by Bex Dane
If Arthur's watching, he's going to think Neil is some kind of sex god, which he is, by the way.
Cutter folds up his knife, tucks it in his pocket, and looks back once before he leaves the room.
Now that I'm alone, I allow myself a minute to absorb the tingles where he wrote his love letter on my body.
The air cools and an eerie quiet invades my senses. My heart aches for Cutter out there alone now, and the nerves return. We can only hope Arthur fell for our act, and Neil Ainsman's has earned Arthur's trust. If not… I don't even want to think what would happen if we failed.
I quickly fix my clothes, minus underwear, and run to the bathroom to clean up. I have to get back to Cutter right away. He needs me.
Chapter 24 Remy
Cutter
As I leave the bedroom, Arthur is waiting in the corridor. He leans with his shoulders on the wall, and he's looking at his phone.
I miss a step but regroup and put on the appropriate expression for a man who just did the depraved things I pretended to do to Cass in there. Smug, indignant, exempt from guilt. I sorta lost my composure at the end there. When she looked at me with those eyes that said she loved me, she understood me, she wanted to help me, I couldn't even fake hurting Cass.
He looks up with wide eyes and laughs as he tucks his phone away. "You have fun?"
My guess is he was watching on his phone, and he knows exactly what happened in there. "Yeah. We, uh, had a misunderstanding. We worked it out." I twist my lips into the cocky grin he would expect of a narcissist like himself.
"Mmm." His voice is hyped up and aroused, likely from watching us on the video. His dilated pupils make me think he could be high. I don't know what he was doing with Juliet while I was in there with Cass. Hopefully not drugging her.
I stand in front of the door to keep him from walking in on Cass as she dresses. "Where's Juliet?"
"She's waiting for you down there." He points to a door at the bottom of a small flight of stairs and raises his eyebrows. He's offering her to me. His gaze moves to the door I'm standing in front of, implying he'll take Cass next. He's implementing the switch he talked about earlier. He is truly a disgusting human being.
So I have a choice now. Play along and potentially find out what he's up to, or end it now and get Cass out of here safely. Or a little of both. I hate doing it, but now's my chance. It goes against everything I believe in and offering Cass up to him churns my stomach. But if I give up now, nothing gets resolved, and Cass will put herself in danger again to help me another time. We have to force his hand tonight.
And I have to let him into the room with Cass. Fighting every instinct I have to protect her, I step aside. "Thanks, man." With my head down, I take the stairs to Juliet's room.
Behind me, I hear him open the door to the room Cass is in. I hope she got dressed right away. Shit. This was a bad idea. As I enter the other room, I hear the click of the lock to Cass's room behind me.
The man I despise most in the world is locked in a room with the woman I love more than life.
Juliet sits on the bed waiting for me, but I have no intention of staying. "Go out and wait by the helicopter."
"What's wrong?" She looks fragile and frightened, but I don't have time to explain it to her.
"Just do what I say."
She nods and rushes out in front of me.
Within seconds, I'm pounding on the door where I left Cass alone with him. "Cass? Arthur? Open up. It's Neil. I left my wallet in there and I need it."
Seconds of tense silence click by. If she doesn't open the door, I'm breaking it down.
The knob rattles, she cries out, and the door doesn't open.
I hear a series of grunts and shuffling on the other side of the door. That's it. This door is coming down. "Cass!" My first kick bounces off. It rattles but doesn't give.
"Neil!" The shriek of her voice triggers a feral reaction in me. She's in trouble. The need to break down this door becomes suffocating. She's on the other side and he's touching her. I need through right now.
"Open this fucking door, Morganstein!"
This damn door won't budge even after multiple pile-driving kicks and hurling shoulder slams. He has some kind of reinforced doors, probably for this reason, so he won't be disturbed when he assaults helpless victims. Finally, I bulldoze my shoulder down low by the knob, and a piece of the lock gives way.
Inside, Cass sits sprawled on the floor by the closet. She's dressed but holds one shoe in her hand. She gasps for breath as her eyes are glued to Arthur's hand.
