Bound to Her - Deborah Pin (books for 9th graders .TXT) 📗

“Dad?”

He had to force himself to take a deep breath before he dared open his

mouth again. “Yeah, bud?” He wasn’t hiding the nearly out of control emotional turmoil coursing through him.

“Were you yelling?”

“Yeah. It’s nothing.”

“The cops are here.”

“I know. You’re going to have to go to the precinct to tell them everything that happened. You tell them to contact Detectives Smith and

Terrell. I’m on my way. I’ll meet you there.” He disconnected quickly as

he turned from the room, heading toward the garage.

“Dillon, please.”

“I’m warning you, you do not want to talk to me right now.” When

he reached the door to the garage he stopped on a dime and without looking at Katrina who was still standing in shock, he snapped. “We’re

leaving now!”

“I can stay.” Her voice was weak and quiet and when he glared at her

she glanced away quickly. She looked as if she were two seconds away

from crying and though it was like a knife twisting in his gut, he couldn’t

seem to stop glaring. His anger was like a red torrent of hatred.

It was the most confusing feeling in the world being so infinitely relieved Seth was okay and so furious with Katrina he wanted her to feel

the stabbing pain of his emotions.

“I said we’re leaving.” He turned from her. He slammed his hand on

the garage door opener mounted to the wall by the door and he stalked

to the driver’s door. He stood waiting for her to appear, stewing more the longer she kept him waiting.

She stepped out the door and into the garage. “Please, Dillon. I’m so

sorry.” She was trembling and the tears that had only barely been restrained in the kitchen were falling freely. He wanted to touch her so much it hurt but he also wanted to scream at her.

“You were out drinking last night?” He was yelling. He hadn’t even

managed to get in the car and he was already losing control. “What the

fuck were you thinking? No. No. You obviously weren’t thinking at all.

This was far more about getting loaded than anything else, wasn’t it? So

loaded you didn’t even manage to notice what the hell was going on around you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re an adult, Katrina. Not a fucking child.” He pulled the door open as she took a couple tentative steps toward the passenger side but

he didn’t make it far before a wave of fury overtook him and he slammed

the door shut again. When he turned to her, she was quietly sobbing.

“He could have died! Fuck! I’ve done everything in my power to

protect you both, keep you both safe and you managed to fuck it all up

just like that! How dare you! My son could have died!” He pulled the door open and then as he climbed in he yelled once more. “Get in the fucking car!”

She climbed in next to him and he threw the car in reverse. He

committed himself to not speaking to her again lest he have to pull over

to yell at her again and she sat quietly sniffling by his side as he drove.

He truly didn’t give a shit in that moment. He might care for her as much

as anyone in his life but she’d fucked up and she’d fucked up bad. She’d endangered his son and intentional or not the anger wasn’t fading. She’d

made a stupid mistake and Seth had almost paid for it.

Whether he was yelling at her or not, focusing on driving was nearly

impossible. He stewed, he ran through every nightmarish thought and image that came to mind of what could have happened to Seth and he blamed the woman sitting beside him for every awful thing that could have happened.

He pulled in at the precinct and when he stepped from the car he didn’t bother saying a word to Katrina. He ignored her as she followed

him into the building. He found Smith and Terrell quickly and Molly practically mauled him into a bear hug. Seth stood coolly by Jake as though nothing of concern had happened at all.

He knew it was just an act but playing it cool was just how Seth operated. It was oddly calming to see Seth looking around as though he

had better things to do. When they asked if he wanted to be present when they took Seth’s statement he nodded.

He sat silently through Seth’s interview. His heart rate spiked

continually as he listened to the events. Seth had received a text message

from Kat’s phone asking him where he was. When he responded the next

text asked him to meet her at the Brig at Magnuson Park. The building was nearly deserted with most people milling about outside by the water

and Seth had been approached just inside the vestibule of the building.

The man had disappeared within the building when Seth caught on to

who he was and Seth made his way quickly back to Molly and Jake.

Smith and Terrell asked Dillon to go over what had occurred at his house that morning and he gave them a detailed account of everything that had happened. He didn’t much give a shit he was admitting Kat had

been there with him and they didn’t bat an eye when he said it. It was an

understood fact if nothing else at this point and there were more important things to be concerned about than who he happened to be fucking. Dillon sounded bitter even in his own head.

When Smith and Terrell put a photo lineup in front of Seth, he picked

out Clinton Lathrop immediately. It was the first eyewitness who

implicated him in Kat’s home invasion, arson and stalking debacle, and

Smith and Terrell couldn’t seem to keep the smile off their lips.

