The Price of Love

by Cassy Roop

“Of course love. Having some cravings already?” she teased and I winced. I looked over at Brett who shook his head at me silently and motioned with the barrel of the gun to take my attention back to Cassie. I could only pray that he did not catch on to Cassie’s statement and realize what she said.

  “Uh, something like that. You know the saying, when in Spain,” I told her distractingly.

  “I think the saying is ‘When in Rome’ Kendall.” She giggles.

  “Whatever, you know what I mean,” I replied a little too harshly. This time Cassie sees right through me.

  “Everything alright Kendall? You seem nervous,” she said with narrowed eyes as she starts to walk toward me.

  “Yes, yes...I’m fine….I’m just uh...really hungry. Can you please go get us some food? We can get some work done when you get back,” I offered as way of explanation. Her gaze darted to me and then over to the window briefly before she looked at me with worried eyes.

  “Sure thing babe. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  She turned on her heel and walked toward the door and turned to face me just before she opens it.

  “You know, Kendall, the boys will be here any minute.” She said as she put stress on the words “any minute”. “I’ll be right back Kendall.”

  Her worried stare lingered on me for a few more moments before she hesitantly left the penthouse. I turned my gaze back to Brett who was still holding the gun pointed at me.

  “Brett, I did what you asked. Will you please put the gun down?”

  “Sorry, Flower, but I’m not taking any chances of anyone coming between us again. If he had kept his fucking nose in his own damn business years ago, we would have been together all this time.”

  I was confused by Brett’s words. Who was he? Before I could question him, Brett started to stalk back over to me.

  “You see, love, I have kept up with you all these years. You have gotten even more beautiful since the last time I saw you. I have missed you so much. Haven’t you missed me, Flower?”

  I grimaced at the nickname he insisted on still calling me. Maybe I should play along. It was the only way I knew to keep myself and the baby safe.

  “Ye-yes, B-Brett, I have missed you,” I lied. It felt like acid as the words dripped off my tongue. I could feel the vomit rise in my throat. I had to keep calm. I had to keep in control. Deep breaths Kendall. Deep breaths.

  “I’ve come to take you home Kendall. Home with me where you belong. Not with him. God I couldn’t stand seeing you with him in those pictures. You are mine! You have always been mine! He just wants you because I had you first!”

  His anger grew by the minute. I had now come to the conclusion that he was talking about Tristan. This thought shocks me. How did he know Tristan? He did say he had me followed, so that was probably how he know about him. Brett’s anger about my relationship with Tristan was really starting to scare me. I had to keep him calm.

  “Yes Brett, I’m yours. I always have been.”

  He smiled his sadistic, evil grin and my stomach rolled. He marched over to me, still pointing the gun.

  “Why him Kendall? Huh? Why him of all people?”

  “I-I…” I stammered. I was not sure what to say to him. Most importantly I didn’t understand the question he was asking me. Why Tristan?

  He looked at my face for what seemed like forever, but was actually probably only a few seconds.

  “You still don’t know do you? He hasn’t told you a damn thing. I thought that fuckwad would have confessed all by now.”

  “What are you talking…?”

  I didn’t have time to finish asking him what in the hell he was talking about because we were interrupted by the doors to the penthouse being slammed open. Tristan, Jackson, and Cassie all come barreling into the room with brute force. Brett reached out and grabbed me by throwing his arm around my body and pulled my back to his chest. I could feel the gun being poked into my back.

  “Do everything I tell you and no one gets hurt, Flower,” he whispered in my ear. I whimpered through the pain he was inflicting on my back by shoving the gun into my spine.

  Brett looked at the three new people who had joined us in the suite. His gaze landed on Tristan and I could feel his body go rigid. He narrowed his eyes as he kept his glare fixed on Tristan. His breathing had become short and rapid like a bull breathing through his nose.

  “Look who finally decided to grace us with his presence. Hello dear brother.”

