Buck, p.16
Buck, page 16
He smiles.
The man smiles.
One of his front teeth is missing.
It wasn’t missing that day on the island. That day when he bit my nipple off my breast.
The pain comes searing back into my reality.
I close my eyes, swallow. Try to remain strong.
But time moves backward, backward, backward…
And I’m there, on the island, with him ordering me to get up and run. I remember.
I remember it all.
“Fucking bitch,” he says, his pasty body covering mine. “You will get up, and you will run.” He pulls me up, forces me into a standing position.
I let my legs buckle beneath me. “No. I’m done running from you.”
He pulls me up again, gives me a push. Instinctually, I land on my feet. But then I drop to the ground.
He pulls me up again. I lose count of how many times he persists, while he slaps and punches me in between.
But I feel no pain.
I have decided. I will not give this man what he wants.
If I die here? So be it.
I know I won’t die. Not if this man wants to come back to the island.
“Fine, bitch. We’ll do it your way. But you’ll be fucking sorry.” He pulls on my left foot, twists my ankle.
I cry out in pain.
“You might want to save your voice, bitch. I’m just getting started.” He curls both of his hands into fists then and punches my stomach—
I groan, trying to catch my breath.
But the wind has been punched out of me.
I’ve been punched before though, many times. Not just on the island, but on the volleyball court, by a rogue ball.
I can take this.
I can take it all.
He punches my jaw next, and the pain radiates through my skull.
Then my cheek, and my eye.
I’ll have a black eye, but it won’t be the first time. I’ve had a black eye from a volleyball too. And also on this island many times.
He’s far from done, though. He’s angry. Angry that I’m not letting him chase me.
Angry that I’m not playing the game by his rules.
A feeling of peace settles over me.
Oh, I’m still in pain. Probably more pain than I’ve ever been in my life, but I’m exerting my will. For the first time since I came onto this island, I’m exerting my will.
And though I may end up black and blue because of it, at least I’m not giving this asshole what he wants.
I take punch after punch to every part of my body.
Punch after punch after punch, and yes, I yell. Yes, I scream. Yes, I groan, but the peace never wavers. The peace. The knowledge that he’s not getting his way.
Until—
Crack!
A searing pain so terrible and forceful that I cry out, my eyes closed.
Death is surely coming for me now.
It’s my left leg, the lower part. He hit me with something hard—a rock, a log…I don’t know, but there’s no way he could have done this bare handed.
The bones. My bones.
The cracking of my bones.
That’s the sound I just heard.
And I don’t think I’ll live through this.
“Take that, fucking cunt. Now you’ll never run again.”
My eyes are still closed, but then another searing pain.
And then liquid trickling over my right breast.
Blood. Must be blood.
I don’t know what he’s done, but my God, the pain.
“Serves you right, you little whore. Now you’re deformed. Disfigured. No one will want you now.”
Blackness descends.
Blessed blackness. Darkness.
Blessed…
Aspen?
Aspen, baby? Are you all right?
Buck’s voice.
I hear it, though I’m not sure where it’s coming from.
It seems to be coming from above me.
But he’s next to me, and across from me is—
I open my eyes.
Track lighting. Harsh track lighting.
And my head.
My head hurts.
Aspen? Baby?
Where am I?
Cool tile floor against my legs.
“Aspen.”
Buck’s face. It comes into view, blurry at first but then as beautiful as an angel.
Am I in heaven?
Of course not. Heaven wouldn’t have a cold tile floor.
“Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” I croak out.
“Thank God.”
“What happened?”
“You fell off your chair,” Buck says. “You hit your head pretty hard. Are you all right?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
“Can you sit up?” He pulls me into his arms.
This is where I’m safe. In Buck’s arms.
“What happened? You recognized him?”
I nod against his shoulder.
The pasty guy. He was so pale, now I understand why. The guard called him Albino. Is he a true albino? I have no idea. But who the hell cares?
“Where did he go?” I ask.
“They took him back.”
I jerk out of Buck’s arms. “No! I need to talk to him. I have questions.”
“Baby, you lost consciousness. You fainted when you saw him.”
“It’s because… Buck, he’s the one. He’s the one who hurt me so badly. The one who bit my… It’s gone because of him. My nipple, Buck. He took it.”
Buck goes rigid. “That’s the motherfucker who did that to you?”
I nod, gulping.
“Jesus Christ. I’ll kill him.”
I dart my gaze around the room. “You can’t say that here. This place is full of guards.”
“Guards who probably wouldn’t mind seeing the motherfucker dead.”
“Not by your hand, Buck. Not ever. You’re not that guy.”
His killing days are over, and I don’t want him to go back down that path because of me.
“Get the guard. Bring him back. I’ll be all right this time now that I know who to expect. Please.”
“All right,” Buck says. “I’ll see what I can do.”
