Freed (Bad Boy Hitman Romance)

by Terry Towers

  I’ll admit I was startled. How he’d found out about the trafficking I didn’t know. Perhaps Emily had told him, or he’d assumed, considering my home. Or maybe he’d had time to snoop. In the end it didn’t matter; the information would end with him.

  I huffed, smiling. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.” Although how he’d found my house was a question. Though a man who’d gotten away with living a double life and with dozens of murders uncaught wasn’t still walking the streets for being stupid.

  “No, although I would have assumed you’d have been smarter than to kidnap a woman from a club with all those cameras recording you.”

  Ahhh, the cameras. I’d thought I’d played a good game and stayed away from having my face caught on camera. Apparently not a good enough job.

  “I suppose I haven’t had decades of murdering women to perfect my technique.” I could feel Emily’s eyes burning into me. I wanted to glance down at her and give her a nod of reassurance, but didn’t dare. Pastor William’s eyes were also on me, no doubt analyzing every gesture, every word, every expression. “So tell me, what’s the plan once you kill her? I mean, it’s not like I’m going to just let you walk out of here. Do you think I really care about the slave? She’s just another whore I was preparing to ship off. Kill her if you like, but you’ll be the next to die.”

  “Don’t worry about that.” He moved the knife from her throat to her chest and with a flick of the wrist cut a 1 into her chest. Emily screamed out against the ball gag that had been put into her mouth.

  Instinctively I lunged forward, but skidded to a stop seeing the knife back to her neck.

  “Now this is interesting.” Her father smiled again. “Well, isn’t this very interesting? She’s just not a slave, is she? You’ve actually got feelings for my little girl. I’m going to savour your pain as I kill her. And don’t worry, the only one who’ll be alive after this is me.”

  I couldn’t help it, I had to look down and meet Emily’s terrified gaze. Dammit.

  “Yes. Very interesting.” He moved the knife from her neck to make another slice to her chest, when I took a chance. There was a chance she’d die because of me, but if I didn’t do anything she’d die anyhow. I fired the gun, hitting him in the shoulder. He jerked back, the knife slicing her along the collarbone.

  Racing forward, I wanted to go to Emily, but couldn’t. Not with her father still alive. Just as I rounded the podium he pulled himself to his feet, a revolver in his hand. Of course he hadn’t come here armed with only a knife. He shot, the sound of the gun booming in the room, much louder than my pistol, and I felt a searing pain at my side, just above my left hip. I didn’t allow it to stop me, I couldn’t. Aiming the pistol a second time, I pulled the trigger. This time the bullet lodged itself in his throat. My opponent stumbled backwards, dropping the revolver and attempting to cover the wound in his neck, which was gushing blood.

  He’d be dead in seconds.

  Walking over to him, I kicked the revolver out of reach and then ran over to Emily. She was unconscious. I removed the ball gag as quickly as possible and began to undo the straps holding her down to the table. Checking over her cuts, I determined they were superficial. They’d scar, a constant reminder of the man her father truly was, but she’d live.

  Thank God, she’ll live.

  Chapter 28

  Emily

  “The Boss told me to tell you that you owe him. Again. He’ll be expecting to be repaid,” a male voice I didn’t recognize said from the other room.

  I gave my head a shake as I slowly opened my eyes. My mind felt foggy and it was hard to form a coherent thought. What happened? My chest hurt, more of a sting than actual pain. As I attempted to sit up the sting increased. With a groan, I flopped back down on the bed.

  “Tell Flynn I’ll be in touch to work something out,” Tanner replied.

  Tanner.

  “Tanner,” I called out to him, but found my voice failing me. So thirsty. Had Tanner drugged me again? Why in the heck would he drug me? He’d have some answering to do when he got in here.

  I attempted to move and again a sharp pain sliced across my chest. Pulling the blanket down, I saw that there were numerous bandages across my chest and collarbone. Picking at the bandage to the far right, I pulled it off just far enough to see a string of stitches in the form of a number 3.

