Hey Everyone Reading-

I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read my story. Please follow and review, it really makes all the writing worth while and I love to hear the feedback good and bad. I have been listening to a bunch of music during this process... so if you want to YouTube some songs... Arms/1000 Years - Christina Perri, Cosmic Love/Kiss with a Fist - Florence and the Machine, Dancing - Elisa, Everytime - Brittany Spears, Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It's been a girl rock fest but its works for Amy's POV.


I was gross, a sweaty smelly mess and I never felt better. Will showed no mercy, he pushed me and pushed me until I had nothing left to give. He wouldn't allow me to slack, to stop. It was only the second day but I knew this was going to work, because Will wouldn't let me fail. I took a large sip of water, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

"So, you used to be a cop?" I was my turn to ask questions, I knew very little about this man that I already trusted. Dino had offered up very little about him, which was strange looking back.

"Yeah, a long time ago." His voice was tight, matching his stance and shoulders.

"It couldn't be that long, you can't be what, more then what thirty one, thirty two?" He chuckled and ran his hand through his sandy hair, my questions were making him nervous.

"I am thirty four and I left the force seven… almost eight years ago." I counted backwards. He was my age when he left.

"You and Dino worked together right?"

"For a little while. He wanted to be a detective, I did more undercover work, narcotics mostly. But we graduated the academy together."

"Why did you leave?" I finished my bottle of water and he reached for it, taking it from my hand and in one motion tossing it into the garbage. He was careful to make sure his hand never touched mine.

"Uh, well…I was working a case, things went bad, really bad… People died, good people, bad people. And I was done, in so many ways… I was done. Four years ago I opened this place and it was the best thing I ever did."

"Well I for one am glad you did."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It was a great decision."

"Me opening the place or you coming here?"

"Both."


I got home and stripped out of my workout gear, kicking off my sneakers. I needed a shower, craved it even. In the beginning, my shower needs were obsessive, constant. Hot water, soap and scrubbing until my skin was raw. Sometimes never even giving my hair a chance to fully dry before I took another one. But now, all these years later I was able to view a shower for what it really was, just a way to clean off the dirt from the day. The hot water poured down on my body, easing my the budding pain in my muscles. I quickly shaved my legs and underarms, and washed and conditioned my hair. It was so long now, it took over an hour to blow it dry. All the years with out a professional hair cut, something you take for granted when you can't be touched.

I wrapped myself in my robe, my hair in a towel and fell into my bed exhausted already and it was only noon. As much as I wanted to stay in bed and eat a bag of potato chips I knew that was not going to get me anywhere. I had a whole day in front of me, and decided that a good lunch and a trip to the bookstore was just what I needed. I dressed quickly and dried my hair only half way (because I was lazy)and twisted in into a bun.

The air was cold even for October, but the sun was shining and I turned my face to it. I took at my cell phone and sent a quick text to Jeff, seeing if he wanted to meet me for lunch. A few seconds later I got a disappointed response that he couldn't; the shop was swamped and he was elbow deep in a carburetor.

Jeff and I were born three weeks apart, we grew up together and were raised like brother and sister. Our fathers were brothers and his mother passing away when he was four from cancer cemented his place as my parents honorary second child. He spent most of his days at my house, doing homework, eating dinner, teasing me mercilessly. Over the years that followed my abduction, most of my friendships faded away. Everyone taking a step away from me, but Jeff took a step closer. I owed him my life, Jeff was the reason that I was alive. One of the reasons anyway.


Simon had sent me flowers every day since the break up. I was a complete mess, I missed him so profoundly that my body ached. I never really understood the concept of heartbreak. The two relationships I had had before Simon were simple, easy and ended the same way. The idea that not being with a person could render you useless, incapacitated, utterly and completely empty was inconceivable to me until I left Simon.

I had quit my job at Archer Global with no notice, and cut him out completely. Ignoring his phone calls, deleting his messages, blocking his emails.

But everyday when the clock struck nine, the bell to my apartment would ring, a man with a large bouquet would appear. I had tried to refuse the deliveries, but he would just leave them by the door. Thirteen arrangements in all, each with a note asking for a chance, dinner, a drink, coffee. Everyday I would walk the arrangement three blocks, to the women's shelter leaving them at the front desk. It was the fourteenth day when I opened my door expecting the usual Indian man behind the huge bouquet of roses. Instead I found Simon, his eyes dark and crazy. I had never been punched before, and I will never forget the sound of his fist making contact with my mouth. Knocking me backwards, hitting my head on my old pine floors. I could still feel it, if I closed my eyes. That was the beginning of the most unimaginable four day of my life.

I later found out that he used my phone, sending a text to my mom that he and I were trying to work things out in Cabo. My family believing that I was drinking margaritas and sun bathing in Mexico not bloody and bound the bed she had bought me as a house warming gift.

It was two days later when Jeff caught wind of the trip to Cabo. He knew that I was afraid of Simon, he knew all the reasons I had ended the relationship and he also knew I would never agree to go anywhere with him alone. Jeff greatest fear was that Simon had kidnapped me, threw me on a private plane to places unknown and I would never be seen or heard from again. Jeff called a friend who worked for the NYPD, who hooked him up with Dino. Dino explained that there was really nothing he could do, with no evidence of foul play. He had only agreed to meet with Jeff as a favor to a friend and because apparently Jeff was unrelenting. It was only when he showed Dino a text from me right after the break up that Dino's intuition kicked in. Dino had gone to my super, flashed his badge and gotten the spare key to my place. He was hoping to find a sign of a struggle, something indicating force, something to warrant a warrant. It was Dino who called my cell phone on a hunch, moments before he entered my apartment, surprised to hear the ringing coming from behind my door. Never expecting to find me there. With the chain lock was engaged, and my phone ringing he knew something was amiss and busted thru the door, to find me beaten and handcuffed to the bed.