“Are you convincing me or yourself? Love? Go on a year without fucking her and then I’ll believe you that what you have for her is indeed love. Be real, bro. Don’t worry. I don’t judge. I’m pretty sure your girl loves some dick action every day too. Those whores do.”
“‘What did you just say?”
“I said your whore—”
Una’s eyes widened in horror as the next she saw was Will reaching for the knife from the cart that looked just like the one where the TV was currently standing on. She instantly froze as she watched him swing the knife at Toby’s throat. She shut her eyes closed, no longer able to watch the horror on the screen. Slowly, tears escaped her eyes as her ears listened to Will’s voice…
“I absolve you from your sins, you mother fucker. You will return in your original state when you first came into this world, pure, free of any transgressions, immaculate, with no iniquity.”
A second later, everything fell quiet in the room which was soon followed by Una’s heavy breathing as she began to cry.
“You have no idea what you have just done, you mother fu―”
“―oh you’re wrong about that Will. I, for a fact, know what I have just done. I just opened Una’s eyes to the truth. Now she knows what you really are.”
“And you will see every bit of me, Sinclair!”
“Can you make him shut up, please?” Sinclair told his men who immediately jumped at the opportunity of beating someone up.
“Let me make this idiot shut his pretty mouth.” The taller man suddenly kicked Will in the gut which the other man quickly followed up and hit him with a full swing that sent Will reeling against the wall and gasping for air. He choked on a cry, consumed by the sudden white-hot pain he felt on his shoulder when the other man slid the point of his knife into the wound they made back at Una’s house.
“Stop! Please…” Una’s cried in her seat. “No more. Please…Stop…Please…You’re a monster!”
“Una, I’m still here. Una…stay strong… Una…” Liezel’s fear soon got the better of her, and she eventually cried with her friend when she was no longer able to bear it anymore. She had never felt this scared and hopeless in her entire life.
Slowly, Sinclair kneeled down in front of Una, held her chin gently between his thumb and forefinger, and murmured softly, “I’m sorry that I had to do this. You had to see him for what he really is, and there was no other way for me to do that but this. You wouldn’t let me anywhere near you. I had to enforce control.”
Una broke down and fell back, her own heart giving in under the weight of her own tears. When Sinclair cupped her face with his hands, the last bit of energy in her body had drained, out and she was no longer able to make any movement to resist it. And when Sinclair’s soft thumbs started to feather gently against her tear-stained cheeks, her body shook with shudders of her own choked sobs.
“Don’t worry, Una. I’m here now,” Sinclair muttered softly, his face just a couple of inches away, his blue eyes surprisingly sincere and gentle as it sought hers. “I’ll never leave you like I did, Rose. Never again.”
Chapter 24
The Escape
Liezel half-opened her eyes with a heavy pounding and a few stinging sensations up and down her body from being stretched out for several hours. When she gained full consciousness, she felt her heart leap out of her chest when her eyes landed on the fire burning hungrily inside the cremation chamber. Her breath shook with fear.
“Who would have thought Will owns a place like this, huh.” She winced in the wooden chair as soon as she heard Sinclair’s voice from behind.
She tried to wiggle herself free but her hands and ankles were tied tight. “So, your plan is to burn me alive?”
“You don’t think I’m sick to the head like Will and torture you, do you?” Sinclair replied, stepping in front of her and coming into view. His worn-out face surprising her. “It’s not my thing. I’m no American Psycho, Liezel.”
Liezel stared at the person before her. Sinclair looked different from the man she knew and came to care a few months ago. While he was the reason why she was there, bruised and tied to a chair, she saw no evil in his eyes. Surprisingly, it was the pain that he saw. The man standing before her looked broken and…tired.
“Everything that’s happening right now is purely a direct result of circumstances that are out of my control,” Sinclair added.
