Isa barely had time to open her mouth to cry out before a heavy, wet cloth was clamped over her face, strong, unrelenting arms locked around her petite body. She breathed in chemicals, her brain fogged and whirled, and she was falling…
Sam heaved a sigh as the meeting between him, an established artist looking to offload some of his back catalog and the potential buyer. The haggling over the prices had gone on until the early evening now, without a break and now Sam not only needed to pee really, really badly, he missed hearing Isa’s voice. He took care of the most physically urgent business first then found a quiet corner to call her.
The phone rang for a long time then, finally, his call was accepted. When she didn’t speak, Sam frowned. ‘Sweetheart? Isa?’
A man laughed at the other end of the line and Sam’s heart froze. He opened his mouth to speak and found himself dumb with terror.
‘I have her, Sam. I have your beloved Isabel. Let’s see what happens next.’
The line went dead.
‘Hello, beautiful.’ A man in a ski mask and sunglasses pinched her chin hard as she came around. She looked around wildly, desperate to see Seb was okay. Her brother was now cuffed to a chair, conscious but out of it. His head lolling around as he moaned. She herself had been stripped her down to her shirt and jeans, her hands bound behind her back, laid down on the cold concrete of a huge empty warehouse. Her captor was squatted down next to her. She could only see his mouth, squinted, trying to make out any features.
‘Recognize me, gorgeous?’ His voice was muffled, disguised.
Fuck. She didn’t recognize anything about him, and he sensed her distress, laughed softly. He pressed the gun against her belly. She could feel the cold steel of the muzzle through her t-shirt.
‘After all we’ve shared, beautiful, I should be insulted.’
He flicked the safety off, tensed his finger on the trigger. Isa couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. She stared into the darkness of his sunglasses, waiting for the bullet.
‘No! Leave her alone.’ Seb struggled frantically against the cuffs. The gunman laughed and let the gun fall to his side. Isa could only stare at Seb, her eyes filled with pain.
‘Please,’ she whispered. ‘Let him go. Please don’t hurt him. You have me. You don’t need him.’
‘You mean I should just kill you?’
Seb stopped struggling, his face filled with panic and desperation. ‘No, please, stop. You don’t have to kill her, please. Please.’ His voice cracked.
Ski-mask looked up. ‘What the hell do you think I’m doing here then? To take you both for an ice cream, maybe read you a bedtime story?’ He moved over to Seb and hit him with the butt of the gun. Isa screamed. Seb’s head snapped to the side; blood began to pour from a wound above his eye. Ski-mask bent his mouth to Seb’s ear. ‘I do have to kill her, my friend. It’s the whole reason for my existence. A little taster.’
He aimed the gun at Isa and fired. The bullet slammed into her shoulder, and she screamed in agony. The pain was bewildering. Blood spattered across her t-shirt, her chest, her face.
‘No!’
Seb tried to stand, frantic. Isa rolled onto her back sucking in deep breaths, trying to keep the dark spots gathering in her eyes from spreading.
‘It might hurt like hell, but it’s just a flesh wound, beautiful.’ He crouched by the stricken woman and smiled over to Seb. ‘Where next, my friend? Five bullets left.’
He pressed the gun against her stomach. ‘Bang, bang.’ Moved it lower. ‘Bang, bang. Two in her belly.’ He grinned at a horror-struck Seb. He moved the gun under her left breast. ‘One in the heart for good measure. Bang. Maybe not. Too quick. Too final. Hmm.’
Seb was struggling against his bindings, desperate to get to his sister, help her, save her. Isa stared up at the monster above her. He ran the muzzle down her face. ‘Maybe I’ll just keep the last bullet for your little brother’ He pointed the weapon at Seb and Isa moaned, terrified. He looked down at the woman under his gun and smiled at her.
‘I’m just playing with you. It would be my pleasure to shoot you, beautiful Isa, but you know what I have planned for you. My knife…’ His voice was sing-song now, and he pressed a finger into her navel, jabbing at it in a stabbing motion. ‘My knife will go in here over and over and over… Christ, I cannot wait…’ He bent down and pushed his mouth against hers. She jerked her face free, spat in his face. He jammed the pistol into her throat. She choked as the metal pressed into her windpipe.
