Acts of Desperation (15 page)

             
Over the next several days, I faded in and out of consciousness. I vaguely remember eating and being led to the bathroom; the pictures come to me like little snap shots taken from a dream. The first thing I can remember with some kind of clarity is when I sat up and noticed I was wearing a clean t-shirt.

“How long have I been here?” I asked.

“There she is,” my captor said. He was sitting over in his chair still wearing the same disgusting clothes, smoking and staring at a phone, slowly rocking. The chair creaked slightly under his movements. “Over a week. I didn’t think you’d mind me laying off the drugs for a bit. The long term effects can be a bit dangerous. I don’t want you pulling a Michael Jackson on me, at least not before I say.” He gave me a twitchy smile. “And I gave you a bath a couple of days ago too, you were starting to stink.”

As he spoke,
I felt like my head was going to explode, but thankfully I wasn’t tied down again. I decided to not harp on the thought of him bathing me—it was too disturbing—at least I was somewhat clean. “What have you been giving me? I feel awful,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

“Oh just a little cocktail I put together. Some of it was a little old school but extremely
effective and it made you very cooperative. I snapped off some great pictures too, it took me hours to tie some of those ropes and get you into those positions. But sadly, our time together is drawing to a close, not much longer now.” He frowned.

I’d seen some pictures of kinky bondage when I was an undergrad. My roommate was into weird
stuff, but it was never my cup of tea. I visualized how he could have positioned me based off what I’d seen, and it made my skin crawl. I shook the images. “What do you mean our time’s drawing to a close?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said and avoided
looking at my eyes.

“You do know if you’re using a cell phone they’re probably tracing you. The police have to be looking for me. I wouldn’t be surpr
ised if they’re already outside.” I was grasping at strings.

“I don’t doubt they’re looking, but they’re not here. I’d know.” He held up his phone and wiggled it in the air. “And no GPS—I’m smarter than the average bear. I’ve got a special app installed that scrambles my signal. A guy designed it just for me. It’s not completely untraceable, but it should keep them busy for a while. I only communicate through text
s so it makes it even more challenging. But, I should say Jax really has tried to get me talking, he’s done a few clever things—I have to give him credit. So admirable, your knight in shining armor.”

“He’ll find me. I know he will,” I said. Where the heck was he? He had to find me. He wouldn’t let me die like this. “You’re not going to get away with this.”
The statement was cliché, and I was aware of that, but it was fitting.

“Oh, I’m afraid I will. With the money I’m requesting, I shouldn’t have any problem going off the grid. I can move anywhere I want. I’ll have to lay low for a while, but I’ve already got that worked out.”

“So what, you think you can just pick up a bag of money, and they’ll let you walk away. There’s no way that’s going to happen.”

“A bag of money?” He began laughing and coughing again. “Oh, you’re cute. Who deals with cash anymore? It’s all electronic these days. When the transfer is complete, my computer guy will handle the rest.” He tapped his watch. “And that should be happening very soon.”

“And what about me?” I asked.

“I promised the police,
and Jax, that I wouldn’t hurt you, but, well…I sort of lied. I’m really sorry but there’s only one way this can end.” He tried to smile but shook his head and looked out the window. “I’m going to tie you to one of those trees out there and let the animals take care of you. I’ve been baiting them with meat wrapped in the t-shirts I’ve had you wear. I haven’t fed them for a couple of nights, but I’ve heard them out there looking. They should be hungry tonight, and it shouldn’t take long before they smell you. I’m not a violent man by nature—I couldn’t bear doing that kind of thing myself. And...” He took a deep breath and smiled then his face changed. “Jax shouldn’t be able to just carry on with you happily ever after when all of this is done, now should he?”

I felt something dark and sinister step in the room with me—I was in the room with the devil. “Please,
please
don’t do this. I won’t see him anymore after this. I’ll-I’ll break up with him, I promise. You don’t need to do this,” I said.

“You wo-won’t see him anymore.” He chuckled. “With his dashing good looks, I find that hard to believe. Besides, I think he’s actually in love with you. He wouldn’t just give up that easily. With his smooth talking lawyerly ways, I’m sure he’d be able to get you to reconsider, and I just can’t have that. So n
o,” he snarled, “sorry, not a viable option.”

“Please, I’ll do anything.” My tears were rolling down in thick streams.

“Now now. Shh…don’t go getting all upset.” He walked over and rubbed my head. “It’s not going to be easy for me, but I’ll give you something to make it a little more pleasant.” He began walking toward me with something in his hand when I heard a ding. He stopped and put whatever it was in his pocket and pulled out his cellphone. “Ah! There it is.” He giggled. “I have my money. I promised the police that I’d give them your location after I got it.” He winked. “I’m sorry but we have to move, and I need to get this over with.”

