Sliding (The Stone Series) (37 page)

I spend the day in my room alone in bed. I don’t sleep I just lay there
unable to even formulate a cohesive thought. Then at night I hear Mac moving
around, watching T.V., and then he goes to his own room to sleep. I don’t fall
asleep until after midnight and then I am woken by horrific cries that at first
I assume are coming from me but then I realize I’m awake and the sounds are
coming from Mac’s room. I throw a t-shirt over my head and go to his room. I
tap on the open door but the cries from inside continue. I walk in to find Mac
thrashing on his bed as if he’s restrained and trying to escape. I can’t
imagine that anyone would be able to restrain him. He starts yelling things I
can’t make out, I only catch a word here and there. “No” and “Holly” are things
he says over and over. It’s that name again, the same one he called out in his
sleep last night, the name of his first partner and I suspect girlfriend. I
gently touch Mac on his arm and he grabs my wrist with one hand and my throat
with the other. His eyes fly open at the same time that he flips me onto the
bed and he realizes it’s me and he freezes then lets his grip go as he starts
saying he’s sorry.

The second night Brook and I are at
the house I fall asleep in my bed before midnight only to be thrown back into
my nightmares. It’s been years since they haunted my sleep so often. I know the
scene of the crime and his name spoken over the phone has brought back the
memories and is the culprit of their return.

I can feel the pain in my head, I
know I must have a concussion and I can taste the blood as it drips down the
side of my face. I can feel the restraints on my ankles and my wrists. When I
fully come to I see Holly. She’s on the floor unconscious and I can’t wake her.
I’m scared she’s dead but then I see her move just a little. I don’t know how
much time goes by as I slip in and out of consciousness but when I awake I wish
I was unconscious or dead. One of the men that captured us in the field is near
Holly who is now awake. He is clearly following orders from the voice I hear
but the face I can’t see. The faceless man is telling the other to hold her
while he calls to a
 
third to get her
clothes off. I pretend to still be out to buy myself some time to figure out
what to do. Holly is trying to fight them but she can tell it’s making it worse
and by the time they rip her panties off she has stopped kicking and trying.
The leader tells them to put her on the floor and hold her there until he gets
me awake. He holds alcohol under my nose and I pretend to just wake up. If I
can just get one of my limbs free I could take this asshole to the floor
causing the others to run to his aid and allowing Holly to help me get this
situation turned around to our favor.

“I know you’re thinking there’s a
way out of this and there is. Give me what I want and you both can walk. Keep
refusing to cooperate and she’s going to be our play toy until we’re
bored.
 
Are you fucking her or is she
just your partner? Either way is fine but it’ll be more fun if I know she’s
your girlfriend.”

“Fuck you mother fucker” is my
reply before I spit at him which earns me yet another blow, this one to my
badly bruised gut. I am suspecting broken ribs can be added to my list of
injures.

“Okay have it your way, have at her
boys and our good friend here is going to watch.”

Holly never cries or fights them
off her. She just lays still and lets them do what they want. I continue to try
to break free to no avail. They each violate her and there is nothing I can do
to help her. I have to sit there and watch as they each take their turn with
her. She makes eye contact with me for the first time and I can’t bare it. Her
soul is dark, her spirit is dead. The girl I knew and was maybe starting to
fall in love with is gone.

Holly and I had only hooked up a
few times. We both know it wasn’t a good idea to get emotionally involved with
someone on your team so we tried to just keep it casual, keeping it casual is
no better than being emotionally attached.

Then his eyes are looking at
me…staring at me. Eyes that are the same as mine, the same as our fathers, eyes
that could only be my brother’s.
 
“I hope
you’re happy. It would have been much easier my way.” And he leaves the room.

I hear the explosion and I know the
rest of my team is here. Within minutes they break down the door and are in the
room with guns blazing. I tip my chair to the floor and try to maneuver towards
Holly who I can see is on the floor with one of the guys on top of her, he’s
been shot in the back of the head and his blood is all over her.

Then all of a sudden I am in
Holly’s apartment and she is on her bed and her body is cold. She’s been gone
for hours. “No, Holly” I yell then someone touches my arm and I react like any
Marine would until I realize that I’ve been having a nightmare and the person
who has touched my arm is Brook and she must be trying to wake me up. My
nightmare must have caused me to yell out in my sleep and it must have woken
and scared her enough to get her out of her room. My God, this poor woman has
suffered enough and now she’s going to be afraid of me.
 

“Brook, I’m so sorry. Oh my God,
did I hurt you? Are you alright?” I ask. She shakes her head indicating that
she’s fine.

Then she asks me the same thing she
did last night, “Who’s Holly again? What happened with her that you’re having
nightmares and yelling out her name?”

“I don’t want to talk about it
Brook, you have enough problems of your own right now you don’t need to worry about
mine. I’m fine; you should go back to bed.”

“No, you’re clearly having a hard
time with something and listening to you and trying to help you is the least I
can do for you. You saved my life, I could have gone into Asia’s house and been
blown up. You’re keeping me safe now, if it wasn’t for you I don’t know where I
would be right now” Brook says as she tugs down on her T-shirt, I suspect that
she is naked under that shirt and it’s making me hard just thinking about it…even
after my nightmare.

Then I have an idea…maybe this is
how I can get her to eat something so I agree to talk to her and tell her about
my nightmare if she’ll eat while I talk to her. She agrees but says she needs
to put some clothes on first, thank God. I would never have been able to think
of anything else with her sitting near me with no panties on.

