Withholding Secrets (33 page)

“You just had to stick your nose where it didn’t belong, Keri.” His voice sent a chill down my spine and filled my bare feet with concrete shoes.

Turning around, the tears singed my eyes as the air slowly leaked from my lungs. The fear paralyzed every single muscle in my body. How could he do this? How could he…?

“What? Are you really surprised, Keri?” The evil smirk slid across his face as he brushed his fingers down my cheek to wipe off some crimson spray.

“I trusted you.” My heart hammered hard into the muscles surrounding it, battering everything in its way. How could he do this? How could he do this to little girls? What kind of monster was he? 

His mouth came down on mine, taking it for his own amusement, urging the empty contents of my stomach upward. I tried to pull away, to turn my head away from him, but he held me there. He made me stay put so that he could violate my mouth.

Pulling back, he wrapped his hand in my hair and tugged it downward, bringing me down to my knees. “How much did you miss me?”

I could barely move. My body hurt so bad. The thick blood blanketed my skin, and I knew the end would be coming soon enough. A few times, when the pain sent me into another world in my mind, I wondered if I would ever get the chance to see Alicia.

The last thing that I remembered was when he bent over me, giving me that look again. That look that I saw in my nightmares when I was a kid. His body leaning over mine and his face close, his breath warming my chilled skin, and that deep lust in his silvery gray eyes. It made me sick.

As I lay on the cold and damp dirt floor, I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to breathe anymore. I wanted it to end. I wanted it all to be over with. My body just couldn’t take another beating. Not again. I had been chained up, tortured, beaten, and starved. And I hadn’t even seen any one of the girls yet.

If I had left the address there, he would see it and move everyone. Then, what chance would I have to save those girls? Instead, I managed to dig into the torn flesh of mine for blood to leave the message, one that Sky could decipher. I just hoped that someone would find it and go to Kane. After all, he was the one who was keeping my kids safe.

What if Kane had taken the kids and went on a vacation or a trip to help heal the damage that I caused? No. Kane
would
figure it out. Kane had to have known by now. I hoped that he did, and hope was all I had. I wasn’t going to last much longer at this rate, and these girls were going to be moved soon. If he didn’t figure it out, Ben would never see Alicia again.

The startled gasp stung my raw skin even more. My heart skipped a beat, feeling the warmth slipping up behind me. There would be no way I could hold up for one more beating. I couldn’t take any more. I was broken already. I don’t even know how long I had been there anymore. It was complete darkness. Complete black.

“Sky?” Her weak voice trembled through the air as the tips of ice cold fingers ran over the damaged skin of my arm. “Sky. I’m here. I’m right here. It’s me.” Her salty tears dripped down, igniting the fires through my abused flesh. The pain was so searing, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t fight. I just laid there while the salty waters scorched my flesh. “Hang in there. Keri will come for us. She will. You were absolutely right about her, Sky. She will come for us.”

“Alicia?” I tried to move my wrists, but with them secured with zip-ties behind my back, it was impossible. The lava pooling in my shoulders, the stiffness assuring me there was more damage to those muscles and joints than I could even think of.

“Keri?” The chain dragged a little as I heard a quick hiccup. She was chained? “Keri? I thought you were Sky.”

“Alicia, it’s me. It’s me.” Struggling to get up, I felt my knee pop again and I went back down to the dirt. The sharp shooting pain was going up and down my leg, but getting to that one girl was all I needed. “Did they hurt you? Did they touch you?”

“Keri, please. Help me. Please, help me.” Her chain jingled again, and then another gasp as if something closed in around her neck. Could she be chained around the neck? How in the hell did they have these girls locked up?

I couldn’t give up on her. I had to get to her no matter how bad it hurt. Sliding myself toward her voice, I cried silently from the pain. What the hell was a little more damage to my body? It wasn’t like I would live for another couple of days. Her body brushed against mine. She was completely naked and ice cold, shivering with her teeth chattering together. “I’m right here, Alicia. I am here.”

“Please, take me home. Please, save me.” Her soft whines dug into my soul and sutured together part of my pain, just enough for me to push my body a little more.

