His eyes widened at the sound. And before I knew what was happening, he picked me up like a rag doll and slumped me over his shoulder. I punched his back, “Let me go!”
But Jasper continued to walk, and he kicked a door which rattled open. It was a little supply room filled with brooms and other equipment. He placed me there and I screamed for help. He took a ball of cloth and stuffed it inside my mouth. I shook my head furiously as he found a duct tape and wound it over my mouth and around my wrists.
“I’m sorry, but you have to stay here,” he said, kissing my forehead and closing the door behind him.
I tried to scream and kick the door which is when I heard two loud gunshots. My breath hitched in my throat. Blood rushing to my ears.
What had happened? Had Jasper decided to end his life rather than be caught?
I sobbed in the dark. The cloth in my mouth was suffocating me. I pounded my fists on the door, but I knew no one could hear me. I could feel a fabric brushing against my body so I turned and a rotting body slumped forward in the dark and onto my back. I tried to scramble away, my screams were muffled by the cloth in my mouth. I had no choice but to stay with a rotting dead body until someone found me. I heard a man’s voice from the outside but had no strength left inside me to call him for help. I waited as someone tried to break the door of the supply room.
It was a police officer with a gun pointed at me, followed by Vincent whose eyes were wide with terror. “Oh god, Kiara!”
A few minutes later, I was sitting inside the paramedic’s van. The entire barn was barricaded by a yellow crime scene tape, and bodies covered with white sheets were strapped into gurneys. They were wheeled and loaded inside the vans. The entire property was swarmed by officers, FBI agents, and a team of forensic experts. A grizzly tale of epic horror had come to an end. A tale about my life being married to a serial killer.
I was the only surviving victim.
It was safe to assume that Jasper was dead. And just to prove my notion wrong, my eyes registered two police officers walking a man to the police car with his hands secured in a pair of handcuffs.
Jasper wasn’t dead, so that meant...
“My dad…” I choked.
“Your father is dead,” Vincent declared in a soft voice. “I’m sorry.”
That meant the gunshot sounds that I heard were of Jasper shooting my father.
“Where’s Tyler?” I asked Vince. “Please tell me he’s okay.”
“I made sure he was safe. An officer is with him.”
I felt better knowing Tyler was safe. A nurse had approached me, and she said something about my wounds, but I tuned out her voice. My eyes followed Jasper as he stood by the police car. As if he’d sensed my gaze on him, he looked directly at me. His lips pressed together, the corners of his mouth quirked up in a coy smile. “You have a right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be...”
I could hear the Miranda rights recited to him as he was lowered inside the car. He hadn’t stopped looking at me; the same longing stare. He mouthed, “I love you.” And his next words were also clear. “You will remain mine. Always.”
Goosebumps rose up on my arms as I watched the car leave. Vince stared at me in eerie silence. He rubbed my shoulders. “It’s over, Kiara. Jasper won’t come back.”
***
Vince picked up his coffee mug and took a sip, staring out towards the open courtyard; one that held numerous parties when the members of the house were all well and alive. The sky turned a shade of crimson as the sun began going down, hiding behind the lush trees from the woods. The scenery was like a beautiful painting by someone who’d spent hours getting the details right. The gush of the wind ruffled my dress as I settled down in the vacant chair opposite Vince.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I asked him.
Vince smiled. “It is. How are you feeling now?”
“I’m okay, I guess.” I shrugged.
It had been a week since the incident, and I couldn’t lie and tell Vince that I was alright because I wasn’t. If I was alright, I wouldn’t have woken up screaming in the middle of the night, dreaming of Jasper covered in blood.
Vince placed his hand over mine. “I know it’s going to be hard, but we will get through his. You and I.”
“I hope so. I remembered Jasper told me he’s got some of the best attorneys in the country. What if he spins some kind of a story and the court believes him?” I knew I was being paranoid, but I had every right to think that Jasper would be a free man.
