The Rescue
Amanda
She couldn’t say when it happened, but the house went oddly silent. It wasn’t long after Ross finished his bottle and fell asleep again in her arms. He desperately needed a change and she feared what would happen when he woke up again, crying.
Amanda’s mother leaned in and whispered, low under her breath. “Do you hear anyone?”
“No,” Amanda admitted. She and her mom hadn’t exchanged any words since the goon had come in and given her the bottle for the baby.
“I have to pee.”
“Me too.”
“Do you think we should ask?”
“No. I would rather just wet myself. Or use the corner of the room. I doubt this is anyone’s house.”
“Do you think it would make them angry?”
“Honestly, I think the less we have to bother them, the better.”
“Yah.” Joan lapsed back into silence.
Amanda glanced down into the face of her sleeping son. Her back had long ago given up complaining, as though the numbness that had settled into her heart had crept up her spine. Her arms were heavy with the weight of her child, but she didn’t dare move and risk waking him.
She wondered again, how long they’d been there. She couldn’t say. It may have been no longer than two hours. It may have been eight. It was strange, how people lost track when they had no measure to tell time. What use was it anyway? The passing of time would only mean that they were one step closer to a fate she didn’t want to consider.
The slamming of a door somewhere brought Amanda up short. She was never more thankful to be pulled from her thoughts. Her mother’s wide eyed gaze swept over her face.
“What was that?”
“The door. Slamming.”
Both women froze as heavy footsteps sounded through the house. They came closer, getting louder as they stomped down the hall.
Amanda squeezed her eyes shut. She wouldn’t resist, wouldn’t cause trouble. She couldn’t risk Ross being hurt in the process and she knew it was futile. She’d only anger her captors like she had back on the road. She had nothing to fight with. She was exhausted, sore and heartsick. She’d offer herself up in hopes of saving her son and her mother. She’d plead with those men, give them anything she could, she just had to save Ross.
She imagined for a second, as those heavy steps grew closer, that they were Jason’s. That he was there to save them. She imagined she knew the rhythm of those steps, the sound of his boots. The odd shuffle squeak sound the right sole of his boot sometimes made. It sounded so familiar. Her heart fluttered wildly in her chest while tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
There was no good hoping. Hope was for dreamers, for people who still had time left to dream and it made a sorry fool out of her. She blinked and the tears spilled down her cheeks. She no longer cared. She didn’t care if she was crying, if it was humiliating. She didn’t care that her captors had broken her so easily or that she should have been harder, tougher, like that one goon said.
The footsteps stopped outside the door. The knob rattled. It was locked. Amanda knew that. The goons that had locked them in there knew that. Why even try it?
She expected the clink of a key, but there was nothing. A heavy breath, then her name was spoken aloud, ringing through the silence of the house.
“Amanda?”
She blinked, her eyes sweeping once more to her mother’s face. Joan looked just as startled as she felt. It took her a second for the fog in her brain to disperse, for the fear and shame to ebb away, for thick layer of numbness already walling up her heart to crumble. She realized that she knew that voice.
“Jason?”
“Amanda! Joan!” He tried the handle again, shaking it urgently. “Are you near the door?”
“No.”
“Good. Stand back at the far wall.”
Amanda quickly got to her feet. Her back, legs and arms protested the sudden movement after hours of inactivity. Her mother stumbled up as well. She wrapped an arm around Amanda’s shoulders and steered her back, as Jason instructed.
“Alright,” she called.
A second later, the door burst open with a sharp squeal of protest. Splinters rained down in the air as the door frame exploded.
There, shoulders heaving, eyes wild, blood smeared on his clothing, was the man she loved.
“Jason!” Once she forced her feet in a forward direction, Amanda ran towards him. Her movement woke the baby, who started to cry fiercely. Amanda stopped and moved Ross to her shoulder. “Shh,” she whispered in his ear. “Daddy’s here. Daddy’s here and everything is going to be fine now.” Her gaze locked with Jason’s.
He stood frozen, as though he was afraid to come any closer. His eyes weren’t the same. Those blue orbs that had once sparkled with light and love were flat and dead, the cold, steely blue absolutely heartbreaking.
“My god, Jason, what happened?” Amanda whispered.
He’s in shock. She realized that was it. Whatever had happened, she knew it would be a battle to get through it, to bring him back to the man she thought she’d known and was dead sure she loved.
Jason shook himself then, as she spoke his name. “You can never, ever call me that again, Amanda. That is no longer my name. I can’t tell you what happened, except that we are free and not by my own doing. The past is behind us, if we can put it there. We need to leave. You too, I’m afraid Joan. We no longer have names. We no longer have a home. All we have is each other, if you still want that. If not, I will help you get wherever you need to go to start again and forget this.”
