Fade to Black (18 page)

“Great.” He smiled and kissed her hard but briefly
on the lips. “Now that we have that settled, let’s find a way out of here.”

~^~

Lily lay back on the bed and stared at the
ceiling. Her stomach still felt like she was going to throw up, but she didn’t
want to say anything to Devlin. They’d spent the past hour going through
everything in the room. They had a small pile of what they considered weak
weapons or something they might be able to use to escape. Turning her head, she
looked at the small pile, barely keeping the tears at bay. She knew Devlin was
right, she couldn’t dwell on Leo,
otherwise
she’d be a
blubbering mess and might miss an opportunity to escape. She had to keep her
head in the game. They still had another two weeks before they had to be
back
home to go to his summer camp for parents’ day. They
could do this. Plus she knew someone in Devlin’s camp would worry about him if
he didn’t show up at some point in the next few days. But would they have any
clue where to even start looking?

“Devlin, when is anyone going to start
wondering where you are?”

He sat down on the bed next to her and
sighed. “I’ve left things pretty much up in the air for the next month or so
with everyone. We were supposed to be leaving to drive across country today. I
thought it’d be cool to see where we ended up each day on our way back to see
Leo, just the two of us, the open road, finding quaint little bed and
breakfasts along the way, taking detours.” He shrugged. “It sounded like a good
idea at the time.”

“It did, if we didn’t have to worry about
psycho ex-girlfriends.” Lily sat up. “What are we going to do? No one is going
to be looking for us for a couple of weeks. One or both of us could be dead by
then.” She tried not to let the tears fall from her eyes. This time she
couldn’t stop it, and had to jump up and run to the bathroom where she got sick
again. With Devlin behind her holding a cold washcloth to the back of her neck,
she felt weak and wanted to go to sleep. She couldn’t remember the last time
she’d felt this exhausted and wondered if she had a worse concussion than she’d
originally thought.

“Come on; let me help you to the bed.”
Devlin gently helped her up. Once she was standing he quickly lifted her so she
was in his arms and carried her to the bed.

“That was more than helping. I could have
walked,” she said, as she scooted back on the bed so she was resting her back
against the headboard.

“What can I say? I wanted any excuse to
have you in my arms.” He brushed her hair back from her face, “How are you
doing?
Really.”

 
“I
don’t know. I’ve been dizzy on and off. I’m exhausted and have felt sick to my
stomach all day.” She brought her hand up to rub the place where Hayden had hit
her in the head. “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“God, I want to get you out of here and to
a doctor.”

“He’d probably give me some aspirin and
send me on my way. I’ll be fine, as soon as I get out of here. I don’t want to
lose a moment. Who knows what’s going to happen when Hayden comes back. We have
to come up with a plan, something,
anything
.”

Devlin climbed into bed next to her and
wrapped his arms around her. “We’ll figure something out. I keep hoping I’ll
have a MacGyver moment and
be
able to figure out how
to get us out of here.”

“Now there’s a blast from the past.” She
waved her hand, “Go for it,
wow
me with your skills.”

Wrapped in Devlin’s warm arms it was so
easy for her to start to fall asleep where she felt safe. When he tensed up,
she bolted awake and looked at him. “What?”

“Do you hear that?”

There was a hissing noise coming from a
vent.

“Oh shit, Devlin, what’s that smell?”

His arm wrapped tighter around her as he
moved their improvised weapons under the covers next to him. “It’s the same as
last time; she’s going to knock us out.”

“No, what if she kills us?” Lily couldn’t
stop the panic from taking over. “I can’t die; my son… my son… needs… me…”

“Lily… Lily… I… love… you…” Were the last
words she heard before she passed
out.

~^~

Devlin came awake, his left arm tingling
and immobile. Slowly he opened his eyes and glanced over to his arm. He blinked
a few times, not understanding where he was or why his arm was in restraints.
With a flash, everything came flooding back to him and he turned to make sure
Lily was still there. The air whooshed out of his lungs when we saw her there,
her chest rising and falling.

“Good morning, my love,
it’s
good you finally woke up. We’ll have some time to talk before the whore wakes
up,” Hayden said from the open door.

“Let me out of here.” Devlin pulled at the restraints,
hoping to pull them out of the wall.

“Tsk, tsk, now darling, you should know I
always make sure everything is perfect. There’s no way you can pull that out of
the wall. Now be a good boy and maybe one of these days you’ll be able to have
my love again.”

“Hayden, you’ll never get away with this.”

Slowly she walked to the foot of the bed.
“Oh, but my darling, I already have.”

“What do you mean, ‘you already have’?”

Hayden threw back her head and laughed.
“All in good time, all in good time. Now let’s see if we can get the whore to
wake up.” She walked over to Lily and slapped her across the face as hard as she
could.

“Hey!” Devlin screamed as he tried to use the
hand that was behind Lily’s shoulders to grab Hayden’s hand, but he found it
was handcuffed to Lily’s restraint.

“Looks like I was smart to have an extra
pair or two of handcuffs on hand.” She leaned down closer to him. “You never
know when you’ll want to have a little fun in the bedroom.”

Devlin felt Lily shrink away from Hayden,
drawing closer into him. He hated that he was so defenseless and couldn’t
protect her, and now with both of them restrained, there was nothing they could
do.

“Let’s cut to the chase, Hayden. What do
you want? What’s it going to take to let Lily go?”

“Oh, my sweet, darling lover, it’s not
going to be that easy. You have to prove you’ve seen the error of your ways.
That you are truly ready to commit to me, that you’ll never leave me. That you
love me with everything you have and will never, ever do anything to harm me.
I’ll always be the first one in your thoughts. Everything you do is for me,
about me. Devlin, I’m the only one for you.” She leaned over Lily and came
closer, face to face with Devlin. “I’m the only one for you.
You.
Are.
Mine.
Forever.”
Slowly
she backed away.

