Page 39 of Last Chance Christmas
He could pounce, finish her off with a well-placed placating remark, but instead, he leaned in. “Give me a chance before you write me off completely. I want to help.”
At least he wasn’t easily scared off. She needed someone to watch her back. Someone who wouldn’t scatter at the first sign of trouble. His persistence could be an asset.
If she could trust him.
“Fine.” She grabbed the coffee mugs from the drying rack and stacked them in the open cupboard. Anything to hide the shakiness in her hands.
“I know you talked to someone at the precinct, and my sergeant said you were the one who helped put Vaynes behind bars, but it would help me know what we’re working with if you can walk me through this from the beginning. Do you mind telling me what happened?”
Of course she minded. But he was right. It was only fair she give him a chance. And maybe she was coming down too hard on him simply because he was sophisticated and happened to be one of the few men in Last Chance that had a good sense of style. Even if he did date a lot, she never heard anything bad about his police work. And he did seem genuinely concerned.
Who was she to turn down any kind of aid? She needed all the help she could get.
And she had to admit, desperate times, desperate measures and all that meant she couldn’t be picky.
She folded her arms across her chest. “Can I trust you?”
He held her stare and gave her a small nod. He didn’t flinch, didn’t look away. “I’m here to help. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
A hint of peace settled in her soul. Like a starving person, she would take the tiniest morsel offered.
Okay, Lord, I’m going out on a limb here.
She grabbed a water bottle, and they sat at the small round table, off to the side. “What do you need to know?”
“Start at the beginning. You were captured by Vaynes. Along with your friend, right?”
“Yeah. Lily.”
“And how did you two know each other?”
She slowly traced the top of her cap. “I met Lily in college. She didn’t have any family, and we got really close. So that summer, when I came back here to stay with my grandma, she came with me. We worked a day job at the grocery store and then at a bar in the evenings.”
“What bar?”
“The Black Barrel”
“The one downtown?”
Della nodded before continuing. “Jason Vaynes was a regular there. He was there every shift Lily and I worked. I knew he liked her. He was always staring at her. But she didn’t think much about it. She had a boyfriend back at school, and Jason never did anything. Just always ordered a beer and nursed it until closing, when he’d pay his bill and leave a big tip.”
“Then what?”
She swallowed hard and gathered enough gumption to get the rest of the story out. “One night when Lily and I had the closing shift, we had car trouble. It was after two a.m. I should’ve noticed the lights were out in the parking lot, but…I didn’t. Everything after that gets hazy—” Della closed her eyes, willing back the stinging tears that wanted to escape. She didn’t want to relive the horror. But she needed Officer Thomas to understand the danger here.
“I woke up and had no clue where we were. Lily was sobbing, saying we had to escape. But he kept drugging me. When I was awake, I was chained to a bed, and Lily would be passed out. I don’t remember how long we were there. His prisoners. But I know the last shift I worked was July twenty-ninth, and the day I escaped and woke up in a hospital was August twenty-ninth. A month to the day.”
“And Lily?”
The name still brought a shaft of pain through her chest. Her friend had sacrificed everything for her.
“He’d broken her legs. She knew she wasn’t going to make it. She was so adamant that I get away.” Della paused to take a sip. “She used the drug that he’d given me on him. It knocked him out. I didn’t want to go, but I promised her I’d get help and come back for her. I couldn’t let her sacrifice be for nothing. So I left. But whatever it was that he put in me messed me up. I ran from the cabin where he held us and found the highway, but I was so malnourished and dehydrated that I passed out. By the time I came to and was able to direct the FBI to where he’d kept us, Lily was already dead.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice was gentle. Sincere.
Della looked up. His eyes weren’t glinting or mocking. They stayed steady and true as he held her gaze.
“That took a lot of guts to get away and go for help. They caught him, right?”
