by J. L. Beck
The phone rings twice. “You better have her.”
“Your men are dead. It’s time to end this, Timothy. I have the footage right here, on a thumb drive. Just tell us where Fallon’s sister is.”
“You don’t call the shots, Markus.” The disdain in his voice is suffocating. “There is a laptop on one of the shelves. Open it and upload the drive to the computer.”
“Fallon,” I whisper, pulling her attention back to me. Her gaze snaps to mine, and I extend my hand out to her. “I need the thumb drive.”
With a nod, she reaches into her pocket and retrieves the tiny object. She places it in the palm of my hand with trembling fingers. I want to cover her hand with mine and tell her everything will be okay, but the truth is, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.
I spot the computer sitting across the room. My boots slap against the concrete as I walk over to it. The screen lights up, and I click guest on the welcome page. The process to upload the video takes less than five minutes.
“It’s done,” I growl into the phone and slam the laptop closed. “Now, tell us where Fallon’s sister is.”
“I told you… you don’t call the shots, Markus. This is my game, my rules. I’ll be in touch about the sister.”
The line goes dead, and I grit my teeth before tossing the fucking phone at the nearest wall. He got what he wanted. He got the fucking video, so why is he still holding her sister hostage? Fallon lets out a ragged sob, and it’s soul-shattering and heartbreaking. I’ve heard a lot of crying, begging, and pleading in my life, but nothing that’s ever sounded like this.
I walk over to her and take her frail body into my arms. I hold her tightly to my chest and let her cry, knowing she needs me, knowing that for once… we’re on the same page.
“I will get your sister back for you, Fallon. I will. I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll get her back for you,” I whisper and brush a kiss against her forehead.
I won’t let her down.
Timothy is going to pay.
33
Fallon
I didn’t know the gaping hole in my chest could get any bigger until the moment I heard Timothy say he wasn’t releasing my sister. Now every time my heart thumps, it feels like it’s only half working, half supporting my body. I’m disoriented and confused. I did everything he asked.
I betrayed Markus, brought the video, endured pain, fear, and humiliation, and I’m still no closer to finding her. Thankfully, Markus showed up when he did. Part of me knew he had to be following me while the other hoped he wasn’t.
Utter defeat overtook me when Timothy said he would be in touch. I won’t lie. Part of me wanted to die. I knew my sister was going through a fate much worse than I, and even after all I’ve done, she was still going to continue to endure the poor treatment. It was a slap in the face.
Arriving back at the penthouse, Markus holds me in his arms and carries me to the elevator, holding me to his chest, cradling me like a baby, and only releasing me once we’re safe inside the protective walls of his apartment.
He places me on the couch, and the loss of warmth from his body makes me shiver. I tuck my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around my body. I hate myself right now. Hate that I have him here. That I am protected and safe while Amelie is still out there. Markus sits beside me, his penetrating gaze moving over my body like he has x-ray vision.
“Did you look at what was on the thumb drive?” His voice is deep, like a canyon with jagged peaks.
I nod my head. “I saw Victoria. She looks like me.”
Somberness creeps into his features. “That’s how he knew I would want you. You’re the spitting image of each other. Beautiful, blonde, and a smile that lights up the room.”
It was a bit shocking to see how much we resembled each other, and it hurt to know that he only bought me because I looked like her… a ghost of his past.
My throat tightens. “I’m sorry, Markus. I didn’t want to leave. Aren’t the police going to come for you now? With those images out there, surely, he’s going to hand it over to them.”
Markus’s thick brows furrows. “I thought you watched the video?”
“I only looked at the pictures on the drive. I was afraid to watch the video. I didn’t want…”
“The image you have of me inside your head to change?” he finishes my thought.
I nod my head and look away shamefully. It’s a complete contradiction for me not to watch the video. I know the type of man he is and have experienced it firsthand. Still, I don’t want to see him in a worse light than I already do. The thought of him killing a woman that looks just like me makes me want to run away instead of seeking comfort in his arms.
Markus shoves off the couch and disappears down the hall. I sit up a little straighter, wondering what he’s doing. A few moments later, he returns with a laptop in his hands. I stare at him, a bit puzzled.
He sits back down beside me and opens the laptop, placing it on the edge of the coffee table. My stomach twists, a knot forming there. I know what he’s doing. He’s going to make me watch the video, make me see him in a different light.
“Markus,” I whisper.
He turns to me, his eyes pleading, and shakes his head. His fingers move over the keys as he types his password into the computer and navigates to the files. Maybe it’s for the best that I see the video. Perhaps then I can be reminded of the sinister man he is. A couple more clicks and a video pops up. It’s grainy, not of the best quality, but you can make out Victoria perfectly.
Her face is bright and joyful. She seems to be calling out to someone, her lips moving. My heart skips a beat in my chest, knowing that something bad is about to happen. All the joy in her face disappears, and she looks down at the ground. In the next instant, a car pulls up.
