Page 63 of Love in Sight

Thirty-Three

Ifinally have my girl. It’s been nine long years leading up to this moment, but it’s finally happening. Keeping my arms wrapped around her, I inhale her sweet cherry scent. She smells so fucking delicious. Once I tell her everything, we can go back to being together. We can pick up where we left off.

She’s even more beautiful now than she was nine years ago. She’s changed a lot since then, but so have I. We barely look the same, so I guess I can understand her not remembering me. I thought when she heard my first name she would know who I was immediately, but it’s just taken my baby more time to remember. I’m sure she’s been through a lot over the years. Maybe lost some of her memories, maybe the trauma pushed the good memories of us out of her head. Whatever it is, I’ll make sure she remembers all of our time together.

Nine years ago, I fell in love with a beautiful girl. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with her, but it was inevitable. She was the light to my darkness, the one to bring me back when I was falling deeper into the pits of hell.

Lainey was one of the girls my dad had taken for his “operation.” Richard Nash, the evil dick he was, ran an illegal human trafficking operation that he covered up with his accounting business. He would steal young girls, take them to his warehouses, and “train” them to be proper sex slaves to be sold to the highest bidder weeks later. When Lainey was taken, it was the first time my father had brought me into the business. He wanted to make a man out of me at the ripe age of thirteen. It was in that warehouse that I found the gorgeous creature that I get to call my girl.

My life is complete now that she’s finally in my arms again.

“Greyson, please tell me. I can’t remember much.” Blaze’s voice is soft and inquisitive. What happened to her when she was sold to make her forget everything? “I try to block those memories out, because of how painful they are. Please remind me, please tell me about us.” I can hear the pain in her voice. This girl has been through so much in her life, she really is a fighter.

“When I first saw you, I knew you would be the love of my life. You were so strong, had so much fight in you, but you were also kind and smart. I loved it, but my father hated it. Every time he tried to teach you to be submissive, you would give him hell. He always made me watch him punish you and it tore me up inside not being able to stop him. Every time he laid a greedy hand on you, I wanted to fucking cut it off. I despised him with my whole being. It killed me seeing you hurt, but you always told me you understood, that you didn’t blame me. You knew that my father would kill us both if he knew how much I loved you.”

Tears swell in my eyes thinking about all of the torture my father put her through. It’s no wonder she doesn’t remember, it’s hard enough for me to think about and I wasn’t even in her position. “You were the only person who didn’t look at me like you hated the fact that I was alive. You didn’t look at me like I was the devil I know I am. No matter how much pain you were put through, you never stopped fighting. Eventually, my dad realized my feelings for you. That’s when he sold you. I tried to stop him, I tried to find out who bought you but it was impossible.” Tears are rolling down my face now. I’m sure I look so weak to her, but I can’t stop it. I finally have my Lainey.

“As I got older, I realized I wouldn’t be able to find you on my own. I needed to get access to my father’s records, but he was a snake. He was basically uncrackable, always keeping secrets from me even though he wanted me to take over for him someday.” Her eyes are locked on me so intently that I don’t think she’s blinked for the last five minutes. She just sits there staring at me and wringing her hands in her lap. Her skin is pale, like she’s seen a ghost.

It reminds me of how she looked the day my father sold her. Sickly and deathlike. She had been our captive for almost two months so she could be trained, and never once did she see the sunlight during that time. She was already small, but she lost so much weight during that time. The first three days she was at the warehouse, she refused to eat. She just pushed it all away, being the stubborn girl she is.

“Keep going, please. I need to know.” Her voice is soft, I can barely hear her. I can see the tears ready to break free from her eyes. She’s breaking from these memories, but I need to tell her. If we’re going to move forward with our lives together, she deserves the truth. I just hope she isn’t disgusted with me when she finds out what I’ve done. What I’ve done for her, for us. No matter what, I won’t let her leave. She won’t slip through my fingers again. She may hate me after she knows, but she will grow to love me again. I know it. If she loved me once, she can love me again.

“I asked my father to tell me what happened to you, but he refused every time. I had to bide my time. I needed to play my cards right. I knew I was going to end my father for all the shit he’d put me through, but I had to plan first. I thought about him dying by my hand since the day he sold you. That might make me evil and disgusting, but I don’t care, I had to get revenge for you.” I can feel her body tense beside me. “Please don’t be scared baby, I did this all for us. Please remember that.” She just nods her head with a blank stare, not saying a word.

“One night, it was just me and my father at one of the old warehouses. He was working on moving the business to an online forum and through the high end clubs across the country. We were doing a final sweep of the warehouses to make sure all evidence of the children was erased. My father was a control freak who never trusted anyone to get the job done correctly, so he took me with him to make sure it was clear.

“It was the perfect opportunity for me to get the answers I was looking for. I knocked my father out and tied him to a chair. When he finally woke up, I pleaded and begged him to give me answers on how to find you. He was a stubborn asshole so I had to play his own games against him. I tortured him for hours on hours that night. Slicing his legs, beating him with my fists, I even ripped off his fingernails, but he wouldn’t budge. He kept passing out from pain and waking up ready to do it all over again. Every cut I made on his body brought me so much satisfaction. Each time I carved the blade into his skin, it felt like retribution for all of the abuse he put us through. One slice for me, one slice for you, every single time. As the blood soaked the concrete floor, I could feel myself becoming stronger, becoming the person I wanted to be without him holding me back.” I feel myself getting lost in the memories of killing my father. The echoes of the last gasps of air and the sheer panic in his eyes, as his blood painted a serene picture on the ground.

