The phone went dead. Sailor put her cell phone down gently, and steadying herself, switched on the television. Sure enough, Soleil’s murder was breaking news on every channel. A photograph of Bodhi Creed’s now dead ‘girlfriend’ was front and center, along with a photograph of Tim.
Too late, Sailor realized they had forgotten someone in the terror, the horror of Tim’s abduction. Someone who, if they had seen this broadcast, would now be in hysterics.
Tim’s mother. Gemma.
Her legs shaking, Sailor went to find a police officer. There was a commotion at the front door, and for a terrible moment, Sailor thought the press had got in. A moment later, a smartly dressed man with short brown hair and a kind but serious face approached her.
“Miss King?”
Sailor nodded, glancing at the officer behind the newcomer who nodded. The visitor saw her hesitation and reached into his pocket for his i.d.
“Miss King, my name is Evan Teal, I’m an F.B.I, agent and…”
Sailor recognized the pain in his eyes and immediately knew just who he was. “And the man who brought up Tim.”
Evan Teal nodded, and Sailor did the only thing she could think of to do in this situation. She hugged him.
Evan hugged her back tightly. In this situation, they were family even if they had never met before. When they released each other, Sailor led him to sit on the couch with her. Evan ran a hand through his short brown curls. “Sailor, please, just tell me everything. Everything. I called Gemma; she’s on her way down, so for everyone’s benefit, let’s get it all out in the open.”
Sailor had braced herself for the torrent of rage coming her way, but when Claudio and Gemma arrived at the same time, she realized she had under estimated. The grief and anger were all-consuming and entirely directed at her, so much so that by the time Bodhi arrived home, Sailor had been corned by both of them and was almost cringing at the force of their barrage.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Bodhi batted Claudio and Gemma out of the way and stepped in front of Sailor. “Enough!”
Both Claudio and Gemma were silent then. Bodhi turned to Sailor. “You okay, baby?”
She nodded, too stunned to speak. Bodhi turned back to his friend, and the mother of his beloved Tim.
“Stop it,” he said gently, “both of you. This isn’t Sailor’s fault. This is the work of a very, very sick man. Claudio, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am…Soleil didn’t deserve this. She was murdered because I stupidly believed she and Tim were safe, that Sailor was the only one at risk. I should have insisted on them taking a bodyguard, but, from what I understand, they were ambushed by a few people.”
“And my son?” Gemma’s voice broke.
“Our son…our son has been taken, yes. But, I believe he is alive. Bart Foy wants Sailor, so he’ll keep Tim alive as long as he hasn’t got her.”
Gemma sneered at him. “So? Give her to him, what is she to me? What is she worth when Tim’s life is on the line?”
Sailor closed her eyes. Nothing. I am worth nothing.
When Bodhi spoke, the steel in his voice was obvious. “She is the love of my life, Gemma. Just as Tim is. Don’t ever, ever talk like that about Sailor again. Do you understand me.”
Gemma turned away, then exclaimed as Evan Teal reentered the room. “Evan!” She flew across the room into his arms. Evan looked uncomfortable, glancing over Gemma’s shoulder at Bodhi, then Sailor. When Gemma released him, he stepped forward and offered Bodhi his hand. “Evan Teal.”
Bodhi shook it. “Bodhi Creed. Thanks for being here, Evan. Thanks for looking after…” His voice broke, and Sailor went to him, ignoring Claudio’s glowering look. She stroked Bodhi’s back, and he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair. She could feel his silent sobs rack his body.
“Okay,” said Evan calmly, after a few minutes, “let’s all be calm and work this problem through. Shall we sit?”
They were about to sit when another detective came in and grabbed the remote. “You have to see this.”
He flicked on the television and immediately an image of Soleil, bleeding out on the asphalt where she was found flickered on the screen. Claudio collapsed to the floor, batting Bodhi’s hand away, and as they watched in mounting horror, the newscaster told the world about the murder, the kidnapping. A photograph of Tim, obviously taken from a distance, at his school.
“Where the fuck did they get that?”
Bodhi was incensed, but then a moment later, something far worse was shown. A video, taken from an awkward angle, above a familiar scene. Three people. In bed.
