by Casey Diam
A low tapping sounded from his dress shoes on the tiled floor as he headed for the door.
“Fix what?” I grumbled, but the door slammed shut.
Fuck.
With his rant about ruining his operation, I knew it couldn’t be about Paige, which left one other option—the cops. He knew.
❧
I was sitting and leaning against the wall with my head toward the door when Brad walked in. Could have been an hour, but having a grasp on time only made being here worse, so I tried not to think about it because then I would think about food, water, and how badly I wanted to piss while my hands were tied behind my back.
“My brother. Tsk-tsk. What have you done?”
I’d expected nothing less than his sardonic voice, but as a wide, telling smile twitched across his mouth, I knew he’d had everything to do with Connor finding out about what I’d been up to. That led me to wonder how much he did know and how. I’d been so careful, especially with Paige. Fuck, I hoped he didn’t know about her.
Hope.
I shook my head with a low sniff.
After all these years.
Keeping my mouth shut and my stare hard, I watched him pace the room, his phone in hand.
“Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it? The nurse should be here any second. I’m just here for the show. Though her pussy must be done for, the way they’ve been fucking it. I think she gets about five dicks a day, dude. I don’t even want to fuck it anymore.”
I swallowed my disgust as spit diluted the blood in my mouth. He was just trying to piss me off, but I couldn’t react. It was what he wanted. But, fuck, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was true. Because, if it was, it was happening because of me.
The door opened again, and my chest caved in. Stacy Lenard came in with two of Connor’s men behind her. She was naked, her brown hair about her shoulders and her eyes on me. According to Bailey, she was forty-one and had a son in college. I looked to the floor as she tried to shrug out of Dee’s hold. He was one of Alex Connor’s largest fucking men, so the only thing her struggle earned her was a harder shove into the room.
What the fuck does Connor expect me to do? If he knows he is now on the cops’ radar, there is nothing I can do to make that go away.
Brad clapped his hands together. “Finally! Something to get my dick hard while I wait to get my hands on that pretty little blonde. I’m starting to think she might be worth the trouble after all. A new page in my book.” He snickered.
My fists clenched so hard the ropes bit into my skin, no doubt drawing a small trickle of blood behind me.
“Now, that, that I definitely want to fuck,” he continued. “Yo, Dee. Make sure you fuck her in the ass first. I want to watch this bitch bleed.” He turned his head to me. “How about you, bro? Any requests?”
I drew in a long, steady breath. “Stop calling me brother, bro, family. You don’t mean shit to me. You’re a dick, just like Connor, and this is stupid. What is watching this woman getting fucked by this disgusting asshole supposed to do?”
Except make me feel as if my soul is being sucked through a flaming, barbed wire tunnel into hell.
“Nothing.” He walked over and sat a few feet away from me, keeping his eyes on Dee and the nurse. “Just live entertainment, brother.” His mouth stretched into a smug smile as he twisted his head to me. “Might as well have Dee enjoy her before you watch her die, right?”
I blinked, the muscles in my body tensing the same time a yelp came from the nurse. “Please don’t.”
“Bringing back any memories?” he taunted, the smile never leaving his face. When he realized I wasn’t going to say anything, he cleared his throat. “Since you might be here for a while, I might as well give you something else to think about. I know you know Paige. I also know you won’t admit it. But I saw you, and I’ve been trying to pin you down ever since. I have to hand it to you, you’ve been pretty fucking good about staying out of sight. I couldn’t even figure out where the fuck you’ve been sleeping.”
I wanted to ask how he knew, but I also didn’t want to clarify what he thought he knew.
Dragging the heels of his boots to his ass, he rested his arms on his knees and sighed with a slight shake of his head. “I was waiting for this girl to show up. All of Dad’s men were so fucking obsessed with finding her. Then after hours of sitting in my car, waiting, guess what happened? Your car stopped right smack dab in the middle of the road that night, and guess who hopped out? Paige. The one and only.”
That had to have happened before the car accident, which meant it could have easily been the first week I’d met her.
“Oh, man.” He laughed. “You had no idea. Shit, what I was thinking?” He stood. “I shouldn’t be here. If you’re here, it’s only a matter of time before she comes out of hiding. Enjoy the show. The next time you watch one, your little princess is going to be the star. I hope you already fucked her because when we’re done with her...”
Chapter Forty-One
Paige
Pushing Calvin’s car door closed, I strolled through the park and toward the river with doubt tiptoeing up my spine. My period had started an hour ago, and even though I’d taken four ibuprofens, a low cramp lingered in my stomach. My legs were weak, and I felt like shit. The morning’s humidity was making my skin feel sticky, and it wasn’t even 9:00 a.m. yet. On top of it all, I hadn’t slept in about fifty hours, and the last time I had seen Caleb was thirty-eight hours ago. He didn’t know I wasn’t manipulating him to get to his father, and I needed to tell him that. He needed to know I was sorry for making him even feel as if I’d betrayed him. Feeling like shit was an understatement.
I regarded the few people jogging and cycling down the paved path until I spotted the person who’d summoned me here. He was sitting alone on the park bench facing the Charles River, a baseball cap on his head.
