by K. S. Adkins
“Woman, you busted her nose.”
“Yeah well, her wrists were next.”
“No lie, it was fucking beautiful. Thank you for having my back when I probably deserved to be shot in it.”
“Welcome,” she says, hugging me. “No one hurts my man, Loyal. No one.”
“We got one problem solved now, what about the other?”
“Whoever this is knows me and the list of people who know me is long. I’m a people person as you know and super lovable. Where do we start? Make a memory board or---”
“Let’s start by putting you to bed,” I say pushing her toward her room. “You just said you loved me! I don’t want to sleep yet. I want to plot.” She pouts, trying to pull away.
“I wasn’t asking,” I tell her while undressing her.
“Bossy,” she mumbles kicking off her shoes.
“You love me bossy,” I remind her.
Then she breaks my heart wide open again when she says, “I love you period. Your bossiness is just a perk.”
Minutes later she’s out cold and I stay awake watching over her. Taking the previous letters, I start from the beginning. Hours later while she drools on my pillow, I remember the letter I found in the frame and grab it.
Opening it up, I was literally chilled to the bone with what I read. Her old man wasn’t as perfect as she thought he was, not even close.
Senior fucked up.
Huge.
‘Tell me I was a good father.’
~Senior
Rolling over I had hoped he’d be there next to me, but I wasn’t surprised when his side was empty. He still struggles with nightmares and fears hurting me so he stays in the chair or on the couch. Like Shay said, focus on what he does right versus wrong. Stretching myself out, I peek up and see he’s not in the chair either. Throwing a robe on, I venture into the kitchen and see him hunched over the table focused on something.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I kiss him on the cheek and whisper, “Good morning.” Taking my hand he pulls me on to his lap and nuzzles my neck. Content in my current position he leans me back to hand me a cup of coffee. It’s the look on his face that stops me from taking a sip though. “What’s wrong?”
“Found this the first time I came here to get you, didn’t mean to. I picked up the frame of you with that rifle and this envelope fell out.”
Picking it up, I read it wondering if this was a joke. If it was, it wasn’t funny. This was Senior’s handwriting and it was dated when I was three months old. If what I was reading was to be believed, my dad placed a bet and if he lost the debt owed wasn’t money.
It was me.
Clutching Loyal, I finished reading the terms of the bet and then I ran to the bathroom to vomit. Kneeling with my head in the bowl my mind literally fragmented. My dad bet me, his only child. The king of long shots owed big but he wasn’t the one who would have to pay up, I was.
His payment was his only daughter to the man’s only son. What man? Who is his son? Who the fuck are we talking about? Did this start off as a joke then get serious? Senior was a joker, always had been. He also didn’t trust many people either, so whoever this was my dad considered him a friend at the time. When I fill the toilet again, his warnings ring in my ears like church bells. “You’re going away to school where you’ll be safe…The boy isn’t good enough for you, Junior. Don’t settle on one, odds are you won’t keep him anyway…Never let your guard down, at any time someone could make a play for you,” and then I remember his words when he got sick, “I never wanted this life for you. Even though I tried, I made a mistake that will haunt me even when I’m gone. I tried to prepare you, sweetheart. I tried so hard.”
I thought he meant prepare me for a life without him, not prepare me to be taken against my will. Retching again, I knew it was going to happen. I also knew I’d be damned if I’d allow it. I’ve been a fighter my whole life, I could defend myself if I had to. Being raised here, self-defense was second nature. It was knowing my own dad pimped me out that had me holding onto the toilet with both hands.
“Breathe,” he says holding my hair back, “just breathe.”
“I can’t,” I hiccup, “someone is going to take me! I can feel it!”
“I won’t let that happen,” he swears to me.
“I won’t either, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try. I’m a grown woman. Why now? Why not when I was a kid or in college?”
“Because the sick bastard stayed hidden until Senior died.”
The tears run freely down my face as my whole body shakes in terror. Looking at Rio standing there like the devil himself, I had to wonder if I ever knew him at all. This wasn’t my best friend, I didn’t know who this was. “You knew?”
“Get her cleaned up and meet me in the living room,” he says walking away leaving us alone.
“Can you stand up?” Loyal asks, being gentle with me.
That’s when the rage came. Rio takes off on me despite years of friendship without a word then shows back up with answers? Fuck that noise. “Oh I can do more than just stand up,” I growl, pushing past him and stomping into the living room to see Rio sprawled out on the couch like no time has passed. “You better fucking explain this to me, why you knew and I didn’t. Why my own dad would pimp me out! Why you didn’t warn me! Why you left me if you knew!”
“I didn’t leave you,” he says quietly. “I was checking on some leads. I didn’t tell you because he asked me not to unless the time came where I had to and that bet was meant as a joke, Junior, nothing more. Senior noticed some shit he didn’t like and sent you off to school hoping it would go away. Obviously it didn’t. When I pulled his safe deposit box---”
“His what!”
“Are you going to scream or let me finish?” he says throwing a stack of papers on the coffee table. “This was inside. I don’t know who the bet was made with or who the son is yet, but what started off as a joke turned into an obsession. This guy wants you, Junior, real bad. He knows everything about you too .He finds you too easily. Read all of it,” he says dumping letters into my lap. “And while you do, Loyal and me are packing you up.”
