The thing was much heavier than I’d anticipated. Cool air siphoned in from the night along with the whining of a dog from somewhere close.
“You have to go,” I hissed at Emery.
She rose from the floor, looking out the window and seeing the darkness she’d be running into.
“What? No! How do you know its safe? And I can’t leave--.”
“Nova?” A feminine voice called from the other side of the bathroom door, cutting her off. “Emery?” The handle rattled, turning back and forth.
“We don’t have time for you to be a pussy, okay? So help me god if you don’t get your skinny ass through this window, I will throw you out myself.”
She came closer, still hesitant and moving like a damned tortoise.
If I didn’t have to hold the window up, I really would have tossed her out of it myself.
“Open the door!” the voice came again, banging against the wooden barrier separating us from them. “Come help me!”
Emery jumped, finally moving her ass. “I’ll get help,” she promised.
I didn’t have any words of encouragement for her. I had no idea if she’d make it anywhere beyond the back yard or even the roof, but one of us had to try, and I couldn’t leave her behind in either scenario.
“Go,” I grunted. I wouldn’t be able to hold the window much longer.
She grabbed hold of the ledge and struggled to hoist herself up, making it through on her third attempt, nearly kicking me in the process. She’d barely cleared the frame when my hands gave out on me. I drew back, letting the window slam shut.
Another hail of paint fell away, the glass vibrated in its frame. I flexed my fingers in discomfort, feeling the ache more heavily in my arms.
I had seconds to catch my breath.
“Move.” Carried from the other side of the door a split-second before it splintered off its frame with a loud crack, and a bang.
I took one look at Rhett’s face, and my heart fell into my stomach. The bathroom seemed to shrink to an even smaller size. I wished I could disappear through a hole in the floor. He came towards me so fast, my legs carried me backward before my brain could register what was happening.
With nowhere to go, I tripped over my own two feet, grabbing hold of the shower curtain in a pathetic attempt to keep myself upright. The whole thing came down with me, the long bar falling across my stomach as I landed partially inside the bathtub.
Something slippery transferred onto the back of my leg. I sucked in the stench of death and vomit, nearly adding to it with bile that rose up the back of my throat.
“Get away!” I screamed at Rhett, struggling to get back on my feet.
He moved the shower bar off me, and then took hold of my forearms, lifting my body from the tub. His arms closed around me, and my face was pressed into his chest. His familiar scent filled my lungs, clearing away the repugnant odor behind us.
“Calm down,” he soothed, running a hand down the back of my head.
I didn’t know I was struggling as hard as I was until his words reached some logical part of my psyche. I froze, my mind surging with perplexity when I realized he was hugging me. He maneuvered us so that my back was facing towards the basin.
I’m not sure how long we stayed that way, but the effect he had on me was like a small hit of anesthetic.
“Do it,” he said suddenly, his voice firm.
By the time I understood it wasn’t me he was talking to, something sharp stabbed into the side of my neck, giving me a sickening sense of déjà vu as a familiar feeling rushed through my veins.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
RHETT
Nova Markov.
From the moment I saw her in a pair of tight ass unicorn shorts, and a tank top that should have been illegal, I knew she was going to be a problem. None of the pictures I’d collected over the past two years had did her an ounce of justice.
Our first hello set our inevitable future in motion. When she spread her legs and let me inside her, that was what sealed her fate. And she was none the wiser.
Now, I had to wonder, how many bodies would pile up between the two of us? So far, we were at ten.
The older couple that each got a bullet to their heads were wildcards, casualties of our first real lover’s quarrel. I glanced in my rearview mirror, making sure she was still out cold.
That was her second hairbrained attempt at getting away from me in less than twenty-four hours. It was insulting, I’d only stopped to try and give her an intermission from being drugged our entire drive.
With her back in my possession, a bit of weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I didn’t have to worry about anything happening to her if she was by my side.
It was amusing she thought she had a chance in hell of getting away from me. Where we were going now, it wasn’t even option. My phone began to play the Drake song Angel had set as her personal ringtone. I reached down and swiped over.
“What is it?”
“That’s no way to greet your favorite sister.”
“You’re my only sister.”
“Makes no difference. Anyways, I was just calling to see if she needed another dose.”
I looked at the time. “Didn’t you just give her another hit thirty minutes ago? Let’s not kill her before we get there.”
She made a sound of outrage. “That’s insulting Rhys. As if I haven’t done this a gazillion times.”
“She hasn’t slept. What you gave should hold her over until we’re where we need to be.”
“Like I said, I know what I’m doing. I won’t kill her, but if she wakes up while you’re driving, she might kill you.”
“I can handle Nova.” I reached down again and disconnected the call. We would be home soon, and things would all play out as they needed to.
It was time we got to know one another. Our facades were already split wide the fuck open, there was no reason to pretend anymore.
Nova may have been a killer, but I was a monster.
CHAPTER TWELVE
NOVA
My head felt as if it had been submerged under water. There was something plushy pushing against the soles of my bare feet. And my hands…
I opened my eyes, blinking a few times to clear the grogginess from them. A slight pain radiated from my neck; the same place I’d been jabbed with a needle of god knows what.
