He laughs lightly. “Some of them, yes.”
“How did you know Julie?” I say. Changing the subject.
My question gives him pause. He looks at me with a furrowed brow for a moment then draws in a deep breath. “We were fuck buddies. On and off. She liked it rough.” He laughs.
I don’t react. All I see is her dead body lying in the front yard of her house. “She said you were her friend, did you know she was killed?”
He nods.
I take a breath, swallowing. “Did you kill her? Was she in your way?”
He stops pacing and turns, looking me dead in the eyes. I’ve been holding this gun up so long it’s starting to get heavy.
He doesn’t speak, just stares at me. Her throat was cut, was this the blade that sliced away her life?
“It was this knife wasn’t it? She was your friend, I saw it on her face that she liked you when she talked about you. It must have been hard for you, I can only imagine.”
“I couldn’t risk losing Emily. Julie was... different. She listened to me. She was obsessed with the sex we had and I thought that it would make her... well... it doesn’t matter now. Emily is mine and I did what I had to do to keep her and protect her. I love her.”
“That must have been hard for you. I suppose we have to do what he have to in order to—”
He steps closer to me, my eyes trail the knife he waves as he cuts me off. “Don’t do that cop bullshit to me. The “I know how you feel” crap that you all use to get to people. You can’t get to me. You can’t get inside my head.”
I swallow. Where are the damn police? Blowing out a breath a grasp for my next move. He’s agitated. I’ve got to calm this guy down or I’ll get stabbed or he’s going to get shot.
I stand in this insanely, expensive room and, for a moment, my mind is blank. I have no idea what to do or how to get this guy to put his knife down.
Could Vegas PD be any slower?
“Noah, we are both men here. Adults. I’m sure that we can come to some agreement.” I say after a moment.
“Now you want to be reasonable? Somehow, I have a hard time swallowing that. Look, I only want one thing. I’ve only wanted one thing all this time, and you know what that is. Bring her back in here, and go away. Leave us to have our honeymoon and our lives in peace. She chose me, and you will just have to get over it.” His eyes are pained for the first time since I’ve been in here with him.
In his head, he really loves her. I can’t hold that against him, I fell in love fast too. She’s amazing.
“What if I call her, and you just put your knife down so that I know she will be safe?” I suggest, with no intention of actually calling her.
“I would never hurt her.” His arms fall limp at his sides.
I know it’s a lie, I saw the mark on her face. He hit her. Makes me wonder what the word hurt really means to someone like him, who is clearly disturbed.
“I’d rather be safe, can’t you understand that? Would you ever leave something like that to chance? Wouldn’t you do everything to make sure that she is safe and protected? I love her, too.”
I can see the wheels turning in his head now. He’s thinking about it. Emily is his soft spot. The whole thing makes my anger sort of fade as it’s replaced by pity for him. He can’t help it, he’s sick. Like someone with an illness that can’t do a damn thing about the symptoms. That’s where he is. He needs to be somewhere secure and medicated.
He needs help, not jail.
“I would, but as soon as I put this knife down you are going to arrest me. You still have the gun.”
I can’t give up my gun. This isn’t a movie where the cop sets his gun down to get the bad guy to trust him. This is real.
“I’m not allowed to give up my gun, my bosses would have my ass. You understand that, right?”
He starts to pace. This could go on for hours, days. A standoff that ends up on the news with the hotel shut down, surrounded by swat and Emily somewhere out there sick with worry ‘cause I’m trapped in here with this guy.
Shit.
Maybe I should just go for it. Tackle him. He’s about fourteen years older, softer body than me. Couple inches shorter. I have a shot.
But that damn knife. He could get one hand free and sink it right into me and then It’d be over.
What am I going to do?
***
Emily
My ear pressed to the door, my heart throbs as their voices touch my ears. Why isn’t Isaiah just arresting him?
I lean further into the door.
“Noah, I think we can just talk like adults. You put that knife down and I’ll holster my gun.”
