Devil In The Elevator: A Hartman Romance

by Laura Christopher

  "I paid someone to kill you because you're an embarrassment to the Hartman name, that you don't even deserve."

  "How dare you" Jacks voice was almost animalistic.

  "Jack, my boy, don't you worry." Nicolas paled slightly. Forgetting that his favorite son was even in the room with us.

  "You disgust me", pure hatred dripped from every word that left Noah’s mouth.

  "You're an embarrassment” standing up slowly he did not take his eyes off of Noah "I should have had you dealt with when I found out who your real father was"

  Real father?

  Turning to Noah, I could see the blood drain from his face in an instant. Nicolas Hartman, wasn't his father?

  Is that why he did what he had done? Why Jack was the golden child?

  Everything that Noah had ever told me fell into place.

  "That's all you've ever done, your whole life, you have gone out of your way to be an embarrassment. Just like that mother of yours. It was such a shame that you had not been in that car, you were meant to be, wasn’t he Michael?”

  As the words left his mouth, we all froze. Jack, who was still on the other side of the room with a gun still aimed at Michael, who wisely was keeping his lizard like mouth shut.

  What the hell did he just say?

  Jack was the first to speak, "What does that mean, that you, oh my god, you had Mom killed?"

  Noah took a stumbled step backward as his brother confirmed the words that we were all thinking. Shock filled him and for a moment, I was worried that he was about to fall over from it.

  Coming to a stop slightly behind me Noah pulled the gun out of my grasp, holding onto it tightly before pulling me behind him. Moving in sync without the need for words and knowing that he was trying to shield me from the man before us. All I wanted to do was hurt Nicolas Hartman in any way I could. How dare he say those things about Noah? If it weren't for him, I would not have survived what we had endured.

  He had killed his wife, the mother of his children killed. How could he do something like that?

  "You better speak old man, explain what the fuck you just said"

  Nicolas didn't say a word, he just sneered at Noah as Jack turned red as the anger was building inside of him. If this had been a cartoon, steam would be coming out of his ears and nose.

  "How many people?" Noah's voice became a shout when he didn't get an answer. "How many people have you paid someone to kill for you? A hundred, two hundred?"

  This darker, more sinister laugh echoed through the apartment. Jack just stood stunned beside the front door; the gun dropped down to his side now.

  "You don't get to be a powerful CEO without a little blood being spilled, Noah, and you don't become one of the most powerful men by embarrassing yourself. You may have that trust fund and shares in Hartman Inc. because of your mother but you will never be worthy of it”

  "You're a murderer."

  "And what are you going to do about it? Shoot me? I will outlive you one way or another, son, you" he turned his attention to me. "If you” as his eyes bored into mine, I could feel myself filling with anger and fear combined “hadn't gotten yourself involved, none of this would be happening right now it would have been over before it even started.” We all knew what he meant; Noah would have lost his life almost instantly if I had not have been in that elevator with him on that fateful day.

  "How dare you!” Feeling myself about to storm forwards I grabbed a handful of Noah’s t-shirts to stop myself “You are the worse man I have ever met, no actually you aren't a man, you’re a sad pathetic excuse of a man who can't take rejection. So, you remove the people who challenge you, who disagree with you and the ones who have ideas that you don't." My voice was far stronger than it should have been.

  "You should have been dead the second you left in that van, if she hadn't of been with you, Noah, that's what I paid them for and then dump your body somewhere else, in the middle of the fucking desert for all I cared, you have never been able to do anything right."

  Noah dropped my gun he had been holding down onto the coffee table in the middle of the room as a smile broke out on his face.

  Confusion filled me and as Jack moved at the same exact moment that the front door to the apartment flew open, panic flowed through my veins.

  What was going on?

  For a split second, I thought that it was more hired men coming to hurt Noah and I. Focusing my eyes on who they actually were I gasped, realizing I was seeing cops. Lots and lots of cops, with guns all aimed at Nicolas Hartman. His face paled dramatically but still held pure hatred, all aimed at Noah.

  What had Noah done?

  "I hope orange is your color, father." Noah voice shook slightly as he watched handcuffs slapped on both Nicolas and Michaels's wrists.

  Cops then surrounded me and before I knew what was happening, we were all being pulled out of the apartment, into separate cars. My voice became horse as I shouted for Noah, but my eyes couldn't find him. Fear crippled me at the realization that this was over.

  Would I ever see him again?

  The man I had accidentally fallen entirely and hopelessly in love with?

