“Mom, do you think maybe you could use some help? Like some professional help?” Beth went to her mother and put her hand on her shoulder and looked into her eyes.
Anne looked into her daughter’s eyes.
“There is nothing wrong with me, Beth. You don’t understand this lifestyle is all.”
Beth laughed. “Mom, that lifestyle may be a little odd for some, but it’s not about murder. It’s not about making people do that type of thing who don’t want to. It’s not about any of the things you’re making it out to be.”
“I feel as if you’re judging me, Beth. I knew this would happen if I told you about this. You should leave. I cannot take that look you’re giving me. I can’t take it. You and your father always expected me to be perfect! I can’t be! I can’t damn it!” Anne moved away from Beth and grabbed her drink and drained it. “Leave!”
Beth stood still.
“Don’t yell at me, Mother.”
“How can you stand in my home and say a word to me, you little slut? I guess you don’t recall how your father and I found you fucking that man in your bedroom!”
Beth laughed.
“Mom, we were teenagers. He was no man. We were not fucking. We were making love. It was beautiful and wonderful until Dad busted in on me. Arsen treated me like gold. My only regret is that I lost my mind when I saw Dad and you and something in me went crazy. I thought Arsen was some kind of God. More than a mere teenage boy. I was wrong for thinking that way. I was wrong for thinking he could fight my father. A man twice his size at that time.”
“He was a weak man,” Anne said.
“He was a fucking kid, Mother! A kid. And Dad beat him like he was a grown-ass man! I hate myself for how I reacted. I drink to forget what I allowed to happen to him. I’d never let anyone hurt my kids like that. It was only because of who his mother was and how he had no father that Dad even got away with what he did to Arsen.”
“Beth, you’re making me feel really uncomfortable. Are you thinking of telling Arsen what you know? Because, Beth I can’t tell you how much I cannot allow that.” Anne took a step toward Beth. “Tell me you will always remember who your mother is. Who you owe your loyalty to.”
“You, Mother. Always you. Is that what you want to hear? Is that what will make you happy? I will never tell Arsen about what you did to ruin his life. I will never do that. Want to know why?” Beth folded her arms over her chest and glared at her mother.
“Why?” Anne asked.
The doorbell rang, and both women turned and looked at the door. Arsen tensed even more.
Who the hell could that be?
For Revenge Part 13
Arsen’s Rules
By Michelle Love
GWEN
The sun was right overhead as Allen and Gwen drove to Anne Sinclair's house just after noon. Allen glanced at Gwen as he drove down the road at 80 miles an hour. “I can see now she was totally setting me up. That bitch was totally setting me up all this time and I was too stupid to notice.”
Gwen looked sadly over at Allen.
“I'm sorry this happened to you Allen. I really am but no one else has to die.” She was doing everything possible to make the man feel as if she was on his side.
Gwen knew a thing or two about getting into a person’s head and making them think things which weren’t true. And she was using all she’d learned in her psychology classes to get into Allen’s head and make him believe she was in this thing with him one hundred percent.
Allen looked at her with a sly smile.
“One more person has to die,” he said.
Gwen’s stomach knotted as she asked, “Who's that Allen?” She knew the man was insane and anything he did he seemed to make a plausible excuse for. In his mind anyway.
“Sinclair, of course,” he said with a little laugh. “I'm not going to let her get away with this. My ass is going to get sent back to prison for sure. Unless…”
Gwen looked at him with worry in her eyes.
“Unless what Allen?” Where Allen White was concerned, she was certain about only one thing. He was capable of anything and she had to stay on guard and alert.
Thanks to the IV he had hooked her up to, she felt much stronger than she had since the whole ordeal had begun. But she was still very weak. And if he decided to do anything to her, she was near powerless to stop him. She knew she had to stay agreeable if she was going to use the circumstances to her advantage.
“Unless I can get out of here. Maybe go to another country,” he said as he smiled at her.
Gwen was thinking it might be the best thing for him if he thought he could get away with it all.
“Sure, Allen. I'm sure you could get out of the country.”
There was no way in hell that man would be able to get out of the country and leave Arsen to hang for those murders. Gwen was going to make sure of that, herself. But what Allen didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.
Allen looked at Gwen with a spark of hope in his eyes.
“What do you say Gwen, want to come with me?” he asked with a lilt to his voice. Trying to flirt with her.
The man is certifiable!
It was a lie, but she said, “Yes, Allen. I'll go with you but first do you think we can go see Arsen and Steele and let them in on everything?” She thought she’d test the waters to see if Allen was going to be about doing the right thing before she threw him to the police.
Allen looked at her and shook his head.
“No, we can't tell them anything. I mean once I'm gone out of the country maybe then I'll send back my confession about killing those women and Anne Sinclair. But I have to be out of the country. Have to be long gone. Name changed and all that kind of stuff. You understand right? Plus, I still hate Arsen, so I’m not sure about all that. I do want him to suffer for what he did to me after all.”
Gwen had to stop herself from going off on him. Allen was obviously never going to take responsibility for any of his actions. He was going to blame Arsen until the end, of that she was sure.
