Broken Free (The Broken Series) (3 page)

Chapter Three

The first thing Daniel did when they got back was bathe the disgusting dog with the only thing he had.
Human shampoo. Three times. Sofia dried him off and he could finally breathe now that the thing didn’t stink so bad. “We’ll get dog shit later, right now, I want to look in that box.”

“Dog shit?”

“Collars, flea crap, food.”

“I knew what you mean
t, yes I did,” she cooed, too close to the dog’s snout while scratching behind his ears. She stood and put her hands on her hips. “I guess we’ll keep him in the house?”

Daniel’s lip rose
while he regarded the mongrel. If he didn’t look like a giant wet rat with slicked back gray hair it’d be a lot easier to like. The ugly thing looked at Daniel and wagged his entire backside and sidled up to him. “Why does he do that, he looks like he’s having a seizure in his ass.”

“He looooooves you, you probably remind him of Seth.”

Daniel snorted. “We look nothing alike.” He suddenly wondered if they even had the same mother. Likely not. Not that it mattered. Seth was his brother in spite of his biological fuck happy father.

Daniel insisted on the garage for the dog until they had it properly vetted since Sofia was with child. Wasn’t taking any chances with a dog he didn’t care how precious it was to anybody.

“Let’s open it together,” Sofia said as they both went to his office with the black demonic box.

“
Yeah.” He wasn’t sure that was a good idea, but the box was small, what could it possibly hold that could hurt her? He was more worried about what it would do to him at this point.

He locked t
he door behind her and set the box on his desk. It was one of those simple flip latches, no locks. He opened the lid and immediately his stomach knotted.

“
Old timey video film?”

“
Fuck,” he whispered, staring at it. “Eight millimeter film. This is bad.”

“You think it’s…”

He slammed the lid shut and paced before the desk. “It’s a bunch of sick fucking shit on video.”

“Oh my
God.
But…wouldn’t that be the perfect evidence to prove she was a victim?”

He
paused. “Shit, you’re right!”

“How do we find out what’s on it?”

“I’ll have to get a player. Let’s go.” He latched the lid and put the disgusting box in his locking desk drawer. “You need to eat lunch. I’ll take you to our favorite restaurant and we’ll search by phone where to find the player for it. My guess, a pawn shop.” He ushered her out of the office, resisting the urge to hurry her. The evil in that battered tin was sinister. He could feel it wanting to leech into their lives, suck all that was good right out of it, taint it, dirty it, curse him and his wife and child. “While we’re at it, we’re scheduling your first appointment.” He kissed her forehead.

“Yes, Doc.”

****

“
You know…I had the weirdest dream.” Sofia sipped her orange juice, glancing around the restaurant to avoid the immediate snap of Daniel’s direct gaze.

“Like what?”

There was no bad premonition in his tone like she’d expected. The dream had weirded her out, like, bad. She’d been all panicky ever since she woke from it and couldn’t get rid of the doomy feelings. Telling him would help. At least that was the plan and hope. She took a deep breath and dove in, shooting for casual nonchalance. “I just dreamed that I went to the hospital to have the baby and it was really…panicky and…weird and…scary.” She huffed and angled her gaze up, still unable to look at Daniel. “I mean it was all fast and there were people I didn’t know around me, and then all of a sudden, they pulled a baby out of me, there was no pushing, no pain, it was just…” she rolled a cherry tomato with her fork, “just really…really weird.”

She sucked
the last of her juice loudly from her straw and looked at him. His face was a little perplexed looking. Not worried, like she thought it should be.

“That…isn’t that a good thing? No pain? No pushing?”

“Well…but it’s weird.”

“
Okay.”

She stabbed her tomato and stuffed it in her mouth
with a huff. “I was terrified. In the dream.” There, she couldn’t get plainer.

He still wasn’t
alarmed.

“I have a bad feeling,” she clarified around
the half chewed tomato. “Been having it for a while.”

Finally h
e looked a little worried. Sheesh. “Why are you…”

She waited for the rest of the sentence.
Why was she afraid? Why was she telling him? Why did she think the dream meant something bad? “I’m not trying to freak you out, but, I need to tell somebody and…”

He quickly reached for her hand across the table.
“Yes tell me,” he whispered, “of course, it helps to get these things out. Did you know it’s not at all uncommon for you to experience anxiety, especially in your first pregnancy?” He stroked her hand all soft, giving her goose bumps. “The chemicals in your body right now are at phenomenal levels, I should have told you. Your body is adjusting to create an entire
human.
Some days you may feel panicky, some days depressed, some extremely happy. You may even have long periods of low level yucky feelings.”

