I awoke to a pin-prick in my arm and my eyes flew open. I wasn’t in the babies’ nursery, nor my bedroom I shared with Rafe. The walls that surrounded me were dark from the lack of sunlight–or any kind of light–and bore no wall hangings, yet I could make out were some had hung before, as if they had been removed. Several sheets blocked all of the windows, effectively blocking all light as well. No lamps, save one upturned on the floor, seemed to be in the room either. The door had multiple locks and chains attached to the hard, thick wood, and a chair was propped under the knob as well. It seemed as if whoever this room belonged to, they liked their privacy. And they wouldn’t appreciate any shape or form of disruption.

I wiggled my body on what I could now feel as an overly cheap box spring bed. Something pricked on the inside of my left arm again and I shifted my eyes down towards it. A needle poked out of my pale skin, with a makeshift tube connecting it to a bag of murky liquid. My gaze followed my arm down to see the wrist in a white zip-tie that wrapped around the tall leg of the nightstand. I suddenly became aware of the snug fit of identical zip-ties on my opposite wrist and ankles. I expected my heart rate to peak, my breathing to hitch as my brain panicked, but it didn’t. My heart and breathing remained slow and calm–more than calm…sleepy, almost. It only caused my conscience to panic even more.

I attempted sitting up, but as I struggled, a shadow moved out of the corner of my mind and my eyes snapped up to see Keith approaching my bed that was bare of any sheets, his lips twisted into a sick, menacing grin.

“Stay aware from me,” I warned, fearing the safety of my unborn children, but my voice came out slurred and unfamiliar. I knew what he was capable of. I’d been the victim for so many years, I could never wish that upon my babies–not in a million years. Keith’s drunken laugh met my ears and I frowned at the memories it shot through my mind.

“Or what, Ella? You’ll…” he paused, trying to get the words out as he stumbled closer, “Kill me? Looks like you’ve got yourself in a little… pickle?” Keith’s rugged hand brushed up against my cheek in a caress. “I remember how much you love pickles. Was it really months ago when you begged me to go to the market and by you chocolate and pickles because you and the baby just craved them so much?” His hand traveled from my cheek and rubbed over my expanded abdomen, touching the only barrier I possessed between him and the twins. I flinched away.

“I never said that.” I snapped. “I haven’t spoken to you since we broke up and I moved away, Keith.” The man’s evil-tainted. content smile quickly morphed into a snarl.

“We never broke up, Ella. I let you have your space when you drove here to see your old friend.” He moved closer. “Now it’s time for us to go home.” I moved my head to the side as he tried to pet my face again.

“No, Keith. This is my home now. With Rafe and Val–”

“No!” He yelled, his fist crashing down on the bed just inches away from my face. “I’m your home! Where ever I am is where you belong!” At the fear in my eyes, Keith’s face softened slightly. “It’ll be just you, me, and Kenny.”

“Kenny?” I questioned. Keith nodded.

“You, me, and my son, Kenny. We can all fit in my apartment,” He insisted but my heart stopped at his words, despite whichever drug he was feeding into my system.

“There you go again Keith.” I snapped. “This is one of the many, many reasons why I left. You think everything of mine is your’s–”

“What are you trying to get at, Ella?” He put emphasis on the nickname he’d given me years ago.

“He’s not your son, Keith!” I yelled, and I instantly felt another prick in my arm as the bag injected more drugs into my bloodstream, slowing my heart rate immediately. My eyes drooped and Keith smirked.

“Of course he is, Ella. I’ve already picked out a name and everything. You’ll see when we get home, I’ve even laid out a blanket in the living room where Kenny can sleep and play and whatever the hell kids do.”

“I’ll never go back,” I said, my voice coming out slurred again, but even more so, I felt suddenly exhausted, mentally and physically.

“Oh, but I think you will,” Keith said, sounding completely sober now as he strolled to the foot of the bed with his hands held behind his back.

