“That doesn’t concern you.”
He frowns. “I know. I just don’t want you to make a mistake.”
“There’s no mistake. She fucked me over, and now she’ll pay.”
He hesitates. “Are you sure of that? Don’t you think you should get your facts straight before you punish her? I just don’t want you to regret it… like I have.”
I resist the urge to beat the shit out of him right then and there.What he’s done and what I’m about to do are entirely different. Mainly because he had no right to her. She’smine. But also, because she was innocent. Now, there’s no question about it: she’s guilty as sin.
I stand up, even though there’s no place to go, really, and begin to pace the tiny space between the bed and the door to the bathroom.
“There are no facts to get straight. She doesn’t want me, and she’s hiding from me. But it doesn’t matter what she wants. I’ve found her, and I’m going to take her. And then, I’m going to keep her.”
“Right.” Logan clears his throat uncomfortably. “But have you ever thought that maybe shedoeswant you?”
I stop pacing and turn to face him. “What do you mean? Do you know something?”
He shakes his head. “I’m just saying, Angel is involved. I’m just saying…”
“Well, stop saying,” I sna, putting a stop to his nervous babbling. “Angel might be involved, but I don’t see what they could possibly have done to make her stay away. Sure, they tried to use her escape against me. They learned the hard way I’m no one’s pawn. But she wouldn’t stay away if she didn’t want to. Otherwise, she’d be out looking for me, just like I’m looking for her. She wants nothing to do with me. That much is obvious.”
Logan looks at me quizzically. “I guess… I guess it’s understandable. Wedidabduct her. She had no choice but to...”
His voice trails off, but I know what he’s trying to say.She had no choice but to stay. She had no choice but to submit to your desires.
“That’s beside the point,” I mutter, throwing myself once more onto the bed.
“Her choice is beside the point?”
“She’s mine,” I growl. “And possessions don’t choose.”
Silence penetrates the small room. At last, I blurt out, “The people in town think she’s mute.”
I have no idea why I’m still confiding in Logan after all this time, but it feels good to get it off my chest.
He raises an eyebrow. “Guess she never talked much.”
“She no longer talks at all.” I’m unable to keep the emotion out of my voice. “She lost a lot of weight, too. And she lives in a tiny rundown place. She spent the past eight months working for Bill Henson, and he’s been secretly filming her in the bathroom all that time.”
Logan’s features harden. “Guess she found herself a new shitty situation.”
I shrug, lighting a cigarette. These past eight months of suffering have turned me into a chain smoker.
“So, what’re you going to do about it?”
I take a long drag. “I’ll finish this,” I say, gesturing to the cigarette as I blow out smoke through my nostrils. “Then I’ll go back to her house.”
__
My pet is still asleep when I return, lugging both the massive pink bear and a wool blanket I took from the motel. I pin the piece of paper, on which I’ve written a single word, to the bear’s chest, then go back outside to wait. I’ve parted the curtains slightly, and I can just make out her sleeping form through the window. She left the bathroom light on, and it allows me to see her shivering under the thin cover.She hasn’t noticed the new wool blanket I’ve bunched up in one corner of the bed.
It’s five a.m., and I hope I won’t have to wait for more than an hour.
Who knows, though: she’s always liked sleeping in, and without her job to force her up, she might stay in bed for a long time.
I’m ready to stand outside her house for however long it takes.
Surprisingly, I barely have to wait ten minutes before she sits up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes before heading to the bathroom. She probably isn’t actually planning to wake up for the day. Maybe she only needs to pee. I hear the toilet flush a moment later, then her stumbling footsteps as she prepares to return to bed.