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Valentina

  My brain felt like it had been put through a rinse cycle in a washing machine, one too many times. I had answered the same questions over and over again. Each time a different officer would come into the room, and I would have to go through everything all over again.

  All I wanted to do was see my parents, Eduardo and Allie, but more than anything, I just wanted to make sure that Noah was okay.

  Was he here too?

  In a room like this one, furnished to look like a front room, minus the television?

  Was he being asked the same questions as I was?

  The only thing that I was sure of was that the cops had turned up because Noah had made a deal. That is what he had been up to. My gut feeling had been right, I knew he was being sneaky and up to something.

  A scream sounded from just on the other side of the door to the room I was in. If I was not mistaken, that sounded an awful lot like Allie.

  Was she really here?

  What about my parents and Eduardo?

  The thought of seeing them, being able to actually touch them, had my eyes filling with tears. Blurring my vision as they waited to fall from my tired eyes.

  "There are some people here who are very excited to see you. They have been here a lot the last few weeks," laughing a little at that, my eyes zoned in on the door. A door that my family were on the other side of, and after not seeing them for so long, I felt sick with nerves and excitement.

  Standing up to shake the officer’s hand with a smile. They had all shown me so much kindness since bringing me to the station. Even if they did keep asking me the same questions, over and over again. They had a job to do at the end of the day and right now that was putting away the man who had made my life a living nightmare over the last few weeks. I would answer any amount of questions they needed me to in order for that to happen.

  As the brown door finally creaked open, I saw the officer all but jump out of the way as I was knocked down back onto the sofa I had just stood from as Allie's tall body collided with mine.

  "Oh my god, it's really you. I thought you were dead…" bursting into tears, unable to finish the sentence, I just wrapped my arms around her. My own tears began to fall at the realization that they were really here and not knowing what to do or say, so I just held her as three other people entered the room. The officer sensing the need for privacy, left us, closing the door with a click. My eyes spied Corey's red hair out in the corridor as it closed.

  Suddenly I found myself at the bottom of a human pile as my parents and brother bundled on top of Allie and me, contentment filled me but not all of the ways.

  Only one person was missing. Noah. If he was here, I would be fully content. Even thinking about him made my heart clench. I needed to see him now.

  The reunion with my loved
ones hadn't been what I had thought it would. Back when we had first been taken, I thought all I needed was to be in their arms, have them here right now like this, but my heart was cracking, and it had nothing to do with them.

  Don't get me wrong I was happy to be with them, relieved even. But something was off, and I knew exactly what that was.

  Diablo, where are you?

  How was he coping with the news about his mom being murdered by his father? Well, he wasn't his father, who was? Even I was having trouble getting my head around the news and I had, unfortunately, never even met the woman who brought him into the world.

  "Come on, time to get you home." My mom held my face in both of her hands. Noting her appearance for the first time I realized just how tired she looked with deep, dark circles under her eyes. In fact, all of them looked physically drained. They had spent that last few weeks, months thinking the worst about what had happened to me. Waiting for that phone call, that knock on the door to tell them what they had feared the most. That I was dead.

  They needed me to be with them now. They needed to relax now that I was home, safe and sound. Well, as much as you can be when you have been kidnapped and on the run all over the country.

  Standing up, holding onto my Mom the entire time, "Where's Noah?" I couldn't help the words spilling out my mouth.

  My Mom's face paled, and she just looked over at my Dad as her hands dropped away from my face.

  "What?" Had something happened to him?

  "Darling, I think we should go home and talk, a lot has happened, and I just want to get you home" What did she mean by that?

  I was talked out. That is all I had done for the last several hours.

  Unwilling to cause them any more distress, I dropped the topic, but as we left the station, my eyes scoured for his tall frame and mess of dark hair.

  Disappointment filled me as we got into Dad's car.

  Where is he?

  

  "Seriously Dad, you need to tell her. I have trouble eating this food on Sundays, and now I'm getting it all day and night, I'm going to get ill." maybe I could order takeout and have them pass it through one of the windows when she was in the backyard?

  "Just let her have this, Valentina." My Dad said all while smiling at me like he had a secret and was not going to share.

  "How have you survived this food for all of these years?" Squinting at him in suspicion, I waited for him to answer me.

  A glint sprang into his eyes, "Taco Bell, and if you ever so much as think about telling your mother about it, I will tell her that the mushroom pasta dish is your favorite."

  "You wouldn't?" I gasped in shock.

  "Try me, kid, try me."

  "Sneaky old man, I can see where Eduardo and I get it from." We were both his kids without a doubt, but my stubborn personality and wicked sarcasm were all from mom.