Jasper was the definition of dangerous, and when there’s a concoction of danger, money, and power, it’s usually a very bad combination. He had a reputation of walking out of every situation, and from what had happened last week, it was a given that Jasper would be capable of finding a way out.
Vince sighed. “Kiara, he has murdered people. He played mind games with you for years. We have a lot of proof. Even if Jasper manages to find the best fucking attorney in the world, I don’t think there’s much he can do.” He scrolled through an iPad. “Oh, look, your husband’s still making the headlines. Billionaire and CEO, Jasper Lockhart of the Lockhart Enterprises, a Victim of Conspiracies.”
I gaped at him. “Victim of conspiracies? Are you kidding me? The victims here are Tyler and I. Not Jasper!”
“Relax. He’s in prison. As soon as the post-mortem reports of the bodies are out, it’s going to be clear who did it,” Vince said like everything was a piece of cake.
I was sure Vince was a little too overconfident and was underestimating his brother even after everything that happened.
Vince continued, “People talk, Kiara, and they make stories. Jasper has done some insane amount of charity in the past. He has always maintained a good reputation in front of the media, and so it’s really hard for them to think that he killed so many people. As a psychopath, he is calculative and has manipulated people easily with his charm. He was very careful in public and never had anything controversial pop up in the media. To think someone like him could kill over two dozen people... People believe what they see, and what they see right now is an innocent rich man framed in a crime by his wife and half-brother because they were having an affair behind his back.”
“But that’s not true!”
“He’s nominated you as the owner of the company in case of his death, and I will take over as the CEO of the company from here onward.”
My mind was still reeling from that information. “The owner?! Jasper would never do that.”
“He actually did. If he dies, billions of dollars will be under your name.”
“I don’t believe this,” I whispered.
Vince smiled. “He is making himself look like a victim, and also, if he made you the nominee for the company ownership, I’m sure it’s for a cause which we don’t know of.”
Vince noticed how stressed I was and placed his hand over mine. The brown shade in his eyes diluting, his look was unwavering. “Jasper will pay for his crimes, Kiara. I promise you.”
I nodded, “Thank you, Vince. If you hadn’t called the police, I could have died that day.”
Vince stared at me as if I’d spoken in Swahili. “It surely wasn’t me. I thought you called the police.”
I shook my head, even more confused than ever. “If you and I didn’t do it, then who did?”
Vince thought for a moment then concluded, “Maybe Tyler did.”
“He did not. If Tyler had called the dispatchers, I’m sure he would have said something to us.”
“Dear god!” Vince exclaimed, jumping to his feet.
I followed suit. “What happened?”
“It’s a game, Kiara. Jasper is playing us.” Vince stated as he frantically began punching the numbers in his iPhone. “Hello. Connect me to Mr. Davis….Yes, Davis. This is Dr. Vincent Lockhart. I want you to keep a close eye on Blackford Correctional Center and report to me if...I’m sorry, what?”
Vince’s expression grew dark until his face was the color of a
white sheet. He was growing anxious every second of the call. “Tell the police to seal all the checkpoints.” I heard him curse as he hung up on the call.
I knew what Vince was going to say even before I had the chance to ask him what was wrong.
“Jasper has escaped prison,” he confessed calmly.
***
With the news of Jasper escaping prison, it was like havoc again. I thought life was going to be easier. With him gone, I thought Tyler and I could finally live without looking for a shadow. Vincent knew that the first place Jasper would show up to after escaping was the mansion, and he’d made sure a lot of security guards were hiding in places around the mansion to ambush him if he decided to show up.
“Mommy, why is Daddy in prison?” Tyler suddenly asked me that night. Since Jasper had been taken to prison, I’d completely stopped sleeping in our bedroom upstairs. Instead, I slept in Tyler’s room. His bed was large enough to accommodate an adult.
“Who told you that, honey?”
