by Riley Ashby
I flipped the picture over, but there was nothing written on the back. No warning, no promise. Just blank white.
*
I didn’t mean to fall sleep, but at some point, I must have blinked, and my eyes decided to stay closed. I jolted awake as my phone buzzed, snapping it up on the first ring. The light was just coming in through the windows, and that only added to my frustration. I was hungry, my mouth was full of cotton, and one side of my face was numb where I had fallen asleep against the arm of the couch.
“What did you find?”
“Nothing yet.” For his part, Castel didn’t sound any more rested. “We dug up some more connections, more than we expected. Lots of people with their hands in different pots. We’re sorting through the most promising leads, but so far, there’s nothing to indicate why she would be so interested in her sister or feel the need to abduct her. Was there anything at the apartment?”
I shook my head and picked up the photo from where it had fallen halfway under the couch. “Someone broke in and tossed a bunch of stuff around and took her clothes. And there was another photo. Only one this time, and there’s no note. I don’t know what it means.”
My eyes burned as I stared at the photo for the millionth time, trying to find some clue hidden in the photograph.
Alicia had tried to lure Josie out before with written notes. Promises, then commands. Maybe she thought I had been able to foil her previous abduction attempt because I had seen the notes. So she didn’t leave letters this time … she left something only Josie could understand.
“Castel, I’m going to send you a copy of this photo. I want you to find out where they are.”
“I’ll do my best. Any idea where we can start looking?”
I looked again, my brain hooking on to one thing I recognized.
“It’s in northern California,” I said. I was on my feet, grabbing a jar of peanut butter out of the pantry at the same time as I tried to pull on my shoes. I snagged a water bottle at the last second before I slammed the door. “They’re going to Mount Shasta.”
We drove for hours. My ass went numb in the seat, but I didn’t dare ask for a break. When my bladder demanded release, I folded my legs and prayed we didn’t hit any big bumps. When my stomach growled for food, I bit my tongue and concentrated on clearing my mind. I tried to sink into the meditative space I had cultivated during my morning yoga practices, but it was hard when my sister and her driver continued to whisper to each other.
I didn’t catch much of what they had to say, but it had something to do with money. What did they possibly think I could offer them? I’d worked a minimum wage job before being abducted the first time. I had no money to my name now, not even Archer’s credit card. My sister had been telling me the same thing my entire life, but I had never felt it so acutely as I did now—I was worthless.
My sister was the reason I had lost everything. I had learned to cower, to acquiesce to higher power, because she had held me under her thumb from the day I was born. She’d turned my family and friends against me whenever I tried to stand up for myself. I never learned what it was like to have someone who looked out for me—who believed me when I said I was hurting.
It meant that when I was kidnapped and made to do unspeakable things with faceless men, I accepted what was done to me with barely a protest. I never expected anyone to come for me, and they never did.
There would be no white knight this time around, either. I needed to rescue myself.
When we stopped for gas, I had my bonds removed while the male driver escorted me to the bathroom and stood outside the door while I peed. Back in the van, Alicia handed me a Mountain Dew and Twizzlers.
I stared dumbfounded at her offering before reaching to take it. “You remembered.” I was surprised; I didn’t think she cared enough about me to remember my favorite snack. We had binged on this the few times we’d been able to get along for more than a few hours, watching rom-coms on the living room floor and swooning over Heath Ledger and Freddie Prinze Jr. wooing their high school love interests. The next morning, she would forget we had ever gotten along and treat me like a stranger once more. But that time giggling together had sometimes been enough to make me happy for a few hours.
“Of course, I remembered. You’re my sister.”
I held the soda between my legs so I could twist off the cap with my left hand. “Then why are you doing this? Better yet, why have you been treating me like shit my entire life?”
She shook her head and actually looked a bit sad. “I wanted you to be ready for the real world. Remember, I was already six years old when you were born. I remember every fight between Mom and Dad, and how devastated I was when he left. I wanted you to be strong and have a thick skin.”
“Well, you failed miserably. All you did was make me a pushover. And don’t act like the divorce was some earth-shattering trauma, either. They had a very amicable split, and we got to see him all the time.”
She rolled her eyes, every sense of remorse gone. “Then why didn’t you call to check in with him after you came back?”
I looked away. “How did you know I didn’t call him?”
“Just a guess.” Her tone was smug. “I can’t control how you reacted to me. I did everything I could to get you ready for the world. Were my methods unconventional? Sure. But you’re the one who ran off like a spoiled teenager who didn’t get a car for her birthday.”
My anger flared. “You made every day of my life miserable. You turned Mom against me and made sure I never enjoyed any of my normal teenage rites of passage. I couldn’t even enjoy prom because of you. I thought for sure once you turned eighteen, you’d leave us in peace, but you seemed focused on sticking around to make me miserable.”
“And it was a good thing I did! You needed someone to give you the courage to break up with Chad. He was a pussy and not worthy of anyone’s time, much less yours.”
