Bait

by Jade West

  I almost forget about the shit with Jake as I enjoy the afternoon. It’s another glorious day with Cam in the pool, and even Serena joins us for a swim.

  It would be perfect, if only Abigail was with us.

  All in good time, so they say.

  I’m strangely excited to see what she cooks. Thrilled at the prospect of a regular date like regular people.

  Even if I do deviate from the chivalry to pound her dirty little asshole later.

  I wear a black shirt over tight jeans. Make sure my hair is as just so as it ever gets. I’m no pink-shirted Jack, but I’ll do.

  I’m ready to go just as soon as Cam settles off to sleep, but this evening, typically, he wants every story in the book.

  He’s even willing to ask for it.

  There’s no way I’d ever be able to say no to that.

  “You look great,” Serena says as I finally get back downstairs. “Go get your girl.”

  “You’ll like her,” I tell her. “I can’t wait to introduce you.”

  “Just as long as she makes you happy.”

  I love my little sister today as much as I’ve ever loved her in my life. She’s a solid rock in our river. An anchor through whatever shitty storms life throws our way.

  I’ll never be able to thank her enough for what she’s done for Cam and me. I just hope she knows it.

  I feel a pang of regret for Jake as I step out to my truck.

  It’s so easy to forget these days that once upon a time it was the three of us against the world. It’s easy to forget how he was the one who set us up in business in the first place and took care of me as well as Serena just as soon as he was old enough.

  Easy to forget all the shit he shouldered when we were too young to deal with any of it.

  I send him a text message before I pull away. One final olive branch before I get my ass down to the lawyer in the morning.

  Sort your life out, Jake. We’re still your fucking family. Put the money back, stop drinking and we’ll talk properly when you’re sober.

  He can keep the picture of Mariana.

  It’s the least I can do, and deep down I know it.

  Serena’s question is a valid one.

  How the fuck did it come to all this?

  The answer is the same as it’s always been. Just as I said it last night.

  Mariana.

  That’s how the fuck it came to all this.

  Serena could never see it, the appeal that one crazy woman had for two brothers. She didn’t understand the magic in the madness, the way that woman’s soul could shred you to pieces and keep you coming back for more.

  I push all that aside for now.

  I stop at the petrol station for a big bar of chocolate and grab some flowers while I’m at it.

  And then I text my girlfriend, since that’s really what she is now.

  Soon.

  Abigail

  Soon

  That’s what the message says.

  I can’t keep up with him. Pinging me here there and everywhere.

  I laugh out loud when the knock comes at the door. His soon was quite a lot sooner than I expected.

  More like now, in fact.

  I’m grinning as I swing that door open, presenting my best chef smile in the heart-patterned apron I borrowed from Sarah.

  But it’s not him.

  My grin fades.

  I recognise the man in front of me, and yet I don’t.

  He’s tall. Dark eyes. Gaunt and wiry.

  Strong.

  My eyes widen.

  They widen a whole lot more when he shunts me inside and closes the door behind him.

  I’m backing away on instinct, the lasagne still cooking in the oven as the panic takes my breath.

  There’s nowhere to run and I know it.

  I try anyway.

  I only make it as far as the kitchen doorway before he grabs me from behind. His bulk is familiar, but he stinks of whisky and something else. Diesel.

  He reminds me of the seedy denim guy from the pub all those weeks ago.

  And just like denim guy, his hand is straight between my legs, pressing his fingers so fucking hard against my clit that it aches.

  I squeal when he clasps his hand over my mouth, but just like his brother, he’s pretty damn good at muffling it.

  I know this is Jake.

  I know it with every single part of me.

  “Good girl for leaving the door open. Are you always so fucking willing to do what he says? I guess it’s him you’re wet for, but don’t worry. If you’re a good girl I’ll let you enjoy it.”

  I’m rigid in his grip, heart thumping in my ears.

  “I don’t know why you all go so fucking mad for my brother,” he says. “He’s a self-important, sour-faced fucking prick. The way he treated my Mariana…”

  His voice trails off.

  My chest is so tight it hurts to breathe.

  His fingers keep rubbing me, but for the first time in memory, the monster at my back doesn’t make my clit throb.

  It makes me feel sick.

  “I know how he likes to talk to you,” he says. “I read it all online, the whole sorry fucking lot of it. You’re a dirty little bitch, aren’t you? Just like my Mariana was.”

  How I fucking cringe inside. The intrusion hurts far worse than his fingers on my body. It feels like he’s been inside the darkest parts of my soul.

  And he doesn’t belong there.

  That part’s all for Leo.

  “Let me talk in a language you’ll understand,” he grunts. “You will come with me to my fucking truck. You will do what I fucking say. If you don’t, I’ll hurt you. If you still don’t, I’ll hurt that sonofabitch boyfriend of yours. Understand?”

  I manage a nod.

  “I’ve got a whole fucking truck full of kerosene. I’ll burn the fucker alive, and this time there won’t be any fucking fire department to drag him out of there.”

  My breath is so shallow, so fast.

  “Understand?”

  I nod again.

  He takes his hand away and I grab a breath.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I say. “This is crazy.”

