Only One (19 page)

The morning my mama and AJ arrived, I ran down to the beach, taking shots of pelicans as they perched on top of pilings on the beach. I could take a million photos of them. I just loved to watch them.

A creepy, eerie feeling that I hadn’t felt since the beginning of summer came over me. I felt like someone was watching me again. Pretending to take more pictures, I scanned every section of the beach, but came up short. Laughing at my own stupid nerves, I shook off that feeling and made my way home to call Cole.

When Cole didn’t answer, I called home. Daddy informed me that Aaron was hunkered down in a small town in Arkansas with his family, supposedly. Why, I had no idea. Aaron never spoke of family, he’d only shared pertinent details with me. Daddy thought he was making his way to me, but I wasn’t convinced. They were tracing his phone and it hadn’t moved in three days. It was just a game of watch and wait. Would he move east, or would he head west to L.A.? That was the big question on Daddy’s mind and my uncle’s. Daddy told me to come home the next day and that he’d call Mama and tell her the same, so he could keep an eye on me. Part of me felt stupid thinking Aaron was out there watching me today, but a very large part was relieved he was too far away to cause any issues.

Cole barely left my side all summer. He went to work, came to get me after and we spent every night in each other’s arms. Talk about a little piece of heaven on earth. We had to convince my daddy to take down the camera in the barn, which he did, but still enforced the ones outside. Having Cole sleep next to me gave us all a little peace of mind, especially Cole. I swore he and my daddy had been hiding something from me ever since Jamaica, but if they were, they weren’t answering my questions about my suspicions. The pictures had stopped. One picture was enough to get everyone in a tizzy, but now life was finally back to normal.

Only Cole was gone, back at school to start his training. And boy did I miss him. He called me as soon as he woke up and as soon as he got off the field, making good on his promise. He was back at school, doing what he did best, playing football. Well, that wasn’t true, he was really good with his mouth, so maybe football was his second best sport. He’d been back in Alabama for three weeks, and he was already making his trek back up to see me. I couldn’t wait to wrap myself around him and kiss him all over tonight.

Mama brought so much food with her that one would think that Hilton Head didn’t have a grocery store to shop at. AJ disappeared within the first five minutes of arriving. Mama and I started making some of her famous gumbo and cornbread as we waited for him to get back. She prattled on and on about Lily entering her junior year of college and wanting to go on to graduate school once she graduated, and how AJ was going to be looking into USC, as well as a few others the following year. I was happy for Lily. Anyone who didn’t know we were sisters would never guess by looking at us. We were the completely opposite from each other. I had dark, wavy hair and green eyes and had a wild side growing up. Lily was fair skinned, but had our daddy’s eyes and not one ounce of wild to be found in her body. She was the goody-two-shoes daughter who obeyed and tattled on me all the time. But I loved her to pieces. AJ, well, Uncle Josh took some kind of credit for my brother, even though he wasn’t his. Admittingly, he looked like his uncle and certainly acted like him. The stories mama told about Uncle Josh could frighten fish. But since he’d found Ava years ago, he finally settled down and had his own kids. I didn’t know the whole sordid story about the two of them, but, from what I gathered, it wasn’t a pretty beginning to their relationship. Once again love had conquered all.

After we finished dinner and Mama and I cleaned up, she and AJ tried to convince me to wait for Cole by catching a movie in town.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” Mama asked for the tenth time.

“Mama, you two go. It’s been like forever. I’ll be fine. I just want to lie in bed and read a good book until Cole gets here.”

“What time is he due, again?”

“’Bout ten or so.”

“It’s sweet that he’s coming up for just the weekend.”

“It is. Football keeps him busy. He has a flight into Savannah, and then he’ll drive the rest of the way.”

She smiled, pleased at our young love and all the theatrics that went along with it. “Okay, if you’re sure. AJ and I should be back by nine, but we may stop for ice cream. I could pick you up some soft serve.”

I shook my head, holding up my beer. “I’m good, Mama. Go have fun and stop worrying about me.”

Grabbing another beer and a new romance novel I picked up at the store, I locked the door behind them and headed for my room. Once I changed into my cotton shorts and tank top, I slipped under the covers to kill some time before the main event.

