Let Me Go Read online

  *****

  “Yo, Mason, you coming over or what?” Benny asked over the phone.

  “Nope, working today.”

  “So then what’s bothering you now?” That’s why they got along so well, Benny knew this version of Mason better than his old friends.

  “I think I might actually believe she doesn’t remember what the fuck she did.”

  “Who? Kitty Kat? Shit, boy, if I had her in my house prancing around in that little outfit I told you to get, I’d sure wish I believed she didn’t remember fucking up my life as well. In fact, I’d wish I didn’t remember either. But seriously, what’s eating you?”

  “Every opportunity she has, she drills it into me that it wasn’t her and as much as I know it was, I see it in her eyes that she really believes that herself.”

  “So what does that mean?”

  “I don’t know. I mean, there have been cases where constant drug use alters your memory or even perception of reality. Maybe she really doesn’t remember that she accused me of raping her.”

  “Let’s say she doesn’t. Then what? That doesn’t change what she did, right?”

  “No, but it sure as hell makes it harder for me to hate her now. And she’s cleaned up. She’s actually a pleasant person now, even a little feisty.”

  “I bet she’s good in bed,” Benny snorted.

  “Damn, Benny, be serious for a sec.”

  “I am being serious.” And Mason knew he probably was. “All right, Mason, how about we get the guys together. We’ll come over and I’ll feel her out. You know I can tell in about two seconds flat if a bitch is lying. But let’s say you are right and she doesn’t remember anything. Then what? You let her go?”

  “No,” he replied firmly. “Her memory doesn’t change the past. She deserves to be punished. I…crap, I don’t know why it matters. But shit, it just does. I want to know if she remembers.”

  “All right, this weekend then.”

  “Yeah.”

  And really, why it mattered whether she remembered or not shouldn’t be of any consequence to Mason, but it was. And he had no clue why. He was glad he had Benny. This weekend he would find out whether she was telling the truth.

  Chapter 11

  Kat and Mason kept up their cat and mouse game the rest of the week. She cleaned and cleaned some more and rearranged and organized every part of his house more times than she could count. He never acknowledged her work, but at least he never told her to redo anything…at least not yet.

  Friday night rolled around and no break. Saturday rolled around, and although Mason was home more than the rest of the week, he still avoided her. When he came home from one of his outings, she realized he had gone grocery shopping. She kept up her pleasantries and asserted her innocence and even stood up to him a few times, but it always ended the same. He would get in her face, talk back, and in the end, never believed her.

  Sunday morning came and he finally spoke first. “My buddies are coming over to watch the game.” Which game didn’t matter to her, but something about seeing more people than Mason’s angry face got her insides a little tingly. He must have noticed it on her face because he proceed to explain, “They all know about our little arrangement, so don’t even bother trying to get any of them to bust you out of here. They will laugh in your face. I expect you to be on your best behavior, and of course, you will serve us. Finish cleaning and then prepare for my friends. Put out chips, dip, beer, the works. Whatever you think a bunch of guys would like. I trust you are competent enough to figure that out.” He was goading her. He may not know her well enough, but he knew she wasn’t incompetent. Ugh! And she still hadn’t learned anything else about him.

  A few hours later, three guys came over. He didn’t bother introducing them to her; they all seemed to know who she was, and they all leered at her. And yes, she was still wearing the damn French maid getup. It had stopped bothering her around Mason, but now with three guys staring at her barely covered body, she wanted to run and hide. She had always been so shy and now she was on display for three guys that looked kind of like thugs.

  “My, my, I didn’t realize how fine you are,” said the guy she later learned was known as Chain. He turned toward Mason and slapped him on the back. “Lucky bastard.” That was all he really said to her all day.

  A guy named John simply nodded at her, but she noticed every so often that his eyes watched her pretty closely.

  Lastly, she found out the third guy was Benny. He was actually pretty nice. However when he greeted her, it appeared as if he already knew her, but she didn’t know how. He also seemed to be the ring leader, and he looked the most cleaned up of the three. He seemed to be the closest with Mason. She stood for most of the day, fetching the guys’ cold beer, and watching them throw food at each other. She made them lunch, served them, and just listened to them interact, most of which was making fun of each other or yelling at the television. Turns out they were watching hockey. She wasn’t much of a sports fan, but yeah, she liked hockey. Oh, who was she kidding, she loved hockey. Her kidnapper just had to go and put on her favorite sport. Damn him! She secretly watched the game, enjoying it so much that if she hadn’t known better, she would think she was watching just a couple of regular guys hanging out. It reminded her of her college years in the dorms. The guys were rowdy, but they had a blast. If she could just check out from the reality of her situation, she would actually enjoy watching these guys have fun. And for a brief moment, she did just that. She pretended she was back in the library, watching four cute guys messing around while she observed from the corner and drooled, lost in a book, but peeking over the cover every so often. Yep, definitely a memory from college. Damn, she had barely been reading since she got here. She missed her romance novel heroes. Too bad one couldn’t save her now. Of course, she thought Mr. Green Eyes was saving her in her dreams too, so clearly she was a bad judge of heroes. She turned back to the television, still lost in her thoughts, when her team scored. “GOAL!” she yelled before she could stop herself, sliding into a little happy dance. The guys all turned, staring at her like she had grown horns. “Oops,” she responded shyly, “beer anyone?” She caught a smirk on Benny’s face, but it was the slight twinkle in Mason’s eye that held her for a moment. Yeah, that’s right, she thought, I am a real person, with feelings and hobbies and all that good stuff. Now if only Mason could see that about her. If only…

  And then her bladder woke her out of her reveries. She wasn’t sure what to do, she never asked Mason for permission to use the restroom before. She didn’t know if he would get mad since he had company over. She decided that she would just tell him and not ask.

