Page 55 of A Night of Indulgence and Sloth
“Life or death, you said?” Sarah asks, and when we both nod, she opens the drawer of her desk and slips the cash into her purse. “Hank’s got a little log cabin in the woods outside of town. If I had to guess, that’s where he’d be.”
If she had to guess? It dawns on me that this woman didn’t have a fucking clue where Hank was, but before I can open my mouth and tell her exactly what I think of her little act, Kaleb stops me. With his hand on my arm, he only shakes his head. I jerk away from him but keep quiet until Sarah slides a post-it note across the desk.
Kaleb takes the note, reads it once, and then hands it to me. I don’t bother reading it, not with this bitch watching, and head for the door instead. Kaleb doesn’t follow. As I walk toward the exit, I hear his steady voice.
“You never even knew where he was, did you?”
At her startled expression, he doesn’t bother waiting for an answer and just walks off to join me on the sidewalk. His face is set into a scowl, the determination I see there matching my own as we step into the car. Hank Stuart better fucking be there.
“Let’s go save our girl.”
Liliana
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Something warm brushes against my chest, but I keep my eyes closed. It happens again, and I giggle. “Kaleb, Aiden, it’s too early.” The touching stops, but neither of my men respond, and I slip back to sleep.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
A cold chill seeps into my body, all the way down to my bones. Where did my blankets go, and where is that breeze coming from? I wrap my arms around my torso, huddling into myself when I feel it. A wet patch on my blouse. What the fuck?
My eyes pop open to find darkness. There’s a broken window to my left that lets in enough light for me to understand that I have no fucking clue where I am.
A match flares somewhere close behind me, and I jolt, turning around to find Mr. Stuart lighting a long-stemmed candle.
I scramble back, shaking with cold. “Wh-where the hell are we?”
“Liliana,” he sneers before lighting another candle with the same match. “You can try to class up the name,Anna, but it doesn’t make you any less of a slut.”
My back hits the wall below the broken window, and I’m grateful for the light. I only wish the breeze was warmer as another shiver streaks through my body.
Holding tightly to the lit match, he stalks towards me, seeming completely oblivious to the flame growing closer to his fingers. He seems deranged, but beneath the glow of the candle, I find something familiar. His words finally break past the fear, and I realize what he said. Anna. Slut.Could he really be—
Without warning, he thrusts his hand forward, holding the match close to my face until I feel the heat of it against my cheek.
“You’re really going to sit there and pretend you don’t know me, Anna? Like we didn’t spend our youth fighting for the same scraps of attention? Though, it wasn’t as if you ever had to try very hard, was it? Perfect little Anna.”
“Hank,” I whisper, unsure if I can believe him. Hank Stuart was a year or two older than me and had been at the farm long before Calantha and I ever got there. He was my uncle’s pet, the protege, or so the other kids said, but that all changed when I arrived. For whatever reason, he hated me and was always trying to compete for my uncle’s recognition even though I never wanted it.
The flame extinguishes against his fingers, thrusting us into darkness. He doesn’t make a sound. Not of pain from the fire licking against his flesh or movement away from me. The light shafting in from the broken window behind me is my only salvation, and as my eyes adjust, I find him standing exactly where he was. Too fucking close.
“I was happy when you left,” he states, still unmoving. “I figured with you gone, things would go back to the way they were. And they did. Everything was fucking perfect. After Iturned twenty-two, your uncle promoted me. He relied on me and praised me for a job well done. I supplied him with troubled teens, and he gave me the one thing he always saved for you. His love.”
His words crash into me, making me forget that I’m trapped here in this darkened cabin with a demented man. Hank had been jealous of me? After everything we’d been through at the farm, how could he not realize there were no better ends to that shitty stick? “He never loved me. He used me, just like he’s using you,” I say softly.
“You shut your fucking mouth,” he growls, gripping my jaw in his fist and making me flinch. “You lost the right to speak about him when you hightailed it out of there all those years ago. And you lost your chance at his love, too. Like the bitch you are, you stole my contract with Allegiance Medical, along with every chance I had to prove my worth. You jeopardized my shot of becoming a real member of the family with the man you never fucking cared about. How could you do that? I’ve been on the outs for months, but when he learns that I’ve secured his precious fucking Anna, I’ll be back in his good graces.”
I don’t move, unable to speak with the tight grip he has on my jaw, but I wouldn’t know what to say anyway. Pieces start falling together. Allegiance Medical and the contract I helped Aiden and Kaleb secure… HealthRX must have been the other company vying for that contract. But it wasn’t as if I knew that. I didn’t help them just to screw Hank over. If I’m completely honest, I’d forgotten about him entirely until today.
Just then, the light glints off something in Hank’s other hand.A knife.Reality crashes down around me. Hank intends to send me back, gifting me to my uncle like the prized turkey at a country fair, right before they break my neck. I can’t survive the farm again. I won’t make it out of there a second time. Not alive, anyway.
He lets go of my jaw, stepping back toward the candles and pulling a phone from his pocket. I watch him dial, listening as it rings and rings. Part of me hopes whoever he’s calling doesn’t pick up, but even I know I’m not that lucky.
“Hank, I thought I told you not to call me anymore,” I catch my uncle say through the speaker.
“You’ll want to hear this, I promise.”
“Well, spit it out already. I’m very busy.”