“Out of your control? Bullshit! You paid those men to do this to us!” She fumed. “Your plan is to kill me and, obviously, Will, but what then? What are you going to do with Una? After all this, you perfectly know you can’t go back. Una has already seen what a damaged person you are. And after you kill me, you’ll be nothing but a murderer in her eyes. She’s never going to love you. Or even look at you. So why do this?”
Sinclair nodded at her thoughtfully. “You made a valid point there. But you’re wrong about one thing―I won’t get my hands dirty tonight. I have paid those two men to do that for me. And don’t worry, I have thought this through. Once I got rid of you and Will, Una and I will run away―away from my family, away from our old lives. I would do to Una what I should have done with Rose.” He croaked, his voice thick with emotion.
“You killed Rose, didn’t you?” Fear overtook Liezel, and she silently shook her head. She could sense from his facial expression that she would not like the answer, and the last ounce of hope she had begun to quickly dissipate.
* * *
“Hey, Brown, get some rope. These chains and shackles are attached to the floor,” one of Sinclair’s men told his companion who was ogling Una for the past couple of minutes.
“Your friend is calling you, you pig.” Will snarled at Brown who did nothing but nod as his eyes continued to rake down Una’s body.
“Snap out of it, Brown. Women like her don’t go for men like you.”
Brown turned to the other man who was standing next to Will. With his glaring eyes, he spat on the floor. “Shut the fuck up, sasquatch!”
“Move it or you’ll have to deal with this psycho all by yourself.”
“Piss off, Monty!” Brown hurled before sending a hard rock punch to Will’s face, immediately making him squirm on the floor in pain.
“What did you do that for?” Monty asked him.
“What?” He shrugged. “It’s easier if he’s beaten up.”
“Christ! Hurry up!”
Brown left the room and then came back shortly with rope in his hand. He saw Will already on his knees, a gun was steady at his temple. “What the―”
“What? We can’t move him without having a gun to his head. Have you seen his video?” Monty said to Brown, looking rather ill at ease with the gun in his hand.
“Why didn’t you just knock him out?”
“What if he suddenly gains consciousness while we’re carrying him?” he argued.
Brown sneered at him. “Then you make sure he’s completely knocked out.”
“Then, you do it.” Monty shifted his weight on his feet.
“Forget it. Let’s just tie him and move him to that creepy room downstairs.” Brown walked over to them with ropes in his hands. “And keep pointing that gun at him.”
“Why do I feel like this isn’t what you guys really do for a living?” Will commented.
“Shut up and stand up. Give me your hand and don’t make any stupid moves or my friend right here will not hesitate to blow your head off,” Brown warned as he waited for Will to raise his hands to him after straightening up.
Will sniffed and slowly raised his hand. “Why don’t you do it?” he asked, keeping his elbows to his sides. “Blow my head. Right here. Right now.”
Brown grimaced. “Cause Sinclair doesn’t want his little sweetheart over there” ―he nodded at Una’s back― “see him kill you. And he wants to burn you alive, I guess.”
Will’s shoulder sank as he looked down at Una’s back. He tried to talk to her as soon as Sinclair left the room, but Una was unresponsive and remained quie
t in the chair even to Liezel who also tried calling her.
“She will never love him.” Will clenched his hands into fists, aiming his knuckles outward. “Not after all this.” He held his wrists together and when Brown began wrapping the rope around, he suddenly cleared his throat. As Brown paused to glance up at him with unmistakable dread and caution in his eyes, Will pressed his fingers together.
“And do you think she will still love you after seeing what you did to that poor bastard?” Brown asked.
As he kept his fists a little closer to his stomach, Will’s lips tightened. “A guy can hope, can’t he?”
“Shut up, psycho!” Monty shoved his gun against Will’s temple while Brown tied the rope for a few more single knots.
“This guy gives me the creeps. Let’s go and bring him to the other room and get this over and done with.”
“Wait.” Brown’s eyes surveyed Will and his eyes quickly landed on his tied hands. “D’you think we should have tied his hands behind his back?”
