Nearly Broken (29 page)

A putrid stench burned
the lining of my nostrils and chest, scratching so intensely my lungs
jerked into hyperdrive, snapping me from a dead sleep. I batted at
the source, a hand in front of me, before keeling over in a coughing
fit. The room was so dark I could barely make out shapes, and my head
felt incredibly dizzy even trying to.

“Get your crying
done now because we have a lot to discuss.”

Groggily, I tried to
lift my head, but it strained my neck. I felt drugged, and the side
of my head ached, like something hard had been cracked against it.
And for some weird reason, my burns were really stinging too.

NICK! Oh, my God,
Nick! Please be alive, please be alive…

Practically
choking on the words, I begged, “Nick! What happened to Nick?
Is he alive?”

“Who cares?”
he replied callously. “Either way, you’ll never see him
again.”

The only light
came from the hallway, but I could still make out the shape of the
syringe in his hands. I didn’t want to go down the path of
drugs. Not again. I skittered backwards awkwardly, my arms stopping
short, jerked back by an invisible force. I yanked several times,
finding the resistance again and again.
Oh, my God, he had my
wrists tied down to something and I was already out of slack!
“No!” I cried out at him. “Leave me alone!”

“What? This?”
he asked, waving the syringe in the air. “I’ve already
given it to you, love.”

I gasped, my hand
going to the outside of my upper left arm, where I could now sense
the prick clear as day.
Oh, no, oh, no, no, no, no, no!
I
wasn’t supposed to be here! I was supposed to fight my way out
long before he got me here! And I certainly wasn’t supposed to
let myself get drugged again!

He left without saying
another word, turning off the light in the hallway, leaving me in
complete darkness. I couldn’t breathe. What air I managed to
force down burned with each inhalation, like the rawness of fresh
scratches. I was so overwhelmed every muscle in my body strained, my
heart literally feeling as if it was being peeled apart fiber by
fiber. I couldn’t believe I was stuck here. Trapped like a
fucking rat all over again.

I could already feel
the drug taking effect. I was getting sleepy, but what really stood
out was the pain beginning to numb. My head was groggy, but it wasn’t
because of the spot that hurt when I touched it, and my burns weren’t
stinging as much anymore.
Why were my burns even stinging in the
first place?
My tongue was beginning to feel funky, heavy. I
wanted, no
needed
, to get out of here. I needed to find Nick.
Help Nick. Please say someone found him in time, that he didn’t
just bleed out in the garage, cold and all alone. My eyes already
stinging, tears began to drip steadily at the thought of losing him.
Please, God. Save him. He doesn’t deserve to die because of
me. Not for me…

If this psycho thought
I was going to just shut up and take it, he had another thing coming.
There was a good chance Nick was still alive, and I
wasn’t
going to live my life without him.

Soft hands gently
nudged me on my shoulder until I responded.
Soft
hands.
Slowly, my eyes assessed my shoulder now that a lamp was on in the
far corner. The dress I had been wearing was replaced with something
that had a thin, silky strap in a pink hue.

The hand had a woman’s
fingertips. My body aching, I pushed myself up to a sitting position,
my cheek raw from carpet burn. A girl around my age sat before me, a
shiny slip covering her thin frame. Her hair was blonde, but not
naturally, as her roots hadn’t been done in quite some time.
She had pale eyes, maybe blue, and stared like she saw right through
me.

There was something
unnatural about her. She had this weird expression on her face, like
she felt nothing. “Can you help me?” I whispered. Her
head twisted and she cupped a bowl off the floor with both hands,
holding it up to me. It was weird the way she was looking at me, and
I began to wonder if this was what I was meant to be. “Are you
in there? Or are you broken?”

“Broken?”
he said from the doorway, where he leaned against the frame watching
us in amusement. “That’s an interesting word for it.”

Seeing him immediately
brought Nick to the forefront of my mind. “Where’s Nick?”
I dared to ask, fearing the worst to be true.

“Hell if I know.
But seeing as how I’ve had you unconscious for the past three
days, he could be six feet under by now.”

Three days!
I
didn’t know what the hell I was thinking, but his lack of tact
just pissed me off! All the anger that seeped its way into me at the
garage appeared in full force again, and before I even thought about
my actions, I jumped to my feet. He didn’t flinch, knowing what
I didn’t; that the resistance attached to my wrists gave me
very little slack. Just as well; rushing him would be the stupidest
thing ever – though my anger was screaming to let it have a go
regardless of the beat down I’d surely get in return.

How the hell did I
get myself into this mess again?
I screamed my frustration at the
binds that held me, yanking and pulling so hard my wrists began to
burn. When I finally admitted defeat, my breaths remained heavy until
I calmed. And it didn’t help that I wanted to rip that fucking
smile off his face as he watched my every struggle.

Finally looking down
at my hands, I saw leather wrapped around my reddened wrists, a key
needed to unlock the tight straps. The silver chain attached to the
leather threaded through a ring in the floor in both directions,
looping upwards, disappearing into the ceiling for some type of
pulley mechanism. The pink slip I wore looked very similar to the one
the other girl wore.

My eyes couldn’t
keep from assessing my surroundings, noting I was in some type of
bedroom, nothing like the one I was kept in last time. This one had a
queen-sized bed and large bathroom, a TV with a digital box, and a
large chair with an ottoman next to a bookcase filled with books. But
somehow I doubted that girl ever read any of them.

He slowly stepped into
the room, sitting on the edge of the bed, far out of my reach. “Now,
if you’ve gotten
that
out of your system, you should eat
the soup Veronica made you. It’d be rude not to.”

Rude?
He had
the nerve to lecture me about being rude?

