A blanket drops on top of me, so I quickly grab it and wrap myself up in it. My arm is still held up at a horribly uncomfortable angle, but it’s better than nothing.
After sleeping on the cement, sleeping on a rug feels strangely nice. It’s also odd that I feel safer with Shepherd in the room. I feel like things might be okay, even though I know he’s one of the bad people and if Tony told him to, he’d probably kill me. But I have to keep pushing forward one day at a time.
As I feel the connection between our arms as he viciously yanks my arm toward him, I decide that I will force Shepherd to like me enough that he at least hesitates before he pulls the trigger.
Four
“Can’t I tie him to the toilet or something?” Shepherd complains.
Tony doesn’t even bother looking up from the newspaper he’s viciously flipping through. “No.” He tosses it and grabs his phone with the same amount of anger.
“What about Rod? Rod said he wants him.”
“Rod also wants a kitten, and would you trust that asshole with a kitten?” Tony asks as he looks away from his phone.
“That’s true, that would be very concerning,” Shepherd says.
“You know he’d sit on it before the day’s out.”
“Well, the upside is if he sits on the kid, he probably won’t crush him!” Shepherd says with this cheery-as-fuck tone that makes me glare at him.
“Shepherd, for now, I need you to watch him.” Tony turns back to his phone, but curiosity gets the best of me.
“My father doesn’t care, does he?” I ask, and I find it strange that it even bothers me. I should already know this.
Tony slowly looks up, like it’s more work to listen or interact with me than anyone else. “I don’t think he does. Sad, really.” He doesn’t sound too sad.
“Then why not let me go? He’s not going to do anything no matter what you do.”
“Oh, he’ll budge, kid. I mean, I kind of feel bad that your father doesn’t give a flying fuck what happens to you, but you’re still leverage. The thing is, I think he cares about his reputation, and it’s not going to look good when I release our little home movies to the media and they get wind that your dear daddy’s doing nothing to save you.”
“You’re just going to make yourself look worse. He’ll figure out that it’s you—”
Tony starts laughing, but the sound is cruel and twisted. “He already knows it’s me, but he can’t do jack shit because the moment he does, he knows he’ll have to face the fact that he doesn’t give a flying fuck about my daughter or looking for her. I know he knows something. He’s hiding something. That’s why he refuses to make this a missing persons case. She didn’t just elope or some bullshit like his investigators supposedly determined.”
“What happened to your daughter?” I ask, like Shepherd hadn’t already told me.
His body tenses and his eyes narrow as he shifts them onto me. “Unless you know something no one else does, go ahead and fuck off. Shepherd, find something useful to do and don’t kill the kid. He’s got a star role tonight!”
Shepherd gives me a tug. “Maybe I’ll let him play with a fork near an electrical outlet.”
“It’ll be like a lovers’ suicide, seeing as you’re attached to me,” I say as I grab his hand. He nearly crushes mine in response, so I quickly let go.
“Fucking hell, this day needs to end,” he says as he drags me into the hallway. I see Tex carrying a sandwich to the door that leads to the room they’d been keeping me in.
“Do you guys not have napkins or anything? You just carry all food around like that?” I ask. “And why are you guys even feeding your prisoners? Isn’t the goal of torture… you know… torturing them?”
“Ask the boss. He does what he wants to do,” he says as we near Tex just as he pushes the door open.
Quick as that, I see Tex shoved back as the man from inside the room leaps onto him and drives a screwdriver—the one I’d stolen—right into Tex’s neck. As the man tears the gun from Tex’s side and turns to us, I realize that I recognize him as Deputy Chief Parker, who is involved in my father’s law enforcement