I’d tried to keep Tyler away from everything as much as I could, but it was obvious the child was going to hear something.
“I heard Lily say it to her friend. She said daddy was in jail because he’s not a good man. She said Daddy is crazy. She saw it on the news.” His blue eyes peered at me. “Is it true, Mommy?”
I couldn’t lie to him and say that his father had escaped, neither could I lie about Jasper being a good man because he was not.
“Yes. He is in prison.”
He became teary-eyed. “Is it because he was always mean to you?”
When I didn’t say anything, he asked me. “Will Daddy be okay?”
“I’m not sure, Tyler,” I answered.
Tyler was too young to know that his father was a killer or the fact that he was a psychopath. I wondered what Tyler would think when he grew up and learned the truth. I needed my child to have a normal life, and in order to have that, I needed to find a way to get away from the mansion, find a job, and lay low. This was my chance to have the freedom I craved, and I wasn’t going to let an opportunity like this slide. If it came down to the worst scenario, I could change my name, my identity and start over. With a little help from Vince, I knew that was possible.
Tyler peered at me with those innocent blue eyes, and I was dreading a few more questions about Jasper, but he surprised me when he reached towards his little bookshelf and pulled out a children’s book that was mature for his age. But I realized that Tyler was smarter than the average four-year-old kid; something I knew he had acquired from his father. I just hoped he wouldn’t pick on any other traits like manipulation or Jasper’s psychopathic behavior.
“Can you read this to me?” he asked innocently, yawning.
“Of course, honey.” I was halfway through the book when Tyler’s warm body snuggled close to mine. He picked up his favorite Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy and hugged it close.
I read him the story, and soon, I heard soft snores. It must be the fatigue from overthinking that brought me to the oblivion of sleep. Sometime past midnight, I heard a knock at the door. I thought I’d imagined it so I closed my eyes again, but the rap on the door got louder. “Who is it?” I called out.
“It’s me, Vince,” he said from the other side of the door.
I checked the Mickey bedside clock and it read two-ten a.m.
What did Vince want at this hour of the night?
“What is it?” I asked him.
“I’ve got some news,” he said, and from the tone of his voice, he didn’t sound cheerful. In fact, he sounded quite the opposite. “Can you open the door for a minute?”
I took a cautious step towards the door and opened it. Vince appeared stressed, the bags under his eyes more prominent than ever. “I received a call from Blackford Correctional Center again.”
My heart began to drum faster. “What...what did they say? Did they find Jasper?”
Vince’s expression made my blood turn cold. “You’re not going to like this, Kiara. Do you want to sit down while you listen to it?”
“Just tell me what’s going on!” I was almost shaking.
And then my stomach knotted with what Vince confessed. “Jasper stole a car from a department store parking lot. It was a blue Toyota.”
“I don’t care what color or which car he was driving, Vincent. Please get to the point,” I said, frustrated.
“I am getting to the point,” Vince said. “He stayed at a motel for a few hours and was on his way somewhere. As usual, they suspected he was driving recklessly. The car had collided against a pole near a residential area. The car was in a blaze. When the police reached the area, they found the car and a body inside that was burned beyond recognition. There were only a few parts of the body remaining. I’ll spare you the details.”
I stared at him dumbfounded.
“That means?”
“Jasper is dead.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
It was funny how life threw a curve ball at me when I learned that Jasper Lockhart was dead. At first, it was hard to come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t in this world anymore, to control the reins of our lives. I’d spent the better part of six months looking for a shadow until I realized that he really was no more.
True, Jasper was a psychopath, but he was also made of flesh and blood, like any other man, and it was impossible for any human being to walk out of a blazing fire alive. After the entire incident with the bodies being found in our barn and Jasper’s previous assault cases having been investigated by the police and FBI, the case had been closed. It was proved that the remnants of the burned chards in the car were that of Jasper’s, and that left me as the widowed heiress of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Naturally, Vincent was appointed as the CEO of the Lockhart Enterprises.
