by M. G. Morgan
Forget Me Not
Remember Me Series
Book Two
M.G. Morgan
Copyright © 2013 M.G. Morgan
All rights reserved.
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Aidan
Bella haunts me, night and day. The smell of her perfume, the taste of her skin, the sound of her voice. They say there is no rest for the wicked, and I am wicked. Bella is gone and it’s my fault.
There was nothing I wouldn’t do to get her back. No line I wouldn’t cross to hold her in my arms again. No part of myself I wouldn’t sacrifice for her.
But the question remains, will she want me when she knows what I have done? Can she love the monster I’ve become?
Or are we irreparably broken?
CHAPTER ONE
Aidan
The sound of gunshots and shouting filled the sprawling mansion. My feet continued their race, lungs aching for air, heart hammering in my chest. It was beginning to feel like my heart would erupt from my chest and fall still beating to the carpeted floor.
She was here somewhere, she had to be here. Paige had said she had seen her, spoken to her… She was alive, after all this time she was still alive. My brain could barely believe it but my heart, well that had decided a long time ago that Bella would be fine. She had to be. Because if she wasn’t then everything had been for nothing. Everything I’d done over the years would mean absolutely nothing.
Pushing open the double doors, a stretch of corridor lay in front of me. I knew from the layout plans of the house that Christopher’s office sat at the end. I could see the door ahead of me. Fear skittered up my spine. I wasn’t afraid of him. If I saw him and had my opportunity then I would shoot him dead. And I wouldn’t just stop there.
Since he had taken Bella, I consoled myself most nights with thoughts of what I would do to Christopher St James once I got my hands on him. Most thoughts revolved around intricate acts of torture, I didn’t want him to go easy. And then there was the other nights, when I dreamt of how I would save her. He was always there of course… And every time without fail I saved her. In my dreams I didn’t let him lay a finger on her, I always protected her… But what were dreams when the reality was so terrible. I’d failed her. I’d put my stupid job before her. I’d put something meaningless before the woman I loved and I’d lost her because of it.
My pace had slowed. I was desperate to find her, I’d practically torn the house apart looking for her… And now, here I was creeping forward, like a child afraid of what lay in the dark. A coward.
Pausing in front of the dark wooden door I let my hand rest on the handle. Would she still want me? How could she? I’d let her down, I’d let the monster take her, use her, I wasn’t a saviour, I was just as bad as him.
The air whooshed out of my lungs in one long breath as I pushed the door open and stepped into the room. Silence, eerie silence filled the room. If she was here then I had expected there to be some sign… A small noise… A breath… But there was nothing.
My eyes fell upon a shape in the corner and for a second my brain didn’t want to acknowledge what I was looking at. It didn’t seem to make sense, it couldn’t possibly be human?
But something in the back of my mind nagged at me. I’d worked some of Christopher’s cases, I knew what he was capable of. And this had his name written all over it. But I didn’t want to take another step. I didn’t want to walk any further into the room and for my eyes to suddenly make sense of what I was looking at.
Deep down I already knew the answer, but I didn’t have to believe it. I could ignore what my mind was trying to tell me. Couldn’t I?
It wasn’t her. It couldn’t be her. Bella’s hair was blonde. Whoever this was, her hair was dark, black… My Bella had blonde hair. It seemed like such a stupid thing to cling onto but I couldn’t help it. I had to hold onto something. This wasn’t her. I hadn’t let this happen to her.
Her feet and hands were restrained, pinned by the straps that lay across the wooden horse. Her back a criss cross of angry red welts and purple bruises. Blood had trickled down her face, from an open wound that ran from her hairline down the side of her temple. It had dried into a thick mass, clumping her hair and obscuring part of her face from my view.
Christopher was a monster, there was no question about that. How he could do this to another human being? It baffled me. Part of me had already decided that this wasn’t Bella. The part of me that favoured denial. She was obviously somewhere else.
I crouched down and brushed the hair away from the girls face. My stomach rebelled and I just had enough time to fall away from her before I vomited. I hadn’t cried since he had taken her. Until now, I sobbed as my stomach retched.
“Bella, sweetheart? Can you hear me?”
Scrambling on my knees I touched her softly, it was enough to make her whimper a sound that ripped through me, tearing my heart from my chest. My fingers shook as I unbuckled the straps that held her legs in place. The bruises that covered her body blurring together into one giant wound. I unstrapped her hands and she slid from the horse into my arms. Limp, lifeless. Tears slid from her eyes and it was the only thing I had. The only sign that she was still in there.
It broke my heart to see her like this. He had obviously tried to destroy her. She had risked herself for Paige.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid.” I murmured against her hair as I cradled her in my arms, my lips pressed to her forehead. “I was coming for you. If you had waited just a little longer. Bella, sweet, love, I was coming for you, why couldn’t you have waited?”
She gurgled and jerked in my grip, her entire body seemed to convulse and then there was nothing. Silence. I’d felt her breathing, held her body and felt a heart beat and now there was nothing.
“No, no, no, no, no. Not now, don’t you dare, not now! Not now I’ve found you. I found you, Bella, I’m here.”
