by Sarah Hegger
Someone had tagged the wall opposite her in garish, unreadable script. An abandoned building would be her best guess.
She worked her fingers to get the circulation going. Cold cramp sparked and skittered along her arms. He’d strapped her down with brightly colored bungee cords. The vivid red and yellow cut into the skin of her wrist. Craning her neck, she saw the same cords around her ankles.
Her mouth tasted like medicine. She worked her tongue against the roof to create some saliva.
Footsteps approached.
Still hoping despite the certainty it was Adam that she might be mistaken, Bella turned her head.
“Bella.” Adam smiled at her. “You’ve been asleep for such a long time.”
“Where—?”
“No.” He raised a hand. “We aren’t going to do this like a movie script. I’m not going to tell you where you are or launch into a soliloquy about what you’re doing here and my reasons.”
Bella didn’t dare ask what he did have planned.
Adam leaned over the table and studied her, his gaze making a careful inventory of her. “What we’re going to do, Bella, is talk about you.”
He looked so calm and reasonable, icy fear punched her in the belly.
“I’ve been watching you,” Adam said. “But then, you know that already.” He frowned and returned his gaze to her face. “I really don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand?” Surely Simon had gotten here by now and waited outside the room to rescue her. Or Nate. He always checked in by text to see if she was okay.
“You dumped me.” Adam grimaced. “Me. You dumped me. At first I thought it was because of that sheriff. But you had him. Then you had the other one. The one who dresses like the homeless he serves dinner to. And now the big one has moved into your house. How many men do you need, Bella?”
“I—”
“Don’t answer that. I really don’t want to know.” Adam turned and walked across the room. “I think we should discuss Greek.”
“Sorry?”
“Did you know the word hysterical is from the Greek hystera, meaning womb?”
Bella’s tongue sat thick and clumsy in her parched mouth and she shook her head.
“Well, it is,” Adam said. “Early definitions of hysteria had it as a female disease caused by a dysfunction in the womb.”
She had no idea why he was telling her this. Right now, she might be having an attack of the uterus.
“Oh yes.” Adam nodded. He had a scalpel in his hand. “Would you call your behavior hysterical?”
Dim light gleamed off the blade.
“You wouldn’t even speak to me.” Adam tested his thumb against the edge. “I sent you gifts and you gave them all away. I wasn’t good enough for you. Everyone else was, though.”
“Adam.” Maybe she could get him to see reason. Her thinking grew muddled. All she could focus on was that scalpel heading her way. “I’m not seeing any of those men. They’re only friends.”
“Friends?” Adam glanced up. “I’m not sure I believe you. Men don’t make friends with a woman like you. They all want what you’ve got.” He leered at her legs.
Bella jerked against the restraints, instinct making her try to pull away from him. “That’s not true. I—”
“Let’s be real here.” Adam huffed. “You’re tied to a table and I’m holding a scalpel. Why would I believe anything you said? You’d lie to save yourself. Not that I’d blame you.” He shrugged and loomed over her. “I’d do the same thing if I were in your position.”
“Adam.” It came out as a whimper. His gaze crawled over her skin. The desire to run thundered through her.
“I don’t like this skirt,” Adam said. He grabbed the side seam and tugged. Fabric ripped and cold air touched the tops of her thighs.
She wanted to hide herself from his view. Put her hands over the small triangle of satin that hid her from him. The cords scraped her wrists. She tried pressing her thighs together, jerking at the ankle restraints.
Adam cut through the waistband of her skirt.
“This is much easier.” He unbuttoned her shirt. His fingers pressed foreign and loathsome against her chest, brushed her breasts and then her belly.
Bella heaved. Simon might not get here in time.
“Don’t want to dull the blade.” He smiled at her. “This is going to hurt enough as it is.”
The scalpel brushed her skin. Harsh breathing, like raw pants. Dear God, it was coming from her.
