John nodded slowly.
“Yeah, okay mom.” The words felt hollow as they left his mouth, but they made his mom smile, and that was all he cared about.
“I love you, sweetie,” said Natalie. “You should get going.”
John nodded and then walked out of the dressing room. He exchanged an awkward glance with the store’s cashier, and then quickly headed out the door and onto the street.
CHAPTER 38
It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was a brilliant orange orb, slowly setting over the horizon. John was walking back to the mansion when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket only to find that the number was one he didn’t recognize.
“Hello?”
“John, it’s me, Chad.” The bar owner’s voice was muffled on the other side of the line. “I think you should head over here as soon as you can.”
“Why? What’s going on?” John scratched his head and heard Chad sigh on his end.
“Your friend Kari is here,” he said. “She’s pretty upset, and won’t stop drinking.”
“Can’t you just stop serving her?” asked John.
“We’re trying, but she’s-“ A loud crash came from the other end of the line, and Amelia could be heard in the background telling someone to calm down. “John, just hurry.”
“Alright, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” John hung up the phone and swore under his breath. He knew that it was his fault. He was the one who’d hurt Kari while she had already been in such a vulnerable, emotional state. It was his mess to clean up.
It was just late enough for a couple of other people to be arriving at the bar at the same time that he was. John was a little surprised to see that nobody was outside checking IDs, but as he made his way inside, he instantly saw why.
“It’s none of your business!” yelled Kari. “And who said there was anything wrong?”
“Kari, we just want to help you.” Amelia was standing next to Kari, who was seated on one of the bar stools with an empty drink in her hand.
“I’m fine! I’ve always been fine, and nothing’s wrong now, so just pour me another drink!”
“Kari…” John spoke softly as he walked up to her and climbed onto the stool next to hers. “Hey…”
She turned and gave John a look that he had never seen on anybody before. There was so much anger and resentment in it that for a moment, John had to look away. He felt all of the guilt and shame over his actions, over Elsa, over his mom, and over his life, all come to the surface in a giant, aching clump.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” said Kari, practically spitting out the words. “Out of all the people that I want to see right now, you’re at the bottom of the list.”
“Amelia, can you pour me a drink?” asked John. “It doesn’t matter what, just something strong.”
Amelia nodded and moved behind the bar.
“Pour me one too while you’re back there!” yelled Kari. Amelia paused for a second and then looked over at John.
“Yeah, go ahead,” he said. He winked at Amelia as he spoke, and hoped that she would be coy enough to pick up on his meaning and not put any liquor in hers.
There was an awkward silence that was only alleviated by Amelia setting a drink down in front of John. He took a sip of it and tasted gin.
“Are you going to start explaining just why the hell you’re here, and not out fucking my sister?” Kari took her own drink from Amelia’s hand, spilling a bit of it, and then took a big sip of it.
“Kari…” John paused and felt the impossible nature of the task that lay before him. “I know how this is going to sound, but it’s not what you think.”
“John, what I thought was that you cared about me.” Kari’s voice was wracked with emotion, and she slammed one of her hands down on the bar counter. “I thought you wanted to be with me. I thought… you liked me.”
She was on the verge of breaking down in tears. John glanced around the bar and saw that half the room was watching the scene play out. He didn’t care. The only thing on his mind was setting things right.
“Kari, your sister is not who you think she is.” John spoke in a quiet voice, in a voice that only she could hear. “Are you listening to me? Do you get what I’m saying? Elsa is not at all who you think she is!”
“And apparently, neither are you,” said Kari. She took a large swig of her drink and then coughed.
“I can’t explain what’s going on to you yet,” said John. “For your safety, and for the safety of the people I care about, I can’t say a damn word. But Kari, I want you to know, to believe me when I say that it’s not what it looks like. I could never pick her over you, not in a million years.”
Kari did look as though she had heard him, at least a little. She watched John’s face for several seconds, looking for any sign of trickery or lies, and then stared into the cup in front of her. She sniffled once and then began to cry, the tears flowing more freely by the second.
“Hey, hey, hold on!” John rubbed her shoulder and looked around again. There were several women giving him harsh looks from across the room, clearly assuming that he had said something to break her heart.
“John…” cried Kari. “I want to go home.”
John nodded and then waved Amelia over.
“Can you put her expenses on my tab, Amelia?” he asked. “I don’t want her to remember any of this in the morning.”
“Sure. Anything else?”
John nodded.
“Sell me a bottle of gin for the road, under the table.”
Amelia started to object, but John cut her off.
“It’s not for her, it’s for me,” he said. “I get the feeling that tonight is going to be a very long night.”
A minute later, John was outside the bar, with Kari holding one of his hands and a bottle of gin in the other. It was dark outside and neither of them said anything for the first minute of the walk.
“How is this happening, John?” asked Kari. “It doesn’t make any sense. You… don’t make any sense.”
“I can’t give you any answers, not yet,” said John in a soft voice. “But it all comes down to your sister, and her feelings. The two of you are a lot alike, in that respect.”
