Fractured Innocence (#2 IFICS) (20 page)

The old man chuckled. “Oh, how I wish that was true.” 

Kaitlyn touched under her ear and confirmed immediate medical evacuation for the girl and the old man. 

Erik went one way, and Kaitlyn went the other. 

The old man’s words annoyed her. Of course Dasvoik could be stopped. He was human and made mistakes. They would find him. They would destroy him. She kept thinking about the girl’s broken body as she cleared the rest of the ship. It was large and took quite a while. The old man had been right. No Dasvoik. Not even a trace that he was ever on the boat. At least not to the human eye. She had been able to pick up his DNA in the bedroom. Someone had done an outstanding job cleaning up any traces of him, but they forgot about the ones embedded in the mattress. Not that it mattered. Dasvoik would never face a court of law. She would make sure of that. 

Quickly and efficiently, she mentally snapped images of everything in his office and bedroom. There had to be something she was missing. Something that would come to her later as her mind sorted through the data. 

Only essential personnel were left on the boat. After seeing the bodies of the guards, the rest of the staff didn’t put up much of a fight. Kaitlyn used flex cuffs and herded them towards the aft of the ship where the helicopter would land. One of the men was quick and jumped off the side of the boat before she could stop him. He was dead as soon as he hit the water. 

She looked over the rail. One less they had to worry about. 

She radioed in. Harrington replied that they would leave it to the local authorities to take care of the arrest. 

Kaitlyn hurried down the ladder and dropped into the boat. Erik sat waiting for her. As they sped across the ocean, her mind raced, filtering all the information she had gathered. She searched for anything to help them with Dasvoik’s whereabouts. There had to be some clue. Where would he go? Obviously, he would be in hiding but where? Dasvoik was arrogant. He wouldn’t stay out of the limelight for too long.

“How’s the girl?” Kaitlyn asked. The wind rushed through her hair, and water sprayed her face. The moon illuminated the water, and Kaitlyn was struck by the beauty. How could there be so much beauty and so much ugliness in the world? 

The only sound heard was the water lapping against the boat. 

Erik’s grip on the throttle tightened. Kaitlyn could see the tension in his body. 

After a long pause, he said, “Fractured.” 

Fractured.
Kaitlyn thought about the word and realized it fit the girl. She wondered if the pieces would be able to be put back together. The old man said she needed psychological help. Maybe Dr. Chambers could help the girl. 

“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Kaitlyn asked. 

Erik was silent for a long moment. “No.” 

“Never?” Kaitlyn had researched captive victims when she found out the assignment. Even with the research, she wasn’t prepared for what she’d seen in the young girl. Once, she had been a vital young woman. She knew the mind could only take so much. They could see from her battered and broken body what had been done to her, but they had no idea what had been done to her mind. 

“The human mind is resilient,” Kaitlyn argued. 

“You didn’t hear her. She was crying for him. Begging me to bring her to him. After what he did to her and she wanted to tell him she was sorry. She sobbed in my arms. She didn’t want to leave the ship in case he came back.” 

Kaitlyn listened to the waves lapping the sides of the small black boat. Erik’s words echoed in her mind. She tried to make sense of them, but there was no logic. How could she want to be with the man that had beat her and did who knew what else to her? 

The memory of her own attempted rape flashed in her mind. The feeling of helplessness and fear she had experienced. She watched the scenes flash before her eyes. The moment that changed her life forever. 

She would never be the same and neither would the girl they rescued. Kaitlyn’s own life had been taken from her and her body turned into the half human she was today. Kaitlyn knew the young girl had gone through much more than she had. But Kaitlyn had to believe that she would be able to get through it. 

“Dr. Chambers will help her,” Kaitlyn finally said. 

Erik didn’t look at her. “Some things can’t be fixed.” 

The boat approached the hidden cove where they would dispose of the boat until Harrington sent someone to retrieve it. 

“Did you find anything to lead us to Dasvoik?” Erik asked. 

Kaitlyn jumped off the boat. “I’m not sure. I’m still sifting through the information. There has to be something I saw. He couldn’t have covered his tracks that well.” 

“He hasn’t been caught yet,” Erik reminded her. “He’s very good at escape and evasion. Lots of practice.” 

“Yes, but we’re better.” 

