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The headlights of Charles’s truck filled the kitchen.

“Tommy, go upstairs,” Jimmy said.

Tommy didn’t argue and ran up the stairs. I remembered meeting Charles and Tommy first before Jimmy. It must be part of the tradition.

The girl’s screaming continued. I stood at the sink and through the bars of the window. Jimmy grabbed my hips and turned me around. He ran his hand up my neck and cupped the side of my face. I wrapped my arms around his waist.

“You know I love you, right?” he told me.

“Of course,” I said. My lips curled into a smile. “I love you.”

“I trust you. What you’re about to see may be hard, but I know you can handle it.”

Jimmy quickly kissed me before opening up the front door. Charles walked in with the girl over his shoulder. She had a pillowcase over head and her arms were bound together and so were her legs. Her screams were muffled as she tried to punch and kick Charles.

Jimmy pulled out a chair and Charles plopped her down into it. Jimmy kneeled down in front of her and untied her wrists before tying them back down onto the arms of the chair. He then untied her feet and tied them to the chair. She tried to fight him off, but Jimmy easily overpowered her.

Charles raised his arms up over his head and stretched out his muscles. He must have carried her around for a long time.

He reached out and pulled the pillowcase off of her head. Her long, blonde hair stuck to her wet face. Her entire face was heavily splattered with freckles. A piece of cloth was wrapped around her head, gagging her. Her piercing blue eyes were red and swollen. She continued to try to pull her wrists away, but she wasn’t going anywhere.

“What’s her name?” Jimmy asked.

“Carrie.”

Carrie started to scream even louder. She contorted her back as she tried to push herself off of the chair. Charles reached out to move a strand off of her cheek. Carrie leaned out of the way so that he couldn’t touch her. She kept screaming and I remembered the girl screaming at Noah’s house who Tommy stabbed in the legs. I wondered if he would ever do that to his girl.

“Carrie, honey,” Charles said. “You have two choices: either you keep screaming and get gagged all night or you be quiet and I take it off.”

I watched her knuckles go white as she gripped the chair. She took deep breaths in through her nose to stop her tears.

“Are you going to scream?” he asked.

She shook her head and Charles pulled the cloth down around her neck. She took in deep, ragged breaths. She opened her mouth to speak, but she started to cry even harder.

“What do you want from me?” she sobbed.

Charles pulled out another chair and sat down across from her. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.

“Honey,” Charles said. His lips had curled into a smile. “We just wanted to bring you home?”

“What?” She winced as she continued to struggle against the restraints. “No. Let me go.”

“We can’t.”

“Please.”

Carrie’s whines caused her to sob even more. Her face was bright red and the streams were streaming down her face. I felt Jimmy’s arms slip around my waist. He lowered his chin down so that it was resting on my shoulder.

“We can’t let you go, Carrie,” Charles told her. “Our family’s tradition is to get our son’s a wife when he turns twenty. Now you, Carrie. You’re my son Tommy’s.”

“You’re sick!” she screamed out.

Charles raised his hand and slapped her across the face. Carrie let out a sharp yelp. I could hear Hunter start to cry upstairs. I curled my fingers around Jimmy’s and tried to pry him off of me.

“No,” he whispered into my ear. “I’ll go get him.”

He kissed my cheek before letting go of me. I crossed my arms across my chest as I watched Jimmy walked away. I didn’t know if I should be watching Carrie and Charles.

“Be quiet,” Charles ordered her. “Show some respect. I know you may not like it now, but trust me. Soon you’ll see that we’re protecting you from the outside world.”

Charles raised his arm to gesture back to me. Carrie looked up at me and her eyes grew wide. I guessed that she hadn’t see me before. Jimmy came down the stairs with Hunter in his arms. He was screaming and I could see him throwing his arms around. He quickly shoved our baby into my arms.

“I couldn’t get him to stop crying,” Jimmy told me.

“It’s okay.” I began to bounce Hunter up and down in my arms. I cooed to him softly.

“Look at Julie,” Charles said. “She came here two years ago. She was just as scared as you, but look at her now.”

Hunter’s cries started to calm down. He was no longer crying and his face was no longer bright red. I glanced over at Carrie before looking back down at Hunter. I couldn’t stand to look at the fear on her face. I knew it would only get worse after she met Tommy.

“This isn’t real.” Carrie continued to sob. “This can’t be real. It isn’t real.”

“I’m exhausted.” Charles got up from his chair and looked at us. “Go get Tommy. It’s his job to sort her out.”

Charles looked over his shoulder to take one last look at Carrie. She was crumpled in her chair and Charles smirked. I wondered if he was proud to be able to take a girl without anything to sedate her. I tried my best not to think about it.

“I’m going to take a shower,” Jimmy said. He gave me a quick kiss and carefully took Hunter out of my arms. He leaned in towards me and whispered in my ear. “Make Carrie feel safe with you.”

He followed Charles up the stairs. I walk over to Carrie. I treated her like I was walking up to a timid deer in the forest. I have no clue why. It wasn’t like she could run anywhere. I could hear her still whispering to herself.

I got down on my knees in front of her. I looked at her raw wrists. The rope had torn through her soft flesh and blood was trickling down her arms. I delicately moved her hair away from her face and over her shoulder. She squeezed her eyes shut and a few more tears rolled down her cheeks. She turned her head to face me. Her cheek was resting against her knees. She only turned her head because she knew it had to be me. Charles and Jimmy couldn’t have been that soft.

“How could you?” she asked. Her voice crack and was hoarse from crying.

I opened up my mouth to speak, but the pounding down the stairs. I knew Tommy would want to be alone with his girl. The bile rose in the back of my throat when I thought about what he could do.

“Please untie me,” Carrie begged. “Please just let me go home.”

I leaned in and kissed her wet cheek. I saw Tommy walk in and I got up off of my knees. Tommy glared at me. I was expecting him to have a smirk. Hopefully, he abandoned his plan. I wanted to tell him to be nice to her, but I knew I couldn’t interfere.

I ran up to my room. Carrie’s begging became louder when Tommy walked into the kitchen. Jimmy was sitting on our bed without a shirt. He was running a towel through his hair. He grabbed my wrists and pulled me down onto his lap. I ran my fingers through his wet hair and down his back.

“I love you so much,” he told me.

“I love you too.”

I leaned in and kissed him. Carrie let out a loud scream and my nails curled into Jimmy’s back.

“Was I this bad?” I asked. I knew it was a risky question, but I couldn’t help myself.

He kissed the tip of my nose. “No.”

Carrie started to scream again. It woke up Hunter and he started screaming too. I picked him up out of the crib. Jimmy had moved himself so that his back was leaning up against the headboard. I leaned up against him. He slipped his arms around my waist as I tried to soothe Hunter.

“It’s going to be a long night,” he warned me.