You can see it in the corner of the video. A second later, shots are fired, and Victoria hits the ground. Markus rushes to her side, clutching her to his chest, but it’s too late. She’s gone. Nothing can bring her back, and it’s obvious from his anguished face that he knows this.
In the matter of one single second, he fractures, the despair in his eyes, the loss. I can tell that this single moment shaped him into the man he is today. He loved her. She wasn’t just a friend. She was something to him, and when he lost her, he lost a piece of himself.
The video ends, the screen going black.
My throat tightens, and I feel tears prick at my eyes. I’m in love with a man who is still holding onto the ghost of a woman that looks just like me.
Markus closes the laptop and turns toward me. There is a chip in his armor, and I can see right inside, see into the good parts of him, the person he hides from the rest of the world, that he covers up with pain, despair, and bloodshed.
“She was the only person I ever loved…” His voice is gravelly, broken, and I want to take him into my arms and tell him everything will be okay, but will it be? I suddenly can’t breathe when our gazes collide. I’m suffocating in his grief, drowning in it. “Losing her… it hurt so bad. It felt like someone ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped it into the ground.” He presses a fist against the organ thundering in his chest.
“It’s because of me that she died, and I’ve never allowed myself to forget it. Her memory haunts me, the words I spoke to her just seconds before she was viciously taken from me.” His liquid amber eyes shimmer. “She would still be here if she hadn’t gone out looking for me that day. If I’d been a better man, who didn’t get involved in crime.”
I can see him slipping into the past, filtering through his thoughts. Part of me feels that I should reason with him and tell him you never know what the future holds, but I know all too well about guilt. Wondering if you had made a different choice, would the outcome be the same or different.
Instead of giving him some mediocre bullshit sob-filled paragraph, I say to him what no one has probably ever said to him. Reaching for his hands, he lets me gently clasp them in mine. It’s almost like he too needs
the comfort and touch of another human in this moment.
“I know you won’t believe me, but it wasn’t your fault. It really wasn’t. We all make choices, and she made a choice to come and find you that day. It was a wrong place, wrong time kind of thing. Neither of you could’ve expected it to end the way it did.”
I can visibly see his chest heaving, his mind swirling with a thousand thoughts. I understand why he chose me, why he never hurt me even though he could have. He was reliving a memory, but I turned out to be someone else entirely.
I’m not her, and he knows that.
Reality slowly seeps back into him, and after a second, he tugs his hands away from mine. I wince at the loss of his touch. He makes me feel secure and safe, and without him, I’m in a constant tailspin of fear.
His jaw clenches, and he looks like he wants to apologize, but that’s not Markus. He doesn’t say sorry. “I let myself love once before in my life, and I promised never to love another the day that I lost her. Love is fragile, and I don’t have it in me to endure another loss.”
I know what he’s saying, and the point of his words pierces my heart.
He will never allow himself to love another, including me. It hurts to hear him say it, and I wish things were different, but it’s for the best. At least, it isn’t that he isn’t capable of loving me. He just chooses not to, and now I understand why.
“I understand,” I whisper, letting him know I get what he is saying. He stares at me for a long second, his gaze holding me in place.
I can see the turmoil-filled battle beneath the surface.
He doesn’t want to want me like this, but he can’t help it.
He’s afraid of getting hurt, but he doesn’t know that losing him now would gut me, leaving me to bleed out on the cold ground.
This might have started as someone else’s revenge, but it’s ending as something entirely different for us. Something neither one of us can stop from happening, no matter how much we wish we could.
34
Markus
Two fucking weeks and still not a damn word from Timothy. Every day I grow angrier, and Fallon more worried. I don’t tell her what I’m thinking, but the truth is her sister is most likely dead… or she wishes she was.
Leaning back in my chair, I click through Amelie Brice’s social media again, looking for some clues I might have missed the first twenty times I checked. Fuck, I’m not good at this shit. I don’t do research and find people like Felix. I just kill them. We would be the perfect team… if it wasn’t for that one thing keeping us separated… there are things Felix won’t do, lines he won’t cross. I think back to the last time he worked with Julian.
“Felix, find out where she is hiding, hack into whatever database you need to find her. As soon as we get an address, bring Sophia in for questioning, Markus. Her husband hasn’t spilled the beans yet on where he hid our last shipment of guns. Perhaps a little encouragement will help…” Julian grinned like the devil. All that was missing was his pitchfork and devil horns, and he would have the image down pat.
“I’m not doing it. I’m not helping you bring in an innocent woman,” Felix piped up.
All I could do was shake my head. It seemed like he was fighting with Julian on everything, every step of the way. He was going to get us both killed. It was only a matter of time.
Julian snarled, “You’ll do whatever the fuck I tell you to do. I’m the boss. Not you.”
Anger was seeping from his pores. Julian was unhinged often, one second away from losing control. If I didn’t get Felix out of here soon, he’d end up buried in the ground.
“I’m not doing it, boss… you can kill me if you want, but I’m not hurting an innocent woman.” Felix shook his head with a determined scowl on his face.
Julian turned toward me. His dark eyes were vicious and promised pain. “Get your brother out of here and talk some sense into him before I kill him.”
