by Amy Muscat
“Wait- just let me talk to her for a second.”
“Erm… I don’t think so…”
Fucking bastard. “Keller!” I heard Peyton shout, before the line went dead.
I felt like the air was being sucked from my body. It felt like my heart was being ripped apart. Torn from my chest and then chucked in the shredder.
“Keller…” Blake’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
I turned around and looked at his sullen face, his eyes darting between mine.
Lottie had called him and he had called the rest of the guys.
I didn’t even think to pick up the phone and call them. I knew I wanted them here, but I couldn’t even comprehend doing anything but try to find Peyton. That and the fact that Berg told me not to use my cell, as Andrew might call.
So now I was surrounded by everyone dear to me.
Par from two.
Ivy and Peyton.
Ivy was at Lottie’s parents and had police sitting outside their home.
But Peyton was miles and miles away- three hours of miles away in fact.
“Keller,” Blake repeated.
“Yeah…” I sounded how I felt. Weak and defeated.
“You’ve gotta get going man.”
“I ain’t gonna make it. He’ll… he’ll r- ra-.” I couldn’t even say the word. I just couldn’t.
Hands gripped my shoulders, squeezing and releasing, before shaking me.
“You shut your mouth Keller! You’re going to get our girl right fucking now. Do you hear me?” It was Lottie who was talking to me this time.
“He’s going to do-”
“I know what he’s going to do to her Keller, I heard too. But I’m telling you right fucking now, if you don’t get your fucking arse in your car and drive as fast as you fucking can, and go get my best friend back, I will rip your cock and balls from your body and feed you them!”
I instinctively winced and saw all the other men in the room shield their crotches.
When all I did was look at her, she stepped closer to me and shouted, “GO!” in my face.
I jolted back a step and looked at Berg, who nodded at me and told me I would have a police escort. Rushing I grabbed my car keys and ran out of the apartment.
“Hold-up, Kel.” Blake shouted.
I turned my head and saw him, Jay and Ethan running to catch-up to me.
I felt my brow wrinkle as I asked what they were doing.
“We’re coming with you man.” Jayden said.
“What? No. It’s too dangerous, you don’t know what you’ll be walking into,” I told them.
“Nor do you,” Ethan said, raising an eyebrow at me.
I considered that. I didn’t know what I’d be walking into, but I didn’t care. My woman was there and she was scared and waiting for me to come and save her.
“You fuckers.” I mumbled under my breath. “Come on then, let’s go. We’ve gotta get to Amsterdam in fifty-three minutes and it takes three times that normally.” I told them and carried on running to the Range Rover.
Jumping in, I started it up and blew out of the street within seconds.
As I looked back in my mirror, I counted eight cop cars and two FBI SUV’s following me lights on and sirens blaring.
****
~Peyton~
“Keller!” I shouted for him, needing him, when Andrew cut the line.
“Shut up, whore. Stop calling for him. Do you actually think he’s gonna get here in an hour?”
The trembling of my lips made it hard for me to form any words, but somehow I pushed through my fear and told him what I thought in my most-confident voice.
“Yes. And when he does, I hope he hurts you so badly, you’ll be begging him to kill you.” I raised my chin in defiance.
“Why you little fucking slut…” he said and swiftly walked into my personal space.
“I’ll fucking show you,” he said and started undoing the rope around my wrists.
For one millimeter of a second, I actually thought he was letting me go free.
Stupid of me, I know.
But then common sense kicked in and I realized what he was going to do.
“No!” I screamed at him, trying to push myself away from him, but I was still tied up and couldn’t move back that much in the small chair. “Get the fuck away from me, you’re not touching me! You’re not raping me, Andrew!”
“Shut up!” He screamed in my face and because I didn’t, he slapped me again.
“Oh, what I’m gonna do with you…” He said, smiling and looking over my body and making my skin crawl.
“Get away!”
He ignored me and carried on untying me.
“HELP! Please, someone help me!”
“No one’s coming Peyton. No. One. Now why don’t you be a good little whore and be quiet while I do this. I miss Emerald, Peyton. I want you to be Emerald for me while I fuck you, okay?”
Sick son of a bitch!
I started frantically shaking my head back and forth, eyes wide open, and lips trembling again as I realized this was it. This was where I was going to get raped by some sick psychopath.
“Yo-you said that I had an hour. You said that-”
“I lied Peyton.” He smiled at me. “It was inevitable that this was going to happen, why not just do it now and enjoy it?”
“No, no, no no… NO! I won’t let you.”
“There’s nothing you can do about it, Peyton. Now for the last time, shut up!”
I had to find a way to stall.
I had to find a way to get more time for Keller.
For me.
He lifted his head, where he was bent down and just as he was about to say something, I leaned in and bit the first thing my teeth came in contact with. Turned out to be his cheek. I bit down and didn’t ease up with my biting, even as he screamed in pain.
But he soon got a grip on my hair and pulled so hard, I automatically howled in pain.
“You fucking cunt!”
He staggered to his feet and I saw the right side of his cheek was covered in blood. It was only then that I realized that I had his blood in my mouth and dripping down my chin.