I hadn’t been interested in a romantic relationship with him, so Vince and I had remained friends and nothing had changed between us. I didn’t think I needed a man in my life at that point. I had left the estate and moved into another town, Archmount Valley.
With its quaintness and less population, it was the perfect place for a start over. We’d bought a nice little Villa by the lake. Tyler went to a private school that was just twenty minutes away. We weren’t living a life full of luxury, the way we had when we lived at the Lockharts’ mansion, but we were still happy and content.
In addition to that, I’d written a book about my life; a memoir. True Accounts of Life with a Billionaire Psychopath. And within a month, it had turned into a New York Times Best Seller. People wanted to know what it was like to be a billionaire’s wife, being married to a man who’d lived a double life, the story of a powerful businessman by the day and a ruthless killer by night. My editor had specifically told me to add gory details, and while I wasn’t very keen on taking a walk down the memory lane, I had nothing better to do with my time, so I wrote the book in accordance to my knowledge and without sugar quoting the lies Jasper had led everybody to believe.
Within a few months, I had wealth of my own. While I still had access over Jasper’s money, I had become such a successful author that I didn’t really need his money. I was also a local celebrity.
A year later, and the house right next door had a new tenant. Mr. & Mrs. Rogers were a kind old couple in their sixties. I’d enjoyed Mrs. Rogers, companionship while it lasted, and it was sad to see them leave, but people needed to eventually move forward in life. I was nervous when I’d seen a mover’s van from my window. I’d watched curiously as the movers loaded new furniture into the house, and I hoped that it was a loving family like the old couple.
One afternoon, while I played with my little girl, Maya, A GMC had rolled into the neighborhood house and I secretly peeked out the window, curious to see my new neighbor.
A man climbed out of the car, wearing a white t-shirt over ripped jeans. His hair was honey colored which glimmered in the sun. And even from a distance, I could tell he had a nice body underneath those clothes. My neighbor was an attractive man, a
nd I almost low whistled when I realized how shameless I was being. I hadn’t noticed how close to the window I’d been standing or that I wasn’t hiding behind the curtains anymore until Mr. Attractive-New-Neighbor caught my eye, smiled, and gave me a small wave.
I waved back awkwardly, feeling my face burning as I’d been caught staring. I’d watched him go inside the house and I waited to see if he had a wife or perhaps a girlfriend follow him but no one did.
To welcome and get to know my new neighbor, I’d given him baked cookies and found out his name was Liam Price. Liam was an orphan, unmarried, and planned to buy the Archmount Lake Resort. He had moved in here because he needed to be close to his work. When I visited the local bars on weekends, I’d see Liam there and we’d talk. He’d then told me how much he liked my book, and how brave I was. He’d give me so much praise that I’d end up blushing the entire time. He told me he was a fan. Liam was so easy to get along with. We were like old friends who’d lost touch through the years.
The town ladies were crazy for him, but Liam wouldn’t give them the time of day. I’d noticed how he would politely decline all the advances of the single ladies. Sometimes, Liam would hang out in our home; he played video games with Tyler and read bedtime stories to Maya. Liam was like Tyler’s best friend now, and all Tyler talked about was Liam. He was slowly making his way into our hearts.
One night, while Liam put Maya to bed, I watched as he talked to the baby and my heart broke. I often compared Liam with Jasper and wondered how nice life would have been if Jasper had been someone like Liam.
When the children had gone to bed, we mostly hung out in the living area. Liam knew about my ex-husband and what I’d endured in my previous marriage, and it was nice to see how understanding the man was. We sat together on the couch, watching a Friend’s episode when Liam scooted closer. I wasn’t blind not to his advances, but I was a bit reluctant to jump into a new relationship. He was nice, but I felt like he deserved better and not become riddled with a widow and her two children.
Psycho Billionaire: A Dark Romance Page 26