“Packing me up?”
“Start reading, Junior,” he orders me. “We got shit to do and no time to do it.”
“Read it,” Loyal says, agreeing with him.
Ripping the first letter off the table, I read it with shaky hands and mourned his loss all over again. When I made it to the last sentence, you know the one…the one where you find out your dad isn’t who you thought he was, and it shatters you? Yeah, that one.
When I read it and saw the proof in blue ink, I ran back into his bathroom and stayed there.
‘The Marines are like my West Highland Terrier. They get up every morning, they want to dig a hole, and they want to kill something.’
~Thomas P.M. Barnett
Listening to her scream in the bathroom was my undoing. It sounded muffled like she stuffed her face in a towel but I heard it and so did Rio. I wanted to call up the anger for him being in love with her but I couldn’t. Not now when her life was in danger. Reminding myself she loved me, not him, I join him on Senior’s porch looking to strategize where she can’t hear us.
Christ, I should have told her sooner that I loved her. I should have paid more attention. I should have remembered that letter in my pocket too. Years of training were failing me because my attention was divided. Watching Rio stare at the window separating him from Rion, I’m tempted to throw him through it. He knew about this and he didn’t say shit. This is as much Senior’s fault then as it was his now.
“A joke, huh? Not so fucking funny now is it?”
“Don’t start, head case. You’ve been around a few months. I’ve been worried about this shit for years.”
“How did you know about the deposit box and she didn’t? Better yet, what else don’t she know? What don’t I know so I can protect her better?”
“He didn’t want her to worry unnecessarily. Fuck, we worried
enough for her. He told me when she was little, he went to play poker with his buddies, got drunk and joked about if ‘I lose this hand you’ll get this or if you lose I get that.‘ Bookie’s like to gamble, it’s in their blood. Senior liked poker. He said the guy upped the ante and going along with the joke because the terms were so outrageous he offers up Junior. The guy said it would bring two families together or some shit like that. Senior was drunk and didn’t think, guess the guy wrote it down and in his own drunken ignorance signed it.”
“He gambled his fucking daughter.”
“The next morning he was reminded of it and he never gambled or drank again.”
“Yeah because, the damage was already done.”
“Something like that,” he mumbles. “He did everything he could to protect her when he saw this guy was serious. When the bet was made the guy didn’t even have a son. She was a baby when this happened, but over the years the letters kept coming. To be safe he sent her away to school, when she couldn’t come home, he’d send me out to visit. I used that time to keep an eye and to teach her how to fight dirty. He wasn’t sure after all the years if keeping her low profile worked, then a letter came, ordering him to hand her over or he’d kill her. That was two weeks after he found out he was sick. Hired a guy to do the deed, but it never got done.”
“Everyone knows her, how the fuck is that low profile?”
“She was never without me, Tank or Henry when he worked for us.”
“Where’s Henry now?”
“Said he was going legit, getting a degree up north. Haven’t heard from him in years. Never followed up either, the guy probably doesn’t even know Senior passed on. Junior was tight with him for a bit until she left for school, he left a few months after that. Good kid, but not all that bright, without Junior’s lead to follow he took off.”
“He’s worth looking into. Find him.”
“What the fuck do you think I’ve been doing?”
“Pouting like a bitch ‘cause she didn’t choose you.” I point out. “You knew and you left her alone!”
“Fuck you head case,” he says. “I knew you’d call. I waited for you to come back before I left.”
“That’s not what you said, cocksucker!”
“I don’t owe you shit,” he says grabbing his coat. “I owe her. You try being the one she doesn’t want after loving her half her life. You be the one that has to watch her date then get her heart broken over and over. You be the one that Senior tells that some mother fucker was looking to take her away. You be the one that knows all this but loses anyway. Try it head case, it ain’t as easy as I make it look. Had I told her why I left, she wouldn’t have let it happen. Hurting her ain’t what I’m about, asshole. There’s two things I look forward to every god damn day; sharing space with her and hearing her say my name. That’s it, that’s all I got. Except, I ain’t even got that no more. Forgive me for not considering your feelings here but, I don’t give a fuck about you. Loyal.”
“I don’t need you to give a fuck about me,” I remind him. “I need you to help me keep her safe.”
“I’d kill for her,” he says walking to the door. “Go grab her from the john and let’s get the fuck outta here.”
Ignoring him while he grabs his shit, I open the bathroom door and she’s not there. The only way out was the window and it was locked from the inside. Running back to her place, I check every room but come up empty. Busting the door open to her office, I expected to see her there working like it was any other day, only she’s not there either.
Running back to Senior’s apartment there was a broken clock on the bed and it didn’t tick like the others.
Her time was up.
He’d taken her.
I failed.
‘It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.’