  “Whoa, hey. Cover that back up.”

  Frowning, I watched as Tanner entered the room and gave me a tired smile. He looked bad, tired, and I noticed that he winced slightly with each step he took. Had the wounds on his back opened back up?

  I did as told. “What’s going on?” Crinkling my nose up at him, I added, “Did you drug me again?”

  “Yeah, and no.” He took a seat on the edge of the bed next to me and placed his hand on my forehead. “No fever, good.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Closing my eyes, I thought back. It took a few minutes and my head began to throb softly from the strain, but it slowly began to come to me. “You were going to go grab a few things. You forgot my list by the way… I was headed for a shower…”

  I felt the bed move as he got up. A moment later he returned. “And. Don’t force it. Let it come naturally.” He took my hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. There was something in his expression that made me think that whatever was missing from my memory, I didn’t want to remember.

  It came to me. “Father!” I bolted upright in the bed and cried out as I got a head rush and the movement tore at my stitches. With a groan I flopped back onto the bed.

  “Here drink some of this.” He put a glass of orange liquid to my lips.

  “What is it?” I asked, then took a sip, getting my answer – orange juice. “Where’s my father?”

  “He’s not here.”

  A frown creased my brow. “Where is he?”

  Tanner opened his mouth and then snapped it shut, indecision in his eyes. I think this was the first time I’d actually seen him look uncomfortable. And was there a flash of guilt that I was noticing in his eyes?

  “Where’s my father, Tanner?” Had he done something? Ohmygod! Panic began to build within me, my eyes growing wide as I stared at his guilty expression. “What did you do?”

  “Just… Fuck.” He thrust a hand into his hair and let out a loud huff of air. “Calm down and think. Try to remember.”

  Tears streamed down my cheeks, but with them anger surged through me. “You said you wouldn’t hurt my family if I stayed with you!” Bolting upright in the bed, I balled my hands into fists and began to pound on his chest, ignoring the pain. “You promised! What did you do?”

  As I was venting, and Tanner was allowing the assault to happen, my mind began to slowly clear. I’d answered the door and it had been my father. He’d punched me. I’d awoken stripped and bound in the showroom. My father had been quoting scripture.

  My body froze, my hands fisting the front of his shirt. “I don’t understand. It can’t be true.” It couldn’t be true. It had to be a hallucination based on the drugs.

  He didn’t have to ask what I was referring to. “It’s true. I’m sorry.” Tanner took my hands from his shirt and grasped them in his own. “He was going to kill you.”

  “You shot him.” I looked down at our hands. How did I process this? I didn’t even know where to begin. “I don’t – I don’t understand. Why?” I finally looked up in his eyes. “Why would he do that? Why would he want to kill me?”

  The whole idea seemed too surreal, too insane to even consider. My father was a good man, a man of God. My father wasn’t a murderer. But…

  Tanner looked even more uncomfortable. “Your father was a serial killer, Emily. I’m sorry. That’s why you moved so much. He moved you all after every kill. He’d been doing it for over twenty years.”

  I shook my head in disbelief, then the question came to me. “How do you know all of this?” I studied his expressio
n. He wasn’t masking his emotions; he was allowing me in, to see everything he was feeling. “You knew.” When he didn’t answer I prompted, “Didn’t you?”

  “I figured it out about a week ago, yes. If you want I can show you what I’ve discovered”

  “How?” God, this was too much. I was feeling so overwhelmed and there were so many emotions rushing through me that I began feeling numb as I attempted to block them all out.

  “I went to your father’s church and met him. And your sister and mother.”

  “Why?”

  “I was curious about them. And you. I just figured I’d be able to understand you better if I met the people you loved. It wasn’t for any purpose other than that. I met your father and something didn’t seem right with him. I just…”

  Taking a deep breath in, I slowly released it and struck him with a piercing stare. “Because people like you can sense your own, I suppose.”