  "Dads the word," he laughed, tapping the end of his nose as mom came back into the front room. A sad look on her face as she took in my uneaten half plate of food. I wonder if dad would take me to Taco Bell when she was having a nap?

  

  "It has been two weeks," crossing my arms over my body, I was becoming frustrated.

  Two weeks of not seeing Noah.

  Two weeks of bad dreams.

  Two weeks of being with my parents twenty-four seven.

  I was losing my god damn mind, and if I had to eat anymore of moms cooking, I was not going to be responsible for my actions.

  How I had coped for eighteen years before college must have been some kind of miracle.

  Maybe she was getting worse.

  I wonder, if I ordered her some cooking books from Amazon, how would she take it?

  "You need more time," was all my brother said before slamming the front door shut in my face as he went to work at our store. Apparently, I was on house arrest, as if I had been a criminal. I mean, I guess technically I had commandeered a few cars and shot a man, but... yeah, there was nothing else to add to it.

  I was lucky the cops hadn't slapped some charges on me for what we had done to escape our kidnappers. Imagine what they would do if they found out that we had killed two of them, probably. I mean, they had not found them yet, and there had been nothing online about any bodies being found in the woods. For all we knew, they could be on the run themselves. The cops had warrants out for both of them, after all. Karma sometimes worked in magical and mysterious ways. Although I would feel much safer if they did find them and get them into custody, finally.

  I think that was one of the reasons my family was so overprotective that they were still out there. Being aware of what they had been through with me being gone, I tried my best not to make it any worse for them, but I needed some breathing room. Soon, or I was about to lose my shit.

  Stomping up to my childhood bedroom like a, well like a child, I slammed the bedroom door. I was fed up with everything these days. Every time I looked in the mirror, I didn't even recognize myself with the brown hair that had faded to something between a rust color and green Thai curry, when it come out the other end, at that.

  Voices floated up the stairs as I did yet another failed attempt as trying to find Noah online. Big fat failure every time. All I found were news articles about the collapse of Hartman Inc. and a couple of blurred photographs of him coming in and out of the offices. Squinting my eyes at one I could make out his brother’s massive form in the background of one of them.

  My bedroom door flew open making me jump upright onto the edge of my bed, reaching for something I could use as a weapon, ready to react to whoever it was. Always on high alert since coming home, especially without Diablo besides me. Only to realize it was a tall, leggy blond who was holding several bags in her hands.

  "Shit, sorry," she cringed, closing the door behind her "I come with gifts," Allie smiled at me as I laid back against the headboard on my childhood, single bed.

  "I'm listening." Crossing my arms over my chest, in anticipation of what she had brought me.

  Waving a box of hair color remover, my eyes widened, "What else have you got in there?" Trying to see through the plastic bags, all I could make out were rectangle shapes but nothing else.

  "Maybe some bleach… maybe a selection of bright and pastel colors".

  "Fuck off!" The excitement began to fill me. "You're going to help me do my hair?"

  "That's what I thought, Val, time to get you back".

  "Mom is going to kill us if we stain her tiles."

  "She'll get over it," my best friend smiled at me.

  "Now I'm thinking pink or purple, what about you?"

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Noah

  The detective glared at me, but there was this glint in his eyes that told me he was happy, proud even.

  "I gotta admit kid, I thought you were full of shit," standing up from the metal table, the kind that you see on all of the cop shows, an interrogation table, "but you got a full-blown confession out of him, and we have been able to pull a lot of evidence from a variety of hidden hard drives and cellphones we've found."

  "Where is he?" Color me curious.

  "In a cell, he will be lucky if he sees the outside of jail before he leaves this world" did that mean he was here, In this very building?

  Smiling slightly at this, I couldn't help but drop my head down into my hands. He may be an awful excuse of a father, but he did, at moments, bring me up even if I was not technically even his son. A little guilt was only natural, right?

  "And Michael?" My instinct of not liking for trusting my father's right-hand man had been spot on, who knew?

  "Sang like a little scared bird," shaking his head as he rounded the table, coming to a stop beside me, he added, "The judge is going to have a field day when this goes to court, several times, I'm sure."

  "Now what?" So much had happened in such a small amount of time. We had spent so long on the run, how was I meant to go back to normal, as though none of this had happened?

  "Now, you get to
go and live your life. I mean, there is a media circus out there trying to get every grain of information that they can. You might want to think about getting out of town for a bit, until the court cases start" knowing that I would be dragged into them filled me with a little more regret than relief but knowing that he would be punished for what he had done. Not only to me but all of the other people who had been killed, had lost parents and loved ones.