“Sure, I understand,” she said. And then Gwen knew without a doubt what she was going to have to do to make things right for Arsen and Steele.
Allen took the next two corners like some kind of race car driver, making Gwen grab at her seat. In most cases she’d be yelling at the driver to slow down. This was not most cases though, and she was in just as much a hurry to get where they were going as he was.
He pulled into a short driveway, blocking in a blue Camaro and a large Crown Victoria from the nineties. The car Anne Sinclair drove.
“Shit!” he muttered.
“What?” Gwen asked as she surveyed the scene.
There was a house not far from Anne’s. A little, white brick house with a little, red Honda Accord in the drive. Her heart began to pound. She was so close to freedom she could practically smell it.
“Someone else is here.” He looked at her. “Get in the back and lie down. It could get ugly. Whatever you do, stay in this car.” He reached into the glove compartment in front of her and pulled out a handgun.
Gwen did as he told her, shimmying over the front seat into the back. She wasn’t about to argue with him over anything.
“I’ll be right here when you get back, Allen. I promise you.” Her fingers crossed behind her back and she smiled.
“You better be. I shouldn’t have to tell you what I’ll do to you if you get out. I’m more than capable of hunting you down.” He spun the bullet chamber of the revolver.
The chambers were all full. He had six shots he could fire. Six chances to kill Anne and Gwen supposed he planned on killing whoever else was in the house too. She would have to hurry to call the police. The other people in the house might be innocent people who didn’t deserve to die the way Anne Sinclair did.
Allen caught her off guard as he leaned over the seats into the back. He caught her behind her neck and pulled her to kiss him. Although disgusted beyond anything she’d ever been, she kissed him back.
He gave her a smile too and left the car. She watched as he snuck around the back of the house and she cracked the back passenger door open a hair, so she could hear.
After counting to three hundred and not hearing a thing, she got out of the car. The only thing she had on was a ragged T-shirt and jeans with no shoes. He’d taken her shoes off and thrown them somewhere so she couldn’t run away again.
Not that she had enough strength to even make the attempt back at the warehouse. But she had enough strength to make it the forty feet across a lawn of carpet grass to get to safety and help. Shoes or no shoes, she was going for it.
Although Allen had let her take a shower, he had no shampoo or soap of any kind and no hairbrush either. Her hair was a nasty, gnarled, blonde mess, and she knew she smelled awful, but she was on her way to the neighbor’s house. With the one car in the drive she prayed someone would be home.
Though not far at all, every step had her looking back over her shoulder to see if Allen had come back around the house for some reason. Her heart was pounding so loud she was afraid he could hear it.
Fear ran through her that he’d just come out of nowhere and grab her up again. Or even worse, shoot her and leave her to die.
The sound of a dog barking made her freeze. Then she realized it was pretty far away, and she started moving forward again. She moved more quickly as she could see the front door. A green wreath hung on the front of it, commemorating the Saint Patrick’s holiday which she guessed must be near.
Gwen had lost all track of time. She had no idea what time it was or day or even month. It felt like she’d been kept in the warehouse for years, not days.
Her bare feet touched the smooth concrete surface of the well-kept front porch and she took in a deep breath.
“Please let someone be home. Please!”
Knocking as quietly as she could, she waited and hoped someone would answer the door. When a tiny, old woman opened the door, Gwen let out the breath she’d not realized she’d been holding. The little woman looked Gwen up and down with an odd look.
“Thank, God! Mam, I need your help. I know I look awful, but I’ve been kidnapped for I don’t even know how long. Can I please come in, I need to use your phone to call the police?”
The woman looked her up and down one more time then took a step back.
“Come in, sweetheart. You look near death, darling.”
Gwen stepped inside the house and took in the sweet aroma of Ben-Gay, mothballs, and burnt eggs. It was the best thing she’d ever smelled in her life.
“Thank you, mam. You’ve saved my life!”
Can the cops get here in time to catch Allen before he hurts someone though?
STEELE
“So tell me again how Arsen isn't doing anything wrong,” Steele said to Paul as he looked at her through the rear-view mirror.
Her pulse had remained high since they left Arsen’s penthouse. It had been over eight hours since he’d gotten into that car with his old girlfriend, Beth, and Steele was uneasy about why whatever they were doing was taking so damn long.
Thoughts of them making plans together kept racing through her mind. She saw them holding hands and talking about her leaving her husband and kids and going with Arsen somewhere far away. Then she saw them lying in a bed somewhere and laughing about how stupid she and Beth’s husband were.
There just wasn’t any good scene she could come up with in her jealous mind.
“He's not doing anything wrong, Steele,” Paul said. “Obviously this Beth girl must have something to tell him that's going to help him.”
Steele sat back and threaded her fingers together back-and-forth. Her head was spinning with what she would find Arsen and Beth doing. Her stomach was tight and her insides on fire. The green-eyed monster was in full force inside her and she prayed she found her man in a situation which was not compromising.
The ride to Anne Sinclair’s house was taking forever. Traffic was backed up worse than she’d ever seen. Steele asked Paul, “What’s going on with this crazy traffic?”