Sailor gasped in horror as the television news broadcast the pictures of her being ecstatically fucked by both Soleil and Bodhi to millions of viewers worldwide.
For a long moment, they all froze…then Claudio lunged for Bodhi.
Sailor sat in the darkened guesthouse, watching Claudio and Bodhi argue violently in the main house. After Claudio, had seen the video of his beloved sister making love with his friend, and the woman he blamed for her death, he had gone mad, pounding on Bodhi, who just seemed to take it. After Evan and another cop hauled Claudio off of him, Bodhi had simply got to his feet and turned to her. “Go wait in the guesthouse, baby. You don’t need to hear this.”
She had fled, but now she felt wretched. God, was it worth it? All this horror, this pain?
Sailor pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her face on her knees. How the hell were they going to get Tim back if she, Sailor, was to remain safe? She couldn’t see a way.
Take me, she willed Bart, come take me, kill me, and leave them all alone. She kept seeing the image of Soleil, beautiful, amazing Soleil, stabbed to death. It should have been me.
She started as a cell phone began to ring, and she frowned. Her own cell phone was back in the main house, and there was no land line. Sailor got up, trying to trace the sound of the phone. She walked around, confused until she traced it to the bookcase. She pulled out a heavy copy of Othello and opened it. The book had been hollowed out and inside, a ringing cell phone. She took the call.
“My darling Sailor.”
Her blood run like ice, Sailor heard Bart’s voice for the first time in nearly a year. It sent horror shooting through her; her stomach clenched, her heart beat faster.
“You bastard. Where’s Tim? What have you done to him?”
Bart laughed softly. “He’s fine…a little, how shall I say this, a little subdued, a little traumatized. It was his first time seeing a killing.”
Sailor’s throat closed up, and her knees gave way. She sank to the floor. “You made him watch you kill Soleil? You…” She didn’t have the words.
“What a beautiful woman…what a pleasure to kill her. Now, don’t collapse on me, Sailor, you need to listen to me. Sit back on that couch.”
He was watching her. Of course. That’s how they got the footage of her, Bodhi and Soleil. She glanced around the room, and Bart laughed. “Hello, pretty girl. Yes, Sailor, I can see you. I’ve been watching you for months now, fucking that sleazy rockstar, and the now-dead whore. Well, well, well…you broke the rules, Sailor. You gave away what’s mine. You will have to be punished.”
Sailor went to the corner of the room and scooched down in it so that people in the main house wouldn’t be able to see her distress. “Please…Bart, don’t hurt Tim. I beg you. Don’t hurt him.”
“Sailor, you have my word that I will not harm the child…if you do exactly what I say. If you give yourself to me.”
“Anything, anything. Please just…tell me what I have to do.”
Bart laughed softly. “That’s my Sailor girl. Now, listen…”
After a still-raging Claudio had left to go see his sister’s body and make arrangements, Evan, who Bodhi had warmed to immensely, took a weeping Gemma back to her hotel. “I’ll come back in the morning, Bodhi, if I may. I want to be as much help as I can.”
Bodhi shook his hand, holding his gaze. “Thank you, Evan.
Not just for today, but for bringing my son up to be a wonderful man. I can never thank you enough.”
Evan smiled, a little shyly. “I love Tim, and it was entirely my pleasure. I’m glad you have bonded so well. He loves you, Bodhi, he really does.”
Bodhi tried to hold back the tears, but was unable. “Thank you, Evan.”
“We will get him back safely, Bodhi, if it’s the last thing I do. I swear that to you.”
Bodhi nodded, but couldn’t speak. After they had left, Gemma still refusing to speak to Bodhi, Bodhi went to the guesthouse to find Sailor curled up on the sofa, her eyes haunted. Bodhi sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her. “Well, my beautiful girl…now it’s a waiting game. The F.B.I. want to wait for Bart to get in touch. We already know what he wants, but he’s not going to get it.”
Sailor said nothing, but buried her face in his neck. Bodhi could feel her trembling. “Try not to dwell on what Claudio and Gemma said to you; it came from a place of grief.”
“They were right. This is my fault.”
