Lost in Silence (The Lost Series Book 1) (2 page)

“Yeah, she can handle it,” I answer, regretting the words as soon as they leave my mouth. It was a dick move, no doubt, but I couldn’t go back. I wasn’t ready. Not yet.

C
hapter 1

Alice

I’ve been on the run for months, five to be exact. I thought I’d been careful not to leave a trail but he found me.
Again
. The pounding started fifteen minutes ago, jolting me out of a dead sleep. A luxury I hadn’t experienced in some time. It’s him. Erik. My husband and a very bad man, an evil man, a man I’d barely escaped not once but twice.

The first time took six years and it was a complete accident. He’d forgotten to lock me in my prison, the small coat closet under the stairs of his lavish Miami home. I waited like an obedient dog for him to return and lock the door but he didn’t. I finally summoned enough courage to flee hours later.

It took him a month to find me. I had taken refuge in a safe house for abused women located in Arizona. I was prepared for him though. He taught me to always expect the unexpected, especially when he was involved. My planning had paid off and I able was to escape a second time.

Which brings me here, five months later.

It took him much longer this time but I had expected it no less. The only problem was the restful sleep I had fallen into. I wasn’t normally a hard sleeper but I was exhausted last night. I slipped up, I felt safe and instead of being on my guard and hitting the road immediately, I allowed myself a moment of comfort.

It was something I’d never allow to happen again.
If
I managed to escape a third time but I knew, short of a miracle, the chances were slim.

If I get out of this motel room, I’m never sleeping again!

There is a shift in the mood outside my door. The motel manager, Roland, has approached. I cringe. This was it. Erik was going to talk the man into opening the door and I would be trapped. My stomach dropped. My breath became short and rushed. I was starting to panic.

Please God, just make him stop. Make him go away. Don’t let him in this room. Please if you’re listening, I beg for your mercy.

I hear the jangle of keys and my blood runs cold. Roland is going to let him in. I try to burrow deeper into the closet of my room but the wall blocks me from fleeing.

Shit!

Another person approaches, causing a crackle of electricity in the air. My hearing focuses as I push aside my growing panic. Erik’s yelling at whomever interrupted him. This person is pissing him off.

The sound of his voice filters into the dark musty motel room I’ve called home for the last seven days. It’s deep rumble vibrates every cell in my body and lulls me into a temporary relaxed state. My breathing begins to slow and my ears strain to hear him more clearly. His baritone warmth resonates deep within my body creating a round of uncontrollable shivers. It’s him, the mysterious man from next door.

Though I’ve seen him enter and exit his room at all times of the day and night, I’ve never seen him in great length or detail. He leaves alone and returns alone. He’s quiet, although I could hear his snores through the thin wall adjoining our room and the occasional baritone timbre of soft speaking. He keeps to himself. I had a sense he preferred his lonely life, which was fine by me.

This obviously wasn’t the first time I heard his voice, but it was the first time it moved me this way. It frightened me but strangely excited me too. People in general frighten me, I don’t trust anyone anymore, especially men. But his voice calls to me. I never thought it possible after everything I’ve been through. I fight the urge to throw open my door and jump into the safety of his arms. I wish I knew his name.

The volley of Erik’s voice pulls me out of my trance and back into the moment. His voice fills my body with fear and despair.

I have to get out. Now. Before he gets in.

I rack my brain trying to remember my plans. Whenever I decide to stay longer than a day or two, I make emergency exit plans. These plans are what kept me alive five months ago and allowed me to get away safely.

Erik is getting angrier by the moment, his voice grows louder and more uncontrolled. I felt sorry for my neighbor and the motel manager. Neither understood what was about to happen or the wrath they would soon face if they didn’t get out of his way.

“Move the key away from the lock,” the warm voice says, his concern clear and precise. My eyes widen in fear, my breath hitches and my heart pounds in my chest. I feel sick and struggle to keep what little food I’ve eaten down.

“What the hell,” Erik shouts morphing into the monster I know well. I cringe, yes, that was the anger I never wanted to be at the end of again. “Open the fucking door.”

“Can I see some identification?” my neighbor’s voice moves closer to my door. I hear his boots scrape on the concrete walkway, stopping just short of it.

“Who the fuck are you?” I picture Erik’s red face and piercing blue eyes with each word. A face I once called beautiful. Eyes I was so easily lost in. Now it’s a face I hardly recognize unless it’s spewing hateful and vile things at me.

“I’m a patron of this establishment trying to work on his beauty sleep but you’re making it nearly impossible to do,” my neighbor’s voice is calm, almost amused. “Do you have any I.D.?”

“Unless you’re the cops, I don’t have to show you shit.”

“I’m not the cops but I
can
kick your ass from here until next Sunday if you don’t cooperate,” I smirk wishing I could see someone teach Erik a lesson. That’d be the day.

“Fuck you,” I imagined Erik stepping into the man, his face blotchy and red, ready to take up his challenge. Erik didn’t like to be challenged but he wasn’t above putting a man in his place for such disrespect. I pictured him flexing his large biceps to prove prowess. Erik was always ready for a fight, even when there wasn’t a threat. He is a ‘natural born fighter’, at least that’s what he calls himself. “Are you going to let me in or not?”

“Or not,” my neighbor responds. I know the question wasn’t meant for him but he answers it anyway. I hear a lighter shoe scrap uncomfortably against the concrete, Roland the motel manager. I briefly wonder why he’s not trying to appease Erik.

“Fuck off,” Erik says. “Open the fucking door.”

“Roland, please go to the office and call the police. Our
friend
here needs to be removed from the property,” my neighbor’s voice is firm and unyielding. I could sense that he too is prepared for a fight. I cringe. Erik is trained in three different fighting techniques, he won’t stand a chance.