A huge wave of r
elief flooded through her at hearing that. She gasped a light laugh. “Really?”

“God yes,” he soothed, his
blue eyes intensely sincere. “You have got to keep me informed right away when you have any kind of weird feelings. Promise me.”

She nodded, tears flood
ing her eyes. She gasped another laugh and pointed to her face. “Crying out of the blue,” she informed.

He smiled and scooted his chair till he was next to her and kissed her cheek.

She dabbed at her eyes. “Whoa, endless supply here,” she whispered. “Oh, shit.” She buried her face in his shoulder and out came several sobs. “I’m so sorry, people are looking,” she squealed against him quietly.

“Don’t be sorry, you cry if you need to,
I don’t’ care who looks.”

A few seconds later, she pulled away.
“Okay, I think I’m okay.” Nope. Another sob strained out of her. “Not okay, not yet. I’m snotting all over you.” She reached for a napkin and knocked over her drink, demolishing her thread bare control. “Oh no,” she squeaked, feeling the flood coming. “Take me out.”

“Okay, okay.” He
stood up with her and led her out. Sofia was so grateful that he pressed her face into his shoulder, hiding her from view. She loved that man. Which brought more tears.

She let the
sobs go once they made it outside. He placed her back against the wall in a cove and stood exactly in front of her, his arms next to her head to shield her marathon moment of estrogen. “Oh my God, I’m a mess, I don’t even know why I’m crying at this point, it’s like…it’s like my body is this huge dam and my eyes are suddenly having this blow out, like tires filled with tears.”

A burst of snickers erupted from
Daniel and he buried his face on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

She was grateful for the distraction. “
It’s not funny!”

“No, it
’s…”

Another
round of stifled laughter escaped him until his body shook with it. Sofia couldn’t help but smile. Him in the sound of joy was the best medicine ever. “Look at you, you’re laughing your ass off at me!” She stroked her fingers through his silky thick hair. “Okay, okay, you’re right, I’m hysterical.”

“Oh God,” he gasped,
finally catching his breath. He stared down into her face and took it into his hands. He kissed her then, his tongue all rough and naughty passion, plunging deep in her mouth, stroking with that signature
all fucking mine
Daniel hunger. Whatever was funny also turned him on. And that definitely fixed her up.

“Public,” she
half moaned and whispered.

“Yes
.” He finally pulled up and pecked her nose. “I’ll put you in the car, take care of our bill, and bring your food.”

She nodded and let him lead her
. He still kept her tucked close to his body till they got to her door, like he thoroughly loved protecting her. God, she was just in heaven with that man.

Chapter Four

Daniel st
ood with the remote, staring at the TV’s lifeless screen in his office.

“How about I look first,
” Sofia said. “I don’t think this is a good idea for you sweetie, look at you, you’re a nervous wreck.”

“I have to. It will haunt me if I don’t.”

“
Okay well, you have the remote, just shut the TV off if it gets bad. We only need to see enough, not all of it.”

He nodded
for several seconds, breathing in and out, steadying himself. He hit the power button then hit the player’s ON switch.

Neither of them bothered to sit, they both stood before the TV, waiting, Sofia holding his hand
tight.

Nothing. Part of him hoped it was all empty. But that wouldn’t be any damn help. The screen jumped with
flickers and Sofia squeezed his hand tighter.

T
he image of a girl tied to a bed came on. “Oh God,” Sofia whispered.

“Fuck.
” Daniel had jerked his head down the second naked flesh appeared. “Is that her? I can’t look.”

“Oh my God…I think…I think so.
” Sofia gasped. “Oh no. Daniel? Daniel? Don’t look. Turn it off.” She slapped him on the shoulder a bunch of times. “Hurry, hurry turn it off!”

He ran and hit the switch but it
didn’t turn off, it merely froze the image. Daniel’s blood froze as he stared at the boy on the TV. His back, butt, legs, all of it covered in bruises.

“Who is that,” he whispered. It was as if his mouth moved outside of his mind. Daniel was slowly slipp
ing inside himself, deep inside as he stared, he couldn’t stop.

Sofia turned the TV off and ran to him, hugging him
, crying. “Daniel,” she sobbed. “God, baby, I’m pretty sure… that is Seth.”

Every muscle in his body
slowly locked up with a protective numb.

A
n entire bottle of whisky later, Daniel sat in his office with the door locked, chair in front of the TV, knowing he had to watch it. He had to know what all was in it before he turned it over to the authorities. But there were other reasons he watched even though he knew it would scar him for life.

