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So the thought that I had missed vital information because I was in the john holding my dick in my hand was unthinkable. But by the looks of it, I hadn’t missed a goddamn thing. Not only hadn’t I missed anything, but it looked like the show was just about to start. Because when my dad moved his head, the monitor came clearly into view. I watched with my mouth hanging open at the sight of Betty Owens careening up the security road in a Black Lexus SUV. The large vehicle kicked up enough dust to blur the monitors as she sped her way through every security camera that there was.
When Betty had come home to find her house turned upside down, blood all over the floor and Liddy missing, her first instinct had been to call the local authorities. But her second had been to call Deke. She had been frantic and worried and hysterical, and as the minutes turned into hours and the hours turned into days, she had gotten worse. Of course, the local dumbass cops had turned up nothing. And Deke hadn’t even bothered to ask where Henry was.
To support Betty so she didn’t lose her mind, Deke had arranged for a couple of our guys from a nearby chapter to sit with her and run interference for us. Those men, whose outward purpose was to provide safety and support to a frantic woman whose niece had gone missing, were actually there to keep Betty Owens out of the way. Although none of us thought that there was a rat’s chance in hell that Liddy would show up at the kitchen door one bright clear morning, that was the excuse that we had used to keep Betty where she was. We told her that we needed her to stay put for Liddy’s sake.
But Betty’s patience had its limits and she had reached that in spades. Honestly, I was amazed that she had made it as long as she had.
Yesterday Betty called Deke to let him know that if he wasn’t gonna do shit to find her niece then she was going to have to step right in. That prompted a whole lot of arguing, yelling, and threatening on both sides of the conversation. The end result was Deke throwing his cell phone across the room. Hours later that whole intense as hell phone conversation had been followed up by another frantic call. Only this time it was from a couple of the brothers who were worried they were going to lose their patch. This worry stemmed from the fact that Betty Owens had managed to escape their watchful eye. And she had done this by holding them at gunpoint and locking them in her basement.
While we all had a pretty good idea that she was headed our way, it was one thing to think it and another to see it.
“Let her through.” I pressed down the intercom system and had the men open the gates as I watched them jump out of her way. Betty Owens hadn’t even come close to taking her foot off the gas pedal as she approached the gates. She was here and she wanted answers and I didn’t blame her. Not in the least.
If I hadn’t been standing side by side with Jules Bonny every goddamn day while he turned over every stone, leaf, and goddamn nuclear missile to find Liddy, I wouldn’t have believed it myself. Liddy had just disappeared…vanished into air so thin it seemed non-existent. We had been at this almost a week now and still nothing. And with that nothing came the thought that sat on the fringes of my mind, the horrible unspeakable, terror-filled thought that Liddy was lost to a fate that we might never know. That, Liddy with her crazy hair, and crooked smile was just gone. That the love of my whole damn life was just gone.
Just. Gone.
The only thing that stopped me from going insane, from taking the crazy train and arriving at a place where I would sit drooling in a chair and staring out the goddamn window for the rest of my days was that Liddy was out there somewhere and waiting for me to find her.
Liddy
After the incident with Harelip, we all took turns doing guard duty. One of us stayed awake at night and watched the cell door. We did it in rotations so that we would never be caught off guard again.
But just as we had settled into this new routine, another threat came knocking at the door.
The weapons guy had started to come into the cell once a day and take us out one by one. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for his choices. We didn’t know who he was going to pick next or where he was taking us. That not knowing, that seemingly random choice, had added another layer of deep horror to our already terrifying existence. It was more than any of us could bear, and at times I thought I was going to lose my mind. Others had begun to lose theirs. I could see it. Leta, the already tiny blonde with the pink ombre, had stopped eating. Kael, the brunette with the rosary tattoo on her ankle, spent most of her days praying with her head bent to the floor. Kuai-Mai, the Asian girl in the corner, could not stop crying.
And I had started to hallucinate.