Dillon was too deep in his anger to react at all. They asked Seth if he’d ever seen the photo of the man before, insinuating his subconscious could have been tainted by Dillon’s involvement in the case and as Smith’s focus shifted to Dillon as Terrell asked the question, Dillon sneered. He said nothing. He didn’t want his bad attitude on record so he

just shook his head in frustration.

“I assume you’ve tried to locate her cell phone?” He was still sneering

even as he spoke.

“Of course and we’ll continue to try but it’s currently off. Doubt he’s

stupid enough to power it on now that he knows we know he has the phone. Doesn’t mean he didn’t have free access to it for twelve hours.”

Dillon stood and Seth followed his lead. He returned to Molly and Jake, waiting patiently in the corridor. “Where’s Katrina?”

“She left for the restroom shortly after you went in. She was crying.

You going to tell me what happened with her?”

He didn’t bother answering Molly’s question. “Can you find her?

Smith and Terrell need to ask her some questions.”

Molly’s brow wrinkled but she stood and walked toward the

restroom without questioning him further. It was less than a minute later

that she returned with a puffy-faced Katrina at her side. Katrina refused

to look at him and since he couldn’t wipe the nastiness from his own expression, he couldn’t really blame her. He was itching to yell at her some more but it would have to wait.

Katrina walked back with Smith and Terrell as Molly watched her

with concern. Her focus shifted between Katrina and him, bouncing back

and forth as she tried to figure out what was going on and once they were finally out of earshot she turned her focus completely on him.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I’m not talking about this right now.” Then he turned from her as he

snatched up his phone and called Stephens. “Where are you?”

“On my way to the precinct. Got a call from Terrell a while ago.”

“Can you bring Katrina back to my house when Smith and Terrell are

finished speaking with her?”

“Sure.” They disconnected quickly after that and as he turned back to

Molly he found her glaring at him.

“We can wait for Kat.”

“No. We’re going.” He hollered at Jake and Seth and then walked

from the building with them in tow.

It didn’t take long for Molly to start grilling him once they were home. Molly and Jake came over to his place and as he and Molly sat down at the dining room table, the boys disappeared to the living room.

He started explaining what had happened in the kitchen and what

Lathrop had said about finding Katrina having drinks with Imogen the night before. Molly’s brow didn’t seem to unfurrow the entire

conversation and when he was finished speaking she didn’t seem to have

a clue what to say. Not very Molly-like at all. But she wasn’t forced to come up with anything when the door opened and Stephens and Katrina

walked in.

Her eyes instantly found Dillon’s but before anyone could say

anything she mumbled that she was going upstairs and she disappeared.

“You need to talk to her.” Molly had put her hand on his. She was concerned but it wasn’t just for him. Molly liked Katrina too much not to

be concerned for her too, regardless of the mistake she’d made.

“No.”

“Dillon—”

“No!”

Stephens raided his fridge for a few beers and passed them out when

he joined them at the table. “She made a mistake, Dillon.” He obviously

wasn’t going to be offering Dillon any support either.

“It was one hell of a mistake.”

Molly chimed in then, apparently having found her voice again. “We

all did. Me. Hell, even Seth. Seth never should have gone off on his own

and I should have been watching him closer.”

“Neither of you fucked up because you were busy getting drunk.

Seth’s a kid and he barely understands the severity of this situation. She

should have understood.”

“Yes she should have, but she’s not us.” Stephens was talking now.

“This is all pretty damn new to her. She didn’t realize just how reckless it was. She doesn’t have the same frame of reference we do.”

“Well she better figure it out pretty damn fast if she’s going to survive

this thing and not get anyone else killed in the process.”

He just wasn’t interested in having this conversation. It was obvious

Stephens and Molly thought he was being too hard on her but he

couldn’t shake the images of what could have happened to Seth and he

also couldn’t shake the blame he was placing on her. He just didn’t know

how to get past it at the moment.

Molly took a deep breath before speaking next. “How does this affect

the two of you, Dillon?”

He stared at the tabletop. It hurt to think of her upstairs alone. He could see her crying. He didn’t need to be up there to see her pain but it

didn’t soften his heart. He wanted it to, desperately. But at the moment,

he just couldn’t let it go.

“I don’t know, Molly.”

She took another deep breath and when he managed to look up to her

she had tears in her eyes. She stood and approached him, kissed him on

top of the head and squeezed his shoulder.

“I’m going to take Jake home. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“You’re going to see patrol officers in the area. Don’t be surprised.”

She nodded and Stephens stood as well. He walked all three to the door

and once they were gone, he locked the door, set the alarm and sank against the door.

