by Alice Ward
Against my better judgment, I said, “Sure.” I wanted to know what she was up to.
Instead of going to the seating area, she glided toward the bar. “Shall we have a drink?” she asked over her shoulder, “I’m happy to serve.”
A double for myself.
“No, I’ll get it,” I said quickly and cut her off. “Seriously, have a seat. What would you prefer? Wine. Whisky. Scotch.”
She inclined her head regally and turned on her heel. “Scotch with a drop of water, please.”
Turning to the bar, I poured the drinks and added the water. So that I didn’t touch her, I set the glass on a coaster then took a seat in a chair on the other side. Taking a long drink, I set my glass down with a thunk. If I’d continued to hold it, I might have ended up throwing it at her head.
Alize lifted her crystal tumbler to her lips and took a delicate sip, then wrinkled her nose. “Might I trouble you for two drops of water? This is stronger than I’m accustomed to.”
Inhaling through my nose, I stood back up and headed to the bar again. Not caring how much I poured, I watered it down this time.
Retracing my path, I noticed she’d shifted and was sitting closer to the edge. With a simpering smile, she took the glass from the bottom while I held the top. She waited until I was seated before lifting it. “Cheers.”
Close to snarling now, I tossed the rest of mine down. “Cheers.”
She smiled and settled back into her seat. “Now, Kane. I’m rather worried about Eliana and all of this sex scandal nonsense going on. For me, I’m of the opinion that any press is good press, but I know that not everyone thinks as I do.”
Thank God.
“Eliana has always had such a delicate nature. Too soft skinned for the modeling or acting business, even if she had inherited my looks and skills. So, I can’t even imagine how this has affected her. I’m very worried.”
I snarled at the insult to Eliana and looked carefully at the older woman, blinking to see her clearly. Despite the verbal spar, she actually appeared to be sincere. Not that I trusted anything about her.
“Your daughter is much stronger than you realize, Alize. It was a shock, for all of us, but you should be proud of how well she’s holding up.”
“Are the police close to discovering who did this?”
I blinked again and rubbed my eyes. “No, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved and they are working hard to solve the case.”
She licked her lips, reminding me of a serpent as the pink tongue darted between her cherry red gloss. “My understanding is that Eliana’s college boyfriend is now deceased. Such a pity. I always liked that young man. So strong and handsome. Of course, I never knew exactly what he saw in my mousy little girl, but he seemed quite taken with her.” Alize laughed, and the sound was like a gong inside my head. “Until he dropped her for that little slutty cheerleader.”
“El-e-an-a is nooot mouse…” I shook my head and scraped my tongue against my teeth — it felt thick and unwieldy, “m…mousy.”
Alize blurred, and I shook my head again. She leaned forward. “Are… you… all… right?”
Pressing my hands to my ears, I tried to make the words stop echoing. I stood up, thinking that would help. The world went sideways, then Alize’s arm was around my waist, and I was leaning hard against her. “Here… let… me… help… you…”
Then I was walking.
Down the hall.
Into the bedroom.
Onto the bed.
Alize hovered over me, her white-blonde hair like a curtain around my face.
I blinked and…
***
“Kane!”
“Eliana!” My throat was raw from calling out to her, my legs shaking from exertion.
“Kane!”
She was screaming now, shouting my name over and over and over, but I couldn’t find her. Occasionally, I could see her strawberry hair, but when I went in that direction, she was gone.
“Kane!”
I turned and ran, then rebounded off glass. I was in a maze of glass. I’d been running the halls for hours.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The giant clock over my head was counting down. Only five more minutes to find her.
“Four,” the man in the black mask said, and I began to run again.
“Kane!”
I needed to find her. I couldn’t lose her. Eliana had become my everything. Business didn’t matter. Baseball didn’t matter. Only her. Her.
“Three.”
Panic dumped a new load of adrenaline into my system, and I lowered my shoulder, using it as a battering ram to break through. I rebounded again, and the masked man chuckled.