“Now, where was I?” She adjusted the collar
of her shirt. “Oh, yes, slapping the shit out of your little whore.” She pulled
her hand back to slap her again.

“Stop!”
Devlin yelled. “She’s awake and paying attention.”

“Oh, darling, I know that. Silly man, can’t
you understand this is fun for me? I didn’t think you were this slow when we
were together. Get with the program.”

 
Devlin’s
mind raced from one thought to the next. He knew he had to keep her away from
Lily and focused on him. “Sorry, must be whatever it was you gassed me with.”
He knew he had to put on an academy award-winning performance if they were to have
a shot of getting out of there.

Hayden looked at him skeptically for a
moment before her face relaxed. “Fine, now I know I can’t stop you from sharing
the food with the whore, so I decided to bring enough for both of you. Here.” She
threw a tray down at the end of the bed. The aroma of the garlic sauce on the
pasta wafted up toward them.

Before anyone could say anything, Lily was
turning her head and throwing up over the side of the bed. Devlin hated hearing
the retching coming from her, knowing there was nothing he could do. He watched
as Hayden backed away, her eyes wide, and then she squinted at Lily. Not
knowing what she was thinking, he was worried about what would be coming next.

“Well, that’s disgusting. Can’t you control
yourself, whore?” Hayden turned and left the room without looking back.

Devlin turned toward Lily. “Honey, are you
okay?”

Lily’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t
know what’s wrong, I don’t feel right. I’m so weak. I’m so sorry I threw up
again.”

“No, don’t worry about that.”

“We need to figure out what’s going on.”

“No, Lily, we need to get you out of here.
I’m going to do whatever it takes to get you to safety.”

“Devlin, I won’t leave without you.” Her
voice wavered, filling with the tears she was trying not to allow to fall from
her eyes.

“You’re going to have to if it comes down
to that. I have to get you back to Leo. I have to get you out of here so you
can make sure you’re okay. Don’t argue; I’m right and you know it. I’ll be
okay.”

“No you won’t, we both know it. If… if somehow
I can get out of here, she’s never going to let you go.”

His voice dropped to a whisper. “Hey, I’m a
good actor; I’ll have to do what I do best and make her believe it, even if it
isn’t true.”

Lily matched his volume. “Make her believe
whatever you want, but we both have to get out of here. Together.”

“That’s what we’re shooting for, honey.
Never forget I love you.”

“You make it seem like you’re not planning
on getting out of here alive.”

“We all have to plan for the best and worst
of what might happen.”

“I hate this.” She tried to move closer to
him.

“Me too.”

They didn’t say anything to each other as
the door slammed and they heard the lock flip. Whatever time they had left
together they wanted to spend it lost in each other’s eyes.

~^~

Hayden stood outside the door listening to
the two of them. This wasn’t going according to her plan.
Not
at all.
She had to figure out some way to make it all right again.
Devlin was hers; she had to wonder what his plan was with that whore. Maybe
things weren’t as cut and dried as she thought. Maybe Devlin was working his
own plan.

Some of their words finally registered with
her and a smile spread across her face. Could he really have done everything
for her all along? Well, well, well, Devlin, my darling love.
You sneaky little bastard.
She knew what she had to do next.
If she was right, well, then maybe it all was worthwhile.

~^~

Lily lost time as they lay there together,
waiting for the Hayden to come back. She hated having to stop looking at Devlin
to make sure she knew what Hayden was up to, and was surprised when she saw her
carrying cleaning supplies. “Don’t think I’m cleaning up after you, whore.
You’ll get down on your hands and knees, like you’re so good at, and do it
yourself. I expect it cleaned up right away. Then we can move onto the next
scheduled event.”

Warily, Lily watched as Hayden approached
her and carefully unlocked her while Devlin was still restrained. Lily looked
back at Devlin and knew what he’d say to her, ‘if you get a chance, run.’ She
wasn’t sure if she’d be able to leave him here with this psycho, but her son
needed her.

“Come on, whore.” Hayden pushed Lily toward
the bathroom with one hand while the other held a knife, and slammed the door
behind them.

Lily stared at the knife pointed in her
direction. In her mind, she thought if Hayden was going to stab her to death
this would be the perfect place to do it, there was tile and it’d be easier to
clean up than the carpet and bedding. She knew Devlin had to be going crazy out
there wondering what was going on.

“Here.” Hayden pulled a box out of her
pocket and threw it at Lily.
“Pee on a stick.”

“What do you mean, pee on a stick?”

“Come on, whore, I didn’t hit you that
hard. You’ve had sex with my man, haven’t you? You’re throwing up and you look
like hell.
Pee on the fucking stick.”

With shaking hands, Lily bent down and
picked up the box from the floor. She was thinking back to the last time she
had her period. Counting back, she knew it was before Dory died, but figured
with the stress of that, it had put her system out of whack. Besides, they’d
used protection.

Lily sat down and tried to pee on the stick,
but with a psycho staring at her holding a knife, it wasn’t easy. “Can I have
some privacy?”

“Come now, I’m not stupid. Pee on the
fucking stick, you stupid fucking whore!”

After what seemed like forever, Lily was
finally able to go. She breathed a sigh of relief as she set the stick on the
counter and pulled her pants up. When she heard Hayden gasp, she looked at her
and then down at the stick. It was positive. She was pregnant with Devlin’s
child. Placing her hand protectively across her stomach, she now had no idea
what was coming next.