Freeing Lana (19 page)

Her
mind frantically searched for anything rational to grasp as she walked,
anything to help her make some sense of it all, but there was nothing. Instead,
nightmarish thoughts from that period assaulted her mind, causing doubt to
breed more doubt. Once or even twice while her eyes were covered and she was
being forced to do the unthinkable things, hadn’t she thought she had heard
someone else in the room? Hadn’t on more than one occasion his hands felt
different, larger? Had Tink been there all along?
Fuck!

Her
car was long forgotten and she walked aimlessly across the town for what must
have been hours, but even exhaustion wouldn’t allow her to stop, or more
precisely wouldn’t allow her mind to stop. It instead kept coming up with more
and more scenarios where the man she thought she knew, the man she was certain
she had fallen in love with, had actually been part of her worst nightmare.
Could anything be any worse?
She knew
the answer immediately and wished like hell the question hadn’t come up in her
mind. Of course it could be worse.

Was
it possible that all of it had been part of some insanely grand deception
intended to end with her being where she was now, with Tink? There was
something dark and sinister about Daniel, something not quite
right
. Had he really been able to keep
her hidden all that time by himself, without any help from anyone? And the
elaborate measures he had gone through, almost having her convinced she wanted
to be there, he couldn’t have done that by himself. She was almost sure of that
now.

“You
need a ride?”

The
voice startled her and she jumped out of reflex, though for a fraction of a
second she just knew it had been Daniel’s voice she had heard coming for the
car beside her. She had to get her head together. She hadn’t even heard the car
pull up beside her. Stepping back away from the street a few feet, she leaned
down and looked into the window of the car. Relief came quickly when she
recognized the man in the car. It was Mel Massey, and for a moment, she
considered letting him take her home, or at the least back to the hospital to
get her car, but then she froze. Hadn’t she learned her lesson yet? Who was to
say this guy wasn’t in on it as well?

“No,”
she finally managed, hoping she hadn’t clued him in on her suspicion with her
delay, “I actually need the walk, I think.”

“Yeah,
I guess I can understand that,” he said grinning, “but it’s awfully late. Are
you sure I can’t give you a ride?”

“No,
I’ll be ok. Thank you though.”
 

He
waved and pulled away from the curb and Lana watched closely as his taillights
grew smaller the further they got from her. When she saw his car make a right
hand turn several blocks up in front of her, she immediately took off running
down a side street to her left. She wasn’t sure where she was, or where she was
going, but she didn’t like the idea of anyone knowing where she was, especially
anyone who knew Tink or Daniel.

She
ran until she had crossed several streets and then just for good measure made
another abrupt left and headed down a small residential street. She hadn’t
bothered to check the sign when she turned, but when she reached the next
intersection, and had finally slowed to a walk again, she saw she was on
Wilshire Boulevard, at the intersection of MLK. She took a minute to gather her
bearings and before long she knew exactly where she was. Three blocks up, MLK
ran into the edge of the business district and there was an all night 7-11
there. After reaching back and feeling her pocket to make sure she had brought
the small wallet she sometimes carried with her when she didn’t want to drag
the purse around, she headed in that direction. As it turned out, everyone who
had convinced her to stop smoking was actually a dick, so they could go to
hell, the way she saw it.

The
short walk to the convenience store went by quickly and she figured in
comparison to all the walking she had already done it only made sense. Before
she knew it, she was standing on the darkest side of the store with a lit
Marlboro in one hand and a Budweiser longneck in the other. But the long haul
on the bottle did little to tame the harshness of the cigarette and after a
second attempt that turned out as bad as the first, she flattened the Marlboro
on the ground beneath her shoe. The beer however, she had no trouble finishing
quickly. She put the rest of the six-pack back in the bag, along with the
lighter and pack of smokes and started out walking again.
 

She
knew she had enough money to take a cab home or even back to get her car, but
the night air was working miracles and she was finding it easier to think as
she walked. Besides, she wasn’t in the mood to go home now, and the place she
had decided to go to was well within walking distance of where she was now. It
would take a bit, maybe even another hour, but she realized with surprising
clarity that she had as much time as she needed tonight, as well as for the
immediate future. She took a left on Boone Street as she fished the pack out of
the sack again.
I might as well try
again,
she thought, reaching for the lighter.

3

Sergio
sat in his recliner weighing his options. He didn’t think the girl would
actually call the police, and even if she did, he was sure that he could
explain it all as a misunderstanding more than anything. After all, he had let
her go the very instant he knew she wanted to be released. The fact that she
had been unable to relay her wishes before that was just…well, it was just an
unfortunate side effect of the kinky little sex game they had been playing and
nothing more. And it wasn’t like it was the first time they had played this
game. If the cops did show up and if they wanted, he could show them the emails
between himself and Lori where she had said blatantly that she
liked it rough
. Those were her exact
words, so yeah, go ahead and call them.

Now
that he had played it all out in his head, he was sure she would know the same
thing, the worry left him. So no longer concerned that there would soon be a
knock on the door tonight, he retrieved the small box from behind the recliners
cushion and lit one of the joints, inhaling deeply.

“Fuck
it,” he said with a smile as he exhaled.

Chapter Thirty-Five

1

“Damn,
you know I love you, but I sure wish you hadn’t come up here,” Tink said.

“Yeah,
I can see that,” Daniel replied, “but they said they weren’t sure if you were
going to make it, so my lawyer made it happen. By the time you were out of the
woods, we were already on our way here.”

