“I take it you are not here to help us.” Faye bites out the words with barely restrained disgust. “Some father you are.”
I can tell she is fighting to keep her voice flat and devoid of emotion. I’m numb. My eyes are riveted to the window where I can still see the top of X’s building. I wish I knew what the hell is going on. Why my dad… no, Vince, would do this to me. More than anything, I wish I could apologize to Xavier for leaving the way that I did, and tell him what is in my heart for him. I doubt I’m going to get that chance now.
“I’m here to deliver some food. Dominic doesn’t want this one to go hungry.” He points at me and continues, “Her delicate condition and all.” His laugh is humorless as he drops the bag on the floor and walks back out of the room, slamming the door and locking us in again.
Faye picks up the bag and returns to my side, holding me as I break down from the betrayal. I can’t tell her that this is all my fault. I know it is. After Blake left my house the night before we left Spokane, I called Vince, and I told him I was coming home. I also told him who was bringing me. He sounded so happy to hear from me, but I guess he was just happy to sell me out.
Feeling extremely sorry for myself, I still manage to pull myself together. Crying isn’t going to get us anywhere, and I’m too hungry not to eat. We dump the bag out on the mattress between us to see what he left us. Bottled water and pb & j fixings. At least he brought my favorite roasted peanut butter and raspberry jam.
Fuck! Why would he bring something that he knows I have good memories of while betraying me this way? I wonder how much Dominic is paying him for handing over his only child. Am I even going to survive this? Is Faye? So many unknowns. Too many questions.
There is no pleasure in eating. It’s something that we need to do to have the strength for whatever is coming next. Faye can’t sit still, pacing the perimeter of the room the way confined animals sometimes do at the zoo. The sun is starting to fade in the west. A vivid watercolor of pinks and oranges painting the sky, when she suddenly stops in front of the narrow windows and reaches out a tentative hand to test the latch.
Much to my surprise, it opens and she climbs up onto the narrow sill trying to see if she can fit through the gap. It’s close, but she will fit. Her eyes jump to mine, flashing with hope and no small amount of terror.
“There is a ledge out here.” She whispers, pointing down. I stand to join her and look out and down. There is a ledge. It goes all the way to the corner of the building, and at the end, there is a ladder that goes up.
“I’m going to find us help first thing in the morning.” She says, her voice is trembling. “I can’t do it in the dark.”
She doesn’t want to do it, that is abundantly obvious from her shaking voice and hands, but she is going to do whatever she can to save us. Her determination is written all over her face. She will get help or die trying. Closing my eyes,I say a quick prayer to get me out of this mess.
While the light of our second morning in captivity dawns, I quickly put together a sandwich and make Faye eat. She tries to refuse, but there is no way I’m going to let her out on that narrow ass ledge without some sort of breakfast. Her nervous pacing in front of the windows is making me antsy too. I know that she wants to go as early as possible before Vince or someone else shows up to check on us. If she is long gone when they discover her missing, there is a chance that Xavier can get here before Dominic’s men can do anything to me. The chances of us getting away with this are slim. We both know that, but we have hope.
With a quick hug, Faye turns back to the window. I see her take a shaky breath as she climbs up and slips through the gap.
“Close this behind me and lock it,” she whispers. “If anyone comes in, tell them I’m in the bathroom.” Her face is pale and her hands are trembling where she has a white-knuckled grip on the edge of the window.
“Ok.” I tell her, “Please be careful.” She nods and slowly lowers her feet onto the ledge, it’s so narrow that the very tips of her sneakers hang off the edge. She raises her eyes to the morning sunlight reflecting off of all the shiny buildings and presses her back flat against the wall. She waits for long seconds before slowly sliding, first one foot and then the other, toward the distant ladder. Quickly I hurry to latch the window, hoping no one is in the rooms beside the one we are in. Doing as Faye said, I close the bathroom door, after turning on a small flow of water so that the trickling sound makes it seem like someone is inside. With nothing else to do, I sit down to wait for whatever is going to happen next.
I don’t wait nearly as long as I wish I would have before the sound of the key in the lock announces someone entering behind me. I turn to face whoever it is and it’s Vince again, gun in hand with another small bag of groceries.
“Where’s the other girl?” he asks coldly, nothing my dad anymore. Instead he is some stranger that I’ve never met before. How could he have this much hatred for me, and I never even suspected it?
“Bathroom.” I flutter my hand in the direction of the closed door. He walks over and bangs on it, “Come on out, girl!?
? When there is no reply, he simply turns the knob and opens the door, revealing my lie. I knew he would, the door has no lock, so there was no way to hide that she isn’t here. His face is a red mask of rage as he whirls toward me.
“Where the fuck did she go?” his breath is hot against my face as he screams, only inches away from me. I look down at the grungy carpet under my feet and shrug, refusing to answer. There is only one place she could go, and he knows it. The yelling is meant to intimidate me. He strides to the window and opens it to look outside. I know he’s seen her when he reaches for his phone. I hope she has made it far enough to get to the roof. Dad, Vince, storms back toward the door, and I rush to get in front of him, trying to slow him down. He doesn’t. With a brutal swing, he slaps me across the face, knocking me to the floor. The door slams shut and I hear finality in the sound of the lock being engaged.
His enraged voice carries through the door. “The bitch is heading to the damned roof!” Other voices join his, but I can’t make out the words.
Climbing to my feet, one palm cradling my stinging cheek, I lean out the open window and start screaming as loud as I can for Faye to hurry. I hope she can hear me. She needs to go as fast as she can, but still, I know in my heart they are going to catch her.
Chapter Twelve
Xavier
Blake has narrowed our search area down to three buildings where the girls are doubtless being held. We think it’s probable that they are in an old high rise that is about five blocks away from mine. It’s so close that I can see it from my windows and I’ve been staring at it since I woke from a fitful sleep. I wish I could see inside, know what secrets are in there.
Blake’s pretty sure that is where they are since the other two possibilities are scheduled to be demolished soon. The metal and glass structure is owned by some small corporation. One that upon deeper investigation doesn’t actually exist, even though whoever set it up went to great lengths to hide that fact. I’m sure it’s one of Dominic’s cover businesses.
Blake discovered that a couple of weeks ago, the water to the old building had been restored, as well as the electricity. Records showed that both had been off, while it stood empty, for the better part of the past year. The thing that really clinched it for us is the armed men patrolling around the building. I want to go now. I know Travis does too, but Blake is urging caution. Until we know where exactly they are being held in the massive building rushing in puts everyone at risk. I know it, and Travis does too, but it’s our women being held against their well. Our women being used by my uncle as pawns in whatever fucked up plan he has.
My apartment practically vibrates with the tension radiating off of all of us. There is a lot of testosterone in the room and no good outlet for any of it. Yet. That’s coming soon enough.
Travis and Blake have a couple buddies from their years in the service that don’t live far from Vegas, so they joined us this morning with fresh eyes and more guns. In addition to the small contingent of men that I know I can trust, we have enough men to get the job done. I just hope any casualties will be Dom’s guys. They are all criminals.
All of us here are seasoned fighters in one way or another, Gray, Geno and I the street fighting variety. Working with this group of well-trained veterans has brought the rest of us to a new place when it comes to planning an operation of this caliber. It’s been an eye-opening experience. If my dad and Dominic had any idea what we could have learned, they would have had every single one of us enlisting after high school.