“Help me look,” I said, scrambling to my feet and dashing away the wetness on my cheeks.
“For what?” Eddie asked.
“A door!” I exclaimed. “An opening! Something!”
I didn’t wait for him, but began searching the ground for signs of something. I knew it was here. I was sure of it.
“Baby,” he said, almost as if he felt sorry for me.
Something inside me snapped. I jerked upright, staring him straight in the eye. My body was vibrating it shook so badly.
“Don’t you baby me,” I half growled. “I’m telling you something is here. Believe me.” A lone tear trailed over my cheek, and I quickly brushed it away. Tears would get me nowhere.
He blinked. Nodded firmly. “Of course, I believe you.”
We said nothing more after that. Instead, we worked, faces downturned toward the ground.
Flashes of the memories I had before haunted me. The sound of chains rattling, the way everything was always dark. Always cold. The almost crude wall and floor, as if it were made of jagged concrete… or rock.
The feeling that when dim light shone down into the space, it was like heaven looking down upon hell.
Maybe I hadn’t been kept on the island.
Maybe I was in it. Under it. Hidden somewhere no one would expect.
“Holy fucking shit.” Eddie’s voice broke into my thoughts. I glanced up.
He was staring down at a patch of grass, body stock still, tension radiating off his every limb.
“Eddie?” I asked.
He glanced up, eyes partially disbelieving, partially angry. He didn’t say anything, just held out his hand to me. I went to him quickly, taking his hand, which was much warmer than mine.
“Look,” he said, drawing me into his side, putting his arm around my middle.
“What am I looking at?” I asked, slightly confused.
“Notice anything different about this grass?”
I studied it, then looked around at everything nearby. “It just looks a little greener than the rest.” The grass here was patchy, but that was just the landscape of the island, not necessarily something odd.
“Exactly,” he murmured, then promptly blew my mind.
Eddie leaned down, taking large handfuls of the tall, greener grass, and tugged. It gave way, lifting off the ground like a heavy carpet, folding in on itself as he straightened.
Gasping, I stared down at the wooden platform that was hidden beneath it.
“I was right,” I echoed, almost as if I shocked myself.
There was a small metal ring bolted on the top of the hatch door and several large bolts that kept it bolted closed from the outside.
Trapped.
Locked away.
Hidden in the dark.
Hidden in plain sight.
Tears filled my eyes again. Eddie made a sound and yanked me to him. “This is fucking sick,” he rasped.
I didn’t say anything. My stomach filled rapidly with dread and this panicky, hollow sensation started to take over.
“All the locks are undone,” Eddie observed, something that had completely escaped me.
“Do you think h-he’s down there?” I quaked. “Hi-hi-hiding?
His arms held me tighter, so tight it almost hurt. “I don’t know.” Suddenly, he burst into action, practically leaping on top of the door and slamming two of the deadbolts home.
“What are you doing?”
He looked up, his blue eyes wild. “Trapping him inside. Keeping him there until the sheriff arrives.”
“You can’t!” I cried.
He frowned.
“I need to know, Eddie. Now. I need to ask him if I’m really Sadie. If he kept me down there all these years.”
A tortured sound ripped out of him. “You really think he kept you locked in a hole all these years?”
My chin wobbled. “I really do,” I whispered. “How else would I have known it was here?”
Eddie’s jaw worked, but I was past seeing his anger. Beyond really seeing anything except the past.
“He broke my arm down there,” I said, no emotion in my voice. “I chopped my hair down there because he got mad when I braided it…” My voice caught as I remembered the chains. “I was naked, chained… He raped me.”
A guttural sound echoed around the entire island. I jumped from the intensity of the sound. Reality came back, my stomach wobbled, and I swallowed, working to hold back the vomit.
“Fuck the cops,” Eddie said in a tone I didn’t recognize. In a tone that matched the sound I’d thought was an animal. “I’m going down there.”
My eyes almost fell out of my head. My mouth dropped open wide. He was standing there, legs wide and planted against the hatch. There was a gun in his hand, drawn and ready, as though he knew exactly what to do with it.
