by Lila Moore
“No!” I screamed.
I dove for him. I put my hand over his and tried to stop the bleeding. Louis’ big eyes stared up at me like a child. The bullet had cut through his side just above his hip. It was bad, but I was sure he’d be okay if we got him to a doctor in time. At least that’s what I kept telling myself. As much as Louis got on my nerves, I didn’t wish death on him.
Please be okay, I silently prayed.
Connor ran for her. He wasn’t fast enough. She shot him in the leg and the shoulder. He kept going, though. It wasn’t until she shot him a third time that he fell to his knees. The third bullet entered through his abdomen.
“Oh God…” I said again and again.
“Get up,” she said blandly.
It took me a minute to realize she was talking to me. I couldn’t move. Shock left me frozen in place. She grabbed my hair and pulled me to my feet. The pain was strangely comforting. It snapped me out of my daze. I turned to face her.
“Don’t look at me,” she snapped.
“How are you going to spin this? You shot Louis and Connor in cold blood.”
“Connor’s going to die. Louis will live-probably. Since I’m the one who speaks for Louis, it won’t be hard to sell my story. Connor was an accomplice to your stalker. They worked together to create a diversion so Connor could kill you. I showed up too late. Tragically, you were dead when I found you. Though heroically, I managed to shoot Connor before he could kill me.”
“That’s never going to work. Don’t you watch movies? Forensics, gun ballistics, fingerprints… you’re all over this crime. Your story doesn’t match the evidence.”
She rolled her eyes. “The real world isn’t a movie. People can be bought off, blackmailed. Besides, real world forensics isn’t what the movies portray it as. I’ll be fine. You, on the other hand, will be dead.”
She shoved me hard against the wall. I stared down the barrel of her gun and braced myself. Would I hear the gunshot before I felt it? No. Somewhere I distantly remembered learning that a bullet travels faster than the speed of sound. I’d feel the pain of the bullet entering me before I ever heard it.
My heart beat against my ribs like a drum. Louis’s publicist’s face twisted with discontent.
“You can’t do it, can you?” I said. “You talk a big game, but-”
“Don’t flatter yourself. If I can shoot Louis, then shooting you will be nothing. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”
“Then why don’t you do it?”
“Well,” she said considering the room. “I’m imagining the cover of the National Enquirer. Your death photos should be romantic. A shot of you dead in Louis’s arms would sell millions of copies.”
Louis muttered something that sounded like an insult. His words were slurred and weak. He was fading fast. Connor was still conscious, but he looked pale. He was a strong guy, but I wasn’t sure how long he could hold on for.
“I can’t shoot you against the wall,” she said, ignoring Louis. “You were right about forensics. It might look staged. Move over there to the middle of the room. After I shoot you, I want you to fall into Louis’s arms. Louis, you will cradle her to your chest while I take a couple pictures.”
“Fuck you. I’m not moving,” I said. “You’re going to have to kill me where I stand, then drag my body over there. I’m not making this easy for you. Good luck trying to explain this to the cops. Louis won’t back up your bullshit story. Will you?”
Louis looked up at her defiantly. Before he could respond, she said: “Yes, he will because if he doesn’t, I’ll tell the cops he did this. I’ll tell them he found out you were sleeping with Connor so he decided to kill you both in a jealous rage. He wouldn’t be the first celebrity to commit murder. Think of the publicity we’d get from the trial. Girls love a bad boy. We’d hire top attorneys. I’d make sure he was acquitted. We’ll sell the movie rights, the book rights. We’ll make tens of millions of dollars and Louis will always be remembered as Hollywood’s Romeo. This is an even better idea than my original plan. Thanks, Jamie. You’re a real doll.”
A gunshot rang out. I screamed and fell back against the wall. I slid down to the floor clutching my chest. I looked down expecting to see blood. There was none. I felt along my stomach and chest. I pulled at my dress looking for bullet holes. I hadn’t been shot.
