Ellie
That was how Parker found me, in a heap on the living room floor, my mother’s body at my side. He checked her first, holding his fingers to her neck.
“She’s alive,” he said. “Here, let me put her on the couch.”
“What if she has a neck injury?” I asked.
“I think they hit her on the head. See? There’s a cut here. It’s probably no more serious than that.”
“No more serious? How can you say that?” I was frantic, unable to think straight or reason. Everything was a mess in my head. I didn’t know what to think or what to do. Blind panic overtook me.
“Ellie!” Parker took me by the forearms and shook me until I cleared up a little. He didn’t hurt me. I didn’t think he would ever hurt me. He only wanted me to get my act together. “This was how you found her?” he asked. I nodded, gulping for air, trying to keep my head straight. “And there was no one around? No cars out front, nobody sneaking out the back door? Nobody at all?”
“Nobody I knew of,” I whimpered. I tried to think back. “I didn’t see or hear anybody, and I was paying attention. Oh, why did I leave her? Why?” I started spiraling out of control again.
“Calm down!” He barked it, and it was enough to snap me out again. “Listen to me. We’re going to get her back, okay? No matter what, he couldn’t have gotten far with a kid. We just have to find him. I’ll have my guys look his financials. His credit cards and stuff. They’ll track him.”
“How can they do that?”
“Don’t worry about it.” I thought it would be best not to know, anyway. He pulled me to my feet, then lifted Mom onto the couch. Her head dropped back, and Parker lifted it carefully, gently, as he lowered her.
“Okay. I’m gonna hit the streets, find out if anybody saw his car.” I followed him to the door, shaking. “You should call the police.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. Since when did I not trust the police?
He turned, looking at me, trying to decide. “Yeah. An Amber Alert is gonna get all the cops looking for his plates, at least. And when you call 9-1-1, tell them you need an ambulance for your mother. Tell them she was watching Isabella. Got it? Make sure they know he took her by force.”
“Okay. I understand.” I could hardly speak in clear sentences, but I nodded.
Parker kissed me briefly, then turned toward the street. “Oh shit.” He froze rather than going for his bike. “Maybe I don’t have to look after all.” He turned to me. “Get back in the house,” he said, his voice hard and tense. “Now. Inside.”
“What is it?” I didn’t understand at first. Then I saw two cars pull up. One of them was Connor’s. The other was a black van, fairly nondescript. Two men climbed out, while another two climbed out of Connor’s car. Connor followed them…after pulling Isabella from the back seat. One of the random men picked her up, and all of them walked up the steps and came inside.
“Oh my God!” I screamed, hands over my mouth. There she was, in a stranger’s arms. I jumped forward, wanting to take her and hold her and never let her go. Parker stopped me, and I saw why—a gun in the hand of one of the other men. He put himself in front of me, just enough to hold me back. I let out a whimper, which turned to a sob. How had things turned so terrible, so quickly? Meanwhile, my mother was on the sofa, still bleeding, still unconscious. The whole world crumbled around me and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Hey, wifey.” Connor grinned, his eyes blackened, a bandage over his nose. When he spoke, he sounded like a man with a bad cold. I was glad Parker had broken his nose. I wished he had broken more in that moment. Much more.
“What are you doing, Connor? What the hell is wrong with you?”
“What am I doing? What are you doing? I’m only making sure I protect our little girl.” He smiled at Isabella, who shrank away from him. My poor baby.
“Please, let me have her,” I blubbered, holding my arms out. Parker still restrained me, and with good reason—though I was sobbing, I would have clawed any one of them to pieces for so much as touching my daughter.
“No, no, no. You had her, remember? And look what you did. You got yourself hooked up with a scumbag like this loser.” He gestured to Parker. “I can’t trust you with her. And there you were, acting like the better parent. What a hypocrite you are.”
I took a deep, shaky breath. Fine. If that was the game he wanted to play, so be it. “You’re right, Connor. I’m a terrible parent. I did the best I could, though. Please, please, let me have her. I’ll do better now.” I felt like the woman I used to be, the one he used to push into a corner. The one who would apologize for things she hadn’t even done, all to get him to stop yelling and hitting and cursing. All to get him to back off, go away, leave the house even. I would have said anything back then to make the hurting stop, and I was willing to do it again. It was as though he’d flipped a switch inside me.
He nodded. “At least you’re willing to admit what you’ve done wrong.”