  “Bathroom,” she simply called out and no one responded. Having to question whether to ask to go to the bathroom. If Mason’s whole revenge scheme was to humiliate her, well, she felt he was doing a damn fine job of it.

  When she walked out of the restroom, she walked right into a hard wall. The guy, she figured out was Benny, was waiting for her. She jumped back. Oh, hell no! She didn’t live for over a week with Mason, the kidnapper who hadn’t violated her, to be taken advantage of by one of his asshole friends.

  “Hey, Kitty Kat, don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything to you. Well, unless you want me to.” He smiled. And although she was a little weary, part of her believed him. It could have also been because he held his hands up with his palms facing outward toward her in surrender and backed up a step. She studied him. He had dark brown hair and even darker eyes. He was tan, like being a little darker was natural for him, with a boatload of tattoos. She also noticed he had a dimple and his smile reached his eyes. He wasn’t hot by any means, but he was attractive and the confidence rolling off of him was enough to make her think he got quite a bit of women to drop their panties for him. Although she knew she should be wary of the good-looking guys, she believed he wouldn’t hurt her.

  “You’re Benny, right?”

  “Yep, did Mason tell you or did you overhear?”

>   “I figured it out. What can I do for you? Were you waiting for the restroom?”

  “Nope, Kitty Kat, I was waiting for you.”

  “Kitty Kat?” She finally noticed the name he had called her, twice now.

  “Suits you.” She had been called that before, and always hated it, but it didn’t sound all that bad coming from Benny. Besides, she highly doubted it would do her any good to say anything. He seemed like the kind of guy that wasn’t good at following directions.

  “What do you need from me?” she asked hesitantly, taking another step back.

  He lowered his voice a bit even though he didn’t need to since the television was on full blast. “My man Mason, he’s a good guy. Didn’t deserve the dish he was served. But sometimes, shit happens to good people.”

  “Yeah, I know how that feels,” she responded. And she really did. Not that her life had been that great, it hadn’t, so she had always been in a perpetual state of disappointment. But shit, she was being held hostage for something she didn’t do.

  “What you know about that?” Benny asked.

  “Well.” She tried to choose her words carefully. “I know Mason spent five years in prison for something he didn’t do. I mean, technically, he could have done it, but I really believe he was wrongfully accused. I know he believes I’m behind that, but I don’t even know why he was in jail in the first place. I’ve asked him and asked him and he won’t answer. Will you tell me?”

  “Not my story to tell.” She figured he wouldn’t answer her questions, but it was worth a try.

  So she continued. “Look, his life getting turned upside down is a tragedy, and whoever did this to him deserves to be punished, but that person isn’t me. And whoever they are should be brought to justice legally. But here I am, serving my own time for a crime I didn’t commit. But he won’t believe me. And I have a feeling you won’t either. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll figure out a way to either get out of here or make you guys realize I had nothing to do with anything that happened to him. God, doesn’t he get that I actually feel sorry that he had to go through any shit? And yeah, I hate him for doing this to me. I don’t deserve this. But I’m not heartless. I get that someone messed him up pretty badly and they should suffer the consequences, so I get why he snapped and went through all this. I don’t blame him, but I sure as hell blame him for getting me involved. I’m trapped here and I have no reason to be. So yeah, Benny, I get that shit happens to good people. I get it real well. Now if you’ll excuse me, I better get back before Mason gets mad and finds another way to break my damn back.”

  She tried to push past Benny, but he grabbed her. “You know, Kat, I may not believe you, but I like you. You got a little fire in you. And I’ll tell you this; I believe the person you are now wouldn’t have hurt Mason before.”

  She knew he wouldn’t believe her. He was Mason’s friend and he was okay with what Mason had done to her, so obviously he believed whatever Mason believed. But she didn’t expect him to say that. She nodded and went back to the kitchen. That conversation shook her up. Maybe the way to get to Mason was through Benny. Maybe she could get him to believe her. After all, it was the damn truth.

  *****

  John and Chain left, leaving a much buzzed Mason and Benny telling stories to each other. They barely paid attention to Kat as she cleaned up the mess they had all made. She was so used to cleaning now that it was second nature. After she was done, Mason dismissed her to her room. She liked the reprieve, and knew it was probably courtesy of the alcohol, but she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. She grabbed a book from Mason’s office and walked to her room. She was about to close the door when she heard her name.

  “So, you talk to Kat?” Mason asked Benny.

