Page 6 of Reckoning

Madeline

I ate as slowly as I could after he left me, determined to extend my time unbound and without anyone watching over me. But moments after Meyer stepped from the room, the large man who had driven us to the house the previous night took his place at the table next to me. He didn’t look at me as I ate, but he didn’t look at anything else either. His eyes seemed to settle on nothing, taking in the room around us and the trees through the windows beyond. He wore an earpiece connected to a curly cable that disappeared down the back of his heavy black suit jacket.

As the last bite of pancakes disappeared down my throat, I reached to refill my coffee mug for the third time. The acid was upsetting my already roiled stomach, but I didn’t want to go back to the bedroom. “Who are you?” I didn’t look the man directly in his eyes as I spoke. What if he was just as bad or worse than Meyer? I was stupid to even talk to him.

But when he spoke, it was with a gentle tone I wouldn’t expect from someone so large. “I’m Joshua, Meyer’s personal security.”

My curiosity got the better of me. “Meyer? Not Mr. Schaf?”

The big man finally turned his gaze on me, and I cowered a little under the intensity of it. Still, there was no malice in him. “Mr. Schaf is his father.”

“Hmm.” I raised the mug to my lips but barely took a sip. “So he’s the one who really pays you, then?”

One side of his mouth raised slightly. “Are you done with your coffee?”

With dismay, I looked down to see my mug was indeed empty. With my eyes down, I set it on the table.

He sighed. “Come on, now.”

“Please don’t,” I begged, but he grabbed my arm to haul me out of my chair and pulled me back toward the bedroom. All I’d done since arriving here was beg not to be hurt. “I can walk on my own,” I insisted, and he let me go with a suspicious glance. I rubbed my arm where his fingers had irritated my bruises and walked ahead of him back to Meyer’s bedroom. He followed me in, revealing a length of rope.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He was going to tie me up even when no one was around? But the man did his job silently, leaving me a little more room to wiggle my fingers than I’d had last night and more length connecting me to the bed. “When will he be back?” I called after Joshua as he turned to leave the room. He looked at me and shrugged.

“Yell if you need the bathroom.”

He slammed the door shut behind him, leaving me alone.

I sat on the bed, grateful to have a little more range and not be tethered to the floor. What sick game was Meyer playing by literally chaining me to his bed? Did he want me to be his slave? The thought made my blood turn to ice. My body went boneless, and I slid down the bed to rest on the floor with my head between my knees. My face throbbed, and it hurt to breathe bent over like that, but I couldn’t bring myself to face the room. The blood-red decorations enveloped all my senses, and I could smell my own blood from the cuts all over my body. What kind of person did this to another? Why didn’t I listen to my mother?

“Go out the back gate, Mads, and wait behind the fence.” I’d never seen my mother’s face so white in my life. I could barely hear her over the yelling that grew louder by the second. All my friends had stopped talking to turn toward the source of the noise, and someone killed the music. A moment later, two men burst into our small backyard, my father following close behind and matching their screams with threats to call the police. But the large man’s voice died as he saw my mother. Her legs seemed to fail her as he approached at an even faster pace. My father jumped in front of him, attempting to slow his progression, but the man slammed his fist into my father’s stomach and sent him to the ground. My mother and I both jumped toward him as my friends backed away from the scene or ran into the house.

“Hello there, my dear. Fancy finding you out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“What are you doing here, Conrad?” My mother’s voice faltered as she dropped to her knees beside my father, helping him to his feet. He stood between Conrad and us, though his breathing was labored.

“Dad, let’s just go.” My eyes flicked behind the young man standing behind Conrad, noticing him for the first time. “You’ve made your point.”

“I haven’t even come close to making my point, Meyer.” Conrad never took his eyes off my mother. “I’ve been looking for this bitch for a long time.”

“Don’t talk to my mother like that!” The words were out of my mouth before I had a chance to think better of them. Meyer’s eyes met mine for the briefest second before I refocused on Conrad as my father shushed me.

Conrad’s eyes blazed. “Would you look at this. How old is she?”

“It’s none of your goddamn business,” my father growled. “Get off my property before I call the police.”

“You’re not going to call the police. If you were, you already would have.” Conrad never looked away from me. “She looks like—”

“Me. She looks like me.” Mom stepped forward to stand next to my dad, blocking me from Conrad as much as they could. His attention returned to her.

“Nice to see you have a nice family here. No regret for the one you abandoned, I assume.”

“You know full well why I left.”

“What’s going on?” I whispered, but my father hushed me once more.

“You need to leave, Conrad. There’s nothing for you here.” Mom’s hand clasped Dad’s, his steady hand stilling her trembling one. “Please let this go.”

“I don’t let things go, Eva.” I gasped as his hand cracked across her cheek, then snapped out once more to punch my father in the face. “You stay locked up tight. We’ll be back.”

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