  Chapter 22

  Tristan

  Jackson and I were in the lobby bar having a drink after our meetings all day with the managers, staff, and security team for the hotel here in Valencia. I needed something to help me relax so that I could go to the penthouse and spend my evening buried in my girl.

  My girl.

  I was the luckiest bastard on the Earth to be able to say that Kendall was my girl. I wanted to spend every day of the rest of my fucking life with her. I knew I needed to tell her the truth soon, but God was I dreading it. I was so scared of losing her. I was not ready to let her go yet.

  Jackson had been going on about the new security software he was developing for about ten minutes while I had been in my daydream. All of a sudden I was ripped from my fantasy of a happy ever after with Kendall by Cassie’s frantic voice. She had tears running down her face and she was out of breath like she ran down the stairs to get here.

  “Tristan! Jackson! It’s Kendall! Come on get your ass up she needs help!”

  “Whoa what the hell is going on?” Jackson asked as he reached out a hand to steady Cassie who was in a frantic state.

  “The penthouse, she is there….I saw him...a man with a gun. She needs help!

  The glass of scotch in my hands slipped through my fingers and shattered against the floor, sending glass and amber liquid flying everywhere. I turned and made a mad dash to the elevators, not caring whether Jackson or Cassie were following me or not.

  It seemed like a century goes by before the elevator car reaches the lobby. We all jump in and I pound the button to the eighteenth floor as if it would make the elevator go faster.

  Beside me Jackson pulled his gun out from his back holster and cocked it in place. He looked up at me and I could see he was just as scared for Kendall as I was. Next to me Cassie was crying and vibrating with fear.

  “T. It is ok. I’ not going to let anything happen to her.”

  I know he was trying to reassure me. I trust my best friend with every fiber of my being, but even he could not predict the outcome of these circumstances.

  Maybe it’s not him. Maybe it was just someone looking for money.

  I would give him every dime in my bank account if it kept Kendall here with me. Oh, hell who was I kidding? It was him. I felt like the lowest piece of shit on the Earth. I promised her and myself that I would not ever let that bastard hurt her again. I could not help but dwell on the fact that I had failed her. I. Had. Failed. Her.

  Just before the elevators ping to signal our arrival on our floor, Jackson started mumbling words about not bursting in the room and that we needed a plan. All of his words went in one ear and out the other as I dashed out of the elevator to the penthouse.

  “Tristan! Wait!” Jackson cried, but I ignored him. The only thing that I cared about right now was getting to Kendall.

  I don’t bother trying the key card, I uses every piece of pure adrenaline that was running through my veins and kick the door in. Jackson, and Cassie are right there behind me.

  When we entered my blood stills and I froze in place. There he was, Brett Hawkins and he had a gun pointed at Kendall, my Kendall. He lunged for Kendall and grabbed her around the chest and shoved the gun into her back. I saw her wince in pain and it took every ounce of control that I had to not lunge at him and kill him with my bare hands.

  He whispered something in her ear before he fixed his eyes on me.

  “Look who finally decided to grace us with his presence. Hello dear brother.”

  Kendall’s
audible gasp did not go unnoticed. I could see the look of confusion on her face as she looked at me. Tears were rolling down her face. I was helpless.

  “Oh, Flower, you didn’t know? Of course not. This coward would be too afraid to tell you that the same blood flows through our veins.”

  The hurt in Kendall’s eyes and face gutted me to my core. I think my heart had stopped and I was no longer breathing.

  “You’re brothers?” Kendall asked with a hitch in her voice.

  “Tristan and I share the same mother, Flower. My dad married her not long after Tristan’s bastard of a father and her divorced. I came along a year later. He always was jealous of me. Had to have what I have. He tried to have you, but I won’t let him.”

  “You hear that you son-of-a-bitch! You. Will. Not. Have. Her! You got in the way over eight years ago, I will not let it happen again!” Brett spat out with venom.

  The moment of recognition finally crossed Kendall’s face. I could see it in her eyes now that she knew. She knew that I was the one to save her from Brett all those years ago.