Monty let out an irritated sigh. “Then, why didn’t you?”
“Let’s―”
“Forget it. Let’s move!”
“Are you forgetting that this man’s a psycho?” Brown argued, he reached for his waistband and pulled a knife and held it a few inches out from Will’s throat.
“And can’t you see that I’m the one with a gun and I’m pointing it right at him?” Will looked at Monty over to his shoulder when he felt something being pressed against the back of his head. “Move.”
They started walking slowly to the door. Will cocked to his side and took a glimpse of Una. Studying her face for one brief moment, he saw that her eyes were still closed. She looked drugged, no doubt, but it was the bruises that made him grit his teeth. His jaw clenched, anger rise up inside him at once. He took a deep breath, pushing down the storm of emotions despite the situation being too much for him to handle.
They headed down the narrow hall with him between Brown and Monty, the knife and gun never leaving the back of his head and throat. Before reaching the room to the cremation chamber, he slowed down and took three deep breaths.
“Keep going, fucker!” Monty shoved him into a stumbling walk.
“Easy, big guy.” Will smiled thinly, gingerly bringing his elbows together.
“Say one more word and I’ll cut your fucking tongue out,” Brown told him in his ear.
He mentally counted to three and slightly extended his arms downward. “Do you guys work for Sinclair full time?” He started wriggling his hands and twisting his wrists back and forth with wary, the dim-lit hall somehow concealing what he was trying to do from view. When the gap widened, he placed his hands flat and slid one hand out.
“I said shut―” but before Brown could even finish his threat, Will balled his fist and drove a hard elbow into Monty’s jaw, causing the man to stumble backward before kicking Brown hard in the stomach, creating a little space between them which he used to take care of Monty first.
Grabbing the taller guy’s hand with the gun, Will twisted Monty’s wrist and elbowed him in the face, breaking his nose in an instant.
“Fuck!” Brown got back on his feet, hissing in pain. “Shoot him!”
Monty tried to grab Will with his free hand but shrieked in pain instead when Will twisted his arm and aimed the gun at Brown who was closing in on them.
The gun went off. Brown crumpled to the floor, pain ripping through his leg. “Fuck!”
Will twisted Monty’s arm once again, pushing him to drop the gun, and kneed him in the jaw. He lunged forward before Monty could and grabbed the gun off the floor and shot the man twice in the chest, instantly killing him.
Brown suddenly charged and stabbed his shoulder, catching him off guard, forcing him to drop the gun toward the floor. On instinct, he kicked the gun and sent it across. Will wrestled him on the floor and growled in pain when the blade of the knife dragged down his bicep.
“You son of a bitch! Psycho!”
Will gasped and hurled as blood washed down his arm and shoulder. “I’m going to enjoy killing you.” He wrapped his arms around Brown and rolled him over and pushed himself up on top of him before savagely punching his head until the skin of his forehead cracked open. He noticed Brown’s grip on the knife had loosened at the pain at his attack, he then grabbed the knife and directly slit Brown’s throat, causing him to gurgle.
Breathing hard, Will pushed himself up and scrambled over to where the gun was and picked it up. “Fucking noobs.”
***
“Alright, since you’re going to die, anyway. I’m going to be honest with you. I didn’t kill Rose. I paid someone to do that for me and it was―still is―the biggest mistake I ever did in my life. But she left me no choice. After years of being sober, all it took was one petty argument between her and Belinda before she started seeing her dealer again. And you know how my sister is. You worked for her.” Sinclair sighed. “Rose went out of control and I could no longer have it. My family, especially Belinda, wanted me to handle her or they would. For someone who had mastered control all his life, I failed. She was becoming a problem I couldn’t handle so I made her disappear instead.”
“And are you going to pay someone to murder Una if shit starts to hit the fan again?”
In truth, Liezel was less angry at the fact that Sinclair was interested in someone else and much more furious knowing that that someone was Una. But she knew her friend was a good person and didn’t deserve what she knew was coming to her.
