Page 287 of Nobody's Girl

My mind is suddenly filled with his memories. It’s as if I’m him. I’m looking into dark brown eyes with dark circles underneath them. Her hair is brown and messed up, like she just woke up.

My chest pounds as Brady reaches out to touch her. Her shoulder has a big bruise on it. Brady leans to kiss it.

“Does that make it any better, Karen?” I hear his voice say.

The girl smiles. “Yes, Brady.”

I hear a door open, then it slams against the wall. “Get the hell away from her,” a gruff voice calls out.

Brady turns and I see Darren Stiles coming at him. He has a baseball bat. Darren’s eyes are red and he’s sweaty. A small amount of spit hangs from his bottom lip, as he must be so angry that he’s practically foaming at the mouth. The smell of stale cigarette smoke and dirty socks fills the air as he gets closer.

“No, Dad, please don’t. I love him!” the girl screams.

“You don’t know what love is, you little slut. He doesn’t love you. Who could love someone like you? You’re a whore and not worth a penny!” he yells, then he swings at Brady with the bat.

Brady moves quickly, avoiding contact with the bat. “I should kill you for what you’ve done to her, you sadistic freak!” Brady yells.

“What did she tell you?” Stiles demands.

“How you beat her and rape her every chance you get!” Brady yells at him as he moves to stand in front of the crying girl who sits on the bed.

“She’s a liar. You need to leave so I can deal with her,” Stiles tells him in an unbelievably calm voice. “She’s sick in the head, boy. You can’t believe anything she says.”

Brady isn’t buying it. “I’m taking her with me. You need to leave her alone. Forget you have a daughter,” Brady tells him as he takes the girl’s hand, pulling her out the door with him.

Suddenly the scene changes. Brady is going into a small white house. “Karen, I’m back,” he says as he walks into the kitchen.

“Karen?” he calls out as he walks into the bedroom.

“Karen?” he yells as he begins to panic, calling her name over and over as he runs through the house and out the backdoor.

He returns to the house, opening the closet to see if her things are still there. Most of them are gone. Empty hangers and one black sweater is all that’s in the closet. He reaches out, taking the sweater down, and a paper falls out of the pocket.

Asshole,

I need a favor from you as you work for the bastards who fucked my daughter and me over.

I want you to get me into that house.

If you refuse, then I will kill Karen.

You have until tonight to get me the information I want:

The code to get into the gate

A map that shows me how to get to the newlyweds’ rooms

And a picture of any windows or balconies that enter their rooms

Leave this information in your mailbox and I will pick it up tonight.

Brady shakes his head and starts to cry. He picks up the phone to call someone, only to slam it back down.

“I can’t do this. I can’t do this to them,” he yells.

He leaves the house, getting into his car. He drives to an old trailer house and gets out. Stiles comes out of the shabby trailer.

“Why did you come here? You must want her dead,” Stiles yells at him.