Love,
Lucy
Brothers...and
Sisters
Chapter
Nine
A car door. Someone nearby had shut their car door, she was sure of it. So sure that she was almost convinced that she was hallucinating. After all, she hadn't eaten in a few days at the most. Heck, even if she had eaten, she didn't know where she was, let alone what was surrounding her. There could be plenty of people close by and not even know that she was in here, waiting to be rescued...or killed.
He was gone. He had left her earlier that morning in his old poorly- painted Chevy and still hadn't returned. Ruthie did not know what time it was, but the thin, dull light that came streaming in through the cracks told her that the afternoon was quickly fading into early evening.
The ropes binding her hands together had finally cut off her circulation, leaving them numb, and useless. Her head felt heavy and weak. Even her torso felt weird, stretched. Being tied to a floor does that to you.
Yet, it wasn't the being bound at the feet and hands that bothered her. It was the fact that her kidnapper had been her father's friend. One of his best friends, in fact. Ruthie had always seen him in church. He sat in the same place every Sunday: third row from the back, first seat in. Made for an easy exit, she supposed.
How, she wondered, did that man sit through a service and not have doubts about himself? How could he sit there and lie to the Lord?
Something had just clicked in her mind. Something that took her to her deathbed to realize. He wasn't there for God, no - couldn't be - but he was there for someone. He was there for Lucy.
"You're not even the one I wanted, Jezebel.....But I'll get her.....'Cause now that I have you, she'll come."
That
letter....That letter had been from him. This horrible man was stalking
her sister. How stupid had she been?! Now, Lucy was on her way, Ruthie
was sure of that, too. Poor, naive Lucy was walking right into the trap.
Right into the filthy hands of Colton Hunter, Thomas Hunter's brother.
Lucy shut her car door after she stepped out onto the smooth, dirt terrain. They were in the desert somewhere. There was nothing out here, not a thing. No people, no sign of civilization for miles. Except that small shack out into the distance, breaking the line where the sky met the ground.
"Tom," Lucy began. "where are we?" She looked over at him, and saw that he was smiling that sly smile that she didn't trust.
His hands on his hips, he replied, "Why, baby, we're here."
Lucy's brow furrowed. Baby? Had he just called her baby!?
"Okay, but where is here?" she asked, almost regretting doing so.
Tom's head turned to her so fast, that she was sure that it would have twisted clean off. His eyes became narrow slits. "Don't ask stupid questions." He started off toward the shack, leaving her to follow.
Lucy's hand went to her side and she clutched the bulge in her right pocket. It was Kevin's old cell phone that she had grabbed off of the night stand before she had gone. If Tom had known that she had it, there would certainly be no more cell phone.
Reluctantly,
Lucy began to follow Tom quite a few steps behind him, afraid of what inevitable
things were to happen.
Annie had been in the living room with the cordless telephone, just hoping for Detective Michaels to call with news about Ruthie, when she heard the backdoor slam shut. Confused and curious, she made her way into the kitchen, where she found an angry Kevin.
"Kevin, what - " Annie tried, but he cut her off.
"Phone, I need the phone," Kevin replied, taking the phone from his mother-in-law.
"O-kay..." Annie said, wondering what was going on.
As Kevin was punching numbers, Eric came down the stairs, looking equally confused. Annie shrugged her shoulders as he asked he gave her the what's-going-on look.
Not understanding Kevin's conversation, Annie and Eric waited until he was off the phone to try asking again. Before they could, Kevin briefly explained:
"Thomas Hunter has Lucy."
"Tom? What would he want with Lucy?" Eric asked.
Annie instantly felt that previous anger boil up inside her. "I'll tell you what Thomas Hunter wants with Lucy, Eric Camden: sex!" Annie jabbed a finger into Eric's chest as she enunciated each word. "I warned you, Eric. I warned you!"
Eric smartly said nothing, but watched Kevin's face turn red with fury. Kevin turned on his heels and marched out of the house, Eric in tow. Annie was about to follow them both, but was stopped by the ringing phone.
"Hello?" she answered, hoping that it was Detective Michaels.
"Mom? It's Simon."
Annie sighed, disappointed. "Oh, hi, son."
There was a momentary pause on Simon's end. He obviously caught on to her sinking heart. "I guess they haven't called?"
"No, they haven't."
His mother's short answers were beginning to make him feel like she wasn't telling him everything. "Is there something else wrong, Mom?"
Annie decided that she shouldn't tell Simon, or the rest of the kids, about Lucy until she was sure that she had also been taken hostage. "No, son, nothing else."
Simon sighed, distressed. "Maybe I should just come home. I can't stand not being with you and Dad right now."
Annie's voice grew stern, and suddenly confident. "Simon, you know what your father and I told you: stay in school. It's not going to do you any good to come home and sit around with us until we hear something."
"I know," Simon protested, "but, Mom, think of what you're asking me to do. You're asking me to stay away from my family while my little sister could be rotting away somewhere!"
"Simon, Ruthie is not dead! You know better than to think like that!" Annie yelled.
"Maybe not, but being away from my family like this is causing me to think negative thoughts. I need to be comforted just as much as you and Dad do. I need you. I need to be home."
Annie knew she was defeated at this point. There was nothing she could sat that would convince her son to stay at school during this time. "Okay, Simon, but when you get here and everything is the same, don't say I didn't warn you." Also knowing how her son thought, she asked, "What time does your bus come in?"
"Nine thirty tonight. Thanks, Mom."
"Yeah."
And with that, Annie hung up the phone.
Mary lifted her wailing son out of his crib and rocked him in her arms. She heard her husband, Carlos, groan from his place in their bed, and watched him throw a pillow over his head, trying desperately to get eight consecutive hours of sleep.
The two had been attempting to get their son, Charles Miguel, to go to sleep for the past three hours. It was now one A.M. and still their apartment was loud with screaming.
Mary carried her son into the small kitchen, and grabbed a fresh bottle out of the refrigerator. Stubbornly, Charlie refused, forcing Mary to put the bottle back and retreat to pacing up and down the equally small living room.
Almost two hours of this had gone on, and Mary was about reduced to tears. The stresses of not knowing if Ruthie was safe and her child were beginning to take their toll on her. She had tried everything. Tried rocking, tried pacing, tried the bottle, tried the teddy bear, tried the singing, and tried changing his diaper. Nothing had worked.
"Please, Charlie, please go to sleep," Mary sobbed.
Carlos, sensing that his wife had not had much luck, appeared from the bedroom and took his son into his own arms. Grateful that it was Carlos's turn, Mary thanked him with her eyes, and fled to the bedroom. She reappeared just minutes later with a suitcase in her hand.
"Where are you going?" Carlos asked frantically.
Her hand on the doorknob, Mary turned to look at him and said shortly, "Home."
Then
she was gone, leaving her husband and her, now screeching, child behind.