RunningScaredBN (10 page)

A sob built in her chest, and she made an anguished sound. Lights flooded the room. She looked around. It was empty. There were no rats. Nothing to fear. She was safe.

A voice boomed above her. “You think your misery is over, my sweet? It’s just getting started.”

The room went pitch black again. At first, there was nothing. Complete silence, emptiness. Then sounds, like something sliding. Then she heard them. Rattling? Rattlesnakes? It was only sound effects, just as the rats had been. She could deal with noises. Sound couldn’t hurt her. He was just trying to scare her.

The rattling grew louder, and she ground her teeth together, determined not to give in to the fear. She could handle psychological torture. It was the hideous pain that destroyed her. Sounds wouldn’t kill her. Couldn’t hurt her. She would endure.

Light burst forth again. The room was empty, as she had surmised. Taut muscles went lax with relief. Her breath settled. She could handle this. She could.

“You think you’re home free, don’t you? You think your punishment is only this? You don’t know what suffering is. Once I’m through with you, the very thought of trying to escape will sicken your stomach. You’ll do anything to stay with me.”

The light went off again.

I can do this. I can do this.
 

Just because he’d threatened something worse, she told herself, as long as physical torture wasn’t used, she would be fine.

The horror continued. She stopped struggling. Though her heart still pounded, and each new sound was worse than the last, she forced her mind into another place. She no longer heard anything. Music filled her head, and she was swept away in its beauty. Her mouth moved up in a smile. She would destroy the darkness with music. It had always brought her light…it would again.

The noises stopped, and silence again filled the room. The music in her head became stilted.
No, no, no. Bring it back. Bring it back.
His torture wasn’t over. As long as she had an escape in her head, she could survive.

New sounds penetrated the silence. A door opened and closed. Footsteps came closer. Was he here, or was this just another new way to terrify her? Lights exploded once more, and she squinted her eyes against the blinding brightness. Blinking away the tears, she saw an image. It was him. He was here. Would he finally free her? It had been hours. Surely her punishment had passed.

He pulled the gag from her mouth. “Have you learned your lesson?” he asked.

She nodded as vigorously as her bindings would allow. She tried to speak, but her throat and mouth were dry from fear and lack of water. She managed a croaking, “Yes, sir.”

“I don’t believe you have.”

For the first time, she realized he held something behind his back. Before she could comprehend, prepare herself, an agony unlike anything she’d ever felt swept through her.

She screamed. Cried. Kicked.
Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Please. Please. No more!

“Riley? Wake up. Riley, it’s me. It’s Justin. Stop struggling, baby. You’re fine. You’re fine.”

She woke, screaming, crying. “It hurts, it hurts.”

“I’ve got you, sweetheart. Nothing’s going to hurt you. I promise.”

She became aware of several things. She was gripping Justin’s shoulders with a finger-numbing clench. He was holding her shivering body against his. And somehow she felt safe, protected.

Breath shuddered from her, and she buried her face against his chest. “Sorry. Nightmare.”

She felt a kiss pressed to her head, and he squeezed her harder. “You’re safe now.”

She nodded. “Yes. Thanks.”

“Want to talk about it?”

Talk about a horror she did her dead level best to never remember?
No. Just no.

She shook her head. “It’s just residual junk. Guess it’s been one of those days that brings out the night monsters.”

“Night monsters?”

Releasing her grip on his shoulders, she lay back against the pillows. Though it was dark in the room and she could see only the silhouette of his head in the shadows, she felt no fear. This was Justin. And though her secrets weren’t ones she could share with him yet, there was no one she trusted more.

“You didn’t have night monsters when you were a kid?”

“You mean like the boogeyman?”

“Yes.”

He laughed a little. “Not really. I was mostly afraid of my dad and his belt.”

“He hurt you?”

“On occasion. I deserved most of it. I was a bratty kid.”

“You?” She gave an exaggerated gasp. “Surely not.”

“Yeah.” She heard the grin in his voice. “Defies all logic, I know.”

“Your parents. They were good to you?”

“Yes. They’re good people. Good parents. Didn’t have a lot of money, but we had love.”

“That’s nice.”

“Riley?”

“Yes.”

“We’ve already established that you can trust me. Right?”

“Yes,” she whispered.
 

“Can I kiss you?”

The question didn’t surprise her. She had known they were heading to this place. Her heart consented before she gave her answer with a soft sighing, “Yes.”

She watched his head lower slowly, the anticipation almost more than she could bear. His mouth touched hers, tender, soft, light. A feather of a kiss. A mere taste on her lips. It was sweet and perfect. She wanted more.

Lifting her hands, she brought him closer to her for a deeper connection. As if understanding what she needed, he licked the seam of her mouth. She opened, and he took control.

Justin groaned beneath his breath. He had meant their first kiss to be a soft, light initiation into exploring each other, their lips becoming acquainted. Riley had a different idea. And though he was on board with giving and taking more, he noted one specific thing. She kissed as if she’d never been kissed before. Unskilled, unpracticed. Riley was always so reserved, but not with this. And while she kissed with innocent passion, Justin’s body throbbed with an unrelenting want. His heart and mind told him to go slow, but his body had a completely different goal. Didn’t matter. He was a man, not a boy. He controlled his urges. Besides, frightening her was the last thing he wanted.
 

Riley apparently had other ideas. Though unskilled she might be, she made up for it with enthusiasm, with generosity. She held nothing back. And like everything Riley tried her hand at, she learned fast.