Chapter Thirty

Dillon didn’t come to bed that night—not that she’d been surprised—

and when she woke the next morning she could hear him in the kitchen.

Her heart was pounding harder and harder with every step that took her

closer to him and when she entered she found him staring out the kitchen window to the backyard.

“Where’s Seth?”

He didn’t turn to her as he responded. “At Molly’s. I have to go to the

office for a while.”

“Dillon?” He turned to her slowly. His face was expressionless and cold. She’d never felt more hated by him—even the first time they’d met.

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Then listen. Because I have something to say.” Her voice sounded

bold but she wasn’t at all. She’d lain awake nearly all night analyzing and picking through every last aspect of their relationship and this disaster.

She’d talked herself into circles until she was crying again in

frustration but she’d thought long and hard about how she felt. She didn’t care that the man facing her hated her guts at the moment because

she didn’t hate his and she needed to say what was on her mind before it

was too late. So she launched into her brain-drain speech as he studied her impassively. She was not at all impassive and with her first words her voice was already wavering.

“I love you and I’m sorry. I know this is my fault. I really do. But I’m

angry at you too.” His face flinched for half a second until it returned to

his dead stare. She could barely keep her voice strong as her tears started

to well up for the gazillionth time in the past twenty-four hours and she

finally gave up trying to hold it together and let her words mix with her

emotion.

“I never had any business moving in here. Or having a relationship with you for that matter. It jeopardized you both from the start. I knew it

would. I knew it but I agreed. My worry, my guilt, all those things you

convinced me weren’t my responsibility or problem, they would have kept you both safe. But I listened to you. I wanted to. I wanted you and I

wanted my life to be with you but it was still the wrong decision.”

She was crying as her words came out but her voice was staying

strong.

“You put the weight of the world on my shoulders by asking me to disregard my concern for your family. Because I’m a bomb just waiting

to go off and it put me in the position of trying to be perfect or be responsible for a catastrophe. I’m not perfect, Dillon. I made a mistake!”

She was sobbing, clutching at her stomach at this point and his jaw was clenched harshly. She saw the well-controlled emotion swimming in

his eyes but he wasn’t giving her any of it. He just glared but she was past the point of caring if he responded to her. This was about what she

needed to say.

“It was so inevitable. Something, whether this or some other mistake

or something completely out of my control, was inevitably going to happen and put you and Seth in danger. And that was all on my

shoulders. There was no chance I couldn’t be responsible for something

awful happening.” She dashed the tears from her eyes and pursed her lips to help stay in control.

“You set me up for failure. And now that failure is destroying me. I’m

so sorry. I am sorrier than you will ever know.” She was losing control

again as her tears started falling again. “And I have never been more heartbroken in my life.” She could barely get the last words out over her

lurching sobs.

He said nothing. His eyes were glassy but he stayed rooted to his spot

on the floor and after an uncomfortably long time of waiting for

something—anything—she shook her head and walked from the room

and upstairs to his bedroom. Her tears fell silently as she stared at the wall in front of her and when she heard the bedroom door open from behind her, her heart lurched and she held her breath.

She waited, she wanted, she was desperate for him—but she was too

afraid to turn to him. When the door closed quietly and she listened to his feet padding down the hallway away from her, her already-broken heart shattered.

She heard the garage door open shortly thereafter and she knew he

was gone. She was alone in a home she no longer felt at all welcome in.

She’d never felt so despised and before she could chicken out she rose, packed her clothes and lugged her bag downstairs. She thought she

heard the door to the garage open just after she’d dialed the number to

the cab service, but as she carried the cordless phone toward the hall that

led to the garage, the operator picked up.

There was no one at the garage door and after looking around for a moment, she returned her attention to the operator.

“Sorry, I need to have a cab pick me up.” She gave the woman

Dillon’s address and then Imogen’s before she disconnected. She sank into a dining room chair and it didn’t take long until there was a knock at

the front door. She left her key sitting on the dining room table. She slung her bag over her shoulder, cradled Kitty in her arms and carried her emptied litter pan with her.

She locked the door behind her after resetting the alarm system and

she left his home for the last time. She was a bit too numb to cry about it

but as the cab drove away from the home she’d come to think of as hers

her tears came again and she stared out the window.

She hadn’t bothered calling Imogen because she knew she would be

rehearsing the kids for their upcoming play all day. Opening night was

less than a week away and Imogen would be getting little rest until the

event was over.

When she entered Imogen’s house she set Kitty on the ground,

dropped her heavy bag of clothing and quickly set up Kitty’s litter pan for her in the laundry room. The old woman wasn’t going to survive too

many more moves.

