Promised Box Set

by James Kipling

  “I am saying that I can forgive her.”

  “Weakness. It seems to me that all you women make your decisions based on feelings.”

  “I know what she is to you,” she heard Olivia say. “You have been using her since the very beginning. You have toyed with her heart, and that is something I will never forget. Besides, I know when it comes down to it all, she would align herself with me.”

  “You can believe that if you must, but I know the truth. Besides, she has given up on you, and she thinks you just disappeared. She is naïve and very easy to control. She must get that from her father.”

  “Carlisle Castro was innocent and framed. By you making that comparison, it only makes me wonder if you will be setting up my sister the way you did it to him.”

  “The best way to get away with crimes is to let someone else take the fall for you.”

  “Because you and everyone else around you are cowards,” she heard her sister hiss. “If you do anything to hurt my sister, I will make sure that it is the end of you and everyone else.”

  “You will not live to see it,” he leered. “I will not even lose sleep after what I do to her, and no one will be able to stop it. We seem to have traveled off topic. Tell me what I want to know and you will die quickly, otherwise it will be slow and very painful.”

  “I know you would never keep such promises anyway, so I choose slowly and painfully.”

  There was a single gunshot, and it was paired with a scream of sheer agony. Remaining there, Marissa could not move, she could not breathe, and she had no idea what she would be able to do. Every part of her wanted to rush in there and put an end to all of this, but she knew she would not be helping either of them. Making her decision, there was not a doubt in her mind that she had made the correct one.

  ###

  Detective Dawson was sitting at his desk doing his paperwork, and a call came to his desk. He listened to what was said, and he got to his feet. “Bobby, come with me now, will you?”

  He watched the rookie get to his feet quickly, and he followed behind him. Dawson remembered what it was like being on the bottom of the totem pole, but he knew that Bobby was one of the most promising young officers they had.

  “What is going on, Dawson?”

  “One of our patrollers got called in to a disturbance, and he found more than what he was bargaining for.”

  He watched how his expression changed, and he nodded. “What did they find?”

  “A dead man,” he said slowly. “But not the type that end up on Hoffman’s slab.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Getting into the cruiser, he smiled. “You know how you become a ghost, right? You know, the alive sort that no one is able to trace?”

  “Yes,” Bobby said, as he buckled the seat belt before he sat down. Getting in, he shut the door, and they started it up. “Who is it?”

  “Pascal Boukarrout. He is a hit man that emigrated from France to here. He was never working with anyone long-term. He was a free agent who gave his services to those who were able to pay him what he asked.”

  “So when did he stage his death?”

  “Eight years ago, we found a body that had little to nothing left. The only tissue remaining we did a DNA test on, and it came back as him, and to this day we believed he was dead. Now I wonder what poor bastard he killed in order to disappear.”

  “What are you planning on doing?”

  “There are some questions we must ask before we get interrupted by the FBI. Once they get on site, we lose all of our abilities to do our own investigation.”

  Bobby nodded, and noticed they were getting through town rather quickly. Bobby disliked the speeding aspect of Dawson’s driving, but he knew that time was of the essence, and he continued to stay quiet through it all, knowing any objection he would make wouldn’t be worth the ribbing he would take, and Dawson would likely just drive faster anyway.

  ###

  David was back at the office, and he was watching the news. Reporters had flocked to Tom’s apartment, and he knew he had played his hand rather well. Smiling to himself, he wondered what would be discovered from this catch, but he knew that the Gemangini family would not step in to help him whatsoever. They would allow him to burn instead of announcing they knew him.

  Taking a sip of soda, he was going through all the folders he had snagged. He recognized almost all of them as being his own, but there was one that was not. Opening up the folder, he saw dozens of pictures of Emily from a distance. He wondered how long Tom had been stalking her, and it made him rather angry to know he had not seen that.

  He heard as the door opened, and he saw Emily there, and she looked at him with caring eyes. He loved it when she looked at him like that, but he knew he should not love it, and he needed to ignore it.

  “So, is that everything?”

  “Yes, and then some as well.”

  Gesturing to the television, she was watching intently, and the reporter came on announcing who was in the apartment and how an investigation was going to be launched. Emily looked at him, and she had dozens of questions.

  “Was this your handiwork, David?”

  “It is very possible,” he said. “So, I have all of this that is mine, but then there was another folder that didn’t belong to me. I think you should look at it.”

  Emily took the folder, and raised an eyebrow, obviously curious. She opened it, and she seemed to go white as she was looking through the photos, and he wondered how she was feeling.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I don’t even know,” she said. “This is something I probably should have seen coming.”

  “You know that all of this will be taken care of.”

  She looked up to him, and she smiled. David saw how warm her eyes seemed to be. It was a way he had never seen her look at him before, and he wondered what was going through her mind. She shook her head.

  “While I was on my way, I saw Nancy in passing,” she said, and her voice trailed. It was as if she was not too sure what she was going to say next. “She was a fool for letting you go.”

