by Alex Grayson
A shiver races down my spine, and I fight the bile rising in my throat. The chip that fell out of my birth control pack yesterday? Yeah, there was some pretty gruesome footage on it. Diego is a lot more acquainted with eviscerating people than I thought. I don’t know how many girls there were, because I only made it halfway through the third one before I couldn’t watch anymore and had to run to the bathroom to empty my stomach. What makes it so much more horrendous is he would be raping them as he sliced into their stomachs. They actually died while he was still inside them; him coated in their blood and guts.
What kind of sick person does that? And how in the hell did I not know what he was? Was I so enamored by his good looks and his gentlemanly treatment toward me that I overlooked the signs? How did he keep that hidden from me so well? We weren’t together that long, and I didn’t know him that well, but there had to have been signs that he wasn’t right in the head.
When I think about him touching me, using his hands that’ve gutted God only knows how many girls, sickens me. It makes me want to soak in a bathtub full of bleach and scrub every inch of my body with a steel wool brush.
“That bastard is mine when we find him.” I can barely hear Judge’s words, but it’s enough to bring me back to the present.
JW offers a nod, but tacks on, “You can finish him off, but I get him first.”
Listening to the two talk about murdering another human being should frighten me, but it does the opposite. Diego deserves every bit of what’s coming to him. Thoughts of the pain Jenny went through the last few minutes of her life, mingled with what the other girls went through, has me hoping he suffers greatly. It may make me a bad person, but I can live with that as long as Diego in punished.
Our food is dropped off and the rest of the time there’s idle chitchat around the table. I don’t eat much of my dinner, my stomach still in knots over what I saw last night. It’s going to take a long time before I’m able to wipe those images away.
Unable to stomach anymore, I toss my napkin on the table.
“I’m going to the lady’s room,” I inform JW.
“I’ll go with you. It’s not time to feed him yet, but I want to before he gets cranky,” Remi says, getting to her feet and taking Elijah from Trouble.
JW pulls me down by my shirt for a brief kiss before letting me go. I’m only going to the bathroom and will be gone for few minutes, but it melts my heart that he wants a kiss before I go.
The bathroom is in the opposite corner of where our table is located. There’s a couple of empty pool tables and high-top tables.
“It’s been years since I’ve played pool,” I tell Remi and run my fingers over the felt as we pass by one. “Wonder if I can tempt JW into a game before we leave.”
“Just don’t play Jamie. I thought I was good, until I played her. She won before I even got a chance at a shot,” she laughs. “Although, it was fun to watch her beat Kian. He’s cocky when it comes to pool. Thinks he’s the master.”
I hold the bathroom door open for her. “I’m sure anyone could beat me. I suck, but it’s still fun to play.”
Remi sits and lifts her shirt to feed Elijah as I walk into one of the stalls.
“I think it’s great that you still breastfeed him. I’ve heard that a lot of women don’t make it past the first month or two.”
She snorts. “It’s been a struggle for sure. Those first couple of weeks I felt like my nipples were falling off, but I love knowing that I’m giving him the best nutrients I can.”
After doing my business and flushing the toilet, I go to the sink to wash my hands. I look at her through the mirror. She’s staring down at Elijah with a look of love on her face.
“I’m scared of failing at it when I have kids. I’ve heard it can be extremely painful.”
She lifts her head and meets my eyes. “I’m sure you’ll be just fine. Get past those first couple of weeks and it’s a breeze. My main issue now is if people are secretly criticizing me if I do it out in public. That’s why I try to do it in private if there’s an option.”
I can’t imagine anyone at the table would have an issue with her breastfeeding Elijah. I don’t say that though, because really, how well do I know them? I could be wrong.
She guesses where my thoughts went and smiles. “Nobody out there would care. I don’t really think many people in Malus would have an issue with it either. That’s why I love Malus. It’s the outside world that concerns me. Sometimes I just simply want to do it in private. It’s a sacred bond between Elijah and I, and sometimes I don’t want others to witness it.”