Louis’s publicist stumbled forward. She made a choking sound and blood spilled out of her mouth. She raised her gun and fired. The shot went wild. Drywall fell on my head. She’d shot a hole through the wall above me.
“I knew you’d come!” I called out, expecting to find Theo standing in the doorway.
As Louis’s publicist collapsed to the floor, the shooter emerged from the dark. It wasn’t Theo. My kidnapper was back. A big dumb smile crossed his face. His eyes were big and round with excitement.
“You knew I’d come?” he said like an eager little boy. My mouth fell open. “I knew you wanted me to come find you. I followed you the night after the limo driver messed up. He was supposed to bring you to me, but that meathead security guy you hired stopped him.”
My kidnapper limped towards me. A tourniquet was tied around his thigh. His leg was soaked in blood.
“When your bodyguard brought you back here, I watched from the bushes. I saw the two of you sleeping together.”
The room started to spin around me. I wanted to puke.
“I couldn’t figure out why you would sleep with that guy,” he said, his voice growing tighter.
The last thing I needed was to make him angry. He was potentially more dangerous than anyone I’d ever met.
“Isn’t it obvious, silly?” I said, affecting my most lighthearted tone. He perked up. “I did it to make you jealous. I knew you were watching. I wanted you to see, so that you’d come and rescue me.”
Louis groaned from the other side of the room. My attacker turned his attention to him. I was scared he would finish off Louis and Connor, so I stepped in front of his gun, blocking his shot.
“You’re all that matters to me,” I lied. “We’re all that’s important. It’s you and me versus the world, right?”
That cheesy line came from one of my worst movies. I was betting my stalker would love it though. I was right. His face lit up like a little kid on Christmas morning. Louis started to speak. I couldn’t understand what he was saying though. He’d fallen over onto his side and was starting to crawl towards us. My attacker raised his gun. Again, I stepped into his line of sight.
“Forget them. They’re nothing. We need to get out of here. Just the two of us.”
“We can’t leave any witnesses,” my attacker said.
I remembered how he’d asked me to turn him into my slave. He wanted to be ordered around like a little boy.
“No. Put down that gun. We’re leaving.”
My attacker lowered the gun. I looked over my shoulder and made eye contact with Connor. My gaze fell on the cell phone at Louis’s feet. I gave it a meaningful look. Connor nodded his head in understanding.
“I’m not leaving without you,” my kidnapper said.
There was a hint of a warning in his voice. I couldn’t convince him to stick around until the cops showed up. He’d kill Louis and Connor. I needed to get him out of the house immediately.
“Of course not,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “Let’s go.”
He smiled, but I could see the suspicion in his eyes. He motioned with his gun for me to leave first. As I left Theo’s house, I glanced back over my shoulder. Louis’s publicist’s eyes were open. She laid face down in a growing pool of her own blood. She was clearly dead, taken down by a man she thought of as nothing more than a puppet.
You can’t control a man like my kidnapper. I had to keep that in mind. Louis’s publicist didn’t understand that. Look where it got her. She was too cocky. She thought she could control everything. I remembered my first meeting with Theo. He’d said: “What’s the use of all this money and fame if you’re dead?”
All of her scheming meant nothing now. Fame and money couldn’t bring her back to life. The cold barrel of the gun pressed against my back.
“Go on,” my attacker said. “Unless you’re having second thoughts?”
“Of course not.”
I gave Connor a last hard look. He’d picked up the cell phone and was discretely dialing a number. 911 I hoped. Maybe if I delayed my kidnapper it would be enough time for the cops to show up and arrest him.
“It’s you and me,” he said. “Till the end.”
His words made my stomach drop. It sounded like a suicide pact. If the cops showed up, he’d probably kill me then himself. I had to get him away from here, then figure out how to escape.
