Lost In The Dark (‘Lost’ #1)

CHAPTER 16

ADDY

“Hurry the fuck up!” the beast of a man, who had dragged me into the warehouse on the first day, barked. It had been a week in that freezing warehouse, trapped in a cage with three other terrified women. Two of them had been foreign – Eastern European was my best guess – but the other woman – June – she had been from Nevada, kidnapped just like me on the side of the road after her boyfriend tossed her out of the car, following an argument. She had been just as terrified as me, but she was tougher. She’d helped me through the days we spent in that cage and told me I had to stay strong. She told me I would never survive what came next if I showed weakness. Since she seemed a lot more street smart than me, I had believed her.

June had been taken with the group of women the day before. Now it seemed it was my turn as I was once again dragged from the van and tossed on my ass by the gun toting behemoth. A cigarette hung from his lips as he grabbed my arm and dragged me to my feet. I looked up hurriedly as I fought to stay strong and not allow any tears to fall. What I saw before me made me shudder. It was a strip club, lit brightly with a huge neon sign. Wild Cats . That’s what it was called, and just to be sure it was obvious what the business was, there was a neon image of a scantily clad woman beside the name of the club.

“Oh God!” I gasped as I realized what was actually happening. This was just like the crime show I had watched. I was being sold to this place.

“I said move!” the beast snapped as he kicked the back of my knee, almost knocking me down. The other women around me were cowering, almost all of them sobbing in fear. It took everything in me to move forward and not just curl up and cry too.

I looked all around me as we approached the front door, contemplating my escape, but I was not a fast runner, and even with adrenaline on my side, I knew one of the armed men, who now surrounded us, would catch me almost instantly. I knew it was pathetic, but I was just too scared to try and escape too. What if they just shot me? I didn’t want to die.

We were all ushered into the club by the three men holding guns. Inside it was dark and definitely seedy. Before we reached the main club, we were shoved into a side door and down a dingy looking corridor. There were unmarked doors on both sides as we walked down the long passage, and I could hear the sound of women, clearly in distress, coming from within..

Eventually we came to the end and were shoved into a huge office. A desk sat at the back of it and behind it sat a middle aged, badly balding guy, who wore a silky blue shirt and had the oddest little moustache. He looked up leeringly between all of us and then smirked.

“Not bad, Bull. Better than the last group you brought me,” he remarked. His eyes landed on me and I did not like what I saw as he paused and looked me up and down more thoroughly. I didn’t have much experience with men, but I wasn’t stupid and I knew what the attention he was laying on me had to mean.

“Next delivery will be in three weeks. Try not to break these ones too bad in the meantime,” the beast, or Bull, as the other guy had called him, said. My heart rate sped up, if that was possible, at that comment and my blood turned cold. What did that mean? Now I wanted to cry, but I remembered Junes words and held strong, trying hard to present a mask of indifference.

“No promises,” the guy behind the desk laughed, as he got to his feet and moved towards us. Some of the other girls were quietly sobbing, and I got it. There was no missing the fact things were about to get a lot worse than being held in that warehouse.

The guys with guns all filed out, but they were just replaced by different guys, all of whom wore guns at their hips.

“You all belong to me now. You may call me Joe,” The guy from the desk announced. He was tall and skinny, but it was clear he had some muscle too. “You will eat, sleep, and piss when I tell you. You will abide by my rules or you will be taken out back and killed. I don’t fuck around. There’s plenty more girls where you came from.” He continued and my stomach knotted in terror.

One of the girls at the end of the line let out a louder sob, and the guard, who stood close behind her, instantly gave her a kick so hard she fell forward to the floor.

“There will be plenty of time for crying tonight, but first, a little trial run, starting with….” He walked down the line and I already knew he was going to stop at me. I’d seen it in the way he had looked at me before. “…you.” He grabbed my arm and wrenched me from the line of girls. “Time to break you in, you pretty little bitch!” he hissed as he grabbed a handful of my hair and dragged me across the office. He slammed my head down, face first into the top of his desk and everything went distant and foggy. I felt him holding me down, then he was tearing at the skirt I had worn to work so many days ago. Tears ran down my face as I realized what was happening, but there was nothing I could do. He held me so viciously I couldn’t move and even if I could, the other armed guys in the room weren’t going to just let me go. I wanted to scream and beg, but I already knew it would only make things worse. My fate was sealed and all I could do was pray I lived to get through it. I never professed to be brave and the fear of losing my life stopped me from being so in that moment too.

The vision before me faded as I took a huge gulp of air and looked around me. I was in the garden again, huddled up in a ball against the wall at the side of the house. I had gone out there for a little walk, but one of the security guards had passed me with a lit cigarette, and that had triggered the flashback, I assumed.

I was shaking badly and my face was freezing where I had obviously been crying. I was still short of breath as I leant back against the wall and pushed to my feet.

