Saving Beth

by Kaylee, Katy

I wiped my shaky hands down the front of my worn jeans, still stiff after getting soaked in last nights’ rain storm and then drying in a crumpled pile along with the hopelessly wrinkled t-shirt.

  “What the hell am I doing?” I asked myself after I realized I was nervously trying to get the creases out. I didn’t care what I looked like, or what clothes I was wearing. I never had. So why was I now nervously trying to make myself look a little less tragic and travel warn?

  The obvious answer flitted into my mind and I shoved it away. Ridiculous. I also didn’t care what Aiden thought of me. The only relationship we’d had together had ended a decade ago! Of course I didn’t still care if he thought I was attractive. Or sexy. I valued my mind over anything else and I wasn’t about to change for anyone. Especially not some way too handsome, way too egotistical, and way too domineering sexy stud of a man like Aiden Diorno.

  I let out a long slow breath, looking around the room he’d left me in. My room. I thought, snorting softly to myself. The nerve of that man. At least that hasn’t changed. He always needed to be in charge.

  But I didn’t remember that hard edge to him. Ten years ago, he hadn’t been nearly so sharp, or rough around the edges. It was like all the kind, gentle parts of him had been scoured away leaving the tall, intimidating man who barked orders and always expected them to be followed.

  It made me wonder, once again, exactly what it was he did. What his role was in all this. That damned puzzle again and it had my head aching as I walked further into the bedroom. I slid my hand across the mahogany dresser. It really was nice. Nicer than any place I had ever lived in, that was for sure.

  Growing up, my family had been solidly middle class. We had a decent house in a decent college town. There was always plenty of food on the table, and even if we had to by second hand clothes they were always nice and clean and warm.

  But my parents never splurged on anything, scrimping and saving every single penny they could to send their daughters to college.

  “And what had it gotten them?” I whispered softly to the room but there was no answer. It didn’t matter. I already knew it. It had gotten them nothing. They had died in a car accident when I was in my last year of college. It had devastated me, and after that, the only family I had left was Leah. It was always us against the world.

  The thought of Leah broke my heart as it always did. I sat on the edge of the plush mattress, smoothing my fingers across silk and the softest Egyptian cotton. Leah would have loved this place. She liked shiny things. She always had.

  I bit back a sob, imagining the way she would have grinned at me, running around the opulent house, jumping on the bed with that wild energy that was so much a part of who she was.

  Who she is. I reminded myself. I’m going to find you sis. I promised you I would and you know that I never break a promise.

  I bit my lower lip, squeezing my eyes shut tight to keep back the tears. I had cried enough of them over the last, what was it? Oh yes, twenty five days now to know that they didn’t do anything but make my face red and puffy and my nose run. They didn’t help. They didn’t get me any closer to finding my sister.

  I forced myself to my feet, drawing in a deep calming breath as I did. If Aiden wanted to help me, I would take anything I could from him. But I had to be smart about it, about him. I had to keep things impersonal.

  “It’s just a business relationship, that’s all. Strictly professional. One old friend helping out another.” That’s what it had to be. I couldn’t let it be anything else.

  Swiping the moisture from my cheeks with an irritated click of my fingers, I dug my cell phone out of the back pack I still had slung over my shoulder and dialed the Lab.

  My assistant, Will, answered almost immediately.

  “Beth? Oh my god, I’ve been worried sick about you. You just fell off the grid. I know you were taking some time off of work but you said you were going to check in every day and it’s been three and I still hadn’t heard from you and–.”

  “Will, calm down,” I said, biting back a grin at the familiar way he rushed his words together. “Just take a deep breath. I’m fine. I’m always fine. You know that.”

  “Yeah, always fine until you end up murdered in an alley somewhere.”

  “It’s just the city, Will, not some murderer’s paradise.” I said the words as a joke but swallowed hard, thinking of Leah. God, I hoped I was right. “Listen, I just wanted to call and see if you’ve made any progress on the voice message from Leah.”

