“No,” Eli’s rough voice surprises me and I jump, “That woman is sadistic.” I glance over at him and I start to cry. “Don’t cry, little rabbit.” Another sob escapes my mouth. “None of this is your fault. She has got her panties twisted up in a terrible bunch, or perhaps a stick was shoved up so far up her ass that she couldn’t remove it.”
“This isn’t the time to make jokes,” I say as I laugh softly. In the time of trouble, I can count on Eli to make me smile. “I’m sorry, Eli, for whatever I did wrong. I have missed you so much.”
Eli lets out a long sigh, “You didn’t do anything wrong. I just let my ego get the best of me. I missed you, too.”
“If you two are done playing make up, I think it’s best we try and figure a way out of here.” Reid’s voice cuts into the conversation. I turn my attention to him and find him smiling. A smile at a time like this. What is wrong with these guys? “I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m glad you guys are making up. I’m tired of Liza hurting over this, but now is not the time.”
A low groan comes from Eli, and I see the regret in his eyes. “Pretty boy is right. We need to figure a way out.”
I try not to laugh as the two of them, mainly Reid because Eli can hardly move, fight against their restraints. I know the situation we are in is quite serious, and that Heidi can come back at any moment, but watching two big men fight against a chair and some rope is quite humorous. Eli gives up first and I can’t say I blame him. He’s probably got two busted knee caps and that cannot feel good. I try again to fight against the ropes, but my body is aching from the movement.
My head is pounding and where I was stabbed feels like it is on fire. I pulled a couple of stitches out trying to wiggle my wrists from the ropes. Tears sting my eyes, and I bite my lip to avoid crying out in pain. This is useless. We can’t get out of these ropes. These ropes are as snug as they can get.
I give up before Reid, who is still twisting and turning his body every which way he can. The determination on his face says he’s not going to stop. I glance around the room, searching for anything that might help us if we can figure out how to get to it. A glint of sliver flashes in the light, and I remember the knife. I glance over to Reid, and then to the floor where the bloody knife she used to slice him open is still laying. “Reid… the knife.” He looks down at the knife and then back up to me, nodding his head. “See if you can kick it over here to me. If you can, I can try to get the chair to tip over and use it to cut myself free.”
“Let me do it since it’s right next to me.” He starts moving back and forth, building momentum to knock his chair over.
“No, I can do it if you can get it to me,” I say quickly. He stares at me and raises an eyebrow.
“Now is not the time for heroics, Liza.”
“Shut your mouth, Reid.” He smiles, and I shake my head. “I’m just saying that my hands are smaller than yours, and I can maneuver the knife better than you can.” He nods his head, accepting what I am telling him. I inhale a deep breath and hold it while I watch him slide his foot towards the knife. It’s just out of his reach, and he curses. “Calm down,” I say softly. “See if you can slide your chair over a tiny bit.”
For a moment, he stares at me like I am crazy before he decides to go for it. Inch by inch, he makes his way closer to the knife, the carpet making it tougher than it should be. After several long minutes, Reid finally gets himself into a position where he can reach the knife better and get a good kick behind it. He brings his foot back as far as he can and swiftly kicks the knife.
Time slows down as I watch the knife fly up into the air. No one makes a sound, and all I can hear is the sound of our deep breathing. The knife begins to make its descent to the floor, and I watch in anticipation as it gets closer and closer. My heart drops when it stops just short of me. It will be hard to reach, but I figure if I can get my chair on the floor, I might be able to wiggle it towards it. I rock the chair back and forth until I get enough momentum to tip it on its side. When I land, the chair makes a loud thud against the floor, and I cry out in pain, quickly quieting myself and listening for any signs of Heidi coming back to the room.
I lie there for a minute, waiting for the shooting pain to subside in my side, and try to figure out how I am going to reach it. I wonder if I slip my foot out of my flat if I might be able to slip it out of the rope and use it to push me across the floor. Without another thought, I slip my foot out of the shoe and begin trying to pull it free. Unlike Reid, who didn’t have his feet bound for whatever reason, mine were just a few inches above my ankles. The rope tugs against my skin, creating a friction like burn against it. After what seems like forever, I can feel the rope begin to slightly loosen, unlike the one that has my hands tied behind my back.
