by J. L. Beck
He falls to his knees, then collapses to the front and falls lifeless to the floor.
The space falls into a dead silence, and for a moment, I just stand there, unsure of what to do. She killed someone. My innocent Fallon killed someone. She put her life before someone else’s, and I couldn’t be prouder of her.
Taking a step forward, I look into her face, expecting to see shock or remorse. Instead, I see relief.
“He was going to kill you,” she tells me, and my jaw almost drops to the floor.
Did she just kill someone for me? I won’t lie, now isn’t really the time, but my cock grows rather hard at the realization.
I don’t have time to dwell on that thought because Fallon is already on the move. Heading toward the end of the corridor.
“Wait,” I call after her, but she sprints further down the hall. “Let me go in first!”
Fearless, like a fucking warrior, she runs to the last door in the hall and slides the large deadbolt open. I’m right next to her as she pushes the door open. I raise my gun, pointing it into the room.
“It’s her,” Fallon gasps and runs into the room. I curse, trying to grab her, but she slips away. Growling, I quickly scan the room and find it empty besides a small woman sitting on a mattress in the far right corner.
“Fallon?” Her sister’s voice fills the space.
“It’s me.” Fallon sinks to her knees in front of her sister. The two immediately fall into each other’s arms.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” Her sister’s voice cracks, relief flooding out of her.
“Everything is okay now,” Fallon speaks softly to her, pulling away to assess her a little. From where I stand, I can see nothing that would lead me to believe she was beaten.
She seems thin, almost frail-like, but not beaten or abused. She looks nothing like I expected.
“We need to go,” I growl, not wanting to cut their reunion short but also worried that we’re sitting ducks by staying here any longer.
Fallon nods and helps her sister to her feet. When she faces me again, there is a twinkle in her eye that wasn’t there before. I’m unable to deny the joy that seeing her happy brings me. I want to see her smile all the time, but how? This was always supposed to be temporary.
Now, I’m not so sure…
Amelie looks right at me, her hazel eyes are guarded, and her slight body trembles. She doesn’t really seem afraid of me, just unsure.
“That’s Markus. He helped me rescue you.” Fallon pauses and peers up at me, her big blue eyes bleeding into mine. “He isn’t going to hurt you. He’s one of the good guys.”
I almost snort while hurrying the girls into the hallway. One of the good guys? I wish. If only Amelie knew the shit, I put her sister through to get here.
“It’s time to get out of here,” I say over my shoulder and lift my gun.
Fallon nods her head, and together, we head out of the building.
37
Fallon
The reunion with my sister is filled with both joy and sadness. I hug her fiercely, wrapping my arms tightly around her, never wanting to let her go. Like I expected, she is quiet, her usual bubbly smile gone.
I’m afraid to ask what happened to her while she was being held captive. Did they rape her? Beat her? On the outside, she looks okay. A little thinner than before, and there are bags under her eyes, but it doesn’t look as if she was abused or anything.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” I ask once we’re finally alone and on the plane.
Amelie shakes her head. Her heart-shaped face is paler than normal, and her mahogany brown hair falls in soft waves down her back. Its color is dull and lacking its normal robust products. Overall, she looks the same, which is a relief. I expected her to look like Julie, beaten and broken, but she doesn’t. She looks normal. At least on the outside.
“Do you need a doctor? I can have Markus find one and have them there as soon as we land.” Again, she shakes her head, and when she speaks, she looks out the window instead of at me. I feel like she isn’t telling me something. In fact, I feel like she isn’t telling me a lot.
“No doctor is needed. I’m fine. I just want to go home.”
“Okay… do you want to call Leon—”
“No! Do not call him,” she blurts out, borderline yelling.
I’m flabbergasted by her small outburst, and I take the seat beside her. Leon has been her boyfriend for two years. She’s been head over heels for him, spending every free minute with him. Heck, she dropped out of college for him. “Just to let him know you’re okay, I mean. You don’t have to talk to anyone about what happened while you were there.”
“Fallon, I told you I’m fine. No one hurt me. They didn’t touch me.”
“They didn’t hurt you?” I repeat, making sure I heard her right. I’m glad she is okay, relieved beyond measure, but she might be lying to me, and I don’t want her to face this alone.
She turns in the seat to face me. Her green eyes are sad, her expression heartbroken. “No. I’m fine. I just want to go home to Mom and Dad, and I don’t want to talk to Leon ever again.” I’m unsure of what I should say. Did Leon have something to do with this? Why is she so upset?
I decide to leave it alone for now, but the questions linger in the back of my mind. The plane takes off, and I stick to her side. Markus takes a seat across from us after a short while, and we ride in silence.
Eventually, she falls asleep, her body curled into a tight ball, her face pressed against the glass of the window like she wants to escape us. I know Markus told me to prepare for the worst, and I did, but I over-prepared.
I move to the seat beside him and grab his hand. I know he can never love me, but I need to anchor myself to someone right now—anchor myself to him. Neither of us wants to admit that we’re falling deep into each because that would change everything. That would take our relationship from captor and captive into a strange new territory.
