Because of Him Page 9

  “What’s going on?”

  “You haven’t heard?” After I silently let him know I hadn’t, he ran his fingers through his hair. “People were talking in class about a girl who was missing.”

  A jolt of fear made me shiver. A girl taken from here? Mom was right. I wasn’t safe.

  I stopped myself from asking if he knew who she was. He obviously worried it had been me.

  “Did they have any information?” I asked instead.

  “No, just rumors. I don’t think they’ve made an official announcement. It could be nothing.”

  It looked like that was what he hoped. Fathomless eyes met mine. “About last night.”

  My chest constricted. Mom’s warnings replayed in my head. I held up a hand as panic crept in. I felt like I needed to sit down and take a breath. Maybe things were moving too fast. “You don’t have to explain.”

  “I don’t?” he asked, looking a bit mystified.

  This hadn’t been my plan. But who was I kidding? Was I really ready for what a relationship with him meant?

  “No. We’re just friends.”

  24

  TADE

  Friends. The word stung like a wasp protecting its nest. I did my best not to show my real feelings on the subject.

  “Yeah, friends. Is that why you didn’t want me to meet your parents?”

  Lips that tasted like summer pressed together in a sort of acknowledging agreement as her head tilted to the side.

  “Why complicate things? Besides don’t guys hate meeting parents?”

  She laughed off her comment, but she made it sound like I was like one of those typical guys in movies.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never met any girl’s parents before.”

  Our eyes didn’t meet as the space grew between us. Everything felt off. Yet, I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel.

  “Friends can still hang out.”

  It was a statement and a question all rolled into one.

  “Sure. Just on dry land.” A hesitant grin formed on her face like she was trying to make a joke but didn’t feel it. “I’m usually in the café by eight and on most days I have lunch at one.”

  So I could see her while she ate. She hadn’t offered a dinnertime. With rowing season beginning, my mornings would be tight.

  “I’ll see you around, then.”

  Her tight smile belied her words. “Later, I guess,” she said before turning away.

  What the fuck just happened?

  By the time I made it back to my dorm, I wanted a beer. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. Though it shouldn’t bother me; women were a dime a dozen as my father used to say. But I didn’t want anyone else.

  I wanted the girl with the smile that made me feel like I’d won a gold medal.

  I’d only been out with her a few times. The way she took in everything like it was new made the experience feel that way for me.

  Her kiss…kissing her was my drug of choice and already I was feeling the effects of withdrawal.

  Later that night as I lay on my bed, eyes focused on a water stain on the ceiling, I heard the front door open and close before feet two timed it up the stairs.

  Gavin didn’t knock, just came in rumpled like he hadn’t slept.

  “Guess where I’ve been?”

  “Jail.”

  He narrowed his eyes at my quip. “Yes, how’d you know? And why would that be your first thought?”

  I was about to say that his opening had sounded roughly like something out of the norm happened. I hadn’t expected to be right.

  He shook his head. “Never mind, yes, I was at the police station being questioned about a girl gone missing.”

  Quickly, I sat up like I could levitate.

  “Why you?”

  “Funny you should ask. I’d practically accused them of profiling me when they said that a witness had seen my truck and the girl get out of it.”

  He had my full attention. “You were with the girl before she went missing.”

  His head swung side to side. “No. That would be you. She went missing Monday, sometime after you dropped her off while using my truck.”

  “Fuck.” I thought about my last words to her, implying she could get involved with the wrong guy.

  “My sentiments exactly.”

  “Do I need to go down and make a statement?”

  “No, I already told them I dropped her off and went to get my roommate for a beer run.”

  “Why?”

  “They had nothing on you. The witness could only identify the truck. I think the Feds are on it because when I told them roughly where I’d gone, they’d verified with the cameras on the bridge that my truck had been on it about the time she went missing. They had records of her using her card to go into her dorm before she apparently called someone about an hour later. It wasn’t me; I don’t know her. If it was you, you’d be at the station. They have security camera footage that shows her leaving around that time.”

  My head spun with the story. “If they knew you didn’t do it, why’d they pick you up?”

  “My guess is they hoped I would know who she might have called. But I didn’t make any calls on my phone. So they finally let me go.”

  “I should go down and make a statement anyway.”

  “For what? You’ll blow my story. Since we’re each other’s alibi, they would start to question that. Just leave it. We both know we had nothing to do with it.”

  Everything he said made sense, but it bothered the hell out of me. So the next morning I called my dad and told him.

  “Let me get this straight. You were the last person seen with the missing girl from your school, but the police think it’s your roommate, Gavin.”

  “It was his truck.”

  “And instead of telling the police that he lent you the truck, he accepted blame, but used you as an alibi?”

  “Technically yes, but the way he says it, it makes sense.”

  “What it sounds like is that your friend lied to the police during a criminal investigation. That is punishable under the law.”