  David sat there uncomfortably, and he shook his head. “No, she wasn’t. She wanted a real relationship, and that was not something I could give her. Plus, with everything that had happened, I don’t really blame her for leaving the way she did.”

  “What do you mean, a ‘real relationship’?”

  As he looked at her, he was not sure he could tell her the way he felt. Right now he had the ability to, and he knew that once this was finished, they would no longer be working with one another. He made his decision. “My heart was not entirely there.”

  “Really? And where would your heart have been if not with her?”

  He realized that she was wanting him to tell her what he was feeling, and he had imagined telling her one day, but he was not able to do it. He was not strong enough to confess his feelings for her, and she broke his gaze. “You can’t deny it forever,” she finally said. “It is not that difficult to tell that you have feelings for me.”

  “How long have you known?”

  A smile formed on her lips. “I never really did—it was just a guess. But you just confirmed it.”

  “Wow, I was not expecting that from you,” he admitted.

  “There is a lot about me you would not expect. Now let’s go and get some mobsters a one-way ticket to prison.”

  David chuckled and nodded. Little did he know there was something else transpiring—something that would be a game changer.

  Chapter 24

  She was sitting in bed, and darkness had fallen outside. She was ready to make everything work out the way she needed. Of course, she was not too sure what had happened to her sister after she had left, and she was hoping that she was still okay—she needed to be. With everything that had happened, and with how her entire life had turned out, she should not be too surprised that the one person she thought she could trust and be with forever
had totally betrayed her. He planned on using her the way they had used her father, and she felt sick about it.

  Isaac walked into the room at long last, and she felt like breaking into tears. Beginning to shake, she noticed that he glanced at her, but he didn’t care enough to go to her and see what was wrong. He finally turned towards her, and he looked disapproving.

  “Is there something the matter?”

  “Yes,” she said, getting to her feet. “I have news for you.”

  “Oh, really, and what news would that be?”

  Walking into the bathroom, she grabbed the pregnancy test. Of all the things that had been going on, including the newest revelations, she had been completely surprised by this. She turned to him and showed him the results. “You’re going to be a father.”

  His expression had fallen, and she knew he was not happy. Of course not, because the baby was obviously his, and whatever plans he had for her were going to fall through.

  “Are you serious!?” he shouted. “How the hell could you have allowed this to happen?”

  A flush of anger swept over her. “Me? Let me remind you that you helped—it takes too, remember? It’s not like I can control when I’m ovulating, and for the record, I am just as upset about this as you are.”

  Marissa felt pain as he roughly grabbed her wrist, and yanked the pregnancy test from her grasp and threw it at the wall. It was rare to see him this angry, and she knew the worst was yet to come as he squeezed her wrist tighter and tighter.

  “You are going to fix this.”

  “Fix what? Are you wanting me to abort our baby?”

  “Yes! The last thing I need right now is a damn baby!”

  “Well it is not inside you, but in me. Do you see how that works? It is my body and my choice, and you don’t get a say in it.”

  His fist hit the wall, and she began to shake. He let go of her, and began to walk away. Taking that moment, she took out her phone and dialed on it. Hopefully her plan would work.

  Putting her phone on the dresser as she walked out to the main room, she knew the best way to provoke him. “See, the way you are acting right now is exactly why I don’t want you in my life or our baby’s life. You would be a horrible father—not that you had a good father to begin with anyway.”

  “You stupid bitch!”

  She knew what was going to happen next, and she felt him grab her with force. Being pushed into the wall, she grabbed the lamp, and threw it at him. It made a loud crash, but it did not hit him. He backhanded her, and it took her a moment to regain herself.

  She heard sirens whirring, and he stopped. She had only expected there to be a single squad car, but there were several.

  “Looks like I am not that stupid now, huh?”

  The look of surprise was on his face now, and she knew she had won. He stood there as still as a statue. There was commotion all throughout the house, and she made her way to the basement. Pulling open the door, she descended the stairs, and she saw her sister there. Bound, gagged, and bloody.

  Teresa looked up at her, and she ran over towards her. She kneeled on the ground and attempted to break the zip-ties, but was unable to do so. Looking around the basement, this was perfect for any serial killer. She saw a knife out in the open.

  Walking over towards it, she was not able to hear anything above her, and she turned back. Freeing her sister, she took the gag out of her mouth. Her sister looked to be on the verge of tears, and they heard someone open the basement door. S.W.AT. team members were walking down the steps, their guns pointed at her.

  Moving away from her sister, she knew how it looked. She saw as another officer walked over towards her, and she turned around. She had done wrong, and she knew it. She needed to face it now, and as she felt herself being taken into custody and moved to the stairs. Looking to her sister, she nodded, and allowed them to take her.

  Upstairs, she saw that everyone else was in handcuffs, and they all looked at her as if they knew she had done this. She watched as they began escorting each of them out. She was the last one, and she looked to the officer. She knew him because he had worked with James back when all of this started. As she stepped outside, she felt as if all of that had happened a completely different lifetime ago.

