After she’s safely locked in my car, I move to the front door and unlock it. Pulling my gun out from my hip, I turn the lights on in the foyer, scanning the entrance for anything suspicious. I check the kitchen, the formal dining, the living room, and the rest of the downstairs area before heading up the stairs, making sure I turn lights on wherever I go.
When I’m happy that the rooms are all clear, and can breathe a sigh of relief, I head back down the stairs and out to my car where I see Elle staring out the window at me, a smile growing on her face.
She opens the door and hops out. “All okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry about that, but I just wanted to be careful. I don’t like that both tires went flat at the same time. Seems too coincidental, but it might just be a case of bad luck. Let’s get you inside.”
I lock the car and hold onto Elle’s hand, leading her back inside the house. I walk around the house, turning all the lights off again before turning towards our bedroom. Elle stops in front of the master bedroom door, putting her back against the door. I move in towards her, wedging my thigh between her legs as I twist my fingers in her hair and pull her head towards me, kissing her slowly, taking my time to nibble her bottom lip and trace her mouth with my tongue.
“I think I need to take you to bed, Mr. James,” she says, her voice low and full of seductive promise.
“I’m a foregone conclusion, darlin’. You can take me anywhere you please,” I say as I pull her aside and reach down, twisting the door handle and pushing the door open.
The last thing I remember before falling down to the ground is hearing Elle’s scream echo through the night as my vision goes dark and I’m knocked unconscious.
26
They say life can change in the blink of an eye.
Or, in this case, the push of a trigger.
One moment I’m huddling over Elle, preparing to take a bullet and die to protect her. The next I see my best friend bursting into the room and tackling the man we now know to be Silas. The man who has held us hostage for the past two hours, torturing us with his words, his memories, his intentions.
I came to about ten minutes after the f**ker knocks me out cold. My first thought as my head cleared was whether Elle was okay. I try to sit up, but can’t due to the rope tightly bound around my wrists connected to the headboard of the bed. Turning my head to my right, I come face to face with Elle’s wide, fear filled eyes, her cheeks wet from tears. She is also tied up.
Looking around the room, I soon see who has Elle so terrified. It’s the same blonde haired creeper who she confronted in the black Honda all those months ago. He f**king followed us down here.
“You’re going to f**king regret this, ass**le,” I spit out, my anger quickly rising.
“I see you’ve decided to join us in this trip down memory lane, Brax. You don’t know me, but you soon will. See, Elle and I have been getting to know each other. Well, she’s been getting to know me since I already know everything about her,” he replies, his voice high and excitable.
This f**ker is psychotic, f**k!
Elle sobs beside me and I instinctually try to comfort her, but all I succeed in doing is rubbing the rope tighter against me. “Mother f**ker! If you have done anything to her, you’ll not live to even breathe the same air!” I turn to Elle. “Babe, you just need to block him out, don’t listen.”
“Now, where were we? Oh yes, the night I decided to dedicate my life to finishing the job. The night when I killed not only your father, like I was paid so handsomely to do, but also ended the lives of your beautiful mother and little sister.”
Elle gasps again, and my body aches to cover her ears. She doesn’t need to hear any of this. I’ve read the police report on the murders. They weren’t just killed, they were tortured. Stuff so sick that you wonder how a human being can actually do such horrific things, especially to a little girl.
“You look angry, Brax. Did I say something to upset you?” he says calmly, his voice almost whiny as he moves about the room with his handgun waving around haphazardly.
“You’re upsetting her,” I say sternly.
Without warning, the man gets in my face, breathing heavily as he stares straight at me with his ice cold eyes. “I’m upsetting her? I’m not the ass**le that left her alone. She didn’t leave her apartment for days. I took my chance, tried to end her pain, but that idiot friend of yours knocked me out before I could end her suffering. She should’ve died that night!”
He is spitting the words in my face by the end of his rant. I can feel Elle’s body shaking violently beside me now.
He turns his back and walks around the bed again, leaning down towards Elle. I try and roll my legs over hers as if I have a chance of putting myself between them. “Get your mother f**king crazy hands away from her!” I yell.
“Temper, temper, Brax. Oh, yes. I forgot about my story. Let’s start from the beginning, shall we. Before we reach the end, together.”
Elle lets out a painful cry again. This will break her, even if we do get out of this alive. I need to do something, anything. I try to gently move my wrists again, but the rope digs in further with every twist, rubbing harshly against my skin.
“So, it started when a man approached me in a down and dirty bar in LA. Back then I was dealing drugs, crack mostly, feeding hookers’ and pimps’ habits all around Sunset. He said his name was Vic and that he needed to find a guy to do a job for him. The amount of cash he flashed around caught my eye so I-”
“Vic? Victor?” I snap at him. “Fucking Victor Bertorelli?”
“Ah, yes. That sounds like him. Lots of money, too much anger, huge axe to grind with Benjamin Halliwell.”
“Holy f**king shit! You’re a lying bastard! Vic would never order a hit on women and children!” I twist and turn. This ass**le is spouting venomous lies so vicious that he needs to be shut up for good.
“Oh my god,” Elle gasps, the truth stabbing her like a knife. “Victor wanted my family killed?”
“Oh no, no, no. Just your father. Your sister and mother...well, they were just for fun. My fun, my amusement. But when I saw your empty room, the one you were meant to be sleeping in that night, I knew that I couldn’t rest easy until you joined them. They’re waiting for you, Elle.”
Elle starts crying hysterically now. I can see her rocking on her side, and my heart breaks seeing what this vile man is doing to her. I’ve been in tough situations like this before. Ones that seem inevitable, impossible to come out of unscathed, but the moment when he lifts that cold, silver hand gun towards Elle as she cowers in the corner of our bed will forever be burned in my brain.