Worthy of Redemption (38 page)

“She should have been here by now,” I said, pacing the living room.

Emmy looked at her watch and frowned. “I agree.”

I had wanted to give Lily the time she needed to think without having any of my ‘goons’ on her, but it had been too long now. I pulled my phone out and dialed Harry.

“Harry, where is the Cadillac? She should have been back here by now.”

“
It’s parked at the bar. She’s been there for about three hours now. I figured she’s probably working, like she usually does.”

“Thanks,” I said and ended the call. Before I could do anything else, my phone rang.

“Dude,” Mayson said when I answered. “I know you’re across the pond, but I have to tell ya…I’m going to fire your girlfriend. She did a no call no show. Can you please remind her who got her this job and who stuck up for her when you guys wanted to publicize your love? She’s not answering her phone.”

“
I’m actually at home. Lily doesn’t have her phone,” I said patiently. “But it’s not like her to not even call you. She’s at the bar; she could have called you from there.”

“You sound uneasy, Sterling, which is making me uneasy. Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, running a hand through my hair. “Mayson, I have to go.”

I ended the call. Emmy looked at me with a quirked eyebrow. “You and Mayson are chummy now?”

“A little bit,” I admitted. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

I punched in another number and waited as the phone rang and rang. If Lily was at the bar, she wasn’t picking up. I tried twice more before calling Marco.

“Have you seen Lily?” I asked him.

“No,” he said carefully. “Why?”

“Are you at the bar?”

“No, I’m at my real job, Sterling,” he snapped. “In fact I’m in the middle of a meeting. What the hell is going on?”

“Lily’s been at the bar for a few hours but she isn’t answering the phone there and she doesn’t have her own phone.”

“Shit,” he muttered and I heard a muffled brief conversation and a door close. “I’ve told her repeatedly not to go there alone. There’s been some douche bag driving by and even standing in the parking lot
a couple of times.”

Alarms went off in my head. I stopped pacing and just stared straight ahead at nothing. Emmy sensed that something was very wrong and rushed over to me and put her hand on my back as she watched my face.

“What does this douche bag look like?” I asked Marco.

“
Looks like an asshole pumped up on steroids. He always drives away before I can get out there. One of the girls that used to work at the other bar said that it’s some guy that used to work there. She didn’t seem too concerned about it, but now I feel like I should have done something more.”

“Did you tell Lily about him?”

“I told her there’s been a man hanging around. Lily said maybe he wants a job. She didn’t seem too concerned and I didn’t want to worry her. I just warned her not to go alone. I’m in New York or else I’d drive over there, but maybe I should come down?”

“No,” I said. “I gotta go. Thanks, Marco.” I ended the call and immediately made another phone call as I rushed towards the door with Emmy on my heels.

“Tagher,” Harry said in greeting.

“Harry, meet me at the bar. Vic has been seen hanging around there.”
I punched the button for the elevator.

“Shit. Okay.”

I called Corsey next.

“Corsey,” he answered tiredly.

“Corsey, where are you?” I asked, as I hit the button for the elevator again.

“Just outside of Norristown. What’s up?”

“We should have been keeping an eye on the fucking bar,” I growled. “Marco said a man fitting Vic’s description has been hanging around, and the Caddy has been parked there for three hours now, but Lily isn’t answering the phone and she hasn’t contacted anyone.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said in a rush and ended the call.

The elevator doors slid open and I waited for Emmy to step on first.

“What’s going on, Kyle?” she asked. “Are you talking about Vic Rickers?”

I grimaced. “Didn’t Lily tell you what happened?”

“No,” she said shaking her head. “She did tell me that some guy had hurt her and you kicked his ass, but she didn’t say it was Vic. He gives me the creeps.”

“He is obsessed with her,” I told her with an exasperated sigh. “I kept most of what I knew away from her. I didn’t want her to worry, but I should have told her. He could have her right now.”

I felt like their rocks in the pit of my stomach and my chest was so tight with anxiety, I wasn’t sure how I was still breathing. My hands trembled with fear.

“Kyle, what do you mean?” Emmy asked gently as the elevator doors slid open.

“
When I was…stalking Lily, I realized that Vic was stalking her, too. I wanted to know why. I meant her no harm, but I didn’t trust him. With some digging, my guys found out some very disturbing facts about Vic.”

I opened the passenger side door to my Audi and let Emmy in. When I got behind the wheel, I continued.

“Vic burned down your bar, Emmy,” I said, looking at her for a reaction.

Her face scrunched up in confusion. “The fire marshal said it was an electrical problem.”

“Vic did it, Emmy. We found all kinds of shit in his house pointing at him. He had thoroughly studied how to start the fire without laying any suspicion on him. I tried to alert one of my contacts on the police force, but because I technically shouldn’t have been in Vic’s house and they had no reason to go in either, he was going to get away with it.”

“Why did he burn down my bar?” she asked
, rightfully confused.

“Lily was going through some hard times. He thought he could push her to need him. He thought if he took away the last thing she had, she would accept not only his help, but him. It was all a ploy to get her where he wanted her, but he had not realized that Lily was, above all things, resilient, and he had not expected her to choose to sleep in the worst part of Camden rather tha
n sleep in his spare room in a nice middle class neighborhood.”

“Oh my god,” she said, staring at me, her eyes wide.

“That’s not even the half of it,” I said sourly as I went too fast down the city streets.

“
He helped her get a part time job at another bar even after she started working at Sterling. She was still unreceptive to him, though. He got impatient and decided to try something else.”

“What?” Emmy breathed.