  “We’re all a little fucking crazy, sweetheart. I think you’re the craziest bitch of us all. Running straight into the path of some fucking stranger. Begging him to make it fucking hurt. You need help, girl.”

  I’m relieved when he drops me. My body feels filthy where he touched me.

  Used.

  Violated.

  “Now get your fucking shoes on,” he grunts. “Or I’ll make you run fucking barefoot like he did.”

  I do as he says, stalling as much as I dare.

  He doesn’t let me get away with much.

  I know Leo is heading here. I know he can’t be that far out.

  But he’s far enough out that he misses us.

  I’m petrified as I step out onto the landing and close the door behind me. I know Jake’s batshit crazy and wired enough to follow through with whatever insane ideas are fizzing through that addled head of his, so when Sarah sticks her head out of her front door, all smiles as she expects to find Leo ready for Grandma’s special recipe lasagne, I act like everything is totally normal.

  “This is Jake,” I tell her. “Leo’s brother.”

  I pray she’ll use her intuition, but if it’s there she doesn’t notice.

  “Oh, that’s nice,” she says. “I can see the resemblance. Really are meeting the family now, then?”

  I nod.

  She keeps on smiling.

  Jake nudges me along the landing. I move as slowly as I can.

  “Hope you enjoy the food!” she calls after us, and she’s gone. Just like that.

  My heart sinks, but I keep on walking, praying that my monster in the darkness will catch up with me as easily this time as he has every other time before.

  Thirty-Six

  A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

 
King Solomon

  Phoenix

  It’s dusk when I arrive at Abigail’s door.

  It feels strange to be here while there’s still enough light to see by, and stranger still to ring her buzzer like any regular visitor.

  I wait for the click as she answers but it doesn’t come. I look up at the window and the living room light is on. No sign of her.

  I buzz again. Clear my throat as I wait for her voice.

  Still nothing.

  I call her number. It rings out.

  I smile to myself, wondering if the cheeky little bitch is goading me to break in after all.

  I’m tempted.

  But no. I opt to press her neighbour’s buzzer instead.

  She answers in a beat.

  “It’s Leo,” I tell her. “Abigail’s boyfriend. She’s not answering.”

  “Oh, sure,” she says and buzzes me in.

  She’s waiting for me on the landing with a smile on her face.

  “You can wait in here until they get back,” she tells me. “If you’re at a loose end, I mean.”

  I stare blankly.

  “They?”

  “Your brother and Abigail. I guess they were heading out for more supplies.” She pauses. “Is he single?”

  How my blood runs fucking cold.

  “My brother?”

  “Jake, right? He was right here.”

  Abigail’s door key is in my fingers in a flash. I’m inside her place in a heartbeat.

  It’s boiling in the kitchen. I open the oven to find a burning lasagne. I turn off the oven and head through to the bedroom.

  They can’t have been gone long. The smoke alarm isn’t even sounding.

  I call her name as Sarah joins me in her hallway.

  “They went about half hour ago,” she says.

  I spot her phone on the sofa.

  I call up her messages. Check her calls. Check everything.

  And then I see it.

  Her online fucking hook-up login. I call up the logs with shaky fingers.

  My heart is in my throat as I realise how fucking stupid I’ve been.

  My laptop. The sonofabitch was on my fucking laptop.

  And he took more than five fucking grand from my bank account.

  He took my black swan, too.

  I call up his tracker on my phone but the sonofabitch has disabled it. They could be fucking anywhere.

  I pace up and down as the fear seems to register for Sarah.

  “Your brother… he’s not gonna hurt her, is he? Come to think of it, she seemed pretty wired.”

  “She didn’t say where they were going?”

  She shakes her head. “I didn’t ask. Didn’t think.”

  I call Serena. I’m hissing fury as she picks up.

  “It’s Jake,” I tell her. “The cunt’s got Abigail.”

  She tells me she hasn’t seen him, hasn’t heard anything since last night.

  Fuck.

  My hands are in my hair. My scars itch worse than they’ve ever fucking itched since I’ve had them.

  “Check my laptop,” I tell Serena. “Look for anything. Any clue. Check the history.”

  I don’t even want to think what he’s using that five grand for. I don’t want to think about how fucking crazy he must be.

  “The bank,” Serena tells me. “Some dating website…” She pauses. “Wellington’s local depot.” She clocks it as soon as I do. “Oh no, Leo. Oh my God, no.”

  And I don’t need a tracker to tell me where the sonofabitch is heading. He knew I’d find him all along.

  “Lock the doors,” I tell my sister. “Lock the doors and stay inside.”

  “Don’t go there!” she hisses. “Please, Leo! Don’t fucking go there! Call the police!”

  But I can’t.

  He’s too fucking crazy for the police to turn up.

  No.

  There’s only one person he wants, and that’s me.

  Bait.

  Of course.

  How fucking ironic.

  Tonight her username’s more apt than it’s ever fucking been.

  “Don’t call the police,” I tell her. “I’ll handle it.”

  “NO, LEO, DON’T!” she screams, but I’m already hanging up.