In a nightmarish haze, Daniel watched. Daniel went back in that nightmare with his brother and lived it with him.
Watched his brother’s endless sexual torture at the hands of his uncle and other strangers.
I love you, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me for not being there
he told his brother as if he might somehow hear it and be healed of the pain
.

T
here was so much shame. In those sweet innocent brown eyes, so much confusion just beyond his flimsy
I don’t really care, you can’t hurt me
wall.

At one point in the film
Daniel saw the sad little turn of his brother’s fourteen year old mouth and broke into sobs. The tilt in his lips told of hope long fucking spent. It told about the dread of knowing you could never run or escape. It told about the slow execution he carried out on his own soul, knowing he wouldn’t have the privilege of dying. It told of broken acceptance. And it shattered Daniel to pieces. To see his tiny body, a shell of a human with no more fight, just submitting to what you were made to become. 

He
let it all sink into his blood and pores, resolved to suffer it with him. He understood what Seth endured, he knew how fucking painful it was. And he knew
that
shame,
it was the hardest to be free of. The dirty feeling you could never be clean of, inside and out, long, long, after the trauma left. Only, it never left. It festered.

But h
e was Seth’s big brother. In some fucked up twisted part of his brain, he watched it to be there for him. Ten years later. Ten years too late. And now his brother sat in a jail. With nobody. Alone.

Daniel staggered his way to the bedroom somewhere around four a.m. He
collapsed to his knees at the foot of the bed, exhausted and yet hardly spent.

“Daniel?” Sofia g
asped and hurried to the floor next to him. “Oh, Sweetie!” She pulled him into her body. “I got you, I got you, shhh.”

Fuck. He grabbed hold of her and sobbed
, the pain grinding hard against his chest. “It hurts,” he groaned. “It fucking hurts, I need my brother, I want him. I want my fucking brother!” The words came out strangled and choked.

“I know baby,
shhh, I know.” She stroked his head and rocked him. “It’s all over, we’re going to use that to set him free, do you hear me? He’ll come home, we’ll be a family. Uncle Seth will come home.” She sobbed the final word.

****

“Well this is exciting,” Rachel muttered dryly as they went up the elevator. “Hope I don’t get motion sickness.”

Daniel patted Rachel’s shoulder,
grinning. “You’re fine Gammie.”

“Don’t call me Gammie, you make me feel old.”

“Oh, now you’re a spring chicken?” Sofia said, lacing her fingers in Daniels, stilling the butterflies in her stomach.

“Blame that one on your
lover boy. And when in God’s name are you two going to tie the knot? I’ve never seen two people so backwards. You done tried on the shoe and wore it to death and you aren’t even married.”

Daniel crimped his brows, her words agonizing him.
They’d signed papers just to make Sofia legally his, for the baby’s sake mostly. The promise was to have the wedding as soon as possible. Rachel had no clue how badly he wanted to tie the knot. Really, really tight, in every conceivable way.

“We’re waiting for Seth, remember?” Sofia
said.

“
Where is he, anyway? I thought he was supposed to do up the flowerbed. Another dilly-dallier, that one. But cute as a button. So he’s excused. And whatever happened to that Spanish Darius girl?”

“Romanian,” Sofia corrected.
“And her name is Dara. She had to go home to take care of her mother. Like I take care of you.”

“S
ofia, why are you hollering in this elevator? It’s ricocheting in my brain.”

“Turn your aid down, Gammie.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier for you to turn your voice down?”

Daniel bit his lip to keep from laughing. He
absolutely
adored
Rachel. She was the best entertainment he’d ever known. And she was his family now.

He leaned and kissed her on the cheek when the door opened.

“Oh my,” she said.

“Hey, no kissing, you’re
gonna break her ear drums!” Sofia said with an accusing gaze.

Daniel pushed Rachel out of the elevator
, loving the banter between them.

“
Sofia Marie, how are you feeling? Come here where I can see you.”

Rachel seemed to change Sofia’s middle name every time she used it. He wondered who in the family had the name Marie.

Sofia strolled next to her Gammie’s chair and held her hand. Daniel recognized the Kodak moment and whipped his phone out and snapped it.

“Are you getting any sleep? You look like
my roses after Hurricane Audrey, back in 1963.”

Sofia, widened her eyes. “Gammie, be nice.”

“Now how was that mean?”

“Here we are,” Daniel said,
letting Sofia open the door.

The office was small but warm and friendly. And empty. They were early though.
He strolled Rachel up to the window and knocked lightly on the frosted glass, praying to God he didn’t run into anybody he “knew”.

