Page 70 of The Captive Missing

Setting the trays on the floor, Val crawled into bed and wrapped her arms around Charlie’s waist. He covered her hand with his own, letting his chin rest near the top of her head. Both of them fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

She woke to the gentle stroke of his hand along her face. Opening her eyes, Val smiled at him. Charlie was sitting up in bed next to her, eating more food from one of the trays. Exhaling a breath of relief, she crept up beside him and picked over a muffin. For a long while, they didn’t say anything at all. They just ate.

“What did you have to do to get this food?” He asked finally.

“I have an appointment tomorrow,” Val explained. “We both eat and I submit to prep.”

“What kind of appointment?”

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t promise we’d sleep together, did you?”

“I didn’t promise it.”

“You understand why we can’t right?”

“You don’t want to cheat. Neither do I.”

“And I don’t want to fall in love with you.” Charlie tipped her chin towards him, searching her eyes. “You think it would be just once? You think we wouldn’t have to sleep together over and over?”

“Charlie-”

“Listen.” He was adamant. “If I had you once, then I’d want you again. And if I had you again, then it’d never be enough. What happens when you have my baby inside you? What happens when Jason wins this lawsuit and you go back to your husband? Or worse, what happens if he loses the lawsuit and you stay with Cambric forever? Then I’d have to watch every day they sent you to a client. I’d have to stand back and let other men, countless men, have you. I couldn’t do it. Don’t make me do it.”

“Stop.” Val’s heart split. “Just stop.”

“I’m sorry.”

He gathered her onto his lap, then. She tucked her face against his chest and held back the tears that wanted so desperately to fall.

“Tell me about her,” she whispered, and felt him soften. “Tell me all about her.”

Keeping his voice low, he did.

He told her about making a break from Cambric, walking to a bus stop and begging for change until he had enough to board. There were kindhearted people who took pity at first, then odd jobs here and there. He worked for cash under the table; washing dishes in roadside cafes, picking fruit in vast farmer’s fields, working construction in small lazy towns.

About three months in, he had stocked away enough money to afford a fake identity. He bought a dead man’s social security number and was suddenly certifiably free. With legitimate papers, he found solid work. It paid more so he bought himself an old car. And that’s how he met her.

The car quit on the side of a two-lane highway, and for all the skills he had picked up, mechanic work hadn’t been one of them. She drove past him at first. He remembered her car because he glanced up from under the hood and noticed the music that pumped from the open windows.

“She must have liked what she saw.” He chuckled to himself. “Because she turned right around and came back, offered me a ride. That was it.”

“And you married her?”

“Oh yeah. And I would a thousand times over, given the chance.”

“Does she know where you are?”

“No.” Charlie stiffened a bit.

“You mean you didn’t tell her? You mean she doesn’t know you’re a captive? A D2?”

“I wasn’t any of those things, then. And I never wanted to be again. By the time Cambric began prosecuting people for harboring its old captives, it was already too late. I couldn’t tell her.”

“So where does she think you are?”

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