  ###

  Two weeks later, David was walking out of the courtroom with Emily on his arm, and he wasn’t too sure what to make out of all that had happened. They had put everyone behind bars for life, and it seemed as if he could breathe easier now. Finally, justice had been served. Then he saw Olivia, the damage she had suffered from the gunshot to her kneecap had resulted in permanent nerve and tissue damage, and even now, she was still at risk of losing her leg.

  She made her way over to them awkwardly, and she smiled at each of them. “Thank you so very much for everything.”

  It seemed as if she was going to cry, and he smiled at her. “We could not have done this without what James had started. Everything that happened was because of him. He is the hero in this story.”

  Tears escaped from her eyes, and he embraced her. He did not know what it was like to lose someone as close to him as James was to her. But at least, now the truth was out there. Carlisle Castro’s name had been cleared, and everyone knew the Gemangini family for the monsters they were.

  “If you ever need anything else, feel free to come and find us,” David said.

  Olivia nodded, and she left them there. David turned to Emily, and she smiled warmly at him. She too seemed as if she had been set free. She took his hand into her own, and David had a sudden urge, and he just went with it. Kissing her, he felt as if everything was perfect, and as their lips parted, it took a moment for his head to become clear once more.

  “What are we going to do from here?” Emily inquired.

  “Well, we are just going to pick up and keep doing what we have always done. Hopefully the next case we get won’t be quite as crazy as this one.”

  Emily shook her head. “Where is the fun in that?”

  Together they walked down to the car, and David turned back to the court house. He was happy there was a back way out, because he knew that the media was swarming on the other side of the building. He was hoping to avoid them at all costs. Getting into the car, they were heading home.

  Chapter 25

  In her apartment, it was odd living on her own. She wished things were different, but knew she was not always going to be a child. It was time for her to grow up and be on her own. Even if that meant living on her own. Sitting at her desk, she had piles of books that cost more than her tuition, and she saw the photograph of her standing next to her father. She wondered if he was happy with his new girlfriend, Alison. From the way he described her, she was delightful, and hopefully she would be able to visit them and get to meet her officially. That was something she had always wanted—a mother.

  Letting out a sigh, she realized how tired she was, and she walked down the hall to her cramped bedroom. The window in her room was smaller than what she would like it to be, but that was fine. It still let light in, and she knew she wouldn’t always be able to get what she wanted.

  Shutting her bedroom door, she pulled back her covers, and slipped into bed. Sleep was elusive, the way it always had been. The only time she felt comfortable, Dean was around, but he was gone for the semester in France, and she wondered if he thought of her as often as he claimed to in their messages.

  As she was finally drifting off to sleep, she heard something in her kitchen crash. Bolting up, she thought it might be the neighbors. The walls were thin, but she heard the creaking of the floorboard. Her heart was pounding fiercely in her chest, and she did not know what to think.

  Grabbing her cell phone, she saw that she didn’t have a signal, almost as if it was jammed. The creak of the footsteps was getting closer and closer to her bedroom. There was nowhere for her to go, and she remembered what her father had told her when she was younger. She knew how to fight, but it seemed that everyt
hing she had learned was no longer with her. All of it had melted away, and she was fearful.

  Pressing herself against the wall, she knew that when the door would open, she would be concealed. Taking a moment, she listened as the door creaked, and she felt as if she was going to pass out. She peaked her head from behind the door, and saw the hooded figure standing there. This was her chance to attempt to get away.

  As the intruder moved towards her bed, she stepped from behind the door, but the door creaked, and he turned and saw her. Beginning to run, she screamed, hoping that her neighbors were home to hear her.

  In the kitchen now, she saw the set of knives on the counter, and she grabbed one. Before she could turn to her intruder, she was tackled to the ground. He was sitting on top of her, and she attempted to break free from him, but it was useless. He pulled a cloth from his pocket, and there was a small bottle there as well. As he pressed it against her face, the entire world around her went black.

  ###

  It had been three days since he’d heard from Meghan, and he wondered if she was fairing okay. Alison said not to worry, that sometimes girls that age wanted space, but he knew his daughter all too well, and she would be talking to him. Whenever she was going to be unavailable for any reason, she would let him know, but he never heard anything.

  “Derek, you are going to make yourself sick with worry. I promise you, she is fine.”

  He shook his head, “I just don’t think she is.”

  Sitting on the couch next to her, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. But his phone started ringing, and he saw it was Meghan calling. That put him at ease, but only for a moment.

  “Hey kiddo, how are you?”

  “Dad,” he heard her say. Her voice sounded as if she had been crying. “Daddy, they have me.”

  He froze, and for a moment it seemed as if his heart had stopped. “Who has you?”

  “I don’t know, but they want me to tell you that they will give you instructions, and if you don’t follow them—if you do not follow them, they will kill me.”