~ J. K. Rowling
Being that I’m not one to panic, when the blindfold and gag were taken off I was more pissed then scared. The second I heard his voice it was his audacity that rattled me more than anything. Of all the men in the world to fear, he wasn’t even an honorable mention. My current problem was my wrists were restrained and I had no shoes. Looking down at my bare feet I realized I needed a spa day when this was over. Assessing the room, I rolled my eyes when I saw pictures of me plastered everywhere. Especially over the mantle where a flat screen would fit nicely was a portrait of me with a fucking spot light on it.
Not saying a word, I lean back on the couch tucking my feet beneath me. I watch him work in the kitchen preparing me a meal like it was something we did often. He pours two glasses of wine and even sets the table for us. Giving credit where it was due, I had to give him props for getting me away from the guys without their knowledge. When Loyal realized I was gone from right underneath his nose, he was going to flip.
Inside Senior’s bedroom closet was access to the fire escape. He put a board over it when I was born and built around it so I wouldn’t get curious and try to crawl out of it. He said I was hell on wheels when I learned to crawl and didn’t want to risk it. He also said if there was ever an emergency to use it to get to safety. At least now I know how he got in and out undetected.
Score one for the bad guy.
Standing me up, he ushers me over to the table and pulls out a chair for me. Staying quiet, I sit down and reach my hands out asking to be released. Shaking his head no, he brings the food to the table and moves his chair next to mine. Picking up the fork, he twirls the pasta around it and brings it to my mouth. After throwing up the contents of my stomach I was starving. Step one in operation Free Junior was appearing agreeable. Opening up, he gently slides it onto my tongue then I close my lips around it.
“Alfredo,” he says watching me as I chew “has always been your favorite.” Actually, I don’t have a favorite food. I’ll eat just about anything except clams and oysters. “Open,” he says bringing up another bite. Repeating the motion, I accept it, chew it and swallow it.
“Wine please,” I ask, nodding toward the glass.
“Of course,” he says bringing it to my lips. Taking a hearty pull, I swallow trying to rid myself of this bland Alfredo after taste. “I’m full, Henry,” I whisper pretending this was normal behavior with a man I haven’t seen or spoken to in years.
“Welcome home, Rion.”
“Where is home exactly?”
“Where it’s always been had you taken the time to look.”
“Help me out here,” I ask him. “Have I been to your house before?”
“This was my father’s home, where I grew up,” he says, taking my plate to the sink. “Before that though, this place belonged to your mother, it was her childhood home. Although I didn’t appreciate him putting it up as collateral and then you seizing it to get your money back. It took me a long time to fix what he’d broken. But no, you’ve never been here. It wasn’t exactly the kind of home a man could be proud of, but it is now.”
No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t for the life of me remember this house or where he grew up specifically. I never knew my mother; her life was shared with me through stories and pictures. This was her home growing up? Senior never told me that either. To be fair, I had to assume he didn’t know. Henry told us his father had died and he was supporting his mother and that he lived in an apartment. The only house I seized recently was to be torn down. Then again, I’d never seen the house in person I just went off of what Rio said. But when it came to Henry, he was a quiet guy who didn’t talk about his past. Content to go where I went and do what was asked of him he was kind of an enigma. He never said much or asked questions, he just hung out with me when he wasn’t working. Truth was, everyone hung out at the apartment or in the office not each other’s houses. Senior sprung college on me so when I left for school, we went from talking all the time to him disappearing.
“Explain all this to me, Henry,” I ask him politely. “How this went from being a harmless joke, to taking me
from my home against my will.”
“Our father’s had an agreement, one my father took very seriously. I’ll admit at first I didn’t like it. When my father died, I lied about my past knowing Senior would hire me. Anyone who knows him knows about his second chances. If I was going to do this, I wanted to see who she was and if I could follow through with it. Then I saw you and knew my father was right. That first day I saw you, I knew our wills were no longer our own, Rion. It was fated.”
“You’ve gone about this all wrong,” I point out. “A stupid bet while drunk isn’t a binding agreement, let alone sane. I’ve even got the degree to prove it. You can’t use people as collateral on a bet, Henry and I’m seriously disappointed that you’ve gone to the lengths you have only to walk away empty handed.” In my mind I may have said, walk away at all but I was keeping that to myself.
“You belong to me, Rion,” he says reaching for his glass and taking a drink.
“Stop calling me that,” I warn him. “My name is Junior, remember it.”
“Do you know how many hours I’ve got invested in watching you?”
“No,” I tell him smiling. “But I imagine it was entertaining especially the time I---”
Then like a switch was flipped turned on, he became a different person. Slapping me hard across my face the force of it had me falling from my chair to the floor with a thud. Picking me back up and setting me down, he gets in my face and begins screaming at me. Oddly enough, I didn’t hear a word he said; instead I focused on his eyes. When he stomps away and starts pacing, I stow my own anger away and remember what Shayla had said. Reverse phycology only works with people who know how to use it. Well shit, here goes nothing.
“You do know they’ll find me, right?” I tell him. “I mean, come on, Henry, you really think we’re going to live happily abducted after, a few miles from my place? The kid I remember was quiet not dumb. You restrained me because you know for a fact I’ll tear you apart. I can picture what Rio will do to you when he sees you and I like it. But let’s be fair shall we, untie me Henry,” I taunt him. “I’ll even give you a fighting chance.”
