He hit the red button and slid the phone into his front pocket. “Come on. We have to get into the closet.” He sounded resigned to our fate.
I took the other phone off the table and picked up the bag of stuff we bought at the store, following him into the bigger bedroom. “What’d she say?”
“I’ll tell you in the closet.”
After taking a quick bathroom break, we went into the bigger room and fumbled around inside the closet until we found the button that would release the latch on the false back wall. Swinging the small door in revealed a space just big enough for about three people sitting down, possibly four if they were standing. They’d have to be dwarves, though, because the space was only about five feet high. Malcolm had to practically bend in half to get inside.
I jerked a string hanging from the low ceiling and a lightbulb went on, the wattage so weak it only managed to put out a faint orange light.
Malcolm pulled the door shut and latched it from our side. It didn’t look strong enough to stop anyone who was really determined to get in, but it was better than nothing at all.
“What’d she say?” I asked once we were settled with the candy bag and water bottle between us.
“She said that they picked up some transmissions and conversations about us and that bomb.”
“I don’t get how they’re related at all, except that we saw the guy do it.” I flicked the bags of candy in front of me absently, trying to make the connection in my head.
“She didn’t give me all the info, there wasn’t time … but she said that apparently someone was supposed to do that bomb thing without anyone seeing, but that something we did screwed it all up.”
“All we did was see the guy.”
“I think that’s the point. Like no one was supposed to see him.”
“That makes zero sense!” I said, immediately embarrassed that I’d yelled. “Zero sense,” I whispered.
Malcolm nodded. “Want to know what I think?”
“Of course.” I reached over and took his hand, making him smile.
“When you saw that guy with the bomb, did you notice that he kept looking at us and getting mad? Like we were giving him a hard time or something?”
“Yes. That’s what it seemed like to me too.”
“Maybe we did something to mess up his plan,” said Malcolm. “Maybe just us being here messed it up somehow.”
“What about those other two guys … do you think they were really with the police?” I asked. Now that we knew there was some kind of behind-the-scenes chatter about us, everyone was looking suspicious to me.
“No, I don’t.” Malcolm stopped and cocked his head, going silent for a few seconds. “Did you hear anything?” he whispered.
“No,” I whispered back, straining to hear but getting nothing other than our breathing.
“Anyway,” he continued, speaking in very low tones, “I think that bomber guy knew we were there and that we weren’t like other people. And it’s possible those two guys in the SUV were with him.”
Something the second man in the SUV said in the store sparked in my memory. “Do you remember that guy in the store?” I asked. “What he said about the clerk?”
Malcolm frowned in concentration. Then he shook his head. “No. I was a little too freaked out at the time to really think about what they were saying. Sorry.”
“He said something, I can’t remember the exact words, that made me think he was in the guy’s head. Remember? He said something like he wasn’t getting anything, that it was mush in there.” I shook my head. It sounded so crazy, I couldn’t believe I was actually saying it out loud.
“Okay, so if he was in that guy’s head, how come he wasn’t in ours? I mean, how come he didn’t know we were there in the store if he can see in heads?”
“I don’t know. I think …”
Malcolm grabbed my arm and squeezed it a little, putting his finger to his lips. He shook his head and pointed at the door.
I reached up slowly and pulled on the string, clicking off the light and making the little space go black. Listening carefully, I was able to pick up the sounds of something other than our breathing. They’re here!
Muffled voices came from somewhere out in the bedroom or the hallway possibly, there was no way to know for sure. The louder they got, the more I squeezed Malcolm’s arm. He pried my hand off when the nails started digging into his skin.
“Sorry,” I said as softly as I could, leaning over to kiss him in apology. I was touching my lips to his nose just as someone kicked the door of our hiding spot.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Malcolm
THE BANG ON THE DOOR made me jump. It was either someone’s fist or their boot, but either way, they knew we were in here.
“Come out!” said the voice. “Don’t make me kick it in.”
Rae’s grip on my arm started again, but this time I didn’t bother peeling her off. Her panic was understandable. I felt like I was going to piss my pants with the stress.
I leaned in really close to her ear and whispered as softly as I could. “Just wait.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and crawled into my lap, smashing the candy bags in the process. The sound was thankfully muffled by our legs. I welcomed her warmth and closeness, hugging her tight to me. We waited in silence, both of us breathing rapidly. I shivered despite the massive body heat we were sharing and steaming up the room with.
“I’m not kidding,” said the angry voice on the other side. “I’ll destroy the door and probably hurt you too, and I really don’t want to do that. You need to unlock it and come out right now.” I couldn’t tell if it was one of the cops or someone new we hadn’t seen yet.
Rae’s head was shaking no, and I completely agreed with her. The longer we could stall, the more time we could give the Butts group to get here.
Some muffled voices came through the door and then another one spoke to us, very clear this time. He must have been on hands and knees, putting his face right up to the door.
“Rae, honey, you need to come out.”
She grabbed me in a strangle hold, cutting off my air, a squeak of breath coming out of my throat just before it was totally blocked.
I took her arms and pried them away a little, just so I could breathe. “What’s … the … matter,” I grunted out.
