by Barb Shuler
“Yeah,” his voice was muffled by the almost closed bathroom door.
“Be back in a few, don’t ya go runnin off on us,” I chuckled as her eyes narrowed at me.
“Daddy, don’t be an ass.”
“Hey, I was being funny.”
“Riiiight…” she said, rolling her eyes. “Oh, can you bring me a snack? I’m starving. It’s been a while...” Her eyes went to the donuts and she sighed. “Something salty and sweet. Please?”
“Cookies and pretzels from the snack machine good? If they have them?” I thought that was still her favorite concoction.
“Yes. Chocolate and salt please.”
“You got it, princess.”
We left Dani Lynn in the room with Derek and walked down the hall towards the snack machine. The drawn look on Drew’s face made my stomach clench. “What’s happened now?”
He looked around before he spoke, “Nicole wasn’t working alone.”
I stopped dead in my tracks, my gaze meeting his. “Start talkin’, kid.”
Derek
The images in my head made my stomach flip for the millionth time this morning. Gabe and Drew both said it would pass, but I wasn’t sure. I’d never seen someone hurt like that. Not even my Ma when she’d get drunk or high and get beat by the douche’s she thought wanted her. Not even when Granny would whack me with the Bible. Nothing prepared me for that. As I splashed water on my face again I heard the room door open. I grabbed a towel and dried my face, but before I could call out to Drew I heard a voice. One I knew. Mr. Landry. Oh, Drew was not going to be happy about this.
I peeked out of the crack in the door and watched as he moved to the side of the bed. His back was to the door of the room, but I could see him just fine. When I saw the needle in his hand I went wide eyed. What was he doing?
“Seems you had an interesting time away, Dani Lynn. Too bad you came back.”
“What are you saying, Stephen?” I saw her try to sit up, only to have him push her back down.
“Don’t move. I should have done this years ago. You know, you’re no better than that no good mother of yours.”
“Do not speak about my mother like that!”
Ms. Dani Lynn’s voice rose as she glared at Mr. Landry. I swallowed and slipped my phone out of my pocket. It was almost dead, the red light flashing at me. Crap. I tried to send a text, but it wouldn’t go through. I had to think of something to do. But what?
“Your whore of a mother didn’t want to give me what I wanted. She told me I was disgusting. Do you believe that? She let me have her, use her body that night... and yet I was the disgusting one? She liked it.”
“Do not talk about her like that!” Dani Lynn reached up with all her might and slapped his face. I don’t think it was very hard though. She was so weak, after all. I cringed when he backhanded her. She cried out as she tried to turn to get away from him.
“You are a whore just like her. You are not good enough for my son. So I gave you to Nicole. She deserved you. She was supposed to have her fun and then kill you. Stupid bitch couldn’t even get that right.”
“What? Oh God.” Dani Lynn wiggled back from him. “You’re just as crazy as she is!”
If she could keep him looking that direction, I could get out and get help. She fell off the opposite bed side. Her feet thumped against the floor just as he grabbed her hair. There was a monitor beeping loudly now, and I used the distraction as my chance. He looked like he was lost in thought before he started speaking again.
“She loved me, ya know. She was so beautiful… just like you. Perfect, lush body. Breasts that had a little bounce when she walked.” His gaze went to Dani Lynn, and the blank look of it creeped me out. The fear was written on her face as she tried to jerk away from him again.
“Her body always responded to me. I was her first. We were fifteen. God. I remember it like it was yesterday. We did it in her parent’s bed. She didn’t want to at first, but after I was in her, she gave in and let me take her over and over again. His face went rigid, his grip tightened on Ms. Dani Lynn’s arm and at her cry of pain he growled out.
“Then your father took her from me.” He smirked as he leaned closer to her, I could barely hear him, but his words made my stomach flip.
“You remember being tied up that night? The one where Nicole cut your thighs?” Ms. Dani Lynn’s eyes were wild with fear as she tilted her head and she started to sob.
“NO!”