  She stopped the door before it fully closed, leaving it cracked open.

  “Yeah, had a chance to talk privately when she used the bathroom.”

  “And?”

  “And what man? She’s a fiery little thing.”

  That kind of made her smile. She didn’t know Benny, but she knew coming from him that was a compliment.

  “Good God Benny, forget your dick for a moment and tell me what you think. She remember accusing me of rape or not?”

  And there it was. Kat’s jaw hit the ground and her brain checked out. She didn’t hear anything else Mason or Benny talked about. After a minute or two, she closed the door softly so they wouldn’t know she had eavesdropped and walked over to sit on her bed. She put the book down and hugged her knees to her chest. Rape? Oh dear God! Sure, she was scared of Mason’s horrible mood swings and his undeniable anger and hate, but he hadn’t physically hurt her, and he had plenty of opportunities to rape her. No, his idea of revenge was humiliating her, using her for free manual labor, and a little door prize. But she had a hard time believing he would ever rape someone, that she was pretty damn sure of. It was yet another missing piece of the puzzle; that was why he was behind bars. She still couldn’t figure out what the hell that had to do with her. Hopefully he didn’t think that she had accused him of rape. She rocked back and forth, the tears threatening to fall. She tried to think of a time when she may have been raped and maybe her mind was blocking the memory. But she didn’t even live here over a year ago. She couldn’t remember ever visiting or seeing him before. She began to doubt herself, and everything she believed for what seemed like forever before the logical part of her mind finally broke through. No! She knew that she wasn’t raped. If someone had been lucid enough to go to trial against Mason, and according to him, that would have been her then she wouldn’t have blocked out huge chunks of her life. Besides, her first impression of Mason was right – he wouldn’t rape anyone and she actually believed that. Oh the irony, he was put in jail for a rape he didn’t commit and she was pretty damn sure he was raped, violated, whatever you want to call it while he was in prison. She really had to stop feeling bad for him. It was doing her no good.

  But one part still made absolutely no freaking sense. She still didn’t know what any of this had to do with her. She didn’t accuse him of rape; she didn’t put him in jail. She didn’t even know him at the time. So then why did he believe it was her?

  *****

  “Good God, Benny, forget your dick for a moment and tell me what you think. She remember accusing me of rape or not?” Mason asked Benny after Kat had gone to her room.

  “You know, man, I can’t get a read on that one. There is something off about her, like she didn’t do it in the first place. But we both know that ain’t the truth. So really, I have no fucking clue.”

  “Damn, Benny, you were supposed to know.”

  “Give me more time. I’ll come over more often and hang out with her. Maybe I can get a better feel for her. Shit, maybe she’ll think I’m her friend or something and she’ll confide in me. Then we’ll know what the hell is going on in her head.”

  “Yeah…yeah, I like that idea. You are going to start coming here then, it’s settled. You got keys and you’re set up on the system. You can stop by whenever you want, whether I’m home or not. Get under her damn skin like she’s gotten under mine.”

  Chapter 12

  Kat couldn’t believe she had been imprisoned for over two months. But more importantly, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t gotten through to Mason yet or figured out how to get away.

  The past two months had been practically the same as her first week there. She woke up early and did more household chores than she could count. Mason found new ways for her to wash various parts of the house. His friends started coming over more often, and at least after they had left, she had a reason to clean. Man, those guys were pigs.

  She had tried breaking into his office desk on several occasions, but apparently, she would have made a shitty thief. Aside from somehow smashing his desk, which most definitely outweighed her by a ton, she wasn’t getting in.

  She still hadn’t been outside, and being cooped up was making her stir crazy. The only thing she found comforting was Be
nny. He had started coming around after their first meeting, sometimes when all the guys hung out, sometimes when Mason was there, and sometimes, he just hung out with her. She learned that Benny and Mason became friends in jail when Mason had been in some kind of situation in which Benny helped him out. He had hinted that he met Mason once before, but that it was a coincidence. She pressed him about Mason and who he was in his past life on many occasions, but Benny always said it wasn’t his story to tell. She did, however, from little things Benny and even Mason said, figure out that Mason was some kind of handyman with no set schedule. That explained why he was sometimes home when others would normally be working.

  She also found out that Benny was a cross between a gang member and a mobster. It was like he was a high-class thug. Not that she wanted to associate herself with criminals, but she had actually grown quite fond of Benny. He was surprisingly a nice and funny guy. And she actually looked forward to the times they were able to talk.

  The one thing Benny never got tired of reminding her was that Mason was a good guy. Sure, a guy holding a girl against her will as a slave was definitely a great guy. The sad part was that she actually believed Benny, to some extent. Mason hadn’t physically harmed her. He wasn’t nice by any means, but he wasn’t really all that mean either. They barely spoke. They had their usual little spats, where he would go off on her, and then she’d give it right back to him and escape to her room. Other than taking her life away from her, you know, such a little thing, she didn’t really have an opinion of him. Well, she hated him for what he did to her, but if he hadn’t, she probably would take him under her wing and try to fix him. She blamed it on her education. It also didn’t hurt that he was good eye candy, brooding and all.