“No,” Bodhi’s voice was harsh and he made her look him in the eye. “It’s not. It’s the work of a madman, a psychopath. You did nothing wrong, do you hear me? I would not change a moment of time I spent with you. Nor would Tim, nor would Soleil. I am so in love with you, Sailor, you are my world as much as Tim, as much as Soleil was. God.”
“It hurts to hear her name in the past tense,” Sailor said, her voice breaking, “I can’t believe she’s dead. When I saw that photograph of her body…Bodhi, it was like seeing those photographs of Tilly all over again. The way she was killed…exactly the same. Bart has taken every important female figure in my life away from me, my mother, Tilly, Soleil. I can’t help feeling that if I had just given him what he wanted…”
“That’s bullshit.” Bodhi was up now, pacing. “Sailor, I see you murdered every night, in nightmares, I can’t stop them. Stabbed to death like Soleil was...I cannot handle you talking like that. If I lost you…”
“Ssh, ssh, ssh.” Sailor got up and wrapped her arms around him, kissing his mouth gently. “I’m still here, baby, still here…” Her voice broke, and Bodhi gave a groan and kissed her roughly, pouring all his pain into the kiss. He tore her shirt from her and took each nipple into his mouth, sucking hard, biting down on the nubs. Sailor pulled him to the floor and wrapped her legs around his waist as he pushed her skirt up over her hips and tore her underwear away.
He couldn’t wait to be inside her and thrust hard, hid cock straining to be enveloped by her velvety cunt.
They fucked each other hard, almost animalistic, feral, desperate to purge themselves of the sadness that weighted them down. They stayed in the guesthouse, the bedroom in the main house they’d shared for that one glorious night with Soleil, now sullied. A tomb.
In the morning, Bodhi woke up, the bed beside empty. He could hear Sailor in the little kitchenette. For a moment, he closed his eyes and pretended everything was normal, everything was okay. That his son, his Tim, wasn’t being held by a madman who wanted to kill Sailor, that his beloved friend Soleil hadn’t been brutally murdered.
Bodhi sighed, the sadness inside him weighing him down. He stared up at the ceiling, and his attention was caught by the tiniest red-light blinking. He sat up and cursed. Fucker had put cameras everywhere. Bodhi was about to reach up and rip the camera out of its hiding place behind the slatted door of the closet when he heard a crash and Sailor cry out.
He darted into the kitchen where he saw her on the floor, moaning, holding her left arm which he could see straight away was broken.
“What happened?”
“I was trying to reach the other skillet, the one that’s on the top of the cabinet,” Sailor winced as Bodhi gently held her broken arm. “I slipped. Oh, fuck it, fuck it…”
“Come on.” He swept her up into his arms easily, “You need to get to the hospital. Cedars is closest.”
Sailor, gasping with pain, stopped him. “Could you grab my jeans? I can’t go to the hospital in my underwear?”
Bodhi half-smiled. “The doctors wouldn’t mind. Okay, just stay here for a moment.”
As Bodhi went to the bedroom, Sailor very deliberately looking at the top of the oven to the extractor hood and said “Cedars Sinai. Cedars Sinai.”
Bodhi was back almost immediately. “You okay?”
She nodded, and he helped her pull on her jeans and sweater, then dressed himself quickly. They walked out to the garage, his security detail jumping to attention. “We need to get to Cedars…Sailor has broken her arm.”
“Okay, on it.”
Bodhi helped Sailor into the back of the SUV, but then turned back to another man. “Greg, sweep the entire property for cameras and any other surveillance devices. That cocksucker Foy has been watching us; that’s how they got the video of us.”
“Right, boss.”
Bodhi got into the car with Sailor, helping her put her seat belt on. “What a stupid idiot I am,” she said, apologetically. “This is the last thing you need.”
“Could have happened to anyone, baby. Let’s get you fixed up.
Bart Foy watched the video feed in satisfaction. Sailor had executed his plan perfectly. He got a little extra thrill at seeing her hurt…which would be nothing to how he would feel later, her blood on his hands, her lifeless body in his arms. Soon, so soon.
He turned to the man waiting. “Blindfold the kid. We need to get to Cedars Sinai.”