He looked down and began typing into the phone. He was distracted, and although I was weak, my time was now or never. The lamp would be my best weapon. If I could hit him hard enough, it could give me enough time to run. I lunged out of bed and went for it, catching him by surprise, but I was only able to palm the lamp just as he was at my back. He grabbed the neck of my shirt pulling me to him, so I turned and swung. He put his arm up and blocked my shot. I shoved him back and managed to run to the door, getting only a few steps before he seized me from behind and wrapped his arm around my neck. He gripped me tighter as he fiddled to get whatever it was out of his pocket.

You know, it’s funny the things that come to mind in situations like these. Suddenly, I thought about Sandra Bullock in
Miss Congeniality,
and I needed to
SING
—
S
olar Plexus,
I
nstep,
N
ose, and
G
roin. I lifted my arm and elbowed his ribs, stepped on his foot, hit him in the face then punched his groin.

He went down like a sack of potatoes, and I took off. I burst through the door and scanned the area for
something leading to the outside. I knew I hadn’t knocked him out, so I needed to be quick. I ran into a kitchen and saw the forest through a windowed door. It was covered in a yellowed lace curtain, but still I saw it—freedom. I yanked on the knob, but it was locked. I fumbled to open it, hearing his groans getting louder. He was coming for me.

Run, Run, Run…

Finally, I’d gotten it. I threw open the door and ran from the setting sun, its red glow igniting the wet forest floor, as I plunged into the fiery depths of hell. Then, as I took my first steps, I was hit with the harsh reality that I had no shoes. The soggy leaves and twigs below my feet bent and poked at my bare soles.

“Stop!” he called. He was so close.

I ran—sprinted—through thick brush, being hit repeatedly in the face with their sharp talons, clawing at my cheeks and arms, scratching me as I forced my way through. I swatted at them denying them of their persistent traitorous desire to stop me and hold me in their death grip. I looked to the trees; maybe I could climb one and hide. No animals would get me, and I could hideout until daylight. I used to be an excellent climber. With as much adrenaline as I had pumping, I knew I could quickly get to the top.

No, I decided, my breath coming out in frantic grunts, I couldn’t stop.

Run…

“Sember! Stop!”

I looked over my shoulder; he was gaining on me. I heard his heavy boots beating against the forest floor. The light was falling fast, casting him only as a dark shadow, my demon in the woods.

RUN…

I turned back, launching into a full gallop as my cursed asthmatic lungs began to burn, and I felt my airway tightening, sapping me of my strength and slowing me down, but still, I would not stop. Suddenly, his hand was on my shoulder. I screamed and thrust my elbow back catching him somewhere on his face. He grunted and landed with a loud thud.

I got a few more steps then the unthinkable happened; I tripped. I went down with thunderous force and struck my head on something hard. I rolled over and moaned, feeling the warm sticky blood gushing, already coating my hand.

His dark figured leaned over me.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered. They were the last words I heard before everything faded to black.

Beep…beep…beep…

That’s annoying. I wish someone would shut off the alarm,
I thought. I pictured myself reaching for that maddening sound and throwing the noisy culprit against the wall, but I was just so tired that I couldn’t will my eyes to open or my limbs to move.

B
eep…beep…beep…

“
Daughter…is she…long term effects…?” I caught bits and pieces of a conversation.
I recognized my dad’s voice.

Huh, that’s nice that he’s here.

“Head injury…trauma of this kind…stable…totally normal…,”
an unfamiliar voice said.

Then many voices began talking, at least four, seemingly all at once at times, one overlapping the other. Gibberish and nonsense was what it sounded like. My mom? Liz? My sister? It was keeping me from the rest that I desperately wanted.

Ugh, can’t they see I’m sleeping? It’s so irritating. They might think they’re being quiet, but they’re not. Wait. Why are they in my bedroom?

I felt the warmth of someone holding my hand, and I squeezed. They were cupping my hand in theirs while someone smoothed my hair. Then the memories flooded my brain—everything that had happened: The old house reeking of cigarettes, the drug filled hazes, and my run through the woods.

But where the hell am I? A hospital? I have to be in a hospital. That crazy guy wouldn’t be holding my hand… the beeping, my dad’s voice—everyone’s voices. All good signs, at least I’m not dead…but God my head hurts…what happened to me? How did I get here...Ugh, I need to sleep…I’m so tired.

I shut the voices off and drifted, escaping into my dreams. I couldn’t deal with reality yet, whatever it was.

