by Sara Schoen
“Maybe we aren't so different after all, Miss Night,” was all he said before his laughter faded. He sat down on the edge of his desk to stare at me, and for a while he didn’t say anything. We just stared at each other as if he was sizing me up for something. To see if I could handle what he was about to say or if I could be trusted, I should have known it was just so he could see the light leave my eyes when he asked his question, “Do you know why I had no problem killing your family?”
The breath caught in my throat, and my body tensed when his words met my ears. I could see from the gleam in his eye that I had reacted exactly like he wanted me to. There had been something he’d seen that pleased him, but he didn’t continue right away. There was an expecting look that he wanted me to answer, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of an answer. I kept my mouth shut, watching as his expression slowly became more agitated then the last. I wasn’t following his rules, I wasn’t playing into his game, and soon his anger would match mine.
“I killed them because your father and I had a rivalry for years,” he eventually said, realizing I wasn’t going to give in and answer him. “He took the love of my life, your mother, and would be a tyrant towards me during the years of schooling we had together, but the joke was on him. And just like most misunderstood kids in high school and college, I became a big business man and I became rich from it while he didn't.”
“That's a long time to hold a grudge,” I said, eyeing the small strands of grey in his hair.
“Someone seems to forget that she came here because of a grudge,” he retorted before continuing his spiel. “I was hired by a high ranking employer because your father couldn't keep his hands out of others' business, and had found certain, should we say, unfavorable acts by high ranking officials while he was working. There would have been scandal from the dangerous procedures the man used in the factories. To put it into perspective, each time a worker went into that building, they were losing two years off their life. He cut corners in everything and the chemicals he used were perilous for humans to breathe in, but business says we move forward no matter the risk.” Ash looked pleased with himself the further he got into the story, the smile was deepening and the pride swelled in his eyes. It made me sick. “And your father, he was going to take it to the news broadcaster. They honestly would have done more than the police, which was smart of him, but he didn't account for someone doing anything to make sure that information didn’t leak. They didn't want the news getting out, but they couldn't touch him without starting a whole new scandal, so they had to make him have an accident.”
“It wasn't an accident,” I said, letting a growl erupt from deep in my chest that surprised me. My anger was getting out of control, Rum had warned me it could be a downfall, but I couldn’t control it anymore. He was purposefully pushing all the buttons that he knew would make me angry, and he was enjoying it.
“It looked like one and that's what mattered. He would never be able to tell anyone what he found, I got revenge, and I got paid. It was a good ending for me, wouldn't you say?” he asked with a wink.
He was baiting me again, I knew it. That story could have been a total lie; he was telling me what he wanted me to hear. He was waiting for me to lose control, waiting for me to explode with anger so that he could call it self-defense if anyone asked questions. I was ready to lash out with more than just words, but I couldn’t. I was tied up, unable to do anything except fight with words. I still had to be careful because my words could be the death of me if I wasn't vigilant with how I responded. He could overreact and kill me, and right now I wanted nothing more than to live to see tonight so I needed to tread cautiously.
“So as you said, you would have no problems killing me, just as I didn't have any killing him, nor will I have killing you.” His hand went to the knife that was kept in my pocket. He took the time to slowly withdraw the blade from its sleeve and eyed it carefully, before he pressed it into my neck with enough pressure for me to feel it, but not cut me. A cruel smile curled onto his lips as he leaned in and ask, “Are you ready to die?”
“Not really,” I said honestly. “I've stared down death before and I chose not to do it, I can do it again.”
“Not when I'm done with you. It's a pity though, you look so much like your mother. I think killing her is the only thing I regret, but I won't regret this.” The knife pressed deeper into my throat until I felt the skin tear. A scream tore through my throat, ripping the lining apart as he made a quick slice through my skin. “This is what I wish I could have done to your father. So he could feel the pain he put me through, he got off easy if you ask me,” was all he said before a fist plowed into my stomach and crumpled me over in my seat. “But you won’t.”
Chapter 32
The knife slashed through my skin with ease, allowing my blood to flow freely from the fresh cut. I felt a cold touch sweep through my body as the blood trailed down my face and dripped into the corners of my eyes. I tried to tilt my head and blinked repeatedly in an effort to keep the blood away from my eyes, but it was growing difficult. He had taken a particular interest in my face, probably because as he said I looked like my mother, but that hadn't stopped him from piercing my skin with the blade of the knife he had stolen from me or the blows he had pounded me with previously. There was nothing to stop his attacks, because to him I was a mark, and nothing more. I was that last piece of the puzzle, and most importantly I was the daughter of the man he hated. That meant that there wouldn’t be a way out, eventually he would get rid of me.
After his speech about his hatred toward my family, well mostly my father, Ash had taken the time to beat me into submission so that I wouldn't fight him anymore. There was a constant pain over my body that prevented any quick movements as I was trained to do, but I was slowly building up my strength again, and he would regret this once I could move freely. I had to choose my battles and so far this one had been an unwilling loss, but I could wait. Sometimes that was all anyone could do, wait for the right moment. He was going to wait until I begged for life, and I was going to wait until he got bored with me, then I would strike. Only one of us would get what we wanted, because the other would be dead on the floor after we got it, I just had to wait for the right moment.