A few more pulls and my foot springs free. Eli and Reid let out a cheer of excitement and I glare at them for being so loud while stifling back my own excitement. I push my foot into the carpet and use it as leverage to push me forward. It’s working, but slowly. After a few minutes I am right next to the knife, but my hands are behind my back. I use my free foot to slowly turn around while still on the side.
“You’re almost there,” Reid says. “See if you can get the chair to move backwards. The knife is just within your grasp.”
I do as Reid says, and in seconds, I feel the butt of the knife graze against my fingertips. One more soft push off the ground and I’m able to wrap my hands around it. My heart leaps with joy. I’m so close. I move my hands to the best of my ability and get the blade of the knife under a piece of the rope. The position of my hand is awkward and uncomfortable. The rope is rubbing at my skin, and I can feel it cutting it open and stinging. Slowly, I move the rope back and forth, little by little. Just as I cut through the last strand of rope, I hear the locks on the door clicking. I am frozen in place with fear just as the door swings open and Heidi steps through.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“WHAT THE HELL do you think you are doing?” Heidi’s voice vibrates across the room from the door. I lie there, unmoving. I don’t want her to know that I am free. I watch as she walks across the room and wait. Once she is close enough, I pull my hands from behind my back and stand up. The chair is still tied around my foot, and I kick at it until I break free. Heidi’s slow saunter turns into a dead run just as my foot pulls free, and I barely manage to block her incoming blow. She grabs a handful of my hair and yanks on it. I scream out in pain. My arms flail around, trying to reach her and break free. My hand makes contact with her face and she releases my hair.
Now that I am in control again, I stand there waiting for her, slowly breathing in and out. “It’s over, Heidi.”
She throws her head back and laughs. “Not yet. Those two—” she jerks her thumb over her shoulder towards Eli and Reid “are still tied up. So that leaves you and me.” She lunges for me. Clenching my fist, I throw all my strength into the swing. I miss, hitting her shoulder instead. She tackles me to the floor as if my punch didn’t have any effect on her. As she tries to pin me, I struggle harder. I bend my leg, kneeing her in the back. Her grip slips. I seize the moment, bucking her off of me. She lands on top of the chair. A piercing scream fills the room.
“Liza!” Eli yells. “Use the knife.”
I glance at the knife just as Heidi recovers, and when she dives for me, I plunge it into her side. She falls to the ground, screaming and thrashing her body around. I push the knife a little further into her torso before pulling it out. I search the room for something heavy enough to render her unconscious and snatch the lamp off the night stand. I stand above her, and for the first time, Heidi seems terrified. I close my eyes and bring the lamp down against her head. She instantly becomes quiet. I collapse against the ground, pull my knees up to my chest, close my eyes, and rock back and forth.
The vision of my mother comes back. The one where she is blaming me for her death. I’m stuck in the montage of blood and her dead corpse trying to get to me. “Liza!” I can faintly hear my nam
e being shouted, but I am stuck in this nightmare. “Liza… baby… you have to help us out of these ropes.” I finally register Reid’s voice and snap back to reality.
I glance over and see Heidi’s unconscious body next to me, and the knife protruding out of her side. I close my eyes, wrap my hand around the hilt of the knife, and shudder as I pull it out of her body. I don’t open my eyes until I am sure I have crawled past her far enough so that I don’t have to see her. My hands shake as I cut through the rope behind Reid’s chair that bounds his hands. My heart is pounding and my breathing is ragged. I don’t realize that Reid is free until I feel his strong arms wrap around me and pull me close. I open my eyes and gaze up at him. He crushes his lips down on mine. “It’s going to be okay. We made it,” he whispers between kisses.