His eyes caught hers through the rear-view mirror.
“I heard on the radio a minute ago there's a car wreck about 2 miles up the road.”
She leaned back on the soft leather seat and sighed for the hundredth time.
“It could not happen at a worse time!”
Paul chuckled. “Think the people involved in the accident share your feelings, Steele?” Paul’s cell phone rang. He looked at Steele through the rear-view mirror again. “It's Fontaine.” He answered the phone. “Hey baby what's up?”
Steele’s eyes rolled with how quickly Paul was falling for the detective. The woman was a real bitch most of the time. Paul could do much better. Find someone sweet instead of so abrasive.
Fontaine answered him.
“There’s just been a 911 call from the house next door to Anne Sinclair’s. It's Gwen. Tell Steele, Gwen's okay.”
Steele bolted upright in the back seat and wondered if she’d heard that right.
Gwen’s okay?
Paul said, “I have you on speakerphone, she just heard it. And man did relief just wash over her face. Thanks for letting us know that. You sure are a sweetheart. Miss me?”
Fontaine’s shy laugh came over the phone.
“Paul! I’m working here!”
Steele sat up to listen to everything Fontaine had to say. Her heart was racing after finding out Gwen was alive.
She’s okay! Everything is going to be fine! It has to be!
Fontaine said, “Allen White is in Anne Sinclair's house. As we speak, he's got a loaded revolver with six shots. And it’s there, the blue Camaro. Safe to say Arsen and that Beth woman are there along with Anne. How you doing, Gannon?”
Her stomach knotted as she now was positive Arsen was inside that house. And now so was Allen White. Along with Anne Sinclair and Beth. Allen White was the only one with any kind of weapon, most likely. Steele knew he would want to see Arsen dead rather than alive.
“I’m holding on, Fontaine. How much longer until we get to them?”
“Fifteen minutes. Just hold tight and stay on my ass, Paul. I’m about to turn on the lights and do a bit of off-roading to get out of this traffic jam. You follow me. I told all other officers to stand down and let me take care of this situation. They know you’re with me.” Fontaine’s lights went on and her siren blasted.
Cars began to move out of her way, giving her just enough room to get past them and onto the median. Paul followed and in no time they were free from the traffic and on the side roads heading to Anne’s home.
Steele moved up and kneeled down behind the window separating her and Paul. “Fontaine, can I go in too?”
Fontaine let out a loud laugh.
“Hell no! You stay in the car, Gannon. Paul don't let her out of the car. Okay?”
“Yes, ma'am. You can count on me,” Paul said. He turned his head and looked at Steele. “You're not getting out of the car, Steele. No matter what. You're not getting out of the car.”
Steele moved back to the seat at the back of the Suburban. “Brown noser!”
She knew she was going to get out of the car the minute Fontaine got out of her way. Steele was going to get out of the car and she was going to go into that house to find her man and bring him back home. End of discussion!
I hope he’s alright!
ARSEN
The sound of the doorbell ringing had Arsen taking a step back to make sure he was hidden from everyone’s view. Anne made her way to the door and Arsen could see her through the barely opened door.
Beth and Anne had been talking for nearly an hour and Arsen had all he needed on the recording device Beth had given him to catch her mother’s words.
Just as he knew he had all he needed and was about to spring his surprise on Anne, it seemed she was about to have some company and Arsen would have to wait to tell her how screwed she was.
Light flooded the small entryway as she opened the door.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“We need to talk,” he heard a man say, but he couldn’t see him.
“Who has the girl?” Anne asked.
“Never mind about her. Aren’t you going to ask me to come inside, Anne?” the man said.
Anne shook her head. “Can’t you see I have company? I’ll come see you in a little while at your place. The place you should be so what happened last time doesn’t happen again. Or did you do as I suggested and end that little problem?”
“If you must know, I have her hiding in the car. If you let me in I can tell you all about it. I took a little walk around your house. I overheard you talking and I know you only have one other person in here with you. So if you’ll let me in we can deal with this really quick then I’ll be out of your hair, Anne.”
Anne hesitated and Arsen had a gut feeling the man was not there for anything good. “You walked around my house, Allen?” she asked and held the door tight in her hand, ready to slam it if need be.
Arsen knew then it was none other than Allen White who was paying his old Dom a visit. He shook his head and leaned against the wall and hoped the woman would close the door. Arsen smelled danger and Allen’s scent was all over it.
“Just let me in, Anne.” Allen’s voice had turned commanding.
Arsen watched as Anne took a step back. “What the hell are you doing, Allen?”
Arsen’s eyes caught Allen White as he walked in and Anne backed up. He was holding a gun out, pointing straight at her. Arsen’s breath caught in his chest and he had no idea what he was going to do to get the gun out of the man's hand.
“Who are you?” Beth asked. “And why the gun?”
“I'm the man who is about to kill this woman and then you, obviously,” Allen answered as he kept moving forward and Anne kept moving backwards.
“Allen, why are you pointing a gun at me, you idiot? We’re on the same side. Or have you forgotten that?” The back of Anne’s legs hit the front of the sofa, stopping her retreat.
Mallory Page 94
