“Good morning Josh” Dan said when he saw the
bundled up figure under the blankets blankly staring back at him.
“How
are you feeling this fine morning?” Dan asked with a smug smile on his face.
Josh looked away from him, giving him no response while Dan made his way over
to the young man. He pulled the blankets off of him and threw them away at the
end of the footboard. Josh stared at Dan with weary eyes.
“What
do you want?” Josh asked his voice hoarse with sleep.
“You
know what I want Josh” Dan stated simply crossing his arms over his chest.
“Leave
me alone” Josh said softly, looking away.
“I
told you that was not an option, get up right now and get ready, Mr. Daniels
will be here any second”
“Fine”
Josh grumbled, deciding against picking a fight; he wasn’t in the mood. He
slowly sat himself up and stumbled into the bathroom, taking his clothes with
him on the way. He came out minutes later and walked with Dan to the living
room. Mr. Daniels was already waiting for him; again.
“Good
morning” Mr. Daniels said pleasantly.
“Hi”
Josh responded but not with a lot of enthusiasm.
“Shall
we begin?” he inquired, holding out the suit for the young man to take.
“Sure”
Josh said indifferent as he stepped up to the man and took the suit from him.
He ignored Dan’s glare and went behind the curtain to get the suit on. As he
finished dressing he suddenly realized how close he was to marrying Louisa. He
was even trying on the suit he’d wear that day! He suddenly had the urge to
tear it off, rip it away but he knew it wouldn’t accomplish anything. He
wouldn’t get out of that wedding. Dan wouldn’t let him, he’d force him to get
married in his underwear even, Josh was certain of it. No it wouldn’t do him
any good but it would certainly feel good.
“Joshua!”
Dan called when it all took a little longer than he liked.
Josh
sighed heavily but went, they’d trained him to obey orders and Josh was sad to
admit that it had worked…
***
“Justin?”
Chris called as he entered the apartment he was still sharing with Justin.
Especially after they’d learned Justin was in danger.
“Yeah?”
Justin called back, almost running into the living room.
“Sit
down” Chris ordered as he shrugged out of his jacket.
“What
is it Chris?” Justin questioned curiously but sat down as ordered.
“I
did some digging” Chris stated settling opposite of his friend.
“What
did you find out?” Justin asked immediately, hearing by the tone in his voice
it was something big.
“Did
you find anything on Dan? Anything we can use against him? Anything we can use
to help Josh?” Justin fired his questions when Chris took a breath.
“Can
you take a breath kid?” Chris remarked, getting dizzy from the questions Justin
was firing at him. Justin sighed.
“Sorry
I just want to help Josh”
Chris
smiled reassuringly. “It will be okay kid”
“So
you found something?”
Chris
nodded. “I did, yes”
“What
is it, tell me!” Justin persisted, scooting to the edge of his seat.
“I
did some digging and it wasn’t easy; they’d covered it up real nice but as it
turns out Dan has a history of this”
“Of
what?” Justin asked a little confused. Not sure he wanted to know the answer to
his question.
“Of
keeping his sister’s boyfriends with her against their will”
“What?”
Justin exclaimed astonished. Chris nodded.
“He’s
done this before, six times to be precise maybe even more but six was all I
could find”
“Shit”
Justin breathed.
“How
did the others get away? We could use their technique”
“I
don’t think they had one”
“What?
But then how did they…”
“Get
away?” Chris finished.
Justin
nodded, a fearful expression in his eyes.
“They
didn’t. They were allowed to leave when Louisa didn’t want them anymore”
“Crap”
Justin cursed, slamming his fist on the coffee table as the words they
didn’t repeated in his head. They didn’t get away.
“And
she still wants Josh! She wants to marry him! We got to do something Chris,
fast!”
“I
know. I’m going to see if I can track down her ex-boyfriends, see if they can
give us some useful information” Chris decided, getting up to do just that.
“Wait!”
Justin stopped him.
“Can
I come?” he asked hopeful.
“It’s
better if you don’t”
“But
I want to help”
“It
will look suspicious, you don’t know if you’re being watched”
“What?”
Chris
took in a breath, damn, he hadn’t been meaning to say that.
“Look
if they go through all the trouble to threaten Josh to keep him there it could
be a possibility that they are watching you” he told his younger friend gently.
He didn’t want to scare him but it was possible.
“You
can better stay here Justin, lock the doors and hang tight. Just do what you
normally do and let me handle this. I’ll keep you posted” Justin sighed,
sitting back down.
“It
will be okay Justin” Justin’s concerned blue eyes met his friend’s.
“I
hope so” Chris turned to leave but turned suddenly.
“Just,
listen, I’m sorry I didn’t believe you” Chris said, it had been going around in
his head and he wanted to let Justin know.
“What
do you mean?” Justin asked confused.
“You
had a feeling something was off but I didn’t listen to you” Justin gave him a
reassuring smile.
“It’s
okay Chris. I wasn’t sure either”
“You
were and as a cop I should have listened to you” Chris still scolded himself
for it, if he would have listened they might have been able to do something
sooner and it would probably be more effective.
“It’s
okay Chris I know I overreact sometimes it has got nothing to with you, doesn’t
make you a less good cop. Just promise me you’ll help us, help Josh” Chris
smiled gratefully.
“I
promise I’ll try”
***
Louisa
was almost bouncing with excitement. This all had been so wonderful. Her
wedding was almost planned, there really wasn’t a lot for her to do and she
liked it that way. Dan had hired a whole army of people to get Louisa’s dream
wedding together while Josh was first getting beat up in the basement and then
recovering in another room.
They
talked about Louisa’s wishes for the wedding in their rooms on the top floor.
She’d met with her wedding planner once Matt had taken Josh with him. Dan had
set it up and she’d been so happy with it. They’d started talking and soon the
girl, Susan, knew exactly what Louisa wanted. The fact that the groom didn’t
participate in the preparations didn’t bother her at all; she was getting well
paid and so whatever she wanted it’d go. With all the money they owned they
also had the first call to the town’s church. No matter if they’d be booked
they’d reschedule for them. They decided to use the house for the party
afterwards. All Louisa had to do was pick out a dress, Susan brought along a
whole clothing rack of choices. They’d spent a whole day trying them out and it
was great fun but that was really all Louisa had to do. She told Susan what she
wanted and she’d take care of it all and so it wasn’t strange that the wedding
was planned and ready to go in just four weeks.
She
was now on her way to Josh; the wedding was getting taken care of and she had
free time to spend with her future husband. They’d only have three days before
they’d have to part for the traditional ‘not see your bride a day before the
wedding or there would be bad luck’ and Louisa intended to hold to that. There
was no way she was going to jinx it. Excitedly she stepped into his room,
greeting Matt, telling him he could wait outside as she went up to the door of
his bedroom, hearing from Matt that Josh was in there. She opened the door
without warning and went inside with a big smile.
“Hello
my love”…