I swallow. Damn. They are both armed. Isaiah is trying to do this without hurting him. My eyes sting. This could go so badly.
Noah’s words just moments ago ring in my head.
Bring her back in here, and go away. Leave us to have our honeymoon and our lives in peace. She chose me, and you will just have to get over it.
Maybe I should go in. Maybe I can calm Noah down, distract him. I wipe my sweating palms on the silk of this damn dress. It can’t be long before the police get here, can it? It seems like it’s been forever since I called them.
I can almost hear Isaiah screaming at me to get out. But Noah... he would listen to me, wouldn’t he? He thinks I love him. I can make him see reason.
I take in a gulp of air and blow it out slowly, my hand on the knob. Maybe they locked it and I can’t get in.
Then what?
I let tears fall from my tired, stinging eyes and shake my head. I can’t just stand here and let something awful happen.
Carefully, I turn the knob. Holding my breath as it turns, clicks, opens. Slowly, I push the door open. First thing I see is Isaiah with his back to me, gun up on Noah. He doesn’t turn his head, probably can’t risk not keeping his eyes on that blade.
Looking past him, I look into the dark, demented eyes of Noah. My captor. His eyes light up at the sight of me and I walk into the room on bare feet, my shoes left in the hall. Lush carpet is soft under my feet.
“Emily... you came back.” My name on Noah’s voice makes me feel ill.
I walk past Isaiah, turning in between the two men. Isaiah looks at me without much reaction, but I know his eyes, and I can read them.
He’s upset that I came back in.
I take a breath, allowing my tears to flow on purpose as I hold his copper gaze for a long moment before turning to meet this hopeful black one.
Will Noah know what I’m doing?
“Of course I came back. I’m your wife.” I force the words out. They leave a sick taste in my mouth.
“Why are you crying baby?” Noah asks, walking up to me.
“Why do you think?” I look up into tender eyes. I hate this man so much. “You two in here with these weapons. I don’t like this.”
I look over at Isaiah, he lowers the gun, but holds it tightly at his side.
“Emily, you...,” he starts.
I glare at him. “You. You come barging in here and hold a gun on him? We broke up, remember? I’m sorry that you got hurt but this isn’t what I wanted.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
I pick up on the double meaning in his words. I swallow and turn back to Noah, knife hanging at his side. “And you, letting this happen. It’s our wedding day. Can’t you put the knife down and let this go?” I sweeten my voice and cock my head. “Don’t you want to be alone with me?”
He touches my hair. “Of course I do, but he has a gun. What am I to do, just let him take me away?”
“For what? They can’t arrest you. You didn’t do anything wrong. Give me this knife and I’ll talk to him.”
Noah furrows his brow. “I can’t leave you alone with him.”
My heart picks up. I need to add more fuel to the fire. “He won’t hurt me. He loves me too. Please? You can wait for me in the bedroom. “I take his free, empty hand and pick it up, turning it. Gently, I kiss h
is palm, the tips of his fingers. “Haven’t you been waiting? I have.” I whisper the last words.
He searches my face, I can see that that he’s holding his breath for a moment.
“Of course I’ve been waiting for you, you know I have.”
He glances over at Isaiah, who is watching us.
“Then let me get rid of him.” I put his hand to my breast, knowing he can feel damn near everything through this thin fabric. “Don’t you trust me?”
His eyes fall to my chest. I can see that I’m getting to him. His lust and imaginary love for me seems to be more powerful than his sense of reason.
“It’s not that... it’s....”
I hush him with a kiss. As sick as I feel doing it in front of Isaiah, I trust he will understand. Noah dissolves immediately against my mouth. His free hand lingering on my breast, his mouth starving and invasive.
“Please,” I whisper, my lips still touching his. “Let me do this. Then we can be together.”
Noah takes in a breath.