“That’s my dad,” she whispered, her voice so high she sounded like a crazed mouse.
I dropped my hands to her waist and held her against me tighter, completely confused and feeling terrible that she was in this position.
I sighed heavily and leaned my face against hers, knowing we were out of choices now. I couldn’t expect her to ignore her father’s order and go with the Butts group. The game was over. We were going to be split up and she’d be sent way. My heart felt like it was breaking in half.
I reached out to unlock the door, leaning around Rae to get there.
She wrestled around until she found my arm and grabbed it hard. “No!” she whispered loudly, jerking it away from the door. “Do not open that door!”
“But it’s your dad,” I said right by her ear, my hot breath bouncing back and hitting me in the nose. “We can’t go with the Butts group now that he’s here, right?”
“Heck yes, we can. He might not even be my dad!”
“I can hear you in there, Rae,” came her father’s voice. “I need you to come out right now. Enough playing around and hiding from me. It’s time to come home. You want to come home, don’t you? Your mother’s worried, you know. So am I. Very worried. You’re mixed up in a lot of bad business right now, Rae. Very bad business.”
I could feel Rae’s body tensing, but not in time to stop her from shouting out her response. “You’re not even my father, are you?”
At first there was nothing but silence. Then an angry tone came through the wood door. “Rae, I don’t even want to hear that talk right now. Get out immediately or I’ll break the door in. I mean it, young lady. Right now.”
“He means it,” she whispered. “I know that tone of voice.”
I nodded, reaching out once more towards the lock. “Don’t claw me, okay? I’m just going to open it. We stick together, right?”
“Yes. Absolutely. If they try to separate us, I’m going to scream bloody murder.”
“Take ‘em out by the balls,” I said, unlocking the door and allowing it to swing in.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Rae
THE FIRST THING I SAW when I came out of the hiding space and into the bedroom was my father’s face, and all I wanted to do was punch it. It took every ounce of willpower I had to just hold back and wait for Malcolm to join me at my side.
“Rae, what were you thinking?” my father asked, using a condescending tone, talking to me like I’m just a stupid baby.
I was ready to let him have it, to tell him exactly what I thought about his bullcrap, when Malcolm cut in.
“Sir, I don’t mean to be rude, but you need to just step back a little and give us some space.” He held out an arm, his fingertips touching my dad’s chest and pushing on it a little.
My father glared at Malcolm, shoving his hand away. “Young man, you’re lucky I don’t have the police in here arresting you for statutory rape.” He pointed a finger at Malcolm’s face. “Very lucky.”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “Are you …” The words wouldn’t come out, I was so pissed. How dare he suggest things about my sex life that are totally none of his business! How humiliating! The two men from the drugstore were standing in the doorway of the room, smirking at each other.
Malcolm put his arm around me. “Are you threatening me?” Malcolm’s voice came off very tough, even though it was calm and cool. I could tell how upset he was by the trembling I felt in his arm, but he showed no other signs of it. My heart soared with pride.
“Yeah, you’re damn straight I am. What’d you think you were doing kidnapping my daughter and dragging her across the country?” He reached out to take me by the arm, but I jerked back so he couldn’t reach me.
“Don’t touch me! You have no right to touch me, you jerk!” All I could think about was him putting Malcolm in jail for the amazing way he’d made me feel. For the first time in my life somebody was with me just because he wanted to be, and now his freedom was being threatened. My dad totally picked the wrong day to get involved in my private life. I was prepared to scream down this whole building if I had to, because there was no way I was going to let Malcolm go to jail.
“I have every right to touch you and take you home, Rae. I’m your father.”
“Bullshit,” I spat. “ You’re not my father. You think I don’t know who you are?” I was bluffing, but it didn’t matter. The more I stared at him the more I felt it. He wasn’t my real dad. He was just an imposter.
“I’m the only father you’re ever going to have, and I’ve sacrificed almost half my life to your care, so you’d better appreciate it, dammit.”
I was taken aback by his easy confession and emboldened by the idea that I could get some answers out of him. “Why’d you do it? Why all the lies and the bullshit?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but one of the turds at the door stopped him. “Not now. We need to get them out of here before those assholes get here.”
My father lunged forward and grabbed my upper arm. “We’ll discuss this later. Come on.”
I tried to get away but he had an iron grip on my arm. I snagged Malcolm’s hand and dragged him with me towards the door.
“Let him go,” ordered my dad, shaking me hard.
“No!” I shouted, struggling to get free. “I’ll go with you, but not without him. Let me go! I’m going to scream if you keep manhandling me like this.”
He dropped my arm. “Scream and I’ll knock you out. Come on, we need to leave.” He strode to the front door, not even looking to see if we were following. But he didn’t have to. The other two men were right behind us, corralling us into the front hallway.
My father stuck his head out the front door to check the hallway first. Then he stepped out, leaving the front door open. “Leave your cell phone here. I know they gave you one,” he said, looking at me.
