Sleeves (20 page)

The boy came closer but hesitated to extend his hand out to his father he’d never met before.

“You’re not diseased, Kelly. You’re gifted, and I knew that. I was experimenting with my own body, and that’s why I allowed myself to get pregnant. I wanted to see what it would bring. And I was right—he’s so gifted, it’s insane the things he can do. Look at him . . . He’s two-year’s-old, yet he looks, moves and talks like he’s twice his age. And he can figure things out that four-year-olds struggle with.”

Robbie glared at her then willingly walked right up to the bars and stared Kel in the eyes. “Are you my dad?”

“Kelly Daniel Liam—and yes, I’m your father. It’s . . .” he choked back raging tears “. . . nice to meet you. I didn’t know you were here or I would’ve never . . .” He leaned the right side of his face down and swiped at his right eye to remove the tear with his shoulder, unwilling to look away.

“Why don’t you two enjoy some bonding time, hmm?” She stood up, motioned for Johnathan and some other burly dude standing by the door to join them. “If you try to escape, I’ll kill your son.” Hannah pulled out a key and unlocked the cage door.

Kel backed up, his palms up in front of his chest to signal his surrender. “Don’t hurt him or my Casey.”

“What about your mom?” Hannah swung the door open and thrust the kid in, pushing him down in the process.

He lunged at the boy, picked him up and raced to the back of the cage.

Claaaaang!

The door to the cage was closed and locked right away.

Kel’s ears rang and so did his brain.
Mother
?

“You have my mom?” Kel glared at them and had to set the boy down before he unwittingly crushed him to bits due to his tumultuous anger.

“Of course we do.” Hannah wandered back over to the computer she was always hovering over. She swung the monitor around, and there on the screen was his mother, gagged and chained to a cage similar to his but in another room. She had the same long lean frame, long dark hair and sharp cheek bones he’d remembered.

There was a massive pit in the center of the flooring.

Had she tried to break free and get to him? Did she know he was here?

Jesus—all these years he’d thought she was dead, since he hadn’t heard anything about her or seen her since the time he was probably about ten.

Robbie whimpered and then crawled under the frame of the cot.

“She really tried to protect Robbie this last time, so I finally had to separate them. She’s such a bitch, that one. Really hate dealing with her.” Hannah turned the screen back around.

“This is sick!” Kel rammed his palms into the bars. “Why on earth do you do this to us?”

“She volunteered years ago, but we had no idea what a lunatic that woman was.” Johnathan sat down at his station and was clicking away at a keyboard.

“Like hell she did.” Kel moved back toward his son, careful to go slow so he wouldn’t frighten him. He knelt down and motioned for him to come back out, but like a cornered animal, the boy all but welded himself into the bars behind him.

Tears seemed to congregate at the back of Kel’s throat and he choked on his breath as he thought about how monstrous Hannah was and what she had done to their son.

Was she beyond all feeling? What kind of a mother would do this to their child?

He almost wondered if the boy was starving himself on purpose so he could slip himself through those bars and get away from her. It wouldn’t take much for him to fit. Another inch or two less of body mass and he’d be able to do it.

Was this
his
own mother’s idea?

Christ! He couldn’t even remember her name. All he remembered was her deep green eyes, her long dark hair and how she cuddled with him at night after these people had been particularly mean to him when he was really little.

His eyes stung in the back and his vision blurred as they welled up.

He’d be damned if he was going to allow Robbie to live this life, or Casey or his mother for that matter.

“I won’t hurt you—I promise. I’m not like your mother—I’m like you.” Kel’s fingers trembled as he reached for his boy. “They’ve hurt me, too. But I’ll protect you.”

The boy bit the side of his lower lip and his eyes filled with torn emotions: fear, elation, sympathy, maybe even love?

In the next heartbeat, the boy rushed him and was in his arms, wrapped around him tighter than any clothing or chains Kel had ever worn.

“I thought you were . . .” Tears spilled into the boy’s blond hair and Kel hacked into his own currently feeble mind, dredging up any memories at all he could find about his mother. Maybe she was the key?

Maybe she knew how to get them all out of here?

Dammit! If they hadn’t erased so many of his memories, he’d know this shit already.

Nothing surfaced no matter how hard he tried to recall more moments of her.

Besides, if she knew how to get out, wouldn’t she have already done it by now?

He held Robbie tight with one arm, stroked his back with the other. “Does it hurt when I touch you? Does it sting?”

“No.” Robbie tipped his head up and looked at him with adoration. “When mommy touches me, it hurts though.”

“I know, Peanut. I know.” He kissed the top of his head repeatedly. Why couldn’t he stop crying? “I know how that feels.”

He relished the idea of being able to touch his son without causing him undue pain. Oddly, it felt comforting to him as well. It didn’t prick and electrocute his skin to caress this little peanut’s scrawny arms and bumpy back.

His mind went back to Casey though. He’d refused to touch her, and now he wished he hadn’t.

What if he never got to see or hold her again?

He was hugging his son right now, and he couldn’t stop. He was family.

Casey was, too.

And he’d missed the opportunity to shower her with affection and comfort her when she needed it most.

She probably felt abandoned, emotionally hiding out like Robbie just had under the available furniture.

Yet, instead of going to her, holding his hands out and using soft, soothing tones, he chained her up and turned away.

His heart broke apart, and he whimpered as he rocked his son.

All he could do was focus his pain, this piercing feeling into a new found resolve to do the opposite with this little guy with him now.

