Page 79 of Baby Duke

Roe

A sharp pain in my temple greets me as I wake, my body stiff and aching from the cool, hard floor. I groan, the sharp, bright light of the room almost blinding meas I open and close my eyes in an attempt to adjust to the light.

"Roe?" East's hoarse, shaky voice breaks the silence, and I am instantly alert.

Scuttling to my knees, I turn and find East huddled in a corner, her face pink and splotchy, eyes red and swollen.

"East!" I almost fall flat on my face in my haste to reach her. "Are you ok? How long have I been out?"

A fresh wave of sick betrayal rolls through my stomach as I think of Mr. Foster. Who the fuck was he really? And where had he taken us?

East's lips tremble as she shakes her head. "I don't know. An hour? I am so scared, Roe," she whispers.

"Shhh," I soothe. As scared as I was, East was my priority right now. I had to look after her until help arrived. "It’s going to be ok. West will come for us. He will come foryou." I nod encouragingly, giving her a tight smile. Icollapse onto the floor by her side, my arm falling around East's slim, trembling shoulders. I pull her against me.

"How? How will he find us?Wedon't even know where we are."

I look around us, taking in the sparse room for the first time. The walls are a brilliant white and the floor a simple, grey linoleum. A toilet squats in the corner nearest to where we sit, and a single bed with the thinnest mattress I have ever seen sits in another. The last corner is bare, but for the solid door that had no handle, a small, digital screen sat where it should have been. A fingerprint scanner, perhaps.

There were no windows. No escape.

Looking up, I spy not one but three security cameras watching our every move.

"These sick fuckers are literally watching everything we do," I simmer, glaring at one of the cameras, hoping my stink eye is portrayed to whoever is watching nice and clearly. "You going to watch us shit, too?" I snark, raising my voice.

East squeaks at my outburst, and I apologize.

"No, it's ok," East says. "It's just that… well, I've been needing to pee for a while now, but I just can't bring myself to do it while they could be watching."

Now that she says it, the coke I had had with lunch is beginning to weigh heavy in my bladder. I look around us again, then jump to my feet when I have an idea.

"Here," I say, pulling the thin sheets free from the bed. "I will stand in front of you and hold this out to block the cameras' view. And then you can do the same for me."

East reluctantly agrees, knowing full well it is the best option we have. I stand with my back to East and hold the sheet out as far as my arms can stretch. I hear East's clothes rustling, then silence as she sits on the toilet. The sound of her bladder emptying doesn't come, so I start to sing. Demi Lovato’s “Anyone"is the first song to come to mind. My voice echoes in the small space. It’s not enough to mask the sound of water hitting water, but East eventually relaxes enough to let it happen.

The toilet flushes, and East washes her hands in the small basin next to the toilet before she takes my place. I continue to sing as I pull my pants down because, as it turns out, as shameless as I am, this is still uncomfortable as shit.

After, we sit on the bed and huddle under the thin sheet together.

"Keep singing," East requests, quiet and withdrawn.

I do. I sing for hours until my throat aches and my lips crack. Then we sit in silence for what feels like an eternitybefore suddenly a loud beep sounds from the door, and the finger scanner turns green.

I leap to my feet as East shrinks into an impossibly small ball, placing myself in front of her as if I could shield her from whatever is about to happen. I desperately hope that I can.

The door opens.

"You mother fucking fraud!" I scream as Mr. Foster enters, anger overtaking my fear the instant I see him.

His lips kick up into his familiar smirk, one that once gave me butterflies but now made me sick.

A familiar laugh sounds from behind him, and I stumble back a step when none other than Vincent Mazzuchelli walks in.

"Dad?" East drops the sheet and shuffles closer. I hold up a hand behind my back, indicating for her to stay where she is. I don't like this. Not one bit.

Vincent's laugh cuts off, his mask slipping to one of fury as the door clicks shut behind the two men.

"I can't say I am surprised at what you've gotten yourself into, Easterly, but I am extremely disappointed," he says, sneering at his daughter as if she is a cockroach in his soup. "I tried so hard to raise you as a proper young lady. But you just couldn't fall in line, could you?"

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