My voice grew louder, more and more desperate as I pleaded with her to stay with me. I had found her, I was right here with her and she needed to stay with me. She had to let me save her. I laid her on the floor carefully and pressed my ear to her chest. There was still nothing, no sound, no breath. I wanted it to be like one of those stupid romantic films she used to love to watch. The moment where everything seems lost and then as if by magic, it’s all turned around and they get to live happily ever after.
Tilting her head back I sealed my lips around her mouth. The coppery taste of her blood filled my mouth as I pushed air into her lungs. I needed her to breathe, I needed to keep her alive, at least until someone came to help us…
Clamping my hands together I started chest compressions. But she was so small, so fragile, and I was such a brute, a monster, that the moment I started I heard the tell tale crack of bone as her ribs broke.
“Bella, sweet, breathe, come on for me, it’s Aidan… Please don’t leave me, not when I’ve found you… Not now I’ve finally found you…”
But this wasn’t the movies… She didn’t splutter suddenly and look up at me, love filling her eyes as she realised it was me. There was just nothing but the sound of my ragged breaths as I tried to bring her back. She was mine… I wasn’t going to let her die on me.
The sound of running footsteps in the hall had me hollering for help. My arms were beginning to tire but I couldn’t stop not now. Not when there was a chance.
“In here, we need hel
p in here!”
I had a second to glance over my shoulder and watch as two paramedics came through the door. One of them immediately jumped on his radio, calling out commands and instructions as the other kneeled on the floor next to Bella.
“She just stopped breathing. I took her down from that… thing…” The words caught in my throat as I caught sight of the wooden horse again. “She seemed to convulse and then stopped breathing.”
“Right, sir, if you let us take over, assess the situation?”
“I think I broke her ribs.” I blurted the words out, if they were going to save her then they needed to know everything.
“Don’t worry about it, that’s perfectly normal.”
The medic who had given orders on the radio crouched down next to me and began pulling instruments from his case. I watched on as they started to work on, as they tried to bring her back from wherever it was that she had tried to go…
The air seemed heavy, almost unbreathable as I watched them. I needed to tell her that I still loved her, that I couldn’t live without her. I didn’t have a life without her in it. Standing I glanced around the room and anger swelled within me. How long had she been here, strapped to that thing as her body slowly gave up? What sort of a monster was Christopher that he had beaten her practically to death?
More people crowded into the room and suddenly they were hoisting her onto a stretcher. I tried to get closer, to hold her hand, to just be with her but strong arms held me back. I fought against them, fought them with everything I was worth.
“Let me go! I have to be with her, she has to know that I found her. I want to be there when she wakes up!”
“Sir, calm down. They’re doing everything they can but you need to let them work…”
I broke free of his grip and followed them down the hall of the mansion.
“We’ve got a pulse.”
Such simple words… And yet it was enough to drive me to my knees. She hadn’t left me… I wasn’t alone. She had a pulse. I buried my face in my hands and I cried, I cried like a small child and I didn’t care who saw me. All I needed was the tiny glimmer of hope that one day I might be able to make it up to her… That one day she might forgive me… That she might still love me, even after everything.
Hope. It was enough to bring a man to his knees.
CHAPTER TWO
Bella - The Past
The stone was cold beneath my face. Cold and sticky. Wet. Confusion washed over me, swamping my thoughts. Where the hell was I? A stone floor wasn’t right, I didn’t have a stone floor in my apartment and for that matter neither did Aidan. I opened my eyes slowly, a tiny sliver of light crept into the room from underneath the door. Everything else was dark, so dark, and cold. The room smelled odd, like copper and decay. But as hard as I tried I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
Pushing against the floor, my hands slipped a little across the wet stone. I tried to sit up, the sound of rattling chains and the feel of cold metal against my ankles caused panic to creep up my throat. It echoed around inside my mind. I opened my mouth but no sound came out.
Christopher, he had done this to me. I pressed my face into my hands as my head began to throb. My mouth felt dry, as though I’d spent the night chewing on cotton wool. I remembered the sharp scratch on the back of my neck and the small syringe. But I had no idea about what they might have injected me with.
Aidan, I needed Aidan. I’d needed him to come home and find me but he hadn’t. Where was he? Was he safe? Christopher had said Aidan had been a naughty boy? What did that even mean? Had he hurt him too? The thought of Aidan, hurt or worse made my stomach clench. He had to be alright, he had to be safe.
Cringing I tried to stand, my body felt sore and abused, once I was unconscious they obviously hadn’t cared how they treated me.
Prisoner. The word stood out in my mind and it was true. I was obviously his prisoner but maybe I could get away… Maybe I could beat him. I felt along my leg until my freezing fingers found the cold metal of the ankle bracelet I wore. I felt all around the edges, searching for some sort of weakness but there wasn’t any. I trailed my hands down along the chain and it was solid, heavy and thick. I followed the chain until my hands met the stone wall where it was buried. There was no escape, not from here…
Panic flared inside me again and I struggled to squash it down inside myself. I wouldn’t let him beat me. Panic led to mistakes and I knew I was in deep enough that any mistakes would cost me my life.
