Page 11 of Missing Piece
He’s not human.Vincent’s face changed after Adam broke his nose. And he bit me. Adam ran his fingers over the wounds on his neck. The whole spot ached, but he could feel ridges on his neck where the wounds went deeper.Vampires?
The thought made his face crinkle. That wasn’t possible, was it? Vampires being real? That was the kind of thing Adam expected to see in the tabloids near the checkout of a grocery store. Not real life.
What else could explain what he did? How did he fix his face? You felt the bones in his nose break.
Whatever the fuck Vincent was, Adam didn’t care. It didn’t matter. Getting the hell out of here and probably out of town was his priority. The court shit could be dealt with later. What mattered was getting as far away from wherever he was as possible.
But first the leg cuff needed to come off.
It was only a single cuff, not a double. Meaning anyone Vincent had tried this on before must have been idiots to not get out of them. If Adam had his wallet, he could have used something in there as a shim against the ratchet and the teeth of the cuff to release the mechanism. His credit card knife would work. Or a paper clip.
But here Adam sat, trapped on the bed in his boxer briefs, with nothing but a bum leg and an achingly full bladder that was growing more and more distracting by the minute. Frankly, he was surprised he didn’t piss himself while he was out given the whole ketamine situation.I’m almost positive he’s the one who dosed me.It made more sense than him doing it voluntarily. And why the memory of what happened behind the strip club was so fuzzy.
One of the guys Adam used to party with loved ketamine and said it was better than ecstasy for his sex drive and made him feel like a god. Instead, what Adam had to deal with when that guy snorted a few rails was a night of over-aggressive sexual advances from a supposedly straight bro that ended with the guy busting out all the windows of his own house before conking out in the bathroom Adam had locked him in. Adam always thought the guy’s claim of not remembering what happened was just his excuse to not cop to his shitty behavior, but now Adam was wondering if he had been telling the truth.
With a sigh, Adam fiddled with the cuff, trying to see if it had any give to it. The metal scraped the skin of his ankle again, the flesh rubbed raw from his first attempt to get out of it.Okay. That’s not going to work. I need to get something as a shim.
That meant playing nice with his potentially not-human kidnapper. The thought made his stomach hurt. Or maybe that was just hunger. Whatever it was, he needed to bury it way down deep with all the other shit he would one day snap over. Now he just needed to keep on Vincent’s good side so he wouldn’t hit him or bite him again.
Pissed-off dealers were much easier to deal with. Theycould almost always be calmed down with sex or money, or there was something they wanted that Adam could help them get.
What the hell did Vincent want?
A glance around the room revealed nothing he could use to tell the time. There wasn’t even a window. Adam could already hear his father’s predatory lawyer spiel in his head, “If that house caught fire and you get hurt because there was no window, that’s a code violation and negligence, you could sue the pants off of them blah blah blah.” At least that’s how his Dad used to talk to him, when things were easier and his life hadn’t turned into an endless black hole for feeding his addiction.
When he had dreams and aspirations.
Pressing his palms against his eyes until he saw stars behind his eyelids, Adam fought the memories.Not thinking about that. Focus on getting out. Wallow later.Taking in a deep breath, he opened his eyes to the remaining stars dancing in his vision as he wondered if being kidnapped by a pervert would be a decent enough excuse to miss his Intensive Outpatient Program and drug court. How the fuck would he explain that to the judge?
The sound of the door clicking snapped him from his thoughts. Adam gripped the sheets, his entire body tensing as the door slowly opened. The reddish-brown hair appeared first and he held his breath, but the hair was too short. Did the other owner of the club get a haircut?
No. The man walking in was clean-shaven, but everything else about his face looked like Luka. Except his eyes. Those eyes looked brighter and he wore a big smile on his face that was unsettlingly friendly. The newcomer waved hello asthough he didn’t notice the big chain on the end of the bed keeping Adam trapped there, his other hand and forearm occupied with a precarious balance of three plates like a server at a restaurant.
Adam tentatively waved in return, unsure of what to make of the guy. His stomach growled as the smell of the food wafted towards him. The food looked tempting, but Adam glanced up at the friendly man, weighing the pros and cons of taking one of the plates from him. Would they have drugged it? Was that the plan? To keep him strung out and drugged while Vincent did whatever messed up stuff he wanted to his unconscious body?
But God damn did it smell good.
The man set the plates down on the empty nightstand and started gesturing rapidly with his hands. Adam squinted at him, his eyes widening as he realized he recognized some of the movements.
It was sign language.
Furrowing his brow, Adam searched his memory. Those classes during his freshman and sophomore years of high school came before he had fallen hard into his addiction. Most of the sophomore class was spent sleeping off hangovers and what he now knew were the early signs of withdrawal, but he had still passed with a C. Only a handful of actual signs and the alphabet remained in his memory, though he mostly just remembered the swear words.
Slowly, Adam ran his hand up his forearm, the gesture shaking as he did.Please let this actually mean “slow” and not something weird.
The man paused, his eyes somehow lighting up even more as a grin spread across his face. Pointing to himself, he heldup his hand, slowly spelling out, «M-A-T-T-E-O».
“Matteo?” Adam asked aloud, leaning towards the man.
The man nodded his head rapidly, still grinning.
Adam sucked in a deep breath.Okay. This guy seems nice enough. How can I get him to let me go?For all he knew, they were keeping this deaf guy captive as well. The sign for help escaped Adam’s memory, but he was sure he could spell it with his hands. Pointing at Matteo, he signed «H-E-L-P M-E.»
Matteo cocked his head, pursing his lips. Reaching out, he grabbed Adam’s right hand, folding his fingers in to form a thumbs up before grabbing Adam’s left hand and straightening it so it was palm up. Matteo guided Adam’s right hand down onto his left.
Adam raised his eyebrows as Matteo made the same gesture with his own hands. “What are you doing?”
Matteo held a finger up and reached into his back pocket. Adam flinched as he produced a small notepad and a pen, half expecting to see a knife or a gun. Instead, Matteo scribbled on the notepad and handed it to him.