“I only broke up with him because you made out with him in front of me!”
She gestured. “Proving my point. He was a piece of shit.”
I turned away from her. “I don’t want to talk about this with you. Tell me what you want so I can go home.”
“Sorry, little sister. I’m afraid I can’t do that yet.”
I closed my eyes as she pulled the blindfold back over my eyes and slammed the door to the car.
*
My breath came short and fast when I woke up and couldn’t see anything, but then I remembered I was wearing a blindfold. No need to panic except for the fact that my own sister had kidnapped me. I had no idea where I was, and Archer was probably hundreds of miles away if he was coming for me at all.
The slamming of a car door woke me. My teeth ground together so hard they hurt as someone grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the car. I gasped as cold air hit my bare skin. We were definitely a long way from LA.
“Where are we?” I demanded, but I was met with silence and marched forward across what sounded like a gravel driveway then up a couple of stairs, and finally into a structure of some sort. Soft light filtered through the blindfold, but I couldn’t see anything.
“Put her in the room upstairs. You barred the window?” My sister sounded like her old self, speaking about me as if I weren’t present, giving orders and expecting whoever was listening to hop to attention.
“Yes. She won’t be getting out.”
“Good. Lock her in and then get back down here so we can talk.”
I prepared myself for more stairs, but my breath flew from my lungs with a whoosh as the man holding me tossed me over his shoulder and carried me up the stairs. My arms hung uselessly, still bound by the zip ties, but my fingers brushed against a wallet poking out of his back pocket. I held my breath. Did I dare try something? What would they do to me if I got caught? But I remembered what I’d learned from my first captivity—I couldn’t expect anyone to come for me. If I was getting out of here, it would be because I did something to help myself.
I kicked one of
my legs, and as he moved to steady me, I slipped the wallet out of his pocket and tucked it between my clasped hands. It wasn’t too thick and fit well between my small palms. When he set me down on a soft surface, I tucked my hands between my legs long enough to drop it there before he wrenched them free to cut the ties. At last, he pulled off the blindfold. I blinked up into a ruggedly handsome face, my first glimpse of the man my sister had chosen as her accomplice. He was mostly clean shaven with stubble that looked like it was more the result of sleep deprivation than anything else. His dull brown eyes took me in with a sweeping glance.
“We’ll be back,” he said before rushing to the door and turning the lock behind him.
I was indeed in a bedroom, and it was much nicer than where I expected to land. The queen-sized bed was made up with pillows and quilts, and actual art hung on the log cabin-style walls. I frowned. This place seemed familiar.
One door led to a bare closet; the other to an en suite with a shower and soaking tub. There was one small window near the ceiling, but it was much too narrow for me to squeeze through even if I could break the glass. Back in the main bedroom, I saw that the only window had indeed been outfitted with some very thick iron bars on the inside of the room. I grabbed hold and shook, but they didn’t budge an inch. I really was stuck in here.
Peering outside, I tried to discern my surroundings. I was in northern California, that much was for sure. The cooler air and snow-capped mountains in the distance all but confirmed it. I turned to study the room again, trying to determine why it seemed familiar.
It came back to me in a rush. I had been very young, and all I remembered was that I complained the entire time. But a few months before Dad left us, we’d taken a California vacation. This must be the house we had stayed in while we were here. It was certainly the only time I had been in anything resembling a log cabin.
“Alicia!” I pounded on the door, then tried the handle for good measure but was unable to budge it. “Why did you bring me here? What the hell is going on?”
I pounded and yelled until I had to resort to drinking out of the sink in the bathroom to soothe my raw throat, but it was no use. There was no hint of movement or noise on the other side of the door. Whatever her reason for bringing me here, I would have to wait to find out.
Back on the bed, I picked up the wallet I had lifted from her companion and sorted through it but didn’t get much. A driver’s license I suspected was fake, and a few credit cards with different names on them. Maybe it wasn’t even his wallet.
But the cards … I could work with those. I rubbed one between my hands, testing the flexibility, then slid it beneath the mattress. If he discovered his wallet missing and came looking for it, at least I’d still have that. I also grabbed half the cash he had and shoved it in my back pocket to have handy in case I somehow managed to get out of here.
With nothing to think about, my mind landed on Archer. He’d come for me before, arriving just in time to save me, so I had to believe he’d come again. I had no idea how far I could get once I escaped since I was so far north and clearly isolated from civilization. Alicia and her partner would want to rest, so I would just wait until the house fell quiet, then sneak out. If I could find just one other occupied house before they realized I was missing, maybe I would be safe.
I laid back on the bed to wait.
I had been on the road for two hours when Castel called me. “We found something. It was buried beneath her dad’s name, but they took a vacation to Mount Shasta when Josie was six or seven. That photo was taken in front of the cabin they stayed in. I’m sending you the address.”
Finally, some fucking progress. “Who owns it now?”