“Of course, boss.” I did as I was told, knowing that Julian really would kill him. Grabbing Felix by the back of the neck, I dragged him out of the office. Felix was just as big and strong as me, but he didn’t even struggle. It was like he didn’t care what happened.
“Do you have a death wish? He could’ve killed both of us,” I scolded as soon as we were outside. Felix stared at me for a long moment; his dark eyes seemed to look right through me.
“I’m not doing it, Markus. I’m not killing a woman. I’m not hurting one either. I have boundaries and shit I won’t do. Unlike the rest of you, I have a moral compass. I’m not doing it.”
I gritted my teeth. “You are, or we will both die.”
Felix never even tried to find her. That was the night we were forced to go our separate ways. He knew making that choice meant he could no longer stay in the city.
I was sure Julian would kill me that night when I returned to the mansion without the woman, but he directed all his anger to Felix instead.
I pull from the memory of that night. The day my brother chose to be a better man than me. My finger stops, hovering over the mouse as I direct my attention to the image on the screen. Amelie is only a few years older than Fallon, but they couldn’t be any more different. They don’t look alike. Amelie is tan with dark hair and hazel eyes, and from what I’m seeing on her profile, they don’t act alike either.
But in this picture, the one posted most recently, Fallon and Amelie have one thing in common. A sense of deep, radiating sadness in their eyes.
I flip through the pictures again, paying more attention to her facial expression instead of the people and places surrounding her. I notice that even ones she smiles in, it never reaches her eyes. In some of them, I can see more than sadness… fear. She was scared of something, even before she was kidnapped. Is it possible someone was watching her before? How long has Timothy been planning this?
So many fucking questions. I still don’t understand how Timothy got caught up with these men. He wasn’t involved in anything criminal when I was with Victoria.
In fact, it was the opposite. He hated that I was in the mob. He pushed her to break up with me and find someone else.
A good guy like himself.
Apparently, her death changed not only my soul but his as well.
My phone buzzing in my pocket pulls me out of my dreadful thoughts. I grab it, expecting to find another update from Felix. Julie has been doing well, considering everything. She’s been eating and started talking a few days ago. I knew Felix would take good care of her; he’s always been more caring than me.
Checking the phone, I’m surprised to see a text from Lucca.
Even more surprising is what it says: I’m sorry. I had to.
What the hell is he talking about?
I’m about to text him back when my phone rings in my hand. This time, it is Felix calling. I push the green answer button and lift the device to my ear.
“Hey, any news?”
“Yes, I got a solid lead on Timothy.” Felix gets straight to the point.
I sit up straighter. “Spit it out.”
“Looks like he is in France, close to where the sister used to live. They never left the area. He is holding her there.”
“Fuck, I figured they would have moved her by now. They could have been anywhere in Europe. Why stay?”
“I was wondering the same. Are you going to send someone to get her?”
I almost laugh. “No, I’m going by myself.”
“You sure about this? Those men he is working with are hired guns but well trained. I’ve got a bunch of intel on them, and it’s not good. You definitely shouldn’t go in alone.”
“I’ll figure something out. You have a location?”
“Yes, I’ll email you everything I have. I would offer to come with you, but…” I already know what he’s going to say.
“You can’t leave Julie alone. I get it. Don’t worry, you’ve done enough. Thank you again.”
“No problem, I’m glad you called me for help.”
/> “Yeah, me too. Talk soon,” I end the call just as I feel Fallon’s presence enter the room. When I turn around, I find her standing at the entrance of the room.
“Was that Felix? How is Julie?”
“Yes, that was him, and she is doing better. Also, Felix found your sister.”
“What!” Fallon squeals while running toward me. “How? Where? When can we get her?” Questions shoot from her mouth like bullets from a machine gun.
“She is still in France, close to where she used to live with her boyfriend,” I explain. Fallon moves next to my chair, her hand landing on my shoulder like she is trying to hold me here, so I can’t get up and run off.
“She was there the whole time? So, wait, that means those guys lied. They said that they… they hurt her. If she was in France this whole time, then there is no way that’s true. I mean, unless they were there in Europe, but that’s unlikely, right?”
“Fallon, I don’t know. I want you to be prepared for the worst. Even if those guys didn’t hurt her, she has still been their prisoner for two months.”
Fallon takes in a sharp breath. “I know.” She nods, turning her head away to hide the pain etched into her features. Grabbing her wrist, I pull her down onto my lap and wrap my arms around her. The motion feels both foreign and natural. Two opposite emotions that shouldn’t go together, but somehow, they do.
I know she isn’t going to like what I say next, but I can’t risk her getting hurt. Her safety is my biggest priority, and I can’t focus on both her and her sister.
“I’m going to make some calls and get a plane to France. I’ll find her and deal with the rest.”
She pulls back from me, her eyes wide with shock. “What do you mean you? Wasn’t the plan all along for us to go together?”
“Fallon.” I sigh. How can I say this to her without her getting the wrong idea? Without her thinking deeper into things?