Page 10 of Lost in the Light

“Does this have to do with me, Kane?” I demanded firmly as I stared right at him. Kane looked to Asher for approval, whichjust annoyed me, but before I could say anything, Asher nodded just once. Kane’s eyes returned to me.

“I went to the house, your father’s house. I just wanted to scope it out and see if there was anything there before the FBI go in,” he began.

“You found something.” I swallowed deeply after I forced the words out. It wasn’t a question. The answer was already written in those deep, haunted eyes.

“Yes. In the basement there was a false wall.”

“Fuck!” Asher hissed as he fell heavily back down into his chair.

“Was it like the rooms they found at the senators place?” Eli asked.

Kane looked to me and that neutral, calm expression on his face disappeared as his features twisted with regret. He was worried about telling me what came next.

“J-just tell us. I can handle it,” I told him, almost pleading. I knew deep down I shouldn’t want to know, but I had to. I had to have the truth no matter how much more it messed me up.

“There was a cell. It was soundproof. Solid iron door and electronic locks. No one would have a chance of escaping it. I couldn’t even get it open, but there were cameras and I managed to access the live feed on the laptop down there.”

“Jesus, Kane! Please don’t tell me…” Asher stopped talking as he leaned over like he was going to get sick.

“There’s a body in there. I’m so sorry. It looks like a woman, but decomposition already started. I think she probably died of dehydration down there,” Kane reluctantly said.

“Oh God!” Eli’s chair slammed to the ground and he was running through the house.

“Eli!” Asher gasped as he got to his feet, but then froze when he looked to me.

“Go. I…I’m okay,” I whispered, knowing he was torn. I could hear Eli violently retching from across the house. My own stomach was rolling too, and I felt like all of the blood had drained from my body.

“We’ve got her,” Adam added as he wrapped his arm around me.

I was relieved when Asher went to Eli. I didn’t want him to be alone when he was so upset. They needed each other.

“Addy, take a breath for me, baby,” Adam coaxed gently. Jordan had moved into the seat at my other side and he was holding my hands, rubbing them soothingly. I didn’t realize until I looked down at our joined hands, how violently I was shaking.

I lifted my head and found Kane stood opposite me, across the counter. He was leaning as close as he could, so close I could smell his comforting aftershave.

“Did…did you c-call the police. That girl…she could h-have a family?” I stuttered shakily.

“The FBI are there now. They’ll handle everything,” Kane assured me.

“He left her there,” I whimpered. “He left her to die. How c-could he do that?”

“He was a sick fuck, Addy. All he ever cared about was himself and what he wanted. I don’t think he’d even have considered the girl he left dying in his basement. He’d have only been worried about himself as he was dying,” Jordan explained throughclenched teeth. He was angry. They all were, I realized as I looked between them. Hell, I was angry too.

It could have been me, I realized. I could have been locked in a cage and no one would ever have known I was there if anything had happened to that senator who held me.

Images of the captives I’d seen at the parties played through my mind. Had the girl been there? Was she one of the way too young teenagers I had seen knelt at the feet of their monster, or being dragged around on a leash? Whoever she was, her life had ended in a way that had to have been so terrifying and brutal, I couldn’t even comprehend. To lay in a cell, starving to death, desperate for water, wasting away, and knowing no one was coming? I couldn’t even imagine how terrifying that had to be.

The realization that a man I shared DNA with had done that to some innocent woman had me feeling violently sick. How could he do that? He was a monster and I just thanked God that I had never truly had to know him. If he were still alive at that moment I was pretty sure I was filled with enough rage to tear him to shreds with my bare hands.

“I need to check on Ash and Eli,” I whispered as I moved from the grip of Adam and Jordan, and slid to my feet. My brothers had been raised by that monster and I knew, as hard as the horror was hitting me, it had to be even worse for them. They’d grown up in that home, their father torturing innocents in the basement, possibly the entire time.

“Stay with Jordan. I can check on them,” Adam offered as he got up and tried to stop me where I stood.

“No.” I looked up to him through my watery eyes. “I need to do this. I need to be with them.”

“Okay, but let me walk with you. You’re shaking,” Adam pushed, and I nodded, taking his offered hand.

When we reached the downstairs restroom off of the entrance hall, we found Asher and Eli on the floor. Eli had his head on Asher’s shoulder and his body was shaking with quiet sobs as he clung to his brother’s side. Asher had his arm tightly wrapped around Eli, the pair of them squeezed into the tight space between the sink and the wall. Asher’s face was pale and filled with pain, but he remained in control of his emotions as always. When he held his hand out to me I left Adam at the door and went to them, more tears already filling my eyes at the sight of them both looking so distraught.

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