Let Me Go (8 page)

A few hours later, three guys came over. He
didn’t bother introducing them to her; they all seemed to know who
she was, and they all leered at her. And yes, she was still wearing
the damn French maid getup. It had stopped bothering her around
Mason, but now with three guys staring at her barely covered body,
she wanted to run and hide. She had always been so shy and now she
was on display for three guys that looked kind of like thugs.

“My, my, I didn’t realize how fine you are,”
said the guy she later learned was known as Chain. He turned toward
Mason and slapped him on the back. “Lucky bastard.” That was all he
really said to her all day.

A guy named John simply nodded at her, but
she noticed every so often that his eyes watched her pretty
closely.

Lastly, she found out the third guy was
Benny. He was actually pretty nice. However when he greeted her, it
appeared as if he already knew her, but she didn’t know how. He
also seemed to be the ring leader, and he looked the most cleaned
up of the three. He seemed to be the closest with Mason. She stood
for most of the day, fetching the guys’ cold beer, and watching
them throw food at each other. She made them lunch, served them,
and just listened to them interact, most of which was making fun of
each other or yelling at the television. Turns out they were
watching hockey. She wasn’t much of a sports fan, but yeah, she
liked hockey.
Oh, who was she kidding, she loved hockey
. Her
kidnapper just had to go and put on her favorite sport.
Damn
him!
She secretly watched the game, enjoying it so much that if
she hadn’t known better, she would think she was watching just a
couple of regular guys hanging out. It reminded her of her college
years in the dorms. The guys were rowdy, but they had a blast. If
she could just check out from the reality of her situation, she
would actually enjoy watching these guys have fun. And for a brief
moment, she did just that. She pretended she was back in the
library, watching four cute guys messing around while she observed
from the corner and drooled, lost in a book, but peeking over the
cover every so often. Yep, definitely a memory from college.
Damn, she had barely been reading since she got here
. She
missed her romance novel heroes. Too bad one couldn’t save her now.
Of course, she thought Mr. Green Eyes was saving her in her dreams
too, so clearly she was a bad judge of heroes. She turned back to
the television, still lost in her thoughts, when her team scored.
“GOAL!” she yelled before she could stop herself, sliding into a
little happy dance. The guys all turned, staring at her like she
had grown horns. “Oops,” she responded shyly, “beer anyone?” She
caught a smirk on Benny’s face, but it was the slight twinkle in
Mason’s eye that held her for a moment.
Yeah, that’s right
,
she thought,
I am a real person, with feelings and hobbies and
all that good stuff.
Now if only Mason could see that about
her.
If only…

And then her bladder woke her out of her
reveries. She wasn’t sure what to do, she never asked Mason for
permission to use the restroom before. She didn’t know if he would
get mad since he had company over. She decided that she would just
tell him and not ask.

“Bathroom,” she simply called out and no one
responded.
Having to question whether to ask to go to the
bathroom.
If Mason’s whole revenge scheme was to humiliate her,
well, she felt he was doing a damn fine job of it.

When she walked out of the restroom, she
walked right into a hard wall. The guy, she figured out was Benny,
was waiting for her. She jumped back.
Oh, hell no!
She
didn’t live for over a week with Mason, the kidnapper who hadn’t
violated her, to be taken advantage of by one of his asshole
friends.

“Hey, Kitty Kat, don’t worry, I’m not going
to do anything to you. Well, unless you want me to.” He smiled. And
although she was a little weary, part of her believed him. It could
have also been because he held his hands up with his palms facing
outward toward her in surrender and backed up a step. She studied
him. He had dark brown hair and even darker eyes. He was tan, like
being a little darker was natural for him, with a boatload of
tattoos. She also noticed he had a dimple and his smile reached his
eyes. He wasn’t hot by any means, but he was attractive and the
confidence rolling off of him was enough to make her think he got
quite a bit of women to drop their panties for him. Although she
knew she should be wary of the good-looking guys, she believed he
wouldn’t hurt her.

“You’re Benny, right?”

