Dark Truths: Kiss Her Goodbye #2

by Royce, Rebecca

  I nodded. Yes, all of that had happened. It had been a few minutes of hell followed by days and days of pain. “What would you have had me do that I didn’t?”

  “Not get hit in the face.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Thank you, that’s so helpful, Derrick. Not get hit in the face. Awesome.”

  “Well, you asked. This is a knife.”

  I almost said something sarcastic again, but that wouldn’t have been helpful given that I wanted him to keep going. I could absolutely screw things up by saying the wrong thing and then I’d have learned nothing. What would be the point of having a semi-psychotic pseudo-boyfriend if I didn’t learn everything I could from him? Well, besides the amazing sex and longing looks that made my knees weak.

  I shook my head. Not the time, Everly.

  “Bare skin is powerless to a knife attack.” He touched the edge of it. “Simple weapon. Silent, too. There’s no exact way to hold a knife. No proper way. Oh, some teachers might disagree, but basically get your hand on the handle and hold tight. Take it.”

  He passed the knife to me. It was the biggest knife I’d ever seen, not one I’d use in the kitchen, even in a butcher knife capacity. This one had clearly been made to be used as a weapon. Or maybe for some kind of outdoorsy activities.

  “It’s huge.”

  Derrick nodded. “Yes, it is. Now, listen, you may not have one of these available to you. You might have a kitchen knife. For now, I want you to have a forward grip technique. There are vulnerabilities to it. It certainly leaves the hand open to get knocked around, which could get you hurt. But again, my interest is not so much to train you to be a great fighter as a blunt weapon that comes, ends, handles minor interference, and gets the fuck home.”

  I held the knife out in front of me. “Like that?”

  “Yes. Exactly.” Try lunging it forward. “I’m backing up.”

  I did it a few times, trying to picture doing this to someone instead of just the air. I pictured Ben and maybe I did it too well. My ears rang. I lunged and lunged. Yes, if this had been real, I’d not have had trouble sticking this right in his gut.

  I wasn’t sure how long I did that for, but eventually Derrick called my attention. “It’s getting late. Sun’s going down. Let’s go to the house. I ordered pizza.”

  He had? When had he done that?

  I looked down. My hand shook. I held it out toward Derrick. “Maybe you should take that.”

  “Sure.” He took it from me before squeezing my now empty but still shaking hand. “You handled that knife really well. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about fire.”

  “Have you burned someone?”

  We walked together to the house. A light breeze hit me from behind. Had that been blowing? I hadn’t noticed.

  He still hadn’t answered about the burning, and I didn’t push it. Maybe the answer was obvious. If he wanted me to know how to wield fire he had likely done that himself. If Derrick thought that was useless, we’d not do it.

  “You saved the day today.”

  I did? He held open the door and walked inside. “How did I do that? Certainly not with my knife skills. I didn’t kill the air around me, that’s for sure.”

  He sat down on the couch. “You remembered that thing that Ben said. I repeated it to the others. And Warden figured it out. Right girl. Wrong reason. What does that mean? What are other things, other ways that your father could be hiding them from us? I actually went to your home in Baton Rouge to make sure you weren’t being held there.”

  I laughed. “Why would they hold me there?”

  “Who would look there? It took me a week to come up with that. I was desperate. Anyway, nowhere to hide anywhere there. I took apart part of your basement. Your father was… unimpressed. He’s a real piece of shit, your dad. That knife technique would work just fine on him. He wouldn’t even get out of the way.”

  I sighed. “So… what did you determine? Sorry, that went a lot of places, a lot of them really hard for me. I don’t know if I could kill my dad.”

  “You could if you had to but yeah that would be complicated. I didn’t kill my dad.”

  I went to the bar and poured myself a whiskey. I had no idea if it was good or not. I just knew it would get the job done. “How did your dad die?”

  “With a thousand dollars of cocaine up his nose and two prostitutes fucking him at the same time. Just the way he wanted to live.”

