Taking Faith (4 page)

She nodded and he banged his hand on the door. "Speak."

"Yes," she whispered and kept her eyes down until he was gone.
She
was still in his mother's dress, but had no other clothes
, and had no interest in wearing anything else of hers,
so she just made her way to the kitchen.
She opene
d the fridge and looked inside to cook the monster's food.
There was milk, eggs, bacon…

She felt the first tear make its way down her cheek. Another morning in captivation, anoth
er day stuck with her kidnapper, another agonizing
hour of drifting…

She closed the fridge and leaned
her head against it. The cool of the metal seeped into her and caused her to shiver. She felt unhinged and unable to stop what was coming. She felt the tears fall to her arm and cried harder
, her legs wobbly
and unstable beneath her. She sa
nk to the floor
, her sorrow and anguish buckling her in two. She covered her mouth to lock it inside, but it was no use. She once again pressed her head to the fridge and just felt the emotions as they coiled and bubbled inside of her.

She was losing it.

Her mind flashed with pictures of living at home
with her parents. Her family had been very close and loving. Her sister was older than her and got
married a few years ago. She was the maid of honor and stayed with them some after that. Their perfect little house was filled with love and happiness. It made he
r ache for
all of that…all that she deserved and wanted for herself in life had been taken from her.

She flinched when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She
peek
ed over and saw Roger squatting on the floor next to her. His face was etched with concern, his forehead lined and taut.
Though his mouth
was a thin line, his words were comforting.
"What happened? Did you cut yourself?"

She shook her head 'no'
and wiped her arm where the tears had streaked her skin. He moved his fingers and did the same
.
Sh
e
looked and saw that he was wiping the bruises where he'd grabbed her. She heard his loud gulp and looked up at him confused. He repeated
the movement with his fingers, smoothly, slowly and sadly. "Ask me if I regret this, Amy
.
"

"Why?" she whispered.

"Just ask me."

"Do you regret it?"

"Do I regret what
?
Say the words, all of them."

Her breath caught and hung in her throat. Was this to torture
her
or himself?
She found her strength and gritted out,
"
Do you regret hurting me?"

"Yes," he answered back, just as hard. "Now ask me if I'll do it again."

"Will you hurt me again?"

"No. I can't," he said and shook his head. "Now ask me why."

"Why can't you!" she yelled, her anger surfacing and splotching her cheeks.

"Because
I don't want to hurt you
." She scoffed, but ducked her head in fear of what
he
might do, though he just said he wouldn't hurt her. "
I do
care
. I don't want to
care
…I can't really
,
and keep up both safe, but I do.
Now ask me if it matters that I care."

She shook her head, refusing. She understood the game. He was trying to confess that he was trapped. She'd seen his father, his uncle, the way the other men acted
. S
he knew the things that they wanted him to do to her.
And yet he hadn't hurt her, her arm had been an accident. But did it matter? No
.
He still
was the person who took her fro
m the kidnappers and planned to keep her here as his wife against her will.

"I'm sorry you're sad, that will pass, but you need to pull yourself together and start acting like a wife." Something pinged in her mind. Elena had said that to her.
Just be his wife…
No. She wouldn't…couldn't. She may be his wife on paper, but in her heart, they were nothing more than enemies. He continued, "I can't protect you if the others see you acting this way. You need to do what you're told and remember the rules. Don't question me. Believe it or not…" he growled and groaned, "I don't want you here, either! My life
was just fine and now I have
to worry about you!"

He got up and kicked the fridge door. "Make something for breakfast and then we'll go into work." He stalked out and she watched his back ripple with anger, but he stopped
and half turned his head as he spoke softly
. "I'm sure you're ready to get out of this house for a while."

Then he was gone. Amy sa
t
, tear streaked and confused.

* * *

She somehow managed to get up and make some toast and coffee. The toast burned in the toaster before she realized it wasn't on the right setting. He sighed when he saw his buttered and blackened
breakfast
, but surprisingly to Amy, he didn't say anything about it. He plopped down in the chair and began to chomp
through it. He drank his coffee black and Amy poured the milk into hers. There was no creamer in the house, but milk was better than nothing.

The ride to his job was slow. He hadn't given her anything else to wear or given her time to shower. She didn't care. Maybe he'd be repelled that she stunk and kick her out. She felt the small tug at the corners of her mouth at that thought.

"Your first smile. What's that about?"

She made her mouth a flat line and said, "Nothing."

"I bet," he answered dryly. "It wouldn't have anything to do with my untimely demise would it?" He chuckled and stopped at the red light, downshifting the gears.
She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy
by Kenny Chesney played
in the background from his beat-
up radio. "Maybe by
strangulation…or rat poison, huh?"

She kept her face toward the window, but actually had to fight a small smile. He was trying to make jokes, obviously trying to ease her. But why? Someone yelled at them from the sidewalk and Roger raised his hand in hello before taking off and heading through downtown. He pulled into an old building with large structures in the back. She had no idea what it was, but the sign said "
Mitchell's supply".

"We're here," Roger announced and put the truck in park. He sighed. "Please remember what I said
about the rules
. They'll be customers in and out all day because I've been closed for a while."

