Caged

Chapter 8

"All right, it's time to wake up!"

Cage groaned and blinked his eyes open. The man stood near his feet. The chain rattled when he rubbed his eyes. He stared at it for a moment before he remembered why it was there. His gaze snapped back to the man.

Shade murmured sleepily and snuggled closer to him.

Cage's memory pulled forth a name to go with the face of the man standing there staring down at him. "Why ... why in the hell would you do this to me?" His voice seemed to fail him for a moment as he tried to come up with an explanation. Nothing popped into his head. "How could you do this? Does my mother know you've done this?"

He chuckled. "No, of course not. She is the reason that I'm doing all of this, you fool!" He turned away pulled a remote control from his pocket and turned on the banks of monitors.

Cage stared at the screens. They showed a press conference instead of the inside of the towers. His mother stood behind a podium with tears running down her face as she begged for his safe return. Next to her stood the man who had stolen her son away, his arm around her shoulders, and false tears flowed down his face. He pretended to be overwrought with grief as he held her tenderly.

He had never known that his stepfather was such a fabulous actor. "You fucking bastard."

His stepfather wagged a finger in the air. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, language, my boy." He shut down the monitors. "I love your mother and you are in the way. Without you around we can truly be together. Why can't you see that and understand it? You're a nuisance. Don't be selfish. Don't you wish for your mother to be happy?"

Cage scowled at him. "What I can see is that you're sick in the head!"

He shoved his hands into his pockets. "I've been planning this from almost the moment I met your mother and discovered she had you. She loves me and your death is a small price to pay for that love."

He stared at his stepfather in disbelief. "I thought ... believed ..." He couldn't find the words to explain how he felt.

"What was that, boy?" He laughed when Cage continued to stare at him. "Did you think I cared about you and wanted to be your daddy?" He snorted. "That was the point, kid. If I made you believe then she believed. From the moment I met her, I knew I loved her and we were meant to be together. Putting up with your shit was a small price to pay until I could find the means to rid myself of you. It took a bit longer than I wished it to but now I can finally do it and your mother and I can move forward."

"Seven years, asshole!" Cage shouted.

He shrugged. "What exactly is your point?"

"I've called you dad for the past seven years and it was what to you? A big fucking joke?"

"Hell no, it was a nightmare for me. I hate you, you little shit. It took everything I had inside of me not to simply snap your neck and be done with it. I knew I couldn't do that, nothing could lead back to me, she can never know that it was I who killed you."

Cage laughed. "You arrogant prick, you'll be caught. People like you want to believe you're smarter than everyone else but they'll figure it out and you'll be caught, you smug son of a bitch."

His stepfather stared at him steadily for several seconds before he turned and settled himself into the chair that sat before the monitors. "I can see you truly believe that." He grinned. "Do you remember about a year or so ago that news story that ran about the homeless man that was killed over on 7th Avenue?"

Cage stared in shock. "That was you?" The bastard had done a test run to be certain he couldn't be caught.

He shook his head and chuckled. "No, of course not, I did say that the two of you were the beginning."

"Then what is it that you're rambling about?"

"The point is, the killer was never caught, boy. You see, it isn't simply about planning things out or intelligence, kid. It's about randomness."

Shade frowned. "Randomness?"

He grinned and sat back in his chair. "Yes, indeed. Random acts of violence. I can assume that the two of you haven't remembered how you were taken, are you?"

Shade's face scrunched as she tried to bring forth the memory. "No."

Cage shook his head. "Me either."

"You were out to dinner. A nice date, dinner, and a movie. It was a shame you ended up with a flat tire between the restaurant and the theater. The police are surmising that Cage pulled to the side of the down, perhaps flagged down a passing car to ask for help, except it would appear he flagged down the wrong sort of person. Because you two just vanished." He smirked. "And that is exactly how I planned it. Rather ingenious, you have to admit."

"Asshole," Cage muttered.

"That's your opinion, boy. The point of this little explanation is to show you that the abduction appeared to be a random event. It was a chance meeting on the side of the road. A simple opportunity that the abductor couldn't pass up. Dark road, no witnesses, and you likely weren't expected home for several hours. Perfect setup. The cops aren't looking into anyone close to either of you. They're out there searching for some stranger who happened upon you and took you. I won't be caught."

"Someone will figure it out and you'll be caught." Cage grinned at him. "Either that or I will find a way to get free and kill you myself."

"Boy, there is no way out of here, I've made certain of that. Face the facts, I've won. You and the girl will die in the end. Now, sit there and be quiet."

"Kiss my ass, you bastard."

"You always did have a mouth on you. It would have been ideal if your daddy had taken you with him when he took off but the loser saddled your mother with your sorry ass."

Cage glared at him. The father he spoke of was indeed a loser. An alcoholic who chose booze over him and his mother. He had no clue where the man was or if he even still occupied space on this planet. The man hadn't cared about them. He'd simply wandered out the door heading for the bar one night and never returned. The only constant in his life had been his mother. Until she met Ethan when Cage was ten, that is.

She'd been cautious about making any kind of commitment, about having her son call any man dad again. She didn't want a revolving door of men walking through his life. When Ethan stepped into their lives, she fell for him immediately. And truth be told, Cage was taken in as well. He had liked the guy right away and wanted to call him dad. Now ... he felt the weight of disappointment and despair over how things were turning out.

What was worse than the crushing disappointment, wasn't the fact that he had called this man father or even that Ethan wanted him dead, it was the fact that his mother may never know the truth of what took place. She could spend the rest of her life living in the same house as the killer who took her son from her and never realize it.

She could live out the rest of her days, loving the man who murdered her son.