Perfected (Entangled Teen) (19 page)

Twenty Three

T
he room was bright now. The mean, overhead lights glared down at me accusingly.

“What’s the meaning of this?” Missy’s owner growled, spinning me around to face him. “Who are you?” Bits of spittle flew out of his mouth as he talked. “Wait a second. Are you a pet?”

“She tried to take me,” Missy cried, cowering so convincingly on her bed that I almost believed for a moment I’d truly frightened her.

I shook my head. “Missy, please…don’t.”

“She wanted me to run away with her,” she went on. Her eyes were wide and wet with tears.

“It’s all right now,” Missy’s owner said, tightening his grasp around my arm. “You’re safe. You just go back to bed now, darling. You, too,” he said, turning to the door where his wife and daughter stared in, openmouthed. “I’ll take care of it.”

“That’s Ruby’s pet,” Jayne said, backing away from me as her dad pulled me down the hall. “Daddy, that’s the Kimballs’ pet.”

“I said get back to bed,” he snapped.

Inside his office, he finally let go of my arm, throwing me down onto the chaise lounge where I’d first seen Missy.

“You sit right there,” he said, poking his finger into my chest. “And don’t you dare think about moving.”

He switched the light on over his desk and picked up the phone, fumbling through a thick leather bound notebook until he found what he was looking for. “Yes, I’m terribly sorry to bother you in the middle of the night, Congressman, but it appears your pet has ended up at my house.” He paused. “Yes, quite sure. Thank you.”

He slammed the phone down and folded his thick arms across his chest.

“You better hope your master is a better man than I am. Because if I caught my pet trying to run away, she wouldn’t get a second chance.”

A second chance.
The congressman had already given me a second chance.

In my mind, the kennel’s red door yawned open. The screams of pets echoed in my ears until my knees went weak.

When the congressman arrived, he nodded solemnly at Missy’s master, refusing to even glance in my direction. “I’m so sorry about the trouble, Craig,” he said, pulling him in for a tight handshake. “I hope there’s some way I can make it up to you.”

“Nonsense,” Mr. Miller said. “It’s no trouble, really. I’m sure you’d do the same for me.”

Even though it was well past midnight, the congressman was dressed in a pressed shirt and slacks, but his hair was mussed and the exhaustion in his eyes was unmistakable.

Without being asked, I rose from the chair and went to stand next to my owner. I bowed my head, staring at the floor. I couldn’t bear to see the disappointment in his eyes.

“I don’t know what sort of training program her kennel had, but quite a few of them offer special programs for situations like this. Even the least subservient can be made to obey,” Missy’s master said. “If we do it with our Dobermans we can do it with them, right?”

The congressman chuckled softly. “Yes, I suppose so,” he said. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I won’t take up a moment more of your time.”

“Oh, it’s been no trouble, really. Can I interest you in a nightcap?”

The congressman waved away the offer. “Thank you, but maybe another time.” Finally he turned to look down at me. “Ella, come. Good night, Craig.”

Back home, the house was silent. The congressman didn’t touch me as he lead me through the dark halls and into my bedroom, but I could feel his gaze against my back, as sharp as Miss Gellner’s training stick.

In my room, I paused for just a moment, afraid to look through the window for fear that I’d see Penn sitting at the edge of the pool with his feet dipped in the water, the bare skin of his back shining ever so slightly in the light from the moon. But the pool was empty. The yard was a dark blanket, smooth and desolate.

“I’m sorry to have to do this, Ella, but you’ve really left me no choice,” the congressman said as I neared the bed.

I turned to him, confused. “What are you…?” I stopped midsentence, noticing the key that he held in his hand.

He reached out to stroke my hair, running his fingers through it like a comb. It was an intimate gesture. If the anger in his eyes hadn’t been so intense, it might have reminded me of the way Ruby played with my hair while we watched television. But it wasn’t meant to be kind and it wasn’t meant to be comforting. His grip tightened as he knotted his fingers through the hair at the back of my neck. “I trusted you once,” he whispered. “I believed that there were crazy people out there, and I only wanted to keep you safe. But I don’t know what to believe now.”

