There’s so much blood.
I know I’ve seen this kind of injury before, but I never imagined I’d see it on Merc.
The color hasn’t drained from his face just yet.
I refuse to let him die.
So, I rip off my shirt and press it hard against the wound to staunch the bleeding, then wrap my jacket around his body and tie it nice and tight to hold everything in place.
“Evan, leave me,” Merc insists.
I can already see the blood seeping through his shirt.
I have no first aid kit.
It takes a moment for me to realize I have two options: I can engage all the guards continuously shooting us, or I can leave Merc behind and escape.
Then I hear something flying through the air, tumble to the ground, and land about a foot from us.
The blinking grenade signals that I’m out of time.
40
Aidan
April 22, 2018
In all my years of being a cop, I was always glad to be out in the field when I became a detective.
I was on my own, I could stay at my desk all day if I wanted, then go out and find the bad guys and bring them justice.
Justice was my emotional crutch, and chasing after Elizabeth Darlington all those years held me together.
After the divorce, after my daughter went missing after my ex-wife decided that she hated me so much she remarried and moved across the country with my boys, none of that mattered, because I had a purpose.
These days the pain is less intense.
I talk to my boys on the phone regularly, and the matter of my daughter’s death has dulled.
The sharp, debilitating panic attacks have gone, and my ex-wife and I have become civil, for the sake of the boys.
When Noah Stone got me involved in this mess, I was ready to fight back, I was prepared to face Elizabeth.
Now, the prospect of Elizabeth still being alive, and the knowledge that the complete version of Elizabeth I’ve built up in my head might be a ruse leaves me stunned and angry.
Stunned that I could’ve been tricked, all these years, without a discovery like this.
Angry that I didn’t see something like this coming.
I willingly and without knowing, put the wrong woman in jail.
Then, I watched her escorted out of prison, and vowed to get justice when I found out it was a ruse.
I’ve held so tightly onto my vendetta, now that it’s almost over, I can’t fathom what’s going to become of me.
It’s such a typical tale, the wounded cop gets justice and doesn’t know what to do with his life.
Fuck, I’m pushing forty, and I have nothing to show for myself except for the big, fat pay cheque that Noah puts in my account every month.
“Stairs,” Levi says.
“Do we go down, or do we stay up here?” I ask him.
Neither of us knows which way to go.
“If we had a map, with little x’s and a path leading to the treasure, that would be great,” Levi quips.
I laugh a little.
The floor at the bottom of the stairs looks wet, and I wonder how far down precisely this facility goes.
There’s only got to be so much space before it takes on water.
“I’ll bet half the facility is flooded,” I tell Levi.
“And if half of it is flooded, I’ll bet Aunt Lizzie is down there,” Levi surmises.
“It’s a fair assessment,” I say.
I try to weigh the pros and cons in my head.
If we don’t rescue Elizabeth, then this was all for nothing.
I’m tempted to just walk away now, out of this shit, and be gone forever.
The rage is all-consuming at this point.
We take the metal stairs two at a time, the echoes loud as we reach the bottom of the staircase.
The next hallway slopes down, and there’s more water.
“Fuck,” Levi swears.
I think that’s the first time I’ve heard him swear.
“It must be the swells from the storm,” Levi says.
“We’d better hurry then,” comes my reply.
We wade through the water as it gets deeper, until we’re up to our waists in water.
“Okay, now I’m not so sure about this,” I admit to Levi.
A cursory glance at his face tells me he doesn’t look so sure either.
We hear a woman’s scream for help.
“Goddamnit,” I swear.
When I look further down the hallway, the water just gets deeper and deeper with the slope of the floors.
Levi and I continue, more slowly this time as the water continues to pool higher and higher around us.
It’s a wonder the entire facility hasn’t crumbled quite yet.
I wouldn’t want to drown in a place like this, and that’s the only reason I continue down the hallway with Levi: because I wouldn’t wish a fate like that on anyone.
Even Elizabeth Darlington, for all she’s done to me.
Or Lauren.
Or whoever the fuck she is.
At this point, I’m more confused and just want answers.
The screams for help get louder.
“That’s Aunt Lizzie,” Levi confirms.
The water is up to our necks now, and I grab onto the pipes above us, trailing along the ceiling of the hallway to lift myself up, out of the water a bit.
Levi does the same until the hallway slopes up, and we slowly continue until the water is only knee deep.
Doesn’t matter, I’m soaked anyway.
There’s the sound of rushing water, coming from the end of the hallway.
Suddenly I’m fearful for all of us, but when I turn my head, I see iron bars, and the water rushing downwards.
When Levi’s gun goes off, I slip behind the opposite corner of him.
“I’ve got this,” Levi tells me.
“Go,” he yells.
I nod and rush towards the bars.
It’s a pit, and the cavity is filling with water.
A blonde head bobs up and down in the water, treading and trying to keep above the surface.
