Learning to Drown (26 page)

* * * *

“Talk to me,” Lucas said when the
phone rang.

“We got a hold of the provider. They
said the GPS indicated on the Beltway headed this way. He’s not very bright,
Bro.”

“Her ex boyfriend?”

“Yeah, sadly he seems like he’d be an
okay guy normally. A bit dull and not too quick on the uptake. But he was
pissed, that irrational kind of pissed that good quiet guys get when they’ve
suffered one too many indignities.”

Lucas grunted, zipped around a yellow
Jeep and kept his foot heavy on the pedal.

“Like Billy Kent in the eleventh
grade,” Matthew said softly.

“Enough of that. Just tell me why you
keep saying he’s not too bright.”

“Because I don’t think the son of a
bitch would think to run off with her. I really think he’s—”

“Taking her home. Where I got the
truck.”

“Yep. Bingo.”

“Okay, I’m headed that way and—”

“Hold on. Don’t go.” He heard Matty
click over and then he was back. “He’s headed home. That was Marcus. An old
woman n a service station bathroom found a note for help in the toilet paper
dispenser. Right license plate. Right description for September. Lady said she
looked sick as a dog.”

“Because she is. And I’m afraid that
asshole is going to think it’s all part of some elaborate game. He said that
when he called that day.
Aren’t you the guy she hired to take her
? So
what if he thinks his part of the game is to take her back?”

“I’ll head that way. I’ll be ten
minutes.”

“I’ll be twelve. Maybe,” Lucas said.
“What about the cops?”

“You know them. They have to check it
out first. Especially since Marcus said the guy has no record. They won’t dick
around too long, but they have to at least talk to the folks at the station.”

“Right. Let’s go then.” Lucas didn’t
wait for a response. He hung up and blew out a breath. Then he beat his fist on
the steering wheel until his arm throbbed.

Billy Kent had been a kid in Matthew’s
junior class. It was Lucas’s first year out of high school and their dad was
dead. He was legal guardian of his brother and working a part time job repoing
cars. Billy Kent had suffered one too many practical jokes and half-assed
beatings. Too many small indignities that had ended up shortening his fuse to
the point of no return. He’d brought his father’s service pistol to school and
killed four classmates and one teacher who had always defended his attackers
before he turned the gun on himself.

Everyone always said what a nice guy
he was. Such a nice boy, not too bright. A good egg. Until the end, that was.

* * * *

I actually dozed. I’m not sure how,
the fever won over the nerves. When Damien pulled into his driveway, the wheels
scattering gravel up into the car’s undercarriage woke me. It sounded like
someone tossing pebbles at a glass window.

“
Lucy
we’re ho-ome,” he said.
His whole demeanor creeped me out. Damien had always been a bit of a prima
donna and a pain in the ass. Now he seemed like someone who was one step away
from doing something stupid.

“You need to let me go, Damien. Just
let me call someone. A cab, even.” I could take a cab to Lucas’s house. I knew
where it was. I’d wait there or I’d hit redial or I’d find Matthew. He might
even be at his brother's.

“No, no, sweetheart. You drove me
crazy with this shit. Abduct me, spank me, take me, make it rough. Against my
will. Non-consent! Almost, almost, almost.” He got out and yanked me from the
car before I could even try to scramble to run. “I always
almost
had it
right. And I tried. I tried, really, really fucking hard for you.”

“I know,” I said, stumbling on the
gravel and the dirt to keep up with his hurried, angry steps. “I’m sorry.
You’re right, Damien.”

You have been dominating him. By
telling him to do it. By giving him a schedule.
I heard Lucas in my head. I had never
wished more to see a person than I wished to see Lucas Crow at that moment in
time.

“Damn fucking straight it’s your
fault. You had me convinced that I couldn’t do anything right. That I was a
failure. Couldn’t make Ember happy. Couldn’t give her what she wanted. Then she
gets abducted. I think you set it up. You didn’t. And you’re gone! Poof! Some
big goof telling me you’re his now. Like I’m a shoe that can be tossed away. Or
you’re a toy that can be stolen. What the fuck?”

