Freeing Tuesday (30 page)

He is right, he was always the voice in the back of my head telling me to turn around because if he ever caught up it would be so much worse than if I went back willingly.

“You’re not a god. You’re the devil.”

He shrugs, “Either way I’m worshiped and feared.” His eyes trail over my coiled up body and the gleam in his eyes makes me want to be sick. “You let yourself go. You’re not a virgin anymore. What the hell am I supposed to do with you now?”

I can’t even justify talking to him anymore so I don’t say anything else. I know what’s going to happen. I know I am either going to be sold off to the highest bidder or he’s going to shoot me in the head.

He jumps up from the chair and kicks it out of the way. Stalking toward me, I push my back further against the wall trying to get as far away from him as I can. His scent surrounds me and makes me gag; too much cologne and stale cigars.

“Maybe I’ll finally have a taste of you for myself.” Anthony’s fingers drag through my hair and pull back hard enough to make me cry out. “At least then I’ll know what all the hype was about with you.”

Before I know what I’m doing I rear my head back, smashing his knuckles off the wall and spit in his face. He yells out, his upper lip curling up in a snarl.

“You stupid bitch!” His voice resonates off the walls around us and he pulls my head forward, smashing his knee into my jaw.

I scream through closed lips, afraid if I move my mouth that it will hurt more than it already does.

“Keep it up and I’ll find that boyfriend of yours and kill him in front of you,” he sneers, “actually… I might do that just for the hell of it.”

He straightens and let’s go of my hair, slamming the door when he leaves. As soon as the door latches the tears start to fall and I press my hand into the painful spot he created.

Reaching down, I attempt to untie the rope binding my feet together, knowing I need to get out of here somehow. I don’t know how long I’ve been gone but I know that if I don’t figure out how to get out soon, I’ll never leave this room.

My fingers slip a few times as I try figuring out the knot but I finally manage to undo it. I leave the rope wrapped for now, in case someone comes back. Slowly I work my jaw back and forth, trying to figure out if I will be able to use my teeth to try to undo the knot around my wrists. I almost scream out when I take the rope between my teeth but I manage to work the knot a little at a time.

I scoot slowly toward the door and press my ear against the cold metal, listening for any signs that anyone is outside. When I’m finally sure that no one is on the other side of the door, I unwrap the rope. Pushing myself off the floor, I cringe with every movement.

Breathing deeply through my nose, trying to control the pain, I climb onto the toilet and up onto the tank, craning my neck to see the vent. I can reach it no problem but with no tools it’s going to be a bitch getting it out.

I slide my hands into my pockets hoping for anything flat enough to work the screws out of the cover but the only thing on me is my necklace. I unhook the chain from around my neck and slide the clover off, putting the rest of it into my pocket.

The edge of the clover barely fits into the slot of the screw but I manage to get it in and turning. I work as fast as I can around the pain and when I get the screws out I slide the vent back and slowly drop it.

The hinges squeak and I cringe, standing stone still as I listen for footsteps. When I’m sure that no one is coming, I hook my arms and try to hoist myself into the vent. It takes a few tries but I finally manage to pull myself up without screaming. Sliding out of the way, I pull the cover back into place and wrap the chain from my necklace around it, hooking it to a screw to keep it closed.

Taking a deep breath, I quietly slide my way through the vents, trying hard to remember which direction to go. I keep going until gunfire causes me to stop moving and I coil into myself, praying the darkness of the vent keeps me safe.

Evan

The tactical teams finally arrive two hours after me bitching asshole Frey out again. It wasn’t until Paul, Jameson and a few other security guards stepped up behind me and we took off toward the truck, hell bent on bringing my girl back, that he finally gave in.

“Stay here. If we find her, we’ll bring her out.”

“I don’t fucking think so. I’m not sitting here waiting around to see what happens. So the only choice I see you having right now is letting me go with you.”

“I can’t let you in there. Especially not unarmed. Evan, listen, what do you think Tuesday would say if you went in there to get her, and only she came out? I need you to think about that and let us do our jobs. Stay here and as soon as I have her, I’ll bring her out to you.” His hand settles on my shoulder and he squeezes, “I promise.”

I feel all the fight fizzle out of me and I slouch back against the black SUV. I watch as the teams line up, the hand signals from their leaders tell everyone who needs to go where and they all disperse and disappear from my sight.

The seconds stretch into minutes, the silence is deafening to my ears as I stare straight at the building they are invading. The second I hear a flash bomb go off I can’t breathe. I count seconds between gunfire.

I hate standing here and not knowing what is going on. Not having control over what is happening is driving me insane. I should be down there. I should be the one running in there after Tuesday, saving her.

One by one I watch random women being escorted out as fast as they can move in the bright morning sun. They’re all dirty and barely clothed as they run toward the barrier line the SWAT teams have set up. Something seems off though; Tuesday should be out by now.

Agent Frey walks toward the cars with a man in handcuffs. I storm toward the guy, grabbing his jacket, and slam him against the nearest car. His head bounces off the window with a thud and I get in his face.

“Where the fuck is she you piece of shit!”