“What’s wrong? I thought you would be happy to see your sister?” Markus asks in a hushed whisper. It’s like he can see the worry developing inside of me.
“I am. It’s just… I don’t understand. They had her that whole time, and they never touched her. How? I mean, I’m grateful that she is okay and unharmed, but I was expecting worse, like you said earlier.”
“She’s lucky, that’s for sure.” Markus squeezes my hand. The warmth of his touch soothes some of my fears of the unknown away.
“Also, she is acting weird about her boyfriend. She said she didn’t want to call him at all.”
“I’m sure she’ll come around and tell you more. Give her some time. She’s been through a lot.”
“Yeah. I guess,” I nod, “I never got to tell you… thank you. For making good on your word.”
“I gave you a promise, and I don’t go back on them. You trusted me, so I put my trust in you.” I shake my head and smile, really smile. She’s safe, and everything I did to get to her no longer feels like it was for nothing.
For the first time, my heart is filled with joy instead of sadness, and I wonder how long this feeling will last. Timothy is still out there, doing who knows what? Would he try to come for my sister and me again? Markus? Every bone in my body says yes.
No one will be safe until he is gone.
When we land, I’m unsure of what to do next. This is where mine and Markus’s road should end, where we should part and go our separate ways.
What else is there to do? My sister knows where I am, and he already said it was okay for her to go home. He can’t keep me prisoner now.
The question is… could I? Could I walk away from him? Turn my back on him, after all, we’ve been through? Resume my mundane college life after what I’ve experienced?
To walk away from him now, after everything he’s done for me, seems like the ultimate betrayal.
But if he can never love me, what future is there for us?
As we walk to Markus’s car, his phone starts to ring. I hol
d on to my sister’s hand a little tighter, worried she will disappear if I don’t. Markus unlocks the car, and we climb inside while he remains standing outside on his phone.
“He’s just like the others. The men who took me… a criminal,” my sister states as if she knows the truth. I nod my head because, at this point, why lie?
“He…” I start, contemplating if I should tell her the whole story or leave the worst part out. I decide after everything, Amelie deserves the truth. “He bought me at an auction. Paid one million dollars for me.”
Even in the dark, I can see the shocked look flick onto Amelie’s face. “I don’t know what to say…” For a moment, she just stares at me, maybe waiting for me to say more, but there is nothing else to say. “An auction for people? Like… wow… was it just you there?”
“No.” I cringe as the image of Julie’s beaten body pops into my head. “There were other girls. We were able to save one of them, but I don’t know about the rest.”
“I can’t wrap my mind around that. How could people do that? And what kind of man is Markus that he bought you?” She shakes her head.
“These people are bad, Amelie. Bad. Including Markus, but he is not evil like some of them. He didn’t hurt me.”
“He didn’t hurt you? He just kept you as his prisoner?”
Before I can respond, the car door opens, and Markus climbs into his seat. His posture is stiff, and like a sixth sense washing over me, I know instantly something is going on.
He starts the engine and pulls out of the parking lot without a word. I decide to wait until we arrive at his penthouse before I press him with questions.
My sister has been through enough and doesn’t need to hear anything more about Timothy, whom I assume the call was about, and what has Markus so tense and worried. I do my best to abate my own worry and bask in the presence of my sister, who I have been without for two months.
“What happens next?” Amelie leans into my side and whispers in my ear.
I lick my dry lips. “I’m not sure yet. We’re going to Markus’s apartment. Then, we can figure it out from there, after a shower and good night’s sleep.”
Amelie’s pink lips press into a thin line. She doesn’t believe me. I can’t imagine what she thinks. How does she feel? She probably thinks she’s being pushed from one cage and into the next, but she’s not. I won’t let that happen. I won’t let her be trapped, not ever again.
“We will leave soon. I’ll take you home. We just have to make sure it’s safe,” I assure her.
She nods, and I look away, only to meet Markus’s gaze in the rearview mirror. Those amber eyes of his are punishing, their depths ice cold. I shiver at the intensity of his stare and look away.
When we arrive at the apartment, Markus still hasn’t said anything, and the tension stretches between us. I show my sister into the guest room and give her a pair of fresh pajamas and a towel.
I leave her to shower and go to track him down. I find him sitting on the edge of the bed. He looks up as I walk into the room. My throat tightens when I notice the anguish in his eyes. Whatever he has to say is going to hurt me.
“Felix called me. He found something else out while looking for your sister and Timothy.”
I’m almost afraid to ask him to continue. “Yes?”
Markus runs a hand through his dark hair. “I don’t even know how to say this because it’s so hard for me to believe. I can’t imagine what you’re going to think when I tell you.”
That sends my heart into my stomach, and I grip the edge of the doorframe to keep myself from sagging to the floor. “What is it?”
He swipes his tongue out over his bottom lip, and while the movement itself is sensual; it doesn’t distract me away from the feelings rippling through me like it normally would.
“There is a reason you look so much like Victoria.”
“I don’t understand…” How could I possibly be connected to Victoria?
