by Skyla Madi
“Please…” He presses his forehead against mine and I tense. “I’ll give you anything you want—everything you want. Just come with me. Be with me.”
“You’re crazy.”
He tightens his grip on my face. “I’m not.”
“You are.”
I grunt as Skull shoves me backward, my head hitting the hard glass of the window.
“I’m not fucking crazy!” he snaps, smoothing his hands over his bald, tattooed head.
Perhaps some of that ink leaked into his brain.
“Your wife is dead. She’s not coming back,” I point out, grasping at straws, grasping at anything that’ll make him realize this isn’t going to work.
I’m. Not. Her.
Skull slaps his hands against his head and I jolt. He does it again. And again. He hits himself repeatedly until I’m certain he’s going to turn on me next. In a flurry of fear, I grab the door handle and tug on it. I shove it open and turn my body to jump out, but he stops me by grabbing a handful of my hair in his angry fist. I cry out through my clenched teeth and he yanks my head back on an uncomfortable angle, not saying a word until I twist my body his way, righting my neck.
“You’re coming with me,” he growls, his eyes as black as a starless night. “I didn’t scour the fucking planet looking for you for nothing!”
I sneak my hand along the center console, looking for something—anything I can attack him with.
“Okay,” I plead, the tips of my fingers grazing the exact thing I need. “I’m sorry, please.”
I pinch the cigarette lighter between my thumb and index finger. I’ve never felt so lucky in my life, considering I opted out of the cigarette lighter accessory when I bought my car.
Skull slams his lips to mine and forces his tongue inside my mouth. He kisses me passionately—desperately, and makes every fiber in my being shudder as I recall what I let him do to me in that bathroom all that time ago.
Never again.
I’ll never obey him.
I’ll never want him, not willingly.
I’ll fight him for as long as I live.
I yank my head away, ripping hair out of my scalp just to get away from him. His face pulls into a sneer as he shoots forward again, but this time I’m prepared. I shove the red-hot lighter against his cheek, narrowly missing his eyes. Skull roars in pain, snapping away from me, clenching his face. Adrenaline rushes through me with the surge of a tsunami behind it and I leap from the car and run. I don’t know where I’m going or where I’ll end up, but I don’t care as long as I’m away from that skull-faced monster.
* Skull *
“Fuck!” I snap, pressing my warm palm to the blister on my cheekbone, wincing when I touch the liquid bubble. The nerve of that cunt. It burns like hellfire and it's going to scar. “Goddamn it!”
How hard is it for her to listen? How hard is it for her to sit and stay quiet? This could’ve been easy. I slide from the car, dropping my bottle of Risperdal on the side of the road.
I don’t bother picking it up even though I’m long overdue for my dose today. Already my mood is swinging back and forth, like a saloon door, rapidly coming unhinged. Already Emily and my wife, Andrea, have morphed into one, fucking with my grip on reality. I know I shouldn’t allow it and I should continue to take my pills until I can trust Emily, but fuck…I just want to see Andrea, even if it’s only for a few seconds.
Grinding my teeth together, I pull my handgun from the back of my waistband and head toward the vineyard, following Emily. She will not keep me from my wife. I won’t let her.
I break into a sprint and crawl under the same wire fence she did. I catch her in my line of sight immediately. She didn’t think her escape plan through. This vineyard is abundant with flourishing grapevines. There’s nowhere for her to run but straight down an aisle until it ends.
Lifting myself to my feet, I extend my arm, aiming my handgun at her. My heart races in my chest. Now, I don’t want to hit her. I just want to scare her. I close one eye, squeeze the trigger and hope for the best.
A shot rings out, echoing through the morning air, and she halts, lifting her hands above her head. I can’t help the smile that plays on my lips.
I stalk forward as she slowly turns around. When our stares lock, my blister throbs. She’s going to pay for damaging my face—again. I swallow the distance between until no more than a few feet separate us.
“I don’t have time for your games,” I tell her.