She nodded, keeping her head down, and climbed out of the truck.
But as soon as she opened her door, there was a man there. When she lifted her gaze, it was Roger's father and he wasn't alone. There were a few other men with him and they eyed Amy with disdain. She didn't understand. If th
ey wanted her and the other wome
n so much they'd go to such lengths to steal them, why did they hate them so much?

"Father?" Roger said in surprise and came to stand in front of Amy. He put his hands on his hips. "What are you doing here?"

"
Gettin
'
lippy with me, boy?" his father growled.

"No, sir. Just wondering. I didn't even tell anyone I was coming in today."

"You know better than that," he laughed. "I have eyes all over this town, son. Speaking of eyes," he turned to a man behind him, "Mike
has been assigned
to come over tonight for supper."

"Yes, sir," Roger said and even Amy could hear the resignation in his voice.

"Well, I'll let you get back to it. I'm surprised you stayed out of work this long, to be honest." He spit on the ground, from the color of it Amy guessed it was tobacco. "You're behind so you better catch up fast. It ain't so easy being a real man, now is it?"

He laughed and the other men laughed. Amy just watch
ed
Roger's shoulders tense. His father t
ook a step forward. "You
gettin
'
froggy
, boy? Wanna take a swing at your
ol
' man?"

"No, s
ir," Roger ground out.

There it
was again. That little ping of pity she felt for him.

Roger's father put a finger in Roger's chest. "You best be remembering where you came from. And remember who I am."

"I never forgot, Dad. We'll be ready for Mike this afternoon."

"You better," he drawled and peeked at Amy over Roger's shoulder. "Still a
perty
white skin and not a mark on her. Hmm," he sniffed and walked away.

Roger's shoulders relaxed, but he took her by the arm and to the door. He fumbled with his keys to find the right one. She realized then how angry he was, his hands shook from it. Once inside the small office he closed the blinds and turned to look at her. She looked around the dirty place with a crumpled nose.
Papers were stacked everywhere, the floor hadn't been swept in ages it looked like
,
and the windows had fingerprints all down the panes.
He scoffed
as he saw her looking around.
"What? Not good enough for your standards?"

She said nothing, but straightened her face. He went on.
"This'll be your desk, here." He pointed at a desk piled high with papers and take-out cups. "It, uh…needs a little cleaning, but that's what you're here for now, right?"

She winced and swallowed. He did the same and she stared at him. She'd never met someone who confused her as much as he did. Why would he wince when he was the one who said it? He must have seen the heat she was giving him from her glare. He seemed almost happy as he said, "What? Say it?"

"Your office is really dirty," she told him, but that hadn't been what she wanted to say at all.

"It is," he admitted. "This is a supply company. We sell concrete, wood, windows and anything that you'd n
eed for building or fixing up. A
man's place where we spend most of our time outside cutting on stuff. The office is just used for answering phones and taking orders. That's where you come in. It was a lot more work for me to answer all the messages on the phones in here at night and call everyone back to get the orders. Now you'll
cut my work in half."

She nodded with pursed lips. A work horse and a maid along with a cook; that's what he wanted her for.

"What kind of family did you have," he asked suddenly, "before."

She looked at him sharply. He continued to look at her expectantly with an honest expression so she told him the truth. "A beautiful one." He did exactly what she thought he would. He flinched. She hit him again. "An honest one. One where I knew that I was loved and taken care of no matter what. One where we never hurt each other and never lied. One I miss and want to go back to more than anything." She gritted her teeth against the tears. "I'd give anything to go back there."

Chapter 4

He took a deep breath, but she was no longer looking his way. The ceiling was dirty, too, she noticed as she gazed at it. It was pointless to let him see her so weak and she regretted telling him.

He went to the desk and pointed at the chair before saying roughly, "Sit." She went and did as he said. The chair squeaked loudly and she sighed. "Now," he continued, "
we're going to go through the papers together and I'll show you how to separate everything. The orders not filled yet go in the bin and the orders that are done go in the filing cabinet by alphabetical order."

She was glad to have the distraction so she followed his instructions all morning as they went over everything. Hours passed and he made a call to have some lunch delivered. She looked at him funny. That didn't seem like something he would do.

"What? You didn't make us any lunch today, now did you? You even burned our breakfast, remember?" he said, but a smile twisted his lips. She looked away before she narrowed her eyes at him.

She heard his chuckle as he made his way back to her. He seemed to be teasing her. She shook her head to clear it of any such notions.

They ate lunch and got right back to work. Once they got all the orders handled, he showed her
h
ow to clip the phone to her pocket,
told her to
stick an order form in her
pocket
, too
, and she followed him out to the shop. She, of course, wouldn't be allowed to sit in the office alone while he did his work in the shop.

The first thing he did when they got out there was take his shirt off.

She rolled her eyes behind his back as he began working on a large sign. He was using some sort of flat tool to chisel away the wood and work his designs in. She might have been impressed were he not her kidnapper…and husband. She
glanced down at her ring and twisted the small, simple band on her finger. He called her name and jerked his head to a chair in front of him.