Collateral Damage (From the Damage) (16 page)

Taking a step toward her, a spine chilling look filled his eyes. She stepped back, but ran into the car. Keeping those eyes locked on her, he moved forward, flattening her against the passenger door. For a second, she could’ve sworn she was looking at the devil. “Maybe you want to see how dangerous I can be.”

She pressed herself against the car, wishing she could slip past him, but there wasn’t room. He was directly in front of her, blocking any escape route. Why hadn’t she realized that’s what he’d been doing?

When he reached up and slid his hand under her shirt, she swatted at it, but he grabbed her wrist and pinned it to the hood of the car
with crushing weight. She pushed at his chest with her free hand, but it had the effect of a teacup poodle barking at a Doberman. As his body pressed against hers, she realized for the first time how tall he was, how strong. She realized the strength of every inch of height and ounce of muscle with dreading terror as she fought to get away from him. 

“Is this what you want? Huh?” Sliding his hands down her belly, he tried to unbutton her pants with one hand, his lips
curving in a sick smile.

“Seth, knock it off!”

“Why? It’s not like I haven’t been there before.”

“I mean it!” Raising her knee, she shoved it into his groin and he staggered back.

Hot, uncontrollable anger flashed into his expression. “What is it that you want from me? Huh? Why do you keep coming back to me?” Seth shouted, still just inches away from her face. “You want a body to keep you warm when you’re lonely? Need someone to pick you up off the floor when you’re wasted? What? Or do you want answers about your past?” His tone turned mocking. “You want to know the details of what that freak did to us? What he made us do. Be grateful you don’t remember.”

Flinching at his words, at the shamed feeling they left with her, she glared at him. “I remember all of it.”  She walked toward him, making him back up for a change. “All I want to know is how we got out. Dad said they found us, but there was never any trial. He’s a prosecutor; he would’ve wanted a trial. Insisted on it. But nothing ever came of it. The freak never had to pay…Why?”

Seth clenched his teeth in fury. “Like I said, be glad you don’t remember.”

“That’s not an answer to my question!” Kendall yelled. “This is the first time since we got back that I haven’t felt
like the craziest person in the world.  Now I need to know what happened!”

“You are crazy!” With a loud, fed up, pissed off grunt Seth threw his body against hers, knocking her back into the car. “Thinking I won’t hurt you. Thinking you know me, that you’re
connected
to me. Thinking, just for a second, that I wouldn’t turn on you!”

Kendall gasped as she fell backwards. She struggled to catch her breath. To regain her calm. It took her a second to realize the reason he threw himself against her like that was so he could hit the car with his fist. He’d punched the windshield, leaving a small, rippling crack in it. His face was so close to hers she could feel his breath on her lips when he spoke
. He was calmer now, but he still terrified her. In a low, demanding voice he ordered, “Stop asking about what happened.”

Grabbing her shoulders, he spun her around and let go with a shove, hurling her away from the car. 
She stumbled forward, catching her balance.  Rage filling every inch of her body, she whirled around to face him.

“How dare you!?
This is my life! You may be willing to forget it ever happened. Maybe turning a strong and confident girl into a helpless victim like yourself is therapy for you. But I want answers, and I won’t stop until I get them!”                                                                                                                                                                                                    

“Good luck with that.” Seth climbed into the driver’s seat. He started the car and rolled down the window. He tossed her purse out, spilling its contents on the ground. “You’ll have plenty of time to think about it on your long, dark walk home. I really hope a scary man doesn’t snatch you.”

Without another word he backed the car up, kicking gravel up as he sped off into the darkness. She let out a frustrated scream as she kicked a rock. It flew across the road and into her darkness, her scream echoing off the forest surrounding her.

Her phone beeped and she dropped to her knees on the gravel, digging through her the clutter of spilled contents and putting them back in her purse until she found her phone.
She was trembling as the imminent danger faded and she was left feeling helpless and alone. Trying to focus on the screen to her phone, she saw there were three missed calls from Kelly and another one coming in.

Staring at the picture of Kelly, her pajamas soaking wet and her blond hair hanging in wet ringlets around her grumpy expression, Kendall felt knew tears spring her eyes. Letting out a slow breath in hopes to steady her voice, Kendall answered the phone.

“Kendall?” Kelly said, as soon as the lines connected. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she replied, her voice shaky.
She groped around in the dark, searching for the items from her purse. “I’m okay.”

“No you’re not. What happened?”

“No, really,” Kendall said, wiping away stray tears and standing up. She brushed herself off, like she always did, and started walking. “I’m just kind of…stranded—”

“Where?” Kelly asked.

