“Are you kidding me?” I yell in shock. Roman paces around the room, clutching the birth certificate. “How would he have known anything about you or your family? Unless your father told him and trained him like you were.”
“I don’t know, Elenore!” he roars back at me. I jump with fright at the volume of his voice, and the anger that drips through it scares me. The vein in his neck bulges out, and his face turns red. Never have I seen a man so furious. Not even the man I thought to be my father ever went this far.
When Roman catches my steps back he pauses, hanging his head. He takes a few deep breaths, and when he looks up again, he appears broken. The color that was there moments ago slowly fades. He takes a hesitant step closer to me and I move back. I don’t know what he’s like when he’s angry. I’ve seen two sides to this man. In this moment, he could be the captor, ready to pounce.
Roman releases a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, Elenore. You don’t deserve the backlash of my frustrations. I don’t know how I missed this.”
Slowly, I move closer to him and place my hand on his tensing biceps, as he clenches and unclenches his fists. “We all miss things. Hell, I was completely off the mark with you. You were someone I was interested in and my captor.”
“Someone you were interested in? Past tense?” His stare holds my own. I realize what I’ve said but I’m not sorry.
“Yes, past tense. Because you’re a new person now. I don’t know who you are and when you lash out in a rage, I’m afraid of what might happen to me.” I keep my hand where it is.
His hand comes up, cupping my cheek.
“But right now, we don’t have time to figure out us. We need to find who this intruder is and to find where this missing young woman is. What’s usually your timeline for your… stuff?” I hesitate with what to call his killings.
Roman removes his hand and continues to walk around the room, appearing to air out his emotions. “Usually the girls get a week. On the seventh day, that’s it.”
Seven days? And how long did he hold me for again? I want to ask, but now isn’t the time. There’s another life hanging by a thread. Pierce seems to be worse than Roman was. I thought Roman was the devil, but I was wrong. Yes, he kills, but his are quick. After what Pierce did to me and Lewis, I can only image what’s in store for the young woman who’s missing.
“He’d have to have a place somewhere, like you do where you keep the girls when you take them.” Memories of that cell make me sick to my stomach. The walls covered in old blood.
The silence haunts me. I shudder at the thought.
“Elenore, please don’t think of it. I’m so sorry for putting you through that, and I regret everything I did before I met you. I need to put a stop to this. I’m going to go to the house and see if anything there can point me in the right direction.” He pauses. “Did you still want to come?”
Do I want to go? If it means helping find this other woman and helping Roman, then yes. I nod. “I won’t let another girl die. There’s been too much death surrounding you and me.”
Roman strides over to me, wrapping me in his arms. I let him. I’m sure he knows what this means for me, to be setting foot into that place again. In some ways, I’m hoping it helps give me closure to that part of my life. My kidnappers’ bodies being found has taken a huge weight off my shoulders. That secret has eaten me up over the years.
So many times on the drive, I want to tell Roman to take me home. A battle wages within me. My hands are clammy, and my stomach is in knots. Not far from the city he turns off onto a dirt road. To anyone else, it looks like an old road that most likely would lead to nowhere. After ten more minutes, we drive into a large opening, and just like that I’m taken back.
Every single ounce of pain I was put through. Each cut that pierced my skin. My breathing becomes heavy. I lower my head into my hands, and panic seizes my chest. I struggle to get each breath out. Tears prick my eyes. “Nothing bad is going to happen,” I whisper to myself.
“It’s okay…” His hand touches my back, and I flinch.
“Don’t touch me,” I grit out. A stale silence fills the car. The news comes on the radio, and trust it to bring up the missing girl, with my name mentioned as a survivor. I hate this. I want to run far, far away from this place. What the hell was I thinking when I said yes? Closure. I sure hope I get some.
“So, this is your house?” I ask, sitting up and taking in the area again, only this time I’m not a victim.
“Yeah. My father owned it, and his father before that. This was where everything went down. We never lived here.”
“Weren’t you scared someone would turn down that road and happen upon this place?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. As you saw, it’s not a very obvious road and it looks like a dead end if you’re driving past. Plus, there appears to be forest everywhere.” He shrugs.
I study him as he concentrates on the road, the creases in his forehead and the strained look that hasn’t left his face. I keep coming back to the same question. Why? Why would someone do something this terrible? How could he take those innocent lives?
“I really don’t understand all of this. I have so many questions. How could you do this? How could Pierce do this? You’re both police officers!”
“It’s complicated,” is all he says. I realize then we’ve stopped. Roman looks at me. “You don’t need to know the details. You only need to know that I was trained this way. When you’re taught something, especially this kind of thing, and then your father expects you to do it… It’s all I knew. Yes, I received pleasure from the pain and deaths of those girls. I’ve been harboring so much rage toward my father, and I guess it coated that rage. That’s until you came along and changed the way I was looking at everything.”
Wow. I have nothing more to say to him. I open my door and step out. I hate feeling like this; sometimes I don’t want to feel. I don’t want Roman to make me tingle throughout my body. He stirs up my emotions and I honestly want to jump him, but I also hate him so much. My head is messed up.
The familiar pine smell makes my stomach twist. I spot the area I was in when he shot me. Thankfully, it was a flesh wound. It’s also the spot he kissed me. Flutters stir within my tummy. I hear Roman’s door shut, then a piercing scream comes from within the house.
Instinct takes over, and I drop down. The need to protect myself is strong. Roman is by my side in an instant, and I shove him away. “You said you didn’t take her!”
“I didn’t. I haven’t been back here since after you were found. I came to see what happened.”
I believe him.
“I think it’s Pierce,” Roman says. “He’s done this, and probably plans to set me up for a downfall, or to make me pay for something.” His fists clench as he squats down beside me, near the car.
“What are we going to do?” I whisper.
“There’s no point doing anything,” Pierce’s voice bellows. “I’ve been waiting for you… both of you.”
I peek over the bonnet of the car. His large frame stands at the front steps. His laugher echoes out into the night. Chills run down my spine, turning my blood cold.