Chapter 20

TWENTY

WHERE WAS SHE? Lahela could tell she was sitting, but her head felt heavy, like she’d been asleep for hours. She would’ve thought this was a nightmare except for the immense pain radiating down the side of her face. Dim sunlight filtered around her and there was a strong smell of gasoline. A garage. That’s where she was.

“Y-you shouldn’t have made me do that.” Lahela flinched as Mr. Dunn walked into view. He pressed a cold pack to her head. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Mr. Dunn, what are you doing?” Lahela trembled, causing the old rolling desk chair to rattle. Both of her hands were cuffed to the arms of the chair. “Please.”

He set the cold pack down and looked into her eyes. “I told you, call me Jesse.” He started to unwrap the towel from her bloodied hand. “The bleeding is slowing down. I think if we keep this clean, it’ll be all right. I’ll use glue to help with the scarring.”

“Mr.—” His eyes snapped up to hers. “Jesse, I can’t feel my fingers.”

His brow pinched. “That’s concerning.” He slowly pried her clenched fingers open and studied her cut. “I’ll keep an eye on it.”

Panic surged up Lahela’s throat and she felt like she was going to be sick. “M—Jesse, I don’t feel well.”

He sat on a stool. “That’s probably from the hit to your head. I knew you were going to fight back. I was hoping you wouldn’t, but that’s just like my Crystal. A fighter.”

The way he kept comparing her to his daughter freaked her out. Maybe if she could get him to talk about her—or at least what happened to her—it would give Lahela time to think of a way out of this.

“You’ve never told me about Crystal. What was she like?”

He stood and went to the sink next to the washing machine and filled a cup with water from the faucet. “She was so bright. Always asking questions and smiling. She never met a stranger.”

Lahela searched the space around her, looking for something she could use as a weapon. There was a tall metal shelf a few feet away from her that separated the laundry area. She spotted a pair of garden shears. Using her toes, she started to roll her chair toward the shelf, but the wheels screeched against the cement.

Mr. Dunn looked back and Lahela held her breath. Maybe if he saw enough of his daughter in her, he wouldn’t do whatever it was he planned to do. And then a horrifying thought filled her mind. What if he’d done something to Crystal?

“Where’s Crystal?” She forced the words out. “What happened to her?”

He met her questions with silence for several seconds before he finally turned to face her. “I should’ve been watching. I told Janine I was, that Crystal was safe with me, and we’d only be at the park for an hour. There was this tree and Crystal wanted to show me she could climb it.” He frowned. “It wasn’t very tall and had a thick trunk. Kids climb trees all the time and I didn’t see any harm. Crystal started and she was doing so well. But then she got to a branch and it snapped right out from under her. She fell and hit her head. They told me it was instantaneous.”

Lahela understood grief, and despite current circumstances, Crystal’s story hurt her heart.

A cold sweat broke out across her skin. Who was going to find her? No one knew where she was. No one was coming.

“Janine never forgave me. Never trusted me again.” His cold tone flicked her attention back to the sad smile he gave her. “That’s why I need you.”

“I don’t understand ... Jesse.” She hated calling him by his first name. “We’re neighbors ... friends. What did I do?”

“Do?” Mr. Dunn looked genuinely confused. “You didn’t do anything. Don’t you see? I’m going to take care of you. Keep you safe.”

Was he referring to the fire? The stalking? Trevor?

“I’m safe, Jesse. The police caught Nancy. She can’t hurt me now.”

“Oh, I know.” He poured some pills into a bowl and began smashing them. “I saw her outside your house. I went to confront her, but that alarm went off and scared her away. I couldn’t let her get away. I had to protect you.”

Bile climbed up her throat. “You? You were the one who hit her?”

“To protect you.” He dumped the pills, now a white powder, into the glass of water and stirred it with a spoon. “But soon you won’t have to worry about her again because I will keep you safe.”

“Jesse, what’re you going to do?”

He started for her. “I’m going to take you away so I can keep you safe.”

“Take me away”—her voice broke—“where?”

“To Janine.”

Lahela’s panic swelled. He was taking her to his dead wife? She had no idea what that meant, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Drink this and when you wake up, you’ll be in your new home.”

She waited until he was close and then kicked his kneecap as hard as she could. Mr. Dunn dropped to the ground immediately, and the glass of whatever he was about to make her drink crashed next to him.

Lahela tried using her feet to roll the chair away, but it was stuck on a hose. Mr. Dunn placed his palm against the wall to help himself up. There was a fury in his eyes that terrified her. He limped toward Lahela and raised his hand like he was going to strike her again, but a doorbell echoed from inside his home.

They looked at each other, and she opened her mouth to scream, but he was faster than she expected, even with an injured knee. He wrapped a hand around her mouth while the other reached for something. She squirmed in the chair, but he was much stronger than his seventy-something years, and using his teeth, he ripped some tape and pressed it against her mouth. Silencing any attempt for her to scream for help.

Mr. Dunn leaned in next to her ear. “Stay quiet for Daddy.”