He's holding a gun pointed right at her chest.
"Back off, Ainsman." Arthur's hand shakes, his eyes are frantic and terrified.
I raise my hands, palms down. This is a placating pose. It shows I have no weapon. I want to charge him like a bull, but it's too risky. "Don't you know who I am, Arthur? I'm Knox. Your son. You don't recognize me?" I don't need to have this talk with him, but I do need to distract him as I creep between him and Cass. If anyone is taking his bullet, it's me.
His head jolts from Cass to me. "I don't have a son. You're crazy."
"You don't remember giving my mom drugs and slicing my back open, hurting my sister?"
"What sister?" This is working. He's changing his focus from her to me as I slowly move in front of her.
"Sutton and Knox. You don't remember our mom? Monica Quintero? She died, ya know. Overdose."
"I remember those kids. They were rotten." He's breathing fast. He's high as a kite.
"We were kids."
"Stop moving."
He's finally noticed I've been positioning myself defensively, but it's too late. I'm in front of Cass, and he'll have to shoot me first to get to her.
She's slowly risen from the floor, and she's standing ready now with a shoe in her hand.
I glance at her over my shoulder then down at the shoe. It might work. My indistinct head tilt tells her to throw it. She frowns and looks down. She's scared. I give her one more encouraging nod. "It's okay. Go for it."
He's so out of it, he's not even picking up on my clues to her. I crouch down, and she heaves the shoe at him, directly over my head. His eyes are on it as it's in the air, and I have a split second to spring up and tackle him.
As I reach for his gun hand, it fires in Cass's direction. She screams.
If he shot her, I'll fucking kill him.
The force of us hitting the floor dislodges the gun from his hand.
He's unarmed.
I could stop now.
"I'm shot." Cass's voice sounds like it's at the end of a tunnel. I turn and see blood smeared on her arm, on her dress. He hurt her.
And I'm gone. There's no more self-control issues because I have none.
He hurt her. He hurt Sutton. He has to pay.
He's trying to get up from the floor. My brain hyper focuses on the sound of my knife clicking open. My eyes check it quickly to see that it's sharp. It needs to be razor sharp tonight. The tip shines in the light. Yes. My trusted knife is always sharp.
He's hunched over, trying to get up. I jab the blade deep into his back. It makes a satisfying squish and cracks as it penetrates his muscle. Arthur screams and straightens as I yank it out.
He swings at me, but he's slow like a zombie.
I punch his face and he lands on his back.
He's finally down. His life is bleeding out of him.
But he hurt Cass. He hurt Sutton.
My arm moves independently from my body. I'm not in control anymore. I'm stabbing his chest, pulling it out, stabbing his neck, pulling it out. His blood makes me hungry for more.
Arthur twitches and gurgles.
"Cutter!"
I don't stop. I'm possessed. He's paying the price of all the pain he caused in his life.
"Stop! He's dead. Stop! I'm shot."
Cass's voice finally penetrates my fog. I look up to see her terrified eyes. Blood covers her hand where she's holding her shoulder.
I'm on my knees
hovering over Arthur's dying body. She needs me, so I drop the knife, get up, and move to her.
I take off my tie and she winces as I wrap it on her arm. "You okay?"
"I think so. It hurts, but it's not bleeding too badly."
Compared to Arthur it's not bleeding too badly, but any blood on Cass is serious.
I scoop her up and carry her out of the room. Her face is close to Arthur's blood on my shirt.
"I think it's okay. I can walk."
"I'm carrying you."
I race down the corridor with her in my arms. We make it outside and find Juliet waiting by the helicopter like I told her. "Are you okay?" I ask her.
She's shaking and shocked, but she looks unharmed. She stares at the blood on Cass's arm and then takes in my shirt and pants. "Um, are you okay?"
She must think we look like a horror movie. Unfortunately, this one is real.
I set Cass down and try to figure out what to do next. "Shit. I can't fly a fucking helicopter, and I just killed the pilot."
