Page 58 of Embracing My Nightmare
Devlin stood and pulled him into a hug, complete with small man pats on the back before James left us alone in the apartment. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at Devlin who stood a few feet from me. He gestured back to the couch and I walked around the small table and sat on one end, grabbing a pillow and covering my chest for protection.
I was vulnerable, raw and cut open, yet content knowing the man staring at me with love and longing had spent most of his life protecting me. I took a swallow of the water and wrung my hands together, not knowing where to start.
As if sensing my apprehension, he spoke, “I want to get you something to settle your nerves then I want to tell you everything. Is that okay?”
I nodded and he stood and left the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts as I waited for the only man I would ever love to return.
Chapter 18
Devlin
My ribs were on firefrom carrying her, but I relished the pain. It let me know I was still alive and that I had her in my arms. I walked into my bedroom and quickly rolled her a joint. If there was ever a time for her to be numb, this was it. Walking back in and seeing her sitting in a defensive—combined with not knowing what had happened while he’d had her—was killing me. I sat on the other end of the couch and handed her the joint.
She placed it between her lips and lit the end, inhaling deeply before she coughed hard. Handing her some water, she offered it to me, and I declined, wanting to be level headed for whatever questions she threw at me. She watched me watching her as she smoked a little more and then snuffed it out in the ashtray on the table.
Looking at me she licked her lips and began, “Why did you kidnap me?” She wasn’t sad, just confused.
“I didn’t kidnap you, Elise. I saved you from that horrible place. You didn’t deserve the shit that you had to live through, and I saw a way to save you. James was there, he witnessed it all.”
Her eyes were full of confusion and I hoped to ease her discomfort.
“I’m going to start at the beginning, and you can stop me anytime you have a question. If you need me to clarify something, I will. I don’t want any secrets between us ever again.” She nodded and I leaned back.
She twisted her fingers together as I started. “When I was nine years old, my parents sold me to a man named Marco who ran the Flats of Portstill like his own personal kingdom.” She gasped, tears filling her green eyes, and I shook my head sadly before I continued. “He was a weird guy who had installed cameras everywhere and he documented everything they captured, from who bought his drugs, to who they sold them to, to the customers the working girls had, and who came and went from his properties. He monitored everything and everyone who interacted with him and my job was to document what I saw. James had been with him for almost two years and we became fast friends. I was learning how to control the cameras and what to record on a rental house of Marco’s.”
I closed my eyes, remembering the first time I saw her through the monitor and the feeling that I’d had. Ihadto save her. No, Ineededto save her. “You were running around the yard, filthy, naked most of the time, and covered in bruises. For almost a year, I would pull up the cameras and try to catch a glimpse of you, hoping that you were surviving what was happening in that place.” Shivering with disgust, I pushed on.
“I convinced Marco to let me collect money from the rental units. I was always big for my age and I used that to get into the house. At first, I would sneak you food and maybe a toy, but I had to wait until I could figure out how to get you away from them. Right after you turned five, I was there one night and saw one of the men watching you too closely. I decided right then that I had to make my move. The next night, we snuck you out under the cover of darkness while your mom was busy in the next room. They had drugged you, so we sat guard all night until the church opened the next day.”
She interrupted me to fill in a detail. “She was with Cameron when you rescued me. He said she looked everywhere for me and was broken that I was missing.”
I shook my head, Cameron’s fixation with Cherry becoming clearer. “I left you at the church, knowing they would get you the help you needed. I hoped your mom wouldn’t come looking for you. She was selfish and had been hooked on drugs for years. For almost two years, no one spoke about you.”
Tears fell from her eyes and I hated to say things that I knew would hurt her, but I had promised to tell the truth. I wanted to pull her into my arms and keep the past buried, but the only way for us to heal was to fillet ourselves to the bone. Handing her a tissue, she dabbed her eyes and I picked up the story.
“I thought I’d covered my tracks with Marco, but when you showed up on TV as the unknown girl, he beat me until I couldn’t move. He tacked more years on to my debt and forced me into harsher jobs. One night, I went to collect from the house and she was drunk, talking about how she should have sold you, so I pushed her off the roof the first chance I had. No one knew who your father was, so I thought you were safe. For another three years, they shuffled you around the state from foster home to foster home.”
