The way he’s staring at me, his touch gentle, his gaze intense, and the fact that I’m being held hostage with nowhere to run, I can understand how someone can give up and give in. But I’m not going to do that.
I’m not going to give in, not to this man, not to anyone. Louis owns my entire body, mind, heart, and soul. There is nobody else for me, but him. Even if I never see him again, no matter what, I’m his.
“Sleep, my beauty. Tomorrow the real training begins,” Silas murmurs.
Swallowing, I know without a doubt that I don’t want to learn exactly what that statement means. I don’t want tomorrow to come. And if it does, I don’t want to be here for it.
Silas stands from his seat, but I don’t make a single move, not without his instruction. That’s what he wants, he craves my subservience to him. I’ll play the game for as long as I can stomach it. Which I have a feeling will be about the time he tries to push himself on me.
There’s a noise at the front of the house, and I see lights shine in the window. “Fuck. Get your ass up in the loft,” he barks.
His tone has completely shifted from the sickly-sweet tone he was trying to manipulate me with to a hard, harsh one.
Scrambling to my feet, I don’t waste a second. I climb the ladder, more to get away from him than to hide from who or what lies on the other side of the door. Scooting close to the railing of the loft, I grip the posts and watch in anticipation of what’s to come.
Maybe I’ll get lucky and it will be someone here to hurt him. Holding my breath, I watch as the front door opens just as Silas grabs a shotgun from the small coat closet in the corner of the room, next to the bathroom.
My breath hitches when I see who waltzes in. It’s Joey. He looks dirty from a day at work. His hair is a wild mess as he scans the small space. Silas drops the gun to his side at the sight of his only child.
“What’re you doin’ here, boy? You alone?” he barks.
Joey snorts. “Heard someone I know went missing. Wondering if your obsession with her finally got the best of you. If that plan you had went into action,” he murmurs.
My stomach twists. He knew. This whole time Joey knew and he never said a word to me. Joey tilts his head to the side and I know the moment that he sees me. He arches a brow, then winks in my direction. I don’t know if that’s supposed to make me feel safe, but it doesn’t. Nothing does.
“You don’t know shit, boy,” Silas grunts.
“I know that those notes her man found in her car are your fucking handwriting. Why do you do this?” Joey asks. “The other women still aren’t enough? You need Tulip too?”
Women?
Holy shit.
“It’s because of her. The others have never compared,” he says.
I watch as he lifts the hand not holding the gun and runs his fingers through his hair, tugging on the ends as if he’s stressed out. I’m not sure why he’s the one acting on edge. He made me eat cold chili from a can on the floor. I mean, his was warm and had hot dogs in it. I love hot dogs.
“Tulip isn’t yours to have, she never was. You need to let her go along with your obsession with her.”
“You’re nothing but a pussy,” Silas barks. “You couldn’t keep her for yourself and you let her go off with that thing? What the fuck is wrong with you.”
Lifting my hand to my mouth, I gasp when Silas reaches his arm up and slaps Joey across the face with the back of his hand.
Joey’s head moves to the side, but the rest of his body stands firm. He shifts his gaze back to his father, the side of his face is red, but his eyes are narrowed and there is nothing other than pure hate coming from them and they’re pointed directly at his own father.
“Let Tulip go. I don’t care who she’s with. She’s happy and that’s all that matters. This plan of yours is done. I think one Perry has used her for quite long enough, she doesn’t need to be tortured by any others,” Joey grinds out.
Silas shakes his head slowly, his gaze shifting from Joey to me, then back to Joey again. “The others were just place holders until I was able to take her. This is where she belongs. Soon I’ll move her to the house and all will be right in the world.”
“Do you really think Mom will be okay with that?” Joey asks.
Silas lets out a humorless laugh. “Your mother is my slave. She doesn’t have a functioning brain cell in her head. She does what I say, when I say and the way that I say.”
“Not when it comes to Tulip, Dad. Mom loves her like her own child.”
Silas shrugs a shoulder. “Then the bitch can reside with the rest of them.”
