Predator - A Stand Alone Suspense Romance (8 page)

I follow Damian and the girl into the motel room, and I close the door behind us.

He doesn’t take her to the bathroom like he did with me. Instead he sets her gently down on one of the beds.

Maybe I’m just not remembering it all, I start to defend him, but then that little voice that likes to cause pain pops up and sneers at me, ‘Y
ou’re nothing, just another job. Nothing but a mess he has to clean up.’

“Get me the towels from the bathroom. Wet one for me,” he snaps and I stare at him for a second before I’m able to make my legs to move.

I walk into the bathroom and grab the bath towel, throwing it over my shoulder. I hold the hand towel under the water until it runs hot. I wring it out as best I can before I go back to Damian.

He’s sitting down and her head is resting on his thigh. There’s a stabbing sensation in my chest. I shove it away and hand him the wet towel first. I take four steps back when he starts to wipe at her face, removing the excess blood. She flinches away and he pauses. He leans over her as if to shield her with his body.

“Shhh … everything’s gonna be just fine, Sweetheart,” he repeats his words of earlier.

I stand as if entranced and watch as he cleans her and only when he’s done does he look up at me.

“Please hand me the towel.” He gives me a sharp look. “You can lie down; they’ll come get her in the morning.”

I give him the towel and move back until I feel the other bed hit the back of my legs. I slump down on it and scoot back until I feel the wall press against my back.

I watch him hold her and repeat the words over and over. Words I now know with a desperate certainty he never said to me.

I wake up with a start to loud knocking. I can’t believe I fell asleep. Although I slept in a sitting position, I still slept through the night. Damian is already halfway to the door by the time I realize that the knocking is coming from there. He peeks through the curtain and then opens the door. An older man almost falls into the room, and I scramble to get to the corner. I squash my knees to my chest and try to make myself as small as I can.

Damian comes to stand right in front of me. It looks like a casual move, but I can’t see the man now and that means he can’t see me.

“My sweetheart,” the man coos at the girl.

Tears burn in my eyes at the emotion weighing heavy in the room.

“Daddy?” Her voice sounds broken and I press my mouth against my knees to keep from crying.

“Everything’s going to be just fine, Sweetheart,” he repeats Damian’s words to her and she starts to cry, relieved, heartfelt sobs.

It feels like something just died in me. I’m not sure what it was, but I feel lost without it.

I don’t realize I’m rocking myself until Damian touches my shoulder. The man left with his daughter and it’s just the two of us again.

“Cara,” his voice is neutral again and I press my face into my arms. “We have to go right now,” he says as if it should matter to me.

“No one came for me,” I whisper to my legs. My breath is hot on my thighs.

“Cara, look at me.” I don’t, not until his hands clamp down hard on my shoulders and he pulls me up against him. His face is inches from mine and his breath is hot on my skin.

His eyes seize mine. “I came for you.” His voice is filled with emotions I have never heard before. “I came for you,” he says again and this time his voice is gravelly, filled with an emotion I can’t place.

He presses me hard to his chest and his arms are like steel bands, clamping me to him. I breathe him in and I get lungs full of sweat and blood. I breathe in the scent that’s Damian.

He doesn’t hold me for long but it’s still comforting. He steps away and starts to clean the room and bathroom. I start to strip the beds the same way he did back at the motel we stayed in. I can’t comprehend everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.

Once we’re in the car, he looks at me. Okay, it’s more like a two minute stare. At first I used to look away but now I try to meet his eyes. “Bruises are almost gone,” he whispers.

“Yeah.” We never have any real conversations. I’ve learned that’s he’s not the talking kind.

When we’re home, Damian goes straight for the shower. I hang the clothes I got the day before. I should wash them, but I couldn’t care less at the moment.

I go stand in front of the window and stare outside.

I think of the feeling of loss I felt back at the motel. I think it was hope. I lost hope that I’ll belong to someone again. I lost hope that I’ll see my parents again. I know they’re dead, but for some reason I always had hope until the stark reality was staring me right in the face. No one came for me back in that hospital. Sure, Uncle Tom stopped by, but then he left me all alone in a world I didn’t understand.

No one is coming for me and it’s the saddest thought. I know Damian said he came for me, but that’s not the same thing. Damian is just another person passing through my life, here one day and gone the next. I am a mess he’s being paid to fix.

I have no friends, no family, and the thought leaves a wasteland where my heart should be.

Damian~

Why the fuck did I hug her?

I’m pacing the floor in my office, trying to get my shit together. I’ve made two huge mistakes today; I hugged her and I showed her that I actually give a fuck. That can never happen again. Whether I care about her or not – it doesn’t matter. What matters is keeping her safe.