“This is bullshit,” Parker snarled.
Connor tsked, shaking his head from side to side. “Language, and in front of a kid. You’re worse than I thought you were. Don’t talk that way in front of my little girl.”
“I’ll talk any way I want to,” he said.
It was my turn to get him to stop. I looked up at him, shaking my head ever so slightly. All Connor wanted to do was draw him into a fight so he’d have an excuse to kill him or at least do serious damage. I couldn’t let that happen, though I wanted more than anything to watch Parker murder him. I would have paid good money to see something like that.
“Connor.” I turned back to him. “Look what you’ve already done. My mother. I need to call an ambulance for her.” I moved toward the phone, but he made a sharp noise that stopped me in my tracks. No, he wouldn’t let me pick up the phone, would he? I could easily have called the cops instead.
“Yes, I’m sorry that had to happen. She never did me any harm—if anything, she listened to the stories you told her and believed them. Why else would she have gotten in my way when all I wanted to do was collect my own daughter and take her with me?”
“She fought you?” I asked, glancing at Isabella. The poor thing shivered.
“Oh, yes. She fought hard. I didn’t think a woman her age would have that much fight in her—then again, they say adrenaline makes a person do crazy things.” He laughed, a shrill laugh I wasn’t used to hearing. Yes, adrenaline made people crazy. And he was the case in point.
“If I leave her like this, she might die,” I said. “She’s bleeding from her head.”
“Oh, stop. I didn’t hurt her that badly. I only knocked her out. It’s probably nothing more than a cut—head wounds bleed the worst. It’s not like I broke her nose or anything.” He glared at Parker, his eyes burning.
Something inside me roared in triumph, even as I shook with something beyond fear. Fear was too weak, too easy a word for it. “Still, Connor. Please. Call the ambulance yourself if you don’t trust me to do it. But please. I need you to help her now. You have what you want. You have Isabella. What do you have to lose?”
He seemed to consider it, and hope leaped to life inside me. If he called the ambulance, there was a chance Mom would wake up and tell the EMTs what happened to her. They might at least be able to call the cops and tell them about Connor’s restraining order, how he’d attacked her. Something. Anything. All he had to do was listen to me and call for an ambulance. It was a struggle to keep my face in calm, neutral lines.
Then he shook his head, and I sobbed again, this time with frustration.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, tears streaming down my face. Parker was ominously quiet, his body shielding mine ever so slightly. If any of them so much as raised a hand, he would have jumped in front of me. Somehow I knew it without having to be told. I felt the raw energy coming from him, and it scared me a little. He would have taken them all on, were it not for Isabella. They looked like pretty fearsome men, too. I had faith in him, but even that faith didn’t lead me to believe he would make it out all right.
“If you would’ve been the wife you tricked me into thinking you would be, none of this would be happening. This is all you, honey. We could have had a good life together. We could have been happy, the way we were before we got married. But then you ran off. And I find out today that you filed a fucking restraining order?”
Language, I thought. I didn’t dare call him on it.
“I only filed it because you threatened me,” I said, feeling pitiful. Nothing I could say would change his mind, but I had to say something. I felt like I needed to keep him talking. Otherwise, he would take Isabella away from me. Would I see her again? I didn’t think he would let me. I was pretty sure he would do anything in his power to keep my child from me once he got a hold of her.
“I didn’t threaten you,” he said. “You felt threatened. That’s your problem, not mine. Your boyfriend here,” he gestured to Parker, but looked at me, “couldn’t keep his hands to himself. If he had, this might have ended a lot differently.”
“Listen, Connor. I know you can be reasonable. I know it. You just have to control yourself right now, okay? Isabella has nothing to do with any of this. Please let her go. Don’t punish her for this.” I tried to go to her again, but Parker planted himself more firmly in front of me. His entire body trembled, but I didn’t think it was from fear. More like the strain of holding himself back.
“This doesn’t have to involve either of them,” Parker snarled. “It only has to be you and me. Let’s be men about this and fight it out the way we both want to.”
Connor laughed that strange, high-pitched laugh he seemed to have adopted since he went crazy. “You think I’m stupid, don’t you? Only a world-class fool would fight somebody like you. Come on. When you were out there making your bones, or whatever it is you biker trash do, I was studying and working. It’s no contest.”
“So that’s why you had to bring four of your friends with you. You probably hired them, though, right? A guy like you doesn’t have friends.”