  “It was you. I should have known! Your eyes. There was something so familiar about your eyes!” Kendall said with accusation.

  “Tristan J. Price. T.J. God what an idiot I am! How did I not see this sooner? You have been lying to me this whole time! You’ve known who I was all along, haven’t you? Haven’t you??”

  I hung my chin down to my chest not knowing whether it was from embarrassment or defeat. I give her the only explanation that I could and that was the truth.

  “Yes.”

  The smug look on Brett’s face was like battery acid to my soul. I wanted to rip him apart with my bare hands.

  “What the fuck is going on!” Cassie yells. “You and Brett are brothers?” she asked me with disdain in her voice.

  “Yes.”

  She then turned to look at Jackson who had been strangely silent next to me the whole time. I knew why when I looked over and I saw that he had his gun aimed on Brett ready to make a move if necessary.

  “You knew this too didn’t you? This is the big secret you and Tristan are always whispering about. The one you have worked so hard to keep from us,” Cassie spat out in anger toward Jackson.

  He gave the subtlest of nods to Cassie, but never once took his eyes of Brett and Kendall.

  “Holy fucking hell!”

  “Cassie calm down,” Jackson spat at her. I could tell his patience was wearing thin.

  “Everyone shut the fuck up! Brett yelled into the room.

  “This family union has been great and all, but see me and Kendall here have places to go and time to make up for.” He said as he planted a kiss on her cheek. I knew he was trying to taunt me, trying to get me to do something stupid.

  He nudged the gun deeper into her back and pushed her toward the door. Jackson stepped in his way with his gun still fixed on Brett.

  “You aren’t going anywhere with her mother fucker. Let her go.”

  “Always doing Tristan’s bitch work huh Jackson? Well not gonna work this time. Get out of my way or I will pull the trigger on this gun. If I cannot have her no one will.”

  “Shut the fuck up Brett! You aren’t getting out of here with her!” I spat at him. Jackson had to hold out his arm to keep me from charging after him.

  Jackson looked at him with hatred for a moment before his eyes find and meet Kendall’s.

  “It’s ok, Jackson. Do what he says. I’ll be fine.”

  Reluctantly Jackson lowered his gun and stepped out of the way. Brett continued to push Kendall closer to the door to make his escape.

  “No Kendall! No! Let her go Brett! Let her go! She… she’s…”

  Before Cassie could finish her sentence Kendall interrupts her. Her eyes were wide and were full of fear. She was shaking her head side to side to communicate with her silently.

  “No Cassie! It will be ok. I promise. Just let us go. We’ll be fine.”

  Brett turned and backed his way out of the door still holding on to Kendall. I didn’t miss the lost look in her eyes as she glanced at me right before Brett pulled her out the door. That one look said it all. All the trust, love and relationship we had was all gone with my one confession. I knew I had destroyed her. I deserved this. I deserve this agony I was feeling right now. But God as my witness I would find her. I would bring her home whether it was with me or somewhere else. I would not let him have her. I fell to my knees on the soft carpeted floor of my hotel. My very reason for life was just taken out that door with a deranged mad man. I had never been this scared in my life.

  “No! No!” Cassie screamed. She looked up at Jackson and then down at me in the floor.

  “You have to stop him! You cannot let him take her!”

  “We will get her back Cass, don’t worry.” Jackson said as he reached out to pull her in his arms. She shrugged him off no doubt still pissed at him for keeping my secret. Not only had I destroyed my relationship with Kendall, but quite possibly I had destroyed Cassie and Jackson’s too.

  “No you don’t understand. It’s not just her!” she cried as she looked at me. She walked over and knelt down in front of me.

  “What are you talking about Cass?” Jackson questioned from behind her.

  It was then that she looked at me with glistening eyes and said the word that nearly completely destroyed me.

  “Tristan…she’s…she’s pregnant...she pregnant with your baby.