“Okay, please.” She steps closer, her pretty eyes glistening with unshed tears. “I give up. Take me home with you just…don’t hurt me.”
I blink as her facial features begin to deepen. I need to be level headed for this part. I tilt my head. “You give up?”
Emily nods. “Yes. I don’t want you to shoot me.”
Suddenly, nothing makes sense. What are we doing in a vineyard? In Italy? We should be at home, finishing up with the nursery.
I tuck my gun into the back of my waistband and step toward her. She doesn’t move as I reach out and smooth my palm against her abdomen. We’re having a baby.
“A little girl.”
Andrea stiffens as I rub in circles, my lips pulling into a soft smile. I can’t wait to see my child, to hold her in my arms for the first time.
With my other hand, I touch Andrea’s straight hair and lean in to smell it. It was always so soft and sweet-smelling…
Moving slowly, she wraps her arms around my waist and emotion chokes me. I just want her to love me again, to forget all the bad I’ve done.
My waistband shifts and I blink as my reality swings. Andrea doesn’t have straight hair. It’s full of volume and waves. I snap my arms around Emily’s body and I lift her high. She squeals in my fucking ear so I throw her to the ground, knocking the wind from her lungs. Her tears are clear and plenty as she arches her back, wrapping her arms around her waist, desperately sucking in air.
“You think you’re so clever!” I spit, hating her, hating that she can fuck with me on such an intense level. If I’d taken my pills like I was goddamn supposed to, she wouldn’t be able to do this. She wouldn’t be able to alter my reality with a single bat of her eyelashes.
“Get up,” I demand, towering over her as she writhes on the ground, slowly sucking air into her lungs.
“Please,” she utters. “Don’t make me go with you.”
I bend down and snatch Emily’s wrist, yanking her to her feet. She sways, like a drunk, her body slightly crunched from the wind I knocked out of her lungs.
“You think this is easy for me? To treat you like this?” I ask, holding her against me.
“Yes. What would your wife say?”
I tap my hand against my head, ignoring my wife as she whispers hateful things directly to my mind. She’d never forgive me for all I’ve done, but I’m trying to make it better. I’m trying to change, to be less criminal, less violent, and she’ll love me again. I know it.
“Would she be happy with the man you’ve become?”
I twitch. “Stop talking.”
“Tell me!” She shouts in my face.
My anger is too much. Her voice shoots me over the edge and I shove her back, then smack her in the mouth. Emily howls in pain and clenches her face, but she bounces back quickly.
“We got away from you! We won!”
“You won?” I snap. “The only thing you won was a brief sixteen-month intermission. No one beats me. Not Joel, not fucking Jai!”
“You kept them alive,” she bites out. “That was your biggest mistake.”
“I kept them alive because it was fun to torture them.”
“You’re full of shit.”
I kept them alive for her! Because I knew she’d lose her fucking head if I hurt them. I wanted them dead the minute I caught them. Joel, out of principle, but Jai…I envied him. I envy him. I was going to end him once Emily came around to the idea of us because if I killed him too soon, she’d never forgive me.
I grab her an
d she thrashes against me. “Get off me!”
I freeze, letting her go, and I clasp at my head, desperate to stop the sharp pain in my temples. Why doesn’t she want me to touch her? Is she still mad about me quitting my full-time job? Being Deacon for that church was hell! They paid me very little for the work I did! We were having a baby. I had to leave. I had to find something that’d pay more and that fucking Priest…the way he treated that woman. I had to leave…I couldn’t be there after what I saw.
Gritting my teeth, I focus on Andrea’s eyes and how they’re less almond now, less honey gold. Then, I focus on her nose and how slender it is compared to what it was and finally, I turn my attention to her lips. The thin lips I loved so much are fuller, the top lip not quite touching the bottom.
A permanent pout.
She is not my Andrea. “Fuck!”
What am I doing? I don’t have the time to fuck around. I’d bet all the money I have left that Jai Stone is barreling down the road as we speak. I snatch Emily’s hair in my fist and she hisses as I march her back the way we came, back toward the car.