I took a seat next to him, leaving my sunglasses on. “Where’s Bailey?”
“She couldn’t be here,” Agent Langley replied, keeping his focus on the river.
“Right.” I swallowed. “So, why am I here?”
His face was hard but weary. Like someone who’d seen too much, been through too much. But I still didn’t trust him.
“I heard her on the phone with you last night...”
I recalled my brief rant to Bailey from the night before.
“You’d rather not sacrifice the life of one girl, so a mass murderer could continue to run around and kill other innocent people! He isn’t going to stop, and he has Caleb.”
I cleared my head as a few errant strands from my messy ponytail tickled my neck. I used a hand to sweep them back into place as I listened to Agent Langley.
“You could help us. We were planning to go about this in a different way, but a lot of details are coming to light that have changed things, so to speak. This has been flying under the radar, and we haven’t had anyone who could get us this close. But you, they seem to be obsessed with you.”
“What do you want me to do?”
I didn’t have to think about it. Every second that went by, Caleb was getting hurt, and all I could envision was him in that dark room again, thinking about how I’d deceived him. I was ready to do anything.
“Get him to talk to you.”
“Who?”
“Anyone.”
❧
A few hours after meeting with Agent Langley, it took everything to quiet my mind enough for a thirty-minute power nap. Anything over, and I would risk falling into a deep sleep. A deep sleep would mean a potential nightmare or an anxiety attack, and I couldn’t be on edge at all for this.
I checked my reflection in the visor inside Calvin’s car, and then I checked the mini microphone taped to the underside of the sleeveless black cardigan I’d thrown over my black camisole.
The sun would be setting soon. Nerves tingled all over my skin, and a low feeling settled in my stomach. I didn’t know how this would turn out.
Am I helping Caleb or putting
him in danger?
“Be careful,” Calvin warned, a stern look in his eyes.
“I will.”
He shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m letting you do this shit. Caleb would have never—”
“Trust me,” I said, my voice calm. “And you’re not letting me do anything. I’m doing it on my own.”
He blew out a breath. “Fine.”
While I waited to hear from the agent sitting inside the gentlemen’s club, I turned my attention to the sidewalk and the few pedestrians walking by. My eyes stopped on a homeless man sitting on the pavement against a store on the strip, his clothes soiled and his head bowed to his chest. I used to wonder how it could reach that point in one’s life where you had nowhere to go. No possessions. No money. No food. But that could have easily been me if Caleb hadn’t taken me under his wings. I still didn’t have much. My grandparents might have gifted me a mansion, but it didn’t belong to me. It felt more like a burden if anything. So I still didn’t want to accept it, but suddenly, I knew what I wanted to do with it. A charity foundation for the homeless. I could have my grandparents sell it and use the money for that, and I knew Mackenzie would help me. She had been good at stuff like that in high school.
An agent’s voice came through my phone’s speaker. I hadn’t met him, but he sounded young. “He’s heading out.”
Hitting the unmute on my phone, I responded, “Got it.”
I quickly dug out the twenty-dollar bill I’d stashed inside my backpack.
As I cranked the door open, Calvin said, “Say ‘Copy that’ next time, okay? You sound amateurish.”
I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.”
I hurried over to the homeless man to hand him the twenty, and then I made my way toward the entrance of the gentlemen’s club. There was a dramatic pause in my steps the same time Brad’s dark eyes landed on me. My mouth formed a tiny O as I feigned shock. He was dressed in a blue shirt with black pants, and he looked five years older than the last time I’d seen him, which was just over a month ago. I reminded myself that the agent had said he’d been drinking, so there was no better time to get him talking.
Starting forward, I stopped in front of him, and with my face impassive, I taunted, “Not in the mood to attack me in broad daylight? Are you scared I might kick your ass again?”
His lips curved up, and his eyes grew mysterious, dangerous. “I would apologize and offer you my hand, but my favorite stripper’s pussy is all over it.”
Ew. What the hell am I supposed to say to that?
“What a shame.” I stepped forward as I attempted to walk away in hopes of furthering his interest.
“Wait.” Though a bit sluggish, he moved into my path. “Have dinner with me.”
“And why would I have dinner with a guy who tried to kidnap me?”
Admit to it, I mentally pleaded.
“Because, Paige, you know who I am, and I’m sure you have questions. So, we can talk over dinner.”
“Oh, I do have questions.”
He smiled.
“But not for you.” I decided the FBI wasn’t the only one who needed answers. I needed answers, too. “Take me to Alex Connor. I have questions for him.”
This wasn’t a part of the plan, but Caleb was my priority. There was no way I would let him spend another night in that house with this kind of opportunity. And, in order to get to Caleb, Alex Connor needed to be taken out of the picture—tonight. Actually, Alex Connor and his men were going down tonight. I would make sure of it.
He cocked his head, and a slow grin extended. “It would be my pleasure. Let me call my driver.”