I prayed Malcolm still had his in his pocket. I hadn’t seen him put it down anywhere, but he could have at any point. Taking my phone out of my pocket slowly, trying to stall, I caught Malcolm’s eye. He nodded just the slightest bit, giving me hope that he did have his phone on him. Hopefully the Butts team would trace us down and find us before anything terrible happened. Visions of my father in surgical gear with a scalpel in his hand made me shiver with dread. Maybe he was going to give me a lobotomy.
We went down to the parking garage in the elevator, the close contact with the jerks who were kidnapping us making me want to climb the walls and escape out the ceiling hatch.
Any ideas I had for disappearing in the maze of cars downstairs ended when my father clamped onto my arm with the grip of a frigging steel handcuff and dragged me over to the black SUV we’d seen earlier. “Get in,” he said, pushing me roughly towards the back door.
I looked at Malcolm just before getting in, holding onto his hand so they couldn’t separate us. We settled into the last row of seats, our captors taking the row in front of us and my dad at the wheel.
Chapter Thirty: Malcolm
THIS WHOLE THING WAS BULLSHIT. Kidnapped? By Rae’s father and a couple of goons in suits? It couldn’t possibly be real. This was all just one big mistake, an over-protective father trying to get his daughter to come back home and finish her senior year. That’s it.
“Where are you taking us?” I asked as we pulled out into traffic. No one did me the courtesy of answering, which only pissed me off more.
“I said, where are you taking us?” I didn’t bother hiding my anger.
“Shut up or you’ll get thrown out of the car. And I won’t stop first, either.” Rae’s father meant business, I could tell from his tone. It took a lot of the wind out of my sails.
“Dad! You can’t say crap like that to Malcolm!”
“I can say whatever I want to that kid. All he’s done is cause problems for our family, and I mean to put a stop to it.”
“Malcolm’s done nothing wrong. Nothing! That was you that caused all the problems, not him.”
Rae’s father twisted around in his seat, his face screwed up in anger. “Me? I caused the problems?” He snorted, turning back to face the windshield. “That’s rich, coming from the girl who caused us to have to pack up and move over twenty times in half as many years.” He glared at her in the rearview mirror, shaking his head.
“Low blow, man,” I said, totally disappointed in him as a person. He might not be her dad in reality, but he’d been like a dad to her, and that meant his words could really hurt.
Tears ran down Rae’s face, but she didn’t say a word.
“That’s not a low blow, it’s reality,” he argued, a sneer in his voice. “You have no idea how many people have been inconvenienced, who’ve bent over backwards and jumped through hoops for you, Rae. You’re oblivious. Selfish. All you think about is yourself and never the greater good.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t kept all those secrets from me all those years I wouldn’t have been so selfish or so oblivious … such a crappy daughter.”
Her voice broke on the last words, and it just killed me to hear it. I scooted closer to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulders. I had so much to say to this total douchebag of a pretender-father, but I didn’t even know where to start. And more than anything, I just wanted Rae to stop crying. He totally wasn’t worth it.
“The secrets were kept for your own good. But now the cat’s out of the bag and instead of helping us, you’re getting in the way. That’s going to end today. Right now. As of this moment, you are under my care and control and no one’s going to interfere in what I’m doing.”
“Easy now, Livingston,” said one of the guys. It was the one who’d approached us in the crowd for questioning, the smaller of
the two. “You don’t make those decisions.”
“Fuck you, toad. You don’t talk to me like that. I make any decisions I need to for the cause.”
Rae flinched at the expletive, making me think her father didn’t swear much at home.
“Who do you work for?” I asked.
“Don’t tell him anything. He’s not a part of what we’re doing,” said the larger fake cop.
“He doesn’t matter,” said Rae’s father. “We’ll be getting rid of him here shortly, so whatever I tell him will go to the grave with him anyway.”
“Grave!” Rae shrieked, leaping forward to climb over the seats. She made it all the way to her dad’s shoulder and grabbed his shirt, yanking back on it with everything she had. “You asshole!”
The car lurched to the side, causing the person next to us in traffic to lean on his horn and yell out the window at us.
“Get her off of me!” Rae’s father shouted, righting the car and putting it fully back in the correct lane. The other driver was still shooting a bird out his window at us and yelling something I couldn’t hear. I kinda wished we had crashed into him. The idea of meeting my grave anytime soon was making me scared shitless.
The two guys both grabbed Rae and pulled her back, shoving her roughly into the backseat.
“You see! You see!” Mr. Livingston was furious. “This is what I’m talking about. Years you were groomed. Years. And this is how you thank us.”
“Groomed?! Are you completely mental?! I’m not a poodle!”
“Yes, you are,” he growled, glaring at her in the rearview mirror. “You’re my lap dog and you’re going to do exactly as I say, or I’m going to take your nice little boyfriend back there and pull his fucking eyeballs out.”
My heart leaped up into my throat, and I felt like it was clogging up my airway, making it very difficult to breathe. I cleared my throat several times to clear it out. My eyeballs?
Rae sat back slowly, her spine stiff and her chin up. Her face quivered with fear and tears ran down her cheeks, but she stared him down in the mirror, her expression defiant. “You touch one hair on his head and I’ll make you the sorriest Rainbow that ever lived.”