“Yep, did Mason tell you or did you
overhear?”

“I figured it out. What can I do for you?
Were you waiting for the restroom?”

“Nope, Kitty Kat, I was waiting for
you.”

“Kitty Kat?” She finally noticed the name he
had called her, twice now.

“Suits you.” She had been called that
before, and always hated it, but it didn’t sound all that bad
coming from Benny. Besides, she highly doubted it would do her any
good to say anything. He seemed like the kind of guy that wasn’t
good at following directions.

“What do you need from me?” she asked
hesitantly, taking another step back.

He lowered his voice a bit even though he
didn’t need to since the television was on full blast. “My man
Mason, he’s a good guy. Didn’t deserve the dish he was served. But
sometimes, shit happens to good people.”

“Yeah, I know how that feels,” she
responded. And she really did. Not that her life had been that
great, it hadn’t, so she had always been in a perpetual state of
disappointment. But shit, she was being held hostage for something
she didn’t do.

“What you know about that?” Benny asked.

“Well.” She tried to choose her words
carefully. “I know Mason spent five years in prison for something
he didn’t do. I mean, technically, he could have done it, but I
really believe he was wrongfully accused. I know he believes I’m
behind that, but I don’t even know why he was in jail in the first
place. I’ve asked him and asked him and he won’t answer. Will you
tell me?”

“Not my story to tell.” She figured he
wouldn’t answer her questions, but it was worth a try.

So she continued. “Look, his life getting
turned upside down is a tragedy, and whoever did this to him
deserves to be punished, but that person isn’t me. And whoever they
are should be brought to justice legally. But here I am, serving my
own time for a crime I didn’t commit. But he won’t believe me. And
I have a feeling you won’t either. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll
figure out a way to either get out of here or make you guys realize
I had nothing to do with anything that happened to him. God,
doesn’t he get that I actually feel sorry that he had to go through
any shit? And yeah, I hate him for doing this to me. I don’t
deserve this. But I’m not heartless. I get that someone messed him
up pretty badly and they should suffer the consequences, so I get
why he snapped and went through all this. I don’t blame him, but I
sure as hell blame him for getting me involved. I’m trapped here
and I have no reason to be. So yeah, Benny, I get that shit happens
to good people. I get it real well. Now if you’ll excuse me, I
better get back before Mason gets mad and finds another way to
break my damn back.”

She tried to push past Benny, but he grabbed
her. “You know, Kat, I may not believe you, but I like you. You got
a little fire in you. And I’ll tell you this; I believe the person
you are now wouldn’t have hurt Mason before.”

She knew he wouldn’t believe her. He was
Mason’s friend and he was okay with what Mason had done to her, so
obviously he believed whatever Mason believed. But she didn’t
expect him to say that. She nodded and went back to the kitchen.
That conversation shook her up. Maybe the way to get to Mason was
through Benny. Maybe she could get him to believe her. After all,
it was the damn truth.

*****

John and Chain left, leaving a much buzzed
Mason and Benny telling stories to each other. They barely paid
attention to Kat as she cleaned up the mess they had all made. She
was so used to cleaning now that it was second nature. After she
was done, Mason dismissed her to her room. She liked the reprieve,
and knew it was probably courtesy of the alcohol, but she wasn’t
one to look a gift horse in the mouth. She grabbed a book from
Mason’s office and walked to her room. She was about to close the
door when she heard her name.

“So, you talk to Kat?” Mason asked
Benny.

She stopped the door before it fully closed,
leaving it cracked open.

“Yeah, had a chance to talk privately when
she used the bathroom.”

“And?”

“And what man? She’s a fiery little
thing.”

That kind of made her smile. She didn’t know
Benny, but she knew coming from him that was a compliment.

“Good God Benny, forget your dick for a
moment and tell me what you think. She remember accusing me of rape
or not?”