“Isaiah, tell Noah you won’t hurt me.” I order, turning my head to meet the sick and angry eyes of the man I love.
Isaiah nods. “I won’t hurt her. I love her. I just need to hear from her that she doesn’t love me,” he says.
I hold out my hand for Noah. “Wait for me in the bedroom. He needs to hear it from me alone to believe it and go away. Then I will be right in. Then I will give myself to you.”
Noah thumbs the blade, as if thinking about it. My heart is about to explode. What if he realizes? He could just stick this blade into my chest and end me right here.
Does he believe me?
The steel is cold when he lays it in my hand. I close my hand around the handle with a nod. He looks deep into my eyes and then bends, kissing me again.
“I love you so, Emily.”
When I open my eyes and see the hope settling in his, I feel sad suddenly. He really does think he loves me. He’s happy in this moment, thinking he’s got his bride. His love, and in only moments he will finally have his happiness.
God, why is this breaking my heart? He’s held me captive, stalked me and terrorized me.
Because he can’t help it, that’s why. He’s just ill. It’s not meant to be hurtful, he just can’t understand.
I stand still as he walks past me, towards the bedroom. I hear the door close. As if in slow motion, Isaiah moves towards me, holstering his gun and taking the knife away from me.
“Are you fucking nuts?” he hisses in a low whisper. “You might have been killed.” I meet his eyes. “But you did it. Emily-” He sighs.
Instead of going on, he takes my hand and leads me into the hall where we run right into half a dozen officers.
Isaiah intercedes, and explained in a rush what happened. I’m corralled and shoved against a wall by a tall woman as the rest of them disappear into the bedroom.
“Will they hurt him?” I ask. Yesterday I wouldn’t have cared.
Somehow, it’s different now.
“No, not if he isn’t armed and doesn’t fight them.”
Suddenly I hear yelling, shuffling, a cry. Tears fill my eyes.
“No, let me go. She said I didn’t do anything, she told me she loves me.” His voice comes out of the open door.
It’s only moments before I’m shoved away from the door and a cluster of cops comes spilling out, a screaming Noah in their midst. Cuffed and crying, he turns and sees me, his face wet with tears.
My heart breaks as I look at him. As desperately as I want to turn away, I can’t force my eyes down as I start to cry myself, covering my mouth with my hands.
“Emily... Emily tell them, please. Tell them what you told me. Tell them you love me!” he yells at me.
I stand, mute.
“Why are you doing this? Didn’t I do everything for you? Don’t let them take me... please! Just tell them.”
They are dragging him away.
“I’m sorry,” I call after him, finding myself wrapped in arms that can only belong to Isaiah.
I watch them drag him, he won’t walk. He’s collapsed into tears, yelling my name. People are coming out of hotel rooms and taking pictures.
“Baby, it’s going to be okay now,” Isaiah whispers in my ear. “He will get help now.”
I turn, bury my face in his chest, and sob. For myself, for Noah, and this whole thing. The man just wanted to be loved.
He didn’t know another way.
It’s hours after statements and processing that I’m released. Treated like evidence, I feel damn near violated by the time they are finished with me. I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I’d been sexually assaulted.
Isaiah got us a room in a different hotel and stopped to buy me a few things. Now I stand under a shower as steam fills the room, hidden behind a plastic, white curtain as I scrub myself over again.
I thought I’d feel more relieved when it ended, somehow I don’t. All I can think about his the heartbreak in that poor man’s face as he was heaved onto an elevator with four officers dragging him sobbing and calling for me.
Happy to be free, and with Isaiah, but sick inside over the fact that this man with all his money can’t seem to find relief for his illness. I suppose that is life. He will get great doctors, be medicated, and maybe he can get some peace.
“Hey baby?” I hear the door crack and Isaiah’s voice call.
“You can come in.” I sigh, I need to get out anyway. I shut off the water and he peeks at me behind the curtain. There is such relief in his eyes that it makes me smile.
“You doing okay? Can I do anything for you?”