“What did you think you were going to get out of this little trip, Sara?” Ash asked as he cleaned my blood from the knife with the edge of my shirt. He had done it after every cut, and his cuts, while painful, were shallow. It showed me he was in this for the torment, and nothing else. It was his way of trying to keep the mess off the floor, and control what happened while we were alone. He was being careful, watching every twitch and move I made. I just had to wait for the right time to strike, and hopefully I could make it out of here with only a few cuts and bruises. “Did you think you'd come here, kill me and then leave without any trouble?”
He waited for me to answer, and it was becoming clear after enduring his line of questioning for so long that if I didn't answer I would either be punched or slashed until I gave in. “A girl can hope,” I said weakly, letting the snarky tone of my words to sink in.
Ash ignored my remark and continued as if I had brought up a new conversational topic, “Where's your backup? Is there someone outside for you or was that you making my men run around the grounds?”
“It was me, I'm fast, just not fast enough, clearly.” A short sarcastic chuckle left my lips just before he punched me in the stomach. The sudden attack had caught me off guard, the air left my lungs in less than a second. A single tear raced down my cheek as I was fighting for a breath. I curled over in my chair, but the air only came in short spurts, while I choked on the minimal oxygen I was getting into my lungs.
“I don't enjoy liars, Miss Night. You wanted something out of this trip. The answer isn't that you weren't fast enough to escape. It was that you wanted to save the other families,” he asserted. This time he didn’t wait for me to answer because he already had his answer. “I saw how my filing cabinet was suddenly e
mpty. That alerted me to your presence, but something else had to bring you here, am I right?” His smirk grew as I looked up to glare at him. The air slowly making its way back into my lungs and allowing me to breathe normally again. “And I guess I take credit for that. I killed your family and you wanted revenge, when did it become about the other families though? When you realized they could end up like you,” he asked with a pleased grin lighting his eyes.
“Yes,” I answered curtly, allowing myself to look over at the fire were I had burned the remnants of the files I had managed to shred. He had to have more files somewhere, there was no way he would only have one paper copy of each unless it was for easy disposal after, but he kept files from years ago. I had seen it with some of the completed files, so either he kept them or he was still working on the case in some way. There would be electronic ones, copies, somewhere and those families would always be in danger. There was nothing I could do about that. I should have left, but I wanted to try at least. It hadn’t gotten me very far, and I wasn’t holding my own as well as I hoped I would have been able to. But if I hadn’t stayed, if I hadn’t tried then either way they would have died. “Then I realized even if I destroyed the files, you'd eventually find them. So I had to get rid of you.”
“And how's that going?” Ash asked with a smile plastered onto his face. He knew it wasn’t going well, and in his mind I was already dead.
“It could be going better,” I answered honestly. “But I got rid of some of the files, good luck finding those people again.”
“Not to stomp on your pride, but I have copies.”
His words sent fear and anger through me once. I knew he had copies, but I had hoped and prayed that he didn’t and that my sacrifice wasn’t a total loss. There had to be something I had done right today. I tried to convince myself that I couldn’t have committed a suicide mission by coming here, but when he removed a flash drive from his desk and showed it to me with a sickening smile I felt my stomach drop. They had been backed up and my attempts to save them hadn’t helped, but they were going to get me killed. He placed the flash drive on the desk with a large grin on his face as he approached me again.
“Well, I would hate for you to die and not know what I have planned after your act of attempted heroism. So let me tell you what I'm going to do once you're dead and buried where no one will ever find you,” his voice whispered in a dark tone that sent shivers down my spine. “I'm going to go to each of those families you weren't able to shred first. Kill them all and only leave the youngest child alive. I will find all the families again, and leave them all to become exactly like you. Suicidal, and choosing to risk their lives for a revenge they could never have. You only made their suffering worse, and you’ll be the reason they are dead.”
I felt bile rise in my throat as he spoke. Those families were going to die, and the youngest was going to be left alive just to suffer. The fear, the depression and the feelings of being unwanted, a burden and feeling that they killed them. No one deserved that, no one could live like that without living my life over again. They wouldn’t be able to handle it, they may not be given the chance I was. There was an anger boiling in my veins that was threatening to erupt at the wrong time if I wasn't careful. Those families, that child, and the pain; I would suffer in my grave if I let that happen, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I was trapped, I was going to die first and the cycle was just going to repeat itself.
“They will learn about me, I will make sure of it. Maybe one day one of them will try to find me, but I will always be one step ahead of them just as I was for you. Then I will tell them the same thing you’ve heard, and proceed to get rid of people that need to be taken care of for the file. I will make sure they know it's all your father's fault, that you came here. I will let them know you fought for them, tried to save them, but I will also tell them how you let their families die because you couldn't kill me. I will do my best to make sure it's a girl that lives in the accidents, they are so emotionally unstable, and it makes so much entertainment for my men while watching them. It's a pity that boy broke up with you, watching his heartbreak would have been enjoyable, almost as much as knowing you were going to kill yourself for me. I wouldn’t have needed to get dirty about this job then.”
