Facing the Music

Paige

I stood at the second-floor window overlooking the driveway and continued to gnaw at my fingernail like I had been since I hung up with Tom. I couldn’t stop thinking about the secret torture basement in the house I’d spent months in, how easy it would have been for Tom to turn into another bastard and put me right back where I was. Did he have anyone down there now? Had he, in the time I’d lived here? I might’ve yelled at him on the phone, but nearly alone in an empty house, the prospect scared me more than it pissed me off. How many bastards had lived under my floors without my knowledge?

The black van pulled through the gates, and I plastered myself to the window. Tom hopped out first and circled around to slide open the side door. My heart pounded. Stan and Carp stepped out with a shadowed man held between them. My stomach flipped, and I pressed a hand to my mouth. That was the man who was going to be tortured in my basement. I’d have to go about my day to day knowing he was