by Marie Wathen
“I’ll be back. Do not come out of the shadows,” Morgan warns grimly. I peek up at him and nod, holding back the tears. “I mean it. No matter what you hear or see, don’t leave her alone.” I nod again and satisfied with my promise, he turns away. Whatever is happening, I hope that Breesan doesn’t get hurt.
“Be careful,” I call, barely able to see him after running into the darkness eclipsing the back gardens.
With the rapid lightening strikes, I can just barely make him out. He stops short of the backyard, pressing his side against the damp stone to peek around the corner. After a minute, a flash of lightening illuminates the area he’s studying and I see a couple of people running past him. Morgan steps forward, but stops immediately. A loud male voice roars, sending a shiver through me. The voice continues shouting Breesan’s name and then threatens to shoot if she doesn’t stop. My heart clenches as I watch a large man running after two small women, who I now recognize as Breesan, dressed in some crazy, pink costume and the other woman is the same one who left me in the dungeon after promising to come back for us. Cayde.
Numbly, I rise up to my feet and then notice Morgan turning around just as I start to run to help. He flails his hands wildly while shaking his head, urging me to stay where I am. Desperately, I want to rush ahead and help, but I’m also afraid to leave Waverly alone. I guarantee Tox is somewhere around, probably watching and just waiting for the perfect opportunity to grab us again.
Resolving to do as Morgan asked of me, I kneel down and place his jacket over Waverly’s head. Glancing back toward the horrific scene, I watch Cayde grab Breesan by the arm, stopping her and turning to face the gunman. He stalks toward them yelling, but not loud enough for me to hear what he’s saying over the torrential downpour and deafening thunder. He waves the pistol around, motioning for them to move back around toward the direction they ran from. Morgan stays hidden, also watching the crazy scene unfold. From far off, a siren blares, indicating that the ambulance is coming. I just hope that a police car is leading the posse.
***
Breesan
“Fools,” Declan bellows, pointing the tip of his semiautomatic handgun at the base of Cayde’s skull and forcing her to walk back to the covered back patio area, getting us out of the rainstorm. Even though tonight’s crazy events are propelling me into a living nightmare of epic proportions, somewhere inside me, my inner fighter refuses to drop down to my knees and surrender to this madman. “I should kill you for that little stunt, Cayde. If she would have gotten away, I most certainly wouldn’t hesitate putting a bullet in your head. Now, get back into the damn castle so we can finish this bullshit.” Realizing that it is going to take more than running away to save me from the evil conspiracy that he has waiting inside, I begin formulating a plan to disarm him when Cayde comes to an abrupt stop, whipping around to face him.
“You shot Maddox?” Cayde asks warily, fright radiating in her dark eyes.
“My son is none of your concern,” he retorts coolly, almost as if his life is insignificant. After deceiving me by bringing me to his father, I should hate Tox, but the fact that this man is so callous about possibly killing his own son, I’m more bothered and feel sorry for my cousin.
Looking at Declan disbelievingly, she reminds him, “That boy is your only child.”
Tucking his gun into the back of his tailored pants while smoothing his other hand through his dripping, wet hair, he pays no attention to her guilt trip, and instead warns, “You’ve lost my trust twice tonight. You should be more worried about what I intend to do with you.”
Unaffected by his intimations, she threatens back, “My sister…”
“Swore that I had your loyalty,” he cuts her off. “I wonder if she would be pleased with your attempt at stealing from her, again! Don’t make me regret keeping you around,” he warns, lowering his face so that he is only a hair away from hers.
Astoundingly, Cayde doesn’t even flinch. She is a petite lady, more than a foot shorter than him. Regardless, she faces-off like she is ten feet tall and bulletproof. Perhaps I was wrong about her being with him. She seems more concerned about his son than he is, but without a doubt she is part of his despicable plan.
Distracted by his accusations of her betrayal, Declan doesn’t notice the figure standing at the corner of the castle, watching us from the murky shadows. I can’t see his face, but from his body language, I can tell that he is only moments away from charging in. He’s also a large man, like Declan, I wonder if he’s also armed. No matter who the voyeur is, knowing that a rescue attempt is pending, a strange butterfly excitement erupts in my stomach.