35
BUCK
“Will you be okay here for moment?” I ask Aspen.
“Yeah. I’m okay. I just wasn’t expecting it to be…him.”
I kiss the top of her head. “All right. I’ll be right back.”
I approach one of the guards standing around the perimeter of the room. “Hey, I’m really sorry about what happened back there. It was someone she recognized, and she wasn’t expecting to recognize him.”
“Sorry about that,” the guard says. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s fine now.”
“You need any medical assistance?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Though we’ll be stopping at urgent care on the way home for sure.
“But,” I continue, “she would like to see Greg Wallace. Could you bring him back in?”
“The albino?”
“Yeah, I guess so. That’s apparently what you guys call him.”
“For sure. The dude can’t be in the sun without a coating of sunscreen. And of course a guard has to be present whenever he slathers it all over his body. That’s always fun.”
“So he’s a true albino?”
“Far as I can tell, yeah.”
“Can you bring him back?” I ask.
“Let me check for you,” the guard says. “The dude’s a psycho, though, and that’s saying a lot because most of the guys in here are psychos. But he’s in a class all by himself.”
“Believe me, I know.”
Any man who would bite off a woman’s nipple is definitely unhinged.
The guard walks over to another guard, presumably whoever’s in charge. They converse under their breath.
He returns. “We’re going to bring him back out. Besides, the albino hasn’t ever had any visitors. If we don’t let him come out again, he may never get out of that cell.”
“I don’t really have a problem with that,” I say.
“Neither do I,” the guard says. “But we get accused of humanitarian violations if we don’t let our guys out to see visitors, and since this is the first and only one he’s ever had…”
I scoff. “Right. Humanitarian violations.”
“I’m on your page, man,” he says. “These sociopaths violated so many human rights before they got in here. Frankly, I don’t feel like they are entitled to any in return, but the law sees things differently.” He turns. “I’ll be right back.”
I return to the table. Aspen is rubbing her temples.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. I really am. I need to do this, Buck. I’m sorry that I lost it.”
“No reason to be sorry. You didn’t expect to recognize him.”
“It’s just so… This is the guy who’s responsible for me being taken. This is the guy who Taylor and Nancy went to. The guy who put me on that island. And then to find out…that he’s the one…” She shakes her head. “I should have done an online search for his mugshot. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Because you’re thinking about other things,” I say. “I should have thought of it too, baby, but we’ve both been inundated with other stuff. “Do you think he knew who you were?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to find out.”
A few moments later, the original guard, Buckley, returns with Wallace.
Wallace is smiling a snakelike grin, and that missing front tooth… I’d like to take the man who took it from him out to dinner. Better yet, I’d like to personally remove every other tooth in his skull.
But I calm my rage.
Aspen needs me to be calm, and I will be here for her.
“You have fifteen minutes,” Buckley says. He pushes Wallace down into a chair.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Wallace says. His voice is oddly high.
“Is that really his voice?” I ask Aspen.
“I don’t remember it being quite so high,” she says. “I wouldn’t have found him quite so menacing with that voice.”
Wallace’s smile fades.
“You must’ve been purposefully lowering your voice on the island,” Aspen says.
“What if I was?” This time his voice is an octave lower.
“Yes,” Aspen says. “That I remember.”
“Did you come here to gloat, bitch?”
Rage pulses out of me, from the marrow of my bones outward through all my pores. “Call her that again, and you won’t have any more teeth left.”
“Like you could do anything to me in here,” he says.
“Do you think any of those guards will stop me? They hate you as much as I do.”
He doesn’t reply.
Sure, the guards have to obey the law, but I have a feeling that behind closed doors, the rules get pushed onto the back burner.
“Ask him what you want to ask him, baby,” I say.
“Baby?” Wallace sticks with the low voice. “So she’s yours now, huh?”
“She was never yours,” I say. “So get that out of your head right now.”
“I remember a certain time when she was mine,” he says. “I remember enjoying myself immensely.”
“Enjoying yourself by beating up on a woman?” I clench my jaw. “Raping a woman? You really are piece of shit.”
“Yeah? Well I got a piece of her you’ll never have.” His gaze drops to Aspen’s breasts.
I stand then, my hands curled into fists. I pull him up by the collar of his jumpsuit.
A guard walks briskly over. “Everything okay here?”
“He threatened to pull my teeth out,” Wallace says.
“Yeah? Should I call a dentist?” The guard laughs.
“Aren’t you supposed to protect me from this asshole?”
“Sure I am. Out here in the open, anyway.” He turns to me. “Sir, I have to ask you to let this piece of shit go.”
I release Wallace and push him back down in his chair. “Sorry,” I murmur.
“Hey, I didn’t ask you to be sorry. I just said you had to let him go.”
I sit back down.
“Do I need to stay here for this visit?” the guard asks.
