Memory Lapse: A Slater Vance Novel (27 page)

“Hey,
hey.
It’s
okay, it’s okay,” he murmured.

“I can’t get clean… I’ll
never be clean…” she whimpered in broken words.

Mimicking her prior
motions, he rocked her slowly back and forth, kissed the top of her head, and
continued murmuring words of comfort.

When the water turned
unbearably frigid, he reached up and pulled the lever down to stop its flow. He
stood and picked her up effortlessly into his arms, and snatching a towel from
the rack on his way, he set her down on his bed and wrapped the towel around
her shoulders. Leaving for mere seconds, he went back to the bathroom for more
towels. Kneeling in front of her, he began to dry
her the
best he could.

She sat defeated on the
bed with her head bowed, shivering as he provided his administrations. He raised
the towel to dry her face, when he saw the bruise across her cheek. The sight
of it, made him pause in disbelief – fury flooded him and settled into the
depths of his belly. Keeping his rage in check, he patted her face gently,
careful not to apply too much pressure. She met his gaze – wounded brown eyes
to guarded green ones – and held onto the gaze as if her life depended on it.

Placing gentle hands on
each side of her face, he said softly, “We need to get you out of these wet
clothes, okay?”

Slowly she nodded her
head, still not breaking eye contact.

“You still have clothes
in the other room, I’ll go…”

Grasping his wet shirt
within her fingers, she mewed, “No, please don’t leave me.”

Placing his hands over
hers to instill some warmth, he said steadily, “Okay, okay. Just let me turn
around and grab a T-shirt out of my dresser. Okay?”

Slowly, as if she didn’t
believe he wouldn’t leave her, she released the death grip she had on his
shirt. Without rising, he spun on the balls of his wet shoes and slid open a
drawer, grabbing two shirts.

He knelt on his knees and
slowly began to unbutton her sopping wet blouse. He began to ease the tails of
her shirt out of the elastic band of her skirt, when she laid startled hands
against his, pausing his actions. He watched her swallow and could see her
chest rise and fall in rapid succession.

He gave her a questioning
look, then murmured, “
It’s
okay, I’m only taking off a
wet shirt and replacing it with a dry one. Okay?”

She lowered eyes at the
same time she lowered her shaky hands. Not wanting to startle or embarrass her
further, he slowly pulled the hem out and slipped the wet blouse down her arms.
He paused at the bruises scattered over her upper arms and her torso. His hands
stilled and he swallowed as anger built to overwhelming within him.

With his teeth clenched,
he asked a question he already knew the answer to. “Did he do this to you?”

Jerking at his tone, she
tried to grab the tails of her blouse and pull them back together as tears once
again began to stream down her face.

With an oath, he pulled
her cold, wet body back against his chest. “I’m so sorry. I’m so very sorry.”

He held her until her
trembling was reduced then began again with the shirt, careful not to cringe.
He unfastened her bra and slipped it down her arms. He was careful to keep his
eyes connected to hers. He slowly pulled the dry shirt over her head and gently
pulled her arms through the armholes.

He helped her to stand on
unsteady feet and pulled her skirt and panties off, his T-shirt hitting her
upper thighs. Reaching behind him, he found a pair of sweats and helped her
step into them, steadfastly ignoring the bruising on her thighs. While the
clothes hung limply off her body, at least she was warm and dry. He grabbed some
socks and slipped them on her feet.

Turning quickly, he
slipped out of his own wet clothes and slipped into a similar uniform of
T-shirt and sweats.

When he turned back, her
head was bowed again and her hands were clasped together.

Whispering, she said, “I
can’t stay. I have to go back.”

Falling back to his
knees, he gently grabbed her shoulders forcing her to meet his eyes. “You can’t
go back. You need to go to the police. They can help you.”

“He has my daughter.
She’ll be home soon. I have to go back. He was so angry I’d left. He won’t be
as angry now. It’ll be okay. I just needed… a break. I needed… to be clean. I’m
okay now.”

“Son-of-a-bitch!
You are not going back. How can you
even think about it? We’ll figure out a way to get your daughter,” Slater said
tersely.

With a small shake of her
head, she said softly, “He’ll hurt her. He promised he’d hurt her if I left
again. I… I can’t take that chance. He went to visit his father. That’s how I
got out today.”

“You can’t go back. I
won’t let you go back. Why didn’t you wait for me? I knew he was evil,” Slater
said, frustrated.

Shaking her head slowly,
confident in her decision, she placed gentle hands on his face. “I have to go
back. I didn’t think you’d be home; that’s the only reason I came here – not for
you to save me again. This is how it is for now. Don’t worry; I’ll get away
when I can. I escaped for a very long time, but he found me. I’ll just have to
bide my time. When I can safely run with Petra, I will again. I wish you could
meet her. She’s my beautiful flower. She’s my heart. I have to do what I can to
protect her.”

“You remember?”

She slowly nodded her
head, “The minute he hit me; I remembered.”

“Tell me,” he pleaded.

Turning her head to
glance at his antiqued radio/alarm clock, she nodded her head.

She began speaking as if
she was a thousand miles away. “When I was a sophomore in college, I meet a
fair-haired boy who was in his senior year. He was a political major and had
very little time for anything other than college… and me. We married as soon as
he graduated. He was
Sy’s
brother, Andrew. We were
happy… very happy,” she stilled and glanced down at the tears which had fallen
on her hands, unbeknownst to her it seemed.