“What?” Amanda was thankful for Ross’ shrill cry in her ear. It was the only thing that kept her grounded in reality when her whole world felt like it was caving out from under her yet again. “What are you talking about? Of course I want us. I want you, Jason. You promised that you would come for us and that we’d be a family.” She hated the desperation in her tone. “Please, Jason. That is truly what I want. I love you. Even if you had no name, I would love you.”
He seemed to consider for a moment, as though he almost thought about turning around.
“Please,” she whispered again, brokenly.
He finally nodded and lifted his hands away from his sides. It was all she needed. Not quite open arms, but not the rough rebuttal of a moment before.
She stepped forward, stepped into him, not embracing, not being held. Their child pressed between them gently, sheltered, safe. His crying ceased and he fell miraculously silent. It was the only thing she wanted in the world. She would have given her soul to see Ross safe and now they were.
“We’ll go away, Jason. You. My mom, Ross, me. We’ll find a way. We can never erase what happened, but it’s in the past now and you said the past can no longer harm us.”
“I did say that,” Jason said slowly. He seemed to be in a fog of his own, a fog of violence that Amanda couldn’t even begin to fathom.
“Yes. You did. We’ll make it through this. I promise.” She couldn’t bear not touching him for a minute longer. She raised her free hand, the hand she wasn’t supporting Ross with and gently stroked Jason’s cheek. His eyes closed and he leaned into her touch, wayward and lost. “One of those men that took us, he said he expected more from the woman Dallas chose. I want you to know that he was wrong. I am strong. I’m strong in ways that you can’t imagine. I’ll get us through this. You’ll see, six months, a year from now, ten years, we’ll look back on this and we’ll only remember one thing. That we made it through.”
“Yes.”
She frowned then, not wanting to ask, but needing to. “Where is Andy?”
Jason paused. The sheen of pain in his eyes deepened. His lips drew into a thin, hard line. “He left. When I put the call through to Ricci’s men, I knew they wouldn’t be here when we got here. I left him outside, where he wanted to be. I know he’s not there anymore. He did what he set out to do and now he’s free, but not in the way we are. He’s like a dog that was kicked too many times.”
Fresh tears formed in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “He’s the one that set you free. He stood by you.”
“Yes. Mutual hatred, I suppose. I did as you asked. I didn’t harm anyone. I… I didn’t trade my soul for my life.”
She didn’t remove her hand and the heat of Jason’s skin burned into her palm. She knew his face so well, his features. She didn’t know what truly lay beneath. She didn’t doubt his love, but she didn’t truly know his heart. He had a whole past, another world, that he’d kept from her.
“We’re strangers,” she whispered. “That’s what I feel like.”
“I don’t even know myself, so how could you know me?”
“We’ll make time, Jason. We’ll learn each other again. No more secrets. No more past. Going forward, we are just who we are.”
“And that is?”
“I don’t even know yet. I suppose we’ll have to choose names.” She finally turned and looked at her mother, who stood watching them, taking it all in. “You’ll come with us mom? It’s not safe for you here anymore.”
“Yes.” Joan reached up and swiped away tears. “Yes, of course. None of us chose this, not really. We will find peace. Eventually. We’ll make sure that Ross never knows of this. That he grows up happy and loved.”
Amanda nodded vehemently. “Today we lay the past to rest.”
“Today we lay it to rest.” Her hand fell away when Jason moved his face. He whispered the words while she still had her head turned away, but the sincerity in his tone rang through.
“And what about Andy? Where will he go, or where has he gone? Is there any peace in the world for him?”
“I can’t answer that. I hope so. He’s a lost soul. A broken soul. He probably has never known love and that is the only thing that truly redeemed me.”
“Then we were meant to meet, no matter what, because your love saved me. Our loved created our son and he is the most perfect thing in the world.”
Jason closed his eyes. He spoke slowly, like he savored his next words. “A life of peace and happiness. A life where our son knows the joy of parents who cherish him. A life filled with laughter and happiness. And one day, when we actually have real names again, I’ll ask you to be my wife.”
“Is that another one of your promises? A promise to live by? A word that you intent never to break?”
He nodded solemnly, the man who was no longer Jason or Dallas or any other name. He didn’t need a name so long as he was hers.
“Yes, it’s a promise.” He waited a minute, a minute filled with silence, the solemnity of that vow wrapped tightly around them, before he bent his head and kissed her.