****

I felt like I’d been asleep for a week, but my body still cr
aved more. I was sore and stiff when I reached up and felt the bandage on my head.
That
was definitely sore underneath, and I was relieved that there was something covering the wound. Judging by the way it felt, I bet it looked awful. The scratches on my arms were already scabbed over and fading slightly.

I looked over to the various machines I was attached to, all monitoring my vital organs no doubt, and they droned on with their incessant beeping. Several wires were attached to my chest under my fashionable blue hospital gown and one lone line was taped to my arm. I followed the line all the way up to two separate bags filled with clear fluids and watched them slowly dripping and feeding into my vein.

I looked around the room and saw Jax sleeping in one corner and my dad in another. My dad’s salt and pepper hair was plastered to his head. He looked like he needed a shower, but he was peacefully snoring away and probably catching up on at least a week’s worth of sleep. Jax was leaning back in a chair covered up with a thin white hospital blanket. His nose was bandaged and his eyes were black and blue. He had his head tilted back, but I could tell from his breathing that he wasn’t asleep.

“So what kind of show are they running here? I can’t even get a private room,” I said quietly and cracked a tired smile.

Jax shot out of his seat. “Sember? Oh my God, you’re awake,” he said quietly. He hurried over and leaned down to give me a soft kiss then sat in the chair next to my bed. “Do you need anything?”

“No, I’m fine.” I lifted my hand up to the bandage on my head and asked, “What happened?”

“You tripped and hit your head on a rock. When they brought you in you had a concussion. They weren’t sure how severe it was so they kept you sedated in the ICU for a couple of days. It turns out it wasn’t as severe as they initially thought…thank God. They just brought you down here last night.”

“Oh, that’s good.” I laughed uneasily. “You look terrible. What happened to your face?”

“I took a pretty hard hit, but I can’t really blame you,” he said, patting the bandage on the bridge of his nose.

“
I
did that?” I asked.

“You don’t remember, do you? I can only imagine what you were thinking. I knew you were terrified, but I was just trying to get you back.”

“He was chasing me in the woods. He kept calling for me, but I just ran faster. Then I thought he had me when I tripped. I saw him. I mean I-I thought I saw him. But now…” I stammered, “I guess I’m not so sure.” I shook my head trying to make sense of the chaos in my brain.

“He wasn’t chasing you, that was me,” he said.

“That was you?” I asked.

“Yeah, I was trying to get you to stop. The police were about to move in then you came rushing out the back of the house. They busted in the front door, and I ran after you. Caught some shit for that too. My buddy Kevin had to pull all kinds of strings for them to even let me
come along. He was pissed, but a thousand men couldn’t have held me back when I saw you. I’d just caught up to you then you elbowed me in the nose. And it was a hell of a hit, too.”

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I broke it, didn’t I?” I cringed.

“I don’t care, I hear chicks dig scars—it’ll add character.” He smiled. “I’m glad you’re ok. I can’t even think what I would have done if he…I’m just so glad that I got you back.” He put his head to my hand and exhaled over a week’s worth of stress in one breath.

“How did you find me? We looked like we were out in the middle of nowhere. He said he had an app that scrambled the signal on his phone. I thought it was hopeless after he said that.”

“He did,” he said, lifting his head. “It made him harder to find, but they were tracing pings and using triangulation on the signal and finally narrowed in on it. I didn’t really understand what they were talking about half the time, but they were working on it twenty-four-seven. I wasn’t going to stop until I found you though. I even contacted Grace’s parents. They’d actually been trying to find Dylan for a few weeks.”

“Dylan,” I repeated. “He wouldn’t tell me his name.”

“’I’m sorry, I assumed he told you who he was.”

“No, he didn’t.
He wouldn’t. But it didn’t take me long to figure it out. I actually recognized him. I’d seen him a couple of times before when we were out.”

“You did? When?” he asked.

“After our first lunch when we were by the elevator. He was up on the second floor watching us. Then at dinner on our first date. I ran into him on the way back from the bathroom, but I didn’t really think anything of it.”

“Oh my God,” he said, shaking his head. “He was following us the whole time.”

“That’s what he said. He’s totally nuts. But you said his parents have been looking for him?”

“Yeah. He was suspended from the hospital where he worked. He was part of the cleaning staff and was suspected for stealing drugs. His life was unraveling at home I guess and this was his last resort, an act of desperation.”

“But they caught him, right?” I asked.

“In a manner of speaking. He somehow made it to his car after stabbing one of the officers in the neck with a syringe and made a run for it. There was a high speed chase on the highway, and he
lost control of his car and flew off the side of a bridge into a ravine. They’ve already recovered his body. It’s all over—for good.”