  “Dad. Neither of us did it. They have proof we were nowhere near her when she disappeared.”

  His sigh was long and drawn out.

  “Tade, you’re putting me in a bad position.”

  “Why does it matter who was in the car? We both have alibis.”

  “So why are you telling me this if none of it matters? You’re bringing me into it by doing so.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. But I’ve been thinking about something.” All night something about the whole thing bothered me. “What if someone’s trying to set me up?”

  “Why would you think that?”

  “I’ve seen the headlines. The Feds have been talking to my father. They’re trying to get him to flip on the people he worked for. Maybe the big boss wants to set me up and use me as leverage to keep him quiet.”

  Dad was silent for a time.

  “Let me talk to some people I know and see what I can find out.”

  “Maybe I should go see him.”

  Though it was only a second, his pause had me rethinking my statement.

  “I would never stop you from seeing him.”

  “But your campaign?”

  “None of that matters. If you need to talk to him before…I won’t stop you.”

  “What if the press finds out?”

  “We’ll figure it out. This is your decision. I’ll support you, no matter what.”

  I wasn’t sure what the right move was. If it could help get that girl back, I would do it.

  “You know you’re my dad, not him.”

  Dad choked up a little. “And you are my son, no matter what.”

  My last words to that girl played over in my head. And I had to hope I wasn’t the reason she was missing. I thought about my missing biological mother. If I could help find this girl, could my soul be cleansed? Could I ask my father not only about the girl from my school, but the truth of my bio mom’s
disappearance?

  25

  PAST

  It felt like I’d walked a million miles. The screams behind one of the doors haunted every one of my footsteps. The cries for mommy and daddy in that youthful voice killed my insides. She sounded much younger than I was. And remembering Sir’s comment about men who like them young made me want to puke up my meager dinner.

  Even though the satin fabric of the dress was smooth, it made my skin itch in a way that couldn’t be soothed with a scratch.

  “Okay pet, time to decide what you want. One man or many.”

  I didn’t need the reminder that if I wasn’t sold, I would be used by the crew of the ship. Sir had never lied to me and I believed him.

  “Don’t smile, but don’t sob. Sobbing will make you seem annoying. Tears are okay as long as you don’t make a sound.”

  He shoved me through a door where a bright light shone in my eyes. I lifted a hand to block it as I was pushed forward to stand center stage. The platform was several inches above where men in suits and masks that covered their eyes leered at me. Most were pudgy old guys with balding heads and beady dark eyes.

  I jolted when a man’s disembodied voice sounded from hidden speakers.

  “Next on the lot we have an American adolescent and a certified virgin. Where should we start the bidding?”

  My mom had called me a beautiful young woman. My dad called me his little girl. Now I was reduced to adolescent American virgin. Why hadn’t I just followed the rules and been the good girl I should have been?

  The first offer for me was fifty thousand dollars. Was that what my life was worth? I held myself and let my fear shine in the rivers of sorrow that ran down my cheeks.

  I wanted to go back to playing with dolls, anything but the reality I’d been dealt.

  “Sold,” the voice said proudly through the speakers.

  A lean man with striking green eyes and gray sprinkled in his hair grinned at me. Sir was back, pulling me through a door and down a hall I hadn’t been in before.

  How big was the ship? I hadn’t seen much from when I woke aboard until now.

  “Here you go. Be a good girl and wait here. If you give me any trouble…”

  Sir only had to lift a brow to clear my thoughts of trying to escape. I had no idea where I was, except the swaying let me know I was still on water. What if I got away? If there was no land in sight, what was I going to do, make a swim for it? Or maybe just drown…

  The thought came too late, as a door opened behind me.

  “No touching until payment is verified,” Sir said.

  “I need to check for myself that the merchandise is as good as claimed.”

  Claimed? The guy had only said one sentence after I’d been hustled onto that platform. Had things been said before I arrived or was there a menu offering?

  I almost laughed, deliriously wondering if I’d been considered well done or rare.

  Everything became real again when the guy roughly pushed me back to lie on the bed. His hand was up my dress and I thrashed, forgetting the rules.

  “Feisty, I like it.”

  There wasn’t a barrier to stop his fingers from probing my most private possession.

  “Please,” I begged, though it did nothing to stop him.

  “Ahh, yes. She’s intact.”

  He pulled away and I did what I shouldn’t. I curled tight with my knees to my chest, arms around my legs and my head buried between them.

  The man, whose features were still hidden behind a mask only revealing his eye color, said, “I shouldn’t have doubted it. But it’s a lot of money.”

  I’d been lost in my head and hadn’t heard the final price he’d paid for me.

  He tapped on his phone for several seconds before saying, “You should have it.”

  A chime sounded on the tablet Sir held. “We got it. She’s all yours.”

  The door closed and I was left with the stranger with hungry eyes.

  “I don’t think I can wait.”

