Page 24 of Rescued By Midnight

“We can’t fix this with ice cream.” Finally, though, she leans into me.

“Maybe we can’t fix it, but we can make it taste better.”

She laughs quietly and shakes her head. “I guess you’re right. Okay, let’s go.”

On the way back to San Esteban, Cody calls me. I answer over the car’s system, and his voice fills the cab. Without even a hello, he says, “Sprechter, I need you to come to the foothills.”

“Hey, Cody,” I say. “How are you? Is your day going well? Mine is great, thanks for asking. Alice and I are on our way to Isabelle’s Creamery. Should we pick you up a cone?”

“Fuck you, just get your ass up to Farnton. Bring Alice, too.”

“Did SEPD find something?” I try to mentally place Farnton on a map, but I’m coming up blank. “Where the hell is Farnton?”

“They didn’t find something. I found a suspicious-looking compound. Go east on 373, turn off at Vale, then go north. I’ll send you a pin.”

“Got it.”

The mannerless dickhead ends the call without another word. He doesn’t even say hello to Alice, who has been sitting in the passenger seat with wide eyes since the conversation began.

In the new quiet, Alice says, “I don’t want to go there, Landon.”

I reach over and give her hand a quick squeeze before reluctantly letting go. “We need to find your kidnapper,” I tell her. “The sooner we do, the sooner you can move on, and not fear that he’s coming back.”

“Are you worried he’s coming back?”

“Wonderland, I only know the very basics of your case. I haven’t wanted to push you to talk about it before you’re ready. So I don’t know what’s going on, how you escaped, or anything.”

“He let me go.” She folds her hands in her lap, fingers interlaced. “One morning, I woke up, and the chain was unlocked and neatly placed beneath my cot. He was gone. I don’t know why he did it. So I don’t know what to expect.”

My brain trips on the chain. There was a chain on her? What the actual fuck. I force myself to take deep, even breaths. Losing my cool might scare her, and she’s finally talking about it.

“Do you know his name?” Before she can answer, I add, “I know you told everything you know to the police. They can’t share everything with Cody and me, though. And given our profession…I’d like to know, too.”

In fits and starts, she gives me details. Her voice fades in and out as she falls into old memories and terrors, and I mentally catalogue everything she says. She didn’t know his name, so she called him Abe. They lived in a tiny cabin without any insulation. An old wood stove gave off some heat in winter. She cooked and cleaned for him, like a wife, but he treated her more like a sister or a pet. She hated him, she tried to escape, and then eventually she got used to her new life.

Then without any warning, he let her go.

She’s so focused on her story, she doesn’t notice right away when I drive past the last San Esteban exit. When she finally realizes, she tenses up. “Landon?”

“I know. We’ll take a quick look, just to make sure. Cody and I can’t gauge on our own if he’s on the right track.”

She shakes her head. “Didn’t you see what just happened at Navarre? I’ll probably freeze at the sight of anyone, and embarrass you and myself and Cody. And what if Abe really is there? What then?”

I take the next exit, cutting across a lane at the last second. Alice’s bright blue eyes widen in surprise.

Pulling over to the shoulder, I turn in my seat. “If Abe is really there, we’ll get him. If someone else is there and they even look at you funny, we’ll get them, too. Alice, there is nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you safe. Do you understand? You’re with Cody and me now, and nothing and no one can ever change that—except for you.”

10

ALICE - NOW

He says he’ll protect me, that he won’t let anything bad happen to me. But how can he promise that? He can’t possibly protect me from every potential threat. No one can.

Shopping with him at Navarre was the most normal thing I’ve done in ages. The fact I needed an all-new wardrobe, not so normal. But the act of going to a department store, trying things on, buying them—that felt normal.

Spending time with Landon, also normal. I missed him after our friendship ended. Him and Cody, both. When we were still friends, we would go out for brunch after group counseling. A couple of times, Cody came on a run with me, easily keeping pace. And Landon was always up for grabbing a cup of coffee before my shift at Carol’s Closet started.

I used to work. I used to have an actual job, and earn my own money, and decide how to spend it, where, and when.