“Ahem,” I hear Eli clear his voice, “Did you forget I was still here?” Reid lifts one finger at a time off the knife, prying it from my hand, places a kiss on my forehead, and goes to free Eli. Once the ropes have been cut free, Eli doesn’t move. He can’t move.
Reid returns to my side, pulls my face into his hands, and gives me a kiss. “I’ve got to go call for help.”
“There’s a landline in the office two doors down.” He tilts his head and stares at me questionably. “I never disconnected anything in the house.” He raises his eyebrow, and I smile slightly. “Don’t ask.”
Reid leaves the room, I glance at Heidi for a moment and push myself off the floor. I round the chair and stop in front of Eli. “I am so sorry,” I say gently. “For this and everything else.”
“Don’t apologize. We’re okay because of you.” He shifts in his chair and lets out a deep groan.
Eli and I remain quiet while Reid is gone. We don’t say anything else about what has happened today, or the past few weeks. We don’t have to. I know I have him back, and I will never let him go. He’s my best friend, my rock, and means the world to me. Although I have Reid in my life now, no one will ever take his place. Reid and Eli will just have to figure out between the two of them whatever problem they have with one another. They both have a place in my heart, whether they like it or not, and will have to figure out how to work that out amongst themselves as well.
“Reid isn’t as bad as I thought.” Eli breaks the silence first. I smile and nod my head in agreement. “Do you love him?”
“I do. With all my heart.”
“He loves you, you know,” he says softly. “I mean, he like really loves you.”
“I know.” I smile.
“And you’re okay with that?” Eli shifts again uncomfortably in his seat.
“Try not to move around so much. And yes, I am. Okay with him loving me, I mean.”
“What does that mean is going to happen to us?” Eli casts his eyes down to the floor and grips the arm of the chair tightly.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” I stand up, place my hand under his chin, and turn his face so he is facing me. “He’s the love of my life, and you’re my best friend. I have room for the both of you.”
“I love you, too, you know.”
I drop my hand from his chin and turn away. “I know.” That’s all I can manage to say. Until now, I might have never admitted it. But I have known the only reason Eli has stuck around is because he loved me in more than the way of friendship. And while he has never attempted to do anything about it, I always knew. Which might explain why he refused to talk to me when I chose Reid over him.
I love Eli, but not in the way he loves me. He’s family. He is everything that has held me together over the past six years of my life. He’s like my brother. Always watching out for me, even when I didn’t want him to. He is someone I never want to lose. “You have to move on, Eli,” I say regretfully. “I know this is cliché, but there are millions of other women out there who will be lucky to have your love. It just isn’t me. I love you, but you have to find someone who can reciprocate the same level of feelings.”
“Love sucks. I’m never falling in love again.” I laugh and jump when someone wraps their arms around me from behind. I instantly know who it is and pull his arms tighter.
“Ah man, love isn’t all that bad.” Reid says. Eli shakes his head, and I laugh softly.
“Says the man who won.”
The room falls quiet after that. I hate feeling like crap, but I had to be honest with Eli. It’s time for him to move on, in the sense of finding someone new to love, but not leaving me completely. I know it won’t be easy, and that I will have to spend time with him away from Reid for a while. Eventually, he’ll get over it and move on. He has to. That’s the only way we can still be friends. If he can’t, then I will have to say goodbye to him, even if I don’t want to.
The police arrive faster than expected, along with a few ambulances. Reid talks to some officers, giving them the rundown of his side of the story and how he ended up here. From what I gather, he was drugged and doesn’t know much of anything else. I stand off to the side and cry softly as I watch the paramedics lift Eli out of the chair and onto a stretcher while he screams in pain. It’s just as I suspected. Both of his knees are completely shattered, and he is going to need surgery to replace them. Reid rejoins me as they begin to wheel Eli out of the room and sticks by my side as I tell them my story. Starting at the beginning, I tell them about the emails and packages I have received. I tell them about the mystery person who showed up at the cabin, and what happened today when I arrived. I can feel Reid tense next to me as I replay every detail from the beginning. I glance up at him, and he mouths, “We’ll talk about this later.” I know he isn’t happy with me for keeping this a secret, but I know he isn’t going anywhere.