Cole.

Peering over to the clock, I figured I had a couple hours to read before I needed to jump into the shower and shave to get ready fore him.

Lost in the unexpected BDMS in the book, I flipped the book to read the blurb on the back. Oops! I laughed, thinking about that young kid at the store who had grinned real big when I purchased it. The cover was steamy, but the words were a lot hotter. Hotter to the point a cold shower was looking better and better.

A creak out in the kitchen startled my train of thought. “Mama is that you,” I yelled out. I looked back to the clock on the nightstand, wondering if she’d forgotten something. I got up to made my way out. “Mama, what did you forget?”

Pausing in the doorframe, I scanned the kitchen, the patio door and then the back door that led into the garage. I swallowed hard at the barely ajar door that I knew had been locked before I turned to head back to my room to grab my phone.

A hand clamped down over my face. I tried to scream, but the hold was too firm. Scared out of my wits, I kicked and bit until I was facing someone else. His face was covered by a ski mask, but his eyes were the darkest brown I’d ever seen. The other man grabbed my ankles, not allowing me to fight anymore. “Shh,” the man behind me, whispered. Just that little whisper sounded more sinister, scarier then anything I’d ever heard in my life.

Hampering my attempts to break free, they both gripped me so tightly I couldn’t move. I tried to squirm, scratch, bite myself free, but it was impossible with two men holding me down.

“I’m glad you chose to stay. We were getting worried that brother of yours wouldn’t make it to college in a few years.”

“You touch him and I’ll kill you,” I spat out.

They carried me back to my room and continued talking. “Don’t worry, in two hours, your mother and brother will find out that someone slashed all four tires and they’ll need a tow. By then I’m thinking Aaron will have shown. If not, well maybe we’ll have a little party with you when we take you with us. You look just like your mother. Both real, real pretty.” He pressed his covered face to my cheek as he hissed the words.

He pulled away some. “Tie her up,” he ordered the one holding my ankles.

I wriggled after they tossed me down hard on the bed, remembering the .38 daddy gave me to bring. It was in the nightstand. If only I can get hold of it.

While one held my arms down, I screamed out, tossing my head from side to side, trying to bite him as the other man held my ankles together and wound a rope tightly around them. I knew my options were running out and I needed to distract them before my hands were bound, too. My eyes flashed over to the drawer as panic hit again when a piece of rope was thrown to the man holding me down. He scared me more than the other, and I wasn’t sure if it was his threats or the way his eyes undressed me through his mask.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I wouldn’t try anything, Chiquita. I have a gun, and I’m not afraid to put a hole in that tight, little body of yours.”

After I gave up resisting, he came real close, biting down on my earlobe. “That’s better.”

I wanted to retch, but I tried to remember the things my daddy and my uncles taught me over the years about protecting myself, but nothing came to me other than the obvious. And with my feet tied, I certainly couldn’t kick him where it hurt.

After my hands were tied, he restrained me to the post at the top of the bed with handcuffs. I flinched when he cinched it too tight, and it pinched my skin, but I would not let them get an ounce of satisfaction that they were hurting me or to let them see how scared I was. Terrified was a better word, but I refused to let them see that side of me. Where I got this strength I did not know, but I welcomed it. I prayed and begged quietly to the lord above to keep my family away, to keep Cole away and to keep me safe.

The man who’d claimed to have a gun, pulled it out from under his shirt like he had to prove it to me. He ran it slowly from my chin down to my exposed belly button. His Adam’s apple became pronounced as he eyed my stomach when my shirt lifted and swallowed hard.

And now I was more terrified than before at what he might be thinking, or what he was planning next for me.

“You sure are a pretty thing. Maybe after I kill Aaron, you and I can come to an understanding,” he growled into my ear.

Unable to hold back my disgust, I snorted.

“Or maybe I’ll fuck you now, Chiquita.”

“Thanks, but you’re not my type. I go for real men.” Every word that dripped off my tongue had disdain laced in it.

He smirked, almost like he was waiting for me to finish having my moment, like he enjoyed my reaction.