“Before we venture back down to the dungeon…” Declan reaches out and clasps my elbow, crashing my back against the wall. I struggle wildly to break free. He uses his large frame as leverage, pinning me so painfully tight that it would require the Jaws of Life to remove his vise grip hold. Quickly reaching into the inside pocket of his suit coat, he pulls out something small that reflects the lightening, popping close by. Before I have time to process and react, he jabs me in the neck with a sharp needle, swiftly empting the entire vial of neon yellow liquid.
Breaking out of his clutches, I cover my hand over the burning spot and screech, “What the hell?” The poison enters my bloodstream instantly, reminding me of the incident at Club Toxic when someone overdosed me. “Ryske,” I deduce.
Grabbing me from behind, Cayde propels us further away from him, shouting, “Was that necessary, Declan?” Nausea hits my stomach and I bend at the waist, emptying the contents.
“Stop overreacting, Cayde. It was only a few grams more than her safe dose.”
“You bastard,” she growls, wrapping an arm over my back and then whispers to me, “I will keep you safe, Breesan.”
My anesthetizing mind flips through old memories and plucks out another from the night I was recovering in the hospital. A woman, who I assumed at the time was a nurse, sweetly cradled me like I was her child, making the same promise. Lifting my head, I take a good look at Cayde and see the face from that moment. It was her.
“Seriously, Cayde,” he scoffs, “It isn’t enough to kill. Just an adequate amount to incapacitate, while I prepare everything, and more than enough to prevent you from rescuing her,” he gloats, tossing the empty syringe in a puddle of water on the ground behind him, and then glancing down at me suspiciously. “At least, I hope it wasn’t too much. I’ll need her to sign over everything before she dies, like you claimed happened to her father.” With the mention of my missing father, I tremble and then sway against her for support. He pounds his fist into one of the large patio columns and demands, “Where is he, Cayde?”
“I told you Declan. He is gone,” she answers fearlessly. “You pushed the experiments on your guinea pig one too many times. That last concoction of Ryske was too much and after all of the years that you tortured him, your creation finally destroyed your brother.”
“You lying bitch.” Violently slinging me out of the way, he backhands Cayde. Losing my balance, my forehead bounces off the wall, striking against the sharp-edge of a brick and I fall to the ground. With the palm of her hand pressing lightly against her cheek, she slowly brings her gaze back around to meet his demonic glare. Reaching behind him, Declan takes a step backward and then points the barrel of his gun at the center of her forehead, with his finger on the trigger. Like a maniac, he roars, “Fuck it. No more games. No more lies. It’s time for you to die.”
“Stop!” the man from the corner roars, stepping out of the shadows and thwarting Cayde’s execution by mere seconds.
Declan swivels around, pointing his gun and pulling the trigger without hesitation. At the exact moment that Declan’s gun barrel explodes with a flash and a bang, multiple gunshots reverberate from the gun aiming at him, briefly illuminating the face of the shooter. My heart stops completely as tears cascade down my cheeks. “You will never harm another person that I love, again.”
My chest constricts agonizingly, trying to get m
y heart and breathing to restart as I glance from the dark blood gushing out of the bullet wound in the side of Declan’s neck, up to the face of my, aged, but very much alive, father.
“This isn’t over, Brendt…” Declan gurgles, blood oozing from his dry lips. The light in his eyes fade, but he forces out one last threat. “We will break her…”
“I will protect my daughter until I’ve taken my very last breath.” Brendt steps closer, hovering over his brother’s crumpled and now dead body.
Blood from my head wound seeps into my eyes, blending with stinging tears. As unconsciousness captures my mind, my savior crouches down, scoops me into his arms and promises repeatedly, “It’s okay baby, I’m here now. You don’t have to fight alone anymore. Daddy’s got you.”