  I looked over my shoulder. “Should I say I’m sorry?”

  “No. I hated him; he hated me. I’ll kill your father for you, Everly. Just ask me to.”

  I wasn’t ready to do that. I might never be. “Did you figure it out? What he meant?”

  “Warden did. Your father is filing tax returns for people who don’t exist. He’s basically made up identities for those fuckers, and is hiding their money in plain sight. Anyway, we found Josh. He’s coming here tomorrow.”

  My mouth went dry. “For what?”

  “Well, Warden sent his guys. They got him. And they’re bringing him here.”

  I sat down on the couch, nearly losing my footing. “Warden’s guys couldn’t just take him out.”

  I wanted the current Alliance leadership out. I wanted him dead. Why were they transporting him around when he might be able to get away? This was like in those action movies when the bad guy set up unreasonable traps the hero could easily get out of. If you wanted someone dead, you fucking killed them.

  “They could have, easily. Or Warden could have. He is lethal. No, I asked them to bring him here. He’ll be here in the morning, and you’re going to watch me kill him.”

  The doorbell rang, and I jumped so high in the air I practically fell off the couch. If Derrick noticed, and I was sure he did, he didn’t comment. He rose from his own seat, answered the door, and brought inside the pizza.

  “I didn’t know what you like on your pizza so I got half plain, half pepperoni and mushrooms. Do either of those work for you?”

  I know that people had strong opinions on their pizza, some of my dorm mates in my early years in college were really upset on the subject. Order the wrong pizza and it was the end of the world. For me pizza was kind of like sex, even when it was bad it was pretty good. Of course, having had sex with The Letters I did know the difference now.

  “That all sounds fine.”

  “Great.” He grinned, a pretty toothy smile for him. “Come on. Don’t be freaked. You’re going to watch me kill him. It’ll be helpful to you.”

  If he said so.

  * * *

  The night was long and even quick sex with Derrick couldn’t put me out for the evening. The ear plugs blocked Derrick’s snoring, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to get any sleep. I wasn’t frightened. That would have been the wrong description. Did I have some anxiety? Sure, I did. But it was also something else… the truth was I was excited.

  I covered my eyes with my arm. How fucked up was I?

  I grabbed my phone. Derrick didn’t budge. He was a hard sleeper. Once he was out, he really didn’t move.

  I sat up, and he rolled over.

  Quickly, I typed out some messages.

  The first one I sent was to Warden.

  Thank you for making that happen with my money. I’m speechless and floored and completely overwhelmed. Not sure thank you is enough.

  I chewed on my lip. What to send to the others?

  The next one was to Kade.

  Just wanted to say hi. I know you’re probably passed out on your keyboard. Go to bed.

  Trace’s seemed easy after that.

  I dyed my hair. I put some red in it. How’s it going with Jim-Bob?

  The last one I obsessed over. The phone vibrated, but I didn’t see which one of them had answered. Not until I’d had a chance to send something to Judson. If he totally ignored it, that was my answer.

  I spent part of last night thinking about being tied up by you. I googled it. And… I have to say that some of the ways those women are posed do not look comforta
ble. Is that what you want to do to me? Also, if you’re just done with me, I can go away and leave you alone. I’m not going to… make myself unwanted.

  Warden had answered. You’re welcome, gorgeous. It was the least I could do considering you were locked in a basement. Doing okay? Don’t let Derrick get blood everywhere tomorrow with Josh.

  I hadn’t even asked Derrick where he planned to murder Josh. Was there going to be blood… everywhere? Did he have a process for getting bloodstains out of the furniture?

  I’m doing okay. Still having nightmares, but Derrick keeps feeding me, and I had my hair done. Trying to figure out how to be what I need to be, and it’s not as hard as I thought. And then suddenly it is.

  The phone dinged and this time it was from Trace. He fucking sucks. Don’t love Derrick more than me. I’m seeing you soon. Take a picture so I can see your hair.