“Oh, yes. That night you called out for Drew. Nicole had him on the phone and you tried to tell him, but I stopped you. Gotta love drugs. They make you feel good and forget the bad stuff. You liked it. I cleaned you with my tongue. You made all those sweet mewling sounds, just like Abbie used to.
“Get away from me!” she screamed.
He grabbed her face and tugged at her but she managed to get a little space between them. His hand came down across her face, again and I slung the bathroom door open. He moved to intercept me. I ducked and tried to get around him, but he was bigger and faster. He slammed me up against the wall and turned back to Dani Lynn.
“Leave her alone!” I spit out the blood in my mouth, but as usual, because I was a ‘kid’, he ignored me. I got up and once the room stopped spinning I charged him. I ducked low and shoulder checked his knees. He came crashing down and I fell on top of him. It dazed him enough that I was able to scramble up and get to the door. Or so I thought.
As I went to grab the handle I was pulled back, my shoulder slamming into the wall as a body pressed me into it. I tried to push him back but I wasn’t physically stronger. Good thing I was mentally stronger. I knew what to do. I raised my hand and punched as hard as I could. He grabbed his throat and I kicked him in the nuts. Yeah, boys can kick there, too.
I ran for the door and screamed for Drew. Please, he had to be close. Stephen coughed as he got back onto his feet. I did the only thing I could think of. I ran for him, once again dropping my shoulder and hit him in the solar plexus as hard as I could. We both hit the floor and the room spun. My eyes fluttered until I heard Dani Lynn calling out my name. She stumbled over to me, blood covering both of her arms.
I was going to be sick… the spots grew and I grabbed her as she collapsed. I tried to hold onto her until help came. The minute the door burst open I let the darkness that had been playing at me take me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The Last Mark
Drew
I WAITED ON Gabe to say something, anything about the information I had finished laying out for him. Derek and the FBI’s resident computer genius and hacker extraordinaire, Hatcher, had been busy. Crazy busy. I don’t think Derek has slept at all…. Derek was scary good at what he did, and he was determined. It was a quality I liked about him. He was as dedicated as we were. If that kid ever decided to use his genius for evil, we were all fucked. Gabe’s silence was pulling at me. It wasn’t like him to be quiet. It felt like forever before he looked up at me and I saw the worry in them.
“What? You seeing something in that mess that I didn’t?”
“Where was-”
Gabe was cut off by a scream. I heard Derek scream for me. Not a “hey, come here” tone. A “I’m scared for my life” scream. I took off running, pushing nurses and doctors aside to get back to Dani Lynn’s room. When I flung the door open, both Dani Lynn and Derek were on the floor, covered in blood. My so called father lay beside them, panting, but also bleeding.
“Derek…” Dani Lynn’s voice was almost a whisper as she tried to sit up, her full attention on Derek. “Oh, God,” her body shook as I knelt before her.
“Come on, baby. Look at me. What happened?”
“Stephen... He… He…” she tried to take in a deep breath but failed. She only winced as she shifted. Her body was shaking harder now, and I knew that look in her eyes. I had seen it a few times. She was in full on panic mode.
“Come on, baby, tell me,” I pleaded.
“H
e attacked me. Said she-” her voice was a pant as she tried to get her breathing right. “He said… Nicole was supposed to kill me.”
When a nurse and doctor pushed me aside I growled and stepped over Derek, narrowly avoiding a nurse's face with my boot. I snatched the dirty bastard up from the floor and flung him out of the room. There was no being kind or gentle. His body thudded against the hallway floor as he chuckled.
“I guess I should have gotten better help.” His voice was sardonic, unremorseful. “Better yet, I should have done it myself.”
I saw red. What we had found this morning was all starting to fall into place. No wonder Gabe was in a state of shock. He saw it when I hadn’t. That pissed me off even more. The information from the clerks and others in the area that had seen Nicole had been calling in after her picture was plastered all over the news last night and early this morning. The community was outraged and no stone was being left unturned. The psycho was famous now. I hope that meant she’d get a needle in the arm. She’d be a case study for law students and psychology students alike in a year.