Kendall was shocked. She’d been expecting an ‘I told you he was dangerous’ or something. Why was Kelly being so nice to her, after all of the horrible things she’d done?

Kendall looked around until she saw a road sign and read the information back to Kelly. And before long, she was relieved to see Kelly’s green neon pull up and park on the side of the road.

She climbed out of the car and hurried to Kendall’s side. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Kendall just nodded in response, surprised by her concern. She was silent for most of the drive home. Maybe she was in shock or something, but she just couldn’t talk right now. She couldn’t even manage to come up with one of her snide remarks. 

Kelly parked the car outside of their house, but made no effort to get out. Finally, she looked over at Kendall and said, “Are you ever going to tell me your secret?”

Shaking her head, Kendall climbed out of the car and headed up to the house. She pushed open the door and headed for the steps, making it to the first one before Kelly caught up with her.

Kelly’s voice echoed in the tall, open foyer. “I had an abortion.”

An eyebrow raised, Kendall turned to face her stepsister, giving her a thorough and skeptical once-over.

“Seriously,” Kelly said, sensing Kendall’s doubt. “It’s one of the reasons Alex and I broke up.”

Verses from Kelly’s journal sprang to Kendall’s mind, the clues finally making sense. “That’s what Gage helped you come clean about?” she said finally, more as a final thought than to actually ask.

Kelly nodded, walking forward and shutting the door behind her. “It’s the reason I joined the support group. It kind of…” she paused, searching for the right words, “messed me up for awhile.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Kendall asked slowly, wondering if it was some kind of trick.

“How can I ask you to be honest with me, if I’m not honest with you?” She set her purse and keys down on the end table and stood by the edge, looking down at the marbled surface of the table for a moment before she spoke. “I’ve seen you have the nightmares. And I think you’re dealing with something…something pretty
heavy
.”

When Kelly finally turned to her stepsister, her gaze was steady and honest and her voice was gentle and sincere. “What is it?”

Kendall sat down on the steps, shaking her head, but she could feel her decision crumbling, changing. Until she wanted to tell Kelly, needed to let someone besides Seth know what had happened, so he’d no longer have that ‘I’m the only one’ hold over her. But she’d never done that before…never really told anyone. The people who knew her secret only knew because they were part of it.

Kelly leaned against the banister, waiting patiently.

“Seth and I…” Kendall started, but she hesitated. “We were kidnapped.”

Chapter
12

Kelly

Kelly listened in horror as Kendall told the story of a
twelve year old girl taken from the playground and forced into a child-pornography ring. Disgusted, heartbroken and sympathetic didn’t even begin to describe the emotions she felt for the broken girl sitting next to her on the steps.

She couldn’t understand why someone would do something so horrible, would hurt someone in ways that may never heal. And to do that to a child? It made Kelly sick to her stomach.

“Kendall…” she whispered when Kendall was finished, but anything she tried to say seemed stupid. There was nothing she could say to make Kendall’s situation better, no words could alleviate the pain
.
Reachin
g
out, she wrapped an arm around Kendall’s shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug. Squeezing the girl as hard as she could, not caring about personal boundaries or their past vendettas. All she cared about was that her sister was in pain.

***

Daphne

***

Daphne woke to the sound of her alarm clock the next morning. She stretched and climbed out of bed, eagerly heading straight for the coffee pot, every morning reminding her how much she loved the alarm clock function. As expected, a hot pot of coffee was already waiting for her. She poured a cup, added some flavored creamer from the fridge and then turned to look at Kay.

Finding only a stack of folded blankets on the end of the couch, exactly where Daphne had left them last night. “No, no, no,” Daphne pleaded, quickly crossing the room to the foot of the couch.

On top of the linens was a note with only one word.

Sorry.

She crumpled the note and threw it down. “Dammit,” she muttered, rushing to her cell phone. She called Kay twice, but her number went straight to voicemail. Now, she was really starting to panic. If she couldn’t get a hold of Kay and her dad found her first, Daphne would never forgive herself. She put a frantic call in to Brett, asking him to come over.

She’d hoped he’d be supportive, but when she explained what happened, he only looked outraged.

“You let a patient in crisis spend the night in your apartment?” he repeated, his tone firm and angry, but not raised. “And then you let her give you the slip? Daph, getting this personally involved with a client will get you in a lot of trouble. Even if we do find her. How could you let her get away?”

“I didn’t think she’d run. She promised me she would talk to the cops in the morning,” Daphne explained, knowing that did nothing to help with the rules she’d broken.