“Two.”
There! I saw her again. Her fists hammering glass, her mouth open in a silent scream. Keeping my eyes on her, I ran, afraid to take my eyes from her, fearing she would disappear. One hand touching the glass as a guide, the other out front, seeking something solid so I could turn. I was like a blind man who could fully see.
“Kane!”
She began to recede, to fade. The harder I ran, the farther I seemed to be from her. I hit another wall, then another before finding the opening and sprinting in its direction.
“One.”
I was in the right passageway this time, I knew it, but Eliana was losing hope. Her fists were bloodied as she sank to the floor, tears running like a river down her face.
“Thirty seconds.”
“No,” I screamed, not recognizing my voice as it tore from my throat. I was getting closer. Twenty feet. Ten. Five. One.
Bam. I rebounded off another glass wall after hitting so hard my nose shattered from the impact.
“Fifteen seconds.”
I turned around and hit another wall. Turned to my left and hit another. To my right was another. Sticking my hands out, I turned in a circle. All the openings were gone. I was trapped, Eliana only inches away on the other side.
“Ten seconds.”
She was on her feet, her palms pressed to the glass. I stood in front of her and pressed mine to hers.
“I love you,” I yelled as the masked man walked up behind her.
Her blue eyes begged me to save her as she whispered, “I love you too.”
“Three.”
He was close.
“Two.”
He was there, his hand encircling her throat.
“One.”
He squeezed, and Eliana’s mouth opened to scream my name…
***
“Kane!”
Hands were on my shoulders shaking me, and I tried so hard to float up out of the darkness and into the light of her voice.
“Baby, wake up!”
I blinked, and Eliana was there. Alive.
“Kane, wake up. It’s me. Wake up.”
I shot straight up in my bed, heaving in a breath as if my lungs had been starving for air. So fuzzy. Why couldn’t I blink the sleep away?
What was happening to me?
“Kane?” Eliana’s voice was gentler this time, her blue eyes blurry but there, leading me from the darkness. “What’s going on? Are you sick? Drunk?”
As I was trying to unwind myself from the blankets, I realized I was naked. Everywhere. Eliana gasped, and I looked down and saw what she saw. A used condom barely hanging onto my limp prick.
I inhaled and nearly choked on the fumes of the scotch that seemed to surround me. I didn’t understand what was going on.
In the distance, a toilet flushed, and a door clicked.
As one, Eliana and I looked up. And there, in the doorway was Alize, fully naked too.
Eliana gasped and took several steps backward. Beside her, Target growled.
Very slowly, Alize made an attempt to cover herself. “Sorry, darling. He just wouldn’t let me say no.” A smile played on her lips. “He’s very convincing.”
I tried to get up. I tried to stand. I tried to reach for Eliana as she turned away and ran.
But all I coul
d manage to do was puke.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Eliana
My fists hurt as I pounded on Zoe’s door. Her eyes were wide when she opened it. “What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t talk, so instead, I just barged through, not stopping until I was at the kitchen sink, splashing water on my face. Soft hands were on my shoulders, holding my hair back as I washed the misery away.
When I turned off the faucet, those same hands guided me to a chair. I sat and Target, the good boy that he was, sat on my feet.
“What happened?”
Even after walking for hours, I still couldn’t believe the words that were about to come out of my mouth. “I caught Kane sleeping with my mom.”
Zoe’s mouth opened, but she was as speechless as me for several long moments. “When? Where?”
I held up a hand. “Don’t you dare ask me why.”
She didn’t. Instead, she got up and poured me a tall glass of wine. I gulped half of it down in a single long drink.
“Okay, tell me what happened.”
“It was after the revenge porn public announcement shoot. Target and I walked in the door, and I expected to see Kane there. His first physical therapy of the day was over, and he didn’t need to go back for another couple of hours. I’d stopped to get Chinese and thought we’d have some lunch.”