Sailor watched the doctor as he wound the last piece of plaster soaked bandage around her arm. “Now, it’s going to be painful for quite a while. Thankfully, it’s a straight break so you should be okay in time. Are you in much pain?”
Sailor nodded. “A little.”
The doctor smiled at her. “I’ll go get you some pain relief. Would you like me to ask Mr. Creed to come in now?”
Sailor swallowed hard. “Not just yet, I need some time.”
The doctor patted her good arm. “Of course. I’ll be right back.”
As soon as he left, Sailor grabbed every sharp implement she could find, a scalpel, scissors, and darted to the door. She could see Bodhi at the end of the hall, talking to the doctor. Quickly, she sped across the hall to the elevator and pressed the call button. She flattened herself against the wall as she waited then darted in and pressed the button to the basement. In the elevator, she shoved the scalpel and scissors down the side of her still malleable cast.
As the elevator reached the basement, she slipped out and waited.
“Sailor!”
She heard Tim’s voice as he was dragged into the light by Bart. Salem, Bart’s main henchman, aimed a gun at her, and Sailor also saw Udo, the security guard Tim had been scared of. Tim looked unharmed, but his eyes were haunted, and he was obviously terrified.
“Send Tim over, and as soon as he’s in the elevator, I’m yours.” Sailor managed to keep her voice steady.
Bart looked amused, but nodded to Udo. The big man walked Tim over to her, and as they reached her, Tim threw his arms around Sailor and burst into tears.
“They killed Auntie Solly,” he sobbed, and she hugged him tightly, her own tears flowing.
“I know, baby, I know…look, Timmy, when you get in the elevator, press number nine and don’t get out or speak to anyone else. Your dad is up there. Tell him,” her voice broke, “Tell him I’m sorry and that I love you both so much. So much.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Tim began to wail but Sailor, barely keeping herself calm, pushed him gently into the elevator.
“You have to, baby, please. I love you.”
“Sailor!”
She couldn’t bear it any longer and pushed the close-door button. “I love you so much,” she repeated as she heard him wailing and screaming her name. She watched as the elevator climbed to floor nine, then felt a pistol being pushed against the small of her back.
“Time to go, Sailor,” Bart said with a slight edge in his voice, and nodding, she was led to his car, and t
o her certain death.
Bodhi got alarmed when the doctor who was treating Sailor came to see him. “Has Miss King come by here? I can’t find her.”
Bodhi’s heart began thumping. “No…she was in the treatment room…did you leave her alone?”
“Yes, to get some pain medication…where is she?”
Bodhi felt the panic rise up inside of him, but the next moment, he heard the scream of a child, a child screaming for his daddy, and saw Tim rushing towards him. Bodhi ran to sweep Tim up in his arms and hug him tightly. “Oh god, Timbo, Timbo…I love you, I love you.”
“Daddy, my Daddy.” Tim held onto Bodhi’s neck so tightly he was almost strangling him, but Bodhi didn’t care. There was chaos all around him.
“Daddy,” Tim was sobbing, tears and snot dripping down his face, “Sailor. Sailor came and she said to find you and the bad man had a gun and he took her…Daddy…Daddy.”
Bodhi’s blood ran cold, and he closed his eyes. Of course. Of course. Sailor had sacrificed herself for Tim. Why hadn’t he realized? She’d broken her own arm to get here.
Oh, god…
The doctor ushered them into a private room and began to examine Tim. The child wriggled, never taking his eyes off his father. “Daddy, they put a blindfold on me to come here, but it came loose, and I could see, Daddy. I could see the way to where they took me.”
Bodhi gaped at his son as the boy recited the journey back to where Bodhi hoped against hope, they would be able to find Sailor before Bart Foy carried out his promise to end her life.
They hadn’t gone far, Sailor realized, as they drove out of the city. They hadn’t blindfolded her, why would they need to blindfold a dead woman? They arrived at a disused airplane hangar just outside the city.
She was alone with Bart now. He pulled up a chair and sat in front of her. Gently he undid the buttons on the front of her dress and pulled the fabric apart, exposing her belly. Sailor felt strangely disconnected. She was about to be murdered, horrifically, painfully, and yet…
Rockstar Untamed: A Single Dad Virgin Romance Page 14