“Fallon, you’re adopted. Apparently, your mom… your adoptive mother had lost a baby. It was stillborn. Through your father’s connections, he was able to adopt you quickly, making everyone think you were the baby she had carried.”
My mouth pops open, but no words come out. I just stare at him blankly. Everything is a lie. Every. Single. Thing.
Markus continues, “When Felix looked into Victoria’s mother’s whereabouts, he found out…” He pauses, and his eyes dart away for a moment before coming back to mine. “Just hours after you were born, your mother gave you up for adoption. From what Felix found, it wasn’t willingly. It looks like she had cheated on Timothy. When he found out you weren’t his, he forced her to give you up, threatening to take Victoria away if she didn’t.”
The shit keeps getting deeper and deeper.
“Oh my god, that’s awful.” An impossible decision. “He made her choose between the daughter she already had and the one she just gave birth to?”
“If what you’re saying is correct… that means I have to find her.”
“I’m sorry, Fallon. She is gone. Losing you was too much for her to bear. She left the hospital hours after you were born and committed suicide.”
My hand slips from the door, and my knees give out on me. Like a rag doll, I head toward the floor. I don’t have the strength to stop myself from falling.
Luckily, Markus catches me before I contact the floor. He pulls me into his broad chest and wraps his thick arms around me, holding all my broken pieces together.
I can’t even wrap my head around everything he’s just told me.
Everything crumbles around me. Amelie and I aren’t even related. My parents, my mother and father, the people who raised me.
I’m on a damn rollercoaster that refuses to stop and let me off. I want to scream, to hurt someone or something, but that won’t change the outcome, won’t change what’s already happened. I’m adopted, and the only girl Markus ever loved is my sister. As badly as I want to turn in on myself and disappear from the rest of the world, I can’t. Amelie needs me. After all that she has been through, I have to be there for her. I’ll make sure she is okay first, and then I’ll break down. After a few moments and some calming breaths, I muster up the courage to speak.
“What do we do now? My sister wants to go home soon.”
Markus holds me tighter, like he’s not going to ever let me go, and I almost wish he wouldn’t. That I could be his, and he could be mine forever.
“You and your sister aren’t safe until Timothy is dead. He could come back for you at any time, and I don’t know… If you died because of me, because of something stupid that I caused, I would never forgive myself. I’ve already lost so much.”
“But… you said Amelie could go home after this.”
“I thought Timothy would be there, or at least we’d get a lead to find him. We have nothing, and he might come after you to hurt me. He thought I was the one who killed Victoria, that’s why he wanted the tape so badly. He thought he could put me behind bars with it. Now that he has is, he knows it wasn’t me, but I think he still blames me… and fuck, he isn’t wrong. It was my fault she was there that day.”
I lift a hand and touch his cheek. It’s rough beneath my palm. A mere contrast of how different we are. Rough and soft. Dark and light. We shouldn’t be, but we are, and it feels like our fates have already been sealed.
“It’s okay… we will stay until it’s safe.”
“I was hoping you would say that,” he whispers as his lips press against the side of my head. I know he would tie me to the bed and hand-feed me if he had to. The possessive nature in him won’t let me go, so I wonder how this is all going to pan out in the end. Will he let me leave?
“I need to go talk to my sister. Tell her we have to stay here for a while. I don’t know how well she is going to take it, but I’ll try.”
Markus slowly releases me, like he doesn’t want to let go yet. My heart begs me to return to the warmth of his embrace, but this isn’t good for me. Pretendi
ng that we could be a couple when we most definitely aren’t. Now would be the time to start putting distance between us, but the thought leaves me even more distraught than I already am.
I’ve just reached the doorway when he says, “If you need anything… I’m here for you, Fallon.”
I peer at him over my shoulder. “Strange how foes become friends.”
His face falls. “You don’t need anything else added to your plate, but if I could… I would… with you, Fallon. It would be with you. And that has nothing to do with your connection to Victoria.”
I know he’s referring to loving me. How he can’t because he gave all his love to the woman I now know is my dead half-sister. I hold back the river of emotions threatening to break the dam and destroy everything in its wake.
“I know,” I whisper and walk out the door before I cry.
It isn’t until I’m halfway down the hall I’m able to force myself to calm by taking slow and steady breaths. The last thing I need is to project my emotions out onto Amelie. None of this is her fault, none of it, and I’m not going to drag her any deeper into it.
The guest bedroom door is ajar, and it creaks as I push it open a bit more. Amelie looks up from where she sits at the edge of the mattress.
She is wearing one of my nightgowns, and even though she’s taken a shower, she doesn’t look any better. I walk into the room and close the door behind me.
She isn’t going to like what I tell her.
“Did you find out when we can go home?” The look of agony on her face makes me want to turn around and walk out of the room.
“I talked to Markus, and until things with Timothy are over and they find him, we both agreed that it’s probably best for us to stay here. Mom and Dad still think you’re in France.” Her face falls, and she looks like she’s going to cry. I would expect it. She’s been too calm, too quiet for someone who has been held captive for the last two months.