I want to take back the word bitch, which is unlike me. I am changing, and though Macy and everyone else seem to think it’s for the better, I wonder if it truly is. I’m vulnerable now. So damned vulnerable—and I’m the most vulnerable to the man standing next to me.
The elevator arrives, and we get in, heading up to the fifth floor.
Brindley was moved from the fourth to the fifth floor at my request, and she was glad to go. Once the elevator arrives, we walk to her apartment—512.
“You sure about this?” Leif asks.
“Yes. I’m sure. Are you? Sure that this is part of your job description?”
He sighs and rolls his eyes. “Let’s get this over with.” He knocks on the door.
The door opens, and Brindley stands there. She’s a petite young woman with brown hair and brown eyes, a girl-next-door look about her. Very pretty, but not classically beautiful. A spray of freckles dances across her nose.
“Hello. Are you Leif?”
“I am. And of course you know Kelly.”
I don’t say anything.
“Come on in. I put out some cheese and crackers.”
Cheese and crackers? I’m full of pizza. And I hate the fact that the pizza was as delicious as Leif said it would be.
Leif steps back to let me enter first. I hold back my scoff. He is a gentleman, but then again… It’s all part of his job.
“Please have a seat.” Brindley gestures to her small living room.
I take a seat on the couch, and Leif sits next to me. Brindley pours us each a glass of water, setting them in front of us. “Help yourself to some food.”
“That’s kind of you, Brindley,” Leif says, “but Kelly and I just ate a huge dinner.”
Brindley’s cheeks redden. “I should’ve known. It is around dinnertime. But my mother always taught me to offer visitors food and drink.”
I resist an eye roll.
“You know why we’re here,” Leif says. “Kelly is still convinced that you have something to do with the messages she’s receiving.”
“I swear I haven’t.” She shakes her head, her eyes wide. “I would never do anything like that. You can search this place if you want. I have nothing to hide.”
“I don’t personally believe you’re involved,” Leif says. “I just don’t know how you can convince Kelly.”
Sure, Leif. Take her side. Take Terry to your special pizza place. Take care of everyone except me. I’m just your job.
Brindley sits down next to me, which makes me very uncomfortable. I’m just as close to Leif, but I don’t want Brindley in that bubble.
“Kelly, I have no idea what you’ve been through. And I’m so sorry for everything you’re still going through. But you have to believe me. I would never put any of you women through any more torment. We’ve all been through enough.”
I cross my arms. “You were only on that island for a few months.”
“I know. Still, I was subjected to the same abuse and torture.”
“For a lot less time.”
“Yes, and believe me, I’m grateful for that. So why would I want to torment any of you?”
“Indeed, why not?” I say with sarcasm.
“Kelly, come on.” From Leif.
I look at him.
I look at the handsome man who has made me feel things I never thought I was capable of feeling.
The man whose job it is to protect me.
The Ex-Navy SEAL. And he’s damned good at his job. The man who saved Mikey from dying alone, abandoned by his platoon.
Why am I so convinced it’s Brindley?
Because I was—am—envious of Brindley.
She was subjected to so much less torture than the rest of us were.
She denied it several times, but in my mind, she’d admitted it. I convinced myself Brindley was the culprit because she hadn’t suffered as much on the island. Perhaps I never heard fidgeting on my doorknob at night. Perhaps it was all a conjured mechanism to prove to myself that Brindley was behind the texts.
Because I needed someone to blame.
And because…
If it’s not Brindley?
Then I don’t know who it is.
And that scares me the most of all.
39
LEIF
Kelly stares down at her lap, her hands clasped together. Is she thinking? Is she getting ready to strike?
I don’t think she’s getting ready to strike because she doesn’t think before doing that. If she were going to strike again, she would’ve already done so.
Then the ding of a text.
Kelly reaches for her small purse and pulls out her cell phone.
Then she gasps.
“What is it?”
“Another one.” She hands the phone to me.
You will get what you deserve, you traitorous bitch.
“You’re truly off the hook now, Brindley,” Leif says.
“Oh my God, is it another one of those texts?” Brindley asks.
I nod, and Kelly stays quiet.
“I’m sorry you got this,” I say. “But I swear to God I will protect you. And now… Do you believe that it’s not Brindley?”
“Why should I? She could have someone sending them for her.”
I sigh. “Kelly… Please.”
Finally, she looks up at me, her gorgeous eyes laced with sadness. “Who’s doing this to me, Leif? Who? And why?”
“I don’t know, baby. But I swear to God we will find out.” I turn back to Brindley. “I’m sorry we bothered you.”
“It was no bother. I’m happy to have any kind of chance to prove my innocence. I guess it doesn’t matter now. Whoever texted Kelly proved it for me.”
“Kelly?” I say.
She looks to Brindley. “It’s not you, is it?”
“No, it’s not. It never was.”
I don’t expect Kelly to apologize to Brindley, so I rise and offer her my hand. “You want to go home?”
“Yeah.” She stands as well, and then she turns to Brindley. “I… I’m sorry.”
Brindley drops her jaw.
And I keep from dropping mine.
“I’m just glad my name has been cleared,” Brindley says. “I do hope you find out who’s doing this to you, Kelly. You don’t deserve it. None of us deserves any more pain for the rest of our lives.”
Kelly simply nods, and then she walks toward the door. I follow her.
“Thank you for your hospitality, Brindley.”
“Any time. Both of you are always welcome here. I get kind of lonely.”
“Will you be returning to your family soon?” I ask.
“Sadly, I don’t have a family,” Brindley says. “I grew up in the foster system. I got kicked out of that when I was eighteen, so with no place to go, I ended up on the streets. In a bizarre way, the island saved me. At least I got enough to eat every day.”
Kelly drops her jaw. “I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t ask me.”
“You’ve never talked about it in group therapy,” Kelly says.
“You’ve never talked about your childhood in group therapy either.”