“Parker, stop,” I whispered. “Please.” All I needed was for him to fly off the handle and kill Isabella.
He ignored me. “Come on. Be a real man for once in your life. Or can you only hit women? Are men too much for you to handle?”
“Stop this,” I begged. I could see Connor’s face twitch, the muscles jumping. He wanted to kill Parker. I could feel it. “Stop,” I said, raising my voice. “Both of you, stop. It doesn’t have to be this way.” I glanced over my shoulder, to where my mother had started to stir. She was regaining consciousness, which was a relief, but all I needed was for her to wake up in the middle of a fight. Just another person to be caught in the crossfire. My mind worked fast, looking at the situation from every angle. I couldn’t believe how sharp I was with everything going on.
“You don’t get to talk right now,” Connor sneered. He looked at Parker. “Fine. You want a fight? You’ll have your fight.” He raised his hand, gesturing toward Parker. Suddenly, all four of his pals jumped Parker. Isabella was dropped to the floor, forgotten.
“Baby!” I reached for her, scooping her up, moving away from the fight. Parker did the best he could, but he was quickly outmatched. They hit him with their guns, their fists. They knocked him to the floor. I held Isabella in a vice grip, pressing her face to my shoulder. I didn’t want her to see what was happening. I glanced toward the back door, wondering if I could make a run for it. Would I have time to escape? But I couldn’t leave Parker. But I couldn’t risk my baby’s life.
Parker fell to the floor, beaten and bloodied. I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to look at what they’d done to his beautiful face. Connor snickered, going to him. I heard Parker grunt, and opened my eyes in time to see Connor pull him to his knees. He pulled a gun from his coat pocket, and I let out a whimper. He looked at me.
“It’s up to you,” Connor spat, pressing the gun to Parker’s temple. “Either you come with me, or I kill him.” He cocked the gun, the click making me jump and shriek before I could hold back. “And I’ll kill her, too, for good measure.”
“No!” I screamed, squeezing Isabella tight. She didn’t cry, the brave thing, but she trembled.
“Come on, Ellie. It’s all up to you. Either you do what I want, or I’ll take what I want anyway. No matter what you decide, you’ll be mine.”
I thought fast. What would he do with me? Where would he take me? I looked at Parker, half conscious, bleeding from his nose, his mouth, a cut on the side of his face. He mumbled something I couldn’t understand, tried to open his eyes to look at me. I didn’t know what he wanted me to do.
And I realized it didn’t matter. I had to make the choice on my own. There was no choice, not when my daughter was involved.
“Fine.” I stood, still holding my baby. “I’ll go with you.”
“The kid, too.” He wouldn’t look at her.
My heart froze, but I had no choice. “Isabella, too,” I replied. Did he even care for her? How could he, when he threatened to kill her if I didn’t give him his way?
“See? None of it had to be this difficult. All you had to do was give me what I wanted right away. That was one lesson I could never quite teach you.” He let go of Parker, who fell to the floor in a daze. I could have wept with relief. Parker would be safe. He would find me, no matter where I was.
Connor looked at his men. “Take care of him,” he said, his voice flat and serious. He grabbed me by the arm, pulling me to the door.
“No! No! You have to let him go!” I screamed, keeping a tight grip on Isabella but unwilling to leave Parker.
“That wasn’t part of the deal. I only said I would kill him if you didn’t come. I didn’t say my guys wouldn’t take care of him for me if you did.” He chuckled nastily, giving me one more tug to get me out the door and down the front stairs. One of the neighbors stood on his front porch, watching. I noticed him from the corner of my eye.
“Where are you taking us?” I asked, my voice loud and strong. Let him hear me. Let him call the cops, please.
“You’ll find out when we get there.”
“No, I need to know now. Are we going to your house?” I pulled against Connor’s grip, making sure I went because he forced me to.
“No. We’ll go through the desert and drive to the Petrified Forest. Remember when we took that trip years ago?”
“The Petrified Forest?” It was the last thing I managed to say before Connor shoved me into the car. I refused to get in the front seat with him, preferring the back seat with Isabella.
“Yes. Are you deaf now, too?” Connor sneered at me in the rearview mirror when he slid behind the wheel. He was too worked up to notice my neighbor looking right at us. Thank God, I breathed silently. He might be able to help us.
I cast one more look at my mother’s house. Parker was still in there. What would they do to him? All I could do was pray that he’d survive, and find some way to save us.