The Silent Sounds of Chaos (17 page)

The men. The fists, so many fists, raining down on her body. She’d tried so hard to fight, screaming for help, begging Finn—

Finn.

She felt it then, a presence within her telling her she wasn’t alone. Relief flooded through the pain when she heard his promise.
I’m coming, Snow
.

He was coming for her, coming to save her, protect her. But how? She didn’t even know where she was. How would Finn ever be able to find her?

With renewed hope lined with fear and doubt, Snow glanced around in hopes of seeing something she could use to identify her location, but there was only a tiny bedroom with smoke-stained yellow walls, dingy gray carpeting, and an old wooden dresser next to what she guessed was a closet. A window was across the bed, but it was boarded shut from the outside. So she was in a house, she surmised, but the house could be anywhere, in any city of any state.

Before she could try to hold on to the fading connection and tell Finn what she saw, the sound of a door opening broke her concentration. Snow looked to her right to see a man entering the room. The nausea returned at the sight of him as she remembered watching him approach her last night … was it last night? Snow realized with dread she had no idea how long she’d been unconscious.

The man stared at her from the doorway for a moment, his dark and eerily round eyes narrowed as they roved over her. He was thin but tall, deceptively strong, with slicked-back brown hair that touched his ears in greasy strands, sallow skin, and stained clothes. But she barely noticed that. All Snow could see was the memory of her abduction—the man who attacked her on campus, taking perverse pleasure in beating her, whispering in her ear during a bumpy car ride all the things he wanted to do to her. It was not a voice belonging to a man who knew mercy.

“Good,” he spoke after taking a step forward and closing the door behind him. “You’re already awake and waiting for me. It’s not nearly as fun when you’re asleep.”

His response made her look down, and realize with dread and disgust she was wearing only a shirt and underwear. But she didn’t feel pain there, like she thought she would if he …
No
, she tried to convince herself,
he’s just trying to scare me.

Snow tried to shrink back against the headboard as the man approached. If he noticed, his expression didn’t change from that same glower of hardened calculation. He didn’t stop until he was in front of her, arms crossed, mouth turning up into a cold smile.

“Who … who are you?” she managed to ask. Her voiced sounded breathy and terrified even though she’d tried hard to appear brave.

“Me? You can call me ‘ole DU.”

Just the name sent shivers through her. “Why are you doing this?”

His head tipped to the side as he considered her words. “Why?” he repeated with that creepy and predatory grin. “Because your daddy is a bad man, and since he didn’t give me what I wanted,” the man leaned down, eye level with Snow, “I’m going to take it from you.”

Another whimper escaped before she could stop it. “What do you mean? My father—”

“Thinks he can do what he does without suffering the consequences,” her abductor finished.

Snow stared at him, frantically trying to figure out what he meant. Her father was a good man. He put the bad people away. Sure, there were times when he had to get information from some of those bad guys in order to put others in jail, but he had always assured her it was perfectly safe. That not talking to strangers was just a precaution.

Had he been lying to her all these years?

“What … whatever he’s done,” Snow stammered, her mind racing with possibilities, “I’m sure he will do whatever you want to get me back.”

DU reached out to trace a finger down her cheek, making a strange sound when she shuddered. “Maybe I don’t want to give you back, my sweet little thing. Maybe I want to show him how very unhappy he’s made me. But you…” His hand moved to the back of her neck and fisted in her hair. “You are going to make me very happy.”

She tried to call to Finn, to tell him what this strange man said in hopes he could figure out what he meant, what her father had to do with why she was trapped in a cold room with an even colder kidnapper, but a fist connected with her cheekbone. Her thoughts were scattered, and, soon, faded into a black curtain that blocked the beating her body was forced to endure.

They booked a cheap motel for the night somewhere in Pennsylvania, Finn unable to drive any farther without his head dropping in exhaustion and Joe refusing to take the lead without a night’s sleep. The motel was tucked away a few miles from the highway, next to a fast food joint where they got their dinner, choosing to eat in the privacy of their room.

“So,” Joe began while unwrapping his burger, “wanna tell me more about this grand quest of yours?”

“Not ‘til you tell me the real reason why Charlie sent you along. We both know I don’t need a babysitter. I only said it mainly to throw him off.”

Joe eyed the younger man while taking a bite, chewing slowly. “You think Charlie don’t see right through that? He knew you’re gonna get yourself killed by yourself and would have sent me along even without your little suggestion. I know it too.”

“You don’t even know what I’m doing.”

“Don’t need to know what you’re doing to know you ain’t got the smarts to pull it off solo.”

The reply irritated Finn, though he tried not to show it. He had to keep Joe thinking he was welcome. The last thing he needed was the lackey running back to Charlie and saying something that would have his ass dragged back home. Finn chose not to reply and dug into his food.

But Charlie’s number two wasn’t so intent on letting the issue go. “You gonna make me ask again?”

Shooting a glare across the table, Finn chewed slowly, deliberately, giving himself time to think. In the rush to get ready earlier he hadn’t actually thought through the lie he would tell Joe. It was a miracle he hadn’t asked during the ride south already.

“If you make me—”

“I got a girl I’ve been after who finally agreed to give it up,” Finn cut in, lifting a shoulder to appear nonchalant. “She moved a couple years back for school but we kept in touch. What can I say, my charm works across state borders.”