“I’m trying. Just, please, stay strong and don’t fight them. Let me fight them. Let them take their anger out on me. Just don’t fight them.” Feeling her hand on my cheek, I leaned into the gentle touch.

“I’ll try. I will, Keri.” Cuddling close to me, I winced in pain by the contact of her skin against my raw and grated flesh, but there was no way I was going to push her back. She was Ben’s little girl, and the reason why I was there.

A hand came down on my hair, pulling me backward. Her cries echoed in the room as I was being pulled away from her. My body screamed as it scraped the floor. Finally, I was tossed into a warm room and hauled to my feet. Standing there, I waited for what was going to come. As long as this was happening to me and not the girls, then it was worth it. I just wish I could have found out how the girls were being held in that dungeon of darkness. If I was able to spring one, they could run for help, seeing as my coded message wasn’t helping.

“I like to have dessert tonight, and I do believe that you are going to be dessert, my love.” His voice shot through me as he chuckled that disgusting familiar one that I only thought I dreamt about. “Shall we relive old times, Keri?”

The water turned on; scalding hot water that ripped and sliced at my raw flesh. As much as I wanted to drown in the basking hot waters that were searing my flesh from my bones, I had to resist. I had to stay above shore in order to keep him occupied, to get one of the girls freed so I could have another plan on getting them all to safety.

“Ah. You remember what I told you before? Pain, and then I will give you pleasure. As I will now. You are filthy, and I need to get you cleaned up. I don’t like my girls dirty.”

“If I did whatever you wanted, would you let Alicia go? Would you let her go?” Clenching my teeth together as hard as I could, I fought against the darkness and hung on to any life there was left inside of me.

The hiss came out as he squirted the cold liquid soap onto me. My skin burst into flames as the pain was so bad, my one knee rejected my weight and sent me down to the cold floor. When would this end? When I would I just let go? If I could get Alicia out of there, then I could just die then. Alicia first. I had to get her out of there. But as the scrubbing scathed my skin, ripped and bit my flesh, the hopes were dying, just as my body was.

After my wonderful shower of the steel scrubbing my skin clean, I was walked to another room, my body picked up only to be slammed down on something hard. My arms were released from the zip ties, but raised above my head and locked down in clamps. Then, my legs were spread apart and clamped down at my ankles.

“Oh, Keri. Why do you have to make this harder than what it is?”

“What do you want?” My shoulder … The separation of the muscle or something. Maybe a broken bone. The pain…

“You.”

“Then why the little girls? Why are you doing this to them?” Adjusting my body, I managed to bring the hot, white pain down to a dull roar, but there was no way my shoulder would ever be the same again.

“That was when I had fallen in love with you. That was when I had my first taste of you.” His voice softened as his gentle hand smoothed my hair back. “Mom found out, and she sent me away. I loved you, Keri. I really did, and it was the best that I ever had. And I want more. I want so much more.”

“You can have me. Just, please. Let them go.” How sick was this bastard, the same bastard I begged to help me? All this time, he knew what I was going through.

“I can’t do that. Mom didn’t leave me shit, Keri. She left it all to you. I had to make money somehow. It was all because of you, because you were so … perfect. I couldn’t help myself that night, because I loved you so much, Keri.” His lips brushed down my neck, causing the tears to gush out of my eyes and collect onto the cloth that covered them. “I managed to find one that reminded me of you and I had to have her. I needed to have her, Keri. She was so sweet and innocent just like you were. I had her, and her fucking brother came in and called the cops on me.”

My heart stopped. No, no, no. My brother lived out east. There was no way that he could have been the one. He was … Sky’s monster.

“Then, I heard that you had gotten some kids, Keri. And low and behold, there she was. There was the one. Keri, I wanted her. I want to relive the time that I once had you.”

“You can just have me, Chuck. You can just have me. I will let you do what you want. I will do whatever you want. Please, just leave my little girl alone. Let Alicia go. Please. I will let you do anything to me.”

“You see, you’re ruined, Keri. You are ruined.” His voice cracked as his hand slid down my body. “You are still just as beautiful as you were back then.”

“Please, Chuck.” The cloth over my eyes soaked up even more wetness that was coming from my eyes. I had to get those girls out of there; out of the hands of this monster. He was disgusting.