“Elizabeth!” I call down.
Elizabeth looks up at me.
“Help!” she pleads.
I want to hesitate, walk away, and say that I didn’t see anything.
But the man inside me that wants answers swings the barred door open and looks down.
It’s a steep drop, and if I drop down there, it’s no telling how I’ll get out.
I smash open a nearby glass case with the butt of my gun and pull out the firehose.
It’s just long enough that I can drop it down to Elizabeth.
She looks weak and frail.
“Can you climb up?” I scream down to her.
Elizabeth shakes her head.
She tries in vain to get some purchase on the wall and pull herself out of the water, but instead, she ends up clinging to the hose for dear life.
“Hold on tight!” I scream.
She’s not heavy at all, and I pull up the hose bit by bit slowly, through the water cascading down into the pit.
There’s a roaring in my ears as Elizabeth comes into view and her hand reaches for mine.
Somehow, I take it and pull her into the knee-deep water as she coughs and sputters.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Elizabeth tells me between coughs.
“Are you alright? Can you walk?” Is all I can manage.
Elizabeth nods and pushes herself to her feet.
She’s thinner than I remember, and she looks exactly like Lauren Darlington.
Immediately, I want an answer.
“Are you Elizabeth!” I demand.
“Yes!” Elizabeth cries.
I have so many questions and no answers.
I should leave her here to die is what I should do.
“Get on your knees!” I demand gun in hand.
“Aidan please!” Elizabeth pleads with me.
“Don’t kill me, not yet! You have my full permission to kill me after, but please get me out of this hellhole!” she cries, begging for her life.
I’m frozen.
My finger is on the trigger, and I desperately want to pull it.
“Aidan!” Levi calls my name.
Instantly, I drop my gun and turn around to see Levi out of breath and bent over.
“Come on! Before more guards come and see what we’ve done! We need to make it back to the stairs!” Levi shouts.
I pull Elizabeth to her feet roughly and fish my gun out of the murky water.
She doesn’t protest as I pull her along, with the gun to her head.
“You’re not escaping me, Elizabeth,” I say.
“Not this time,” I finish.
Levi just shakes his head.
He doesn’t say a word to Elizabeth, the woman who pretended to be his mother all those years.
I don’t think he has anything to say to her, and if he does, we’ll be here quite a while.
In the meantime, we’ve wasted too much time.
The downward slope of the hallway we came through has filled it entirely with water.
“We’ll have to dive,” I tell Levi.
I’m no more looking forward to this than Levi is, but I’m sure as hell not letting go of Elizabeth or looking for another way out.
This is it.
Then it’s over.
All of it.
“Hold your breath,” I instruct her.
She nods.
“One, two, three,” I count.
We both submerge under the murky water, and I pull Elizabeth forward through the hallway before pushing her in front of me.
She swims ahead a little bit.
I open my eyes in the murk and the salt water burns.
I need to make sure Levi is behind us.
But, he’s caught on something on the ceiling and struggling.
I move to help him.
Levi shakes his head.
I shake my head back, but he motions for me to go.
Fuck!
Elizabeth!
I swim in the opposite direction, and leave Levi where he is, to surface in shoulder deep water.
Elizabeth hasn’t gone anywhere.
We wait.
And we wait.
But Levi doesn’t turn up.
“Leviathan!” Elizabeth screams.
But he doesn’t surface.
41
Noah
April 22, 2018
“You coming along was a mistake,” Lucius argues with me.
“Mistake or not, I’m here, we’re here,” I tell him flatly.
“Noah, how long are we going to go on like this? Victoire didn’t want anyone to know, she wasn’t ready to say anything, I had to obey her wishes. Victoire and Grace were the only families I have left, the only family I’ve ever been close with,” Lucius explains to me.
“I’m no longer angry,” I confess.
“Just betrayed that you wouldn’t reveal something like that to me? After all we’ve been through, you should know better,” is all I can say to him.
In reality, I believe we are angry with each other.
“You did rescue the twins, and for your help, I’ll be forever grateful,” I tell Lucius.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to bring my father down, to help you,” Lucius says.
“Good man,” I say.
The house built into the hill is entirely untouched.
Where would Olivia be?
The only place I can think to look is in my office.
In a slow, steady creep, we move through the open-concept house as I mentally curse myself for building something with such a public space.
It’s not helpful to us now.
Not that I could’ve foreseen sneaking through my own home, to get to my ex-wife who’s viciously taunted me all these years, even before the divorce.
I always knew Lizzie’s secret.
There was a time when we met up for her to tutor me, and she was quite upset, in tears.
With her eyes bloodshot and red-rimmed from sobbing and lack of sleep, I begged her to tell me what was wrong.
The whole thing just came out on my third try.
I did my absolute best to comfort Elizabeth, because she still had parents that loved her, and so I said all sorts of things.
But the truth was, the only thing she found comfort in was my lips.