Juliet gasps. "You killed him?"
"He shot her." I speak through gritted teeth and tilt my chin down toward Cass. He had to die.
I'm snapping at Juliet, but it's not her fault she doesn't know what happened.
"So what do we do now?" Cass asks.
What do we do? "We call Remy." I pull out my phone and try to text him, but my fingers are covered in blood and it streaks across my screen.
As I'm looking for something to wipe the blood off, a faint light in the distant sky appears. A whir gets louder as it gets closer. The lights shine brighter. It's a helicopter. I put away my phone. I don't need to call him. "That's him."
"He's here?" Cass squints into the wind to try to see.
The whooping helicopter blades blow her dress and hair back. She holds her hands in front of her eyes to buffer it. Remy's helicopter touches down next to Arthur's.
I take that time to catch my breath. Like after a fight, it takes a while and a lot of will power to stem the rush.
After a moment, the door opens and out climbs Foster and Mila then Sutton and Mace. The engine cuts off and the propellers slow. Remy exits last with a big smile on his face.
"Need help?" my dad asks.
I huff out a relieved breath and pick Cass up again. We walk over to join them. "Her arm. He shot her arm. It's bleeding." I set her down in a passenger seat, and Mila rushes over to help her.
I find my sister and get her to look in my eyes. With my hands on her arms, I say, "Morganstein is dead."
Her lips tremble and her face turns dark. I hug her in my arms. His blood is between us both inside and outside. This has been a long time coming. He's tortured us for too long.
I end the hug with Sutton and pat my dad on the back. "Happy to see you guys. Excellent timing." I need to stop touching people because I'm spreading blood all over the place.
"You said to wait but we could tell something was up," my dad replies.
"Good call." The weight of everything that just happened starts to hit me. The adrenaline is fading, and now I'm faced with reality. I killed my bio father. He had a gun, and he was attacking us. It was a clear case of self-defense. Hopefully there's some video. Although I'm afraid to see what I looked like when I lost my shit and laid it out on him.
"Anyone else inside?" Mace asks as he hands me my gun. A little too late for that, but it's nice he thought of it. I check it and slip it into my waistband.
Cass's eyes watch the motion with curiosity. I'm covered in blood and slipping a gun into my pants. I bet she's wondering what she got herself into. Actually, her eyes are lit up and warm. Never mind I just stabbed a man to death, she's hot for me.
I chuckle inwardly and ponder Mace's question. "There were other rooms. I didn't check them. We're looking for three women." I doubt we'll find them here, but it's a good idea to check.
"On it." Mace pulls his own gun from behind his back as he runs into the building.
I check on Cass's wound again. Mila has it in a bandage already.
"It's not too bad," Mila says. "It grazed her skin."
Juliet is shivering in the seat next to Cass. "You're safe now. We'll take you home." Cass pats her knee.
Mila gets her a blanket. "Don't worry. Everything's okay."
She nods, but she looks terrified.
"Remy, can you make some calls. Morganstein's dead. I'll have to answer some questions."
He nods and gets on his radio to call the authorities.
After a few minutes, Mace comes running back to the helicopter. He's carrying a girl. Her head hangs limp. She's barefoot and wearing a long white dress. God, she looks like she's dead.
Mace climbs in and sits down with her in his lap. Mila moves over to check her.
"I found her on the floor in a locked room. Needles on the bed."
Remy unearths a first-aid kit from a hatch and they give her some medicine. "We need to get her to a hospital," my mom says with worried eyes.
My dad climbs on board and takes a seat next to my mom as he checks out the new girl Mace just discovered.
I don't think I can leave the scene. It won't look good. "I'll stay."
"You sure?" my dad asks.
"Yeah. I can't leave. There's going to be questions about his body. I'll stay and face it."
Cass hops out of the helicopter. "I'll stay with you." She's so strong, taking all this like a trooper.
I take her hand in mine. "You should have someone check your arm."
"It's fine. It already stopped bleeding. I'm staying with you. You are not facing this alone." That's my Cass, by my side through thick and thin.