Sometimes I would hear him calling my name, other times, he would be sitting in the shadows of the cell just staring at me with those piercing eyes. Then there were the moments when Kid would reach out for me. Those moments were the hardest because when I reached back…just before our hands would touch…he would disappear. And those times left me feeling lost, more bereft and more alone than ever. I started to hate those visions of Kid that brought only disappointment and yearning and unanswered questions. I thought that he would have found me by now. I wondered why he hadn’t.
And I was afraid that time was running out. I trembled at the thought that the next time it would be me. That the next time that cage door opened, it would be me that would be taken. It would be me who would disappear forever.
I didn’t want that to happen. I didn’t want any of this to be happening. I didn’t want myself or these poor brave women to disappear without a trace. Despite the language barriers, we had managed to learn each other’s first names, but I knew that remembering them in the days to come would be a whole other challenge. And it had occurred to me that we should keep track, that there should be some kind of record of who we were. There had to be families out looking for these women just like I knew mine was out there looking for me. We had nothing to write with, so I started collecting things from the women. They seemed to understand what my intention was, and they gave me what they had that might identify them later on. I collected a small pile of earrings, necklaces, and rings. Using the post of an earring we pricked our fingers and dotted napkins with our blood. We pulled out strands of hair and added those to the little pile. Then I put all of those things in a napkin and kept them in my pocket. It wasn’t much but it was something.
One by one. He came to take us out. We never knew who or when or even why.
We only knew that we had slowly begun to disappear.
Kid
“Betty.” Deke put up his hand as if he was warding off the devil. “Don’t fucking start with me.”
She stood there in the archway of the open door and glared at my father.
“Don’t you start withme.” She shot back. “I couldn’t get a direct flight soon enough, so I drove straight through. It’s been three days on the road, and I stink to holy hell, I’m starving, and I need a whole week’s worth of sleep. But I’m gonna settle for a pot of hot coffee and a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches. I’m going to Liddy’s trailer now to put my things away. I’ll be back in just as long as it takes to pee, shower, and change out of these disgusting clothes.”
“Take your time.” Deke narrowed his eyes at her.
“I’ll be back in forty five minutes including the time it takes to drive back and forth.” She said. “Make sure the coffee is hot, and don’t forget the mustard.”
And then she was gone.
It took Betty a little longer to get back. Two minutes and thirty seconds longer to be exact. While Deke crossed his big arms and glowered in the corner of the room, I made sure that there was a whole pot of fresh brew and a big tray of ham and cheese with mustard waiting on the table. I had even thrown in some cookies and a family-size bag of chips for good measure. Because Deke could bitch and moan and complain all he wanted about Betty, but I was glad she was with us. Betty Owens was quick-minded, smart, full of surprises, and had loved Liddy before anyone else ever did. If there was anyone who could help us find Liddy now, my bet was on Miss Betty.
“There’s a whole lot I could say right now. To the both of you.” Betty stood at the head of the table. Her hair was wet,her clothes were haphazard, and her eyes were swollen and bloodshot. There were dark smudges under her eyes and her cheekbones were so hollow you could drive a truck through them. If distress was a picture, it would look like Betty Owens. But her spine was ramrod straight and her voice was clear when she said, “There’ll be plenty of time for blame and recriminations once we find my girl. So, as much as I would love to raise holy hell right now and shoot the both of you in the face, all of that is just going to have to wait. I understand that. I also understand that no matter what the events were that brought Liddy to these disturbing circumstances, you are doing your damn best, your very best to find her. I appreciate and acknowledge that. And I’m not saying your best isn’t good enough. I’m saying you haven’t found her. And if with all your resources you haven’t found her, then I have got to think that you’ve missed something. And that’s why I’m here… to help you find what you’ve missed.”
When Deke murmured something uncomplimentary about Betty’s skill set underneath his breath, she was on him like white on rice. “If I can be civil to you, Deke Harding, at a time like this when you know my insides are churning like a butter maker, then you can sure as hell be civil to me. Keep your goddamn attitude to yourself, and maybe you can learn a few things, you arrogant ass.”