My heart starts to race against my chest. I can read between the lines enough that I know without a doubt I don’t want to reside with them, whoever they are. It sounds as though they’re dead and my stomach clenches at the thought that these women died simply because they were not me.
“Don’t. You don’t mean that shit. You need to take a step back and think. Tulip isn’t special. She’s not a virgin. She’s been fucking that guy. She’s not going to be any good to either of you,” Joey explains, keeping his voice calm.
I feel a little hurt by his words, but I know he’s trying to talk his father down, even if they do hurt a bit.
“I can save her,” Silas whispers. “Keep her for myself. Cleanse her.”
Joey shakes his head. “She’s not ours anymore.”
“She’s been mine since she was fourteen. Been watching her, and you fucked it all up,” Silas snaps. “She’s ours. You were supposed to be training her for us. You fucked it all up.”
Joey takes a step forward, reaching his hand out and grips his father’s shoulder. “Where are the others? Don’t they miss you?” he asks softly.
“Only got one left. The others pissed me off. She’s home where she belongs. In the basement.”
My heart squeezes at the woman who is locked in a basement. Then I wonder if any women were locked in the basement when I lived there. I never ventured down there, it was dark, dank and creepy as shit, I never had the desire to explore.
“Go home, Dad. Let me get Tulip back where she belongs.”
Silas shakes his head. “That ain’t where she belongs. I’m keeping her. Should have taken her when her parents died. Your mama talked me outta that shit because you had a little hard-on for her.”
“No,” Joey shouts. “Fucking, no.”
Silas brings his gun up and points it directly against Joey’s stomach. “Yes,” he growls. “You’re a pussy, always have been. How you came from me, I don’t know, but you got too much of your weak assed mother inside of you. I’m going to own every part of that girl, the way I was always meant to. Nothing you or her half-breed boyfriend can say or do to stop me.”
“Fuck you, Silas,” I scream. “Call him that again, I fucking dare you.”
Slapping my hand against my mouth, I breathe in and out of my nose as I watch him slowly turn his gaze to meet mine. I can feel Joey looking at me too, but I’m too terrified to look away from Silas’ angry eyes.
“What did you say?” he asks, his words coming out dangerously slow.
Inhaling a deep breath, I let my hand drop from my mouth. “Louis Kingston is more of a man than you will ever be,” I say.
“You ain’t taught her shit in the years that you had her,” Silas grunts, speaking to Joey, but his gaze never leaves mine.
Joey chuckles. “I taught her plenty. I taught her how to be the strongest woman in town.”
My eyes flick over to Joey and I watch as he smirks before he reaches for Silas’ gun. He’s going to attempt to disarm him and everything happens in slow motion. Someone in the background screams and it takes me a moment to realize that it’s me, but I can’t stop and I can’t close my mouth.
Silas jerks back and at the same time pulls the trigger of his shotgun. Joey gasps, his eyes widening as his mouth falls open and his knees give out from beneath him as he reaches out to grab ahold of his father’s shoulder.
The room is silent,
aside from my annoying screaming that I can’t control. Silas turns to me, his eyes filled with uncontrollable rage.
“Shut the fuck up,” he shouts.
Slapping my palm over my mouth, I scream into my hand instead of the quiet room. My entire body is trembling as I attempt to control myself, but I can’t.
Joey has a giant fucking hole in his stomach, his blood is splattered all over the front door and his own father did it to him. The man who’s holding me hostage, who has basically admitted that he’s killed at least three women.
I’m next, I know it. Tears immediately start to fall from my eyes just as the front door bursts open.
LOUIS
I jump out of the truck and immediately begin to pace. I’ve promised not to go inside until someone calls me in. We don’t even know for sure if she’s here, but the way Joey ran, then drove, like a bat out of hell, I know that she must be.
There’s shouting coming from inside of what appears to be a small hunting cabin. Joey’s pickup is parked alongside a car. Wyatt and Rylan have their heads together, with Ford standing a foot back, but intently listening to them as he nods every now and then.
Shawn and Aaron are close by, but their focus is on me and only me. They know that I’m seconds from losing the loose hold that I have on my control.