“No. Una and I will live in an island where she will learn to forget about her murderer of an ex-boyfriend, learn to accept me…learn to love me,” Sinclair said as he stared her down.
Liezel shook her head. “Una would never love you. She’d rather kill herself than to be with you!”
Rage suddenly shot right through Sinclair and his hand came flying across, slapping her face so hard bitter tears instantly burned her eyes.
“She will love me!” he hollered. “I love her, and she will love me back.”
“I loved you!” Liezel screamed, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. She fought down the pain that she felt caused by Sinclair’s bold confession that caused sudden pain in her chest as if someone had just ripped her heart out.
Sinclair walked over to a gurney nearby and grabbed a dirty cloth on top. “We had fun, Liezel.” He paused and took a deep breath, as if contemplating what he was about to say next. “I have a little secret, though, and trust me when I say that telling you this now wouldn’t change anything, but after our short, fun, sweet run, I feel like at least I owe you this…”
He scrunched up the cloth and shoved it in Liezel’s mouth. “Don’t blame yourself or hate on Una, okay?” He licked and pursed his dry lips before saying, “There was actually a moment when I really thought I was falling for you. However, when I saw Una that night, everything just changed.”
How could he tell her that now? What was the purpose of him telling her of what could have happened had she not forced Will to bring Una to the party? Liezel gagged through tears when a sudden sound of a gunshot drew both of their attention.
Sinclair stepped back and stared at the closed door. Looking around, his face was straight off pale. Right at that moment, without the men he hired, he was defenseless. After all, he was just a rich man who had enough money to hire someone else to do his dirty bidding. He was that kind of man and nothing more.
The door swung open, and he jumped at the sight of Will, a gun hanging limply in his hand. “Hello, Sinclair.”
Sinclair sidestepped, grabbed a knife from the gurney, and rushed to Liezel’s side, pressing the point of the blade against her throat.
Liezel writhed in the chair. The image of Will in the video hadn’t left her mind yet, but between the two men, she thought she had a chance to live with Will. They were, after all, friends.
“Put the gun down, Will.” Sinclair gathered every confidence in his being. He couldn’t let him see how terrified he was. “
Liezel will die if you don’t,” he said, fearing for his own life.
He should have hired more men instead of just those two idiots, he thought. Will was no less than a cold-blooded murderer and they were in his territory. Why didn’t he think of that? Since when did he become this reckless?
Will smirked. “Do you really think that would stop me from killing you?” His smile widened into a full grin and trained the gun at his boss. “Take off your clothes, mother fucker.”
Chapter 25
Revelation
Una opened her eyes and shot up into a sitting position on the bed. She blinked, taking in the unknown surroundings, eyes glazed in momentary disorientation. The intense pounding of her heart echoed through the stillness of the room as her mind began to fight the terrifying realization of her situation.
Sweat trickled down her skin. Admittedly unsure of where exactly she was, she was darn certain she wasn’t in her room. As soon as memories of what happened came flooding back in, she was absolutely sure she wasn’t anywhere safe. But the moments that had come after Will came to her rescue were blurry at best.
How did they escape? Did Will kill Sinclair? He said he did because he had to. But what happened to the other two men? That she couldn’t remember too.
And Liezel? She tried to recall and as soon as the image of her best friend, lying in the pool of her own blood appeared, she gasped, then a wave of throbbing pain in her head and her stomach churned and nausea rise in her.
Liezel was dead. Will told her Sinclair had done it.
Her heart was instantly in so much pain. She shook her head, shutting her eyes to shake off the image of her best friend. When she opened her eyes, tears flooded her ashen cheeks. She cried like she had not cried before. What happened was just too painful.
It took her a couple of minutes before she was in control of herself again and when she did, she looked around and as she studied the room, her chest started to palpitate. She sniffed and took a deep breath to steady herself.
Considerably Wicked: A Dark Romance Page 25