Aside from feeling as if I’d slept for a century, my body didn’t seem too out of whack, although something goop-y was smeared on both my knees.
Muscles ached from over exertion, but that was to be expected. It wasn’t every day I moved dead bodies or ran for my life.
I was far more concerned by my lack of clothing and precarious position. In nothing but my bra and underwear, I was bound to a small wooden chair. My hands were knotted securely behind my back by what felt like a thick piece of nylon. After toying with it for a few minutes, I knew it wasn’t going to give.
I surveyed my new surroundings. There was a large baroque bed against the wall off to my immediate left, two matching nightstands on either side of it. The entire room was done in dark, saturated colors, and absent of clutter. All the windows were covered in floor to ceiling curtains, twice the size of me. A familiar scent lingered here, a mixture of cinnamon and citrus.
This had to be Rhett’s room. Or, at least somewhere he frequented. The space was certainly opulent enough.
If there was one thing for certain about whoever he was, he had money.
Voices carried from the hall. I strained to hear what they were saying, but I was too far away. A small creak had my gaze flying to the doorway. Rolling my lips to get some saliva going, I shook my head to clear away the hair blocking my view.
Rhett stood there with a glass of water in his hand, his too pretty face set in the unreadable mask I couldn’t stand. He was dressed in a way I’d never seen him before, donning an all-white button down that hugged his sculpted form, the sleeves rolled partially back, black dress pants, and a flashy watch probabl
y worth more than my whole house.
His jet-black hair was still styled the same, though. The beautiful ink on his flawless skin poked out where it. And those stunning eyes were focused solely on my person.
It never felt as if he were looking at me, but through me. I’d still paint him, even now. He was too beautiful not to. Far too gorgeous to be a damned psychopath, yet here we were.
“Sleep well?” he finally asked, stepping into the room. “It was a bit of a drive.”
“Where am I?”
“Where you belong. Your friends here too.”
Emery. I should have counted on her being caught. Her self-preservation and survival skills were pitifully lacking. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she jumped off the roof just to go knock on the front door and ask if they’d let us go nicely. Precisely why on the off chance one of us could escape, it had to be her. Leaving her to the wolves was signing her death certificate.
“What did you do to her?”
“Nothing. She’ll be safe, for now.”
I shut my eyes and expelled a deep breath. I wasn’t in the mood to play with him. “What does that mean?”
“Exactly what I said. What happens to her from here on out is up to you.”
At the sound of a click, I opened my eyes and turned my head. He’d locked us in the room together. With me tied to a chair and practically naked, I was at a severe disadvantage.
I tugged at my restraints once more, but there was no point. The only way I’d be getting free was if someone set me loose. I cast another look around, searching for something that would help me, and avoiding his gaze.
“Bringing you here took more effort than I’d originally anticipated. You don’t like to make things easy.”
I whipped my head around, discolored hues clashing with silver.
“I never asked for you to do any of this. And the older couple? You didn’t have to kill them.”
“Aht aht, a bullet killed them; I just pulled the trigger.”
“What is wrong with you?”
“The same thing that’s wrong with you. I kill whenever it suits my needs and to get what I want, and what I wanted, was you.”
Me? My heart had the gall to trip over itself, as if he’d just made some deep declaration of love.
“Water?” He held the glass towards me.
He must have thought I was an idiot. “And risk being drugged again? I’m good.”
“I’d apologize for that, except I’m not sorry. Had you listened to me those people would still be alive, and I wouldn’t have had to resort to such…extreme tactics.”
I shook my head from side to side, unable to believe what I was hearing.
He was being so open, all pretense gone. It both terrified and thrilled me.
“Why are you doing this? What the hell do you want from me?” My brain screamed the words while my voice came out monotone and flat.
“You know exactly what I want Nova. Do I really need to break it down and spell it out for you?”
That damned flash-drive. I curled my fingers into fists. “That’s really what all this is about?” I spat. “I’ll never give it you.”
“I know you’re not going to give it to me, because you don’t have it. After you tell me where it is, we can move past this.”
“Or, you can let me go and forget this ever happened.”
“Let you go?” He rocked back on his heels with an amused smile pressed to his lips. “Do you know what would happen to you if I lifted my protection?”
“You think you know what’s going on. You haven’t the slightest idea what your piece of shit father has involved you in.” He walked over to his nightstand and sat down the glass of water. “You’re a reckless little girl who’s going to get caught by someone ten times worse than me, or killed, trying to navigate a world you don’t understand.”
I swallowed the bitter taste his words left in my mouth. Everything he said was true, and now I knew why I’d been left alone as long as I had since my parents’ deaths. Still, I was not giving up the flash-drive.
“I won’t give it to you.” I repeated stubbornly. Chalk it up to wounded pride or feeble strings of hope, I couldn’t give him the location of the flash-drive. I wouldn’t.
He destroyed all illusion of personal space and positioned himself in front of me, gripping either side of the chair, the wolf shaded on the back of his hand gazed up at me.
I looked from it to him. A cruel smirk giving tilt to one corner of his mouth. “Do we really have to do this the hard way?”