"Coast Guard is on the way." Remy checks all his meters.
Before the door closes, Mace raises his head and blinks like he's seen a ghost. "I know her."
"You know her?" Mila asks. "What's her name?"
He hunches over her and frantically pulls her hair from her face. "Loralei. I know her. Her name is Loralei Valentine."
The name sounds familiar to me, but we don't have time to talk now. "Go get her some help quick. We'll meet up with you at the hospital after we're done here."
He doesn't respond. He's fully absorbed in rubbing her face, rocking her, pulling her against his chest. He's losing control. My dad and I share a look. He'll watch over Mace until I can get to the hospital.
They buckle up, close the door, and I put my arm around Cass as they take off.
My family always comes through for me. Always.
Once they're gone from view, I turn her toward me. "I want to kiss you, but I'm all bloody."
"Give it to me. I can handle it," she says with a grin.
My girl is strong. She's good with fake blood and real blood.
So I kiss her once before we head back inside to wash up and prepare to face the authorities when they arrive.
Chapter 25 Pay It Forward
Cass
A week after our ordeal on the island, we're finding out more about the girl Mace found. Loralei Valentine is a famous self-help guru's daughter. Her father killed himself and her step-mom in an act of senseless violence a year ago. It's so sad, and she doesn't remember it. Mace is helping her regain her memory. My shoulder is healing, and Mila and Foster are out on a date night that I insisted they take. Cutter and I are babysitting Henry and Maisey.
We sneak out of Maiseys room after her four millionth request for stories, water, hugs, and lullabies. Date night for Mila and Foster turned into a long hard work night for us. Henry fell asleep first, but Maisey's batteries never ran out. She kept going and going.
Cutter plops down on the couch and sighs. "Those kids are a handful." He grabs my hand and pulls me in the seat next to him, wrapping an arm over my shoulder.
I laugh and tuck my loose hair behind my ears. "I know. How do Mila and Foster do all that every night? Dinner, bathtime, bedtime. It took hours."
"Miracle workers." He shakes his head.
"Or we're suckers and let them stay up."
<
br /> "Possibly." He smiles and pulls me in for a kiss. "They know I love them, and they use it against me."
A notification from his phone buzzes on the coffee table. Cutter leans forward to pick it up. "Foster's been calling."
"Not on date night." My voice is scolding even though Foster can't hear me.
Cutter calls him back, and Foster's deep voice rumbles in the background. Cutter stares at the floor with his mouth partly open, elbows on his knees.
I wrap my arms around his waist, my chin pressed to his shoulder. It doesn't look like good news.
Cutter grunts in understanding a few times as he listens. His eyes shift to me for a minute then back to the floor. Definitely not good news.
"Thanks, Dad."
He ends the call and levels his gaze on me.
"What is it?"
"The FBI found three bodies buried on that island." His lips press tight into a grimace.
"Oh no. Were they the models?"
He nods. "It's looking like they are."
We've both been worried news like this would come soon. Hearing it's true doesn't make it any easier. "I'm sorry."
He stands and paces away from me. "Fuck."
"It's not your fault." I understand why he feels responsible, but he did all he could.
With his chin tucked down, his eyes look defeated. He tried so hard.
He rubs the back of his neck with his palm and his eyes turn glossy. "It could have been you."
"I know. I'm so lucky you were there." It was terrifying being locked in that room with Arthur. He attacked me right away, and I managed to jam the heel of my shoe into his neck. He pushed me to the ground and pulled a gun on me. Thank God Cutter showed up right after that.
"It could have been Loralei." Cutter's eyes wrinkle and his voice cuts out.
"It could've been but we saved her. She's gonna be okay. She'll get her memory back. Mace will see to it."
He nods and looks away. After a quiet minute, he turns back to me. "Drink?"
"Yes, please."
He walks into Foster and Mila's kitchen. The fridge opens and clicks closed and he returns with two bottles of beer. He opens one, hands it to me, and sits down as he opens the second one.