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Sliding my key into the lock, my first indication something was wrong was when the key turned freely in the lock, signaling it wasn’t locked in the first place.
Was she up already?
Pushing open the door, I closed it quietly behind me and left it unlocked since I would be exiting it later.
As I walked through the house, I got an even worse feeling. The closer I got to the bedroom, the worse the feeling became.
The second indication something was wrong was the bedclothes that were on the floor.
A snippet of a conversation between Matilda and me from a few days after she’d moved in with me came to mind.
Bedding hits the floor, it has to be washed. Because when it hits the floor, it collects dirt. And the moment I feel dirt in the bed, I can’t sleep. Then I’ll be up all night, and it’s just a bad time. Please do me a favor and try to keep it off the floor, so I don’t have to wash it.
From that point forward, I’d done my best to keep it off the floor. If it hit the floor, it hit the wash.
Because I didn’t want her to stay up all night overthinking. If I could make life easier for her, I would. Especially if it was as simple as not pushing my sheets to the floor when I got up.
Knowing we’d just changed the sheets two days ago, I knew that bedding shouldn’t be on the floor.
The feeling grew. And grew.
“Matilda?” I called loudly.
A sound. Faint.
I turned swiftly and found the source of the sound in seconds.
Yanking open the closet door, I found her on the floor, hands and knees bound, eyes red from crying.
Before I could think better of it, I yanked the tape off her mouth and grasped her face.
Before I could get out the “what happened” from my lips, her eyes went wide and she screamed, “Behind you!”
I whirled just in time to see a baseball bat heading for my head. I jerked, put out my arm, and pushed the attacker away with a rough shove.
Ellen went backward, fell into the bed, and bounced back up.
I moved fast, though, and she must’ve not been expecting it.
In the years that I’d been in prison, I’d learned a few things about attacks.
And Ellen didn’t have any skills.
With a quick jerk of my arm, I reared back and punched her directly in the face as she was coming down with the bat. The bat hit the floor first. Then her unconscious body.
After I made sure she wouldn’t be getting up, I turned back to find Matilda standing up, her knees and her ankles taped, but her hands nearly unstuck.
She’d just gotten the last bit broken off when she saw me staring at her.
“I know this is probably the worst time to admit this, but I liked the feeling of my ankles and knees taped together. It made me feel really secure. Like a weighted blanket was on top of me. That’s weird to think, right?” she asked.
I shook my head, the smile already popping out. “No, you can’t help the way you feel. If it makes you feel secure, it makes you feel secure.”
I moved until she was in my arms and squeezed.
“Not that I’m complaining that you’re back,” she said into my shirt. “But why are you back?”
I squeezed harder. “Because I had this really bad feeling. And I forgot my phone.”
She burst out laughing.
I pulled her away from me, set her down on the bed next to where Ellen’s unconscious body was sprawled on the floor, and started on the tape.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you?”
She was already shaking her head. “I mean, technically, probably yeah. But the problem is, I don’t remember a thing. One second I was sleeping, and the next, I woke up with my hands and feet duct taped and I was in the closet.”
So she had a bunch of nothing.
Son of a bitch.
I pulled out my phone and dialed Sunny’s personal number. He answered within two rings.
“If this has to do with your almost stepmother-in-law bailing out your almost brothers-in-law, I have nothing to do with it. Judge set bail,” Sunny said instead of greeting me.
I wished that was what it was about.
I sighed. “I’d love to say this call is about that, but it’s not. I didn’t even know they were out on bail until you told me.” I blew out a rough breath. “I came home because I forgot my phone to find Mattie tied up in the closet. When I went to help her get the duct tape off her face, my ex-employee came at me with a bat. I punched her in the face and she’s unconscious in my room.”
There was a lengthy pause and then, “What the hell is wrong with people?”
