Raw: The Ultimate Mc Collection (76 page)

Todd had tied us both up after breakfast.  He pulled the kitchen chairs into the living room, tying us up with some rope he had stashed by the back door. Rosie and I struggled against our bonds.  She was crying loudly, calling for her Daddy, and yelling for Sonny outside.  She didn’t know Sonny couldn’t help us.

After a few moments of her constant crying, Todd put a strip of duct tape over her mouth.

“Children should be seen, and not heard, sweetheart.  You talk too much,” he said, before taping her mouth shut as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“You monster! Let her go! She has nothing to do with this, with us.  Please, Todd?  It’s me you want, not her!”

“You’re right, my angel.  But unfortunately, you have chosen to get yourself all mixed up with a bunch of sinful outlaws.” His lips stretched across his teeth in a sickly sneer as he leaned in to me.  “You’re dirty now, Daisy.  You’ve been soiled by these people.  I saw what you did with him.  And all night long, too!  What kind of whore have you become?”

He reached up, pushing a lock of hair behind my ear and then trailing his fingers down to caress my cheek.

“Todd, please,” I begged.  “I’ll do anything you want, just let her go.”

“No, way.  She’s part of my plan now that you’ve so selfishly inserted her into our life.  It’s all your fault, Daisy,” he said, standing up and walking away from me.  He had forced me to lock lil’ Mike in Rosie’s bedroom before he ate the pancakes, and I could hear him growling and scratching on the door down the hall.

“Todd, no.  This is just between us.  She’s just a student that I’m looking after, that’s all.”

“Oh, now come on, Daisy.  You underestimate me.  You should know I’ve done my research.  I’ve been watching you for months, sweetheart.  And you were doing so good on your own!  You found yourself a place to live and a job, started going to the gym, too, huh?  I was so proud of you, Daisy.  To see you venturing out, moving away from our small town, and having adventures of your own?  I felt like my little bird was leaving the nest.  It was so awesome to see you fly, my little dove.”

He was walking in circles around our chairs.  

“But then, you took the wheel from Jesus, didn’t you?  You steered down a dark road, and now look where you are! See what’s happened?  All because of your sinful heart, Daisy!”

His voice was rising, filling me with dread.

“And now!  Now, I have to clean up your mess.  Just like always, huh, Daisy?  It’s up to me to make you clean again, to make you pure again. You can’t do it yourself, I can see that.  You’re blinded by the false promises of lust and wanton debauchery!  Do you really think you’d have a good life with a bunch of criminals? A bunch of dirty thugs?”

He shook his head, his eyes clouding over with anger as he looked at me.

“No.  I can’t let you be dirtied.  I can’t let you ruin yourself like this.”

He kneeled down in front of me, his hand cupping my chin and raising my face, before trailing his fingers down to my chest, and then wrapping his fingers around my neck.

“It just fucking kills me, Daisy,” he said, tightening his grip on my neck.  “It kills me to know that he touched you.”

“When I saw him walking next to you, holding your hand, touching your back and your arm, wrapping his arm around you…and…and kissing you?  Oh, Daisy.  I’ve never felt such pain, baby.  How could you let him touch my flesh like that?” His hand gripped my neck even tighter and I gasped for breath.  He let go abruptly, walking away from me.

“It’s my flesh, Todd.”

“No, baby.  It’s not.  God told me you were mine.”

He turned back, and once again kneeled down to look directly into my eyes.

“God’s always right, Daisy, you know that.  You can’t fight the word of God, sweetheart.”

He reached out, his fingers lightly touching my face as he spoke.

“These eyes,” he said, his thumb running over my eyelid.

“These adorable chubby cheeks,” he said, his hand cupping the side of my face.

“These lips.  These beautiful lips…,” he said, shaking his head, his voice trailing off as he rubbed my lips roughly with his thumb.  “They’re all mine.  And now, because of that filthy biker, they’re all soiled.”

I turned my head away from his touch, but he gripped my chin roughly, forcing me to look at him.

“But it’s okay, baby.  There’s still time.  I’m your savior, Daisy.  I’ll make everything right again.”

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

MIKE

The sound of knocking pulled me out of my nap.  I jumped up and opened the door.  Sam was standing there, a half smile on her lips.

“I think we’ve made a turn for the better, Mike,” she said.  I smiled and hugged her.

“That’s wonderful news!”  I said.

“His vital signs are steady, his breathing is good.  We aren’t entirely out of the woods yet, but I’m much more hopeful than I was a few hours ago.”

“Fucking fantastic.  Thank you so much again, Sam.”

“Of course, Mike.  My pleasure.  You know I love all you guys.  Do you want me to go tell the others?”

“Yes, that’d be great, thank you!  I have a phone call to make.”

I couldn’t wait to give the good news to Daisy.  I knew she was worried sick about Reaper.

Her phone rang to voicemail and I dialed it two more times before I hung up and tried Sonny’s number.

When he didn’t answer either, I knew something was very wrong.

I flew out of my office, yelling at Sandman to come with me.

“I can’t reach Sonny or Daisy, Sandman.  Something’s up.  I’m going home. I need you to come with me, brother.”

“You got it, boss.”  Within a minute, we were roaring down the road next to each other, my heart pounding once again with fear.

****

I saw Sonny as soon as I pulled up.  Sandman rushed to his side and I jumped off my bike, flying into the house as fast as I could.