It all made sense now. He knew all along that his daughter was a fucking psycho. He brought her into our home, into our lives; but why? Why do this? He was the man that brought Nicole to Oklahoma. He was the one that paid in cash to have the work done on the rooms in that house.
HIM. It was all him.
What could he gain from killing the woman I loved? He needed to be charged with all of this too. He was the spider at the center of the web. He needed a needle in the arm. Though… a needle was too good for him. He needed to be tied to a tree out in the Hill Country and left for the animals to scavenge. Better yet, tie the motherfucker up to a cross like a scarecrow and leave him until he was nothing but bones. As my ire grew, I stalked out into the hallway and lifted him up by his shirt before slamming him into the wall as hard as I could.
“Why!?” My jaw tight, teeth clenched as I spoke. My eyes blazing with hatred as he smirked at me.
“She needs to join her whore of a mother….”
I roared in anger and slammed his head into the wall. I heard my name being called but I didn’t care. He hurt my girl. He let the devil spawn kill innocent people. This was all his fault. He put her in the clutches of his psychotic daughter. He was responsible for her being beaten, tortured, raped, and almost killed. He was the one responsible for my unborn child being in danger. With each new thought I slammed him against the wall, punched him. The anger that was building in me was toxic but I didn’t care. The fucking psycho’s manic laugh sent a fire through me.
“You know…” he coughed as he tried to straighten up to his full height. “I enjoyed touching that little butterfly of hers with my tongue.”
I took a half step back as those words sank in. I blinked before I met his gaze. The hatred I felt now, in this moment beat all. I knew of the butterfly he meant. I knew where it was. It sat just inside her right thigh. It was there to mark the beauty she held. It covered a few of the scars she had put there years ago. I was there when it was drawn out, stenciled and colored in. The lady who had done it remarked how strong Dani Lynn was to get it done. I guess she knew what those scars were. It was MINE to touch. No one was supposed to touch my girl there other than me. No one.
I moved fast, grabbed his shirt and flung him away from me and reached for the gun that was on my hip. I reached… only to find my holster... Empty. The second I realized what had happened, it was too late. I was looking down the barrel of my own sidearm. He had my gun. I raised my hands. I just needed a split second. I could take him down and end his miserable life. If he took me with him, well at least I knew he couldn’t hurt Dani Lynn ever again.
“Stephen! Lower the gun!”
His eyes cut past me to where the voice came from. Gabe’s bark of a command went unanswered. Stephen looked from him to me, smiled and then fired. I heard the shots, felt the burning pain rip through my left arm as I stumbled back. Stephen jerked, but was still standing. There was yet another shot fired and Stephen’s body hit the floor with a hard ‘thump’. My gun went sliding across the tile. I hit the ground hard. Panting out the adrenaline that was running through me until Jacks was at my side. A nurse on the other. I tried to push them off as I sat up. My gaze landed on the man who had raised us. The traitor we never saw coming. My heart broke for my mother… but as for me, he could rot in hell where he belonged.
“Bubba, come on,” I turned to see the panicked look in Jacks’ eyes and cringed as the nurse squeezed a bandage over the wound in my arm. Just past Jacks, Gabe stood with his pistol still in his hand a fierce look on his face.
My eyes darted around. “Dani Lynn? Derek?” my voice cracked.
“They’ll be fine, son. Derek is going for a CT scan though. He took a hard knock to the back of the head. Dani Lynn popped her stitches, but our girl is tough. She said Derek saved her. He had a needle when he came in. Doc is taking it to see what it was. Carson is on his way here.” Gabe said all of this while glaring daggers at the now lifeless body on the floor.
When the local law enforcement officer’s, Carson included, showed up we had to give statements. By this time, I was numbed up, stitched up and feeling a little high. The hardest part was yet to come though. I had to tell my mom that her husband, the man she loved, was dead. And why. The why was going to break her… that just added to my reasons to hate him.