When I come into the kitchen I take it in for the first time. It is a
state of the art kitchen that any professional chef would kill to have. There
is a full size and fully stocked Sub Zero across from the island that houses
the deep sink, a cook top and a grill. A double oven finishes off the perfect triangle
of stainless steel bliss. The counters and island are a steel gray color and
look like they might be slate. The hardwood floors are so light they are almost
white and are the perfect contrast to the dark wood of the cabinets. But the
best part of the kitchen is Mac who looks so calm and comfortable in this space
like he’s in his true element just moments after having a nightmare.

I sit at the island after Mac indicates that’s where I should sit and he
quickly puts the most delicious looking food in front of me. There’s fettuccine
with pesto sauce, salad, chicken with artichoke hearts and cheese, green beans,
rice pilaf and crusty bread. He informs me that these are the meals he had made
for us over the last two nights. It smells so good that it makes my stomach
turn over and growl. As we tuck into our food, the first food I have had in
days I motion to Mac to start talking and keep up with his end of the bargain.

He tells me about his first days in the Marines and then about how he met
Holly. He tells me that they were just starting to casually date in secret
because it is frowned upon to become romantically involved with someone from
your unit when their unit was captured. He tells me that she was traumatized
and ultimately took her life a few months later.

“Why are you thinking about this now after all this time? Do you still
think about it all the time or was it something that happened recently that
brought back the memories?”

I look at him for an answer but he remains silent so I continue, “You
never told me everything that happened, you know with my husband and my best
friend. I’m ready to hear about it now. I need to hear it so I can start to
heal Mac, please tell me what happened in that house that day.”

Mac sighs and looks me straight in the eyes, “Okay, fine if you think
it’ll help you I’ll tell you but if I start and you want me to stop just say
the word and I’ll shut up, okay?”

I nod at Mac and push my plate away. He refuses to start the story until
I eat some more but I argue that if I eat any more I’m afraid I’ll throw up.
Mac continues with the story…

“When I walked up to the house I had to find a way in, the front door was
locked and then I saw how the perps got in. They broke a window to the
basement. I found Asia and Ted in their bedroom already dead, I’m sorry I know
they were your friends. This never should have happened to them. I heard a
ticking sound and I knew it was a bomb so I ran out of the house. After that
you were with me so you know the rest.”

“Um, why do I feel like you are leaving out something that you are afraid
is going to upset me? Is it what reminded you of Holly? Is that why you don’t
want to tell me?” I ask

“I am trying to spare you the details that you don’t need a mental
picture of; they don’t change the outcome Brook. Trust me; it’s better for you
this way.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Tell me what you’re hiding from me Mac.” I
demand.

Again he sighs before continuing on. “Okay when my unit was captured that
day a long time ago it was only Holly and I that they got. The rest of the unit
saw us get ambushed and hid so they could follow us and try to save us. Only
Holly and I got caught because in a moment of weakness you are most vulnerable.
I was too busy looking out for her and I suspect her for me that we didn’t see
the trap.” Mac looks away from me for a minute. “That’s why it’s not a good
idea to be romantically involved with someone from your unit. I learned my
lesson early in my career and I never made that mistake again. I was beat
pretty bad and I had a concussion so I was in and out of consciousness. When I
came to I was bleeding from my head and I was sitting in a chair restrained by
the ankles and wrists. Holly was on the floor and I tried to wake her but she
wouldn’t wake up. I thought she could be dead but then I saw her moving a
little. I blacked out again and when I woke up the guys that captured us were
standing over Holly who was now awake and the ringleader we were after was
standing in front of me. I tried to figure out a way to get free so I could
save Holly but I was so weak and they had me bound in a way I could never have
gotten out of with them watching me.” Mac sighs and I can tell it pains him to
continue. “The leader told one of the guys to hold Holly while the other one
ripped off her clothes. They took turns raping her in front of me because I
wouldn’t give them something they wanted.”

Mac gets up and turns his back to me, he slumps his shoulders and drops
his head. “We were saved by the rest of our unit but by then she was ruined. I
tried to get her help while she was on leave but she lied about going. She
started drinking and one day when I went to her apartment she had killed
herself with a heroin overdose. The funny thing is she never used drugs. I
never knew she was using. I still think it was the only time she did it. I
think she did it on purpose to kill herself. I can’t believe she could have
been addicted to heroin without my knowledge. And I think she got it from the
very same people that captured us.”
   

He looks so broken, this strong powerful man that I can’t help but go to
him. I stand behind him and wrap my arms around him as best as I can. He puts
his hands over mine on his chest and he sighs. We stand there like that for
some time then Mac takes a deep breath and turns to face me. His face is strained
and his eyes are still holding more secrets.

“I’m glad you finally ate something, you’re wasting away.”

“Don’t change the subject. Mac, why did what happened at Ted and Asia’s
remind you of Holly?”

“I don’t want to upset you with the details of their deaths. You don’t
need to know, trust me its better if you don’t.”

 
“I need to know Mac, please. I
can’t move on if I don’t know.”

Mac sighs and finally gives in to my request.

“Ted was tied to a chair and gagged facing the bed where Asia had been
bound and gagged in a standard bondage hold. They were both shot twice, once in
the chest, once in the head.”

“So you think they raped her in front of Ted before they killed them?
That’s why it reminded you of Holly?”

“Yes, that and to be honest with you Brook I was already thinking about
Holly before I went into the house.”

“Oh, do you think about her a lot? Did you love her?”