Not wanting his most-likely drug-induced blood sitting in my mouth, I spat it in his face.
“BITCH!” And he swung his hand back and started really hitting me.
Just as I was about to lose consciousness I heard another voice.
A voice I knew all too well.
A voice I never thought I would have heard here.
“Drew! Stop before you kill her. I’ve still got to have my time with her.” The voice said in a reprimand.
I managed to open my left eye as it wasn’t swollen-yet- and I saw the face of the person I had beaten up earlier that day.
The face of someone who had betrayed Keller and me.
I saw the face of Sandra.
TWENTY-SIX
What the fuck was she doing here?
What the fuck was going on here?
My silent question was answered three seconds later by Andrew.
“Hey mom.”
MOM?
Mom?
Sandra wasn’t a mom, she didn’t have no children…
A conversation from earlier filtered through…
“So I went back home, finished my degree at a local college, found a job, ended up marrying my boss and gained a five year old stepson, husband dies twelve years later, and Drew- my stepson- went back to his mom.”
Holy shit!
Andrew was Drew!
Drew was Andrew.
Sandra’s step-son was Andrew Whiteman.
Andrew, my stalker.
Andrew the creeper!
OH. MY. GOD!
“What the fuck…”
It slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it and drew the attention of Sandra and Andrew, who had been hugging like they hadn’t seen each other for years.
“Well, well. Look who we have here…” Sandra said with a smug smirk on
her lips. “It’s precious Peyton. What, got nothing to say now? No attitude? Where’s your sarcastic remarks now?” She moved and stood over me, looking at me with that same hate in her eyes, that shouldn’t belong to me. And yet, it was there, something I had no control over.
“I-I… what are you doing here?” I asked her.
With the cold smile still on her lips she said, “I’m here to get my revenge. I told you I would get it, did I not?”
“Yeah, you did. What I don’t understand is why? What did I ever do to you?”
“What did…? You fucked my face up, that’s what you did!” She shouted in my face, spittle flying in my face.
After flinching from the spit, I looked at her face and saw the effects from our fight earlier.
Her nose was swollen to the point that the tip looked like a multi-colored golf ball. Her eyes had big black and blue rings around them.
It couldn’t be helped, I started laughing.
Through my tears I saw her face go a beetroot red, and thought if she were a cartoon character, she would have steam coming out of her ears.
“Are you fucking laughing at me?” I couldn’t stop laughing. It was one of those inappropriate moments when you know you shouldn’t laugh, but couldn’t help yourself. “Fucking laugh at me,” I saw her leg lift up before I felt it connect to my stomach.
As I screamed out in pain, I felt myself become horizontal before I felt myself crash to the floor.
I heard the wood splinter and break from the force at which I hit the floor, before I felt an immense pain rush through my body. My stomach and my lower back burned, it felt like someone had taken an iron to them and was holding it there.
I felt all the air in my body leave me with a whoosh.
My mouth opened to shout out, but no sound left my trembling lips.
Fuck…
I felt wetness between my legs and it dripping up my back.
Curious, I lifted my head and looked down and saw the tops of my blue jeans drenched in blood.
What the hell…
I felt my stomach clench and a wave of nausea hit me.
Oh nooo…
Was I pregnant?
I had never gotten to see the results of the pregnancy test I took.
A sob flew out my throat, when I realized that I was pregnant, and from Sandra’s kick and the chair falling and landing heavily on my back, I must have lost the baby.
“NO!” I shouted out, distraught.
I’d lost my baby.
I’d lost my mini Keller.
“What is wrong with you?” Andrew said as I heard his footstep grow closer to me.
Through my tears and cries of anguish I heard Sandra let out a horrified gasp, and Andrew ask her what was wrong.
“I think she was pregnant and is now having a miscarriage,” her voice sounded oddly sorrowful.
I sobbed and started crying louder when I heard that. She had just practically confirmed what I had thought.
“I never knew… I never wanted this to happen, Andrew. I don’t- can’t have anything to do with this, I only wanted to scare her, slap her around for what she had done to me.” Sandra sounded terrified of what she had done.
Stupid bitch- I hope she rots in hell for this!
“And you thought that by bringing my stalker here would do that?” I asked her sarcastically.
“What are you talking about?” She asked me confused.
“What you didn’t know that your precious Drew, was my stalker? Before you walked in here, he was going to rape me did you know that? He threatened me not thirty minutes ago, he told me that if Keller didn’t get here within an hour, that he was going to rape me then?” I spat out at her, holding my stomach from the pain radiating through my body.
She gasped, took a step back and lifted her hand to her mouth. The shock and horror on her face made me think that she knew nothing about any of this. She proved my point when she turned to Andrew, anger on her face.
“I told you to just watch her Drew!” Her voice matched her face; angry.
He looked down like a schoolboy being scolded by a teacher.
“What are you talking about?” I asked her, still lying on the floor.
“I asked Drew about five months ago to find out where you were and watch over you.”
“Why?”
