Page 57 of Deliverance
"I'm going to come up with a way out by then." He stuck a fry into his mouth.
"You've had ten years. What makes you think you can come up with something now?"
"Because I'm done. I'm tired of doing Frank’s and Saffron's bidding."
"Did something happen?"
Ric sighed. "Frank's wife left him or something, and he wanted me to find her."
"Did you?"
He looked up the stairs and then down them before leaning in and whispering, "I did, but he doesn't know that."
"You didn't tell him?" I whispered back.
He shook his head. "Something is going on, and I don't want to be involved."
"Where is she?"
"A hotel around the corner from their apartment."
I drew my head back. "Around the corner, and he thinks she's missing?"
He took a bite of his burger. "She looked really messed up. Either she’s on something or coming down from something."
"And Frank has no clue where she is?"
Ric shook his head. "Nope."
We ate a few more bites of food before I asked, "Why would you risk getting me and Zell out when you could just not come back? You could have an entire day's head start before Madam or Frank found out."
"I could have done that ten years ago, but I stayed because I couldn't leave you."
"I thought you stayed because you were worried Frank would kill your mom?"
"That too, but you don't think that in ten years, I could have come up with something for me and Momma to get away?"
"You stayed because of me?" I whispered, not sure how I felt about it. On the one hand, it made my heart happy that he had stayed to be with me the only way we could be. On the other hand, it made my heart ache because I was the reason he'd stayed to sleep with and work for a witch.
"I knew that if I left, I would always wonder about you. I couldn't walk away knowing that at any moment, you could go back to the warehouse. That one night, I wasn't going to let that happen, and more determined to stay. If Saffron tried again, I would still pretend to go along with it, but in the end, you wouldn't end up at the warehouse."
I sighed as I admitted, "I think my time is almost up."
His brow furrowed. "Why do you think that?"
"Because Frank slept with Clarissa the other night and not me."
"I know, but I thought you'd be relieved."
I shook my head. "Something's up."
"Shit, maybe. And what about Zell losing her virginity to Frankie?"
"They didn't sleep together."
The fry he was about to take a bite out of halted before his mouth. "No shit?"
"None of us know what actually went on behind that closed door the other night, but Zell said they didn't. That could all change tonight, though."