“I can understand that and think it’s incredibly sweet that you want to keep it between you and him at times.”
A few minutes later, Elijah finishes feeding and Remi recovers herself.
“The downside to breastfeeding is the leakage. There’s been many times I’ve been out grocery shopping to realize my shirt has soaked through.”
I wrinkle my nose at that. “Yeah, that would suck.”
Once she’s finished straightening her clothes, we make our way to the bathroom door. Before I can grab the handle, it’s shoved open. I stumble back a step, almost tripping over my feet. Confusion has me frowning when Benjamin steps inside. He looks terrible, like he hasn’t slept in a week and his eyes carry a crazed look.
“Benjamin, what are you doing in here?” Remi asks, stepping up beside me.
“I’m sorry,” he says, his voice deep and scratchy. “I have no choice.”
“Sorry for what? What’s going on?”
His answer is to lift a gun and point it directly at my head.
I COME TO WITH A KILLER headache and my arms feel like they’re being pulled from their sockets. It only takes me seconds to understand why and panic sets in. My head is hanging from my shoulders, so when I pry my eyelids apart, that panic turns to terror.
I’m naked. And hanging by my arms.
Diego.
The name whispers in my head. Despite Benjamin being the one who held the gun on me, it’s Diego who has me. I know this with one-hundred percent certainty. The question is, why would Benjamin help him?
A more pressing question is, what happened to Remi and Elijah?
Oh, God, please let them be okay.
The last I saw of them, Remi was trying to talk to Benjamin right before he hit her with the butt of his gun. Thankfully, he was prepared to catch Elijah before the baby hit the floor when she passed out. Anger and fear mingled together as he held that baby in his arms to calm him down and kiss his forehead, like he cared for him. He then pointed the gun at me and told me to tie her up with the rope he threw at me. I did as he commanded, but did a shit job at it, hoping she would get loose as soon as she woke up. After I was done, he set Elijah down beside his mother, whispered an apology, and then turned to me. The hit to the side of my head was fast, and it only took seconds for my vision to blur and darkness to consume me.
My shoulders and neck scream in protest, but I manage to lift my head. It takes me a moment for my eyes to focus. I’m in a house. A nice-looking house with pictures on the walls, decorative pillows on the couch, DVDs and CDs on a shelf beside a flat screen TV. Everything looks so normal, warm and inviting. It’s all very deceptive.
“Lookie who’s finally decided to join us.”
The familiar voice sends chills down my spine. I glance over to where it came from and see Diego sitting in a chair, one leg crossed over the other, a glass filled with amber liquid in one hand and the other stroking a woman’s head. She stares at me with wide scared eyes as she clutches a little girl to her chest. The woman only has on a pair of panties and bra and her face sports several bruises. The little girl has on a long sleep shirt with matching sleep pants. She has a scratch beside her eye and one on her chin, but otherwise she’s got no other visible wounds that I can see. I just pray there’re not any that are hidden.
Pain slams into my chest at the fear on the girl’s face. Her chest heaves and she hiccoughs as she cri
es.
From the pictures on the wall of Benjamin, this girl, and woman, they have to be Benjamin’s daughter and her mother. Is that why he helped Diego? To protect them?
“Where’s Remi and Elijah?” I croak.
He flashes his teeth. “The bitch and brat are still at the restaurant as far as I know.”
My eyes flicker back at the woman and child. “Let them go, Diego. You have me now. There’s no reason to keep them.”
With his eyes still locked on me, he fists the woman’s hair and yanks her head back. She winces but doesn’t cry out.
“I’m still undecided if I want to let them go. I guess it really depends on how cooperative you are.”
I lick my dry lips. “I have the chip. Let them go, and I’ll give it to you.”
His laugh is evil and filled with menace. “After weeks of denying you had it, why would I believe you have it now? How do I know this isn’t just a ploy to get me to let them go?”