“Because, that was when Keller was home, and I knew he was going to look for you. And as I said earlier, I didn’t want you to ruin his life, but he found you anyway. When Drew came to me and told me that you had meet some man about three months ago, I was satisfied that you would stay away, so I told him to leave you alone.” She turned her head towards him. “But obviously he didn’t listen. What happened, Drew?” She asked him.
“I- I don’t know… I started to like her and she just didn’t pay any attention to me, which pissed me off and made me angry,” he looked down at me when he said that.
“I’m sorry, Andrew, but I love Keller. I always have and I always will.”
I saw the switch in him instantly, and the expression on his face frightened me.
“NO! You. Are. Mine!”
He was deranged, totally fucking insane. He proved my silent thought when he brandished a gun, waving it in front of Sandra’s face.
She screamed out, “what are you doing Drew?”
“She is mine, and I’m not letting her go and I’m not gonna let you let her go.” He was still waving the gun around. “Go sit down,” he told her.
“Drew-”
“GO SIT DOWN!” He shouted in her face and flinching she pulled a chair over near me and sat down, shaking slightly.
He walked over to me and grasping the arms of the chair, hefted me up.
“Now, we’re gonna sit here and wait for dear ol’ Keller to turn up,” he lifted his wrist and looked at his watch. A happy smile turned his lips up, and he said, “it looks like Mr. Bodyguard is gonna be late,” his face was radiating happiness.
No…
With my hands-free, I wrapped them around my stomach, grieving for the child I’d lost.
I felt empty inside. Completely empty.
“Please Andrew… Please, just let me leave.” I begged him.
He shook his head at me, telling me no and to shut up that he was thinking.
I felt my jeans become more and more wet, and felt my strength leave my body.
“Sandra, I need to get out of here, I’m bleeding very heavily. Help me, please?” I whispered to her, so Andrew didn’t hear me.
She looked at me with sympathy on her face, nodding she murmured that she'd try.
“Drew, honey.” She called for him, but he just simply ignored her, still pacing, gun still in his grasp. She tried again. “Drew, can you listen to me, please?”
He turned around and I saw the craziness in his eyes.
“What, Sandra?”
“Honey, Peyton’s gonna have to go to the hospital, okay? She’s gotta go Drew. Otherwise, she’s gonna bleed out and die. Do you understand me Drew? DREW!”
“Yes I fucking heard you Sandra! Okay, I heard you. I’m just trying to think here. Let me fucking think!”
“Okay,” she said raising her hands up in surrender.
After what felt like forever, but was probably five minutes, he stopped his pacing and spun in my direction.
I was bent over in pain. It hurt so badly. I wanted Keller.
“Baby are you okay?”
I knew he was talking to me, and I had to stop myself from cringing from his term of endearment. I could only groan and shake my head at him.
I felt nauseous, completely and utterly sick to my stomach. I was still crying over the baby I’d lost, and I didn’t want to talk to anyone or do anything.
“Okay… well do you think you could just wait about twenty minutes?” He asked me.
“Nooo…” I moaned out.
“Why does she need to wait twenty minutes Drew? She needs to get to the hospital now!”
“Because I’ve got unfinished
business to take care of,” he told her, his voice cold again.
“What…?” I asked; my speech garbled.
“I’ve got some unfinished business with Keller.”
“What does that mean Drew?” Sandra’s tone was low and cautious.
“It means when he gets here; I’m gonna finally do what I’ve wanted for some time now.” He paused for dramatic effect, and then he said the words that could shatter my world. “I’m gonna kill him.”
****
~Keller~
We were almost there. I had driven a two and half hour journey in a fifty minutes, and I still had about ten minutes to get there. I had most probably broke all fifty state driving laws- but I didn’t give a fuck.
With our police escort, we had succeeded in making the drive quick. The whole way my stomach was clenched, it felt dead. All I could think about was getting there in that hour. I couldn’t let him do that to Peyton, I just couldn’t stomach it if he did.
And the fact that she was pregnant…
Well, that just made it worse.
Did she know…?
Did she know that she was pregnant?
The test was in her bag, so I’m assuming that she did.
Today had been a bad day; first mine and Peyton’s fight, then finding out that it was Sandra who had kept the letters and who had sent the bogus ones that had broken my heart. Then the confrontation with her and Peyton’s fight with her, which I gotta say, Peyton was epic. Our time at the restaurant and her agreeing to move in with me. Finally. Then her going to the bathroom and being taken, by that sick fucker.
But then, on the other hand, I had also found out that Peyton and I were expecting another baby. Another Ivy. Hopefully another mini Peyton.
“Hey, we’re almost there, man.”
Blake’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
I looked back into the rearview mirror and saw the police cars and SUV’s still behind me, only their lights on. Didn’t want the psycho knowing that I had backup with me. I heard the Sat Nav tell me to take a right and then I only had eight hundred yards before I reached my destination. I took the right and then put the blinker on and pulled over to the right. Jumping out of the car I waited for the cops and FBI to stop too.
The cars stopped behind me and the FBI agent who was in charge, Agent Green, walked up to me and with a confused look on his face, he asked me why I had stopped.