“Now, back to the hystera thing.” Adam smiled, his teeth white in the shadowed darkness of his face. His aftershave a bright splash of citrus that turned her stomach. “If the old medical texts are to be believed, the root of a woman’s irrational behavior is her womb.”
The scalpel scraped her belly. One thrust and it would part her skin like butter. The last time she’d seen Nate, they’d fought. Funny how right now, her anger and hurt didn’t matter. Did he understand she loved him? She’d never said the words.
“So, by extrapolation, we can deduce that if one removes the root, the problem goes away.” The blade moved lower, touching the edge of her panties.
“Adam, please.” A board creaked, deafening in the dank silence.
“I’ll make it quick, Bella.”
Bella screamed.
A deafening crack.
Then another and another.
Adam jerked. Red bloomed on his chest, his stomach, his shoulder.
There. Hanging over her. Nate’s face. Frowning. Taut. “Bella?” He cupped her cheeks, forcing her gaze to his. “Baby. It’s me. It’s Nate.”
“Is she okay?” Simon’s voice came from where Adam had dropped.
“She’s in shock.” Nate pulled out a utility knife.
And Bella screamed. She screamed as he dropped it beside the table. Her mouth wouldn’t close and stop that horrible noise coming out of her.
Simon appeared.
Then she was free and Nate scooped her up and held her close. “Baby, you’re okay. We’re here. You’re okay. I’ve got you.”
The screaming stopped.
* * *
Nate never wanted to live the last two hours again. From the time Simon had called and said he didn’t have eyes on Bella anymore until now all blurred into one horrible nightmare. The chilling disconnect he forced himself into unraveled as he held her against him.
His palms confirmed what his brain desperately needed to know. She was safe. He had her. She was whole.
Simon draped a blanket over her shoulders and Nate tucked it around her. After the screaming had stopped, Bella cried. Silent sobs shook her tiny frame and wet the front of Nate’s shirt. He gloried in the wet fabric. Proof of life.
“Ambulance is here,” Simon said. “We need to get her checked out, bud.”
His brain confirmed it, but he couldn’t let her go. Blue, red, blue, red, lights flickered across her beautiful face. Bodies and voices moved around them. Nate couldn’t unfasten his arms to let someone else touch her. Since he and Simon had started their hunt, all he’d known was that if he ever got to hold her again, there was no fucking way he was letting her go.
Jesus. So much time he’d wasted, bitching and whining about his inability to commit. What did it all amount to?
That bastard had been within an inch of taking his sweet away. Nate wasn’t sure if Simon’s or his bullet had hit Adam first. Right now, though, he was tempted to spend the rest of his clip in the fucker just to make sure.
Already, the scene swarmed with people. Gabby had correctly interpreted his garbled message and thrown every resource they had at this. She could be pissy with him for the rest of his life.
He owed Gabby. She had found Adam, moments before Simon had called and uttered those gut-chilling words: “I lost her, man.”
“Nate.” Simon touched his shoulder.
“Yeah.” Faces stared at him. Gabby, the EMTs, Jeff, Simon . . . other faces he couldn’t put names to.
An EMT reache
d for Bella and Nate snarled at him. “I’ve got her.”
He carried her through the staring mass to an ambulance outside. Climbing up, he settled himself inside, Bella still tucked tight to him. Her heartbeat a steady pounding against his.
“Nate?”
“Shh, baby. We’re going to take you to the hospital and have you checked out.” He scowled at the EMT hovering around the open ambulance doors. “Fucking move!”
He’d apologize later. Grovel if he had to, because some part of his brain did recognize he was being a dick.
* * *
“Bella?” An annoying tapping on her cheek chased sleep away. “She’s coming around.”
“I’m not passed out.” Bella pushed the hand away and glared at the culprit. “I was sleeping.”
“Sweetheart.” Mom’s face appeared beside Nana’s. “Do you need anything? A glass of water? Juice?”
Nana? What the hell were her grandmother and parents doing there?
“Sheriff Evans called us.” Nana touched Bella’s forehead. “She’s warm. Too warm. She’s running a fever. Are you sure that doctor knew what she was talking about? She looked very young to me.”