Groaning again, Justin lifted his head, surprised to find himself breathing hard. He had long since accepted his attraction for Riley and that he wanted her. What he was just now realizing was he wanted more than just a physical relationship with this maddening, indomitable woman.

Unsettled and at a loss for how to adjust to this astonishing revelation, he gave a somewhat standard, albeit sincere, compliment, “You’re so damn beautiful.”
 

Little did he know it was the one thing he never should have said.

He felt the change in her immediately. She’d been pliant, soft in his arms. Now she was stiff, unyielding. “Beauty matters to you?”

“It’s not the most important thing, but it’s part of being attracted to another person.”

“If beauty is what you’re looking for, we have nothing in common after all.”

“You don’t think you’re beautiful?”

“It’s not important to me. Beauty is a shallow, ridiculous premise. It’s not important to me. It apparently is to you.”

Admittedly, it had been a trite thing to say, but never had he considered she might be offended. Reaching over, he flipped on the bedside light. He needed to see her face. Maybe then he could figure out where he’d gone wrong.

She jerked her face away from him. “Let me up.”

“No. Not before we talk this out.”

She wiggled beneath him. “Let me up. Now.”

“Look, I obviously upset you, and I’m sorry. Most women—” He cut off his words, wincing the moment they came out of his mouth. If he’d thought she’d been offended before, the look on her face told him this was even worse.

“If you haven’t already figured it out by now, I’m not most women. Now let me up, dammit.”

Rolling over onto his back, he blew out a sigh of frustration as he watched her disappear into the bathroom. Never in his life had he met a more puzzling, infuriating, and maddening woman. Wasn’t it just too damn bad he was falling in love with her?

The kiss had been a dumbass move on his part. She’d had a violent nightmare. He should’ve held her, consoled her. But no, what did he do? He kissed her. Yeah, she had responded like a wildfire, but that didn’t make him any less of a sleazeball.
 

A few minutes later, she returned to the bedroom. Her mask was firmly in place. He also noted regret and embarrassment in her eyes.
 

Figuring she would grab a pillow and go sleep on the sofa, he was stunned when she switched off the lamplight on the nightstand and then crawled back into bed. He waited until she had settled beside him, then said, “I’m sorry, Riley.”

“There’s nothing to forgive. I just have a few million hang-ups, which I’m sure you’ve already noticed.”

“If I promise to never tell you you’re beautiful again, will you let me hold your hand?”

She gave a small huff of laughter, and he felt her hand on his. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and then heard her breath even out. He wondered if she were sleeping or merely faking it to keep him from asking questions. She didn’t need to worry. He had pressed her too much already. He told her she could take her time and he meant it.

He closed his eyes but it took him a long time to fall back to sleep. He could still hear her screams. The childlike cries of “It hurts!” made him feel physically sick. Who had hurt her? And just where was the son of a bitch now?

Chapter Eight

Drake Hotel

Chicago, Illinois

“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Mr. McCall. I know your time is valuable.”

Noah shut the door of the small conference room, then angled his head slightly, acknowledging the comment. He had been highly anticipating this meeting with William Larson.

After hundreds of interviews over the years, he’d learned to read people. He’d dealt with a sea of humanity across every spectrum. None was perfect. Most of them had good and bad qualities, and he’d learned over time that, for the most part, the good outweighed the bad. Because he saw many of them at their absolute lowest point, he tried not to judge too harshly.

And then there were those who he knew immediately were pure evil without a hint of real humanity. The moment he met William Larson, he knew his instincts had not failed him. William Larson was one of those people.

“I’m a little surprised we’re meeting at a hotel. I thought we might meet at an office. I am assuming you do have one?”

Yes, he had an office, in another city, but not one this asshole would ever see.
 

“I meet all prospective clients at a hotel.” Noah didn’t bother to explain why.

“I see… Well, nevertheless, thank you for seeing me. As you might imagine, we’ve used every resource available to find our little girl. Her mother and I refuse to believe she’s lost to us.”

“Little girl? When we talked on the phone, I understood she was a grown woman.”

“Oh, she is. It’s just…” A self-conscious, ingratiating smile slid like an oil spill across Larson’s mouth. “Do you have children, Mr. McCall?”

“I don’t share that kind of personal information.”

“Oh…of course. I understand. I was just trying to explain that when you have children, no matter how old they get or how far they roam, they’ll always be your babies.”

He pulled a slender wallet from the inside of his jacket. Like any proud, doting father, he withdrew a photograph and slid it across the coffee table toward Noah. “She was our pride and joy. So sweet, so smart and talented. We miss her so.”

Noah took the photograph, thinking most people’s photos of their kids were on their phone these days. He dropped his gaze and took in the image of Jessica Larson. Grateful for his ability to hide all emotion, he said, “What age is she here?”

“Almost eighteen.”

“You said she disappeared when she was twenty-one. You don’t have anything more recent?”

“No. We—” Another slick smile, this time tinged with grief. “I’m ashamed to say we were angry with her for years, believing she just ran away. That anger made us do the unthinkable. We destroyed almost all of her photographs.”

Bullshit
.

“And you no longer think she ran away?”

“We’re still not sure, Mr. McCall, but time has softened our anger. What we want more than anything is to be reunited with our precious girl.”

“I’m surprised your wife didn’t come with you.”

“Loretta’s not well. I’m afraid the trip might have been too much of a strain. Besides, she needed to stay behind with Keira.”

 
“And Keira is?”

“She’s our other daughter. We adopted her a few years ago.”