He laughs and I can’t help myself when my fist collides with his jaw. His head snaps to the side. Letting his tongue dart out across the new spit in his lip, he spits blood onto the ground.

“Fucking little bitch did it again,” he says while shaking his head back and forth. “You might get her back, but I’ll never go away.”

The walkie talkie on Frey’s hip crackles and I hear words that make my stomach drop and the fucker I have pinned against the car cackles again.

“We found traces of blood in one of the rooms.”

I quickly let the guy go and turn back towards Frey and push by him. “I’m going in whether you want me to or not.”

“Hey,” he calls out from behind me, “since you’re hell bent on defying me anyway, you’re going to need this before you go in.”

Tossing me a Kevlar vest, he smiles sadly and catches up after transferring the guy to another officer. I yank the vest over my head and strap the Velcro into place. Taking my place behind him and a few other guys because I don’t have a gun, I follow them room by room until we reach the room they had called in about.

It’s nothing more than a bathroom. The rope on the floor is covered in blood but it’s not wrapped around a dead body so I breathe a bit easier. I step around everyone and make my way into the room, looking for something,
anything
to let me know Tuesday is ok.

Something in the corner by the toilet catches my eye and when I lean in and look closer I realize it’s part of her necklace. Picking it up, I stuff it into my pocket when no one is looking.

“I don’t know how she got out of this room. The door was double locked from the outside.”

Looking around it takes me a minute but as soon as I look up, everything clicks into place.

“Jesus Christ, you guys are fucking idiots,” I say as I step up onto the toilet.

My eyes follow a few blood spots and I try to avoid them as I grip the edges of the vent cover and pull it down. It hitches up and when I pull harder a chain snaps and it becomes loose enough that it falls down.

It takes a minute for my eyes to adjust to the dark after I pull myself into the vent. Agent Frey taps on my foot and when I turn my attention back to him, he places the butt of a gun in my hand and tells me not to make him regret it.

I can see the disturbance in the dust on the floor of the vent and follow it as quietly as I can. I turn on the light attached to the barrel of the gun and start edging my way along on my stomach. Movement catches my eye when I round a corner and when I shine the light on it, everything bad that has happened fades away.

Tuesday’s body rocks back and forth as she cries, “Just kill me and get it over with. I’m done playing this game.”

Slowly, I reach out and touch her arm, “Tuesday.”

Her head snaps up and before I have a chance to say another word she crawls into my arms and buries her face in my chest.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobs into my shirt, wrapping her arms around me. When I try to pull her closer she flinches so I loosen my grip.

“Shh. It’s ok baby. It’s over.”

“It’s never over, Evan. I’ve learned that.”

Pulling her face up, I kiss her slowly. “You promised me no more running and I promised you that I would try to make everything better. I’m not letting either one of us out of those promises.”

She nods and I urge her back from the direction I just came from. I tuck the gun into the waist of Tuesday’s pants so I can climb down and push my way around her, sliding back into the bathroom. Reaching up once I have my feet steady on the toilet lid, I attempt to help her down but the sound of a bullet clicking into a chamber has me stopping in my tracks.

“Thanks for finding her for me. I’ll make sure to let everyone know you died a hero.”

Agent Strong’s voice booms through the room. I turn and freeze as my eyes zone in on the barrel of his gun and it finally clicks that he is the leak. He is the reason all this shit has happened to Tuesday over the past few months.

His finger inches over the trigger and everything slows down as I pray that Tuesday doesn’t try to follow me yet. I jump off the toilet, barreling toward him as the gun goes off and catches me in the right side of my abdomen, clipping my vest. The force drops me to the ground, ripping the air from my lungs.

I hear the scream from behind me and then I hear another shot but don’t see where it comes from. Agent Strong drops to the floor beside me and his body flops around like a fish as he gasps for air. Commotion fills the room as the tactical team surrounds us and kicks the gun out of the way.

“Tuesday!” I yell around my wheezing.

“Evan, are you alright?” Guns train on the ceiling where Tuesday’s legs are dangling. “I’m coming out. I have a gun but I don’t want it. Can someone please take it from me?”

Agent Frey chuckles from the doorway and pushes his way through the crowd, stepping up on the toilet. “Promise me you won’t shoot me and I will help you down.”

“Don’t be a dick, Frey. She has twelve guns trained on her and all she wants to do is come home with me. She won’t shoot you.”

He reaches up, taking the gun from Tuesday’s shaky hand and hands it off. Grabbing her waist, he slides her down until she is standing on the tank and I see her flinch as she jumps down and rushes toward where I was propped up against the wall.

Her hands slide over my body as she checks for bullet holes before she straddles my legs and slams her mouth against mine.

***

I wrap my arms around her in the back of the ambulance. I can’t stop touching her, running my hands over different parts of her body. My face is nestled into her neck and I let my words rumble off her skin.

“I’m gonna marry you some day.”

Her body visible shivers and I feel her take a deep breath as she chuckles. “I think you’re supposed to
ask
me, not
tell
me.”

I pull back and stare into her eyes; my hand gently caresses her cheek as my lips ghost over hers.

“No, it’s not something I have to ask about. Sooner or later, it’s going to happen. I’m going to change your name again but this time it’s going to be permanent.”