  Will was not only the best assistant I’ve ever had, he was also a tech wizard. Much of the message had been garbled and nearly unintelligible, full of static and corrupted. He was working on cleaning up the audio in case there were any other clues to be found in Leah’s words.

  All I could make out was her talking at first, sounding surprised, and then what sounds like a cry but the rest was impossible to make out.

  “Sorry, Beth. Nothing yet. I’m getting close though. I developed a few more screens that I can run over the audio to try and isolate the different tones and voices.”

  “Different voices?”

  “Yeah, there’s at least two different voice registers, one is your sisters, but I haven’t been able to get the audio clear enough to make out the other one enough to tell if it’s male or female. But it’s definitely there. The computer doesn’t lie.”

  My mind shattered for a moment, wondering who it might be. Maybe someone who saw her. Maybe someone who could remember her. Maybe someone who hurt her.

  I shook off that last thought. It was too painful to contemplate.

  “So, where are you now? Still in that scummy motel?” Will asked and I could hear the clicks and clacks of a keyboard in the background.

  I glanced around the luxurious room.

  “Actually, I got an upgrade.”

  “Really? Good. I know you didn’t have a lot of money from the lab, but that place gave me the skeebies. So, where exactly are you now?”

  “I…I’m staying at a friend’s.” I said, not wanted to elaborate. Will was too clever for his own good and I didn’t want him drawing any false conclusions. I was there to find my sister and that was all.

  “You? Have friends?”

  “Ha ha. That’s so very funny coming from the guy who works more hours than I do, and probably hasn’t been to his apartment in days.”

  “Only two.” Will said and it made me laugh.

  “You know I’m only kidding, Will. I know you’re working hard to help me, to help Leah.” My voice cracked on her name, like it always did. It was impossible for me to say it out loud without a sharp stab of pain.

  “Don’t worry, Beth, we’ll find her.” Will said after a long moment of silence, his tone gentle but I could hear the doubt in his voice. The same doubt that was in my heart.

  “Yeah. I know.” I sighed, “Look, I got to go.”

  “Don’t forget to check in, okay? Every day. Don’t make me worry.”

  “I promise, mom,” I joked, drawing a rough chuckle from the younger man, “Bye Will. You call me if you need anything.”

  “Roger that, boss. Just…be careful, okay? I don’t know what Leah was looking into but this message…I don’t like it. It gives me a bad feeling.”

  “We’re scientists, Will. We act based on facts and data, not feelings.”

  “I know, but…”

  “I’ll be careful, Will.” I promised him one more time before finally getting him to hang up the phone. He really did worry as much as my own mother did. Maybe even more.

  After hanging up the phone I tucked it back into the back pocket of my backpack and started walking. There was no way to catch up to Aiden. He was long gone by now, and honestly, I was pretty sure that I would get lost trying to find my way out of this maze of rooms and hallways.

  Probably die of thirst and starvation before I reached the elevator.

  So, I walked. I explored, roaming down the vast hallways, trying to gain more insight into the man Aiden Diorno
had become. Trying to figure him out, determined to solve him. He was a puzzle that just kept nagging at me and I knew I was missing something, but what?

  That was frustrating thing. I often wouldn’t know what it was that was missing until I ran into it, and by then it might be too late. For me. For my sister.

  I swept past more gleaming bedrooms and another living room. Honestly, who has two living rooms?

  I kept exploring, idly poking into rooms but none of them even looked touched. It was as if no one lived there at all, not even Aiden. There was a feeling of emptiness and disuse in all the rooms I peeked at but at the end of a hall there was a large oak door and behind that was something different.

  It wasn’t a bedroom, it almost looked like a library with two full walls covered in floor to ceiling built in wood bookshelves. In the middle of the room was a massive matching desk that held a lamp, a crystal paperweight, and a few other scrap pieces of paper as well as a high tech looking cutting edge computer that Will would probably kill to have.