Until then, I’d never felt tempted to kiss her.
I was attracted to her, yes, but she wasn’t exactly my type.
Somehow, I was kissing away her tears, and then the fire happened the second our lips met.
It was chaos from then on.
Olivia was easily a mistake.
We met through mutual friends, went on a few dates, and then went away together.
When we were finally alone, she threatened to ruin me with the truth about Elizabeth and Lauren.
She had all the proof she needed, to go the papers, and I’d always done everything I could to keep Elizabeth and Lauren’s secret, especially from Lauren, who to my knowledge had no idea as to the extent of who her real father was.
It would’ve ruined the Darlington’s, and Ava Senior.
Her heart would’ve broken and that woman, Ava Senior, was more important to me than anyone else; even my own mother.
I would’ve done everything to protect her, and I did.
That is not a regret.
My only regret now is that I wasn’t honest with Tinsley about this from the start.
However, how could I divulge the secret that I’d sworn to keep?
A secret that would destroy a whole family?
I couldn’t.
Besides, Olivia was finished with me.
Or so I thought.
We reach the top of the stairs, and I see the light in my office is now on.
“She’s expecting us,” I sigh.
Then, I remember the security cameras in the house all show on the TV in my office.
Olivia knew we were coming.
“Goddamnit,” Lucius swears.
I’m sure we both wanted to just do away with Olivia and get the bloody hell off this cursed island.
The bitch, however, has other plans.
“Darling,” I say to Olivia as I enter my office.
The gun in my hands is pointed directly at her.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake Noah, if you were going to shoot me, you would’ve done it already,” Olivia cackles.
Somehow, I expected Olivia to look different, just as the identity of Lauren and Elizabeth has changed, I was of the mind that Olivia isn’t who she says she is.
I keep the gun pointed at her, without a word.
Lucius flanks me.
“Get up,” he orders her.
“No. I refuse to obey, so why don’t you go ahead, Noah? Do what you know you’ve always wanted to do, kill me in cold blood and let my body wash away in the ocean,” Olivia taunts.
I’ve wanted nothing more than this a few times.
“Noah, don’t,” Lucius warns me.
He knows I’m seriously thinking about it.
“Why did you do all this?” I demand.
“Because I could?” Olivia feigns stupidity.
“Bullshit, I want answers,” I roar at her.
“Oh, come on, aren’t you the least bit curious about Elizabeth? Where is she? Probably dead by now, since that’s where we left her. The minute that little girl murdered Lauren, we had no more use for her,” Olivia sneers.
“And you plan to just pin your misdeeds on Elizabeth?” I ask.
“Oh, dear ex-husband, it’s already done! Once Geoffrey is finished with his little work-up, and presents MI6 with all the answers, we shall be free of this,” Olivia cackles.
“And what?” I sneer back at her.
“You think Geoffrey Whittaker is about to marry you, make you a duchess, give you a life of leisure?” I snort at Olivia.
&nbs
p; “That’s exactly our plan, and you are not going to get in my way again. Imagine the headline now, ‘Noah Stone Lost at Sea,’” Olivia tells me.
“You wish,” I laugh harshly.
“Noah, let’s just kill her and move on, it’s not worth the hassle,” Lucius says.
In the split second I turn to Lucius, to look at him and say that I agree, Olivia darts out the door to the bedroom.
Lucius rushes after her and tackles her to the ground at the top of the stairs before they both go tumbling down.
I run to the bottom of the stairs where Lucius grunts.
Olivia moves again, but this time I’ve got her by the wrist.
I twist it wickedly until she’s standing.
“Darling, I’d love nothing more than to kill you; however, I find that the better option, is to see you in court,” I tell her.
“If you don’t let me go, Noah!” Olivia threatens.
Then, she wrenches her hand away from me.
“I’ll kill all of you, including Aidan, Leviathan, Merc, and Evan,” she continues.
I see the detonator in her hands.
“I die, you die with me,” Olivia sneers her final threat.
42
Aidan
April 22, 2018
When Levi doesn’t resurface immediately, I turn to Elizabeth who continues to scream his name.
“Shut up!” I scream.
I press the gun right against Elizabeth’s temple, see the fear in his eyes, and the thirst for her blood takes over.
I back her down the hallway.
“Get on your knees!” I scream.
Elizabeth gets down to her knees and puts her hands over her head.
“Aidan, please! You have to know it wasn’t me! I had nothing to do with your daughter!” Elizabeth pleads.
“I don’t care! Don’t you dare talk about my daughter!” I rage over her.
“This time, I get what I want,” I continue to rage.
“Aidan!” Levi screams behind me.
“What are you doing!” he yells.
“I’m taking care of my business,” I tell him.
My eyes don’t move beyond the fear in Elizabeth’s eyes.
I’ve waited too long for this.
Secret: A Stone Billionaire Series Novel (The Stone Billionaire Series Book 5) Page 26