To get my mind back on the job, I decide to watch the fourth memory card. I’ve managed to watch the other three in the past two weeks, and it’s been much harder than I thought it would be. Watching her being beaten like that, I have no words for the anger I feel.

One thing I did pick up on is that she put up one hell of a fight every single time they beat her, but with each beating, she got weaker and that was hard to watch.

I’m relieved that this is the last memory card. I lean back in the chair and take my phone from my pocket. I go through my messages and see that there’s one from Jeff. He’s heard from the guy who is taking care of the paperwork for Cara’s new identity. That’s good.

I hear the familiar sound as they open the door to the container but I keep checking my messages, because it’s normally the same thing. They first set up the camera. There’s another message from Jeff saying the final payment for the Johnson girl came in. 

“So now you’re going to beat me? You finally grew a pair of balls, Steven?” I hear Cara’s voice echo through the speakers. The anger in her voice makes me look up. As always the light is on her.

“No, Henry does the beating,” a new voice says. It’s not the fucker who usually does the beating and talking. I can’t see him yet, but Cara must see something, because she strains to get to her feet and then hisses, “I’m not letting you fuck me.”

Wait? What?

I lean over and turn the volume up by one notch.

“Come on, Babe. It will be like old times.”

Old times? So she knew this guy? How stupid could she be to get caught like that?

She darts out of the camera’s view, but seconds later I hear something hit the floor. The camera doesn’t follow her this time. I frown at this. Normally there are a couple of guys in there with her. One on camera, one holds her down and the other beats her.

There’s only one man with her so maybe she tackled him? Hell if I know.

“Get off me!” she screams and I quickly lean forward to turn the volume down before Cara hears it. I stay close to the speaker so I can hear.

For a few seconds there are only scuffling sounds and then a clear, ‘
NO
’.

My heartbeat speeds up as I realize why the there’s only fucker in there with her. Fuck.

“Please don’t.” I hear the pleading tone, almost frantic and it makes my blood burn through my veins.

“No!” she screams and this time it’s a hopeless sound that guts me. I close my eyes. I drop my face to my hand and my other fists around the phone. Fuck … Fuck!

“No.” The word sounds hollow. The fight is gone from her voice and it makes something primal rip through my chest.

“Don’t worry, babe,” the fucker grunts. “I’ll be quick. You won’t remember this for long.” I can clearly hear the sound of skin slapping on skin and it must be the most fucked up sound I’ve ever heard. “Tomorrow Henry gets to shoot your brains out.” I hear him grunt as he finds his release, and the sound makes me sick to my stomach. I can’t imagine how Cara must have felt, how she must still feel. No wonder she has nightmares.

“You didn’t think you were going to live, did you?”

I hear movement and then he shoves her into the light, up close. There is a wild look in her eyes and I don’t get it. There’s still life in her eyes, unlike now – they’re vacant.

“There’s nothing left of her, Tom. You should have given us the money when we asked.”

He shoves her hard to the floor and seconds later the recording stops.

It’s finished?

I check through the other memory cards and I count only three. I press rewind until I have a clear shot of her face, then I pause.

I lean closer and stare long and hard at those eyes. “What happened, Cara?” I whisper. “What broke you?”

I keep staring at her green eyes, sparkling with tears – but mostly, they are alive.

I think back to when I found her. She was filthy as shit … and she reeked of vomit and piss. Not once did she puke on any of the memory cards I’ve watched, not even with the last one when the fucker raped her. Sure, she could have puked afterwards, off camera.

But something worse must’ve happened to kill the life in her eyes. What the fuck could be worse than what I already saw and heard?

I get up and leave the office. I lock the door behind me and then walk to her room. I knock softly but there’s no answer. I nudge the door open wider until I can see the bed. I’m surprised to see it’s empty, she’s always in it. I open the door all the way and then see her standing by the window.

I flip on the light and she swings around, a clear look of terror on her face.

“Fuck, sorry,” I say quickly, walking in so she can see me clearly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t.” The words rush from her and I just nod. She has so much pride. It’s the one thing they couldn’t take from her. I can see clear as day that she’s scared shitless of me, but she’ll never admit it.

I walk over to her and stare down at her. Her eyes do a dance around the room before she finally looks up at me. Dull, green eyes. Sometimes I see a spark of anger, but that’s rare.

I want to tell her I’m sorry for not getting her out sooner. I haven’t felt this emotion in a long time … failure. I’ve failed Cara the same way I failed Leah. It doesn’t matter that Cara’s breathing, because she might as well be dead … just like Leah.