  “Something like that. It’s harder to fool those who spend their entire lives doing the exact same thing. I think that’s what prompted him to find me. He knew.”

  “But why would he want to kill me?” I pulled at the bandage again and the memories of him carving the three into my chest flooded my mind. The memories were so intense that I screamed out, feeling the pain all over again.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Tanner pulled me into his arms and I allowed him, tucking my head under his chin and seeking his strength and protection. And I began to sob, allowing the sobs to rock my tiny frame. Five minutes, ten minutes, a half-hour maybe, I had no idea how long I cried in his arms, purging my body of all the sorrow I’d been feeling, but when I finished crying my eyes were sore and swollen. I looked up at him praying he’d have the information I needed. “My mother. My sister. Are they okay?”

  “Yes. They’re fine.”

  Letting out a sigh of relief, I dropped my forehead to his shoulder. “Where’s my father now?”

  “Taken care of.”

  “What do you mean?” Pulling back from him, I grabbed a tissue from the nightstand and blew my nose. “You can’t make him disappear too. Please.”

  “No. Flynn is going to make it look like a robbery. He’ll be found so he can be properly buried and your family can grieve.”

  At least my family would never know. But I did, and how I’d be able to live with the knowledge I’d never know.

  ****~

  Tanner

  A part of me was convinced that I was making the biggest mistake of my life. This decision I was about to make wasn’t based on logic and hadn’t been plotted out with every possible outcome analyzed. I was working on emotion, which was dangerous, but the pain I’d been seeing in Emily’s eyes for the past day made it impossible for me not to. So as a result I was about to perform the first and most likely only selfless act in my life.

  “Hey, Emily.” I sat on the side of the bed where she was curled into a little ball after crying herself to sleep – yet again. “Emily.” I gave her shoulder a little harder shake.

  “Tanner,” she murmured as she rolled onto her back and slowly opened her eyes. “What is it?” Her voice was groggy. She’d been into my sleeping medication again. I was going to have to cut her off before it became a problem.

  “I’d like to talk to you about something.”

  “Okay.” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she slowly sat up and then peered at me, waiting for me to continue.

  “I want you to go home.” I held my breath. I swear to God, my heart stopped for a moment as I waited with bated breath for her reaction. I really didn’t know what to expect her reaction to be, although I suspected after everything she’d been through, how I’d destroyed her family, she’d leave without looking back. The idea didn’t make me feel good. Truth be known, I was still trying to figure out the feelings going through me at the thought of no longer having her in my life.

  Her expression was stone blank – unreadable. For a moment I thought in her hazy state she hadn’t heard me. I was about to repeat my statement when she responded. “Okay.”

  Frowning, I continued attempting to read her, but couldn’t. “I mean you’re free.”

  She cocked her head to the side and frowned. “You don’t want me here anymore?”

  Huh? “Of course I do.”

  “Then why are you making me leave?”

  “But… Huh?” God, I must sound like a fucking idiot. “You miss your family, right?”

  She nodded, her eyes tearing up.

  Awww, fuck. Here we go with the tears again.

  “Then go back to them.” Two days of tears. I wished I knew how to make her feel better, but I didn’t. I wasn’t equipped to console her like she needed. I didn’t know the right things to say, I didn’t do sympathy and compassion well and I seriously doubted that would change anytime soon. I’d seen the changes in me, because of her, but I was so far from what society considered to be normal it was scary – I seriously doubted I’d ever get there, to be honest. She needed her mother and I had no doubt her mother needed her. If I was right about her sister, then her sister wouldn’t be giving her mother much support.

  “What about you?”

  All right, I admit, I was becoming confused. “What about me?”

  “Do you want me to go? Don’t you want me anymore?”

  “Of course I do. I’m not making you go, I’m letting you go.”

  “Then I can stay.”

  “Yeeees. I thought you’d want to go home. I really didn’t think you’d want to stay, all things considered. I’m not going to hurt your family, Emily, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

  She shook her head and sniffed. “You don’t get it. What I had and what I was is gone. I don’t belong there anymore, Tanner.” She fell silent for a moment and looked down at her fingers, which were picking at a piece of lint on the blanket covering her. “But I’d like to see them.”