Dani Lynn
We’d all talked last night right before I passed out about some of the things that had happened to me while Nicole had me in that house. The humiliation of it all was enough to make me cringe and hide under the covers a few times. Talk about an emotional ride. Lieutenant Carson had stated they needed full details to the best of my knowledge as to what happened from the time I was taken until I escaped and was found fighting for my life in that road. I pushed the pain aside and let it all out. What I could remember, that was.
I reveled in the physical pain I felt. Like I had when I cut, I sank into it. I let it wash over me. When the pain meds started to wear off it got worse, though. I had to tell them to stop the questions. The panic was rising. I was done. I had also refused more pain meds, too. I needed to stay focused on the pain. It would keep me awake. Alert. Drew had let it slip to during his chat with Lieutenant Carson that they had Nicole in this same hospital. Two floors above me! No way I was sleeping with her here. What if she got loose again? Yeah, no thank you. I’d sleep when I was dead. Yeah, bad analogy, but you know what I mean. I wasn’t going to die anytime soon. Not with my Daddy and my Superman in the room with me, and Jackson on watch outside the door.
To top it all off that psycho, Stephen attacked me in my own room. His words made the air around me stale. My heart broke as I tried to shake it all off. Sleep was the last thing I wanted. I didn’t want to close my eyes and see the last two weeks repeating through my mind.
Something tells me that I was slipped something to make me sleep, though. One minute I was talking to Drew and Daddy, then nothing. When I woke up, before I could freak out, I saw Daddy laying against my bed. That simple act made me feel safe. Though Drew wasn’t here, I knew he couldn’t be far away. I ran a finger over my daddy’s cheek and smiled softly, letting him sleep a little longer. He looked so peaceful. Finally, when I couldn’t take it any longer I called out to him just as I had yesterday morning when I woke to find him laid against the bed. We were soon joined by Drew and Derek.
Derek was pushed in, wearing a scowl on his face. I sat up slightly. Derek had been placed in the room next door to mine so that he too could be under watch. He wasn’t happy about it, but he’d taken one helluva knock to the head. I took a few deep breaths, laid my head back a little, and looked over my guys. My daddy, my Superman and my Derek. Yes, I had claimed Derek, so he was mine now. They’d all done so much to save me. My heart ached with the love there. I rubbed my temple, fighting back tears. My musings were cut off when Drew moved Derek closer to the bed and sat beside me. He turned so he was loo
king at us all and grinned at me. It was the same grin that lets me know he’s up to something.
“What did you do, Andrew Landry?” I tried to give him a serious look, but he winked at me and I turned to putty.
“I talked to Derek, and if it’s okay with you, he’s going to be coming to stay with us out at my farm house. I need some help out there, and honestly the little bugger has grown on me,” Drew chuckled as Derek punched him in the arm.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Daddy said. I could hear the chipperness in his voice.
I looked over at Daddy, then at Drew and shook my head. “Derek, you are more than welcome to come to Drew’s house-”
“Our house, woman.”
My brow arched and I stared at him. “Did you just woman me?”
His dimple popped out and I was a goner. “Why, yes, yes ma’am, I did.”
“Ass,” I muttered as he squeezed my hand.
“You love me,” he said.
“Until my last breath,” I said as my gaze met his.
“I can help set up your new office. I won’t be in the way, I don’t eat much-”
I cut him off as I said his name. “Derek.” I waited until he looked up at me. “You are not coming into our house to do anything more than be a kid. Got it?”
“Uh, yes ma’am,” he said, frowning slightly.
“She didn’t mean it, kid. You can hook up her new office. Don’tcha worry none,” Drew said, shooting a sideways look at me.
“You can’t not let the kid geek out. It’s the highlight of his day.”
“Dear Lord,” I heard Daddy mutter before he chuckled. “Princess, good luck with these two.”
“Incoming,” Jackson said from the door as he held it open for the doctor. Hopefully he was coming to give us good news.