I shake my head. “I’m good.”
He nods and walks back to his place near the wall.
I just wasted five minutes, and Aspen needs this time. She needs this time to ask questions, get answers. Though I doubt this man will be forthcoming.
“Go ahead,” I say to her. “Ask what you need to ask. Our time is running out.”
36
ASPEN
My skin is crawling. I can actually feel tiny invisible creatures pecking at my flesh.
I remember those light blue eyes. That pasty white skin. I never saw his hair, but it’s the lightest blondish gray.
Completely colorless.
He really is an albino. That would explain his pasty skin.
“I don’t have all day, darlin’.” Wallace says.
“I’m hardly your darlin’,” I say. “But I do need some answers to some questions. Why? Why did Taylor, your niece, come to you?”
“I don’t think that I need to tell you anything.”
“I already know it was her. She and her partner, Nancy Mosely. She wanted to get me off the volleyball team so that Gloria Delgado could have my spot and Nancy could be her backup.”
“And why do you think I would care about any of that?”
“About whether Taylor’s girlfriend got my spot on the team? I don’t think you did care. I think you saw an opportunity to take a woman — an athletic woman—to your island boss.”
“Nobody on that island was my boss.”
Good. He’s admitting to being on the island. I wasn’t sure I could count on that.
“What made them think they could go to you to get me eliminated?”
“It didn’t happen that way,” he says. “It was at a family dinner, right before you all went to Manhattan for that game. Taylor just mentioned that you appeared out of nowhere and took the spot that her girlfriend was supposed to have.”
I force my voice not to shake. “I see.”
I’m angry. So angry, and I want to start sobbing. Sobbing for the woman I was, the woman I could’ve been.
But I steel myself. I won’t lose it again. This may be the only chance I have to talk to Wallace.
“So you went to her, then.”
“I did. I took her aside after dinner and asked her how badly she wanted you gone.”
“And?”
“She said, ‘pretty damned badly, Uncle Greg. Pretty damned badly.’”
“I’m thinking,” Buck says, “that by pretty damned badly, she did not mean abducted and hunted on an island.”
“I read between the lines a little.” Wallace grins.
I breathe in. Exhale slowly, trying to keep my cool. “So then what?”
“I told her how to put you out of commission for the night, and then the thugs in Manhattan took you.”
“So it was Taylor who put something in my drink on the plane.”
“You’re just so smart, Garnet.”
Garnet.
The name makes me shudder.
“What was it?” I ask.
“I don’t know. Something to make you puke.”
“Syrup of ipecac?” Buck asks.
“No. Something worse, but I don’t remember the name. This was a long time ago, you know?”
I grip the edge of the table. “Damn it, what did you give me?”
“Does it matter? You’re alive. It didn’t kill you.”
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
Don’t push this, Aspen. It doesn’t matter. It was over five years ago, and you’re in perfect health. You’ve been checked out.
Don’t waste the small amount of time you have on something insignificant.
“All right. So you got me out of commission, and they came and took me from my hotel room when Gloria wasn’t there.”
“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you the rest,” Wallace says. “I’m sure you remember every single detail.”
“I didn’t for a while,” I say. “But when I did finally? The only thing I wanted was for you bastards to pay.”
“Yeah? Chris Pollack gave the Feds my name.”
“We know that,” Buck says. “And now you have your revenge. He’s going to be put away for a long time.”
“Oh, he won’t have to wait that long,” Wallace says.
“So you have plans for him in the works,” Buck says.
“Nothing I’m going to tell you about.”
Buck nods.
He’s okay with Pollack getting offed, and frankly, so am I. If I had my way, Wallace would get offed too.
“Why did Taylor’s father cut her out of his will?” I ask.
“You’d have to ask him that.”
“She’s asking you, dickhead.” Buck says.
“How the hell should I know? He cut me out too. Wallace Leathers was a family business. Of course he, the older son, the golden child, got everything handed to him on a silver platter.”
“I’m thinking maybe he didn’t go around abusing women,” Buck says.
“You’d think wrong, then.”
My skin goes cold.
No. Taylor’s father?
“That’s not true,” I say. “Otherwise, he’d be behind bars just like you are.”
“The golden boy? And I do mean golden boy. Beautifully golden bronze, while here I am, devoid of melanin. Genetic mutation and all that.”
Something in his light eyes glimmers.
Actually glimmers, as if…
I’m not sure.
Is he telling the truth? Or is he lying?
No. Don’t go there, Aspen. Don’t go pulling at threads that have nothing to do with anything.
“I don’t believe you,” I say. “Harrison Wallace is a good man.”
“Have you ever met him?”
“I think you’re forgetting who’s asking the questions here,” Buck says.
I clear my throat. “Maybe I will ask him why he disowned Taylor. I have another question. Why did you guys force Taylor and Nancy to get married?”