“But you didn’t take her keys?” Brett kept his blue eyes locked on hers as he rattled off a list of protocol, “Or check to see if she had drugs? Or a knife, or a gun?” Watching as Daphne shook her head ‘no’ to each question, he sighed. “Daphne, did you do anything you were supposed to do?”

“I
talked
to her,” she said. “I listened to her. She was ready for a change, she said she knew she couldn’t go back home.”

“Just because she was ready for a change doesn’t mean it will be a good one. Who knows what’s going on in her head right now, or how threatened by her dad she is? She could hurt him, or herself, or worse. Daphne, even if this ends well—and chances are it won’t—do you have any idea what it’ll do to your career?”

“I care more about what it’ll do to Kay,” she snapped. “Are you going to help me find her or not?”

***

Meagan

***

Balancing herself on one crutch, Meagan opened her locker and handed Kelly a copy of her English textbook and the Great Gatsby. “I might need the notebook, too, huh?” Meagan asked Kelly, as she looked at the mess her locker had become, searching for the notebook. “It’s usually more organized than this.”

“You should see mine,” Kelly said with a chuckle. “Isn’t your English notebook green?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s right here.” Kelly reached over and pulled it out from under a thick text book and put it on top of the rest.

“Great, thanks,” she said, shutting the locker door just in time to see Lena approaching. Her hair was pulled up into a cute messy ponytail with her bangs swooping down to cover her eye. She stopped by Kelly and gave them both a shy smile. “Hey guys.”

Meagan and Kelly waited for the rest—the signature catty dig from Lena. Kelly placed her hand on her hip and cocked it to the side, watching Lena with a cold-eyed look, ready to step in and defend Meagan if needed.

“I was hoping we could talk,” Lena added, turning her focus to Meagan. “In private.”

“Why so you can lead me into some kind of humiliating trap?” Meagan asked. “No thanks.”

Lena sighed, like she deserved the cold shoulder. With a steadying breath, as if gathering up her courage, she tucked her bangs behind her ear, shocking both the girls with a purple bruise on her cheekbone. “Please,” she said, locking eye contact with Meagan.

Meagan felt a tug at her gut. She’d always feared Seth would hurt Lena, even tried to warn her, but she’d naively and passionately stood by her boyfriend. Studying the bruise, which she had obviously covered with a lot of makeup.
she wondered how bad it really looked. Finally, she nodded. “Okay.” Turning to Kelly, she said, “Would you mind taking those to the classroom for me?”

Kelly shot Lena a sympathetic, but skeptical look. “Considering how Lena’s treated you before,” she said to Meagan, “I think I should come with you.”

“Fine,” Lena said, raising her eyebrows to meet the challenge. “Kelly can come to.”

The three of them headed to the nearest girl’s bathroom, and Lena stopped to hold the door open for her. It unnerved her a little, she kept expecting Lena’s posse to pop out and start taunting her.

“What happened to your face?” Meagan asked, keeping her guard up as she entered the bathroom.

Lena waited until the door swung shut behind her,
then she planted herself in front of it. But was that to keep others from coming in, or to stop Meagan from leaving? Kelly stood off to the side.

“I overheard Seth confessing what he did to you,” Lena said. “He didn’t like it when I confronted him about it.”

“So he hit you?” Meagan asked.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

Meagan shrugged and hopped over to the sink, then leaned against it, turning to Lena. “Look at my leg,” she said, knocking on her cast with her knuckles. “No. I’m not surprised.”

Lena stared at her former best friend, with so much sympathy and remorse on her face that Meagan was taken back. “Meagan,” she said softly, like she just wanted to reach out and hug her. Tears clouded her eyes, making her voice quiver as she said, “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you.”

Meagan wasn’t prepared for the feeling of satisfaction hearing the apology gave her. But it felt like someone had popped a balloon or something, filling her with a sense of relief “I’m sorry he hit you.”

Lena shook her head and wiped away tears. Then she walked over, planting herself in front of the mirror and took a look at her face. With a small sigh, she dug inside her handbag and came out with a comb. As she began to style her bangs to cover the bruise again, she vowed, “He’s going to pay. For
all of it
.”

“Good luck with that,” Meagan said. She wished Lena had just shut up, because the more she spoke, the more Meagan remembered that it wasn’t just Seth who had made her life miserable. It’d been all of them…everyone she’d considered a friend. There was no apology for that, she noticed, bitterness taking over her relief.

“I’m going to make sure of it,” Lena said, turning to Meagan. “For you. For me. For any other girl he might’ve done this to.”

Meagan sat up straight. “You think there are others?”

“You think there’s not?” Lena replied. “Seth’s an egotistical jackass. Even while we were dating I would’ve admitted that. If he hurt you and got away with it, there was nothing stopping him from doing it again.”