“You’ll learn to love me,” I tell her. “or learn to love pain.”
* Jai *
It doesn’t take long for us to roll up on Skull’s stationary SUV and I cannot believe my luck.
Today, the universe is on my side. Today, Skull’s a dead man.
“I’ve tracked her to the field over there, but she could’ve dropped her cell,” Ted says, looking at Joel’s phone.
I should be mad that Joel thought it was necessary to track Emily’s cellphone, but I remember I asked him to do everything in his power to keep her safe. He did his part. He kept her safe just like he promised. I was the one who fucked up.
“Good enough for me,” I reply, slowing my car as I pull off the road and roll to a stop.
Joel and Huss wanted to come, but decided to stay home and comfort their children. Huss will have a hard time un-traumatizing his boy, but not as hard a time as Joel, who has to convince Monique not to leave him. I rub at my sore jaw. She’s a blubbering mess with a strong left hook, but Jacob is none the wiser about the whole thing. I’m not allowed back until Skull’s dead and Emily’s tucked safely under my arm. I imagine I’ll be having a similar conversation with Emily when I get her back. I’m sorry she had to find out like this, that I lied to her, but I’m not sorry for being here. If I followed Skull’s fake alert to Ukraine who knows what would’ve happened. Emily would’ve still thought I was dead. She’d implode completely. Being with her prior to Skull’s arrival has given us both the strength to beat him and I’ll never be sorry for that, no matter how much she hates me for it.
I peer out across the vast, tall vineyard, much bigger than Joel’s, and my stomach rolls. They’re here somewhere…
“What’s the best course of action?” Ted asks, slipping Joel’s phone into a pocket on the side of his seat. “Do we go in or wait for them to come out?”
I chew my lower lip between my teeth. If we wait out here, he could hurt her in there. If we go in there, he might get back to his car before we even see them. I clear my throat.
“Both.” I shut Joel’s truck off and open my door. “Do you want to go in there or wait out here?”
Ted smiles at me, his umber lips pulling at the corners, exposing blinding white teeth. “I’ve never been much of a waiter.”
I simper. “Neither have I.”
He straightens his legs and lifts his hips as he digs into the pockets of his black sweatpants. “Let’s flip a coin.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. Come on.” He frees a quarter from his pocket and closes his hand into a fist, setting the quarter on top of his thumb. I don’t even question why he’s carrying American currency around with him. “Heads goes in. Tails waits in the bushes.”
I can’t believe I’m tossing a coin for this. I exhale. “Tails.”
Ted flicks the coin and I watch it twirl in the air, stirring up anxiety in my chest. He catches it as it falls back down and, shifting in his seat, he places the coin on the back of his hand. When he exposes it, I drop my head back. Fuck.
“I hope you brought your crocheting needles,” he snickers, opening his door.
He slips from the truck and closes the door behind him, moving toward the trunk.
Ted’s eager for battle after his year-long vacation. He loved being a cop, he loved the thrill of it all, and he admitted he’s been itching for action since we forced him into early retirement by faking his death, and although he’d deny it, I saw the excitement in his eyes when Skull showed up. He’s been waiting for this moment since I arrived at Emily’s birthday get together.
I know Ted is capable of saving Emily. I know he’s good with a gun and makes smart decisions, but he’s never dealt with Skull before, and Hannah was dead serious when she told me she’d murder me if I didn’t bring him back in one piece. I’ve seen her beside herself with worry as she cradled his bloodied, bullet-ridden body. I’ve had her sadness and her rage directed at me before and, honestly, I don’t want it again.
I open my door and climb out, joining him at the back.
“Fuck the coin, Ted,” I say on exhale. “You’re waiting here. It’s safer.”
“Safer?” He cuts his dark eyes at me. “You’re kidding me?”
“After everything you’ve been through—”
“Screw you, Jai,” he cuts in. “Hannah fawns over my safety as if I’m a child every single day. I don’t need my best friend doing it too.”