“Because I’ve had it this whole time, I just didn’t know I had it. Someone hid it in my birth control pack.”
He lifts his glass to his lips, takes a sip, and sets it down before getting up from his chair. The little girl whimpers and the woman shoves her face against her chest, shielding her eyes from whatever Diego has planned.
“Now who would be stupid enough to do that?”
“I don’t know.” It has to be one of his staff. They were the only ones who had access to my purse that night.
“Hmm…. You know, that’s pretty fucking funny,” Diego remarks, coming my way. “All this time you had the chip.” He puts a finger on the center of my stomach and trails it down to my public bone. My arms jerk in their bindings when I try to lean away from his touch. My feet are barely on the floor, so I don’t get far. “All this time you could have stopped your dog from being slaughtered. You could have stopped your friend from being sliced up by my knife. This poor woman and her child would be safely nestled in their cozy house painting each other’s nails or some shit. And Benjamin….” He trails off and laughs. “The unlucky bastard on the floor behind you would still be alive.”
“I hate you,” I choke out on a sob. “I hate you so much. I hope whatever JW does to you is drawn out painfully slow.”
He tsks. “Now, now. Your little sheriff boyfriend won’t be doing any such thing.”
He produces a knife. One that I’ve seen before. It’s the same one that used to sit on Diego’s dresser. It’s long and looks just as deadly as it actually is. I asked him about it once and he said he likes to hunt sometimes and he uses it to gut his kills. My stomach swirls with nausea when I realize his prey wasn’t animals like I assumed, but people. Women in particular.
“He’ll come after you and he won’t stop until he finds you.”
I try to put on a brave face, to not let him see the fear coursing through me. But when he places the tip of the blade at one of my nipples, I can’t help the terror-filled whimper that leaves my throat.
Hurry, JW, my mind screams.
“Oh, I’m counting on him finding me.” He trails the flat part of the blade down my stomach, pressing harder each inch he goes. The pain is bearable at first, but the lower he goes, the sharper it gets. I know soon the blade will sink into my flesh. “I want him to see the beauty I make with your entrails. And once I’m done, since you seem to like him so much, I’ll make a matching canvas with his.”
“You’re sick.”
His eyes flash up to me. “I prefer to call it creative.” He grabs my braid and yanks my head back. “It’s just a shame I can’t be inside your tight pussy when my blade sinks inside you. Nothing’s better than a body’s muscles tightening up when there’s intense pain involved. It grips my dick so tight.”
He closes his eyes and moans, while my mouth waters from the bile working its way up from my stomach.
His eyes snap open and his head drops down. His lips slam against mine. I’m shocked at first but recover quickly. Unfortunately, before I get a chance to bite his tongue off, he pulls his head back.
A moment later, a sharp pain slices through me. I suck in a painful breath and glance down to see half of the blade stuck in my left side below my ribs. Black spots dance in my vision and my legs become weak. In the distance, I hear a child scream and the cries of a woman. They’re only a few feet away from me, but they sound a mile away.
My body sags and more weight is added to my arms. With my slumped form, the knife moves inside me, sending another white-hot pain shooting through my side. Diego bends his knees so his face fills my rapidly dimming vision.
“I think you’re going to be my best work yet,” he whispers and shoves the knife in deeper.
The pain becomes unbearable and all I can think is that I never got the chance to tell JW that I love him. That he’ll never know how grateful I am for everything he’s done for me.
The next time I blink, my eyes stay closed and blackness takes me under.
JW
I GLANCE DOWN AT MY WATCH and frown when I realize Eden and Remi have been gone for almost twenty minutes. I’m not sure if I should worry or not, because I have no clue how long it takes to breastfeed a baby. Eden wouldn’t have left Remi by herself, so I know she stayed behind with her.
When I look over to Trouble and see his own frown, I have my answer.