  Chapter 23

  Kendall

  “Where are we going?” I asked Brett as we drove in a rental car on the highway. My hands and feet were bound together when he put me in the car after leaving the hotel.

  “Somewhere that we can be happy of course. I have had it planned for years Kendall. I built us a place where no one will bother us. It will just be you and me.”

  I felt fear tremble through my body as he said the words. To imagine spending the rest of my life, alone with the monster who sat next to me was enough to chill me to the bone. I had to remain focused and calm. I had to keep myself safe for the sake of the baby.

  I was still reeling from the revelation that Tristan and Brett were brothers. Half-brothers to be exact, but still brothers. Even more surprising was the fact that he was the guy who saved me from Brett all those years ago. I knew there was something about his eyes. They drew me in then, and they did so now. My heart ached as I thought about how he lied to me. I trusted him. I finally gave my heart over to a guy for the first time since Brett and look what happened.

  This sick sadistic twist of fate was cruel. Why did the man that I desperately fell in love with have to be related the one man who took everything away from me? The part that hurt and pissed me off the most was that he knew! He knew all along who I was and what happened all those years ago. Did he find me on purpose? Did he do this to get back at Brett? So many questions were running through my head at the same time. The biggest one was it real? Was Tristan really in love with me or was he pretending this whole time?

  We continued to drive and before I knew it we were at the airport. With a wicked look in his eye, Brett looked over at me.

  “If you fight me, or make a scene, I will be forced to act Kendall. Mark my words darling, I have killed before, I could do it again. This time it will be your precious friend Cassie. I will not let anyone stand in our way of being together. Do you understand?”

  All I could do was nod. I was overcome with sickness with the admission he just made. I knew in my heart that he killed my parents and that it was not self-defense, but somehow hearing it out of his own mouth nearly rocked me to my core. I had to go along with him to protect Cassie. She along with this baby growing inside me are my only family. I could not lose them. The death of my parents wrecked me. If I lost Cassie and the baby, it would destroy me.

  Brett parked the car in the parking garage at the airport and left the keys inside it. We went to the ticket counter where he told the receptionist that he had tickets already reserved. Hearing that our destination wa
s Texas, I turned to look at Brett. He’s taking me home to Texas? Why not somewhere remote where no one would find us? Why Texas?

  Brett grabbed my hand firmly and practically drug me over towards the security checkpoint. I laughed inside thinking that there was no way we would get past security. My ID, passport, money and other identification was back at the Luxe in Valencia. Without that, they will not allow me to pass through.

  “Here. Take these,” he said as he pulled something from his back pockets and thrust them into my hands. I cringe with fear when I looked at an ID card and a passport. Only the names on the cards were not Kendall Jones, but Kendall Hawkins.

  Shit. He had really thought this through.

  We approached the security officer at the podium and we hand him the identification when he requested it. I thought twice before I handed mine over pausing briefly to decide if I should say something to the guard about Brett kidnapping me.

  Brett leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Give it to him Kendall. Do I need to remind you of the consequences?”

  Quickly I handed over the fake identification to the security guard. He looked at it briefly, then up at me. I couldn’t help but hope that he could notice that they were fake, but my hopes soon evaporated.

  “Have a nice flight,” the man said in broken English. Brett placed his hand on the small of my back and all but pushed me toward the metal detectors and bag scans. I looked back at the security guard to silently plead with my eyes for him to tell that something was wrong, but he wasn’t even looking at me.

  At least I knew that Brett no longer had the gun. He wouldn’t be able to take it on the flight with us if he did.

  Our flight back home to the States was long. Brett kept mostly to himself, but every once in a while he would try to caress my leg or lean in to snuggle my neck. I felt sick, literally sick. I was sick from the idea of him touching me, but also sick because of the baby. I was doing my best to keep it down, but I felt like I was fighting a losing battle.

  “Brett I need to use the bathroom,” I said as I fought to keep the sickness down. He looked at me as if he was irritated by my request.