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“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?”