The glass door opened. “Good morning,” a middle aged woman whispered. “Sign your name right here. Sofia
Fletcher?”

Sofia Fletcher. Was there ever a more perfect name?
“Yes.”

“I’ll get
everything ready and come get her in a few.” She handed him a clip board. “Go ahead and fill this out while you wait.”

Daniel took it, hoping the
nurses had been informed that all three of them would be going back there with Sofia. He parked Rachel between him and Sofia. “What magazine would you like, Rachel?”

“What all do they have?”
Daniel named off a few. “Give me the Country Living even though it breaks my heart to look through them.”

He
leaned close and handed it to her. “Why does it break your heart?”

She
licked her finger and began turning pages. “Makes me homesick.”

He looked at Sofia
and got her
I have no clue
expression. “You like the country?”

“Oh
do
I like. Air is clean, sky is clear, you can hear the birds and wild life from your back porch.”

Daniel loved the sound of all that.
“You like back porches?”

“Oh yes. And front. I especially love the ones that wrap around the whole
of the house. We used to have one like that when I was a child. Was so high off the ground, I could nearly walk underneath without ducking. I’d ride my skates up on it all the time, rode the wheels plum off. And momma would call me from the kitchen window, I can still see her angry eyes. ‘Get your tail in here Rachel.’ Don’t ask me what I done, I can never remember, she was always pinning crimes on the innocent.”

Daniel smiled.
“I bet you were just an angel.” He got up and took the seat next to Sofia. “I may need your help with some of the questions.”

In five minutes Daniel learned a few
new treasures about Sofia. She’d had her tonsils removed, two broken bones in her life, but a clean bill of health otherwise. “I take it your diabetes is in remission?”

Sofia looked at him blankly before
erupting in snickers. “Oh my
God
that memory is like a
dream.”

“Yeah, for me too. A dream come true.”

“What diabetes?” Rachel asked.

“None, Gammie, Daniel is picking on me.

Daniel leaned to Rachel’s ear. “Didn’t Sofia tell you about how we met?”

“Daniel!” Sofia hit him.

“No, she did not.” Rachel struggled to turn in her chair to see Sofia. “She used to tell me everything and now…now she’s a miss goody two-shoes.”

Sofia gasped. “I am
not.
Fine, I’ll tell you.
Later.
”

The nurse opened the door and called Sofia
and Daniel got behind Rachel’s chair. “Now where are we going?” she asked.

“Through there.” Daniel pointed.

“What for?”

“For Sofia’s doctor appointment. For the new baby?”

“So what do you need me in there for?”

“Daniel thought you’d wan
t to come,” Sofia said.

“For what, you’re going pee in a cup and have your privates
examined. I’ll come along when it’s time to watch the baby on the TV thing.”

“You’ll be
okay out here?” Sofia asked.

“
Stop coddling me like a decrepit old lady. They got nurses in here, I can holler if I fall and can’t get up.”

Sofia’s laughter
tickled all over inside Daniel as she kissed her Gammie on the top of the head. Daniel parked her well out of the way and put the magazine rack in reach. He took his phone out and put it in her lap. “You need anything, call Sofia’s phone, I’ll—”

She shoved it back into his hands. “For crying out loud, you’re not a state away, you’re in the next room.
Now shoo fly, stop bothering me.”

Daniel smiled and kissed the top of her head and followed Sofia.

Once in the office, Daniel stood next to the table by Sofia’s head, holding her hand in both of his. The Doctor—Dr. Bethany—turned out to be a complete stranger, thank God. When he’d looked up female OB’s he’d chosen names he didn’t recognize at all. But sometimes he forgot names and faces and with his luck, optimism was a no-no.

Although with Sofia, that
seemed to be slowly changing.

While they waited for the doctor,
Sofia pointed at various pictures on the wall. “She must be religious.” 

“Yes.”
Daniel silently read the framed biblical passages not sure if that made him feel better or not.

The
doctor came finally, an elegant petite woman with streaked gray hair, a sprite countenance and boundless energy in her step. Daniel liked her right away, especially thrilled she was older. And he especially appreciated the genuine warmth in the woman’s bright blue eyes. She was…motherly. Exactly what he’d want in a female doctor.

D
uring the vaginal exam, Sofia squeezed Daniel’s hand tight. He already knew she was perfect there, even had all her tests done, but he asked Sofia to please not mention he was a gynecologist. He didn’t want the doctor digging. Sofia understood and agreed, not happy to be reminded of his dirty past with
other
women.