“I’m sorry. I thought you’d abandoned
me. Left me for dead. I thought you didn’t care and then I…” I bit my lip
realizing I should stop. I shouldn’t say the rest. But I’d said too much.

Damien literally shoved me up the
wooden steps the back porch. Once upon a time, he’d done that to get me off.
And I had gotten excited by it. Now I just started to cry, realizing that he
had gone a little bit crazy. And that he was scaring me. “And you fell for some
asshole who took my truck and my woman and then treated me like I was less
than. Do you know how many times I called this phone and got your voice mail?
Do you know how many times I tried to call you?” He threw the phone and it hit
the wall with a thud. The back popped out and the guts flew free and he crushed
it under his boot, grinning at me as I heard the pieces tick and pop under his
destructive foot.

“But now here you are. And I want to
show you how much I’ve learned.”

He grabbed me by the front of my
thermal and shook me. The world went haywire. Up and down and side to side. The
whole of my existence felt like it was n a snow globe being agitated by an
angry giant.

“Damien, please. Please. I’m sorry.
You deserve better. I was confused. I was trying to figure stuff out about
myself.” He smacked me, hard enough to rock my head back and my vision wiggled
like a bad TV picture.

“This is not a talk show for fuck’s
sake! I don’t care anymore, Ember. I don’t care. But I was a good study and
we’re going to see how good.”

“Please!” I shouted, my lips had gone numb
and I was sweating. “I was trying to figure me out, Damien and you got sucked
it. It was unfair! It was cruel! I am so, so sorry, please don’t hurt me.
Please don’t. Don’t do anything rash,” I said. “Don’t.”

“You’ve gotten better at your pleas,
Em,” he said and I stared at his eyes. I couldn’t tell if he believed I was
play acting or not. His fingers plucked at my waist band and I went limp like a
doll and hung my head, moaned.

Plan B.

His fingers pushed down past the
barrier of the elastic. I didn’t have panties on. Damien’s fingers stroked over
the skin of my hips and I moaned again. Really not having to work to sound
miserable. “Damien,” I said with warning in my voice.

“What?” Now he sounded annoyed.

“I’m going to be sick,” I said.

“No you’re not, baby. You’re going to
get fucked good and hard. Just the way you like. Don’t you worry, daddy got you
back from that man and now I’m going to show you how well I took notes.”

I moaned again, swaying a little. The
sway was more pronounced than intended because I was so sick and so exhausted
and now so upset my legs felt like they were going to buckle. I clutched at him
and made another low pitched sound.

“You are
not
going to be sick,
September,” he said. But he pulled his hand free of my sweat.

See, Damien is vomit phobic. If
anything would make him back up, the promise of a mess was it.

I forced myself to gag, just a bit,
just for show but not obviously dramatic. Despite feeling like the walking dead
at the moment, the one thing I was not was nauseous. I had to fake it.

Damien took one step back, just out of
the path of anything that might come out of me. “I’m going to be sick, Dae.”

He hit me. That’s when I knew he had
snapped. Some part of Damien that had been in tact before was now damaged. My
ears began to ring and my stomach really did roll over and I felt like I was
falling. My knees unhinged and I went down on one knee. He stood over me,
watching, anger burning bright spots on his face and neck. “You really do fuck
everything up now don’t you? First you get taken, then you stay taken, now
you’re going to be sick while I’m trying to play with you.”

I nodded, feeling some relief way down
deep inside of me. I was trying to calculate in my head how long I’d been gone.
I tried to speculate if Lucas even knew I was gone yet. I tried to figure out
what kind of damage I was going to suffer thanks to the fever and the virus and
now the blows to the head. I felt like I was being punched with a boxing glove
full of rocks instead of suffering a few open handed smacks from the world's
worst boyfriend.

“Damien,” I said, now pleading with
that one word.