A shotgun blasts from inside of the cabin.
All six of us stop talking and slowly turn our heads to look at the front door. I don’t know what we expect to see, but we all watch and wait. There’s screaming, it sounds tortured and terrified and I know within an instant that it’s Tulip.
I take a step forward, but Aaron and Shawn both flank my side and grab ahold of me to hold me back.
“No,” I grunt as I start to fight against them. “No,” I repeat as Wyatt and Rylan start to run toward the door with Ford in front. I catch a glimpse of something in Ford’s hand and I realize that he’s got his pistol in his hand.
Shawn and Aaron hold me back with all of their strength, but there is no way anyone could keep me from Tulip right now. Her muffled screams fill the air and adrenaline fills my body at the same time.
Like the fucking Hulk, I rip my body away from the men that I consider my friends and partners. My feet move, my legs pump and they carry me inside of that tiny one-room cabin.
There’s a body on the floor that I have to jump over, Ford and Wyatt have another body on the ground and Rylan is standing at the bottom of a ladder that’s bolted to the wall.
It’s fucking mayhem.
“Local sheriff’s on the way, along with Hernandez,” Wyatt grinds out.
I hear him, but what he’s saying doesn’t mean a fucking thing to me. There is only one thing on my mind and that’s Tulip. Rylan holds his arms up and I watch as a small body with blonde hair falls into his grasp.
He turns around and I breathe for the first time in hours. She’s there. He’s holding her to his chest, his hand pressed against the back of her head.
“Outside,” he grunts, dipping his chin to Joey who is lying in a too-still heap on the floor.
Backing out of the cabin, I debate on snatching her body from his arms, but I don’t. When he’s in front of me, he whispers something in her ear and I watch as her small head nods in confirmation. Then, finally, fucking finally he transfers her into my arms.
I know that I hold her too tightly. My knees give out as soon as I feel her breath against my shirt. Together we fall onto the dirty ground.
Wrapping my legs around her, I pull her against my body, needing her to be closer, needing to fucking absorb her. Dipping my chin, I rest it on the top of her head as I pinch my eyes closed and lose all control.
I cry.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
TULIP
The door flies open and my entire body relaxes at the sight of the men who enter the room. Ford has a gun in his hand and points it without hesitation at Silas. I don’t know if Silas is still in shock or knows when to give up, but I watch in almost glee as he drops his shotgun to the floor.
Ford throws himself on Silas’ upper body, Wyatt does the same to his lower half. Rylan kicks the shotgun away before he starts to look around, presumably for me. I know when he’s found me, his lips twitch up into a small, but kind, smile.
He makes his way over to the ladder that’s attached to the wall. I crawl over to the edge of the loft exit, but I can’t bring myself to move to the ladder and actually climb down.
“Tulip, babe. You need to come on down,” he says, keeping his voice soft.
Shaking my head, all I can think is that Louis is going to see this, he’s going to see all of this and realize that I’m not for him.
Granted, I know that he’s going to figure that out eventually, but I want more time with him. Selfishly, I don’t want him to ever figure out that he deserves better than me at his side.
“I can’t. He can’t see this,” I breathe.
Rylan lets out a snort. “Right now, there are two men attempting to hold him back. They can’t keep that man back for long, he’s a fucking tank. He’s been scared shitless all afternoon, been calling everyone he knows, driving all over town looking for you. Trust me, right now he only wants you in his arms.”
Tears stream down my cheeks, I’m not sure if they ever stopped. “Joey’s dad. This was him and I feel so dirty,” I whimper.
Rylan holds his arms up for me. “Channing felt the same way, but she wasn’t and neither are you. C’mon down and let your man know you’re okay. You can talk to Channing when all this is over, she can listen and she’ll be able to relate. But right now, that man is about to lose his goddamn mind.”
As if on cue, Louis enters the house. His presence alone sucks all of the air out of the space. I don’t even have to look at him to know that he’s in this cabin, I don’t look at him either, I can’t see the hurt in his eyes, the worry.
