Daddy Dearest

Chapter Forty-Nine

Melody

I wake up in the cold darkness with a stiff neck, a dry mouth, and a pounding headache. I realize immediately that I’m not anywhere safe because something cold and metallic is wrapped around my ankle like a manacle and it’s connected to a wall. Wherever I am has a distinct smell of wetness, disuse, and mold.

“Hello?” I call out and my voice returns in an echo. That means the room is big and empty. Maybe an abandoned warehouse? There are many of those in LA since we’re in the middle of an economic recession.

I’m on a full-sized mattress placed on cold concrete and it’s sealed in plastic. I wonder if that means it’s new or maybe my kidnapper just doesn’t want to get blood on it. I clutch my head.

“Fuck, what happened?” I go back to the last thing I remember, which is being pissed at Alex because he was rude to the bartender, then I drank some so-so scotch-—should have maybe stuck to the Johnnie Walker, after all—-and then everything went black. I woke up here.

Holy shit, my stalker finally made a move and kidnapped my ass. So much for beefed up security. Fuck, what’s going to happen to me?

Am I about to be killed? Tortured and then killed? Raped, tortured, and then killed? Sexually trafficked? Oh my God, I’ve seen documentaries about this. Okay, more like movies. All right, it was the Hostel movies and they’re basically torture porn, but also nightmare fuel.

Who would do this to me? This person attended the party and drugged my drink. Not just mine, though. I have a distinct memory of my classmates falling around me before I passed out. Fuck, where’s Alex? Is Alex okay?

I hear a noise next to me a second before someone grabs my arm. I shriek, but this person with a big hand slaps his palm over my mouth.

“I’m going to remove my hand from your mouth if you promise not to scream, all right?” a gruff, unfamiliar voice says somewhere close to my ear. “If you do, we’re both dead.”

I nod and he eases his hand off my face. I take a huge gulp of air. I’m leaning against him and he’s a big guy, but muscled-big. He smells nice, too. For a kidnapper. “What the fuck do you want from me? Let me go.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do, Melody.” He sighs and I hear a slick before he holds up a blade in what little light there is. “I’ve been trying to pick the lock for the last hour.”

I swallow the spit in my mouth, my heart thudding in my throat. “Who are you?”

“I don’t know if you’ll remember me, since I’m two years ahead of you.” The pressure of his body lifts away from me, but I still feel him as our knees are touching. He’s sitting next to me now. “My name is Miguel Martinez.”

I gasp. “Rosa’s older brother? You’re my—-” I stop myself from calling him out on the stalking because that might set him off. “Have you been following me around and putting weird shit in my locker?”

“I know nothing about the locker stuff, but I have been… maybe stalking you a little bit.”

He's admitting to it? “Why the fuck would you?”

"I may have developed an unhealthy fascination over the last few years for you, Melody Plum," he says with an embarrassed chuckle. "But before you ask, I did not abduct you."

"Pardon my disbelief, but what the hell are you doing here then?"

He clears his throat and seems to be hesitant about answering. "I've been tailing you since your accident at school. I wanted to find out who was trying to hurt you." He thrusts a plastic bottle at me. "Drink some water. You've been unconscious for about twenty-four hours."