  Wellington’s will never mean anything but tragedy to me. They always told us their products were flammable, but they didn’t tell us quite how much so.

  Didn’t tell us how they’d turn our warehouse into an inferno if one of their drums caught light.

  Five grand.

  I wonder how much fuel he can have bought for five fucking grand.

  Enough.

  “Is she gonna be okay?” Sarah asks as I leave.

  “She’ll be fine,” I say, and I mean it. I’ll make sure of it.

  I call Jake’s number knowing full well I won’t get an answer.

  It doesn’t matter. He’ll get my message and I know it.

  “I’m coming,” I tell his voicemail. “But you knew that, didn’t you? You can let her go already, Jake, I’ll be there regardless. Don’t do anything fucking stupid until I get there. You don’t need to hurt her. She’s done fucking nothing to you. It’s me you want.” I pause. “And I’m on my fucking way.”

  For the second time today my foot is to the fucking floor as I pull away.

  Abigail

  I thought I was scared in the back of Leo’s truck, trussed up in the footwell in the middle of the night. But it’s got nothing on how sick I feel in the back of Jake’s.

  I can smell the diesel from here. I can hear the liquid in the big vats behind the seats swishing around every time he takes a corner.

  I don’t need a memo to tell me that this stuff going up is what killed Mariana.

  And I don’t need a memo to tell me that Jake is planning on doing it all again.

  Maybe he did it in the first place.

  “Bait,” Jake calls from the front.

  I hate the way it sounds from his mouth.

  “That’s a fucked up username, you know? Bait.”

  He laughs.

  “But then again, if the cap fits.”

  I know I should do everything I can to avoid antagonising the drunken psychopath at the wheel, but I can’t stop my mouth as it blurts out the obvious.

  “You started that fire.”

  He laughs. “You think I fucking killed Mariana? LEO killed Mariana. She wouldn’t have been there in the fucking first place if he wasn’t such a cunt.”

  “You were in there when it started, not Leo.”

  “Yeah, trying to stop her losing her fucking mind!” he snaps, and I decide to keep my mouth shut from here on in.

  I hope Leo’s discovered my absence already. I hope he’s called a thousand cops and they’ll be descending on this truck any second in a helicopter. But no. The truck rumbles on.

  I know we’re climbing. I feel it.

  “We were a good team once,” Jack tells me. “Me, Leo, and Mariana. We ran the business together.”

  I don’t say a word.

  “I saw her first, you know? No matter what he fucking tells you, I saw her first.” He pauses. I’m sure I hear him sniffle. “I fucking loved her. I loved her more than he ever did. He’d have kicked her to the fucking kerb long ago if she hadn’t had Cam.”

  I wish he’d stop talking. I wish he’d shut the fuck up.

  “Leo loved her,” I argue. “She loved him, I’m sure.”

  “Like you know fuck all about it,” he snarls. “She wanted to run from him.”

  “Good for her. Maybe she should have done it without taking a midnight detour to a warehouse packed to the rafters with highly-flammable chemicals.”

  I’m being a horrible bitch and I know it, but I can’t stop. It’s get angry or get scared, and I’m not ready to give up and go down without a fight. Not for this douche.

  “She called me, you know,” he says, but I sigh.

  “I don’t really care.”

  “You will.”


  Those two simple words make me shiver.

  I close my eyes and pray for a miracle. Pray for a nightmare. Pray for a monster.

  Pray for anything.

  For him.

  I pray for another shot at having a baby. I pray for the chance to meet Cameron and see if we could grow to like each other. I pray for a chance to eat Sarah’s grandma’s special recipe lasagne with the man I love.

  I pray to kiss his scars one more time.

  I pray to see him in the moonlight and water one more time.

  To hold him one more time.

  To take him one more time.

  To tell him I love him.

  To tell everyone back home I’m sorry for running and I love them, too.

  The backseat is a lonely world. Tears stream easily as the sky turns dark through the back window. I try to hold them back, because these silent tears are the worst.

  These silent tears mean defeat.

  My heart drops into my stomach as the truck comes to a stop. I flinch as he opens up the back and tugs me out by my feet.

  His breath is in my face as he wraps thick twine around my wrists. Fighting is no good as he crouches down and fastens it to my ankles.

  I can hobble at best. I struggle to keep my balance, even against the truck.

  His eyes are dark glass. Vile and angry.

  And sad.

  He’s so sad.

  It’s that part of him I speak to.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I say. “Not any of it.”

  “Run,” he says, just like that. My eyes widen in realisation. “That’s what you like, isn’t it?”

  I have no words as he takes my elbow and throws me into the darkness.

  I stare around me at the high surround fencing. The spikes on top.

  I stare into the darkness and see the toothy grimace of a burnt-out tower. And I know.

  She died here.

  “Run!” Jake shouts, and it’s enough to bring me to my senses.

  I hobble as fast as I can into the darkness with my heartbeat in my ears.

  I trip and stumble but keep my footing.

  Because I have to.

  I really have to.

  Tonight, it’s the monster’s brother who’s hunting me.

  And if he catches me…

  If he catches me, it may well be the end of all of us.