“It will be just you, your driver, and me in that vehicle. Needless to say, I don’t trust you. But, while you’re at it, call Alex Connor’s men too. I want them present when I get there.” I smiled, though it was so forced, my whole face became tense. “It’s been too long, Brad, and I’m done. So, I don’t care what happens to me after. The only thing I want is to look every one of the bastards who had something to do with what happened to my family in the face. Show me proof that they’re all at the house, waiting, and then I will go with you.”
He looked at me, eyes squinting as he read my face, probably seeing the blatant honesty and wondering how stupid I must be. But this was my one shot. The one night I had to rescue Caleb and destroy the only life he’d ever known.
Tonight, darkness would find Alex Connor, and I was the one who’d take him there.
This would be for everyone he had wrapped around his finger.
This would be for Alaina. Reese. Leanne. David. Olivia and...Caleb.
Chapter Forty-Two
Caleb
The darkness was better.
I had memories.
I had Paige. I regretted not getting the chance to tell her I was sorry for blaming her and for leaving her the way I had. I’d let my fears get in the way of letting her know how much I cared for her. But, still, my recollections of her, of us together, were doing a great job of keeping me company and making me forget I hadn’t eaten in a while.
It had to have been over a day since they had taken me. I’d been moved into the dark room. It was still so familiar. Like in the past, I’d merely woken up to find myself here with my arms and legs no longer bound.
I had water at my disposal in the small bathroom. It had been my saving grace when hunger stabbed at my insides years ago, and it would be my saving grace again.
I inhaled, rubbing at the itch the rope burns had left on my wrists, as I lay on the tiled floor and stared into the blackness. It was better if my eyes were closed because it helped to make this place illusive.
The nurse might not be safe, and they would kill her soon, probably in front of me as a lesson, but it was a relief knowing that Paige was safe. Calvin would look out for her. She wouldn’t have to suffer through what Stacy Lenard had today or worse.
A low beep sounded as someone entered the code that unlocked the door, and I looked over. This was the only time light spilled into the room, and I needed to see it, to feel...hope, ever the preamble to sorrow in my life.
The light came on as Alex Connor walked in, and I closed my eyes from the temporary pain the brightness incited. I hadn’t expected to see him this soon.
Ignoring the pain spiraling through my body, I moved up against the wall and stretched my legs out as I sat.
He paced the room without looking at me as he spoke. “Since you haven’t come up with your own plan to fix this, I’ve been working on it for you. In fact, the only thing left is for you to turn yourself in. You will take the fall for the murder and disappearance of all the people you were so gracious to have had a part in. You will leave out any knowledge of my guys, your brother, and me as being a part of it.”
Like I was going to leave them to hunt down Paige. In his fucking dreams. “I’m not going to jail without you and Brad right next to me.”
“But you are.”
I sniffed. “Keep thinking that.”
He stopped a few feet away from me, and I stared at his shoes, shining like they were freshly polished.
“I see. So, you’re opting to be the reason more people die.”
He was trying to reach me at the spot he knew hurt me the most. My breaking point.
But it’s been too long, and I’m fucking over the games he is still trying to play.
I was older, and I’d like to think I’d grown wiser after discovering all the things he’d kept from me all these years.
“Yeah. I guess I am. Because, now, I know it doesn’t matter what I do. I’m still just a pawn in your world. I could be obedient, or I could tell someone about the kind of monster you are and try to stop you. But it all leads to one thing—people getting hurt. So, why wouldn’t I want to do the right thing and make sure you ended up in jail where you couldn’t hurt anyone else?”
He inhaled, and I looked up into the hatred leaking out of his eyes.
“Because your mother’s alive, and you have a sister, too. I’ll l
eave you in here until you heal. Then you’ll go to the cops and tell them this was all a mistake and that you are the one they’re looking for. If you fail to do that, I will bring your mother and your sister here, and eviscerate them in front of you.”
“Yeah, try again. Like I’m going to believe that, or anything you say. What are you going to do? Raise Olivia from the dead?”
I shook my head. He’d do whatever it took to get me to do what he wanted. I didn’t believe him for a second.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and clicked on a few buttons. Then he turned it to me. It was a camera feed from a room. With the size of the room and how luxurious it seemed, it had to be the inside of a large house. A woman was curled on a chair, a book in her hand. She had long blonde hair, but I couldn’t make out her face.
I shrugged. “That could be anyone.”
He pressed another button on the phone and waited.
“Hello?” a rough voice said through the phone’s speaker.
“Let me talk to Olivia.”
He turned the phone to me, so I could watch as a muscular man walked toward the woman on the chair.
“Your husband’s on the phone.”
My heartbeat sped up as the woman didn’t even turn to the man. She ignored him as if he hadn’t even spoken.
“Grab her by the hair and slap the shit out of her until she gets on the fucking phone,” Alex Connor barked.
My throat dried, and my chest tightened as I watched the man do to the woman as he’d been instructed until her sobs filled the phone line.
“Yes,” she answered, visibly shaken.
Connor brought the phone to his mouth as he hissed, “Is that how you answer the fucking phone?”
“No...hello, sweetheart.” The woman’s voice trembled through the speaker.
“That’s what I thought, but you still haven’t fucking learned,” he snarled.
I cracked my knuckles, causing a pain to shoot through the finger that was still healing from the fracture.