“It’s one of those short-term rentals, and we’re trying to figure out how the owner is connected to Alicia. It looks like a fake identity, someone who went to a lot of trouble to hide the fact they owned it.”
“Why the hell would someone be so shady about owning a vacation home that they rent out to other people?”
“No clue. There’s something underhanded going on here, Archer, a lot deeper than we were prepared to deal with. You need to wait for me to come join you.”
I gripped the wheel with my free hand. “Not a chance. I’m not stopping until I get there. Your best chance is to catch a flight and meet me.”
“I’m on my way to the airport.” He hung up without saying goodbye.
I grabbed the jar of peanut butter from where it was sitting next to me on the passenger seat and shoveled another spoonful into my mouth. So far, I was running on about six hundred calories of peanut butter, but I refused to stop until I was there.
Even though it was a full day’s drive from LA to Shasta, my complete disregard for posted speed limits had shortened my drive time considerably. Still, I was a few hours from my final destination.
Was she unharmed? Was she even still alive? If I got there and found that they’d hurt her, I couldn’t predict what I would do. I had worked too hard and given up too much to let her be taken from me like this. If I didn’t get her back alive, I would tear Alicia apart limb from limb.
“I’ll be there soon,” I muttered under my breath and gunned it.
*
The night was deep and dark when I finally found the road I was looking for. There were no lights out here, and the moon was only half full. Even without clouds, the darkness closed around me like a shroud.
I stopped the vehicle several hundred yards down the road from the cabin and went the rest of the way on foot. I could hardly see anything because what little light was obstructed by the trees. But I moved as quickly as I could, approaching the house from the side. All the lights on the first floor were illuminated, but only one was on the second floor.
Bingo.
I had to pile up some logs, but I eventually got a good enough start that I was able to jump up and haul myself to the level of her window. It was difficult keeping my body weight suspended on my fingertips, but I had enough of a foothold on the outside of the cabin to manage it.
Peering through the window, I saw Josie kneeling near the door, fumbling with the handle. When she shifted, I saw she was using a credit card to try to spring the lock. I grinned. I should have bet on her trying to free herself long before I showed up.
Unfortunately, I could see why she wasn’t bothering with the window. There was no getting into the room from my side. The iron bars on the inside of the room would prevent that.
I tapped on the glass, and Josie’s head snapped up. She looked frightened, then relieved when she recognized me. She rushed over and reached through the bars to lift the window, but it wouldn’t budge.
You came, she mouthed, pressing her hands against the glass and putting her face against the bars.
I had to smile. She looked so relieved to see me. It made me feel good and sent a warmth through my chest that chased away a bit of the chill of the night. “Did you think I wouldn’t?” I kept my voice low, but I could tell she knew what I said by the way her face fell. She didn’t say anything back, but I knew what she was thinking.
No one did the first time.
It stung me, not that she doubted me but that she never had any real reason to trust me. I refused to open up to her beyond those rare moments after or before sex. I treated her like a charge.
If there was any doubt in my mind before, there couldn’t be any now. I was just fucking with myself if I pretended I didn’t care for her far beyond the way I was supposed to. She deserved the full brunt of my feelings, not the half measures I was giving her. Hiding wasn’t doing either of us any favors.
“I’ll get you,” I said, and she nodded vigorously. I chanced letting go with one hand to point at her emphatically. “Stay here.”
She grinned.
I dropped back down to the ground, landing softly in a crouch. When I looked up, I couldn’t see her anymore.
I snuck around the side of the house, listening hard for voices and slowing when I finally heard something besides the
wind in the trees and owl hoots. But it wasn’t voices I heard; heavy breathing and the squeaking of a bed told me whoever Alicia’s accomplice was, he was definitely more than just a driver.
The front door to the cabin was locked, but I was able to jimmy it open easily. The house was clean but bare, with no personal touches; clearly not a real home for anyone. That fit with the assessment that it was a vacation rental, but I needed more information.
Five minutes. Five minutes to figure out who these people were, and then I’d get her and go.
Keeping my ears turned toward the bedroom and the moans emitted from within, I grabbed a backpack sitting on the couch and began sorting through it. There was not a lot to find. A password protected laptop, a few passports with different names and birth dates, and a handful of cash. Not a single clue as to what these people were really after.
“Archer,” a voice hissed. I snapped my head up and saw Josie standing at the top of the stairs, creeping down slowly. She was barefoot, still in the clothes she’d been wearing when she’d left Ellery’s house so many hours before.
“I told you to stay put,” I growled as I jumped up the stairs toward her, grabbing her and pushing her back toward the bedroom she’d been locked in and closing the door behind us.
“I thought we were escaping.” She gasped, hands on my biceps.
I wasn’t prepared for what it would feel like for her to touch me again. I hadn’t cared at all about this girl a few weeks ago, but now I felt the absence of her in my life as acutely as a missing limb, and she had only been gone a few hours. My hands stole to her face, wrapping around to the back of her head and pulling her face toward mine.