“And…?”
“He wasn’t in the living room or kitchen. I checked the weight room and his office. He wasn’t there either, so I went to the bedroom to see if his keys were there. Instead, I found him.”
Zoe’s hand was over her mouth. “Oh, El. Found him how?”
“Asleep. Well, that’s what I thought at first. But he was sweating and shaking, like he was having a nightmare. I went over to him, and I noticed these scratches, they were almost like claw marks on his chest. And there was a hickey on his neck.”
I closed my eyes, reliving those moments in full detail.
“Zoe, he started screaming, and I tried to calm him, but he grabbed me. I shook him, trying to make him wake up. There was this smell, like alcohol was everywhere. Like it was coming out of his pores.”
“Then…?”
“Then he opened his eyes, but it was like he couldn’t see me. He started fighting off the covers, trying to get out of bed…” I inhaled deeply, breathing back the sob that wanted to escape. “There was a condom, Zoe. It had clearly been used, half on and half off him.”
I could hear the flush of the toilet. The turn of the knob. My beautiful mother. Her beautiful body. Marks on her breasts.
“Alize opened the door and stood there naked. After a few seconds, she tried to act embarrassed, but I could tell she was just gloating. When I was dating Brett back in college, she told me I could never keep a man like him happy. She told me the same about Kane.”
A tear fell. The first. I blinked hard, willing it to be the last.
“And you left?”
I nodded. “Yeah, no sense watching her rub her success in my face. The driver, Deke, was downstairs. He followed me around until I was ready to come here.”
My phone buzzed, but I didn’t even look at it. It had been buzzing for hours now, and I kicked my purse with my foot. I drained the glass and looked down at my left hand, the beautiful diamond glittering back at me.
I didn’t cry when I took it off and handed it to Zoe. “Will you give it back to him? Get my clothes? Or not. I really don’t care anymore.”
On shaky legs, I stood up and poured another glass of wine, all the way to the brim.
My phone buzzed again.
I heard Zoe get up and dig through my bag. Then her phone began ringing in the other room.
She padded out, and I sipped my drink, looking around the apartment. My new home. Whitney had done a beautiful job furnishing it. It was fresh and young and warm.
Whitney was helping me with the wedding. I’d have to call her to let her know it was off. And Holly to cancel the cakes. And Marsha. And Nana. It was all too much.
I hadn’t just lost Kane, I’d lost a family — even a baseball family — I’d grown to love in a very short time.
I shook my head, hoping the movement would rattle my brain enough for it all to make sense.
My own mother. The woman who labored with me for sixteen hours, blah blah blah. Did she hate me so much? And why? She was always so much better, more attractive, more graceful than me. Why take the only thing I had away?
“Eliana?”
Numb, I turned to Zoe, who was holding both phones in her hands. She was frowning, like she didn’t know what to say.
“It was the FBI agents calling. They’ve arrested your mother…”
For fucking my fake fiancée?
“And Winston Hampton.”
I stared at her, my jaw sagging open. “Why?”
She shook her head, like it wasn’t important. But I could tell by the look in her eyes that something else was.
“Eliana…”
I waited, barely able to breathe.
“…Kane’s in the hospital. He was drugged. Too much drug.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Eliana, he’s in the ICU. It’s bad.”
***
Deke, the driver was directly outside the apartment door as Zoe, Target, and I ran into the hallway. He ushered us to the car and drove at breakneck speed right up to the hospital door.
“I’ll be back,” I promised the dog and kissed him on his sweet head, then closed my ears to the pitiful whine as I slammed the door shut.
Agents Grinstead and Mason were in the lobby as we rushed in.
“Miss Anderson, we need to talk.”
I didn’t even slow down, just headed for the elevators. I punched a button with my thumb. “So talk.”
The agents looked at each other but were silent on the ride to the ICU floor. “Kane Steele,” I told the woman guarding the door. “I’m his fiancée.”