And there it was. Kat’s jaw hit the ground
and her brain checked out. She didn’t hear anything else Mason or
Benny talked about. After a minute or two, she closed the door
softly so they wouldn’t know she had eavesdropped and walked over
to sit on her bed. She put the book down and hugged her knees to
her chest.
Rape? Oh dear God!
Sure, she was scared of
Mason’s horrible mood swings and his undeniable anger and hate, but
he hadn’t physically hurt her, and he had plenty of opportunities
to rape her. No, his idea of revenge was humiliating her, using her
for free manual labor, and a little door prize. But she had a hard
time believing he would ever rape someone, that she was pretty damn
sure of. It was yet another missing piece of the puzzle; that was
why he was behind bars. She still couldn’t figure out what the hell
that had to do with her. Hopefully he didn’t think that she had
accused him of rape. She rocked back and forth, the tears
threatening to fall. She tried to think of a time when she may have
been raped and maybe her mind was blocking the memory. But she
didn’t even live here over a year ago. She couldn’t remember ever
visiting or seeing him before. She began to doubt herself, and
everything she believed for what seemed like forever before the
logical part of her mind finally broke through.
No!
She knew
that she wasn’t raped. If someone had been lucid enough to go to
trial against Mason, and according to him, that would have been her
then she wouldn’t have blocked out huge chunks of her life.
Besides, her first impression of Mason was right – he wouldn’t rape
anyone and she actually believed that. Oh the irony, he was put in
jail for a rape he didn’t commit and she was pretty damn sure he
was raped, violated, whatever you want to call it while he was in
prison. She really had to stop feeling bad for him. It was doing
her no good.

But one part still made absolutely no
freaking sense. She still didn’t know what any of this had to do
with her. She didn’t accuse him of rape; she didn’t put him in
jail. She didn’t even know him at the time.
So then why did he
believe it was her?

*****

“Good God, Benny, forget your dick for a
moment and tell me what you think. She remember accusing me of rape
or not?” Mason asked Benny after Kat had gone to her room.

“You know, man, I can’t get a read on that
one. There is something off about her, like she didn’t do it in the
first place. But we both know that ain’t the truth. So really, I
have no fucking clue.”

“Damn, Benny, you were supposed to
know.”

“Give me more time. I’ll come over more
often and hang out with her. Maybe I can get a better feel for her.
Shit, maybe she’ll think I’m her friend or something and she’ll
confide in me. Then we’ll know what the hell is going on in her
head.”

“Yeah…yeah, I like that idea. You are going
to start coming here then, it’s settled. You got keys and you’re
set up on the system. You can stop by whenever you want, whether
I’m home or not. Get under her damn skin like she’s gotten under
mine.”

Chapter 12

Kat couldn’t
believe she had been imprisoned for over two months. But more
importantly, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t gotten through to
Mason yet or figured out how to get away.

The past two months had been practically the
same as her first week there. She woke up early and did more
household chores than she could count. Mason found new ways for her
to wash various parts of the house. His friends started coming over
more often, and at least after they had left, she had a reason to
clean. Man, those guys were pigs.

She had tried breaking into his office desk
on several occasions, but apparently, she would have made a shitty
thief. Aside from somehow smashing his desk, which most definitely
outweighed her by a ton, she wasn’t getting in.

She still hadn’t been outside, and being
cooped up was making her stir crazy. The only thing she found
comforting was Benny. He had started coming around after their
first meeting, sometimes when all the guys hung out, sometimes when
Mason was there, and sometimes, he just hung out with her. She
learned that Benny and Mason became friends in jail when Mason had
been in some kind of situation in which Benny helped him out. He
had hinted that he met Mason once before, but that it was a
coincidence. She pressed him about Mason and who he was in his past
life on many occasions, but Benny always said it wasn’t his story
to tell. She did, however, from little things Benny and even Mason
said, figure out that Mason was some kind of handyman with no set
schedule. That explained why he was sometimes home when others
would normally be working.

She also found out that Benny was a cross
between a gang member and a mobster. It was like he was a
high-class thug. Not that she wanted to associate herself with
criminals, but she had actually grown quite fond of Benny. He was
surprisingly a nice and funny guy. And she actually looked forward
to the times they were able to talk.