“You almost died.”
“Big deal. It’s the price I pay for the life I want to live.” He reaches into the trunk and pulls out a handgun. “We’ll tell Hannah I waited in the truck, all right?”
“Ted…”
“I’d do the same for you.”
Sighing, I grab Joel’s favorite gun and I tuck it into my waistband. If he wants to risk his life for me then fine, so long has he knows I’d do it for him in a heartbeat in return.
“Fine.”
Ted beams at me. “I’ve got my phone. Call me if you see him before I do.”
I nod, leaning against the car as he saunters away, his gun cocked and ready. In a few large strides, he disappears down a small bank and into the vineyard, leaving me to twiddle my fucking thumbs like an idiot.
***
Thirty minutes.
The second the clock ticks over to eleven a.m. Emily emerges from the vineyard, her white crop now various shade of brown, grey, and red. My heart leaps into my throat at the sight of her.
She looks tired. Defeated. Her arms are pinned behind her back as Skull steps out, hot on her heels. I rake my stare over her stomach and rage boils in my veins. It’s covered in long, angry scratches, matching her exposed legs, and her hair is a tangled mess featuring short sticks and random leaves. What’d he do?
I hit the call button next to Ted’s name on my phone and I drop it to the floor. He’ll realize what’s happening when he picks up and I don’t talk. Hopefully.
Skull stops when he spots my car and turns their bodies so I can see the gun pressed against her lower back. I withdraw my handgun from my waistband and point it in their direction before exiting the truck. As long as it’s just us, Skull has the upper hand, but if Ted can sneak up behind him somewhere—depending on his position—we just might win. All I have to do is stall him until Ted gets here.
“I should have known you’d show up,” Skull sneers, tugging Emily against the gun hard enough for her to whimper. “Then again, why would you? It’s not like she’s carrying your child. You probably want me to kill it.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. I can’t believe he bought that bullshit. The fact Huss was standing on the porch alive and well is proof he’s never laid a finger on her.
“The only thing I want dead is you,” I shoot back.
I keep my attention on Skull, not letting it fall to Emily’s heartbreaking face. I need to feel anger, not remorse, in order to destroy this fucking
disease of a human being.
“Well, I have the leverage,” he points out, shoving Emily forward.
I flinch closer only for him to catch her again with a boom of laughter as he tugs her back. Thick tendrils of dread burrow through my chest. Ted or no Ted, Skull isn’t leaving here today.
“What are you going to do, Stone?”
You won’t shoot her, is what I want to say, but Skull is not a man to tease. He’s shot her before. She has a scar on her thigh to prove it.
“Jai,” Emily sobs and I can’t stop my stare from falling to her. Her wild, dark hair frames her fearful face. One corner of her mouth is swollen, her left eye is bruised. Every time I blink, I find another injury she’s sustained at the hands of him. “Shoot him, please.”
I squeeze my handgun, my finger itching to pull the trigger, simply because she asked me to. I hold my breath.
I can’t shoot him. Not only do I not have a clear shot, but he might shoot her on reflex. I can’t risk it.
I won’t.
I shake my head.
“I can’t,” I utter. “I don’t have a clean shot.
“Shoot through me.”
I peer over the barrel of my gun. “No fucking way.”
“Please!” she cries, her lips trembling, her eyes leaking a monsoon of tears. “I can’t do this anymore. I’d rather die than be his, please.”
“Enough,” Skull snaps, pushing her toward the car.
Fighting against him, she plants her foot on the door and pushes off. “If you let him put me back in this car, I’ll go with him quietly. I’ll never fight him, and I will never forgive you.”
I try to line Skull up, but he’s hidden himself behind her well, and her erratic movements as she fights him makes it even more difficult. “Emily…”
“I said enough!” he booms, yanking her arms back harder, pulling her hair along with it.
“If you let him, you’ll be dead to me!” she screams, her tears coming too forcefully for her to keep her eyes open.
