my family around. One of the members of our family died! Many women and a couple men lost their lives to that bastard. Leave us alone. Let us have some peace! We have enough to deal with.” She looped her arm around my shoulders and the driver pushed his way through the growing crowd and helped usher us into the car.
“Shit. Next time I’m hiring bodyguards,” she huffed and fluffed her ’fro. “You okay?”
I trembled for a moment but got my bearings the farther away we made it down the road and away from the crowd and their intrusive line of questioning. “Yeah, I’ll be all right.”
Blessing took my hand and interlaced our fingers, then set both of them on her thigh. “I’m going to take care of you, Addy. No one is gonna hurt my sister on my watch. That you can bank on.”
I smiled and chuckled, then squeezed her fingers. “My Big Badass Sister has my back.”
“That’s right. And I always will.”
I leaned against her side and laid my head on her shoulder. “What would I do without you?”
“The good news is, we aren’t ever gonna find out,” Blessing touted as though it were fact. And to her, it was. Though I knew better.
Evil always found a way to taint the good in the world. That evil had already claimed the life of our foster sister Tabby. Anything could happen to any one of us and there was nothing we could do about it.
* * *
Click. The camera flashed and I was back there.
In that chair.
That dark, freezing cold basement, with rats and other vermin scurrying around my feet.
My chest was tied with thick, uncompromising ropes. My arms zip-tied, forearms facing up so he could continue with his torture against the inner flesh of my arms.
I glanced down at the blistered, ravaged tissue of my inner arms with a detached, vacant assessment. Seeing the torn, bleeding, black wounds on my arms in the only way I could—as if they weren’t mine. The scent of burnt flesh seared my nostrils. I desperately held back my need to vomit as my mouth watered around the cloth gag. It was tied so tight it dug into the edges of my mouth, abrading the sensitive tissue every time I attempted to free myself.
Another camera flash.
“Addison…” A somewhat familiar voice reverberated in the cavernous space around me. I blinked rapidly as my mind swirled while I tried to focus on that tone. It was kind. Compassionate. Connected to someone I loved.
Blessing.
Click.
I shuddered at the sound and shook where I stood, skyrocketing back into that dreaded chair.
The masked attacker was coming back.
He would continue hurting me.
He was going to kill me just like all those other women.
My only hope was they’d find him before they got to my sister Simone. If she were spared, my soul would be free. I could die knowing she was safe.
I had no idea when I got off that plane and met the driver in front of the airport holding a sign with my name on it that I was willingly walking straight into my own personal Hell. He looked the part. Wore all black. Had a Town Car. Knew my name, when I was to arrive. Everything.
Smart girls knew better.
And I was a smart girl. Mama Kerri made sure all of her foster daughters got the appropriate education and graduated high school with good grades. I had a dream and worked toward making that dream a reality. She told us there was no mountain too high when it came to our lives and career goals. I believed her. Took everything she said as gospel and worked my ass off…literally.
I was one of the most coveted plus-size models in the industry. I had millions in the bank. But there was no amount of money in the world that could save me from the Backseat Strangler.
“Addison, honey, you’re scaring me!” Blessing’s voice broke me out of a cold sweat and catapulted me back to the present. I shook like a leaf where I stood under the unnaturally hot lights of the backdrop for the photoshoot.
“Where am I?” I trembled in her arms.
Blessing put her hands to the sides of my neck. They were cool and steady. I shivered in her arms. She placed her face directly in front of mine, her dark eyes fixated on me. I looked into those familiar, loving eyes like they were my talisman. The only connection I had to my safe place.