  He snagged my ankles and with surprising strength pulled me to him. I backpedaled. His hold on me forced me to land on my back, which made the laugh lines on his face disappear with the growth of an evil smile.

  “Please,” I repeatedly begged, as I kicked my legs as best I could.

  “I like it when you fight.”

  A sob ripped from me at the same time he tore the weak fabric of my dress.

  “God, you’re worth every penny,” he said, glaring down at every inch of my exposed skin. “I don’t think I want to spoil this pretty pussy I paid a hefty price for here on his cheap bed.”

  I felt relief for only a second. He flipped me on my stomach and I knew what was coming. Sir had put penetrating fingers in a place I wouldn’t have expected, warning me of the dangers of disobedience.

  There had been no time to prepare for his invasion. A scream that could shatter glass shredded my lungs as he broke something inside me with his stabbing penetration.

  In health class, they’d never talked about penetration there. But school seemed like such a distant memory as I continued to scream.

  The wrongness of what he was doing seemed somehow worse than what he planned for me later.

  I cried like the devil could be forced to show compassion. I cried as my childhood disappeared from my soul. I cried and cried and cried and it changed nothing.

  I was nothing…

  …until I found a place inside me to hide, leaving my body for the first time.

  Finding a place where no one could hurt me again.

  26

  REAGAN

  It had been almost two weeks since my talk with Tade. He hadn’t called and hadn’t shown up at the café to meet me. Then again, I’d effectively pushed him away.

  I missed him.

  Megan breezed in the door, coming to sit next to me in the common area of the dorm we shared with one other girl.

  “What ya doing?”

  I pointed at my screen. “Working on a paper. You?”

  “I was at the café when the news came out. Tade was there, by the way.”

  “What?” I shook my head. “What news?”

  I didn’t want to think of Tade. He’d been on my mind all day. Had he moved on?

  “They finally released the name of the girl that went missing.”

  I’d been so busy with schoolwork I’d forgotten all about her. I’d stopped searching the web when my picture hadn’t surfaced, so I had no idea.

  “Who is she?”

  “That’s the freaky thing. Her name is Meghan. Meghan with an H. I would have been more freaked out except they posted her picture. She’s got blonde hair.”

  A shiver ran through me thinking of my blonde hair. I absently touched it.

  “Do you know her?”

  Megan shook herself. “No, she looks vaguely familiar, but she was a junior.”

  “Do they know who took her?”

  “Nope. But word is she’s done this kind of thing before.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Disappear. Girl has issues with a capital I. She loves sex and goes online to hook up. They have a name for it.”

  Megan’s hands moved in the air like she was calling the word to her with an ancient Native American dance.

  “Nymphomaniac,” I supplied. When she nodded, I offered another term having learned this subject during my freshman psychology class. Some guy brought it up and the professor deviated from his lecture to talk about it. “Hypersexual disorder.”

  “Yeah, whatever. They say she’s one of those.”

  “So they think she hooked up with the wrong guy?”

  “No, like I said, she’s disappeared before and showed up again high off sex. She’s been known to go to sex clubs.”

  “They aren’t looking for her.”

  Megan blew out a breath. “She’s like someone important’s daughter. They have everyone searching for her.”

  It didn’t take long for my phone to ring.

  “You
r mom?”

  I glanced at the screen and nodded.

  “Hi Mom,” I said with false cheer.

  “Rae, you have to come home.”

  “Why? I’m good here. Really I am.”

  “Reagan, a girl is missing. It’s important you come home.”

  “But I only have a few more months of school left.”

  “Is that more important than your life?” she snapped.

  I’d pulled the phone away from my ear to escape the brunt of her shrill tone.

  Calmly, I spoke in the phone. “Mom, I’m not leaving.”

  “You have to. It’s happening again. Don’t you see?”

  “No, I don’t see and I’m going to stay.”

  “I’m coming to get you. Pack your things.”

  “Where’s Dad?’

  “At work.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. Mom didn’t have access to a car anymore—doctor’s orders.

  “I’m catching an Uber.”

  How did she know about Uber? I hadn’t learned about it until after I left home.

  “Mom, please don’t. Wait for Dad, okay?”

  “I’m hanging up. Just be ready when I get there.”

  She ended the call and I dialed Dad.

  “It’s my baby girl. What can I do for you?”

  “Dad, it’s Mom.”

  He exhaled in a way that told me he was at his wit’s end. As much as I hated to burden him, he was closer to her than I was. So I told him all about her call.

  “I’ll handle it. If she calls, let it go to voicemail.”

  “What if—”

  “Just for the next hour or two. I’ll text you when I get home.”

  “Okay. Are you okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll take care of your mom.”

  I wasn’t sure if he’d heard the news about the girl from school, but Mom would tell him soon enough. He sounded so terribly tired, I couldn’t burden him more.

  “I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you, too.”