I put on my best red carpet smile. “Till the end…”
21
As we drove away from Theo’s house we passed ambulances and cop cars. I turned to watch them speed past us. My kidnapper didn’t seem bothered by their presence. He took it for granted that we’d made a clean getaway. Maybe he was right. Maybe he’d won.
“You said your name is John, right?” I asked.
It was how he’d identified himself to me the first time he’d kidnapped me, but I suspected the name was fake. He cleared his throat.
“No, not exactly. You can call me John though. I prefer it.”
He turned the car down a side street, avoiding the interstate.
“Where are we going?”
“I’m take you home,” he said.
“Back to that place we were before?”
The thought of returning to the cellar made my skin crawl, but on the bright side, it was known to Theo and the cops. Surely, they would search it when trying to locate me. A sick thought crossed my mind. Where was Theo? He’d returned to the theater to capture John. Had John gotten the best of him? Was Theo lying dead somewhere?
“John?”
“Yeah?”
“You know that meathead bodyguard of mine, the one I was using to make you jealous?”
“Sure.”
“What happened to him?”
John’s expression grew dark. “Why do you care? Do you have feelings for him? Why are you even thinking about him right now? This is our time. We’ve both been waiting for this moment for years. The first time I saw you at the premiere for The Age of War, I knew we had a connection. You could feel my presence. You were calling out to me, begging me to come and take you away from it all.”
The Age of War was a movie that came out three years ago. John had been stalking me for much longer than I realized. I studied the side of his face. He was so ordinary looking, not the kind of guy you’d spare a second glance at. I had no memory of ever seeing him before my abduction.
“Was I wrong? Is that what you’re saying? It was all in my head?” he asked.
His grip on the wheel tightened. The car sped up. We were on a narrow road. I worried that he’d lose control and crash.
“Of course not. I was just wondering if you finished him off. He went back there to kill you, you know? It looks like he already shot you once. I hope you didn’t let him get away with it,” I lied. “Did you kill him?”
My heart sank as I waited for him to tell me the worst news I could ever receive: Theo was dead. John sat up straighter.
“Sure, I did. I would never let him get the best of me. He tried to steal you away from me just like that bitch tried to kill you.”
I couldn’t focus. The world passed by outside the car window at an impossible speed. I gripped the armrest and tried to regain my balance. My mouth and throat felt dry. Theo was dead. This lunatic had succeeded. Even if I survived this there was nothing waiting for me. With one bullet my future had been taken away from me.
John continued to babble. I only picked up fragments of his words. “…rotten bitch. Do you know she tried to pay me to shoot you on the red carpet? What does she take me for? An animal?”
He looked serious, as if he really expected me to answer his question honestly.
“Of course not.” My voice was barely a whisper.
“She thinks I’m stupid. Not anymore. I followed you back to that house and waited. I was going to let her finish off that pretty boy actor and your guard, but then she turned the gun on you. She had no right to try and take you away from me. She promised I could have you. She gave me money to take care of you. Then she tried to take it all back. There’s no going back. Do you understand?”
I tried to follow what he was saying to me, but all I could think about was Theo. He was dead. It didn’t seem real. How had a pathetic guy like John managed to overpower him? He probably ambushed him or used some cowardly trick to kill him. He’d never win in a fair fight. Theo was too strong.
“You don’t look happy,” he said. “Don’t you know I do this all for you? I’m your servant. I’d do anything to please you.”
I nodded and forced myself to smile. “You’ve done a good job,” I said weakly.
John smiled brightly. I wanted to punch him. He was so pleased with himself. He thought he’d really accomplished something. I suppose in a sense he had. Though what he’d done here today was nothing to be proud of. I looked out the window. We sped down the street. Could I jump out and run? We were going too fast. I’d probably kill myself. Was that such a bad thing? Was this life worth living? The only thing of value I had was taken away from me by an obsessed fan. Theo died for me. He was a better person than I’d ever be. It should have been me that died.
I shook the thought away.