  “Okay.” It felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. I’d been worried she’d jump at the offer and never look back. If she was smart she would. But she hadn’t.

  “As long as you go with me.”

  “Why?”

  She sighed, raking a hand through her dark hair. “Because I don’t think I can do it on my own. I’m going to have to tell them I ran away and they’re going to be so angry and hurt. I need you to be there with me.” Her dark eyes pleaded with me, making it impossible for me to refuse.

  “If that’s what you want.” In truth, as uncomfortable as it would be I was somewhat relieved. Her sister was her father’s daughter. Rebecca had allowed Emily to take the abuse meant for her and when I’d met her it had seemed the last thing she was concerned about was her missing sister. Who knew what sort of affect her father’s death would have on Rebecca? If she decided to unleash, then Emily might be the perfect target. I could be overreacting, but when dealing with people like her – like us – it was best to consider all possibilities, regardless of how improbable.

  Chapter 29

  Tanner

  “I’m nervous,” Emily stated from the passenger side of the car as I turned onto the street of her parents’ home. While she stated she was nervous, since the discussion about her going home to see her mother, her demeanor had perked up. She was still grieving. Each time she looked at the bandages on her chest reminding her that her father had tried to kill her, she broke down all over again. And I felt powerless to help her; all I could do was stand by like an impotent jackass.

  “They’re your family. Don’t be.”

  “My mother is going to be upset with me. I can’t even begin to imagine what’s she’s going through with getting the funeral arrangements set up and dealing with the grief.”

  “But she still sees him as the good man she’s spent her life loving. Unlike you, she doesn’t know the truth. I assure you, what you’re dealing with is far worse.”

  “I don’t know about that.” She looked out the side window as the houses passed by. It was a nice upper-m
iddle class suburban area. But it looked so generic, all of the houses looking the same. “He was her reason for living.” A damned sad reason for living if you asked me, but I kept my tongue in check and said nothing.

  I slowed as I came to her parents’ house and pulled into the driveway behind a Lincoln Towncar. Shutting off the car, I looked over at her. “Are you ready?” Her body was trembling.

  “Not really, but let’s go in anyhow.” She grabbed the door handle and let herself out before I even had a chance to respond.

  “So, you have the story down?” I whispered to her, taking her hand as we made our way up the steps to the front door.

  “Yes. That’s why I’m so concerned.”

  I waited for her to knock on the door, but she didn’t. Her fisted hand hovered over the wooden door, but she didn’t need to knock. The door flew open, revealing her mother.

  “Emily… Oh thank you Lord, Emily.” Tears sprang to the older woman’s eyes as she grabbed hold of Emily and pulled her tight. “I can’t believe it. Oh dear God, I’ve been so worried. I never, I just…” She held even tighter to Emily, her sobs growing louder.

  “What’s going on?” I looked past Emily and her mother to see Rebecca coming down the stairwell and towards the front door. She frowned as she stared at Emily. “Oh, Emily. You finally decided to show up, I see.”

  What a nice lukewarm greeting. Feeling my eyes on her, Rebecca glanced up from Emily to me. “Wait a minute, you’re that dude who showed up at the church.” She looked down at Emily and then back up at me.

  Emily’s mother pulled back and looked up at me, then back down to meet Emily’s eyes. “What’s going on, Emily? Did you run away with this young man?” A sob caught in her throat again. “Do you even realize your father was murdered? The police say someone robbed him and shot him dead. What kind of monster does that? To kill a man of God for some money.”

  And the crying began all over again as she once more clung to her daughter. I looked over at Rebecca and, unlike her mother and sister, her eyes were free of tears. Not an ounce of sorrow. But I could sense the suspicion, and slight annoyance. Apparently this wasn’t a sweet welcome home as far as she was concerned.