“Addy?” Kane came running around the corner, his heavy breaths visible in the freezing cold air. “I saw you on the cameras. Are you okay?” he asked, sounding a little panicked. It was the first time I had seen him in almost a week, since our last encounter in the garden, and I couldn’t ignore the relief that swept through me at his presence.

“I’m okay,” I gasped as I stood from the wall and took a shaky step forward. “Flashback,” I added, a little embarrassed.

“Let me help you,” Kane said as he reached for me. I nodded and stood still as he wrapped his arm around me and took a lot of my weight from my shaky legs. “Do you know what triggered it?” he asked as we started to move around the house towards the doors into the kitchen.

“Cigarette smoke I think. I passed one of your guys who was smoking.”

“None of them should be smoking on the property,” he growled and when I glanced up, he was scowling. “I’ll handle it.”

“You don’t need to. I’m fine,” I assured him. “Are you? Okay, I mean? I haven’t seen you all week and you didn’t reply to the text I sent yesterday.”

“I’ve been busy, and as for the text, I’m your security, not your friend. Lines of communication between us should be for security related matters only,” he said flatly, completely taking me by surprise. He had been so sweet to me after the panic attack that first day. Then in the garden he had told me he saw me. Now I was just a bother to him? I didn’t get it.

“S-sorry,” I stuttered as I pulled myself from his hold and fought not to stumble or cry in front of him. “I d-didn’t realize. I…I should go. You probably have work to do. I…I’ll go.” I turned before he could say anything and practically ran to the sliding door into the kitchen. I slammed it closed behind me as the heat of the house hit me, not once daring to look up to see where Kane was.

I moved from the view of the doors and leant back against the wall beside it, sinking to my ass and burying my face in my hands. I was such an idiot! Of course we weren’t friends. He obviously didn’t even like me. He had just been doing his job and my crazy brain had made up these insane feelings I’d been having. I had thought he wanted to kiss me, for God’s sakes! No wonder he had been staying away from me.

“Addy?” I looked up at the sound of Adam’s voice and found him coming down the stairs. He jumped the last few in one leap, then he was hurrying towards me. It was just him and I in the house. Jordan was working a few days’ notice at the club, and Asher and Eli had gone to work for the morning, just as we’d agreed they would the morning before. “What happened?” he asked as he dropped to his knees beside me.

“I’m okay,” I tried to tell him, but I was still shaking and out of breath. “I h-had a flashback in the garden, but I pulled myself out of it.”

“That’s awesome, that you could pull yourself out. Well done, honey.” He smiled gently as he spoke. “But you look pretty shaken. We should get you warmed up, okay?” There was no way I was telling him about Kane. There was no way I was telling anyone about Kane, and what a stupid idiot I was.

Adam gathered me in his arms and stood before I could even protest.

“I can walk. I really am okay,” I told him as he headed for the living room. The house was toasty warm, which I was grateful for, since I felt chilled to the bone. It had been cold enough outside, even with the new thermal coat and boots, which Eli had insisted I needed, and had ordered for me, but the flashback and Kane’s words had only chilled me more.

“I know, but let me carry you anyway. It makes me feel more useful than I am,” he replied playfully.

“You’re useful, Adam. I’m really glad you’re here and that I have you,” I told him honestly. A t least he didn’t seem to hate me , I thought. “I feel safe when I’m with you. You know that, right? I know I was freaked at first, but I trust you now.”

“I do,” he said as he leaned forward and kissed my temple. “I will never do anything to take the trust you placed in me for granted.”

“I believe you.” And I did. I might not have known Adam, or Jordan too, for that long, but I knew they would never hurt me. I knew I could count on them. I just worried that I was starting to see the both of them the way I had seen Kane, and that terrified me. I didn’t want a relationship, but my brain didn’t seem to get that, because every time one of them walked in to a room, my heart beat faster and I could not stop ogling them. I just had to make sure I maintained some distance. It was clear after my talk with Kane, that my feelings and instincts were not to be trusted.

Adam set me down on the sofa and got to work unlacing my boots and pulling them off as I shucked my coat. He set both items aside then grabbed a blanket from the sofa and wrapped it tightly around me.

“How’s that?” he asked as he settled on the coffee table and studied me.

“Better. Thank you.”

“Do you want something to eat? I made some white chocolate and macadamia cookies?” he offered and I smiled as I shook my head. Ever since the movie night when I had overeaten on all of the sugary snacks Jordan had gotten out, Adam had been baking sweet treats to tempt me, and it was working. While I still struggled with meals, I always had room for one of what ever delicious item Adam laid out on the counter.

“I’m good, but do you have your cell?” I asked instead. He nodded and pulled it out. “Can you take some notes to give to Asher? I remembered a few things for the FBI.”