“You know, men who can show their faces and don’t need to scare innocent woman into allowing men like you to rape them.”

His hand cracked across my face so hard that I immediately tasted the blood. “You have a nasty mouth for someone who has a gun to her head.” His hand lifted to the side of his face, his fingers curled underneath his mask, like he was ready to prove me wrong. Before he did, the other man yelled out for him to stop fucking around and get back to work.

He laughed, sinisterly. “Yeah,” he gripped my chin forcefully. “I think we made the right choice. He’ll come for you.”

“You’re crazy,” I shouted. “I left him months ago. He hates me. He never loved me. He won’t come,” I said, praying that they didn’t know about our relationship and that even though Aaron had his issues, he did love me, even if it was in a twisted way.

He stepped toward the window and peered outside once before dropping the curtain back. “See, Chiquita, that’s where you’re wrong. Aaron loves control. He liked controlling you, no?”

I couldn’t deny that, so I kept my mouth shut and narrowed my eyes, waiting for him to continue.

“Anyway, after Aaron disappeared, my friends and I paid a little visit to his place. And do you know what we found inside a locked room?”

I shook my head and noticed a tear that dripped onto my cheek. I wanted to brush it away before they saw, but couldn’t.

“A lot of pictures of you, Chiquita. He made a shrine all about you. Don’t worry, one other girl was lucky enough to decorate his walls. Not as pretty as you, although nice on the eyes. But I’m thinking he might care more about you then her to crawl out of the hole that he’s been hiding in. He’s a sick fuck.” He turned to other guy, amusement in his eyes as he turned back to me. “Even had a couch, a television with porn tapes underneath, a lot of used and unused tissues. I’m thinking he jerked off a lot to that body and face of yours,” he taunted.

“He’s not coming. He’s in Arkansas. I can get the address for you, I swear,” I reasoned, hoping he’d take the bait. If I could make just one call to my daddy, he’d hear the fear it my voice and come rescue me.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I can just make one call and you can go get him.”

He bent down and got close to my face. “You know what that tells me?” he paused. “It tells me he’s on his way.”

“What?” I asked in disbelief.

“Already knew he was there. I can find information out just as good as that P.I. father of yours. Only I’m gambling on the fact that daddy thinks he’s still there.”

I swallowed hard, allowing the tears to flow at the words he said. “He left that hotel two days ago. He’s close, Chiquita.”

“Why are you doing this to me?” I cried. “Please,” I begged.

“You see, I took those pictures of you and your football star and sent them all off.”

I stopped my mini-hyperventilating. “I don’t understand why sending a picture to my daddy would draw Aaron out. I don’t understand.”

He laughed out loud. “That’s a shame. I’d have thought Mr. Quarterback would have shared the other one I sent. That was my favorite one. Damn!” He rubbed the mask, like he had an itch. “By the way, you dance beautifully. I was a little jealous those cowboy boots weren’t wrapped around me that night out in that field.”

I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate on my breathing, remembering back to that night. “You’re disgusting,” I murmured.

He shrugged. “Maybe,” he mumbled. “Shall I continue?”

I turned away, refusing to look at him.

“I’ve sent them and more to Aaron’s phone. I know he’s seen them. At first they went to his house, but he bailed too soon to get them because he’s a pussy and knows I’m gunning for him. So I sent them to his phone. I may not have been able to keep up with his steps or nail him down yet, but I was able to find you and he knows I’m coming after you. The person he wants the most. That shrine was sick, but hey,” he ran the gun down my cheek. “love does that shit to a man sometimes.”

The clock sounded like an elephant pounding in my head as I watched the minutes tick by one by one. It was only a matter of time before my mama found her car tires slashed. I just hoped she’d put two and two together and call for help. The men paced, whispering in Spanish than back to English to each other. The only thing I caught was how disappointed they were that Aaron hadn’t shown yet, and how they knew without a doubt my mama wasn’t a stupid lady. Other than that, it was all gibberish. But it was enough to give me hope.

The clock read five of nine when I looked over at it. The sun had just gone down, from the darkness that took over inside the room. The creep with the gun paced a few more minutes, deep in thought, or at least that was how it looked to me.