Clearing her throat, she
continued, “Andrew followed his dreams and was eventually elected mayor of our
little town. It wasn’t much, but it was a start… it was our start.
Sy
was older than Andrew and, as you say, evil. He hated
that Andrew had made a life outside of the family’s illegal business. Andrew’s
father and
Sy
decided he needed a reminder of the
cruelties of life, I guess. They wanted him back in the family-fold, no matter
the cost. One night, while Andrew was working late,
Sy
came over and… he… forced me… he raped me. I didn’t tell Andrew, I didn’t want
to hurt him that way. But, I got pregnant. I knew it was
Sy’s
child, as I was unable to… with Andrew after that night.”

Slater wrapped his hands
around her tightly clasped ones.

“
Sy
told Andrew what he’d done – bragged how he’d done what Andrew had been unable
to do – get me pregnant. My beautiful fair-haired boy couldn’t handle it. He’d
grown up with this type of abuse all his life.”

She lifted one hand to
wipe at the tears on her cheeks.

“I came home one day
after class and found him on the kitchen floor. He’d shot himself. He just
couldn’t take it anymore.”

Raising his hands to rub
gently at her tears, he asked, “How did you end up married to
Sylus
?”

“He threatened to take
Petra if I didn’t marry him. He was her biological father and I was young and
stupid. He was cruel from the very beginning. It didn’t even matter when I was
pregnant. One day, I’d finally had enough, so I began to squirrel away money,
and when I had enough to buy fake IDs for me and Petra, I ran and took her with
me. He always looked for us, and when he got close, I’d move and get new
identification. This worked until he found me here. He was chasing me and I was
trying to outrun him, but he ran me off the road and that’s all I know.”

“I can’t let you go back
to that. He’ll kill you. You know he will,” Slater said quietly.

Raising her palm once
more to his face, she said gently, “You made me feel safe for the very first
time in a long time,” she smiled woefully, “not that I knew it at the time. But
I know it now. Thanks for that. But, Slate, I have to go back. I’ll get away
again. I just have to bide my time again. I’ll be fine. I’m better now.”

Leaning forward, even
though she had no right, she did something she’d wanted to do for such a long
time; she softly placed her lips against his.

“That’s just for me,” she
whispered against his lips.

“Is there nothing I can
say to convince you not to go back?” he asked gruffly.

“No, but I could use a
ride to my car. Please don’t make it harder, okay?” she said with a brave face.

“You promise to call me
if you ever need me?”

Giving him a wobbly
smile, she simply nodded.

She took a minute to
change into some of her old clothes and then stepped bravely into his car.

◊◊◊

Dropping Ellis off at her
car and letting her go was the hardest thing Slater had had to do in a very
long time. She gave him a wave, unflinching in her decision. Not able to return
to his very empty home, he turned to the one he always had, his brother.

Stepping through the
wooden doors of the church, Slater moved quietly through the church until he
reached Tucker’s office. His secretary told him Tucker was behind closed doors,
counseling. Slater sat in the outside waiting room until a young giggling
couple came out of Tucker’s office. Getting the nod of approval from his
secretary, Slater entered Tucker’s office.

Tucker rose at once when he saw him.

“Slate, is everything
okay? Did you hear from… uh
…
Ellis?”

Exhaling harshly and
slumping into the chair across from his brother’s ornate wooden desk, Slater
told Tucker what had Ellis had told him.

“I shouldn’t have let her
go back. I should have stopped her somehow,” Slater said.

“It’s her choice. You
have to respect her decision.”

“He’s going to kill her.
I know it. I just don’t know how to help her,” Slater said.

“Why, Slater Vance, you sound
like you’re getting personally involved,” Tucker said with a smile.

“This would be why I
don’t become involved in the lives of others. If you’d never have dragged the
stray home, I wouldn’t have to worry about what’s going to happen to her now.
So, this is basically your fault,” Slater said peevishly.

“You’ll figure it out,
Slate, you always do. I have faith in you.”

“I don’t know. I hope
you’re right.” Slater answered doubtfully.

Chapter 22

Slater was jarred awake
at three the next morning to the sound of
Highway
to Hell
. Reaching over, he groggily answered, “Yeah.”

Crying and shaky, but
obviously trying to be quiet, Ellis whispered, “Slate, I need you to come and
get me and Petra. Please, I need you to come now before he wakes up. Please
hurry. Meet us outside the gates.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen
minutes. Just hang on till then, okay?” he said jumping up and throwing on
jeans and a T-shirt. He’d gotten to the door when he had a thought. Turning
around, he ran to his office and quickly searched through his desk drawer until
he found what he was looking for. Shoving the keys into his pocket, he took off
for the door once more.

It actually took him
seventeen minutes to reach the outer gates of the
Trusworth
estate. Slater parked to the side of the gates and waited for five minutes, but
didn’t see anyone. He’d almost decided to bust down the gate when he saw Ellis
and a small girl of about six or seven years old coming from the opposite
direction of where he sat. He slipped out of the car and strode to them
quickly.

He reached Ellis and
immediately took in her tattered appearance. Her blouse was ripped, her eye was
blackened, and her lip was busted. Slater felt the slow roll of rage wash over
him. Clutched to Ellis’s hand was a pretty, dark-haired little girl looking
wide-eyed and scared. Ellis stumbled into his arms and he immediately picked
her up and placed her in the backseat of his rental. He walked around to the
other side to help the little girl buckle the seatbelt next to her mother.

“Hi, I’m Slate,” he told
the little girl.

“Can you hold your
mommy’s hand?” he asked.

Solemnly the little girl
nodded her head.

Slater moved to the
driver’s side and slipped in and took off. He alternatively looked at the road
and in the rearview mirror. Ellis refused to meet his gaze.

Clicking his phone, he
dialed his brother.

“Slate?” he answered
groggily.

“Tucker, I need you to
get up and dressed… we have a situation. I’ll be at your house in five minutes.
Okay?”