Blind Passion

by Bronwyn Stuart

Time for self-pity and recriminations later.

  He tried the doorknob but it was locked. Putting his hands against the door and giving it a few good hits, Brandan tried to determine if it was hollow or solid. He was a big enough man that he thought maybe he could just use brute strength. His head still hurt like the devil but adrenaline was starting to overtake the pain and nervousness.

  “Brandan, he has a knife. Get out of the apartment. RUN!”

  ~

  A sickening sense of disbelief lodged in Sophie’s gut as she sagged against the sliding door in what she hoped looked like resignation.

  “I do have some cash,” she told him in the best defeated voice she could muster. Brandan’s life depended on her keeping him busy for a few more minutes and her death depended on his not stopping her getting out the door.

  “No, you don’t,” Max replied, but paused to look back at her anyway.

  “I do, in my bag over there.” Sophie pointed to where she’d dropped her handbag just inside her room on the floor. It should give her the minute she needed.

  Max stepped backwards towards the door. He bent and picked up her purse just as the door gave a sickening crunch. Brandan must have thrown himself against it. The timbers strained but stayed intact.

  She unlocked the glass door with the hand behind her back and then threw it open but she stumbled as she crossed the threshold onto the balcony falling to her knees on the unforgiving concrete.

  She screamed again as she felt Max’s hands on her scalp ripping her up by the hair to stand on her feet.

  “You won’t get back in that way.” He pointed towards the other door with the knife. He’d pushed the table against the sliding door that led back into the common area, no matter how hard Brandan pushed on the door he wouldn’t be able to open it. It was wedged shut. How long had Max been there waiting for them?

  In the distance she heard sirens. Someone was coming to help but they were going to be too late. She looked to the door where Brandan was trying to get it open, not yet realising that it was stuck fast.

  She did notice he’d removed his bandages but from where she stood, she couldn’t tell what colour his eyes were, only that he was furious. Her own eyes filled with tears as she mouthed the words to him, knowing he’d be able to see her.

  I’m sorry.

  He shook his head and shouted something but she didn’t hear. She had a plan now. She was going to take them both over the edge of the balcony. It would end her life at her own hands and it would ensure Max wouldn’t go after him. No-one would survive the fall down to the concrete surrounding the garden.

  Brandan stepped away from the door, searched to find something to smash the glass with. The chair he picked up fell apart on the first impact without so much as cracking the glass. His gaze went to the steel writing desk that had the hotel information on it. With one sweep of his arm he cleared the surface and picked it up, hurling it at the door. The tempered glass shattered this time but stayed intact.

  “I thought he was blind?” Max said casually as they watched his futile efforts as time itself seemed to slow down. “How do you think he’ll feel knowing he was seconds too late to save you?”

  “How are you going to feel when he throws you over the edge?” Sophie taunted. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her cower. Never again.

  The end was so close she could taste it. It made her reckless knowing that no-matter what she did it would all be over in a matter of minutes.

  “You think he would do that for you?” Max moved his free arm around her stomach and then put the knife to her throat.

  The cold steel bit into her neck with a slight sting. Blood dripped down her chest. He was too strong for her. She would have to hope the police were close. It was now or never.

  “Do you want him to watch? Ironic that the first time he lays eyes on his whore it’s to watch her die.” He was laughing maniacally again, his vile breath hot against her cheek.

  Sophie took one last longing look at Brandan and then stomped down hard on Max’s foot, her elbow jabbed him in the stomach, forcing him to let go of her. She gave him a shove and then jumped up on the chair. She hesitated for the briefest of moments. To pray. Beg. Something.

  She shouldn’t have.

  Max’s hand gripped her ankle as he tried to pull her back but she lost her balance and fell over the edge. Instinct made her grab for the rail as her body hit hard against the outside wall of the hotel. She should have fallen.

  She let go with both hands, closing her eyes. She didn’t want to see the ground rushing towards her. But then two hands folded around hers holding her. She looked up expectantly, hoping to see Brandan but her eyes met the coldly calculating stare of her husband as he weighed up the option of dropping her or pulling her back up.

  “Just let me go.” It was the closest he’d get to begging from her.

  The sound of glass shattering above her gave her no hope at all. She shouldn’t have hesitated. She should have just jumped. Now she was dangling over the edge of the balcony, the cool breeze flapping her dress, her feet kicking out trying to make him drop her. Maybe she could unbalance him and they’d both plummet to the concrete.

  “You think I would let you get away with it that easily?” Max roared. “I want to feel the life drain out of you the way that you felt the life of our daughter leave you.”

  “Coward,” she yelled, goading him as he started to pull her back up. “Drop me.”

  Sophie kicked off the wall with her legs to try to make him lose his balance and go over with her but he was too strong. His anger was just too extreme.

  “No. I want to kill you with my bare hands. The knife would have been too quick.” He pulled her over the rough edge, Sophie cried out as the render bit into her skin, scraping her stomach and legs. She hit the tile hard, knocking the breath from her lungs.

  ~

  “Sophie!” Brandan roared with one last swing of the desk, this time the glass fell to the ground and with a keen sense of murder he advanced on Max like a predator moving in for the kill.

