by A J Kent
I take a sip of my coffee before placing it down on the table in front of me, “Jen, Rory and I weren’t a thing. We’ve never been a thing. I just didn’t want to be with you. End of.”
I know my words are harsh but she needs to understand that I don’t want her. She needs to understand that I will never want her. Especially now Rory is back in my life and she declared that she is basically in love with me too.
She scowls, “Well you’re definitely a thing now aren’t you. People don’t fuck like that if they aren’t together. There’s not point lying anymore Theodore.”
Pardon fucking me?
Did Jennifer just admit that she witnessed Rory and I fucking in Las Vegas? Did she just admit that she heard Rory telling me that she wants to be with me. I lean back in my chair and scan Jennifer’s body.
Is it wrong that I’m turned on at the fact that someone was watching us fuck?
How did she know about Rory and me? How did she know that we were in Vegas and how did she conveniently happen to bump into me in one of the hundreds of coffee shops in Los Angeles. Coincidence? I think fucking not.
She knows where my girl is.
Jennifer rolls her eyes before abruptly standing up, “I don’t care anymore Theodore. I’m done trying to impress you.” She turns on her heels and heads into the coffee shop.
I quickly pull my phone from my pocket and call Henley.
The phone rings for a few seconds before a familiar voice is gracing my ears, “Theo, have you found anything?”
I look over my shoulder before whispering into my phone, “I think I know who has Rory. Can you remember my ex-stepsister, who wasn’t really my sister that I hooked up with a few times?”
Henley pauses, the silence crippling my body, “Jennifer. Are you telling me that your crazy stalker has Rory?”
I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before. Jennifer has always been obsessed with me. We only knew each other for a few months before our parents split up. We were still young, so I didn’t really remember what she looked like. At least that was the case until I started high school and she sought me out, declaring her love for me. She was infatuated with me.
She was obsessed with everything I did. I brushed her off and she eventually left me alone until a few years later when she turned up in Massachusetts. I hate to admit it, but she was looking hot and I was vulnerable. I was still numb and hurting from Rory running away. I regret it now, but we shared a few nights together. With no strings attached but like I said, she’s a crazy stalker whose fixated on me.
“Theo, are you still there?” Henley says, snapping my attention back to him.
“Yes sorry, still here. But yeah, that Jennifer. She just bumped into me and she slipped into the conversation that she saw Rory and I fuck…I mean kissing in Vegas. There was nobody around, I made sure of it so she must have been watching another way.”
“The security cameras,” he blurts out.
I nod even though he can’t see me, “Yeah. I’m going to follow her. My tracker will be on so get a team together and follow me. This might get ugly so make sure you have manpower and gunpower. We don’t know what or who we are up against.”
“Got it. Be safe man, be smart. I know you want to save Rory but be smart about it. We don’t want you both dead.”
I hang up the phone and close my eyes, the thought of Rory’s death debilitating my breathing for a few seconds. I take one more look in the coffee shop to confirm Jennifer is in there before turning my tracker on and jumping in the black SUV.
“Come on bitch, takes us to my girl,” I say as I twiddle my thumbs on the steering wheel waiting for Jennifer to leave the coffee shop. A few minutes of agonizing waiting pass before Jennifer prances over to her white convertible. She scans around for a few seconds before starting the car and pulling out onto the road.
Her convertible cruises down the freeway, erratically swerving around every car in her way. Her car heads south, away from the city. The streetlights start to turn on, one after another, lighting up the roads as the sun starts to set behind the mountains. Of course, this shit was going to down at night.
Jennifer’s speed decreases as she takes a bend and heads into an industrial looking area. I slow down my car and hang back around the corner, only allowing myself enough room to get a peek at where she’s going. She bombs it up the tarmac road before stopping abruptly outside a desolate building with grey, stone walls and broken windows. Jennifer turns her headlights off before jumping out of the car. She pauses and looks around her before making her way into the side door of the building.
I quickly send out my co-ordinates to Henley and the LAPD before slowly driving my car up the tarmac making sure to park out of sight and away from Jennifer’s convertible. I jump out of the car, the smell of pollution and industrialisation filling my lungs. Fucking LA and their bad air quality. I look around and scope out my surroundings, committing everything I see to memory. If I’m getting Rory out of here, I need to remember every single thing. I cannot make a mistake. There is no time for errors. I need to get in there quickly, rescue her and get her out without anybody else noticing that she is gone.
I turn my cell phone onto silent before quietly bolting to the door on the side of the building. I lean against the wall and take a deep breath. This is my shot. My one chance to save the woman I love. I have one chance, so I better make it count. I take a few more deep breaths before I delicately push the metal door open slightly, just enough to slip my body through the gap. I slide my body through and smoothly shut the door behind me, my hands staying glued to the cool metal to prevent it banging and alerting someone that I am here.