  I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help but smile. I’ll take one in the A.M. If I take one now Derrick will probably wake up.

  Or maybe not. Light didn’t seem to bother him but a sudden flash was something else entirely.

  I texted again. You couldn’t see it in the dark anyway.

  Kade sent a smiley face. I’m going to bed. Miss you.

  I was just about to set down the phone when Judson answered.

  Don’t google it. Seriously. I just did, and I don’t want to do that to you. Fine if that’s people’s kink, but what I want to do with you has to do with how I want sex to go. Not… you tied up doing that to yourself. Unless you wanted to in which case more power to you. And… I don’t want you to go away, although I’m not sure why you’d want to hang out with me, considering your imprisonment was my fault.

  My mouth fell open. Was that what he thought?

  Judson, it’s not your fault any more than it’s anyone else’s fault. Let’s agree to blame Ben. And Josh. And whoever else is left. I want to see you because truth is that I can’t stop thinking about you any less than I can stop thinking about all of you. Somehow, you got inside of me. Figuratively. Not physically. Yet.

  I almost didn’t send that last part. But heck, this was me. He knew that by now.

  I’m going to see you soon.

  Derrick rolled over, throwing his arm across my lap. I really did need to try to go to sleep. A day of watching Derrick kill Josh was in front of me. How did someone prep for that?

  Derrick tapped my arm, and I looked down at him before I took the ear plug out. “Did I wake you?”

  “Put the phone down and stop obsessing. I find that most things that are going to happen will happen whether we sit up at night and think about them or just let them happen.”

  He was right about that. Still, I didn’t sleep a wink.

  Chapter 10

  I didn’t know if there was protocol for getting ready to watch someone kill someone else. I’d never given it any thought. Waffles didn’t seem like they’d have been on the list but that was what Derrick made us for breakfast. In a waffle maker. From scratch. I ate them without really tasting them. I was sure they were delicious. When were waffles ever not delicious?

  Derrick didn’t even seem to be really awake. I poured him another cup of coffee. He really did need to be alert. He smiled at me. “That pizza was okay, but I think I’m going to cook tonight. What are you in the mood for?”

  “I have no idea.”

  He chewed on his lip. “We really don’t want to be that couple that is always planning the next meal at the one we’re still eating. I guess lunch would technically be that. But I never really want anything other than a sandwich.”

  The doorbell rang, and he jumped to his feet. “After I let them in, you need to go upstairs to the bedroom. Shut the door behind you. Lock it. And turn on the television. You’ll find the only station playing will be a live feed down here. You’re going to watch.”

  Derrick was barefooted. He hadn’t combed his hair; he’d just thrown it up in a sloppy man bun that wasn’t nearly put together as well as usual. He couldn’t possibly be ready to kill anyone. I almost said all of that.

  Only when it came down to it, all I did was nod.

  He reached out and stroked his thumb down the side of my cheek. “If something were to go wrong, text help to that help number on the phone.”

  “Is…” I cleared my throat. “Is something going to go wrong?”

  “It could. It always could. But no. It won’t.” He kissed me before walking over to the door. The redheaded young captor who had saved me from Ben and another guy the same age dragged an unconscious Josh into the room.

  I recognized him from his pictures. He was tall, bald, with an earring in his left ear, and what looked like an expensive black turtleneck that was now torn on the shoulder.

  Derrick nodded at them. “Gentlemen, any trouble?”

  “He didn’t wake up. We gave him the dose right after Warden got him. But he’ll probably be waking up very shortly.”

  “That’s what we want. Say hello to, Everly.”

  They both, still holding the unconscious Josh, turned to me and said in matching voices. “Hello.”

  I raised my hand. “Hey.”

  They placed the unconscious Josh in a chair. It was funny. Staring at him, I would think he looked like someone’s dad, not like one of the leaders of an organization that secretly controlled the world and held me captive for half a year. Of course, looking at Derrick I wouldn’t think last night he’d wanted to discuss how to burn someone to death.