“What’s your plan?” Kelly asked, finally speaking up.

She teased her hair and grinned wickedly. “Total social destruction. With your help, he’ll be undateable, unplayable, even the Color Guard won’t talk to him.”

Meagan chuckled bitterly and stood up, propping the crutch under her arm. “I’ve been on the receiving end of that before, and you can count me out.”

“What? Are you serious?” Lena turned, watching as Meagan moved toward the door. “After what he did to you? Don’t you want revenge?”

“No,” Meagan said, pausing to look at Lena. “I don’t. I never have. What I want is justice. And this, your little plan here, isn’t it.”

“It’s something,” Lena said.

“No, Lena, you know what would’ve been something? If you had believed me, and not him. If you hadn’t kicked me off the cheerleading squad and spread rumors about me and spray painted ‘whore’ on my locker.” She reached over and pulled open the door, then turned her back to it to hold it open while she said, “I’m glad you’ve had your eyes opened about Seth, but maybe you should take this newfound insight and look in the mirror.”

***

Alex

***

Daphne had just called to see if Alex had heard from Kay, but once he knew what was going on, he couldn’t help but try to look for her, even if it meant ditching the rest of his classes. He hadn’t talked to Kay since last night when her dad was about to go off, and he’d been worried ever since.

Since he’d exhausted all other resources in his search for Kay, Alex walked into the video game store, looking for Zander. He spotted him in the back, putting the rental games back in their places.

“Hey,” Alex said, walking up to him.

Zander glanced over at him, chewing loudly on a piece of gum as he placed a zombie game on the shelf. “Kind of hard to play a video game with one hand.”

Alex glanced down at his cast. “That’s not why I’m here,” he said. “I wanted to talk to you about Kay. Have you seen her?”

“Not since…” he trailed off, thinking.  “The night of your accident. Why?”

“The
accident?” Alex repeated. It’d been weeks ago, and Kay hadn’t mentioned a falling out with Zander. Come to think of it, she hadn’t mentioned him at all. Was that part of the reason she took off? “What happened?”

He shrugged, blowing a bubble and popping it. “She kissed me. I told her I had a girlfriend. She’s avoided me ever since. You know how she is.”

Alex narrowed his eyes into a glare, scoffing in disbelief. “How she is?”

“Her dad’s a jerk, so she goes to other guys. Any guy, for anything whether its support or to lose herself for a couple hours. This time, I just happened to be there. And apparently, so did you. I’ve seen her wearing your jacket.”

“Yeah,” Alex nodded, stepping forward. “I know how she is. She’s beaten into silence, scared to speak out, terrified to let someone close just in case they decide to hurt her, too. She can’t turn to her Mom, her Dad’s the one hurting her and her best friend…well, he just sat by and watched for seven years.”

Zander glared at him, stepping up. “I begged her to come forward, but she always refused.”

“And in all that time you never once thought to do it for her?” Alex used his good arm to shove Zander back a couple paces. “Or was being her hero too much to lose?”

“What’s your problem, Walker?” he demanded, catching his balance.

“You are! You didn’t do anything. You just left her there. You’re just as bad as he is!” Alex finished ranting and finally noticed that everyone in the store was staring at him. After shooting onlookers a glare, he leveled his gaze with Zander’s, trying to keep his voice calm as he said, “Kay is missing.”

Zander’s attitude finally turned to one of concern. “What?”

“She had a blowout with her dad last night and went to Daphne for help. She convinced Daphne to wait till today before she called the police, but when Daphne woke up, Kay was gone.”  He looked up. “Is there anywhere she would go? Think.”

“Did you try the park?” Zander asked.

“Of course I tried the park,” Alex snapped. Along with the diner, and the lake, and her school, and everywhere else he could think of.

“I don’t know,” he said, “Maybe she went back home.”

“We’ve looked there, too,” Alex said. 

“Then maybe she’s just driving around, I have no idea.”

Alex stopped panicking for a second and looked at Zander, really studied him. He seemed overall calm, but a little frazzled. Not like someone who found out bad news about a best friend. “Why aren’t you more freaked out?”

Zander’s gaze cut to meet Alex’s in question.

“You know where she is.”

He shook his head. “I told you I haven’t heard from her.”

“Right.” Moving with his football speed, Alex slipped his hand in Zander’s pocket and grabbed his cell phone. It only took him a second to open the recent call list. “Then why has she called you three times this morning?”

He sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets and turning to face Alex. “Okay. She called me this morning and told me what happened. But I don’t know where she is, I swear.”