I
closed my eyes and sighed in relief. I wouldn’t have to face my captor in court and relive my experience—at least what I could remember of it. A shiver ran through my body when I thought that it could be my body that my parents had to claim in the morgue instead of his. Oh, his poor parents.

I opened my eyes and met Jax’s worried stare. My voice trembled when I began to speak, “His poor parents have another child to bury.” I grunted. “
I feel so bad for them…but I’m not sorry he’s dead, not after what he put me through. I am really glad this is over. I hope I’m not on the radar of any more crazy people. I think I’ve had my fair share for a while.”

He gave me a consoling smile. “You’ve been through a lot. Grace
’s parents have had enough heartache to last a lifetime I think, but they’re good people, they’ll get through it. Dylan has been troubled for a while.” He ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his face. “I’m so grateful that I still have you,” he said, placing a soft kiss to the back of my hand.

When he met my eyes, I sa
w the exhaustion in his. “I’m glad you still have me too.” I laughed uneasily. “You should go home, you really look tired. When was the last time you slept?” I asked.

“It’s been a while, but sleeping in the same room with a bear for the last few nights hasn’t really helped.” He nodded his head over to my dad who was still sleeping. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone snore like that in my life, but I wasn’t going to leave you and neither was he.”

I laughed. After years of my bedroom sharing a common wall with my parent’s, my dad’s raucous snoring became more of a comfort to me than a disturbance. But to someone who’s never experienced it before, it was probably as peaceful as sleeping next to a freight train.

“Sorry.” I smiled. “I was raised with him snoring right next door, I barely hear it anymore. I’m glad you two finally got to meet.”

“He’s a good man, I like him a lot. And I got to meet your mom too. I’ve officially met your whole family now.” He raised his eyebrows and smirked.

“And you’re not running out of the door yet. I guess that’s a good sign.” I smiled.
I know I teased about it a lot but my family was really no weirder than any other. In fact, it was probably rarer to have parents that were still married, going on forty years, than to be more like the norm of coming from a broken home. We loved and laughed a lot, but we were deeply sarcastic. Some people over the years didn’t know how to receive us. For that reason, I was sometimes standoffish about introducing new people into our tight circle.

“You think you’d be able to get rid of me that easily?
” He shook his head. “Not a chance.”

I began
to feel overwhelmed. “Good because I’m not letting you go anywhere anyway,” I said trying to smile as my tears started to flow.

He reached his hand up and wiped them away. “I’m so sorry, baby,” he whispered. “I had no idea he’d do this. This is all my fault.”

“Stop it.” I put my hands on his face to make him look at me. “This wasn’t your fault. If you’d had any idea then you would have done something. It’s silly to blame yourself. I’m safe now and that’s all that matters.”

“Is that boy starting trouble over there?” my dad said, sitting up and looking at us.

“Hey Dad,” I said, smiling. “No, he’s not starting anything just blaming himself for everything.”

“I told him to knock that off. He must have apologized to your mother and me about a dozen times. How you feeling
, Bobba?” He walked over and smoothed my hair down.

I cringed.
“Daaad, don’t call me that in front of him.”

“Bobba?” Jax asked
with a laugh.

“Yeees.” I rolled my eyes. “Sarah called me her ‘bobba sister’ when my parents brought me home from the hospital after I was born instead of ‘
baby
sister’. It stuck. But only
he
calls me that so don’t get any ideas.” I smirked at him. “I’m better now,” I said to my dad. “Got a little bit of a headache, but I’ll live.”

“I don’t know what is going on with our family lately. It’s like we’re attracting all the nut jobs in the city.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I’m just glad I got my baby back,” he said as his voice broke. My dad has never been an outwardly emotional person, but he was getting choked up. He
needed an excuse to leave. “Well, I should call your mother. She told me to let her know as soon as you woke up. You know how she gets.” He bent over and kissed my forehead.

“Where is she?” I asked.

“Oh, you know you’re mother. She’s probably called half of the city to tell them this story. I think she’s out in the lobby.” I nodded. My mom has a gossipy side, but she means well. In a crisis, she never wants anyone to worry so she is quick to update any and all concerned parties. With as big as her family is, that includes about half the city.

“You keep an eye on her,” he said to Jax.

“Won’t let her out of my sight.” He smiled.

When the door closed, Jax and I sat in silence for a few minutes. He leaned back in the chair next to my bed, still holding my hand, and his head began to fall. I watched him and thought he’d finally fallen asleep; I
didn’t know how he’d managed to keep his eyes open for as long as he had.

“So, I was thinking,” he said, t
aking a deep breath then he opened his eyes.

“What?” I sighed. “I thought you were sleeping.”

“Nope. Thinking. I need to ask you something. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. I know it might not be the best time, but a lot’s happened.”

“Ok…”