The sound of footsteps on stone had me cowering back in the corner. I pressed my body as far back against the wall as I could, and still it didn’t feel like enough. The footsteps paused outside the door. I could see the shadow of someone moving beneath the door. My breath caught in my throat as I waited for them to come and kill me… Or… I had no idea what they would do to me. I’d heard about the terrible things Christopher was into doing to the women he took… I’d seen Tanya after Christopher had taken her. Whatever was going to happen to me, it wouldn’t be good.
Keys slid inside the lock and I covered my mouth with my hands. I wouldn’t scream, I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of knowing how terrified I was. I had to be strong. Aidan would be coming for me, and I didn’t want to let him down. He would come and get me. He was a cop, a good cop and he would catch Christopher. It was childish thinking but it kept me calm, it stopped my body from overreacting. All I had to do was keep thinking positively…
The door groaned inwards and someone tall and wide was framed in the door. He moved into the room and light fell across the floor. And suddenly all the positive thinking in the world wouldn’t keep me calm anymore.
Red streaks covered the floor. Red. Brown where the red had dried into the stone. I stared down at my hands and they were covered in the sticky crimson. I could feel it across my cheek where I had lain in it. I was covered in it. Blood. It wasn’t mine. No one could lose this much and still be alive.
This time I opened my mouth and sound came out. I started to scream as I stared down at my hands. I screamed until all the air left my lungs. But I couldn’t stop myself, I gasped in a hysterical sob and just carried on screaming.
“Shut, up!” His voice was gruff and his hand rough as he side swiped me across the head. The blow knocked me back against the floor. I slammed into it and quickly tried to scramble away from what lay all around me. It was everywhere. The room looked like a slaughterhouse, and maybe that’s what it was… Maybe I’d been brought here because whatever had happened to the previous occupants would soon be happening to me.
Aidan.
His face popped into my head, his open smile, the way his hand felt in mine, the taste of his lips. If I died here like an animal I wouldn’t ever get to see him again. I wouldn’t get to tell him how much I loved him, how much he meant to me. And it felt so wrong. It was wrong. I deserved my happy ending, I deserved my prince charming. I didn’t deserve to be murdered by some psycho. I couldn’t let him do this to me…
The stranger that had hit me moved closer, his hands working the cuff on my ankle. The moment I felt it pop open he moved up over me. His breath smelled of tobacco as it fanned across my face. He grabbed me with a hand so huge it could have wrapped almost entirely around my waist.
“Pretty little thing, pity you’re so grubby.”
“Please, you have to let me go. You can’t do this to me, please…”
My pleas fell on deaf ears as he dragged me from the room and down the corridor to another stone room. This one was clean, or as clean as it could be. The sight of a metal table in the corner drew my eye. It instantly reminded me of the metal gurneys in the hospital morgue where I had done some of my training, and it filled me with terror.
Struggling I lashed out, every fibre of my being telling me that whatever was coming, I didn’t want to be a part of it. All my struggling did was make the stranger half dragging, half carrying me, laugh. He swung me up into his grip and slammed me down against the cold metal table. The sho
ck ricocheting up through my body. I did the only thing I thought might help, feigned unconsciousness.
He studied me carefully. I could practically see the cogs turning inside his head as I watched him from beneath lowered lashes. He picked up one of the leather straps that hung down from the metal gurney and continued to watch me. I didn’t give anything away. Instead, I lay there, perfectly still as my heart tried to hammer its way out through my ribcage.
With a shrug he dropped the strap and made his way around the gurney and over to the other side of the room. I continued to lie still, listening to him work, banging metal objects around. Each time he made noise I felt my heart practically stall. All I had to do was wait my opportunity, once it came I was out of there.
He turned and made his way slowly back to where I lay. I watched on silently as he pushed the gurney across the room to where he had stood working. It was warmer there, and the heat slid inside my freezing body. But it didn’t matter, I was too terrified to feel anything nice.
His hands fumbled with the button on my trousers and I felt my entire body stiffen. I didn’t want him touching me, never mind unbuttoning my jeans. He got them open and began to work them down over my hips. I couldn’t stop myself from moving and he froze over me.
“Waking up are you? I think you’d have preferred to be unconscious for this next part.” His voice was gruff. Although he seemed to be addressing me, I could tell from the tone in his voice that it was more for his own benefit.
He peeled my trousers down, until the lower half of my stomach was revealed and then he turned away. This was my chance, I wasn’t going to wait for him to make his move on me. I rolled off the metal gurney, my body hitting the stone flags, the impact jolting through me.
“You sneaky, bitch.” He snarled at me as he turned.
In one hand he held a metal rod, the end furthest from him was flat and held some sort of symbol or design that I couldn’t make out. But I knew what it was. He waved the brand at me as I braced myself against the metal gurney and pushed with everything I was worth. The table groaned, the wheels turning on the ground until they gained traction. I slammed the table into his body, knocking him off balance and driving him back against his work station.