Kari was drunk almost to the point of collapse and leaned heavily against John’s shoulder as they walked. He was angry with himself and frustrated at his own ineptitude. It was because of his carelessness and mistakes that Kari was in her current state. John opened the bottle of gin and took a long swig from it, knowing that it was as futile of a fix as any he had available.
It didn’t take them long to get to the van Katho Mansion. John walked Kari up the driveway, all the way to the front door, and then stopped.
“Kari,” he said. “You should go-“
She pushed herself against him, sloppily connecting her luscious lips into his. The kiss felt more emotional than any that the two had shared before, and John couldn’t help but give himself over to it, feeling her tongue push into his mouth with clumsy enthusiasm.
“We shouldn’t,” said John. “Kari, you’re drunk.”
For the second time that day, John felt a hand slap across his face. Kari’s aim was affected by her tipsiness, and it was no more than a glancing blow, but his heart still ached at the intensity behind it.
“That’s just it then, John?” Kari was yelling at him, her words striking him as solidly as the slap. “You sell me on your mysterious story, and then bring me home?”
John didn’t say anything. There was a soft boom from the night sky, and rain began to fall in gentle drops, tickling his hair with wetness and making the air smell of humidity.
“Fuck you, John!” screamed Kari. “I have nothing. My life is a mess, and somehow, it all seems to lead back to you.”
“Kari, please…” John took a step towards her, but she jerked back. The rain began to fall faster, and all he could think about was how justified she was in her anger. She was right.
“I wish you had never c
ome to this island,” said Kari. “I wish I had never met you.”
She turned and ran up the steps to the door of her house. John watched her go, letting the rain soak his clothes as though he was paying a penance for his mistakes. He took one last sip from the bottle of gin and then hurled it into the trees to the side of the mansion, listening to it crash down through the branches and wishing that it would shatter.
CHAPTER 39
The rain only picked up as John made the journey back to the Ludling Estate. He was already soaked to the bone by the time he’d made it down Kari’s driveway and entered the town. He feared for the safety of his phone, and pulled it out of his pocket to make sure that it didn’t get drenched.
John noticed that there was a new text message waiting for him, which he must have missed while walking Kari back from the bar. He switched the screen on and felt his heart skip a beat as he read the short message, which had been sent from a number he didn’t recognize.
It’s over John. You had your chance to play nice, and instead, you double-crossed me. It’s time for you to learn your lesson.
“Damn it!” John swore outloud and fought the urge to spike his phone into the cement. He didn’t have time to be angry. Instead, he broke into a sprint, headed back to the mansion as fast as his legs would carry him.
The steep driveway leading up to the estate was slick with rain and he slipped and landed hard on one of his knees. A bruise and a rough scrape, but it wasn’t enough to give him pause. John pushed forward, panting and dripping wet, as thunder and lightning cracked into existence behind him.
He threw the front doors of the mansion open with more strength then he’d known that he had. The sight that greeted him was not pretty. Lying in the center of the lobby, surrounded by blood, was Sam.
John hurried over to the loyal bodyguard and knelt down beside her. Even before he had confirmed that she was no longer breathing, John could tell from her pale face and lifeless eyes that it was too late. Her gun was still secure in its holster, and it looked as though the bullet had entered her from behind.
“Sam…” John whispered. “I’m sorry.”
He didn’t have time to mourn for the dead. John climbed to his feet and pushed further into the mansion, heading up the stairs up to the second floor. Olivia was the next one that he found and try as he might, John couldn’t keep his emotions from climbing into his chest, and causing a lump to form in his throat.
“No!” he cried. “No, no, no!”
He ran over to her, expecting to find a mirror image of the scene below, and have to relive it in its sickening intensity. Instead, Olivia coughed, and opened her eyes.
“John…” She forced a terribly weak looking smile at him, and then shifted her hand from her leg. John could see blood dripping out from a wound underneath it.
“Just hang on!” He bent down next to her and put his hand on top of hers.
“I’ll be okay, John,” whispered Olivia. “Just go. Hurry.”
The sound of the rain from outside was loud enough to verge on drowning out everything else. John shook his head and squeezed her hand, unable to hide the worry and fear that had taken control of his face.
“Olivia, I can’t,” he said. “You need help. We have to get you to a doctor.”
“I know, John.” Olivia reached her hand up and touched his face.
“Then let’s go! I’ll bring the car-“
“That’s not what I mean.” Olivia coughed again, and then met his eyes. “I’ve known since the two of you first got here. About you and your mom.”
John didn’t know what to say in return. He was feeling a bewildering mix of emotions, but the one that was predominant in his heart was love, tinged with worry. He didn’t carry any more about anything other than keeping the people he cared about safe, regardless of what it meant for him and his secrets.
“It’s okay, John,” whispered Olivia. “It’s weird, but that’s just how some things are.”