She didn’t know how soon Dillon would be returning home or

whether he would even care that she’d left. She quickly set about numbing her nerves with wine and before long her body was lazy, she was staggering as much as Kitty, her emotions were running amuck and

she was far too sloshed to give a shit.

Even in her inebriated state, she knew what she was doing. She was

being childish, she was feeling sorry for herself and she was acting like a

damn idiot.

When there was a knock on the door, it took her far longer than it ought to make it to the door to answer it. She was horrified at the

thought of Dillon seeing her like this and she thought it must be him.

He’d no doubt suspect where she’d gone and the last thing she wanted

was to be caught making more bad decisions. But there was nothing to be done for it. If she didn’t answer, he’d keep knocking and so she sucked it up and forced her feet to move as evenly as possible as she crossed the space to the front door. Standing at the door, she took a deep

steadying breath and prepared herself for an emotional battle, not even

checking the peephole.

What she didn’t expect was for the battle to be entirely physical. The

man had light-blue eyes and she recognized him. Not just from a year ago in her home when she’d met him but from the pictures Smith and Terrell had shown her. Her phone was in his hand and he was dangling

it tauntingly in front of her.

“You keep far too much information in this thing. When I saw the five-digit number under Imogen’s contact information I was stumped,

but then when I checked out her address, it suddenly made perfect sense.

Keypad. Not the brightest bitch I’ve ever met but hey, who needs to be

smart when you’re cute, right?”

She stared for half a second before trying to slam the door in his face

but he kicked it back toward her as she turned and sprinted toward the

kitchen. He snatched her hair, yanking her backward and she fell to the

floor with a grunt of pain. He launched himself onto her body, grabbing

the sides of her head and slamming her head back onto the hard marble

floor. The pain radiated from the back of her head straight through to the

front of her eyes and she groaned.

Her hands were free and she reached up to his face, trying to push him back. It wasn’t the least effective but then she remembered to go for

the eyes. She struck out toward his eyes, poking one as he flinched and

released his grip on her head. Then she reached for the man’s crotch that

was sitting on her lower abdomen and she pinched down hard. He cried

out and pulled back from her as she wriggled out from under his weight.

She rolled to her stomach and started crawling toward the door. She

needed to get outside. She could scream, she could run, she could escape

but as she reached the front door still standing wide open, he came up behind her and threw her into the wall beside her. Her head smacked hard on the wall and the drywall gave way under the force. She could

feel her body slumping to the entryway floor and she blinked as her vision went fuzzy and her brain seemed to go into slow motion.

When he rounded her body and pulled her up to her knees, she

watched in slow motion as he cocked his hand back and swung it toward

her face, backhanding her and sending her head sailing through the air

again. She was losing consciousness. She could feel it happening but she

was powerless to stop it. It didn’t deaden the panic in any way, and she

knew if she passed out there was a good chance she wouldn’t wake up.

But there was no stopping it and as her eyes sank closed, a very pleasant buzz worked through her head and she drifted peacefully off to

sleep.

* * * * *

Stephens was sitting across from him just staring at him. The man didn’t believe him when he said he was okay. Of course it was a complete lie. He wasn’t okay in the least.

He was confused, angry, guilty, lonely and utterly lost. When his cell

rang his heart sped for a moment. He wanted it to be Kat. He knew it wouldn’t be but he wanted it to be. Not that he could figure out what to

say to her or actually pick up his phone to call her but he still wanted more than anything to hear her voice.

It wasn’t Kat, though. It was Molly and the second he answered she

started speed- talking. “I can’t find Seth. Jake said he ran to your house to pick up a couple games—”

“What! You let him—”

“I didn’t let him. I was in the shower. They didn’t tell me he was leaving and I’m sure it’s because I wouldn’t have let him go!”

“So, is he still there?”

“No. No one’s here. I’m in your house now. It’s empty. No Seth, no Katrina, just empty. The patrol officer has been circling the block occasionally but he said he hasn’t seen anything either.”

“How long ago did he leave?”

“I’m guessing about forty minutes. Jake came in and hollered at me after I’d been in the shower for about twenty minutes or so. He was worried because Seth hadn’t come back yet. That was the first I heard of

it. I jumped out, dressed, headed to your place and looked around. I’m guessing I left my house about twenty minutes or so ago.”

Dillon picked up his desk phone and started dialing Seth’s cell phone.

It rang but went to voice mail after a few seconds. “Fuck!”

“Dillon, your house is empty. Kat’s gone, Seth’s gone, there’s a key on

the table, Katrina’s cat is gone and I just looked in your bedroom and there are some drawers pulled open and I can’t find any clothing of hers.

It looks like she left on her own but I don’t understand where Seth is.”

