his eye as he stripped beside his bed, slinging off his clothes and shoes in angry gestures, then walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
Adam thought about his brother’s corpulent body. It disgusted him, but there was nothing to be said. Yuki wasn’t the kind of man interested in staying fit or eating healthy. His wants were few and his ambitions barely above menial positions. If he did not look so much like their maternal grandfather, he would think his mother had mated with a gorilla.
In a good humor about the joke he’d just made, he aimed the remote and turned on the TV before kicking back in bed to wait his turn in the shower.
* * *
Shelly was in and out of consciousness but never knew when it was reality and when it was dream-based nightmares. She believed the men who had kidnapped her were hiding now. She felt like if she made a sound, they would come running back in anger and beat her again. It was dark...so dark. Sometimes she heard sounds she recognized, like the pop of a settling building, or a loose piece on the roof above her banging in the wind. If there was wind, that might mean a storm was coming. And planes...all she kept hearing were planes. Some landing, some taking off. She must be near an airport, but where? The wind was stronger now.
If it stormed, maybe it would cool off.
Please find me, Jack. I am so scared.
“Help! Help! Water... Please bring me a drink. I need a drink,” she said, mustering all her strength.
It felt like she was screaming, but most of the words were only in her head.
Something dropped from above onto her leg. She screamed and screamed again as she tried to kick it away, but she was tied down so tight all she did was make the cot jump up and down. She was crying again, but quietly. She didn’t want the men to see her weakness if they returned.
Then she heard something rustling beneath the cot—like the sound of tiny nails—and thought of rats.
Oh my God! That’s what was on my leg!
She screamed again, “Help me! Please help me!”
Then the rustling sound grew louder, then louder still. She heard squeaking, and scrambling, then the sound of ripping paper and more squeaking. Then chewing...gnawing...
She tried so hard to see, but her eyes were so swollen, and it was too dark.
Find me, Jack. Please find me.
The wind was picking up. The loose pieces on the roof were flopping back and forth. Then she heard what sounded like a whisper of flapping wings, then a loud thud, the rapid scramble of things running...and one gut-wrenching squeal. A death scream. Something had died. Thank God it wasn’t her.
* * *
Jack was riding the Indian from one address to another on the list of Ito’s holdings.
He’d searched two warehouses on the list before dark caught him, then rode to the next one on the list beneath streetlights, wondering if this was how Shelly felt as she drove home every night thinking he was dead. The irony of the way fate had switched their places in this nightmare held its own kind of horror.
A streak of lightning flashed again. Jack watched, in awe of the power of the storm to have the energy to produce something like that. And when the shaft of lightning suddenly split into two at the bottom, it felt like the universe was mirroring what was happening to them. He and Shelly had been split apart, and it seemed just as violent.
He’d always thought he’d know if anything ever happened to her, and right now he couldn’t feel her l
ife force anywhere. Maybe it was because of the sickening guilt of being too late. He’d known the danger she was in and still hadn’t been able to keep her safe.
Was this how Shelly felt when he was missing? Was this dark hole inside of him real, or was it just fear? When she thought he was dead, did she think her life was over? If he lost her, his life would no longer hold meaning.
“I won’t believe I was saved just so I could feel what losing you was like. I didn’t die. You won’t, either. I’ll find you, Shelly. Don’t give up on me. I will find you or die trying.”
* * *
The baby was crying.
Alicia groaned and started to get up when Charlie stopped her.
“Stay here, darling. I’ll change him and bring him to you.”
“Thank you,” Alicia said, and got up to go to the bathroom as Charlie ran across the hall to get the baby.
“Hey, buddy,” Charlie said softly, as he picked the baby up and carried him to the changing table.
Little arms flailed in the air. His tiny little feet and legs were in constant motion, making changing a diaper more than a feat of dexterity, especially since there was baby poop to go with it.
Charlie had a strong stomach. He’d smelled dead bodies. Baby poop was nothing. He grabbed a handful of baby wipes and started cleaning him up, talking and laughing, until the baby finally focused on the deep rumble of his father’s voice.
“Now that you’re clean as a whistle, it’s time for a fresh diaper. Hmm, I don’t know what to think about these baby critters on here. Not quite what a little man would be wearing, but hey...one of these days you’ll be choosing your own duds.” He fastened the tabs on the diaper, then laid him back down in bed long enough to bundle him up in his blanket.
“Just like a peanut in a shell,” he said, and when he picked him back up, he kissed that little sweet spot behind the baby’s ear. “You smell so good, little man. Daddy is the luckiest guy in the world.”
He carried him back across the hall to where Alicia had propped herself up against the headboard in a mound of pillows, waiting to let him nurse.
“Your prince awaits,” he said, and laid the baby back in her arms.