“I can’t. I’m sorry, Keri. I just can’t. I have those sold already. I have them sold, but trust me, as long as they are good and listen to the commands, they will be fine.” A little moan came from him as his hand cupped my breast, massaging it, playing with it, and letting his lips caress it. The vomit was working its way up and burning the tender tissues of my throat. This was my brother touching me! My damn brother.

Just take it, Keri. Just lie there and take it. If this is how you can get those girls out, buy them some more time, just take it and let him violate you. It’s better you than those innocent girls, right?

*******

Sitting at the table in the cold and vacant interrogation room, my heart was in the bottom of my chest. Joe, the kids’ father, was found in the house unconscious, but barely alive. One more hit and his chest would have caved in, completely smothering his heart. But, Keri spared him that much. There was so much blood spread in that room, there was no telling whose it all belonged to. And there wasn’t any sign of Keri.

I had to call the police, and the FBI came in. After all, it was an investigation now as we had been questioned over and over. Anything to help out those girls and the chance to find Keri again, I would gladly hand over, but I didn’t have anything to help. Still, not knowing if Keri’s blood was some of what they found in the room, the fear was snaking around me, into every crevice I had.

“Mr. Bruton?” Detective Cunningham walked in, straightening her black pinstriped, form-fitting suit jacket. Her eyes glanced over the room as she let out a breath of air. Her dark, auburn hair was wrapped into a bun and the dark circles were shading her grassy green eyes, proving this case was working her overtime. “I need you to be honest with me.”

“I have been.” Folding my hands together on the desk, I gritted my teeth. I was still in my clothing from yesterday, and I hadn’t been able to see the kids in four days. Four
fucking
days they kept us apart. “Why don’t you be honest with me? Where the hell is she? How come she was able to figure out what is going on, and this whole department hasn’t? Where the hell is she, and where the hell are my kids?”

But she just sat there, taking up space in that chair instead of using what she had to search for Keri. For as young as this woman was, there was no way she could do anything or be anything, except a paper pusher for the department. And that wasn’t going to find Keri.

Shoving the chair back, I stood, pressing my hands down on the unforgiving and cold tabletop. Four days we were there while those girls and Keri were out there somewhere. The more the days that passed, the greater the chances were that they would move the girls and dump Keri’s body off somewhere along the way.

“She is out there someone where to try and save those girls. How can you all just sit around and wait until those girls are moved?”

The gentleness in her eyes deepened and the heart was coming forth on the sleeve of her black jacket. “There was something that was found in the room … along with a lot of Keri’s blood. A bunch of numbers were written in
her
blood, but no one can figure it out what it means.”

“What is it?” My stomach dropped hard as she sat the folder down on the table and opened it to the photo of the wall of Sky’s room that was smeared in blood. Toward the end, the numbers were a little more difficult to read, but that was a lot of blood, her blood.

Tears burned my eyes. So much blood was there. I could just imagine her bloodied body lying there as she used it to smear the wall, to put numbers on the wall. Was she counting? Why not just spell out what she wanted to say? Who it was? Where the girls were? Something?

“She’s not alive, is she?” My heart shattered and the hot waters were filling in my eyes. There was no way that she was alive with all of the blood that was in that room.

“We don’t know. This was the only area where there was her blood. The rest was Joe’s.” Shoving the photo closer to me, the muscle in her jaw flexed, enough to show a little ticking of a pulse from the pressures. Her long, slender finger pointed to the smeared numbers. “Do you think there is something with this? From what the kids talked about of her, she was good with numbers. Do you think that this could be a message?”

Shaking my head, my heart splintered apart with the separate shards sticking deep into my chest wall. Four days without seeing those kids, our kids. I could about imagine what they were going through right now. And Sky. I heard her crying the other day and I was stuck in this damn room where I couldn’t tell her that it was going to be okay.

Sky
.

‘
It’s all a numbers game, Sky. Just a game. You just have to figure it out
.’ Keri told her so many times while she was doing her homework. Keri left her a message. Now, it would have to be up to Sky to break the code and Keri would be found—or rather, the girls, because Keri would never make it through this. Not with this much blood loss.