  Curious, I walked inside, looking at the books. They looked old, hundreds of years old, and scattered between them on the shelves were more small statues and odd pieces of collectables. It was hard to picture Aiden sitting in the study, relaxing while he read a book in its original Italian.

  He was constantly moving, constantly on the edge of violence. I couldn’t even picture him relaxing at all, let alone enough to sit still for any length of time.

  But this was obvious his study, or an office of some sort.

  Again, I wondered what exactly he did, but was distracted by a small plastic frame that seemed out of place there amongst the old, valuable treasures.

  It was bright blue and had the year inscribed on the top next to a banner that said, ‘happy new year’.

  I had to stop my fingers from trembling as I picked it up. Inside the frame was a slightly blurry photo of a man and woman. They were laughing into the camera, their arms wrapped around each other. It had been taken exactly ten years before. I knew because it was the photo of me and Aiden that I’d given to him as a gift all those years ago. And he’d kept it.

  I almost didn’t hear the sound of voices approaching until it was too late, and I hurried to duck behind the desk, still clutching the photograph.

  I held my breath just as the voices drew even. It sounded like the two men that Aiden had introduced to me earlier and they were talking loud enough for me to overhear their words.

  “Did you hear?”

  “Hear what?”

  “About Redman. He’s back.”

  I bit back a gasp at the sound of the name. Wasn’t that what Aiden had said?

  “Impossible. The man disappeared a decade ago. He wouldn’t dare show his face.”

  “Wouldn’t he? That man…I don’t even think he’s human.” One of the men said with an obvious shudder in his voice, “I heard he slaughtered an entire family and then sat down at their table and finished their dinner.”

  “That’s just a rumor.”

  “He was a ruthless killer ten years ago, and that was when he was on a leash. He would only kill if it was a hit. Now…He’s lost it. Crazy. Totally insane. Who knows what he’s going to do.”

  I missed the other man’s response as they walked down the hallway but it didn’t matter. My head was already spinning with what I’d just heard. Leah had been tracking that man, Redman. She had photographed him. And he was a killer. A hitman! That’s who my sister had been investigating?

  I felt sick to my stomach, bile rising up inside me just thinking about what that could mean for her. I held back the tears until the men disappeared into another wing of the large house.

  “Oh Leah,” I cried quietly, “What the hell did you get yourself into?” And even more, what the hell had I?

  Chapter 9

  Aiden

  I rang the doorbell, waiting impatiently for Luca to answer the door. I was out of patience. Elizabeth had used it all up.

  “Come on, Luca! Open the damned door,” I raised my hand to pound again, but the door opened before my knuckles could land.

  Luca just stood there with that shit eating grin of his.

  “Jesus, Aiden. Took you long enough to get here.”

  I rolled my eyes at him but didn’t rise to the bait as I followed him inside. I shook my head in disgust as I looked around his place.

  It was a quintessential bachelor’s pad. The space itself was one giant open loft with few redeeming features. The windows were old and drafty, the wood floors scratched and stained and chipped.

  There was a steady drip-drip-drip from the sink in the kitchen area and a mattress lay on the floor shoved into once corner, the sheets and blankets wadded up into a pile in the middle.

  Luca went straight to the desk which carried two computers and several more monitors on the ground. There were wires and chips everywhere, as well as Luca’s camera equipment and a few other odds and ends scattered across the little remaining surface.

  I followed him towards the desk with trepidation, curling my lip as I bent down and knocked a pile of take out containers and old pizza boxes into the overflowing garbage can sitting on the floor.

  I turned to my best friend with a sigh.

  “You are disgusting.”

  Luca just grinned at me, shrugging nonchalantly. “Hey, don’t knock my lifestyle. Who had time to clean? Especially with all the extra jobs you’ve been having me run.”