Turning my back to him, I climb down and into Rylan’s arms. Rylan doesn’t set me down on my feet, instead his muscles flex as he holds me up and he walks us both out of the cabin and outside into the dark night.
“I’m going to give you to him. You’re going to be just fine, Tulip.”
Nodding, I agree with this move, even if I want to tell him to just get me out of here. Rylan turns and transfers me into Louis’ waiting arms. As soon as Louis’ arms tighten around me, everything else melts away.
My entire body jerks in his grasp as I begin to cry. Louis grips me even tighter, his muscles flexing and he squeezes my breath from me, but I don’t mind. I’m alive, I’m out of that nightmare, I’m free.
Eventually, he sinks down to the dirt and rock road. I don’t mind, my body is so tired, so sore, and just plain ready to give up. I let out a sigh as he wraps his legs and arms around me, holding me close to his body as if he wants to consume me, and right now I want nothing less than forever with him.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. I don’t think that he’s heard me, because he doesn’t respond. “I’m sorry that you’ve fallen for me. I’m so weak. My past is so ugly.”
Louis’ arms flex around me, holding me closer to his body. It’s then that I know he’s heard me. “Shut the fuck up,” he rasps. “You’re so goddamn strong, Tullie. So goddamn strong.”
I hear the sirens in the distance and I know that it’s going to be crazy here in just a few seconds when the police see what’s happened inside of that small cabin. Lifting my face from Louis’ chest, I tip my head back and look up into his eyes.
He’s got tracks where tears have slipped down his cheeks and my heart shatters at the sight. Sliding my hand between us, I cup his cheek with my palm and use the pad of my thumb to attempt to wipe the evidence of his tears away, but it doesn’t work.
“I’m not strong. I’m weak and I’m stupid. I should have told someone about those notes. I just thought Mark was being creepy. I knew he came down to the club. Then he kind of started a thing with Charlie, so I figured he was over it, and it would all stop.”
Louis runs his hand
over my head, petting my hair for a moment before he slides his fingers through the strands at the back and grips me firmly, tugging my head back so that he can look directly into my eyes.
“It wasn’t stupid. If anything like that happens again, just let me know. Swear to fuck you don’t have to navigate this world all alone anymore, baby. I’m here for you. I’m at your side and I have your back, fuckin’ always.”
Tears prick my eyes again and I nod as I lick my lips. Louis’ gaze flicks to my mouth, then returns to my eyes. “Kiss me, please,” I breathe as the sound of the sirens, crunching tires, and the smell of disturbed dust fills the air.
Louis doesn’t hesitate. He bares his teeth with a growl before his mouth slams down against mine. Our teeth clash together before I let out a sigh and part my lips. His tongue slips inside and he tastes me.
I hope he can’t taste the little bit of disgusting cold chili I ate, but at this point, I don’t really care. He’s kissing me and that’s all that matters. His fingers tighten in my hair and the whole world melts away around us.
Slowly, he breaks the kiss, his teeth nipping my bottom lip before he rests his forehead against mine as he pants to catch his breath. My eyes stay closed as I breathe him in. A throat clears beside us and I don’t bother looking, I don’t care. I have Louis, I’m in his arms, that’s all I care about.
“We need to get a statement,” a woman’s stern, gruff voice announces.
Turning my head, I tilt my head back and look up into her face. She’s wearing a sheriff’s deputy uniform, a felt cowboy hat, and a frown. Louis rises to his feet before he extends his palm to mine and helps me up.
Dusting off my pants, I nod and follow behind the woman who has turned her back to me and is walking away and toward an area where there is nobody else lingering around.
My entire body is stiff and I’m a bit nervous to be alone with her, until she turns around and her hard demeanor immediately softens and my body relaxes as well.
We spend the next thirty minutes talking. She doesn’t ask me a million questions, rather she lets me go at my own pace and although I know that Louis is pacing somewhere behind me, I find that it’s important she knows the entirety of what I can remember from the past and tonight about the Perry family.
KILLER: An Unfit Hero Novel Page 20