I clutch onto Reid as Heidi begins to stir back to consciousness, and as soon as she is awake, they place her on a stretcher and handcuff her to the bed. They read the Miranda rights to her, and I bury my head into Reid’s chest as she shouts obscenities as they wheel her out of the room. One by one, the police officers trickle out of the room, leaving us alone with the police captain. He leaves his card with Reid and gives him instructions to call if we remember anything else that is important. The captain tells us that Heidi said she hired a homeless man to help her get the men upstairs and that it was all a game they were playing. The thought makes me cringe. Nothing about tonight has been a game.
Once he leaves, the two of us are alone. Reid squeezes me tightly and presses a kiss against my temple. “Let’s get out of here.” I nod my head in agreement. He holds me close as we exit the room and he leads me down the stairs out the front door. As we walk down the driveway, I gaze back towards the house one last time with a new resolve settling in. First thing tomorrow morning, I am calling a realtor and putting the house on the market. Of course, after the police finish their investigation and the house is cleaned out. With the plan set in stone, I am ready to let go of the past and start working on my future with the man beside me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Six weeks later
I WALK THROUGH the halls of the hospital, following the path I have followed every day for the past six weeks. In one arm, I am carrying a bouquet of flowers, against Eli’s request. He’ll get over it, just like he’s gotten over the last five bouquets I have brought him. Every person deserves to have fresh roses next to their hospital bed, whether they are male or female. The scent of chemicals mixed with the roses fills the air. It reminds me of hand sanitizer. Fresh, clean, and germ free. The walls are blinding, the white walls clashing with the white flooring, and it sends my senses into overload. I enter Eli’s room and find that he is sitting up in bed and talking — more like flirting — with a cute, petite nurse. I clear my throat, and the two stare at me; their faces flush and turn a shade of pink, embarrassed at being caught. The nurse says something low so that only Eli can hear, and he smiles. As she walks past me, I nod and smile, and she returns the favor.
“Well, she is certainly cute.” I place the vase of flowers on the table next to his bed and sit down in the boring white chai
r next to him. “This room is seriously depressing,” I say, scanning the room.
“Try being stuck in here for the past six weeks.” Eli shuffles around the bed and tucks a pillow behind his back. “One more week of therapy and I can break free of this place.”
“What shall we do first?”
Eli laughs, “All I want to do is sleep in my oversized, over-fluffed bed and not to be disturbed for a couple days. This bed is seriously the most uncomfortable thing I have ever slept on.”
I laugh and we fall into our familiar pattern of joking, teasing, and just talking. Neither of us have once mentioned the incident with Heidi since it happened, but I have to bring it up. Eli needs to know what is going on. “So… they finally set the hearing.” Eli stares at me and frowns. “Her attorney is going to try to get an insanity plea.”
“Well, the bitch is crazy.”
“True.” I laugh and shake my head. Crazy she most certainly is. I had to change the number for my office shortly after her arrest. Heidi decided she had the balls to call and harass me several times the first week. It got to be too much.
I lean back in the chair, take in the silence passing between the two of us, and reflect on the changes over the past few weeks. The first change was I packed up my apartment and officially moved in with Reid. The next change was I decided to stay in the Romance department and signed my first author. Reid’s uncle tried to give me a promotion as an apology for what Heidi did. He felt as though he is to blame, because he offered her the internship. I refused, of course, because I didn’t want the promotion to come from the terror of what we endured. No, I want to earn it fair and square.
Another surprise, no more harassing emails from Viola. Not one single email. Lawrence finally got his head out of his ass and filed for divorce when he found out that she was sleeping with someone in the Sci-Fi department. He vows that he is not going to marry again and that it will be a while before he dates. We’ll see how long he really lasts. Now that he is single, he will be going through women more than he changes his underwear. The thought is frightening and sickening.
If I Say Yes (Say Something #1) Page 20