Joe scoffed and shook his head. “You telling me you’re driving all the way Georgia for some ass?”

“Is it really that hard to believe? If you’re good, maybe I’ll even let you have a taste when I’m done with her.” It sickened him to even suggest such a thing.

Leaning back, Joe pointed a fry at Finn. “First off, we both know I’d take the first taste. Ain’t no way I’m gettin’ some punk’s sloppy seconds. Second, I ain’t buyin’ it. Everyone knows you’re stuck on that cute little black-haired number always sneakin’ in back to see you. What’s her name, Leo’s kid. So let’s try again. You bullshit me again, I got Charlie on speed dial.”

Busted, deciding against attempting another lie to a man who was trained to get information out of people, Finn relented and pulled out his phone, clicking through a few Google searches until he finally landed on a Georgia news page. And there, front and center on his screen, was a picture of Snow. This one was different than the image he saw before, a typical school picture. The image now was a candid shot. She was looking just above the camera and smiling wide, perhaps laughing at something the person on the other side said. Her golden hair framed her face in a halo, the sun lighting up her porcelain skin.

Local College Student Abducted from Campus,
read the headline.

The search continues for two men involved in the disappearance of a young woman
, continued the first line of the article.

It was public now, which meant not only did Finn have more information to go on, but he also had Snow’s real name. If he was a smarter man, he could have done a simple computer search to find out everything about her. If he was a more trusting man, he could have gone to an expert and asked for a favor. But he wasn’t a smarter or trusting man. All he had was the drive and willingness to slice open whoever hurt her. That, and the knowledge that prying too deep would likely alert the abductors that someone was after them, which would put Snow in even more danger.

No, he had to go in slow and under the radar, as difficult as that was.

“This is why we’re going to Atlanta.” Finn slid the phone across the small table to Joe. “That’s her, my friend I said needed help. She was kidnapped two days ago walking home from campus. Police don’t know anything yet, but I’m going to find her, and I’m going to get her home.”

Joe stared down at the phone, moving the screen up and down with one finger, forehead furrowed. “How you gonna find some chick when no one knows nothin’ and there ain’t no clues in the news?”

“I … have my ways.” When Joe lifted a brow, Finn merely shrugged. “You and Charlie aren’t the only ones with resources.” He took his phone back and stood to throw his trash away. “I’m going to bed.”

They both knew it was to avoid further questioning, but luckily Joe didn’t protest. After a few minutes both were in their respective beds—Joe insisted they book a single room with double beds, which Finn knew was another way to keep an eye on him. Despite his exhaustion and his body’s desire to give in to the surprisingly comfortable bed and pillow molding to him, Finn found his mind racing.

He was worried. Though he felt Snow in the back of his mind, it was a weak manifestation, like a memory he couldn’t quite remember. And, worse, he couldn’t hear her. Part of him feared he’d imagined her calling his name, that maybe he’d brought on the nausea himself out of panic and his whispered name a mere wish for her safety. But just as soon as he wondered it, he convinced himself it had to be Snow. Her aura was familiar, distraught as it was.

I know you’re with me, Snow-Glow. Hold on for me, okay?

Sleep tugged at his eyes, dropping them closed as he continued his tormented thoughts. Where was Snow? What was she doing—what was being done to her? Was she okay? Would she be able to talk to him again, give him clues as to her whereabouts?

Tomorrow morning he would scour the news for more information, search for some piece of information, no matter how big or small, he could use along the way to Georgia. He could only hope that, wherever she was, Snow could hold on just a little bit longer.

HE SAID TO hold on. He sent her his strength, his courage. But it wasn’t enough.

Snow laid on her side on the bumpy mattress, arms and legs listless, eyes staring vacantly at the wall. The thin beam of light around the boarded-up window told her it was daytime. When was the last time she slept? She’d watched the light change as it played across the wall for hours. If she tried hard enough, she could focus on the shadows as they moved and block out what was happening around her, to her, and pretend she didn’t exist at all.

But, try as she might, Snow couldn’t make the sounds, smells, sights of this horrible room disappear. They enveloped and suffocated her. They made her weak. She’d always thought herself to be so smart, yet she couldn’t think of a way out. So strong, yet they had taken her will, the fight for her soul, within days. Shame flooded her veins.

A princess would never feel ashamed.
Even as the thought crossed her mind, Snow followed it with another.
Stupid, stupid girl. Grow up already.

Once, in another life, dreams of being a princess weren’t so foolish. Far-fetched, perhaps, but innocent, every little girl’s fantasy to one day grow up and live in a castle with a man who loved her so much he would slay dragons to save her. Snow could remember playing with Amelia, who would sometimes indulge her with a few hours of dressing up dolls, though her disdain for girly things always showed through.

It helped to think about such childhood things, focusing on memory rather than present, so Snow chose a specific day—her eleventh birthday. Amelia thought she was too old for a princess party, and maybe she was, but for a little girl who grew up with nothing, one day where she was royalty was the most perfect day of them all.

“No princess is complete without her tiara,”
her mother had said the morning of her party, placing a silver plastic tiara atop a young Snow’s head. Brimming with excitement, Snow had raced to the mirror above her dresser, admiring her crown from every angle. There were green and pink stones all along the sides, with one big, clear, oval-shaped gem in the center. It sparkled in the light, making her look and feel like a true fancy lady.