I quirked a brow as if to say, try me.
With an exaggerated sigh he stood to full height and reached behind his back, removing something from his waistband.
“Remember this? You should. You tried to use it on me just yesterday morning.”
Had it really been a full twenty-four hours? The sight of the gun had unease blossoming in my chest. He’d been in my house since I’d left. What else had he discovered?
Dread moved like a spider down my spine. I clung to a fearless façade, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me afraid. He held the piece a little lower, as if I couldn’t see it just fine from the previous vantage point.
“There’s still two shells left,” he stated, running the cool muzzle along the swell of my left breast.
“It’d be a shame to have to use one of them on my own wife.”
His wife? What kind of twisted game was he playing at? “Fuck you,” I grit out.
“Fuck me? Why does it always have to be about sex with you?” He clucked his tongue in mock disappointment and continued to trail the gun along my heated flesh.
“You don’t have to do this.” I tried a new approach.
“I don’t do anything I don’t want to do. You ran from me, twice. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed that you’ve regressed.”
Regressed? I was in no way prepared to keep up with his purposely confusing dialect. I’d almost forgotten what it was like with him.
He was adroit when it came to thoroughly fucking my mind and leaving me a mess.
“I haven’t regressed, I’ve regained my common sense.”
He tamed what would have been a beautiful smile. “It’s almost cute, this act you’re putting on. You don’t have to lie anymore, princess. We both know you’re out of your depth. We both know your heads in terrible state. And you know what else? We both know that you need me.”
“What makes you think this is an act?”
He gripped my jaw and applied pressure until my lips parted. My protest became muffled as solid metal slipped between them, gliding against the roof of my mouth, grazing my upper and lower teeth. I could taste the barrel on my tongue.
I didn’t move, I wasn’t sure I breathed, going completely rigid, my heart pounded in my chest, preparing to burst from its cage.
The hairs on the back of my neck rose to attention. Rhett’s face took on a stoic expression. He stared into my eyes as if he were searching for something. I remained diligent in my position, refusing to acknowledge the slight trembling in my lower stomach, and tingling in my chest.
If he wanted to kill me over a piece of plastic, then that’s just how this story would end. I waited for him to destroy me, to pull the trigger and let the blood and bone fly freely.
We continued to stare at one another, the trembling I’d felt erupting into a flicker of heat. Then, within the lapse of a steady blink, he removed the barrel as gentle as one could, laughing quietly.
“Silly girl,” he sighed, tucking the gun away. “Did you forget what I told you that quickly? You’re safe with me.”
He brought a hand up to cup the side of my face, swiping the pad of his thumb over my cheek in a gentle caress.
My brain stuttered, still hung up on what I thought would surely be my demise. When I realized what he was doing I receded from the touch that even now, evoked an unwanted ache within me, stoking my flicker of desire into a yearning for something more.
The jerky mo
vement had the chair nearly toppling backward. Rhett dropped both his hands to my bare thighs, gripping them tightly, keeping me upright.
“Get off of me you goddamn psycho!”
“Nova,” he intoned, leaning closer. “That’s highly offensive. I’m not close to being psychotic. You on the other hand…” He adjusted his grip, spreading my legs further apart. “Considering I just had to clean up the mess you left behind. That’s extremely hypocritical of you.”
“You know, the dead bestie floating in a bathtub? And let’s not forget the man in your freezer along with a murder weapon. You killed all those people. Well done, by the way. Though the final execution needs some work.”
He found Gabe? Wait, he found Annika? My stomach dipped with the realization he knew it was me who killed them. What did that mean for me? He didn’t seem surprised by it or concerned. Once again, I found myself wondering just who he was to have a person that ‘cleaned up’ things like this.
He brought his face closer and skimmed his warm lips over mine, moving his hands higher. Everywhere he touched became flushed.
“Stop,” I breathed.
“Don’t pretend this is unwanted.” Reaching the apex where my thighs met, his fingers danced across my skin, leaving a trail of gooseflesh in their wake.
They continued their journey to the place covered by nothing more than the sheer fabric of my underwear. He grazed a thumb over my slit, applying pressure on my clit. My pussy clenched in response. I fought to close my legs. His grip prevented it.
He began to move the pad of his finger in slow, steady circles. All the blood in my body seemed to rush to that one area. I sucked in a breath, trying to ignore the budding pleasure.
“Rhett--.”
“Rhys,” he corrected softly. “My name is Rhys. Rhys Barron.”
His sudden omission stole my ability to speak. It was a stark reminder that the man I met at the beginning of summer, didn’t truly exist. He took advantage of my speechless state, pressing his soft lips against mine firmly this time, increasing the speed of his motions.
My mouth opened, his tongue darted in, tasting of peppermint. A part of me knew it was insanity to want him after everything that went down between us. He just had his gun in my mouth, the same one I threatened to shoot him with. He’d killed and kidnapped to get me where I was currently at, but I wasn’t as outraged as I pretended to be. I found comfort in his lunacy.
Sick Remedies (Pretty Lies, Ugly Truths Duet Book 2) Page 7