“I won’t,” I whispered as my eyes fell closed on their own account, opened slowly, and then repeated the process again, “Rafe won’t let you.” Keith chuckled in front of me.

“Rafaello? You mean that sorry excuse of a businessman that’s been holding you captive all these months?” He questioned. “No, you see Ella, I think he will. After all these months of watching you from afar and plotting, I’d finally come up with everything I needed to rescue you from the foul man. After I broke into his mammoth of a house, and got you out all safe and sound, I made sure to escort Mr. Geovani to his room and tied him up in bed. The only thing that tickled my conscience was the fact that the room was doused in your smell. Tell me, love, is that where he kept you? Tied to a bed like a madman? Touching you as you prayed that he’d stop? He kept you in that room, away from home all this time, and wouldn’t let me near you? Near our family?” Keith’s crooning voice seemed to surround my ears which only made me cringe back. Was he serious?

“That is exactly what you’re doing to me! Don’t you see? I belong with Rafaello. He’s my husband and the father to my child–” I stopped short. Keith believed there was only one baby, and for the safety of my children, I might as well keep him believing it. “I love him. Not you.” I finished. This man was psychotically attached to me and I didn’t want him to be anymore. He needed to move on. Accept the fact that it has been almost two years since I left his sorry ass, and almost two years that I’ve been happy. Heck, I had a husband that I hated at first, two wonderful babies I hadn’t planned in the slightest, and a good best friend.

“Oh, you do now?” Keith hissed. I nodded bravely. As a felt the needle move in my arm once again, I felt a slight pain in my stomach. No, I thought with suddenly great fear mounting, the babies.

“Let me go, Keith. I can help you get better.” I tried to reason, trying to change tactics. The longer he held me here, the longer I was tied up to the drugs, who knew what long term or even short term damage it could cause to my children?

“I don’t need to get better, Ella. All I need is you to come with me.”

“I can’t Keith. That’s not my home anymore. It never was.” Keith’s haunted and hollow eyes glared at me as he grimaced again at my words.

“You don’t understand, Ella. You’re not hearing me correctly. You have to come home. I can take you to a therapist if you want me to.” I threw my head back against the bare mattress in frustration.

“I am hearing you clearly, Keith. You’re not listening to me. I’m not the one who needs hel–”

“Shut up! God, Ella, you are so annoying and persistent. You think you’re always right. It always has to be about you. This is why we fought all the time.” His sudden snap of patience startled me. Reminding me of how quickly he could turn angry.

“We didn’t fight, Keith. We argued and you hit me because you always have to be right. It’s always about you, Keith!” Again, at my shouts and yells, I was injected with more liquid, and this time, Keith came around and squeezed the bag. No.

“Time to go home, you little bitch.”

Chapter Twelve

-Rafe-

“Mr. Geovani?” A young police officer poked his head in our bedroom door and I turned to face the rookie. “We’ve found them.”

Oh, thank God. The relief flowed out of me as I raced down the stairs and into the foyer were the rest of the team of police officers and detectives before we all evacuated to the squad cars and SUVS.

“I can’t let you go,” The head officer said with a hand out, palm up at my chest. “it’s too dangerous. We’ll be in and out of there with your wife, and we’ll meet you at the station if the situation does not call for medical assistance.” I shook my head and walked straight past the chief, my jaw set and shoulders tense.

“Not to disrespect you or anything, Chief, but my pregnant wife is somewhere out there with her psychotic, alcoholic, and who knows what else, ex she left two years ago. I’ll be the first face she sees if something horrible hasn’t happened already.”

Racing down the freeway, sirens blaring, I ran my hands through my hair over and over, afraid he’d be crazy enough to actually try something on my wife. “Vengo, bambino, I’m coming.”

________________

The black SUVs and squads cars I was traveling with pulled dangerously into the parking lot of an old, run down motel. Men flooded from the vehicles, guns raised, bodies shielded. Just as I was searching the darkened windows, my gaze locked on pair of wide, bloodshot eyes peaking through one before letting, what I believed to be a bed sheet, cover the glass again. An officer ordered me to stay in my car.