“He says this is his room...” Roland’s voice cracks in but he doesn’t get to finish his sentence because Erik cuts him off.

“It
is
my room. Now open the fucking door before I call the police and tell them about the scam you’re running here.”

“I’ve been here several days and haven’t once seen you enter or exit this room. Whoever
is
staying here is either not home or too damn afraid to answer the door with you out here causing a scene. Who could blame them really, the terror you’re raining down out here. Why don’t you leave and find someone else to harass,” I hear the drag of Roland’s feet moving away to do as he was told. I’m sure he wasn’t looking forward to the mess he’d have to clean up later if the two men come to blows outside my door. Calling the police, though also had its downside, was the better of the two choices.

“Oh, she’s in there alright and I know she’s afraid. She better be. When I get this door open,” Erik pauses a moment for a dramatic effect. Taking a deep breath, his voice growls from the depths of his dark soul. “It’s open season, bitch.”

I gasped silently knowing full well what he meant. The air crackled in the closet around me, the tension radiating into the room now. He knows I’m here. Which means he’s been watching me. For how long I don’t know but it seemed odd for him to wait before striking. I curse again.

Why did I allow myself to feel safe?

My heart picks up a notch as a new thought dawns on me. Erik’s composed mask was beginning to slip and that was something he never allowed to happen. Maybe the chase was finally beginning to wear on him. It could be a good thing but I doubt he’d give up and walk away. No, I decided then, it was a bad thing. A
really
bad thing.

“You need to leave right now,” my neighbors voice is menacing. Yes, he understands what Erik is about. “I don’t know who you are but I can tell you sir, there is no
she
in there.”

“Bullshit, she walked in less than an hour ago, after her shift at the diner down the street, cleaning tables,” venom in his words, their poison confirming my fears. I’m right. He
had
been watching. I shiver.

Fuck! How did I miss the signs?

A set of shuffling footsteps approaches outside, Roland returning.

“The police are on their way,” his voice is low and unsteady. He’s nervous and rightly so.

“Looks like your time is up,” the calm is creeping back into my neighbor’s voice. A moment of silence passes but the tension doesn’t lessen.

“Fuck this,” Erik spat. “I’ll be back and no one is going to fucking stop me from getting into that room. Do you hear me Ali,
no one
will stop me. You. Are.
Mine
.”

I shiver in fear. His words are ones I knew well. They’re words he used constantly to justify the abuse he put me through. I hate those words.

My hearing strains with each step he takes, carrying him farther away from me. My heartbeat slows a bit but I know I don’t have long before he comes back. I have to prepare.

“Hudson, should I cancel the call to the police?” I hear Roland ask but never hear an answer. His hobbled stride moves away from my room as well.

Hudson.
My neighbor. My hero.

I never heard him walk away. In fact I didn’t realize he departed from his spot at my door until I hear the click of his door closing. It was an unsettling sound, one I felt deep inside my chest. I take a deep ragged breath and push the feelings aside.

I’m not about to allow another complication in my life. I can’t afford it.

Even if his name is music to my ears.

*****

Hudson

I’m not sure why I made it my mission to protect a complete stranger but there was something about the man outside, screaming like a banshee, I instantly didn’t like. Usually my gut instincts were spot on about people and over the years I’ve learned to trust it. He was on my radar from the moment he began pounding on the door.

I knew she was home but I wasn’t about to admit that to him. Something told me to deny it. He was no good for her.

She had arrived less than an hour ago and she was alone, has been since she checked in a day after me. I knew he was lying the moment the words left Roland’s mouth, not that he gave the old man a chance to finish explaining it to me.

She was a pretty girl, from what I could see but not the kind of pretty that stops you in your tracks. Her long blonde hair looks unnatural against her skin coloring which means she’s bleached it. Her clothes are at least three sizes too big and threadbare. She was definitely on the thin side but it was difficult to tell because she hides under many layers of clothing, despite the California heat.

I knew she was running from someone or something the moment I laid eyes on her. It wasn’t just her appearance, she tried to blend into the streets around her but her quirky behaviors and demeanor were telling signs something wasn’t right. She looked over her shoulder when she arrived back from wherever it was she went. She was cautious but not cautious enough. I’d seen the black sedan leaving and arriving two days ago. She hadn’t.

I didn’t know why she was running, frankly I wasn’t one to care but after his fully loaded threat towards her, there was no way I’d leave her unprotected now. Whoever they were to each other didn’t matter to me because I was sure now he was the reason she was running.

I peer out my window scanning the parking lot. I’d chosen this room specifically because I could see everything from its window. It wasn’t difficult to get the keys from the attendant, dead presidents spoke in volumes. In my line of work you expect the unexpected and plan for it.

That’s how I knew about her stalker.

At first I thought my cover had been blown. Something I couldn’t afford to happen this late in the game. This assignment was risky and these fools were ruthless. They’d shoot a man no questions asked, if they thought he wasn’t who he said he was. Not to mention the man hours alone spent working my way up their ranks. I had to make sure he wasn’t there for me.

I tailed him for half a day. It didn’t take long to discover he wasn’t there for me, to my relief. He was there for her and he followed her like a starving dog. Something was disturbingly off about it. I kept watching and waited for him to make a move.

He waited longer than I anticipated, before confronting her. I didn’t think it would so public either. Something must have triggered him because he lost his cool entirely too fast. I doubt it was something she’d done. She was a creature of habit, her routine was the same every day. It had to be an outside source.

I needed to find out who this guy was and fast. I wouldn’t be able to move past any of it unless I did. My gut was reeling over it.

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