His grip was strong. He didn’t let go as he pushed me forward.

At the front of the bed, a wide metal band had been attached snuggly around the wooden post and then bolted to an anchor in the wall. Welded to the metal band, a long chain sat coiled on the floor. It rattled as he wrapped the chain around my wrist, fastening the end with a lock. He turned the key once and gave it a tug, testing it.

“It might be uncomfortable, but it’s going to have to do for now.”

My legs gave out beneath me and I sank down onto the mattress, staring down at the chain that held me.

There was a tap at the French door and the congressman and I both turned as it cracked open. Penn’s gaze trailed from my face down to my wrist, confusion settling over his features. “What’s going on?” He pushed the door open and stepped into the room. “You’re chaining her up?”

“What would you have me do? She ran away again,” the congressman said, holding up his hand to stop his son from coming any closer. “I thought it would be best to make sure she was secure. The kennel had this installed in case we ever needed to use it, which I never dreamed of, but I won’t be able to rest imagining that she’s going to sneak off.”

His eyes narrowed as he spat out the last two words.

Penn took a small step back. “But…how can you even know that’s what happened?”

“Oh, I know,” the congressman said bitterly.

Penn stared at me, his eyes full of hurt before he focused on his father. “What if she needs to get up? You can’t leave her chained there like an animal.”

“You can cut the melodrama,” the congressman snapped. “It’s plenty long for her to move about the room. It’ll stretch all the way to the bathroom, so settle down. It’s not like it’s cruel and unusual punishment.”

“Dad, you can’t just keep—”

“I said
enough
!” the congressman bellowed. “It’s late, and I’ve already had to deal with Mr. Miller tonight. I don’t need to deal with you, too.” He looked at me. His hand wavered at his side, but I couldn’t tell whether he wanted to reach out and brush my cheek or slap me.

“I suggest you get back to bed,” he said to Penn.

Penn clenched his jaw, but he didn’t argue. His gaze met mine before he turned and walked back out into the night.

The congressman locked the patio door behind him. “This door is to remained locked at all times. Understand?”

I nodded as he strode back across my room, flipping off the light before he shut the bedroom door, leaving me alone in the darkness. Weariness seeped over me, weighing me down so that I didn’t even have the energy to care about the chain, or Penn, or the congressman. I only wanted to lie down in the heap of blankets and forget.

I
woke up to the feeling of someone crawling onto the bed and pulling back the covers. I opened my eyes to see Ruby’s freckly face right in front of my own. She cuddled up to me as the bright light shone in through all my windows, reminding me of how tired I must have been to have slept so late.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“You’re always up before me, but when I came downstairs it was just Claire and Grant. My mom told me you weren’t even up yet,” Ruby said, not answering my question. “And then when I came in here I thought maybe you were dead or something. Like Euridice, and I was going to have to go searching for you in the underworld.”

I stretched out, letting my feet drift closer to hers beneath the covers. “I’m not dead,” I said. “See?” I wiggled my fingers in front of her face.

“I’m glad you’re not dead,” she said, burying her face in my neck.

I swallowed back the lump forming in my throat and held onto one of Ruby’s little hands. Last night, I hadn’t considered what it would be like to leave Ruby behind. I’d only thought about myself and Penn. It wasn’t fair of me to forget about this little girl that obviously needed me.

“Are you going to ask Claire to put your hair up in a chignon today?” I asked.

She shrugged, not moving her face out from where it was hidden. “My mom was talking about taking Claire and Grant into town for a celebratory lunch, but I don’t think she’s planning on taking me. It’s a grown-up restaurant. And my dad is grumpy about something so I can’t ask him.”

I studied the almond shape of Ruby’s dark eyes and the impish ways her lips turned up at the corners even when she wasn’t smiling. I wanted to memorize her face so I could keep it with me forever.

“Why are you looking at me funny?” she asked.

I shook my head, the lump in my throat threatening to turn into something more. “I was thinking that I always want to remember your beautiful face…how you look right this minute.”

A perfect smile broke across her face. That smile really did transform her into someone beautiful and for a moment I could see the woman she would turn into.