  Max picked up the knife from where he’d dropped it and pulled Sophie to her feet with the blade once again pressed to her already bleeding throat.

  “Let her go,” Brandan growled, staring the other man directly in the eyes.

  All he wanted to do was look at Sophie. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought she would be so stunning, so perfect, even with her hair in tangles, her make-up smudged around her eyes and blood trickling down her chest. He’d never imagined she would be so beautiful.

  He chanced a quick glance toward her. What he saw there awed him. She wasn’t hysterical, she didn’t even look scared. She looked apologetic. Like if she didn’t have a knife pressed to her windpipe she would have said sorry for getting him involved in this mess.

  “She is a murderer, did she tell you?” Max asked him.

  “Losing a child does not make her a murderer. It makes her a human being, like any other woman who couldn’t carry a child to full term.” He said the words more to Sophie, if she did die tonight he didn’t want her believing to her grave that she’d killed her child.

  Max made the sound of a buzzer going off. “Egh. Wrong. She is a murdering bitch who is living it up with one of the most eligible bachelors on the world. She’s not mourning. She doesn’t have it in her to feel remorse.”

  “Living it up? You think she’s happy? Every day she exists with the lies you made her believe. She tears herself up believing it was her fault when it was an accident. An unfortunate tragedy.” If he could keep him talking it would give the authorities time to get up the elevator to help to subdue the madman.

  “How comforting to know that it eats at you, my dear,” Max drawled in Sophie’s ear. “Do you wake from nightmares? Do you think about her every second of every day?”

  “Just let her go and we’ll get you the help you need.”

  “Help? Help with what? The only thing I need is for you to shut-up so I can get on with
it.” He pulled the knife away from her throat to wave it at Brandan but it was just what Sophie needed, once again stomping on his foot, the same one she’d stomped on before and drove herself back towards the edge of the balcony. She pushed herself off Max towards Brandan’s outstretched arms.

  He grabbed her by the wrists, held on tight. Behind her Max had hold of her waist still but at least he’d dropped the knife.

  “She’s mine,” Max shrieked. What sanity he had left snapped. It left him careless but still determined.

  Brandan pulled hard, trying to dislodge her tormentor. “She...is...mine.”

  Sophie was stuck in a literal tug of war. She gazed helplessly into Brandan’s eyes.

  “Just let me go,” she pleaded, the fight, the spark, gone from her shining blue eyes. “He will win.”

  “No...he...wont.” Brandan promised and with a final tug he dragged Sophie into his arms where they fell against the shattered glass leaving Max standing dangerously close to the edge of the railing.

  “No, no, no,” he was shrieking over and over, holding his head with his hands.

  Brandan stood up and shoved Sophie behind his back where the scumbag wouldn’t be able to get at her again. Where were those damned cops?

  “Sophie, I want you to go inside. Go now,” he told her.

  “No, I won’t leave you out here with him. You don’t know what he’s capable of.”

  “Go now,” he said through clenched teeth. He didn’t want to take his attention off Max for a second but he had to make her see. He turned to push her back through the doorway.

  “No,” she said, stubbornly standing firm.

  When he looked back Max was standing with his hands laced together in front of him like a school boy, his features had relaxed and gone was the evil gleam from his eyes. He looked determined and calm. Shit.

  “Don’t listen to him, Soph. I want you to stay and see what happens next,” Max said quietly but clearly.

  Before anyone could respond to his softly spoken threat Max came towards them and swung his clenched hands hard at Brandan’s head. Brandan shoved Sophie back and threw his arms up to defend himself but he was too slow. The blow threw him off centre and he staggered, falling to his knees. He saw Max grab for Sophie at the same time she tried to push him away. He dragged her to the edge of the balcony and then whispered something in her ear.

  It all seemed to happen in slow motion.

  As Brandan got to his feet he saw the blood drain from her already pale face, saw her hand stretch out to grab her ex-husband but he was already out of her reach as he stepped up on the chair and with a jaunty salute to Sophie, he locked eyes with her and leapt over the side of the building, plummeting to the ground below.

  ~

  Sophie leaned over the edge to see his broken body, his leg splayed out at an awkward angle, his arms outstretched, a pool of blood growing under his still form already reflecting the full light of the moon. She had to cover her mouth to keep from screaming.

  Dead. The word rolled around in her head with his final parting words to her.

  Now you’ll have the blood of two people on your hands. If you hadn’t killed our child we wouldn’t be here tonight. I hope you see me every time you close your eyes for the rest of your life.

  Sophie had no doubt that’s exactly what would happen.

  Brandan’s arms closed around her and with gentle pressure he turned her away from the gruesome sight. As he led her back into the suite the elevator doors opened and the armoured police stormed in.

  Too little, and way too late.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “She did not kill her child,” Brandan roared for the hundredth time.

  “Why would she tell us she did? As you left the room you even said, ‘you didn’t kill her’.”

  Sergeant Roger Dunning had been firing questions at him for the better part of three hours. They were in the lounge room of the suite. Sophie had been taken to hospital to see if she needed stitches and possible sedation after the day she’d had.