I turn around and my breath hitches. Shit. Talk about venturing across the tracks to the bad side of town. I look around, the building is empty, dystopian, still, quiet. Void of any colour or memories, void of any individual touches except for that of rusted equipment, old and broken furniture, and green and brown vines covering the cracked walls.
My footsteps echo throughout the empty halls and on the concrete floor, the stillness of the abandoned building sending shivers down my spine as I manoeuvre myself around the broken glass and rusted bolts on the ground below me. Flickering lights and droplets of water jerks my body, reminding me of how silent this building is. It is impossible to ignore the gnawing in my stomach that something is wrong. That it is unnecessary quiet. It feels like someone is watching me. Tracking my every movement.
I shake the uncertainty from my head and start walking deeper into the building. Rory has to be around here somewhere. Why else would Jennifer come here alone at night. I’m not saying that women should be afraid to visit derelict and uninhabited buildings, but it’s just strange that she would be willing to come here considering how dirty and infection inducing this place in.
My chest contracts and retracts as I explore further into the warehouse my body exhausted from being awake for more than seventy-two hours. Three days. Three fucking days. I can’t believe Rory has been missing for that long. I just hope she’s alive. I need her to be alive. I won’t be able to go through life if I don’t have Rory by my side.
I grab my phone from my pocket and read the messages lighting up my screen.
Henley: We are on our way. The cavalry is coming for your girl.
Charlotte: If you find our girl, hug her for me. At least until I get there. Be safe Theo.
I smile and shake my head. They better hurry the fuck up. I hold my phone in my hand and start to scroll through my contacts. I know Rory’s phone has been turned off, but I don’t think Jennifer is smart enough to turn hers off. At least I’m keeping everything crossed that she hasn’t done just that.
I hover the pad of my thumb over the call button before pressing down firmly. Come on bitch, give me a sign. I know you’re here somewhere. I know you have my woman here somewhere. If I find you, no doubt I will find her.
As my thumb hits the button my whole body goes limp.
My mind goes foggy. Blank.
Nothing but darkness.
Everything flashes by in a blur. My body crashes to the floor, the impact making my bones and limbs move in an unnatural way. Pain soars through my abdomen, my hands clutching my gut. I look down at my hands and they are covered in red. Blood. My blood. I’ve been shot. Somebody has shot me, and they are going to leave me here to die. I can’t die. I need to save the love of my life.
I can’t fucking die.
Not now, not here.
I’m so close. I know it.
I can feel her. I can taste her.
I can smell her.
I know she’s here.
I close my eyes and rest my head on the cold, concrete floor. I just need to rest for a few minutes. A few minutes is all I need. My eyelids feel heavy. I see nothing.
Nothing is going to be the last thing I ever see.
22
Rory
“Theodore, wake up. Please Theodore, wake up. For me. You can’t die here. You need to wake up so we can get ourselves out of here,” I plead, shouting at the top of my lungs.
I can’t believe he’s here. I can’t believe Theodore actually found me. I knew he always would. I never doubted him for a minute. I never doubted his abilities, but I did not expect that he would be here injured, embolized and unable to do anything.
I open my eyes, finally allowing myself to take in his body and the extent of his injuries.
He’s hurt.
Badly.
It looks like he’s been shot.
He’s breathing, but barely.
His eyes are closed and his bodies not moving.
He’s out cold.
I want to look at him, but I can’t.
Seeing his body sprawled out on the dirty, cold, floor, his body limp and lifeless with pools of blood flooding around him is too much.
I know I need to be strong. Strong for him and strong for me but it hurts.
I’m hurting.
I know that sounds ridiculous considering he is the one currently lying on the floor right now unconscious and hurt, but the pain is indescribable. I feel like someone has removed my heart from my chest with a pocketknife and dropped it into a meat grinder before setting it on fire. That is how I feel right now. Seeing him led there is killing me.
I feel like my lungs are going to explode and combust.
I want my lungs to explode and combust.
Anything would be better than watching the colour drain from Theodore’s body.
He’s going to die here if I don’t do something.
We are going to die if he doesn’t wake up.
I’ve tried to untie myself. I’ve tried to remove the cable ties from around my wrists and feet, I’ve tried to remove the noose from my neck, but I failed. I’ve failed over and over just like I am going to fail Theodore.
My Theodore.
He is going to die here.
He cannot die. Theodore cannot die.
I’ve not had a life with him yet. I’ve not been able to say the words I love you. I know I’ve implied them to him, but I’ve not spoken the words yet. I wanted to marry him. I wanted to have children, travel the world. Everything.
I need to feel him inside of me again. I need to hear him scream my name as he comes.
He was my happy ending. He’s always been my end game.
“Theodore, come on. It’s me, Rory. You did it. You found me. You just need to wake up. You just need to wake up,” I cry out.
Everything happened in a blink of an eye.
One minute I was sitting here alone. Praying, hoping and dreaming about Theodore coming to save me, dreaming of a world where we were together, just me and him, then the next minute the door is opening and my father is flinging Theodore’s lifeless body onto the floor before beating him. He beat his unconscious body with brute force. He was animalistic.