The other knee dropped and I kneeled
there. He grinned down at me. Something occurred to him and that smile made my
fingers tremble.

“At least you can do something while
you’re down there. You’re not looking so green.”

My brain made the connection. Me on my
knees. Me his captive. Me burning up. Me a hot orifice that he could stick his
dick in. It was just the cruel juvenile thing that would occur to him.

He laughed and I hung my head, trying
so hard to think. All I could think was if he was going to bare his cock, I was
gonna take advantage. I had teeth and I had fingernails and he’d be putting his
most vulnerable spot right in my face, literally. I steeled myself as he undid
his button and his zipper. Damien reached in his pants and when he opened his
mouth the wrong voice came out.

Lucas’s voice said “Pull that out and
lose it for good, my friend.”

Somewhere in the distance I heard
sirens.

Chapter 30

I opened my eyes, closed them. Opened
them, closed them again. In my head were flashes of motion and remembrance.
Matthew bursting through the front door a wild look in his eyes. The two
brothers dealing with Damien and using restraint with their tempers, though I didn't
know how. “Didn’t beat him,” I said. I felt myself list to the left. I was in
motion. Or I felt like it.

“No. Sadly, we didn’t beat him. Okay,
so we each hit him once, but we didn't beat him. But we wanted to.”

I opened my eyes and saw Lucas’s dark
brown eyes studying me. Trees and fields and snow whizzed by. I shut my eyes
again, knowing I was safe made it okay to give into the crushing fatigue.

There had been cops. The infamous
Marcus I had heard about. And cuffs. Damien spewing threats and Lucas talking
softly, reminding Damien that he had been the one to leave me to my own devices
when he found out I had not hired an abductor. A coldly calm reminder to Damien
that if he spilled all, we would too. Matthew suggesting that if he went in and
calmed down maybe they’d take it easy on him. Maybe
I’d
 take it easy on
him.

During all the commotion I sat on the
floor Indian style, by body throbbing like a rotten tooth. My fever so high my
eyes felt like they were burning.

Then there was an EMT and cold drinks,
medicine and me refusing to go to the hospital. “Regular old flu,” the EMT had
said. “Probably swooped in when she was stressed. Weakens the immune system,
you know.”

“Take me home,” I’d told Lucas.
“Wherever that is for now.” And then I’d put my head to his broad chest and
sleep came. I didn’t so much as drift off as drop like a rock.

And here we were. “You in there,
girly?”

“Mmph,” was the best I could give him.
But I got my tongue untangled and said “Where are we going?”

“Back to the cabin. We’re going to
ride this out and get you better. Then when things calm down you’re coming home
with me.”

“While I figure this out?”

“While you decide if you want to stay
there for good. I’m ready. No more bullshit. Not to say I’m not going to tie
you up and boss you around and fuck you blue whenever I want,” he chuckled.
“But it will be our room. Our place. Our home. You sideswiped me, Ember.
Hijacked me. I’m in love. I love you.” He kept his eyes to the road, jaw tight
like he was afraid that I’d reject his love.

“My fever must be really high,” I
sighed. ‘I just heard you say you love me.”

Lucas turned, his eyes so dark they
were nearly black. He put his hand on my thigh and rubbed my leg so that it
tingled. A bright spot of feeling in a heavy numb body. “I do love you. I love
you more than I can comprehend. And I love you more than is currently
comfortable for the likes of me. But there it is anyway, so I might as well
have the strength I’m always waxing poetic about and face it.”

My eyes slipped shut and I struggled.
“But Daisy hates me,” I said irrationally, but he laughed. Long and loud and it
was a good sound in the cab of his truck.

“She’ll adjust. I’m telling you, you
just need to give her more treats.”

“There are not enough treats in the
world,” I sighed. “I’m going to sleep now,” I said. “I surrender.”

“Good. Sleep is what you need to get
back on your feet. Sleep and we’ll get you all tucked in and safe and don’t be
surprised if I just sit and stare at you until this passes.”