His words sent a chill through my body that froze my anger to ice in my veins. He knew what he was going to do to those kids because he had been watching me. They had been watching me for who knows how long, known what I had done and had been about to do, and even cheered for the worse outcome to come true. When it didn’t come true it wouldn’t matter to them anyway, because they would get rid of me eventually and now they would do it to others as well.
“It was poetic justice that I was the one paid to kill your father and family,” he said, an edge in his voice that had my skin prickling in fear. “We have more in common than you think, Miss Night. There is something about you that reminds me of, well, me growing up. The darkness in your soul, the dead look in your eyes that are only brought to life at a new challenge or the thought of revenge. And let's not forget that we both know how to hold a grudge.” He chuckled lightly under his breath before turning to me with a wicked smile. He knew that what he was about to offer, I would never take and that he would finally kill off the entire Night family because of it. “We could work together, if you behave and accepted under my terms.”
“As gracious as that sounds, I have to decline,” I said with an over-exaggerated politeness and southern accent that made him glare at me with pure annoyance.
“Pity, I was hoping to move this outside so I didn't make a mess of the room. I liked this office too much to do it in here, but I guess now I don’t have much choice.” His hand moved suddenly to his waist and before I could blink a hard piece of metal rammed into the side of my head. There was a click that reminded me of revolvers in movies, just as the round spun into place. “Hope you've said your final good-byes, Miss Night. I’m going after your precious Rickers first, and I will make sure to leave the youngest boy alive. Just for you.”
His words sent a new heat through my veins at the mention of my brother and family. I was shaking, not from fear as Ash probably would have wanted, but from anger. It was time, I wasn’t going to die and not try to protect them. They had done it for me for years, and now it was time to repay them. It was time, and I was either going to live or die, but if I died then more people would just because I wasn’t able to win here. That was more than enough to fight for, and thanks to Rum, Demon, Sharp Shooter, and everyone else at the agency I was going to have a second chance to beat him. My training was about to pay off, and I was going to win or die trying.
Chapter 33
“You could have worked with me,” he said again, as he took hold of my chin so I was forced to look at him. It was as if he was just wasting away the minutes, in hopes that I would change my mind and he wouldn’t have to dirty his office. Although something told me there was a darker meaning to his taunting, something I hadn’t seen yet. “But you chose not to. That’s your fault, not mine.”
It started to sound like he was trying to convince himself that it was my fault that he was going to kill me. Even though we both knew that he would have killed me eventually. He had followed me after my parents died, had plans to get rid of me, and was threatening to kill my adoptive family. He just didn't want to make a mess of his office or he thought he needed help and didn’t want to admit it. If I had agreed to work with him, his men would have taken care of me when I tried to escape. It had been a worse idea to go with him and face more people than just Ash. One-on-one was a fifty-fifty shot, one-on-thirty would have been almost impossible for me to beat.
I pulled back from his hold as he took in the features of my face. There was something about the way his eyes scanned me that caused my skin to chill with goosebumps. I took it as a welcoming sign, I had always been told that fear was going to keep me alive and now, I just hoped it was right. My father use to say that fear heightened the senses, and y
ou were forced into high alert. It made everything you needed to do in order to stay alive a second nature, an instinct. As he continued to talk, I fought to keep the smirk from curling onto my lips. Demon's skill training from over the years, and Rum’s intensive training was going to give me the edge I needed, and in this moment I couldn't be more thankful for it. I had waited, been patient, and spent my time wisely. Soon he’d realize I wasn’t the helpless girl he made me out to be. I was trained and skilled in aspects that he hadn’t paid attention to while watching me. He hadn’t seen me practicing, and now I could show him that it was a mistake to be alone with me.
One of the last things Rum had taught me seemed useless at the time, but now it was going to save my life and countless others. She and Spit Fire had spent the extra time to teach me how to get out of bounds when I didn't have a knife. They had given me a lesson that meant working with what I could or with just my hands. We had gone through multiple different ways I could be restrained from rope to zip ties, and while some were difficult I had gotten lucky that his men had chosen a rope for restraining me. I only had to worry about my hands because they had decided to not waste their time restraining my ankles, but they underestimated me, and that would be their mistake. I just had to keep him talking. The longer I kept him talking, the more I was able to work on the knots that kept me tied to the chair.
“How does it feel?” he asked me as he placed the gun to my temple.
I glanced at the knife he had taken from me and placed on his dark wooden desk after he pulled the gun out. I guess he didn’t see the use in a close combat weapon when he could shoot me from two feet away with ease. I slightly wished that I still had it so I could escape quicker, but I just had to wait it out; the knots were almost loose enough for me to slip my wrists through. When I didn't answer he jammed the metal gun into the side of my head. The pain swelled in my head as my vision blurred slightly due to the blow of the weapon. I had to have a concussion, there was just no way I didn’t after this. A groan escaped my lips, one I had been holding back so he wouldn't know I was in pain.