Yes, I should be worried. He looks up just then and we lock eyes. Neither says a word as we get up at the same time. The table turns quiet, but we ignore the questioning glances at our abrupt departure. Our steps are long and determined as we make our way across the room.
“Should they have been back by now?” I ask.
“Normally no, but it wasn’t time to feed Elijah, so he shouldn’t have been that hungry.”
My hands ball into fists as fear spikes through my system. At the mouth of the hallway that leads to the bathroom we hear it. It would be hard to recognize over the low music coming over the speakers, but once we reach the hallway, there’s no mistaking the wailing of a baby. We both sprint the rest of the way to the bathroom. Trouble makes it first and shoves the door open. When I step in behind him, he’s already skidding across the floor on his knees to a screaming Elijah.
The sound is heart wrenching. It’s not a scream of pain, but one of fright. No child should ever emit that sound.
He’s on the floor beside his mother, crying so loud his entire body shakes. Remi, who’s tied to the plumbing underneath the sink is just now coming to.
I frantically look around the room. All of the stall doors are open and empty. Eden isn’t in here.
Fuck! Eden isn’t here!
“What happened? Where is she?” I demand, my voice raspy.
I wait, my skin tightening over my bones and my scalp prickling, as Trouble helps Remi sit up. She has tears leaking down her cheeks as she desperately reaches for Elijah. Trouble’s on the floor, still on his knees, with Remi and Elijah between his legs. I bite my tongue to keep back my impatience.
It’s not until she has Elijah tucked against her chest that she looks up at me. Worry and fear line her face.
“It was Benjamin,” she wheezes. “He came in just as we were going out and held a gun to us. He had to have taken her.”
What in the fucking hell? Benjamin? Why?
Her eyes glisten with more tears. “He looked scared and half-crazed, like he was forced to do what he was doing.” Her eyes move to Trouble’s. “I don’t think he wanted to hurt us, but I don’t think he had any choice.”
I glance at Trouble. “You good here?”
He gives me a clipped nod. Before I spin on my heel and stalk out the door, he stops me. “I want to see Benjamin.” His deadly voice matches the dark look in his eyes. I tip my chin in affirmative.
Judge and Emo are halfway down the hall when I step outside the bathroom. I don’t stop as I give them a rundown of what’s going on. They follow me as I stalk over to the table we were seated at.
“Your sister needs you in the bathroom,” I tell Kian.<
br />
Not waiting to see if he replies, I turn and head toward the door. An eerie calmness washes over me as we leave The Hill.
This is Diego’s doing. Benjamin was just a pawn. I don’t know why he helped him, but I know it wasn’t by choice. Even so, Benjamin will be punished for playing his part. How severe that punishment will be depends on what condition I find Eden in.
By God, if she’s dead, Benjamin will feel the full wrath of my anger.
And Diego. What he did to Jenny and those other women will pale in comparison to what I’ll do to him.
AS JUDGE AND I QUIETLY WALK up the steps to Benjamin’s house, I realize I could be wasting time coming here, but something tells me this is where they’ll be. Diego doesn’t want to keep Eden, he just wants the chip and to kill her. There’s no reason for him to take her out of Malus. She doesn’t mean shit to him, so he wouldn’t waste the time.
Which in itself doesn’t bode well because he could have already killed her. Thankfully, he couldn’t have had her more than thirty minutes. Men like Diego like to play with their victims before putting them down.
We keep our steps light as we both head to a window on either side of the door. Sweat pops out on my forehead when I realize I can’t see shit because thick curtains cover the windows. A look to Judge says he has the same problem.
My phone vibrates in my pants, and I pull it out to see a message from Emo.
Emo: He has her in the living room. Naked and strung up from the ceiling.
I’ve never in my life felt so much rage consume me. It fills my veins like tiny sparks of electricity. I close my eyes and count to ten in my head, trying like hell to calm the furious need to bust down the door and slay Diego in the most brutal way.