“Yeah,
still…”

“Dad,
I know. I’m sorry; I didn’t mean for any of this to go like it did, and you
know that.”

The
visit was short, much shorter than the visits Tink had made to the prison. Tink
had been fortunate enough to be allowed to use a different entrance when he
visited Daniel, and no one would have ever known about it. It was one of the
perks of being in law enforcement; they took care of their own, even when their
own had a psychopathic son like Daniel.

Damn,
he sure wished they hadn’t brought Daniel here. Sure, they had thought they
were doing him a favor, and he could appreciate that, but they had no idea what
they had actually done. How could they? After all, he had gone out of his way
to hide his relationship with the girl his son was in prison for abducting, so
they couldn’t have imagined the ramifications of this visit. Hell, even Daniel
didn’t know about it.

As
Tink watched Daniel leave the room, he was fairly certain Lana wasn’t there anymore.
He had heard her yell. Thankfully, none of the guards seemed to have made the
connection so maybe there was still a chance he would have a job when he got
out of the hospital. He had been left without any choice with Mel and had told
him to call her when he got shot. The look in Mel’s eyes was painful to see,
but he trusted Mel and he knew he would be ok. Only, he had no idea where Lana
had taken off to.

He
turned on his side, hoping to reach his phone on the small night stand, but
before he could get to it, he noticed the broken phone on the counter. There
was no denying it was Lana’s, and by the looks of the screen, he doubted it
would ring even if she had it with her. Once the men escorting Daniel had left
the hospital, the nurse, the one who had been so kind to Lana, returned to his
room to check on him.

“Is
she still around somewhere?”

“Not
at the moment,” the nurse told him. “I’m not sure where she got off to, but I
wouldn’t worry; she’ll be back.”

“I
wouldn’t be so sure about that,” he said.

“Oh,
I would. That girl loves you. She’ll be back, just you wait and see.”

Tink
smiled at the woman, appreciating her attempt to console him, but he recognized
it for what it was. She was only doing what they paid her to do and she was
just trying to keep him from getting too upset until he could heal a little
more. Mel had done the exact same thing when he was bleeding all over the
convenience store floor, telling him the bullet had gone straight through and
that he was going to be just fine. But he had heard Mel’s voice shaking. He had
done the same thing more than once in his own career, flat out
lied
through his teeth to someone just so they would calm
down. Sometimes it flat sucked to know people as well as he did.

No,
he didn’t expect Lana back anytime soon, if at all. It had been a huge mistake
to keep this from her and he could only imagine what she must be thinking right
now. If he could only talk to her, make sure she was ok,
then
he might be able to convince her to give a few minutes to explain. If she would
do that, he could make her understand. He had kept it from her because he was
afraid she would leave. But a lot of good that did, she was still just as gone
now.
 

He
was making his way back onto his back, an effort more painful than he had
thought possible, when Mel walked into the room. The man leaned over, looking
at him queerly, and then broke out into a laugh.

“Well,
aren’t you just the picture of pleasantness,” he exclaimed with a laugh.

“Fuck
off,” Tink shot back through clenched teeth, finally just allowing himself to
fall back into his original position.

“You
need me to call the nurse, Tink?”

“Nah,
she left me next round of pain pills there,” he said pointing at the
nightstand, “Can you get them?”

“You
bet,” Mel said, handing him the small cup with the three yellow pills inside
it.

Tink
took the pills and washed them down with the cup of water already within his
reach. He closed his eyes, perhaps hoping the effects would be immediate,
though he knew it would be some time before he was able to forget his ill-fated
attempt to call Lana. When he opened his eyes again, Mel was grinning widely.

“You
just get a blowjob from a midget?”

“Much
better than that,” he sneered, “I got to find out what keeps Ol’ Tink’s watch
wound up so tight.”

“Yeah,
yeah, but keep it under your hat, will you?”

“Of
course buddy, but damn, do you really think this is a good idea?”

“Of
course not, dumbass, why the hell do you think I didn’t tell you?”

Mel
laughed openly and Tink had no choice to join him, as much as it hurt to do so.
For a few moments, the two men sat there quietly, each of them thinking of
funny things to say on the subject, but both deciding to keep it to themselves
for the time being. Finally, Mel did speak.

“Oh,
that reminds me, I saw her walking down town earlier, she ok?”

“Yeah,
she’s just pissed off right now,” Tink said, hoping it was true. “You give her
a ride?”

“I
tried, but she wasn’t having any. She said she needed the exercise.”

“She
was probably warming up to whip my ass.”

“Yeah
ok, as if she would need to practice before stomping a mud hole in your tired
old ass.”

“Fuck
you very much, Mel.”

“Damn
Tink, you really are confused about this whole sex thing, aren’t you?”

“I
do still have a gun, asshole.” They both chuckled until Tink winced and grabbed
his side.

2

Sergio
quickly stuck the small box back behind the cushion when he heard the knock on
his door. It wasn’t the hard insistent knocking he would have expected to be
associated with the police, but he didn’t want to take the chance, just in
case. Most likely, that stupid bitch had come
back
 
for
more, as if he would even consider
it after the shit she had said to him. No, thank you Sister Sarah! He got up
and went to the door, swinging it open widely as he spoke.

“I
thought I told you not to come back he…”

It
was as far as he got. It wasn’t Lori standing there, begging him to let her
come back and in and serve him further in some futile attempt to make up for
her disrespectful attitude. And it certainly wasn’t the cops either, though he
had really known it wouldn’t be them.