 They crouched low and began snaking up the rocky coastline, blending into the darkness. Making there way to the rendezvous point.

CHAPTER 20

Aaliyah woke slowly. Where was she? The bed beneath her was white and soft and she could hear an occasional beeping noise. Through the slits of her eyes, she could see a bright light. 

Was she in heaven? She couldn’t feel any pain. She must be in heaven. Smiling, her eyes drifted closed. Her body felt limp as if she were floating on a cloud. Maybe she really was on a cloud. That would be cool. 

The door opened. High-heeled shoes clicked across the floor. She heard paper shuffling. Did they have paper in heaven? 

A shadow fell over her. 

One of her eyes opened slightly and all she could see was a white coat. Yep. She was in heaven. 

“My name is Dr. Olivia Chambers, and you are under my care.” 

What did she say? Her head was so fuzzy. She tried to grasp the woman’s words. 

She sat down. The chair scraped on the floor as she pulled it closer to the bed. “You’re safe here. I know this is all confusing to you, but you are in a secure facility. The men that hurt you can no longer get to you. Do you understand what I’m saying?” 

Aaliyah flopped her head to the side and tried to get a better look at the woman. The pillow was soft against her head. Aaliyah didn’t realize how much she’d missed pillows. 

The woman was pretty and had a nice voice. Her mind scrambled to think of something to say. It was as if she couldn’t focus enough to get her thoughts together. In the back of her mind, she knew there was something she needed to ask, but she had no idea what it was. 

“Am I dead?”

“No, you are very much alive.”

So she wasn’t in heaven. Her heart thudded against her chest. If she wasn’t dead, that meant she needed to please her owner. 

Pulse racing, she asked for him. “Dasvoik?”

“He’s not here. You’ve been crying out for him in your sleep.” 

“I-I need him. Happy. Need to make him happy.” 

The woman set her clipboard down on the table beside the bed. “We’ll work through this together. Dasvoik has played a vital role in your life. I understand you feel a bond with him. But you need to learn to let go and be on your own. He is not coming back.”

“No, I can’t. I can’t.” Her voice rose to a shrill. 

“You can and you will. I will help you. But now your body needs to heal. Once the body is healed, we will work on the mind.” 

The woman stood up and injected something into the IV lines. 

“What is your name?” Dr. Chambers asked gently. “We need your name to help us find Dasvoik.”

She nodded vigorously. Anything to bring him back to her. “Aaliyah. Aaliyah Le Roux.”

“Aaliyah, that is a beautiful name. Do you have any family?”

Family? Did she have family? The room faded, and Aaliyah floated off to sleep. 

In her sleep, she dreamed. She dreamed of Dasvoik, touching her softly. Smiling at her. Calling her
petal
and his
beautiful flower
. He loved her. She ran after him and they danced under the stars. Dasvoik’s face changed and now he was a boy with dark hair and freckles. 

He looked familiar, but he was not Dasvoik. Where was Dasvoik? She pulled away from the boy and ran away as fast as she could. Dasvoik would not like her dancing with someone else. Was he mad at her? Oh, no. She didn’t mean to. The boy had tricked her! She ran faster, screaming for Dasvoik over and over again. But, he did not reply. She was alone. Scared and so very alone. She dropped to the ground, curled into a ball and cried. 

When she awoke again, her eyes opened a little wider. Where was she? She tilted her head and took in the white walls and machines attached to her.
A hospital?
 

Her heart rate increased rapidly, causing the machine to go crazy. The door was flung open and the pretty doctor from earlier rushed into the room. 

“Aaliyah. It’s good to see you awake.” Her voice was soothing. 

“Where am I?”

“A secure medical facility. You were rescued from the ship.” 

The ship? It all came rushing back to her. The abuse. Dasvoik. Henry. 

Oh, dear God, Darrius!

“My brother! Is he here? Was he rescued?”

The lady reached into her coat and pulled out a syringe. “Aaliyah, you need to calm down or I’m going to have to put you under again.” 

Again? Why was everything in her head so fuzzy? 

“I need to know if my brother is here!” she wailed.

“Aaliyah, I really want to wean you off the drugs, but if you keep having outbursts, I’m going to have to put you under.” 

“No, no more drugs. How long have I been here?” 