The woman’s old finger scanned down the names of patients on her page, and I wanted to snatch her clipboard and hurry her up. She looked up at me, her eyes sad. “I’m sorry…”
I stared at her in shock as grief clawed at my throat, my eyes, my heart.
“…but they’ve moved him to room three-twelve.”
My breath left me in a gush. “Which way?”
It took her gnarled little hand forever to raise, but I was moving before it was fully extended. I’d find it. I’d find him.
And I did.
Pushing open the hospital room door, a million emotions flooded through me at the sight of him sitting on the side of the bed. He was fighting with a nurse who was trying to keep him from pulling his IV out.
“Kane Bartholomew,” I barked, doing a fair impression of Nana.
His head snapped up, and relief at seeing me caused him to sag. He stopped fighting the nurse, and instead, opened his arms.
I flew into them, kissing his face, his nose, his eyes, his forehead. “I’m so sorry for running out and leaving you alone. For thinking you would do something like that.” I kissed his lips. “I knew better. I know you better. I’m so sorry.”
He could have died because of me, I realized. I didn’t know how he was saved, or who saved him, but it wasn’t because of me. I’d never forgive myself for that.
“I don’t remember anything,” he admitted, “but from what I was told, it looked bad. Bitch even put mayo in the condom.” He pulled me closer until he was whispering in my ear. “If it makes you feel better, I’ll spank that sweet ass later.”
Happiness and pure joy spread through me. “It will definitely make me feel better.”
Someone behind us cleared their throat, and I turned in Kane’s arms. Agent Mason crossed her arms over her chest, a smile on her face. “Sorry to interrupt, but Grinstead and I have a mountain of paperwork to plow through. Let me give you a report on what’s happened then we’ll leave you alone.”
Kane laid back down, and I curled up on the bed beside him.
“First, we’ve arrested your mother on a nu
mber of charges, including attempted murder. Winston Hampton has been charged with multiple sex crimes in addition to felony robbery, attempted rape, and two counts of first-degree murder.”
I stared at the other woman. “So, it was him?”
“Yes, we believe Winston is the man who attacked you and killed Joseph.”
I licked my dry lips. “How do you know?”
“After you were attacked, we sent notices to all the surrounding hospitals and clinics, asking to be notified of any male being treated for an animal bite. It’s required by law for them to report a bite to the health department, but we were hoping the notice would catch the right person’s attention sooner.”
“And it did?”
Agent Mason nodded. “Yes. Winston didn’t go for treatment right away, but one of the bites became badly infected. It was so bad that he required surgery to repair the tissue and bone.”
I thought of Target and the way he had protected me. That good boy would get a lifetime of treats and bubble baths.
“Winston also had wounds consistent with what you described to the police. A long cut on his cheek from where you hit him with your engagement ring. From that, we were able to get a search warrant and enter his home, his office, his computers. Eliana, we found the tapes of you and Brett Southerland. We found tapes of your mother with Southerland as well.”
Zoe stepped in. “You have to be kidding me.”
Agent Grinstead shook his head. “We kid you not. That’s what led us to begin investigating your mother, Eliana. She wasn’t even on our radar until that point. We went to Kane’s apartment to see if you were aware of your mother and Southerland’s relationship. When we knocked, the door wasn’t fully shut.”
Because I hadn’t taken the time to close it behind me when I ran.
“Concerned, we entered the premises and heard vomiting coming from the back room. We found Mrs. Montgomery going through Kane’s belongings. We arrested her on suspicion and called 911 for Kane. Our guys are searching your mother’s home as we speak, and she’s singing like the proverbial canary.”
Agent Mason’s face turned serious, and she pulled a chair over in front of me and sat down. “Eliana, you need to know something else. Your mother is a deeply disturbed woman. She gave Kane a high dose of GHB, far greater than any human should be able to tolerate. If he hadn’t received treatment right away…” She shook her head.