Because of how out-of-control my life has felt for so long, which was apparently caused by these people, renewed anger melds with my determination to break away from this dead-end scenario and I react on instinct. In one swift move, I lunge out of his grasp and release thirteen years of pain against my father’s chest violently.
“Leave me the hell alone,” I wail, pummeling with every bit of strength that I have. “I hate you, I hate all of you!”
Another set of hands spin me around, forcing me to break off my attack. “Stop, Breesan,” Morgan yells, drawing my flailing fists against his chest and wrapping me in a hug. “Stop, love.”
Brendt stumbles and falls roughly down onto his knees. Cayde runs to my dad side, kneeling and wrapping her arms around him. With a gravelly voice, she informs him, “He had me prepare those vials for Candy and Wren. It was a lethal dose.”
“Declan…drugged her…” With pain in his eyes, while clutching his chest, my dad grunts and wheezes worryingly, “Get her to the hospital…before it’s too late.”
“Hold onto me, sweetness. And don’t let go.” Morgan lifts me into his arms, running through the vertical rain, slicing through our clothing. Carrying me around toward the front of the castle, he doesn’t slow when we spot a figure standing in the shadows up ahead. As we approach all of the air in my lungs stalls. With my arms wrapped around Morgan’s neck, I squeeze and shake him roughly.
With a weighty gasp, I plea, “You have to put me down.”
“I can’t do that, Breesan.” He continues toward the red flashing lights of the ambulance, approaching rapidly up the driveway.
“Please, Morgan,” I beg, looking up at him. “It’s my Anna.”
“I know, love,” he pants, rushing past her. Both of her hands cover her mouth and she turns watching us moving around her.
“Anna,” I yell weakly. My brain feels like someone turned on a heat lamp inside my skull and it’s warming past comfortable.
“I’m here, Breesan,” she cries, pushing tears from her eyes, “Go with Morgan. I’ll be with you soon.”
Gripping him as if my life depends on being in his arms, I sob and peek over his shoulder back at her, “Waverly?”
Anna nods her head. “She’s here, too. We’re okay,” she confirms and I cry harder. They’re okay, I repeat silently.
Tires squeal to a halt, police and medics rush toward me and others run past us heading to the back of the castle. Placing me in the back of the ambulance, Morgan begins telling them about what happened. My eyes refuse to focus and I can feel my chest rising and falling as if I am running in a sprint race for Olympic gold. I hear paper ripping and feel cold hands touch my arms and face while the medic begins rapidly asking me a hundred questions.
With a scratchy, dry throat, I moan, “Marcus.” Morgan ignores me, continuing to answer the medical personnel’s questions. I open my eyes into tiny slits and whisper, “Morgan, where is he?”
“He’ll be here soon,” he replies quickly, refusing to look at me.
“Morgan,” I whine softly, causing him to glance down at me. “Is Marcus coming here?”
In a blink of an eye, a micro-expression of sadness shifts across his face. He pulls a grin and then nods his head continuously. “He got a call from Sam. She told him what happened at the club. He knows you well enough to guess that the castle is the only place you would run to. Thank God he was right.” Holding my gaze intently and still forcing a smile, he adds, “Right before we left Granddad’s, he received call and assured me that he would be right behind me. I expect him here any minute.”
His lies sink into my heart, like an anchor dropped into the deepest part of the ocean, reaching for the bottom and digging in violently. After everything that we’ve been through, by now, I would have thought that Morgan would never betray our friendship. Apparently, everyone has their own agenda and honesty plays no part in this devious scheme to destroy me. Whether he is doing it to protect me, or his brother, his lies cut as deep as a flesh wound, meant to kill an enemy. From this moment forward, I will trust no one and will never play the fool again.
Responding with only a slight nod, I allow my heavy lids to drift closed. The foul, thick darkness comes at me from all sides, like a mask shielding my consciousness from the glow of life. I hold intensely to my existence with figurative fists, but the murky beast pulls them easily away and I am lost.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Morgan
“Dammit all to hell,” I bitch, pushing soaking wet hair away from Breesan’s damp, feverish forehead. “She passed out. Is that bad?” I watch the medic, running a needle into the bend of her arm, and cringe at the careless force he’s using. “My God, be careful with her,” I demand before glancing out the back door of the ambulance. Breesan’s father climbs inside and nods at me. The woman who escorted her out of the castle stands outside. The medic moves up front and begins speaking medical terminology to the dispatcher on the radio, telling her that they will be at the hospital in eight minutes.