Theo wouldn’t want me to give up. His death would be for nothing if I did something foolish like jumping out of the car. The car took a turn quickly. The tires screeched as we headed downtown. I craned my neck to take in the skyscrapers around us. We were only a block away from my hotel.
To think, my stalker was right around the corner the whole time. I shook my head.
“This is where you live?” I asked.
“Does that surprise you?” he said defensively.
“Condos around here aren’t cheap.”
“No, they’re not.”
“What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a, uh, doctor.”
The way he hesitated led me to believe he was lying. “What kind of doctor?”
“A surgeon. Is that good enough for you?”
“Why wouldn’t it be good enough for me?”
“You never stop with the questions. I wish you’d stop interrogating me.”
“I’m just trying to get to know you better.”
“We’ll have plenty of time to get to know one another. We’re going to be together for a long time. Unless…”
“Unless, what?”
“You escaped once.”
An unsaid threat hung in the air. If you do it again, I’ll kill you.
“I was playing hard to get,” I said with a nervous smile. “I wanted you to come and claim me. If you’re going to be my servant then you must learn to understand me better.”
This seemed to satisfy him for the time being. He pulled the car into a parking garage. My instinct was to get out and run, but he kept his gun on his lap. I wouldn’t make it far before being shot in the back. Just as we pulled into the parking spot, a car pulled in next to us.
“Easy…” John warned.
I stepped out of the car and gave the man a hard look. He was older with thinning hair and a rumpled suit. I hoped he’d recognize me and call the cops. News of what went down at the movie premiere had to be all over the internet. Once word got out that Louis had been shot and I was missing, the story would blowup. Everyone would know. Reporters would converge on my hotel, Louis’s house, the hospital. And not just the tabloid press, real journalists would be clambering to get the inside story. This would turn into a media shit show unlike any ever witnessed in the history of Hollywood.
The man, however, only glanced my way. He seemed to be in a hurry. He gave John a harder look than he gave me. He seemed to disapprove of John. It came as no shock to me tha
t John was unpopular with his neighbors. Most stalkers were loners. They wanted to be alone with their fantasies.
I couldn’t believe John was a doctor. Doctors work long hours and have to interact with patients and their family members. He seemed less than social. Besides, where did he find the free time to do all this? A doctor wouldn’t have the free time to stalk someone as much as John stalked me.
John gave his neighbor a dirty look as he walked past us. He kept his gun at his side, out of sight of the man. Once he had gone, John put the gun in his pocket, but kept his hand on it, pointing it at me.
“Let’s go,” he said.
I slowly walked to the elevator. It felt like a death march. Who knew what awaited me in John’s apartment? He’d be careful this time. He wouldn’t be as easily tricked as the last time he’d abducted me.
Escape felt virtually impossible. It would take time for me to figure out a way to flee. The thought of what I might have to endure made me nauseous. Though strangely, I was resigned to my fate. I could never give up. For Theo. His death would be in vain if I didn’t try to escape. I had to fight on.
We stood before the elevator waiting for it to reach the ground floor. I watched the floor numbers light up as the elevator descended. Eleven. Ten. Nine. My chest felt tight. The countdown felt like the end of my life. Six. Five.
I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t go up there. If it meant getting killed in this dark parking garage, then so be it. It was better than whatever was waiting for me above. I turned to face John.
“I’m not going up there,” I said. His eyes narrowed. “You’re just going to have to shoot me.”
The elevator dinged behind me as the doors opened. John’s eyes went round. Maybe hope wasn’t lost. He went to a lot of trouble to save me. Killing me immediately after abducting me would make all his efforts worthless.
“I’m ordering you to let me go,” I said.
John looked past me. He fumbled in his jacket to pull out the gun. I was suddenly knocked aside. For a heart-stopping moment, I thought I’d been shot. Then I saw him. Theo. He shot out of the elevator and tackled John. I fell to the side and watched as the men wrestled on the ground.