“He attacked her one night on the street. I knew he was up to something, but I wasn’t sure what until it was happening. He went at her with a knife, robbed her of a bag he knew had some sentimental value to her and even stabbed her hand. Even though he had on a hoodie and was partially concealing his face, I knew it was him. I had watched him long enough to know how he moves, how he walks, and how he runs. I think he was going to run around the corner and come back as Vic the super hero that happened to catch the bad guy and rescue her, but Vic wasn’t counting on me being there.”

“That bastard is the one that stabbed her?” Em yelled. “He could have killed her! What the fuck is wrong with him?”

“A lot, apparently,” I said. “I found out that he has some deep psychological issues, going as far back as eleven years old. The records are sealed, but I was able to find bits and pieces of information about a violent childhood, and now he’s on steroids and that’s fucking with his mind, too.”

“What else have you found?”

“In his house, in one room in the basement, there were a plethora of pictures of Lily. In some of them, she was undressed or in the state of undressing. There were even pictures of her sleeping,” I ground out, knowing that he had to be up close to her while she was unconscious. “There were chains cemented into the wall, meant to cuff and restrain someone. Handcuffs, rope, duct tape, pepper spray, a taser, knives, chloroform, Rohypnol and detailed notes about Lily’s schedule.”

“He was g
oing to kidnap her?” Emmy asked with her voice high and disbelieving.

“I don’t have any other explanation for it all,” I said through a clenched jaw.

Just thinking about his hands on her and the shit that he was capable of had my hands gripping the steering wheel in a death grip.

We were silent for the rest of the trip to the bar. I parked next to the Cadillac and jumped out of the car. Emmy got out, too and met me at the front of the car.

“You should wait in the car,” I told her.

“No, I’m not waiting in the car,” she said firmly and followed me to the door.
I didn’t have time to argue.

I used my key to unlock the door. We quietly entered and I stopped to listen for a moment and heard nothing. I moved on towards the office, expecting to find her there, but it was empty. When I came back out, I noticed Lily’s keys and purse sitting on the bar. A deep foreboding came over me. Barely able to breathe, I walked into the kitchen. Everything looked normal until I
got closer to the back door. There were a few items on the floor and the door was wide open.

“Lily!” I yelled as I darted for the door. I ran outside and found nothing and no one.

I dropped to my knees. I couldn’t breathe. That fucker had taken her and the last words we exchanged were unkind and unloving and I hadn’t even had the chance to talk to her about the ultra sound she had the week before, because I was being such an asshole. I didn’t realize I was crying until I felt Emmy’s arms around me and her hand on my head as I leaned on her.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “It’s okay.”

A car screeched to a halt behind us and heavy footsteps raced over to us.

“She’s not here,” Emmy
said to someone. “He must have taken her.”

“Fuck,” I heard Harry mutter. I heard his phone dialing as he walked away. “Chuck, have you been by Ricker’s place? We think he has Lily. Take someone with you, go over there and check it out and get back to me.”

I released Emmy and got to my feet.

“Sorry,” I apologized to her in a weak voice. “I’m being a pussy.”

“You’re not being a pussy,” she admonished and then rubbed my back.

“Chuck and a few others are going over to his house,” Harry said. “
Corsey is stopping to check out a few other areas, but Rickers knows we would look there.” He paused before he continued and shook his head. “I don’t think we are going to find him in any of the places we expect.”

“Where the hell has he been these past few months?” I yelled at no one in particular.

“Did you check his aunt’s house in the Poconos?” Emmy asked.

Harry and I both stared at her.

“What aunt?” I demanded.

“She’s not really his aunt – she used to date his uncle when Vic was a kid. He kept in touch with her…I was kind of under the impression that they were…you know…fuck buddies or something. Anyway, she has a house in the Poconos that they used to meet at on occasion. He told me all about it one day, trying to lure me up there.” She shuddered. “He gave me the address and everything.”

“That must have been a long time ago,” Harry frowned. “You couldn’t possibly remember that address now.”

“How do you know how long ago it’s been?” she frowned up at him and before I could say anything it dawned at her. She looked at me disapprovingly. “Stalking your exes is not cool,” she muttered. “But for the record, I don’t remember the address, you are right, Harry. However, I remember the aunt’s name. Maybe you can use your stalking expertise to look her up.”

Emmy gave Harry the name and he immediately got on the phone as he walked towards his truck. Emmy and I went back inside to lock up, and she grabbed Lily’s purse and keys before we left.

“Now, I insist you stay behind this time,” I told her. “Use the Cadillac.”

“No fucking way,” she growled and then opened the passenger’s door and got inside.

I sighed heavily and got in behind the wheel.

“When this is all over, Kyle, when you have your happy ending, I’m going to rip you a new one for stalking me.”

I didn’t doubt that she would, but I was having serious doubts about my happy ending.

Kyle drove with one hand, while the other hand alternated between an open hand and a tight fist on the console between us. He was quiet, focused not on the road ahead, but the woman he loved more than anything at the end of the road. That was once me. I would be lying if I said that it made me a little sad to know that was gone, for both of us. Lily was the center of his universe now, and Luke and the kids were mine.

I put my hand over his, hoping to alleviate even a fraction of the fear he was feeling. He froze for a moment and then relaxed under me. I turned his hand so that it was palm up and gave him mine to hold. As if our hands had a memory of their own, our fingers laced together without any fumbling around. His thumb dragged across my skin with familiarity. I stared at our interwoven hands with a tight chest.

I felt as if I were holding a part of myself that was left behind with Kyle, forever his willing captive. There was a piece of me within his hands that I will never regain. My life with Luke and our children was everything to me. I would never trade it for anything in the world, but Kyle will always have this small part of me and I will never try to reclaim it. It was his to have forever, just as I was well aware that I had a piece of him with me forever, too. I would never let it go. It was just as much a part of me as my skin, my blood, and my flesh and bones.