He then assured me he would be back and walked out. The sounds that Theodore made when he collided with the floor, the smell of the blood, his pale skin and the sight of him nearly killed me.
I hope he told somebody that he was coming here. Surely, he wouldn’t have put himself in danger without backup. Lottie and Henley must know he’s here. He’s smarter than this. He’s smart enough to not put himself in a position where he doesn’t have backup. I hope someone knows and I hope that someone comes quickly because I don’t know how much longer he is going to be alive. He’s dying on me.
He is actually dying on me.
I’m sat here watching the life drain from his body, useless and unable to do anything.
Unable to save him. Or help him.
Why is this happening?
Why couldn’t they just have killed me when they kidnapped me. It would have been easier. At least then Theodore would have been able to mourn me and then move on. He would have been able to live his life.
He would have been able to experience love and happiness but instead he’s led here, breathing his last breaths.
A tear falls down my cheek before the floodgates open and I start bawling my eyes out. This cannot be happening.
I thought I would be dead by now. I thought my body parts would have been posted to the LAPD with a note telling them that they were too late. But here I am, still alive, still breathing.
But why?
Why am I still freaking alive?
How many more games do they need to play?
My father and Jennifer have made it abundantly clear that their intentions have always been to kill me. So why haven’t they followed through on those intentions yet. They keep reminding me that I need to pay, that I must accept the consequences for my actions. Unless their way of making me suffer is to watch the man I’ve loved my whole life die in front of me, because that would definitely do it. That would make me suffer.
Watching Theodore die would be worse than me dying myself. Who wants to live in a world where the person you love doesn’t exist anymore. Not me. They know exactly what they’re doing. Hell, they’ve probably had this planned the whole time.
But it doesn’t make sense. Why would Jennifer allow Theodore to get hurt if she loved him so much? Unless she is sick and delusional too.
The sound of the door opening has the thoughts of Theodore’s death leaving my mind, only for the briefest of seconds. I follow the opening the door with my eyes and two bodies walk in, Jennifer and my father. Well this is going to be interesting. The mastermind and her apprentice.
“What did you do to him?” I shout.
My father walks closer to me and laughs, “He’s collateral damage. We never intended for him to get caught up in the crossfire, but he just had to be the hero, the martyr, your knight in shining fucking armour. He could never not poke his nose into something involving you. He just always had to know your business.”
Please. They’ve planned this the whole time.
This way they get to avenge us both and kill two birds with one stone.
I stole the attention of the man Jennifer supposedly loved and Theodore broke her heart. There’s not a chance in hell that this was a coincidence, at least not to Jennifer.
The bitch in question hovers down and strokes her hand across Theodore’s comatose body, “It’s so funny that Theodore happened to visit my favourite coffee shop. Such a coincidence, don’t you think,” she looks up at me and winks.
Yep, was her plan all along. To get Theodore and I in the same room so she could kill us both. If she couldn’t have him and then nobody could.
This woman is going down.
I don’t know how I am going to do it, but she is going to pay.
She is going to suffer.
She is going to regret messing with me.
“Jennifer, stop playing with your toys. Let’s get this over with. I can’t look at her face any longer. She reminds me too much of my ex-wife. I think it is time to finally put me out of my misery.”
“Don’t you dare talk about my mother. You have no right,” I shout.
My Dad slaps me before spitting in
my face.
“That venomous bitch ruined my life. I might not have been able to get to her as her illness killed her for me, but you are the next best thing. Once I’m done with you, I will be able to be happy and move on with my life.”
Why is he so evil?
How can he speak so freely about murdering his daughter?
Sure, his relationship with my Mom may have been bumpy at times but I always tried. I never tried to take sides even though I could see how miserable he made my Mom. But I was young, I was naïve and I wanted my parents to stay together. I didn’t want to do anything to contribute to them splitting up, so I played the part of Daddy’s little girl very well.
At least until I started freshman year of high school and everything changed.
Until he changed for the worse.
Jennifer.
The instigator of the whole thing.
“We can’t hurt her until this one is awake. He needs to witness it. He needs to experience her death. He needs to witness the whole thing and be hopeless, unable to save the woman he supposedly loves.”
My father shakes his head, “No. We are not waiting for him to come around. He’s not even part of the plan. The plan was to kill Mallory so I could rid her from my life. You swore that you would let me kill her,” my Dad says through gritted teeth.
Okay, someone is getting angry here.
Jennifer slowly stands before walking over to my father, “I am the one in charge of this whole operation. Not you, old man. You will follow my rules, you will follow my plan and you will not say another word until I give you permission to speak. I’ve had enough of your whining. I planned out the perfect murders to prepare you for this day, there’s no rush. Rory here will take her last breath. She will die but first for now, shut the fuck up and let me do my thing.”
My father visibly flinches as she growls at him before turning her attention back to Theodore.