“You didn’t
have to shoot him,” I snapped. “I would’ve let you
take me to keep him safe.” I actually meant those words. I’d
do anything for Nick, even if it meant captivity. Even if it meant I
was right where I was – though I was sure Nick would say the
same thing about taking that shot if it meant keeping me free. I
shook my head defiantly at him, threatening, “And if you killed
him–”

“You’ll
what?” he threatened as he rose to his feet. “You killed
my brother!” He seemed surprised by the explosion, catching
himself before he could advance another step towards me, his fists
tightening. And I found his behavior completely bizarre for a guy who
kept sex slaves. His brother Charles would have beaten me senseless
had I used that tone with him. With a calmer voice, he continued, “He
may have been a complete asshole who I didn’t get along with
that well, but he was still my blood. Personally, I hope that shot
was
enough to give your boyfriend the painful death you gave
Charles. Eye for an eye, I say.” It amazed me how he could say
that so nonchalantly, like it took nothing for him to pull the
trigger.

Fucking bastard. With
a slow voice, I asked, “How did you find me?”

“Sit down and
eat the soup.” The tone he used told me he wasn’t asking,
and that refusing his demand would end poorly for me, no matter the
restraint he seemed to be using. Seeing as I was already chained and
considerably weaker, I chose not to fight this particular battle. If
he wanted me dead already, he would’ve put that gun to my head
in the parking lot or let me overdose on whatever drug he shot me up
with, so at least I knew the soup wasn’t poisoned. And it was
the fact that he wanted me alive that made me a little more
courageous than I should’ve been while chained to his floor.

I looked down to the
girl. She was still offering the bowl to me, holding it up in the air
where I last saw it. Disturbed, I sat down beside her and she moved
to feed me, holding out a full spoon’s worth. Cautiously, I
leaned forward and took in the soup. Chicken noodle, heavy on the
noodle. She continued to feed me, her movement acknowledging my
presence, but I swear she never really
saw
me.

What was wrong with
this girl?

Sitting down again, he
said, “To answer your question, it’s the damndest thing
finding you after all this time. A little bird within the police
department told me my name popped up on an investigation as a person
of interest. Turns out that accusation came from you. And wouldn’t
you know, they kept your personal information on the electronic file.
Name and address right there for the taking.”

My entire body
slackened and I left the current spoonful hanging. All I did was
point out a few faces. Nothing concrete.
And he knew.
He had
people on the inside looking out for him, when they should have been
looking out for people like me and this poor girl! A fury of guilt
rushed through my chest. It was all my fault. If I had just shut my
trap and told those detectives to go to hell, I never would’ve
given them names, never would’ve given this psychopath my
whereabouts. Nick would’ve never been shot and I wouldn’t
have been forced into this guy’s SUV.

“Don’t
worry,” he added, interrupting my stupor. “My name’s
fallen off that record like it never existed to begin with. I should
thank you, really. It all worked out pretty well in the end, don’t
you think?”

God, I wanted to smack
him, or better yet, stab him. But I held my tongue. Veronica’s
hand swayed forward and left the spoon at the tip of my mouth. She
didn’t look like she was going to go anywhere with it, so I
accepted it.

He leaned forward and
put the weight of his upper body on his thighs. “You know, for
the longest time I was really pissed about what happened to my
brother. But there was nothing I could do about it without drawing
attention to myself. Any information he had about your previous life
went up in flames. I didn’t even know your real name. So thank
you,” he said with a wry smile. “Had you not spoken with
the police, I never would’ve known who you were or where to
find you.”

My stomach suddenly
felt ten pounds heavier, acid erupting and splashing against the
bottom of my esophagus, threatening to eat away my insides. I knew
this, but hearing the words come out of his mouth made it so much
worse. Veronica prodded with her spoon again and I put my hand before
my face. “Please. No more,” I told her.

“Eat,” he
said firmly.

I shook my head,
pinching my lips. “It’s already trying to come back up.”
I wrapped my arms around me and leaned forward, trying to breathe
slowly to keep from upchucking all over the girl who was deadened
inside.

“Veronica,”
he said. “Take the soup back to the kitchen, then come back.”
She did what he instructed without hesitation.

All I could think as I
rocked back and forth, was that I did this to myself. We could still
be off the radar and sleeping in one another’s arms right now.
“Oh, my God…” I whined with closed eyes, my
stomach pulsating like it was a freaking stress ball being squeezed
repeatedly.

“How did you get
away from Charles?”

I slowly looked up,
licking my lips and swallowing the lump trying to rise from my
stomach. I wasn’t sure I should really tell him, but seeing as
how he’d once cut me up for fun, I knew I was better off
talking to him rather than pissing him off.
Self-preservation,
Megan. You’re not dead yet. Just because he hasn’t killed
you yet, doesn’t mean he won’t. Be thankful he only wants
to talk right now.

But I also feared
telling him, as I did kill his brother. With a shaky voice, I quietly
admitted, “I knocked him out with the vent cover.”

His forehead furrowed
and my heart jumped at the fear of pissing him off. “The one in
your room? You got to that while you were drugged?”

I nodded, laying my
head on my knees again. It just occurred to me that I wasn’t
wearing any underwear, and I quickly wrapped my arms around my thighs
in an attempt to cover myself. Stupid, really, since he was probably
the one who dressed me to begin with.

“Impressive,”
he added. I thought I caught a hint of amusement, but since we were
talking about his dead brother, I refused to take the bait. Veronica
returned to the room and sat beside him on the bed. He began petting
her, stroking her back, leading her to close her eyes in comfort.
What the hell was wrong with her?