“This is the police. Come out with your hands where we can see them or we will be forced to open fire.” The chief’s voice rang out loud and strong, but I doubted Keith would give up that easily. Everyone waited. Slow, helpless seconds crawled by like long, dreadful minutes. The chief’s hand raised, as if to keep the firearms set and ready as he began to warn Keith again, but just as quickly, the blanket was removed from the window again, giving the outside world a glimpse into the darkened room, before a red object came crashing through the pane of glass, landing at the edge of the parking lot, just feet away from where the men were stationed. It looked just like the object that had been thrown through the nursery, which I’d assumed was a brick, but the investigators had discovered it as a gas bomb. Something clicked in my head and before I could open the driver’s door of my car and warn the chief, the red object exploded in a sudden burst of flames.

“Get down!”

“He’s on the move!”

“Open fire! Take him down!”

Men yelled all around me as I jumped from my car and rushed towards the motel, my only concern was getting Areila out.

“Sir, you need to stay back,” Everything moved in a blur, every man was just another obstacle hindering me to get to my wife.

“Sir! I’m asking you to stay back for your own safety,”

“My wife is over there with a madman and my unborn children. Now move out of my way.”

“Mr. Geovani!” The voice of the chief called, “Get down!”

________________

I’d been shot. Just in the shoulder, though. It was no big deal. But now the doctors were finally giving me what I wanted. What I’ve needed for the last few days she’d been gone.

My wife.

I stepped into her room, approached her bed and took her warm hand in mine. I studied her brown, shoulder length hair. Her matching, thin eyebrows. Thick, black eyelashes with blue irises hiding beneath her closed lids. My eyes traced the soft curve of her pert nose, her red lips, her cheekbones and jaw line. My gaze traveled further, past her long, thin neck and shoulders, just under the plump curve of her breasts that were full from her pregnancy, was the large rounded top of her stomach. I placed a hand there too and whispered, “It’ll be okay, babies. Daddy’s got you. He’s gonna make sure you and mommy never get hurt again.” As I rubbed my thumb over her large belly, I felt her hand squeeze mine. I looked up to meet Areila’s beautiful blue eyes.

“How come I always wake up to you holding my hand in a hospital room?” She asked, her voice whisper soft.

“Maybe because you’re constantly getting yourself into trouble,” I tried to joke.

“So what did the doctor say I got into this time?” She queried with her eyes half-mast. I shook my head and shrugged.

“I haven’t been awake for much—I got out of surgery this morning.”

“What? Why were you in surgery?” Ari’s eyes bugged and I squeezed her hand gently, reassuringly.

“I was shot when everything went under fire. But I’m fine, Tesoro. All that matters is that you’re okay.”

“But—” She tried to argue, but I interrupted her.

“All that matters is that you and the babies are okay.” I broght her hand up to my lips and kissed her palm. “That’s all that matters to me, mi ilo amore.”

She relaxed back into her pillow, but her eyes were still alert. Before I could assure her again that I was fine, a nurse entered the room. “Oh, I’m sorry,” She apologized promptly, although she continued on pushing a cart into the small area. She was older and looked overly stern. “I need to give Mrs. Geovani her medication, and it will make her drowsy, so I must ask you to return to the waiting area. Visiting hours are over at 10 o’clock.” Before I could protest, the old bat shooed me out of the room.

As the door closed behind me, I saw two doctors, male and female, discussing with each other in quiet tones as they fiddled with charts and tools on another cart that sat outside Areila’s room. But as I walked down the hall, my ears caught parts of their conversation.

“If she can’t make it through the night… emergency surgery…the infants..”

But, they were talking about some other pregnant woman, of course. There were other pregnant women on this floor, and possibly with a medical condition that might prohibit them surviving through the night, right?