I didn’t even know he had a gun.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Where did you get that?”
He didn’t look at me when he answered, but down at the wood. “Did you think I would bring you here without a way to protect you? I didn’t think I’d need it… but in my wildest nightmare, I never thought I’d be going down into a hole where the woman I love was tortured.”
I didn’t even think about the gun or his solid intent to kill. I didn’t even notice the killer edge in his eye or the taut way in which he spoke. He was my Eddie, and my Eddie was no threat to me.
I rushed over, my feet thumping over the wood. “You can’t use that.” I laid a hand on his chest. The pounding of his heart was unmistakable. “You’re not a killer.”
“No.” He agreed, putting his free hand over mine. “I’m not. But I’m also no saint.”
“I don’t need a saint. But I need you to be here, and if word gets out you killed a man on Rumor Island, they’ll take you away.”
“No, they won’t.” He sounded so sure. “No one in town would turn me in for killing this son of a bitch.”
“We don’t even know if he’s down there.” I reasoned. “At least put it away until we find out.”
“If I put it away, then we find out, it will be too late.”
He had a point.
“At least take your finger off the trigger.”
His eyes met mine. “You know I would never hurt you.”
“I know.”
He nodded, took his finger off the trigger, but kept the gun in his hand.
“Let’s just see if he’s down there. Then we’ll decide what to do,” I said, trying to be sensible. It was clear Eddie might not be capable. His intense anger might prevent him from thinking clearly. Even though I desperately wanted answers and to speak to the man who stole my life, if he was down there, it might be better to let the police haul him away.
It would take longer to get my answers that way.
But it might also keep Eddie out of the jail cell beside the creep.
“Stay back.” Eddie warned. “Promise.”
“I swear.” I nodded, solemn. I pressed a hand to my stomach, trying to calm the way it rolled around.
“Step back,” he said, stuffing the gun into the waistband of his jeans.
I moved back several yards, unable to take my eyes off the latch.
Eddie moved in front of me, cupping my jaw with his steady hands. “Look at me.”
I did, his blue eyes a wonderful place to rest.
“I love you,” he vowed. “No matter what, okay?”
It was tough to swallow. Emotion clogged my throat. Instead of speaking, I gripped the front of his hoodie, filling my hand with the fabric. Standing on the tips of my toes, I leaned up and he met me halfway.
Our kiss nearly sizzled in the air. It certainly sent emotion crackling through my body. He hugged me tight, delving his tongue deep into my mouth. A small sound of comfort echoed in my throat as the kiss went on and on.
How easily he took away reality, even for just a small second. How easily he gave me back some footing, even as we stood here on uneven ground. This was one of the most precarious moments of my entire life (that I could remember), and I was scared to death, about to vomit or cry. I had no idea what would happen next.
But it didn’t matter.
He was here. He was mine.
The kiss grew softer, gentler. The warm thickness of his mouth was so desirable I drew back enough to lick across his bottom lip.
He smiled against me, and I cuddled into his chest, dipping my face into him. Our bodies rocked back and forth a little as he held me. The comfort he surrounded me with was unmatched.
The moment we created between us was short lived. Interrupted by a few tentative knocks.
Eddie straightened and spun, tucking me behind him and holding me there with both his arms. “Who’s down there!” he called, his voice deep and low.
There was another knock, louder this time.
“Hello!” a muffled voice replied.
“Stay back,” Eddie said. “It’s probably a trick.”
I nodded, wide-eyed, and watched as he stepped closer and drew his gun. After undoing one of the deadbolts, he placed his hand on the other.
“I’m opening this door, and I have a gun. I’ll fucking shoot you dead, so don’t try shit!” he spat.
I shuddered.
“Please, no!” the voice yelled, still muffled from where I stood.
Eddie’s face twisted. It was the oddest expression I’d ever seen him wear. The gun in his hand went slack for a moment.
Then shaking it off, he threw back the lock, grasped the metal ring, and pulled open the door.