It was completely empty.  No sign of Daisy or Rosie.  Breakfast dishes were still on the table, and the two empty chairs were sitting in the middle of the living room floor.  The note was taped to the seat of one of them.

Dear Sinner:

Atonement for our sins is essential in pleasing the Eternal Father.

Daisy is slathered in her sins, and she must attempt to purify her soul before God before she can

be accepted into his Heavenly Kingdom.

God has chosen me to save her.

His Heavenly Spirit will guide us home.

When the clock strikes midnight, Daisy and I will be reunited in his light and bathed in his glorious love.

You can have your daughter back, if you can locate us before then.

“What the fuck is this shit!?” I was dumbfounded.  I had barreled in here ready for anything.  Ready for a gun fight. A knife fight.  A bare knuckles, knock-down drag-out.  But this shit?  What the fuck was I supposed to do with this ridiculous fucking note?

My stomach churned when I realized I had no idea what to do, or where to find the girls. 

At first, I thought this was payback from the Cretins, but after seeing the note, I was going on the assumption it was from Todd, considering all the other religious bullshit he had been sending Daisy.

I stumbled through the house, looking for any signs as to where they might be and came up completely empty-handed. When I opened Rosie’s bedroom door, lil’ Mike came flying out of her room, growling and barking. 

“So much for your guarding abilities,” I said to him as he sniffed around the apartment frantically.

Nothing was out of place, except for the chairs.  

I looked at the clock over the mantle and saw that it was seven o’clock already.  I had till midnight, apparently.

The sun was starting to go down outside, and I had only five hours to save the two most important people in my life.

There was only one problem.

I had no fucking clue where to begin.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

DAISY

“Drive,” Todd said, pushing us into the front seat of my pickup. He had retrieved a suitcase from his black sedan, the same black sedan I had seen earlier, but it was now parked on the street.  He placed the suitcase in the bed of my pick-up before we got in.

I eyed my backpack on the floor under his legs, thankful I had decided to bring my gun with me.  If only I had decided to bring the fucking thing in the house with me when I first got there, I might not be rolling away from Mike’s house with this fanatical freak at my side.

“Where are we going?”

“Don’t fucking worry about it,” he said.  He had made Rosie promise not to run or cry when he untied us and I watched as he, surprisingly gently, pulled the duct tape from her mouth.  She was being so brave, and I couldn’t believe it.  She quietly obeyed his commands, her fear filled eyes constantly darting back and forth between Todd and me.

“It’s going to be okay, Rosie,” I said as we walked out of the house.  “Just do what he says.”

Luckily, I was able to shield her so she didn’t have to see Sonny’s lifeless body on the ground in front of my truck.  I didn’t give a shit what Todd did to me, but I had to make sure Rosie came out of this as unscathed as possible.

 “Turn left,” Todd barked.

I took a deep breath, turning the truck as he told me to. I contemplated everything I could do to get out of this.  Todd had his gun out and pointed directly at me, but out of sight of the other drivers around us.  I could ram the car into a wall or another car, I could wave down someone, I could swerve and try to get the gun away from him — but all of these things would have put Rosie at the risk of getting hurt.  It was too much.

I would just have to follow along with him, and hope that some opportunity would come up to take him down.  

“Go south on the 101,” he said.  I looked over at him, and saw small beads of sweat popping up on his forehead.  His eyes looked wild and panicked.  He looked nothing like the man I had given five years of my life to.  Now, he was some gun-waving lunatic that had obviously gone off the deep end.

“What’s your plan here, Todd?” I asked, as I merged the truck onto the freeway.  He had written a note before he left, but I didn’t get a chance to see what it said.  I could only hope Mike would be there soon and that it held some clue of how he could find us.  My phone had been ringing off the hook while we were tied to the chairs, and I knew it had to have been Mike calling.

“My plan is to cleanse your filthy soul, Daisy,” he replied. 

“Where are we going?” I said, sighing.  How was I ever going to get through to him?

“Drive towards Santa Monica, and take the Overland Avenue exit.”

“What’s in Santa Monica?”  I asked.  I wanted to try to get him to talk, to somehow find a kernel of an opening to penetrate his insanity.  Surely, the man I used to know was in there.  Had he snapped completely?

“The Temple.”

Oh, shit.  Of course! He was taking us to the Temple.  

“What are we going to do there, Todd?”  I asked, halfway knowing his answer.

“You’re must be saved in the Kingdom of our God and Father, Daisy,”  he said, his eyes glassing over.

“Todd, listen.  You hit me.  I left.  I have done nothing wrong here, please just let us go!”  I pleaded.

“Sinner!  You’ve defiled your flesh and you must confess your sins before we can be sealed in the name of the Lord.  Then we can enter the eternal light of our Lord together,” his voice rose over the din of the traffic, high and frantic.

“Todd, okay, listen.  Let’s just go into the Temple, and I’ll confess to the Bishop, and then you can let us go, okay?”  He was out of his mind.  I had no intention of being ‘sealed’ to him.  And I certainly wasn’t dying with him.

“No. I have other plans.  Just shut up for now,” he said.  His leg was twitching, his hand resting on the trigger of his gun, and I felt my heart racing in my chest and my palms begin to sweat.  He wasn’t kidding around, that was for sure.  But if he was taking us to the Temple, then maybe I could get help there.