“Please Olivia, just hang on.” John felt tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes, and tried to blink them back, to hide them from his beloved maid, the young woman who had done so much for him, and cared so deeply.
“I am hanging on, John,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”
All John could do was sigh, and squeeze her hand.
“My mom,” he said. “Where is-“
She lifted her hand and pointed down towards the first floor.
“Elsa took her outside, that’s all I know.” Olivia stroked his face again, much more tenderly this time. “John, I’m so sorry. There’s so much that I should have told you, so much I needed to tell you.”
“Don’t be!” John gritted his teeth together and pushed air through them, and then quickly ripped off his soaking wet dress shirt. He took both sleeves of it and tied them around Olivia’s leg, making a makeshift bandage that held tight against her wound.
“You’re not going to die, Olivia.” He stared into her eyes as he spoke the words, enunciating every syllable. “Nobody else that I love is going to die tonight.”
“You have to go, John.”
He waited with her for the briefest of seconds more, and then stood up and rushed back down the stairs. Angry, shirtless, and determined, John ran off into the rainy night, a streak of lightning illuminating the sky just as he stepped out onto the front lawn.
He knew where Elsa would have gone without even needing to give it a moment’s thought. The cliffs that she’d pointed out to him were only a couple of minutes away by foot, and John went to them in a dead sprint.
It was the dead of night, and visibility was terrible. Another flash against the black gave John a single frame of an image. Elsa was standing right at the edge of the cliff, with only jagged rocks, water, and nothingness behind her. She had one hand on Natalie’s shoulder, and the other held a gun.
“You took so long, John.” Elsa had to shout to be heard over the rain and the crashing waves, fueled by the storm. “I was beginning to wonder if you were even going to show.”
Another flash let John see a little more. His mom was wearing black leggings and a sleeveless white blouse, which the rain had turned almost sheer against her skin, letting her big breasts poke out against the fabric, unhindered by a bra. Elsa noticed him looking and began to laugh.
“It must have been so easy, for her to seduce you and trap you like that.” Elsa waved the gun around in the air, and John took an uneasy step towards her.
“Easy, Elsa,” he said. “I’m just here to talk.”
“You’re a horny, red-blooded teenager,” said Elsa. “And she’s… well, just look at her.”
“Elsa, she’s my mom! Just let her walk over to me, you don’t have to hurt her!”
“It was the same for me and my dad, you know. I was just a stupid, insecure teenage girl, and he was there. Erik van Katho. Rich, handsome, and so incredibly strong.”
“Elsa, listen to me!” John held up his hands and took another step forward. “We can still come back from this!”
Elsa smiled and tightened her grip on the pistol. She slowly turned her arm until it was pointed at Natalie, who swallowed hard and looked at her son with desperate eyes.
“Can we?” Elsa furrowed her brow and smiled. “Can either of us, at this point? After what I’ve done? After what my father did? After what you and her have been up to?”
She pointed the gun at John, and then at his mom, and then back and forth again. All of the emotions John had been suppressing over the past couple of days were coming to a violent, sickening head. There was guilt, shame, and embarrassment, but above all, he felt love.
“I didn’t do anything wrong!” John yelled with all of the force his voice could muster, the sound of his words temporarily making the storm fade into the background. “She didn’t do anything wrong!”
Elsa shook her head.
“She still has you so fooled, it’s pathetic, John.”
“She loves me.” John took several more steps forward an
d saw Elsa flinch back slightly, surprised by his sudden movements. “And I love her!”
John made his move in a single, swift motion. He threw himself into Elsa, colliding with her before she had a chance to do anything with the pistol. His momentum carried the two of them back, over the cliff edge, and into the emptiness.
Time felt like it had been slowed to a crawl. John could faintly here his mom screaming his name in the background. His face was right up against Elsa’s, and their eyes met even as they began to fall through the air and towards the rocks.
It was the first time that John had ever seen sorrow in Elsa’s eyes. He could see the whole story now, even without hearing the words that went with it. She had been right, on one level, in that the two of them had been in such similar situations. Trapped by their own desires, and the terrible confusion and angst that went with them.
And that was where the similarities ended. They’d both made different choices, and were different people. As they continued to fall, John felt Elsa’s lips pushing up against his, one last time. He kissed her back, and then, like a closing curtain, the water pulled both of them into it.
CHAPTER 40
The hospital room was beginning to feel more like a prison than a sanctuary to John. He had already been in it for a week, and though he’d only been awake for the last three days of it, the time had passed at a snail’s pace.
“Be patient, young man,” said the nurse, an older, plump looking woman. “You’ll be able to leave as soon as we can find a wheelchair to bring around for you.”
“Can’t I just walk? I broke my arm, not my leg.” John’s comment was met with a reproachful look from his mother, and a smile from Olivia, who was in a wheelchair of her own. She had been recovering from that night, just the same as him, slowly regaining the use of her injured leg from where the bullet had torn through the muscle.
Illicit Inheritance: The Complete Collection (Taboo Erotica) Page 28
