Chapter Sixteen SCARLETT

Chapter Sixteen

S CARLETT

Then

Maybe six or seven weeks in the basement

“What’s your mother like?” Della asked.

Della and I sat in the dimly lit room. Upstairs, AC/DC blared. Tanner hadn’t been in this room to see either of us today. By my estimate it was a Saturday—maybe the sixth or seventh I’d spent down here. Normally, he took Della out of the room at night, but not last night.

“I don’t like to talk about my mother.” Absently, my hand went to my naked wrist where I’d worn the bracelet Mom had given me. Tanner had stripped me of everything that linked me to the outside world.

I wondered if Mom had called the cops. Did she realize I was missing? Because the hard, pounding rock music had been on a loop for days, there’d been no radio or news.

“My mother is a bitch,” Della said. “She can go days or weeks and never say a word to me. She does the silent treatment when she’s mad. Does yours do that?”

Bitterness bubbled. My mother wasn’t evil—she was an addict. And addicts flaked. But I couldn’t throw my mother under the bus. She was the only person out there who might realize I was gone and call the cops. “Mom does the best she can.”

“That’s not saying much. I’m doing the best I can, but what good is that right now?”

I drew in a breath, wishing I were in my room eating the last of the Rice Chex cereal. Maybe I’d not been the best daughter. Maybe she was glad I was gone and she didn’t have to fight me about school or homework. I’d thought my life had sucked at home, but I’d had no idea how bad it could get. “She’s probably called the police and told them I’m missing. People are looking for me.”

Della leaned forward and began to braid my hair. “Tanner says your mom hasn’t called the cops.”

I turned and studied Della’s eyes. “How does he know my mother?”

“He’s still working on the project across the street from your house.”

My mouth began to sweat, and my stomach churned with acid. “That’s not true.”

“It’s true,” she said mildly. “He talks to his girlfriend about that job after they do it— blah, blah, blah . All I can do is lie in my box and listen to the pillow talk. I bet I know more about him than anyone right now.”

I pushed away, pulling my hair from her hands. “Did he talk to my mother? How would he know?”

Della seemed pleased to have cracked through my silence and won my full attention. “He said there are no ‘Lost’ posters, no cops. She likes to sit on the front porch, smoke, and stare into space.”

I turned away from her, picturing my mother sitting on the floral porch glider, her bare, dirty feet tucked under her body. Unmindful of the heat, she liked to sip a cola and watch the traffic pass as she came down from a high. “She’s going to call the police.”

Della ran her fingers over my knotted hair. “Sounds to me like she’s using and hasn’t put the pieces together yet.”

That could be very true. She was never sober long. But just as I had when I was little, I believed deep down she loved me more than her drugs. “She’ll get clean and call.”

“Tanner said a cop stopped by his jobsite. He was looking for a missing girl. Not you or me.”

“The Other Girl?”

Della shook her head. “I guess.”

I didn’t know the Other Girl’s name. I only knew she’d been in this house and now she was not. “Did the cop talk to my mother?”

“No.” Dangling answers hovered in the damp, dark air. “After the cop left, your mom asked Tanner what was going on. He told her nothing to worry about.”

“Tanner spoke to my mother?” I massaged a tight muscle in my neck.

“Yeah, he got a kick out of it,” she said softly.

“When was this?”

“Weeks ago.”

As easy as it was to imagine Tanner charming my mother, blinding her with that smile, I refused to focus on the image. Tanner controlled my body, but not my mind. I tipped my head back against the brick wall. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.” She dropped her voice a notch. “No one is looking for you. Or me.”

Tears swelled in my eyes and spilled down my face.

“Maybe it’s better you’re here. At least you’re safe.”

“Safe?” I flexed my fingers and winced as pain shot up my arm. I’d balked the last time he came at me. I’d not meant to, but my body had refused to play along. As a lesson, he’d nearly broken my wrist.

“How’s your hand?” Della said.

“It’s fine.”

“Liar.”

“You don’t know me that well.”

“I do.” She scrunched up her face. “You look like this when you lie.”

The expression was ridiculous. And I felt so lost and alone that it was oddly amusing. “I don’t.”

Della touched the grim line of her own lips mirroring mine. “You do. But it’s okay. I notice these little things about you, but he doesn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re trying to be nice to him, and you were doing well until you snapped the other day. I know you hate it, but you must try harder if you’re going to get him to trust you.”

“He’s never going to trust me. He knows I hate him.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Men are easy to fool. We ladies are the tricky ones. We’re the best liars.”

She was right. I could be even nicer. Be smarter. But the knife-edge of my hate cut deep into my bones. If I could kill him, I would.

“How did you meet him?” I asked.

“Tanner?”

“Who else?”

She smiled. “I was at Waterside. It was a pretty day, and I was walking along the boardwalk eating an ice-cream cone.”

My stomach rumbled. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had ice cream. “I bet his smile was charming.”

“It was. He saw me and asked me my name. I know I’m not supposed to talk to strangers, but it was kind of nice to be noticed. Let’s face it, he’s cute when he tries.”

Della was right. Tanner was a good-looking man. And when he’d first smiled at me, I’d felt so special.

“Admit it, you had a little crush on him at first?” she said.

Confessing proved I’d been stupid. “I did.”

Della relaxed back against the wall. “I thought he was super sexy. The first time for us was in this house. And it was nice. Not earth shattering, but nice.”

“He didn’t kidnap you?”

“No.”

I understood what attraction to Tanner felt like. “Did you do it with him the first time down here?”

“No, upstairs in his bed.”

I’d never seen the upstairs.

“He couldn’t get it up,” she whispered. “I told him it was okay, but that made him mad. Then he tied me up. It hurt. And then he was rock solid.”

I rubbed my aching wrist. “That’s your idea of nice?”

“He said he liked me. He said he wanted us to live together. I liked that idea. And then he locked me in the house when he went to work. And then one day, he came home with a girl tossed over his shoulder.”

“The Other Girl?”

“I was so pissed. I told him I didn’t share. That’s when he started locking me down here. For a couple of days, the music blared upstairs. I heard screams.”

“Did he lock her in here with you?”

“No. He said he kept her chained somewhere in the house.”

“How long?”

“The last time I saw her was right before you came here.” She scooted her body closer to mine. Our shoulders brushed. “I haven’t seen her since.”

I didn’t move away this time, but suddenly I wondered if Della was working with Tanner. Was this one of his tests? But I couldn’t not ask. “How did he hide her from his girlfriend?”

“Some of us see what we want to see.”

“You mean his girlfriend knew there was a girl here suffering?”

“I don’t know how she couldn’t have seen something.”