“Two weeks.” 

“Two weeks? Why can I only remember seeing you one time?”

“You’ve seen me every day, Aaliyah.”

That didn’t make sense. How could she not remember seeing this woman daily? 

“My brother?”

“Your brother has not been found, but people are looking for him and the others that were on the ship. Do you want to talk about your time on the ship?”

“I want my brother.” 

“Tell me about him.” 

Aaliyah pushed herself up a little on the bed and was relieved to see she was not strapped down. “My brain is foggy.”

“It’s the medication. We’ve had to keep you sedated because of your outburst.”

What outbursts?
She wondered. She couldn’t even recall being in the hospital before this moment. 

“I felt it was the better route instead of confining you to the bed. I didn’t want to have to strap you down. From the looks of your wrist and ankles, you’ve had more than enough of that.” 

Aaliyah lifted her arm and wiggled her fingers as she stared at the cuts on her wrist that were scabbed over.  Lightly, she ran her fingers over the marks—it hadn’t quite sunk in that she was actually free. 

“If you are willing to talk to me, we can ease you off the drugs. Would you like that?” the doctor asked. “There will be no pressure from me. I want you to tell me your story on your own.”

She wasn’t sure. Would she like that? It was nice not to feel pain. Wasn’t it? Mostly she felt numb. “Yes, I need to find my brother.” 

“I understand. Would you like to see your parents?”

Her parents? How had she forgotten about them? It felt strange, like her old life belonged to someone else. “No.” 

“Why not?” The doctor slid the needle back into her pocket and sat down next to her. 

“I don’t know. I don’t want them to see me like this. My fault. It’s my fault my brother is gone.” 

“It’s not your fault. No one would ask for what you have gone through. The people at fault are the ones that took you and your brother. Not you.” 

Tears streamed down her face. The woman was wrong. Aaliyah knew she was the reason they had been abducted. Suddenly, she felt very tired. The conversation had completely drained her. 

“Dasvoik loved me. I just couldn’t make him happy.” 

“Oh, sweetie, that is not love. We have our work cut out for us, but I think for now you need more sleep. I am going to start weaning you off the drugs and when you wake up, we’ll take out the feeding tube so you can start eating on your own again. Ok?”

Aaliyah heard the words, but her mind was elsewhere. Maybe it was the drugs. If she wasn’t drugged up she could think clearly. Her eyes drifted and she heard the door click softly closed. She found herself waiting for the sound of the door being locked. She’d drifted to sleep before realizing that there was no lock. She really was free. 

When she woke again her mother was at the edge of her bed.  Her head felt a little clearer. “Aaliyah, I’ve been so worried, my dear child,” she spoke rapidly in Afrikaans. 

“Mamma.” Aaliyah reached over and grasped her mom’s arm. “I lost Darrius. You must hate me. I’m so sorry.” 

Her mother stifled back a sob.

The doctor came from the corner of the room and placed her arm around the mother. “We’re doing everything we can to bring back your son. Right now, your daughter needs you.” 

Her mother wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve and spoke in broken English. “This be the truth. I do not hate you, child. I could never hate you.” 

Aaliyah pushed herself up and the doctor came around and pulled the pillow up. Suddenly she wanted to bolt from the bed. She needed to get out of this place. But the idea of facing the world outside nearly caused her heart to jump out of her chest. 

“How are you feeling?” the doctor asked. 

“Better. I think. But I don’t want to be here. My mind’s no longer fuzzy, and I’m hungry.” 

“That’s a great sign. Once you are fully recovered, it’s up to you if you want to stay or go home. What would you like to eat? We can have anything you want made.” 

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters.”

“Don’t speak like that,” her mother chided. “Life matters.”

Her mom turned towards the doctor and in broken English asked the doctor to bring soup, bread and a large slice of apple pie. 

The doctor nodded and left the room. Aaliyah’s heart hurt; it was full of sorrow and remorse. 

“Mamma, I need to get out of here. I need to find Darrius.” 

In Afrikaans, she replied, “And how do you think you can do that? Stop talking nonsense. You will stay here until you recover. You have to heal yourself before you can heal others. We have to leave Darrius’s life at the hands of the lord and the police. You must pray for your brother’s soul.”