Asher had a contact at the FBI who he was sending any information I could remember to. It was only little things I remembered, but I would do anything to help all of the innocents who were trapped and suffering as I had for those two years.

“We don’t have to do it right away, Addy. You should take some time to catch your breath first.”

“No,” I argued. “I don’t want to forget anything.”

“Okay. Tell me and I’ll get it all down,” he agreed.

“I was held for a week in that warehouse. The van that they moved me in….I saw it again. It was old and rusting and it was a sort of sky blue color,” I began. “Some of the women who were held with me, they were foreign. I think maybe Eastern European, but I’m not good with that sort of thing. There was a woman from Nevada too. Her name was June.”

“Just take a few breaths, Addy. Take your time,” Adam prompted when I got breathless. I nodded and did as he said. It was hard to go through the memory again, but I knew I had to. Those monsters likely had more victims as I sat there. I was glad when Adam moved from the table and sat beside me, placing his warm hand on my knee over the blanket.

“I remembered the first place they took me,” I continued. “It was a club…a strip club called Wild Cats . I don’t know where it was, but it was hot when we got there. It had big neon signs with a picture of a woman. Inside it was skeevy. I didn’t see the club, but we…we were all led down a corridor. I…I think it was some kind of brothel,” I admitted as I lowered my eyes to my lap. A tear slipped free and dropped onto the blanket, making that one spot on the light gray wool turn dark.

Adam put his phone down on the sofa and pulled me into his body, wrapping both arms around me tightly.

“I’m here, baby. I’ve got you,” he whispered. I sank against him without thought, laying my head under his chin on his chest and allowed a few more tears free. He just held me while I tried to pull myself together, which, eventually, I did. When I felt ready I lifted my head, but didn’t pull out of his arms. I felt too comforted right there to move and Adam didn’t seem to mind.

“There was a guy…I think he owned that club, or at least the illegal side of it. He was tall and lean, but strong…r-really strong.” My voice wobbled but I pushed on, just wanting to get it all out. “He was middle aged and almost bald, with a tiny little line for a moustache over his top lip. Joe. He said we could call him Joe. H-he told us that we belonged to him…that he’d just shoot us if we caused any trouble.”

“What happened? Tell me, Addy. It will feel good to get it out,” he urged and I looked up at him through my tears.

“He s-said it was a trial. I knew he was going to pick me first. He kept looking at me again and again, and I…I just knew,” I whimpered. Adam held me tighter and I pressed myself even snugger against him, but I didn’t stop talking. “He said he’d break me in. He gr-grabbed me and took me to the desk. He ripped my skirt and….oh God! The other girls…they were there and they…they h-had to watch, knowing they could be next. I was s-so scared, Adam…so scared.”

“I know, baby. I’m so sorry,” he told me emotionally, then he was softly kissing me, laying kisses on the top of my head, and on my temples – anywhere he could reach as he held me just the way I needed him to. I was crying hard as I clung desperately to him, and by the time I calmed down I realized he had pulled me into his lap at some point. I was straddling his thighs and my arms were wrapped around his shoulders, my face buried in the gap between his broad shoulder and neck.

I sat up and took a deep breath as I moved one of my hands to wipe at my face.

“I’m sorry,” I sniffled.

“Never apologize for feeling comfortable enough with me to let go. I consider that a privilege,” he told me as he brushed wild strands of hair from my face and tried to tame them behind my ears. We both just chuckled when they popped right back out.

“My hair has a mind of it’s own,” I told him with a watery smile.

“It’s beautiful, just like you.” He was staring at me hard and I couldn’t take my eyes from his. There was moment and a definite spark between us. I felt it and it felt good, but after what happened with Kane I didn’t trust it. I told myself Adam was just being kind.

“I’m a mess. I should clean up,” I bumbled as I backed up off of his lap and almost tripped over the blanket the second I got to my feet.

“Steady!” Adam cried as he reached for me, but I managed to keep myself upright on my own.

“Sorry. I’m so clumsy,” I laughed nervously as I pulled free of the blanket and tossed it on the sofa. “Will you finish the notes?”

“Yep. I’ll send them to Ash so he can contact that guy at the FBI.”

I nodded and started for my room, desperate to put some space between us so I could think straight, but then I remembered one more thing. I paused at the foot of the stairs and looked to Adam, who was watching me already with a whole slew of emotions across his face.

“The guy…the one in charge of the warehouse…they called him Bull. Asher already has his description.” I wanted to try and understand what Adam was thinking, but I was too chicken to look at him any longer, so I turned and ran up the stairs breathlessly.

Maybe moving in there wasn’t such a great idea, I realized. Adam, Jordan, and Kane were going to send me over the edge of insanity with how badly they confused me. Maybe I should work on my ‘crazy dog lady’ plan sooner rather than later.