  “Stay here for cleanup.” Derrick called to the guys. “You two can wait in the bedroom upstairs that’s closest to the stairs. Use the bathroom. Clean up. Whatever you need. You’re leaving to go back to Warden tonight.”

  They both nodded to him, and I watched as they scurried up the stairs like the world was on fire behind them. When they closed the door, I turned to Derrick. “Are you training them?”

  “We do have Initiates. I think I’m going to get assigned the kids as my job. I think Judson is going to do that to me. He has some idea that I relate well to the trainees. I think he just doesn’t want to do it himself.”

  They did seem to listen to him really well. “Could you say no?”

  “Things don’t go all that well when I say no.”

  I didn’t pretend to misunderstand him. His wife got butchered when he turned down a job from the Alliance that he didn’t want to do. Of course, Alyssa contributed to it herself by talking to the Alliance when she should have pretended she didn’t know they existed.

  “This is Judson. Are you suggesting he would kill someone? Hurt you? If you said no.”

  He looked over his shoulder. “Don’t put anything past us. We’re all invested in you, not necessarily in each other. Jud never liked me married to Alyssa. I wasn’t really good enough. Maybe no one would be.”

  I wanted to talk more about this, but Josh moaned on the chair, and I jumped like he’d struck me. He wasn’t tied down or restrained in any way. Was Derrick just going to leave him on the chair? Derrick poured some coffee into a cup and placed it by Josh.

  “Are you giving him caffeine?” Or was there something going on I didn’t understand.

  “Yes. This is a lesson for you. I don’t want him half out of it. I’m going to feed him, too.”

  I grabbed Derrick’s arm. “Just kill him now.”

  “I would. Normally. But part of this is showing you what to do when you find yourself in a rough situation. This is controlled, sort of. Trust me.”

  I sighed. “This is insanity. I mean… how did I get to the point where it even remotely resembles normal?”

  He patted me on the back. “You’re totally beautiful. You know that, right?”

  I rolled my eyes. I don’t know what I would have said because Josh picked that moment to wake up. He rubbed at his eyes before he darted backward in the chair so fast he almost fell off of it.

  Derrick walked into the kitchen before coming out holding a protein bar. “Morning, Josh. Or do I still need to call you Master Josh
?”

  That had been a thing in Ben’s house. They’d absolutely called him Master Ben. Or Sir.

  Josh jumped to his feet and then swayed. Derrick set the protein bar down next to the glass. “Take a minute. Drink some coffee. I’ll get you some water, too. Eat that bar. You’re dehydrated and hungry. It’s all a result of the sleeping drug you were given. Knocked you right on your ass.”

  The daggers Josh shot Derrick in his gaze could have killed my D if looks could kill. “You were always the worst. We should have had you killed the second you stepped into training. You’re only alive because I took fucking pity on you.”

  I jumped forward, jamming my finger into Josh’s shoulder. “Don’t talk to him like that.”

  I expected Derrick to chastise me for not heading immediately upstairs, but he didn’t. Derrick did have a way of rolling with changes in plans, and he didn’t tend to order me around a lot. I would go up, in a second, after I digested what happened here.

  “You know Everly, right Josh?” Derrick didn’t move. If he was concerned with my action and statement, he didn’t indicate it in any way. “I mean, you must have been watching her during her six months in Ben’s basement, right?”

  Josh’s mouth fell open. “How are you alive?”

  “Just lucky, I guess.” That was such an odd question. How was I alive? “Did Ben tell you I was dead?

  “Ben has gone mostly dark, and when we did speak, it wasn’t about you.” He shook his head. “What do you plan to do with me, Derrick? I assume they didn’t give me to you for your conversational skills.”

  Derrick didn’t answer the question he was asked. “You want to eat that protein bar.”

  “Is it poisoned?” Josh continued his hate filled glare at Derrick.