“Okay, you and Jake stay put. I’ll let—” His phone beeped that he had

another call coming in and when he pulled the phone from his ear it was

Seth. “Molly, Seth’s calling. I’ll call you back.” He disconnected from her

and immediately switched over to Seth. “Seth? Where are you?”

“Dad, something’s happened to her. He took her. The same man. I

saw him. He took her.” Seth sounded frantic and he was as close to panic

as Dillon had ever heard him.

“Get Smith and Terrell over here.” He spoke in a rush to Stephens and Stephens scrambled to call the men over. “Seth, are you safe?”

“Yes! But Kat isn’t. She’s hurt, Dad!” Seth was nearly sobbing out the

words and Dillon could hear the desperation in his voice.

Smith and Terrell made it to his desk and he hit the speaker button on

his cell phone, setting it down on the desktop. “Seth. I need you to tell me where you’re at and what you saw. Are you sure you’re safe?”

“Yes.” Seth’s voice filled the space around the desk and the men

simply stood around staring at the phone. “I ran home. I know I

shouldn’t have but I thought it’d be quick. I came in and I heard Ms.

Page on the phone. She was calling a cab to pick her up. She gave them

an address on that road on Washington Lake that has all the really nice homes. When she hung up, she was crying and I knew she was upset but

I didn’t know what to say to her. I just waited. I waited for her to leave

because I didn’t know what to do and I took the bus to Mercer Island as

close as I could get to that street. I don’t know why. I just felt bad. I wanted to talk to her but I didn’t know what to say. I asked some guy on

the bus how to get there and he told me. I ran the rest of the way. It’s a

big house with a gate but the gate was already open. There was a black

car, an old one with a lot of rust and it was parked out front. When I started walking up the driveway, I heard her scream and then I saw the

man. The same man from the park. He was carrying her out to the car and he put her in the trunk. I was scared. I wanted to help her but I was

too afraid.”

Seth was crying into the phone and Dillon had sank into his seat again as he pictured what his son had witnessed. He was dying inside and he felt as helpless as Seth sounded. It was torture listening to this and knowing Kat was hurt and missing.

“Dad, she wasn’t moving. I mean, she was like unconscious or…I

don’t know but she wasn’t moving. He just dumped her body in the trunk and he drove away.”

“Seth, where are you now?”

“I’m still here by the garage. They just left a few minutes ago and I haven’t moved. Dad, I got the license plate number.”

Every last one of the men sucked in a breath of air.

“What is it?” Dillon held his breath as Seth listed off the number and

then repeated it for them. Terrell was writing down the number and the

moment Seth was finished speaking he darted away from the desk to his

own, snatching up his phone quickly.

“Seth, the house you’re at is Imogen Graham’s house. She’s the drama

teacher at your school. Is the door still open?”

“Yes.”

“I want you to go inside, close and lock the door. You don’t open the

door for anyone but the officer who comes to get you. I’ll call you back

with his badge number and you make him tell you his badge number before you open the door. Got it?”

“Yeah, Dad. Are you going to find Ms. Page?”

Dillon was suddenly silent. What if he couldn’t find her? What if she

was already dead? What if it was just plain too late?

Stephens leaned over the desk, talking into Dillon’s phone as Dillon struggled to breathe. “Seth, I don’t want you to worry. We’re going to find her.”

“Okay, bye. I’m fine. I don’t want you to worry about me. Just find her.” He hung up which was likely a good thing because at that moment,

Dillon couldn’t seem to figure out how to swallow.

He couldn’t lose her. He’d destroyed their relationship in his fury.

He’d broken her heart in a way that might just be irreparable but there was no way he could lose the chance to fix it.

Chapter Thirty-One

The dull buzzing sound seemed to be coming from every last cell in

her body but it was bringing her back from unconsciousness again. She’d

woken in the dark, being bounced and tossed around in what she quickly

figured out was the trunk of a car. She kicked and screamed but she had

something over her mouth and her wrists were restrained behind her back. It felt tight and sticky to her skin, just as her mouth felt and she was guessing it was duct tape. It didn’t stop her from trying to kick her way

out of the car.

The trunk smelled of exhaust and oil. It smelled like an old car, like an

old gas station. She spent an unknown amount of time kicking, panicking

and praying until the car finally stopped and she heard steps moving around to the trunk.

If she’d thought she was panicking in the trunk, she had no idea what

panic could even feel like until she listened to the key slowly unlock the

trunk. She was suddenly horrified of what lay beyond her dark cocoon and if she could have barricaded herself inside, she would have done so

willingly.

When the trunk was opened, she could see the sun was still shining

and it was an odd omen of just