“I love you, Ella,” she said, wrapping her arms around my neck in a tight hug.

T
he chain wasn’t only for sleeping.

By breakfast time I realized that the congressman had arranged it so that no matter where I was in the house, the chain could always be attached to my wrist on one end and something unbreakable on the other. I didn’t know who he thought I was—someone with superhuman strength?—because I’d never felt smaller or weaker in my whole life.

I sat at my little table picking at the food in my bowl. The congressman, who must have been feeling guilty about pulling me around the house on a leash, had asked Rosa to fix me a bowl of pitted red cherries topped with fresh cream. It was a treat I wouldn’t normally be allowed.

The cherries sat in the bowl, uneaten, as the cream slowly turned pink.

Across the room, Claire and Grant walked in arm in arm, each pulling out a chair across from Penn, who sat silently pushing his eggs across his plate. I didn’t want to stare at him sitting there, but I couldn’t keep my gaze off of him. Each time I looked away it would stray back, the way my finger had become accustomed to searching out my microchip’s tiny lump beside my ear, an unconscious movement.

I had secretly been hoping that Claire and Grant would have cut their visit short. But obviously I hadn’t been so lucky. The fact that Claire knew I’d run away made my stomach clench, and I set down my spoon, unable to even pretend that I could eat anymore.

With Claire around, Penn wouldn’t even look at me. But I couldn’t ignore him. The need to be with him was a sickness. All I wanted was to be back in the garden with him.

I imagined the two of us alone, the rest of the world melting away into the dark the way it seemed to do when he looked at me. I could spend the rest of my life wishing things could have been different, but it was useless to wish for something that couldn’t come true. It was better to be grateful for the little mercies I’d been given. I’d choose to remember the way my arms had felt around his neck, the slick feeling of our skin touching underneath the water and the way he’d lifted me weightless in his hands. I’d remember the soft press of his mouth on mine and the way my body prickled with heat whenever our skin touched.

“Well this has certainly been an eventful weekend,” Claire said, pecking her father on the cheek as she sat down next to him. “You must be exhausted, Daddy. After being up half the night.”

She cast an angry look in my direction and my face burned with shame.

Penn met my gaze. My stomach knotted as his gaze moved down to my wrist, then followed the length of the chain down to the floor where it disappeared beneath the tablecloth.

He pushed his plate away and stood. “You know, I actually just lost my appetite.”

“Come on, Penn,” Claire begged. “We hardly ever get to see you.”

“I can’t keep sitting here while he has her chained up like that,” he said, backing out of the door.

Grant chuckled, reaching for a plate of toast. “It looks like that little pet of yours is more trouble than you bargained for.”

“Don’t be silly,” the congressman said dismissively. “Penn’s just being melodramatic.”

Claire spooned a heaping pile of sliced melon onto her plate before she turned back to her father. “You know, it’s probably not too late to take her back.”

“She’s got a point,” Grant said as he bit into a piece of buttered toast, sending crumbs skidding across the polished table. “With all the work you did for them, these breeders must be mortified. Is there another kennel you could consider next time? Maybe one of the West Coast ones?”

The congressman set down his fork with a thump and turned to his wife for help, but she was busily peppering her eggs. “I don’t want to take her back,” he finally said. “At this point we don’t even know she ran away for certain.”

Claire raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t comment as she delicately cut into a piece of melon.

“Besides,” the congressman went on. “The people at Greenwich are completely on top of things. They’ve assured me that they have measures to deal with this sort of situation.”

“I don’t know,” the congressman’s wife said, finally looking up. “Chaining her up…is that the way they expect us to deal with things? God, I feel like we’ve relapsed to the Middle Ages. I can hardly stand to look at her.”

“It’s only for a little while.” The congressman sighed. “It’s hardly corporal punishment.”

“A little while?” She didn’t sound convinced.

“The director at Greenwich said it’s probably just her hormones. Sometimes these pets are a little too much like their teenage counterparts. I guess they can’t control genetics as much as they’d hoped.” The congressman sighed again and leaned back, folding his arms across his chest. “She probably ran away because she was in heat.”