  “Oh, so the state of this place is my fault?” I shot back, about to lean against the edge but thought better of it when I saw some liquid I couldn’t identify gleaming at me from the surface. “You don’t have to clean. You’re filthy rich, Luca.” I paused, shooting him a grin, “Almost as rich as I am. Hire a cleaning service for fuck’s sake. Or a fumigator.” I added under my breath, glancing around the disheveled apartment one more time.

  After Luca’s family had been killed, my father had brought him into the family in more ways than one. He’d brought the young teen under his wing, showing him that life could be different. And my father also set up a trust fund in Luca’s name that he could reach when he came of age.

  Well, that had been eight years ago, just a few after my father had been murdered, but as far as I knew, Luca hadn’t even touched the fund. I knew I should talk to him about it, but he seemed more than content to live his life the way he always had. With a devil may care, risk taking attitude that didn’t leave any time for anything except work and play. And Luca played just as hard as he worked.

  “Come on, Aiden.” Luca said with another cajoling grin. “It’s not that bad, is it?” He paused, his grin going a little stale around the edges as he looked around the apartment. It looked like it just barely survived a tornado. Or hadn’t.

  “Okay, maybe it is that bad. I’ve been busy, all right?” Luca shrugged one more time, the issue already forgotten as he sat down at the chair pulled up in front of the desk.

  His words reminded me of the reason I was there in the first place.

  “Speaking of work,” I said, edging closer, “Did you find anything yet?”

  Luca hesitated for a moment and I knew it couldn’t be good. The man never hesitated.

  “Yes and no.” Luca finally said, leaning forward to power up the monitor for one of his screens and I nearly growled when he didn’t go on.

  “What the hell does that mean?” I demanded, the worst sort of answers running through my head. If Luca didn’t want to tell me, it really was bad.

  “Well, do you want the good news first or the bad news? Actually, it’s more like bad news and worse news if I’m being honest.”

  “Bad news.” The word fired from my mouth like a bullet ricocheting out of the barrel of a gun. That awful feeling in my gut was back in full force. That instinct that always told me when something terrible was about to happen.

  “Alright. Bad news it is,” Luca started typing and a scan of one of the grainy photographs popped up on to the screen. “I was only able to track down two
of the men in the photographs. I’m still using facial recognitions software for the rest, but it could take a long time. The photos are dark and grainy. A lot of harsh shadows that make it hard to clearly see features or identifying markers.”

  “Alright.” I growled. If I was being honest I had hoped for better than that, but when Luca said he was still working on it, it meant the job would get done. I just hoped it got done before it was too late. “And the worse news?”

  “No, no Aiden. I’m still on the bad news. Jesus, you’re a glutton for punishment aren’t you.” Luca tossed over his shoulder but he kept his gaze glued on the computer screen in front of him, so he didn’t see my eyes nearly roll back into my head.

  “Not in the mood, Luca. Don’t fuck with me.”

  “Alright, alright. Here is the rest of the bad news. Both of the men I identified are dead, so we can’t get any more info from them. Thomas Cattalano died of a heart attack and Liam Moore split town and disappeared, but I’m assuming he’s also dead.”

  “Why would you assume that?”

  “Because the police recovered his hands a week after his disappearance. Only his hands.”

  “Fuck.” I bit out the curse and it tasted bitter on my tongue. Our only leads so far and they sure as hell weren’t talking. I hated to ask, but knew I had to. “Okay. So, what’s the worse news. And don’t play games with me Luca. Just tell me.”

  Luca drew a deep breath before pulling up another one of the photographs. He pointed to the shadowy figure barely recognizable in the darkness, but I knew him. All the way to my soul, I knew him. And I hated him.

  “The man in that photo is definitely Ian Redman, and he was definitely in the city as little as three days ago. My bet? He’s still in town. The man is patient. And a psychopath. Two things that never go well together. I think he’s biding his time.”

  “For what?”

  “To finish what he started ten years ago.” Luca just looked at me, for once his gaze was serious on mine.

  “Me?” I snorted, “You think he’s coming after me?”