I shake my head as he hands me a towel. “No, it’s so late. You look about to collapse. I think we just need to sleep and start new tomorrow.”
He leans on the wall. “He will get help now, he won’t go to jail. You are worried about him.”
I hide my face by bending to dry my hair. I don’t know how to answer this, being confused by my own concern for him.
Standing and flipping my hair back, I find him watching me with gentle eyes.
“You know, it’s okay to feel that way. I understand your thinking, but you might want to know something.” He starts, shifting as I wrap the towel around my body. He reaches for the comb on the counter he got for me and turns me to comb out my wet hair, meeting my eyes in the mirror. “I think he killed Julie.”
“What? You really think that?” my voice comes out louder than I intended.
He nods, gently pulling the comb through my tangles. “Yes. His reaction when I asked him is what clenched it. I called it in while we were at the police station. The knife is in evidence they will have it tested.”
Murder. Hell. I spent all that time locked up with a killer, in his bed, his house. Now I’m actually married to him until that is annulled by the judge. My blood runs cold. Would he have killed me? He hit me, the vague threats with that knife when he wanted me to call Isaiah, maybe he would have.
I stare into the mirror, unseeing until he calls my name and rests his hands on my shoulders.
“Emily, you okay?”
“I have no idea.”
“You’re safe. Whatever he did, he’s not getting out. When the evidence comes through, they will add the murder charge and he’ll stay in the hospital for the rest of his life. Some place where they deal with the criminally insane. I would have hunted you down until I found you, you know that right?”
I turn and look up into his exhausted face. Warmth floods me as I let his words sink in. He hasn’t slept since I was taken, he told me so. He cried, for me.
He loves me.
As I gaze up at him, I forget Noah and the echoing scene in the hallway that haunts me, the fact that I might have died, the fear of never seeing Isaiah again. It dissipates. This man in front of me, he’s mine body, heart and soul.
“I do. I love you so much,” my voice trembles.
His arms go around me, I tilt my face up and he touches his forehead to mine.
“You’re my everything. I’d never let you go.”
The whispered words make me hold him tighter. “Let’s go to bed.”
***
Noah
Emily... Emily... Emily
I struggle to call her name but my voice isn’t working.
I thrash in the bed against my bonds and groan, it’s the only sound I can manage.
Opening my eyes is a struggle. I see a doctor and a nurse hovering over me. One holds a needle.
“He’s coming out of it.”
“Looks like he’s going to fight again.”
The room is too bright, fluorescent lights buzz and burn my eyes as I blink, hoping that I can blink away the images of this bare room and transport myself back to my big bed where she is waiting for me.
“Mr. Burrell, do you know where you are?” the man in the white coat asks, with a heavy accent.
I blink up at him. His gray eyes wrinkled, crows feet, smile lines. He’s old. Opening my mouth, I grunt.
Why the hell can’t I talk?
He looks at the nurse. “Let’s give it a few more minutes to wear off. I need to talk to him. These meds they gave him were too strong.” He clicks his tongue.
His hands are cold when he touches my wrist, I jerk, but not far. Leather bands hold me into the bed.
“His pulse is erratic. Mr. Burrell, you are in a safe place. Don’t be afraid. You will understand soon.”
Where is she? My Emily? They made her do this. Fucking cops. I spent my life taking care of cops, built my empire around them and this is where they put me? That woman had her... she wouldn’t let her come to me. I saw her crying when they took me away.
This is all just a confused misunderstanding, they will let me go.
I feel with my thumb for my wedding band. It’s gone.
Of course it is, they probably took it to fuck with me.
They leave me for a while, laying here alone as my tongue seems to come unstuck and loosen. All I can see is her face, crying. That whisper, promising me that we will be together. I knew she would, we were meant to be.
No one can stand between us. I proved that with Julie. I’ll get out of here. I have before.
I know just what to do.
Crazy Love Page 20
