Chapter 8
[Addison]
“What a shame,” the man from the shadows steps forward and I finally get a good look at the goon who drove the car. He is
handsome in a traditional kind of way, slick like second–rate CEO with his slicked back hair and tailored suit. Wheh he grins, he
shows too many teeth, like a monster lurking in the dark.
Kneeling before me, he grabs my chin and turns it from side to side. “Such a pretty little thing. It looks like you’ve been discarded.
Just another broken doll.”
His breath is hot on my neck as he leans forward, his hand snaking down the front of my blouse. “I like broken things.”
Crying for him to leave me alone I spit in his face, a mixture of saliva, snot, and blood. He laughs, cutting the binding at my feet
so he can push his body between my legs, not caring about the trail of blood.
I kick and buck, screaming as he grabs my breast squeezing, another hand reaching up my skirt as he laughs at my efforts. “So
much fight left! Good, I get to break you some more…”
The doors slam open and the warehouse is flooded with light as armored men dressed in black through the doors.
“FBI! FREEZE YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!”
At the head of the charge is a tall, broad shouldered man wearing a mask covering half of his face,
My kidnapper laughs, snaking behind me, using me as a human shield as he cuts my bindings and forces me to my feet. “Go
ahead, asshole! I’ll kill this little bitch and then…”
A shot rings out, the sound deafening in the closed space as my kidnapper falls backward, slashing my throat with his knife before falling to the ground, half his face gone from he force of the exploding round.
Grabbing my bleeding throat, I look up to see the marked man holding a smoking pistol.
“No,” he shouts, and as I tumble forward, he sets his gun down and sprints across the room, pulling off his mask so he can
breathe. (1
His strong arms catch me before I hit the floor, pulling me into the security and warmth of his arms.
That face.
“You,” I gargle in shock.
It’s him. The man with the lost little girl.
As I lose consciousness I hear him beg, “Please stay with me. Stay.”
1/2
Chapter 8
Веер. Веер. Веер.
+25 Bonus
I can’t remember much that happened after the man caught my falling body, lifting me into his arms. It is all like a distant dream now from which I still haven’t managed to awaken. 1
Even now, in the hospital with my eyes wide open, the smell of antiseptic and cleaning fluid overwhelming in the too–sterile room, and the cold, clean sheets underneath my fingertips, I know I’m still trapped in that nightmare–a nightmare that started
when I chased my son down a dark alley. 2
“We’re sorry, Mrs. Stone, but your child…” 1
Miscarried. According to the doctor standing across from me, her warm hands gently clasping mine as she looked at me with warm, brown eyes creased gently at the corners, the child I had just learned to love, the one that had been blossoming within me,
is gone.
By the time we made it to the hospital, there was nothing the surgeons could do. My womb had been damaged, kicked with so
much force by that evil man in the warehouse, that the doctor wasn’t sure if I’d ever conceive again. 2
“Maybe, with extensive therapy and a specialist, you could carry a child to term, but with your uterus damaged as it is, you may find it almost impossible to get pregnant.”
Hearing her words shattered the image I always carried in my mind of a house full of love and laughter, children spiraling around me as we prepared for family dinners or played at the park. I grew up alone, an orphan. I always wanted a big family.
Now I’ll never have one. 2