“When they bring me food, you’re going to eat all of it, okay?” he told his son.

The boy nodded and sighed as he got comfortable in Kel’s lap.

“I know you don’t know me yet, but can you believe me if I tell you I love you?” Kel’s heart swelled and overflowed with so many emotions he could barely breathe.

“Yeah, I can.” The little boy played with a chest hair of Kel’s; apparently it was tickling his nose.

“How?” Kel chuckled then rocked the boy back and forth some more. His emotions were riotous inside him; all over the place.

“’Cause I already love you, and Nana Marie told me you loved me. She loves you, too.”

“
Marie
? Is that your grandma’s name?” Kel said it silently again: “Marie.”

“Mmhmm.”

“That’s a nice name.” Kel’s throat constricted but he managed to hum and close his eyes; savor this moment of closeness and warmth.

“She’s super nice. I really love Nana Marie. She keeps me warm at night and keeps the rats off me.”

“Rats?” Good lord—this was beyond repulsive. He never had rats in his cage growing up.

“Yeah, they’re ugly. I kick at them, but she said don’t do that. She picks them up, and when I’m not looking, I think she eats them.”

“Unnnngh!” Kel swallowed to keep from vomiting.

“I think she was really hungry. She made me eat her food like you want me to. Are you gonna eat rats, too?”

Kel shook his head and hugged his peanut tighter. “Shhh . . . Let’s not talk about yucky stuff right now. Just tell me you’ll listen to me when I try to protect you.”

“I will, Daddy. I promise.”

And that was when Kel broke down crying harder than ever, but smiled the entire time, because here in this hell hole, he’d found a family he never knew he had. He found the love he’d always missed out on, and found a little soul that had stroked
his
breaking soul back to life.

* * *

Kel wasn’t sure how many days he’d been locked up, but time dragged, even though he had Robbie to keep him company.

He wasn’t sure where Casey was since they refused to answer his questions. It was killing him to imagine what they might be doing to her.

Was she even alive anymore?

Every time he considered the ways she’d reached out to him, helped him, his heart would feel ripped wide open.

Then he’d go back to speaking to his son, hounding Hannah to irritate her, or he’d simply lie in the middle of the floor of his prison cell and hum to himself. The vibration helped him drown out the hideous icy fingers of dread swirling in his system.

There was no more talk about his mother from Hannah, so he had to question himself on whether she was dead at this point, too.

To pass the time, Kel did inane things like running his hands up and down the bars, straightening out springs on the bottom of the cot frame and then recurling them back in place. He did that particular task over and over again since it took a little more time and concentration, and in this moment, it was driving him mad to think about how Casey might be alone and crying. What was happening to her? And why wouldn’t they bring her back to him or at least say something about her?

Snaaaap!

A spring broke off into his fingers.

An idea struck him, and he smiled.

Robbie was napping on the mattress so he had to be careful.

Snaaaap!

Snaaaap!

Snaaaap!

Systematically, Kel broke off every other spring and straightened them one at a time then lined them up under his leg so no one would see what he was doing. It was all hidden under the shadow of the bed.

Before long, he had about twenty sharp tiny metal spears.

His fingers worked at twisting them two at a time, joining them together to fit almost like brass knuckles around his fist.

This might work.

He flipped the tips out, making sure they were perpendicular to the edges of the loops.

His teeth flashed as his smile grew in brilliance.

For a moment he questioned the validity of his idea, but then he knew what he was capable of, and if he was right, his son would outshine him on this one, too.

As soon as his son was awake, he would ask him about this.

“Go get her!” Hannah yelled at her desk, and out of nowhere, Johnathan was bursting through the door with Casey in his arms.

She was black and blue with whip marks on her bared thighs and they had her in men’s boxers paired with a white wife beater.

Kel lurched to his feet, and the moment the door to the cage opened, he had Johnathan’s throat in his crushing grip.

Johnathan grinned and slammed Casey to the ground, then stomped on her ribs.

Criiiick! Criiiick!

“Ahhhhhhhhwowowow! Casey screamed so loud, Kel had to shut his eyes for a second, but then something touched him from behind.

Tiny hands.

They reached up to him and handed him the metal barbs Kel had been playing around with.

Hannah was panicking over by her desk, presumably trying to find a weapon, but Kel had already slit open Johnathan’s throat with the little metal picks, and blood was raining down on Casey, writhing in pain on the floor beneath him.

Looked like he wouldn’t have to swallow down those looped barbs and shred his stomach to get out of this cage after all. He had planned for Robbie to fake doing the same so they’d remove him from the cage as well and take them to the infirmary. Kel knew his stomach, and knew it would heal not long after he vomited it up, but now Johnathan had changed the plan. There was no reason to harm himself when he could end this asshole right now and escape by being quick about it while Hannah scrambled around.

He dug the barbs deeper into Johnathan’s neck, and the light in the man’s eyes flickered then faded until he was turning into nothing but dead weight.

Casey army crawled out from under the struggling men.

Kel dropped Johnathan, jumped over him, then made his way through the opened door. He shut the cage so Casey and Robbie would be safe, and then he was hurtling himself at Hannah over her desk.

She was fast and had secured the damned gun she’d used days ago to drug him with.

But the moment it was aimed at his face, he crouched down and sprung at her, crashing his shoulder into her chest like a football tackle.

She was shoved up against a filing cabinet, and screaming for help.

Kel’s bare hands jabbed at her ribs, splintering them as if they were twigs being broken down for kindling.