“Right before I sliced his throat, ending his life, he finally gave me a name. After he uttered those magical words, I got rid of him for good. The relief I felt consumed me. I was no longer bound by the chains my father linked me to. I was free and I was ready to find my girl. I’d always known someday I would kill him for all of the terrible things he did, I just never quite knew when would be the tipping point. I had to do it for you, for me... For us. If I ever found you, you needed to know I would do anything for you, including killing the only real family member I had left. You are my life, Lainey, and anyone who tries to ruin that must go.”

I bring my thumb up to caress her cheek, but she flinches at the touch. “Lainey, I’m still the same man. I would never hurt you. I had to kill him, I had to do it for us. Let me finish and then we can figure things out.” She doesn’t say anything. She stays still though, so I take it as my invitation to keep going.

“Once I had the name, I searched as well as I could to track him, but he was impossible to find. I have computer skills, but I needed better ones. That’s where Brandon came into play.” Her gaze becomes heated, filled with hatred. “I needed access to the dark web and I didn’t have those skills, so I found Brandon and paid him well. After months of searching, he told me he couldn’t find any trace of the man who bought you. I figured if the best of the best couldn’t find this guy, my father must have lied to me. He gave me a fake name and couldn’t even be honest with me in his dying moments. That bastard couldn’t give me the only thing that mattered to me in this world.”

“Where is Brandon now? When exactly did he start working for you? Did you know it was him who was threatening me? Did you let him?” she questions impatiently. If she would just give me a moment, I will get to all of that. She will see that he created his own downfall by going after her.

“I will get there, Blaze, but let me finish. Brandon said he couldn’t find the guy so it was impossible to find you. I was spiraling out of control. I was drinking myself to death, ready to end it all if I couldn’t be with you. I didn’t have anything left to live for. Even though I hated my scumbag father, I decided to keep his operations going. I needed to draw out the guy that took you and I hoped he would come back for another girl once you got too old for him.”

“You’re still trafficking girls?!” She scoots away from me on the bed, trying to put as much distance as she can between us. She’s looking at me like I am the dirt on the bottom of her shoe. My heart is cracking from the disgust in her eyes. She doesn’t get it. She doesn’t understand my need to find her.

“Lainey, I couldn’t give up on you. I had to find you and it was my only way. If Brandon couldn’t find you on the dark web, I just had to hope the guy would come back again. I never wanted to do it, but if it meant finding you, I was willing to do anything. I stopped it all once I actually had the meeting with you. Once I found you, I put an end to it.” Her chest is rising up and down as she glares at me.

“Eventually, Brandon said he had good news. He told me he’d found you. I didn’t believe him at first. I thought he was just trying to get me out of the haze I was living in, but when he showed me your picture, I knew it was you. I have no idea how you escaped that bastard who bought you and how you’ve stayed off of his radar, but it was a miracle that I gladly took. It was like the heavens opened up and answered all of my prayers. Brandon decided to take a job at VPAC to confirm it really was you. Then eventually, I came into the office pretending to need your help. I knew I could make an app on my own, but it was my way in. The only way to get close to you. That’s when I had Brandon make sure you couldn’t find anything damning about me on the web. I needed you to trust me.” I feel like my heart is going to explode from telling her all of these things. I have been dying trying to keep it all from her, but no more secrets. We will never have to hide again.

“The closer we got, the more I felt whole again. The missing piece of my heart was back. Your hair was different, but I knew it was you. When I found out Brandon kidnapped you, tried to kill you, I could only see red. The guy who was supposed to help me find you tried to take you from me. He tried to keep us apart. I could no longer trust him if he would do something like that to me. So I got rid of him. He needed to pay for hurting the most precious thing in my life.

“He begged and begged for me to spare his life, claiming how much he loved me, but if he loved me he wouldn’t have hurt me like that. Brandon said he was just doing what was best for me and him to move on with our lives. I always knew he felt close to me, but I never saw him as anything more than a brother. He let his infatuation with me cloud his judgment, and because of that he created his own downfall. Seeing you bloodied and bruised running out of that building enraged me. No one gets to lay their hands on you but me. This body is mine. This heart is mine. This soul is mine. You are mine and mine only. The moment you said it was Brandon who hurt you, all I could see were visions of me cutting him apart limb from limb to pay for what he did. After I dropped you off, I went back to his place to confront him. I took him to the same woods that I took you to and let him scream for mercy. There simply was no other way—Brandon needed to die, otherwise he would have kept trying to keep us apart.”

“You killed him? When, when did you do it?” Her voice is cold. She’s looking at me like she doesn’t know me anymore. I am barely holding it together right now. I’m about to fucking crack. The way she looks at me lets me know she’s going to leave me. She can’t leave.

“Blaze, I think that’s enough for the night. It’s been a long day, I’ll tell you the rest in the morning. Now go to bed.” I lean into her, placing a soft kiss against her lips. To my surprise, she kisses me back. I can taste her salty tears as they stream down her face. Standing up, I head back to the door getting ready to leave.

“Greyson, please. Please don’t leave me alone. I need you. Stay with me, please.” Her voice is so soft, I question whether or not I made it up. As I turn around, I see her looking at me with glassy eyes. Her arm is stretched out, begging me to come to her. Not wanting to disappoint my girl, I go back. “Please sleep with me tonight. I don’t want to be alone.”

I can’t just leave her here when she is looking at me like that—like she needs me.

Deciding that I’ll stay, I make sure to lock the door and stow the keys in my pocket so she can’t leave while we sleep. The good thing about this old house is that you can lock the door from both sides with the old keyholes. The skeleton key allows you to lock the door on either side, something modern doors don’t give you the luxury of doing. I know a locked door won't completely stop her, but it will at least slow her down if she tries to leave me.

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