Everyone looked young to Nana.
Three shocked faces turned to her. Oops, seems she’d said that out loud. Must be the drugs talking.
The hospital had made an effort to cheer up the institutional beige with bright floral drapes and pictures of places most people lying in this bed would much rather be than here.
Dad shouldered his way past Mom. “We came as soon as Nate called us. Caught the next flight out.”
“You should have told us.” Nana scowled.
“Really?” Bella met her grandmother’s angry blue eyes. So much like her own, only meaner. “You’re going to get on my case about why I didn’t call you?”
“Yes, Mother.” Dad straightened his shoulders. “Now is hardly the time. We’ll talk about this another time.”
No, they wouldn’t.
More shocked gazes on her. There went that brain-mouth-filter failure again.
“Darling girls!” Phi’s voice ricocheted off the hospital walls. “How I have missed my ministering angels. Tyler, darling, come and give me a hug. And you, Bethany.”
“Dear Lord.” Nana rolled her eyes. “What is she doing here?”
As if she’d heard her, Phi answered the question from outside. “I’m here to check on another of my darlings. My dear, sweet little Bella fairy. I’m sure you girls are taking such good care of her.” She appeared in the doorway in blue spangles and a rush of patchouli. “Bella.”
“Good evening, Philomene.” Nana bristled, never happy to have to share the limelight and even unhappier when so clearly overshadowed. “What can we do for you?”
“I came to see ma petite fée.” Phi bustled into the room. “Simeon is beside himself.” She clasped her hands to her bosom. “Be. Side. Himself. For allowing that evil monster near you.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Are you up to seeing him?”
Simon. He had burst in right after Nate and been a quiet, calm presence at her side all through the hospital examination. When Nate proved to be overprotective, Simon had firmly put him outside the room and taken his place.
“Of course she isn’t.” Nana sniffed. “What sort of bodyguard allows a woman to be abducted and then mutilated?”
They couldn’t give her strong enough drugs to deal with Nana right now. She pressed her palm to the small, stitched incision low on her abdomen. The cut had been clean and the repair easy. The doctor didn’t expect it to scar.
“The worst kind.” Simon entered behind a massive bunch of daisies. “Hey!”
When you lived with a man, you got to read some of his expressions, and Simon was mad. Bella would bet that anger had turned on himself. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Damn straight it was.” Simon put the flowers on the end of the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Okay.” Because she wasn’t really sure how she was feeling. Physically okay, and they would discharge her tomorrow. But inside, the invisible incision Adam had made still bled. She felt shaky, uncertain, the knot of dread in her gut a constant.
“Nate’s caught up in paperwork.” Simon nodded to her parents and Nana. “He said to tell you he’ll be by later.” Simon peered into her eyes. “Tell me you’ll see someone and talk this through.”
Shoulder-checking the six-three Simon on her way past, Nana bustled over. “We don’t need any of those counselors. Bella will be fine. She has her family around her.”
“Simon says.” Simon raised his eyebrow.
From somewhere, he teased out a small smile in her. “Well, if Simon says . . .”
“This crap can stay with you,” he said.
“I will if you will.” Bella caught his hand.
Simon pressed her hand to his lips. “Deal.”
“I don’t understand.” Mom dug up her cardigan sleeve for her ever-present Kleenex. “Why didn’t we know anything about this until that animal attacked her?”
“Bella didn’t want to worry you.” Phi flanked her on the other side.
Nana snorted. “She should have told her parents.”
“She did tell us.” Dad squeezed her foot through the blankets. “We weren’t listening.”
“Oh dear.” Mom dabbed at her streaming eyes.
Phi handed her a packet of Kleenex. “There you are, dear. This is all very distressing. We all underestimated the man’s determination.”
“I told you not to see that man anymore.” Nana folded her arms.
Pure rage flashed through Bella. She remembered almost every word of her conversation with Nana and she was done pretending. “Just don’t.”