“Tox disappeared with the girls, Wren and Candy,” her dad explains gruffly and my eyebrows shoot skyward. “They were assigned to watch Anna and you, in hopes to make contact with Breesan.” Knowing that bastard and those harlots, who were pretending to be friends and family, are still out there sets my nerves on edge. He sighs taking the seat across from me and then promises, “But we’ll get them, too. One of them was injured during a struggle in the dungeon.” Anxiety hits me like a sledgehammer. Candy could be carrying my child. “Probably Tox, since he was struggling with his father for the gun, so I doubt he’s in any condition to leave the island. I asked the local PD to check every access and report back if there are any sightings.” Glancing up at me, completely in shock, he suggests, “I’ll stay with her, if you want to ride with your other friends. They’re loading them into the other ambulance now.”
“Thanks,” I answer blankly, nodding my head once and then looking down at Breesan a final time. I hate to leave her, but I need to be with Waverly until her family kicks me out. Twisting away, I shuffle toward the exit and then stop to tell him, “She asked about Marcus.” He pulls his gaze away from his daughter and stares intently at me. “I lied to her, but she knew it. She was very upset before passing out.”
“I’ll take care of her, Morgan.”
“You know where he is, Max,” I claim, my tone growing bitter, “Why didn’t he come help me search for her?”
Shaking his head, he asks, “He’s told you everything?” Narrowing my eyes and grinding down on my teeth, I nod and he says, “There is one more thing that must be done before she is safe. Marcus is the only one who can make it happen.”
“You’re actually going to allow this bullshit?” I insist, growling through clenched teeth.
Shifting his eyes back to his unconscious daughter, he enlightens me, “Ryske is the deadliest drug known to man. If we don’t find the manufacturing location, the world, as we know it, will cease to exist. Do you know how the drugs were being administered to you and your cousin?” Shocked by his question, I shake my head and hold my breath for the answer. “It was dumped into your body wash.” Exhaling, I swallow audibly and scrub a hand over the back of my neck. Fuck me. “You had no clue that someon
e was drugging you because the effects aren’t like other drugs. Usually, the user doesn’t see the results like those around them can. I’m sorry that your brother must sacrifice so much. Honestly, I fought the idea, and I’m only agreeing with it because of his damn persistence.” A small smirk creeps across his mouth. “Just like his sister, when he sinks his teeth into something, he can be quite stubborn. That appears to be a deep-rooted family trait.” He arches a suggestive eyebrow, but I dismiss the jab.
“Why him?”
“He claims to love her enough to give up everything. Do you believe it?” He looks to me for confirmation that I understand Marcus accepts that his love for the beauty, lying on the stretcher, is worth trading his own life.
“He wouldn’t lie about something so important.” I stare at Breesan, looking completely motionless. “She is his world.”
“Then how do I tell a man, who believes that his whole existence rests upon another’s safety, that he can’t do what he feels he must to protect her?”
“He could die,” I counter.
“I get that, son,” He states, averting his eyes. “I’ll tell you what he told me, which finally forced me to trust his decision. Love, that is meant to be, can’t be substituted. When you find yours there will never be a stand-in who will unequivocally fill you like the one.” Taking Breesan’s lifeless hand into his he says, “Your brother has chosen to relinquish his very existence, if necessary, to save my child, the one that holds his heart for eternity.” Lowering his head, Max sighs. “I, for one, am more grateful than he will ever know. Even after everything that I did to protect her from their evil, offering my life again won’t save hers.” How does Max play into all of this hell that Breesan has lived through?
Just as I’m about to ask him where the hell he’s been all of this time, the medic interrupts, “Sorry, guys.” He climbs back and straps Breesan down. “We must leave now.”