  Unfortunately, before becoming completely incoherent, Sophie had confessed to killing her husband and her child. At least she hadn’t been able to give details. Now the sergeant took it into his head that perhaps Brandan was an accomplice to murder and that they both needed to be locked up.

  “She had a mid-term miscarriage and blames herself for what happened.” Brandan had been trying to explain what Sophie had shared with him but the hard-headed cop wouldn’t hear it.

  “Were you in the picture at that time?” Sergeant Dunning asked.

  “No, I only met her on Monday.” He explained the details of his accident and how they’d met.

  “Okay, so, after meeting her for all of five seconds, she shared with you the most intimate details of her past? Did it ever occur to you that she was playing the sympathy card?”

  “Why would she do that?” Brandan didn’t like where this line of questioning was heading.

  “Come on, surely it occurred to you that she may have been after a sugar daddy? She’s obviously one hot young lady. How do you know she wasn’t making up some story to have you empathising with her so she could get into your bed, into your wallet?”

  “She’s not like that,” Brandan growled. His temper was going to get him into trouble.

  “You don’t know what she’s like. You just admitted to meeting her a few days ago. How do you know the dead man downstairs wasn’t in cahoots with her? You know, con-jobs after some quick cash?”

  Brandan surged from the couch his hands going to the sergeant’s collar as he threw him up against the wall. “She is not like that,” he repeated, his voice deadly. The four officers witnessing the questions jumped on his back, grabbed his arms and tried to get him to drop their superior.

  Brandan grunted as he received a blow to the ribs but still he didn’t ease his death-grip. He stared into the man’s eyes but instead of seeing defeat or fear he saw grudging admiration as Sergeant Dunning nodded his head.

  Rubbing his chest, the sergeant sat back on the couch and indicated the men could let Brandan go.

  “Tell me what happened tonight,” the sergeant said again.

  “I already told you, twice.” He was tired and he was worried about Sophie. He wondered when the interrogation would end. Surely if they really thought he had anything to do with Max’s death they would have dragged him to the police station by now.

  “I want you to tell me again. I want you to tell me everything. Don’t leave out any details, no matter how insignificant they may have seemed at the time.”

  “Up until I took my bandages off, I couldn’t see, so I won’t be much help to you there.”

  “Ok so start with when you stepped into the room. When you got out of the elevator.”

  “Do I need a lawyer?” Brandan asked.

  “I don’t know, do you?” The sergeant was baiting him again.

  “When we returned from dinner we came up and Sophie said the lights were off, actually no, she asked if I had turned them off because it was too dark for her to see. I told her to wait while I turned them on for her.”

  “Did you turn them off?”

  “No. I was blind. How the hell would I know if they were on or off?”

  “Go on.”

  “I turned them on but then I got knocked to the ground.”

  “By who?”

  “Max, who else, there was only three of us here.”

  “Perhaps Miss Wright followed you and then hit you?”

  “How would she have been able to see? It was dark!” Brandan asked.

  “Maybe the lights were on but she needed you to be further into the apartment where Max was supposedly waiting? Maybe it was actually her that hit you?”

  “No.”

  “But how do you know? You already said you couldn’t see anything. How do you know it wasn’t her?”

  “I would have felt her, smelled her perfume, I would have known if she was there. When she screamed, she was on the othe
r side of the room, not right behind me.” Brandan couldn’t explain that when she walked into the room he knew it was her. He could feel her moods, could smell the scent of her skin. He would have known if she’d been the one to almost knock him out. Wouldn’t he?

  “You didn’t know Max was there,” Sergeant Dunning pointed out.

  “I wasn’t expecting him,” Brandan said through clenched teeth.

  “All I’m saying is that maybe your remaining senses failed you in this circumstance. Let’s move on, what happened next?”

  “When I came too, I heard her screaming again and I thought he’d taken her out onto the balcony. I took off the bandage and went to find her.”

  “What was wrong with your eyes?” Brandan could see the unsaid question in the older man’s expression.

  “I was supposed to wait until tomorrow to have the bandages removed to see if my eyes had been damaged in the accident.”

  “If you thought you were endangering your sight, why wouldn’t you have called the police and then waited for help?”

  “Would you?” Brandan asked incredulously.

  “It wasn’t me, I asked you.”

  “No, I couldn’t listen to her screams and wait for help. I called for you guys and then went after her.” What man would be able to sit idly by while the woman he loved was in danger?

  “All right I got the next bit. How did you all end up on the balcony?”

  “I don’t know. I couldn’t get into the other room. When I saw them come out on the balcony I tried to get to her but the door was wedged shut.”

  “Okay.” The sergeant scribbled something on his notepad and then gestured for him to continue.

  Brandan swallowed, the next part of the story was so unbelievable he knew the sergeant didn’t believe him.

  “They struggled and Sophie went over the edge.”

  “So you said but why would Max pull her back up? If he was here to kill her why wouldn’t he just let her fall?”

  “That would be too easy. He probably wanted to do it himself.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s been telling Sophie for months that the death of their child was all her fault. That is why she believes that she murdered her baby, and he wanted revenge. You know, a life for a life.”