“You need to be sensible with men, Bella. You have such—”
“I suggest you not finish that sentence.” Phi swelled beside her. “Because you’re about to say something so unforgivable you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. None of the blame for this rests with Bella. Not one iota.”
Nana bristled. “Well, in my day—”
“You mean in our day.” Phi’s voice rose, and given how famous those pipes were, her voice soared through the room. “In our day, men did awful things to women in the name of being manly. There is no excuse for what he did. None. Bella did not encourage him. She did not ask for this and she did not deserve it. Anyone who suggests otherwise is purely wicked.”
Nana opened and shut her mouth. Huffed and dropped her gaze. “I wasn’t going to suggest any such thing.”
“Good.” Phi was hardened steel, but when she turned back to Bella she had it buried beneath a gentle smile. “Now, darling, I wanted to offer my home to you. I don’t know where you plan to go once you’re discharged, but know that you are always welcome under my roof.”
“Of course.” Mom sidled closer. “I’m so stupid not to think of that. You might not want to be alone. You know you can always come home. Your old bedroom is just waiting for you.”
“You should be with your family.” Nana hefted her purse onto her shoulder. “You need your family at a time like this.”
Over Nana’s head, Simon’s face said he didn’t think she needed that at all. Bella was inclined to agree.
Nurse Tyler came in and kicked everyone out so they could feed her dinner. Bella pushed around her food. The quiet room pressed on her. Outside, the sounds of the hospital surrounded her. The medication cart going past. A bell pinging the nurse. The garbled announcements for doctor this or doctor that.
“Hey.” Nate’s voice made her jump. He appeared in her doorway, still in his uniform and looking tired and rumpled. “The nurses let me in. As long as I promised not to stay too long.”
“You look tired,” she said, not really knowing what else to say. The Adam thing stretched between them like quicksand.
“Paperwork.” He grimaced. “Suddenly, everyone wants to know what the hell happened and they want to hear it from me.” He dragged the one chair over to her bed and sat. “Si
mon tells me your family were here earlier.”
“Yup.” She wanted to smooth his tousled hair. “Nana is . . . Nana.”
He pulled a face. “Simon also said you agreed to get some help. Just to talk this thing through.”
“Simon has been saying a lot.”
They both laughed, but not because either of them found that particularly funny.
He took her hand and kissed it. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He dropped his gaze and cleared his throat. “Worst fucking moment of my life.”
“Mine too.” She bet if both of them closed their eyes, they would see the same thing from different angles.
Kissing her hand again, he looked up. “I’ll be by to get you in the morning. Have you thought about where you want to go?”
“Yes.” She braced for a fight. “I want to go home. To my house.”
“On your own?” He frowned.
“Yes. It’s mine, Nate. I made it my safe place and that’s where I want to be.”
“You could always stay with me. Indefinitely.” His topaz eyes held a depth of stuff she was suddenly too scared to question. The future lurked, gray and scary beyond this room, and Bella couldn’t face it, didn’t want to even acknowledge it.
“You don’t want that, Nate. Not really. Besides, I want to go home.”
He watched his fingers play with hers. “There are a lot of things I want and don’t want, Bella. I need to talk to you about them. But now isn’t the time.”
Bella didn’t want to talk. Ever. She’d spent so much of her life talking about Nate and her, it seemed like too much of an effort right now. That Bella had been left behind when Adam kidnapped her. Funny, she’d spent all those months finding a new Bella and, in the end, it had found her.
ChapterThirty-Two
Someone had taken down her Christmas lights. Snow had melted and dull patches of earth and dead grass had reclaimed her garden from its blanket of white. The holidays were officially over. Going up the front walk seemed both familiar and strange.
Nate opened her door and disabled the alarm. “Let me have a look around first.”
Too late, Bella wanted to shout. The bogeyman already got me.
Adam was dead. Her logical brain knew that, but the fear inside had nothing to do with logic and kept rehashing every B-grade horror plot it had ever absorbed.