‘Don’t fucking do that again.’ He released her, and she dragged a breath deep down into her lungs. Seb was still struggling against his bindings, his eyes glued to his sister. Isa was feeling strangely light-headed; blood loss, she figured. What did it matter now? He was going to kill them both. What if Seb didn’t need to die?
‘Please…. please….’ Her voice was weak. Ski-mask crouched down and ran a finger down her sweat-slicked face.
‘What is it, beautiful?’
She swallowed. ‘Shoot me... stab me… kill me, do what you want but please, let him go.’
The hand on her face stopped. ‘You’re telling me if I let him go, you’ll let me stab you? You won’t fight me? You’ll just take my knife over and over like a good girl?’
Sick fucking bastard… but she nodded. Anything, anything. ‘Please just let him go.’
There was a long silence then. ‘Okay.’
A small hope, a scintilla flickering the darkness. Ski-mask walked over to Seb and with relief she saw him release Seb’s feet. Seb was still frozen, staring at her, shaking his head.
‘I won’t leave her.’ His voice was steady, clear.
‘Seb… no…’
Ski-mask’s posture was mocking. ‘Aww, how’s that for brotherly love? So touching.’
He bent his head so that his mouth was at Seb’s ear. ‘Sorry, Seb. There’s only one person I want watching when I kill her. And it’s not you.’
Seb was about to speak when Ski-mask calmly, and without hesitating, shot him through the head.
Isa screamed as Seb’s body slumped to the floor, his eyes open and staring. Isa was insane with grief, anger, agony and she wriggled hard, ignoring the searing pain in her shoulder, desperate to get to her stricken brother. Seb coughed, once, then she heard the life fade from him with hopeless finality.
‘You fucker! You fucking cocksucking motherfucker!’ She screamed at her brother’s murderer, not caring if he killed her now. He merely laughed at her struggles. He stepped astride her and dragged her by her arms over to the chair Seb had fallen from. The pain in her shoulder was nothing to the overwhelming grief. Isa sobbed uncontrollably. He propped her up on the chair, crouched in front of her. Isa was blinded by the tears that flooded down her cheeks. This isn’t happening; this isn’t happening …
‘I’m not going to kill you tonight either, beautiful one. I want Sam to be watching when I gut you. This…,’ he waved his gun airily in her dead brother’s direction, ‘…was to give you an idea of how he will feel watching you die.’ He stood, and Isa looked up, defiantly meeting his gaze through her tears.
‘I’ll see you soon, sweetheart.’ He raised the gun and brought in down viciously striking her across the head. Pain exploded in her skull, and the last thing she saw before she passed out was her beloved brother’s body. Seb, Seb…I’m sorry…
He pulled the ski mask from his face and kissed her perfect mouth. It was as soft, as sweet, as he’d always imagined. He’d never seen such a beautiful woman. Yet she was so still, so broken. Her shoulder gushed blood, and there was a cut now where the pistol had struck her head, dripping blood down one side of her lovely face.
‘Sleep, my darling.’
He sat back and watched her, totally vulnerable. His gun was still warm to the touch from killing Seb. A shame but it had made his point. He knew this, Seb’s murder will have destroyed her happiness forever – well, for as long as she had left to live anyway and the knowledge that Sam would feel this pain would haunt her
remaining days. He smiled to himself, pressed the muzzle to her belly again. He imagined the hot metal tearing into her body, emptying the clip into her, the way her body would convulse, jerk and finally go limp. His finger slid to the trigger. He wondered if he could get away with shooting her again, just once, somewhere non-fatal, just to relive the feeling but the shoulder wound was still bleeding heavily, and he didn’t want her bleeding out on him. Maybe he shouldn’t have shot her at all. The bullet had really fucked up her shoulder.
Still… ‘Bang, bang, bang.’ He whispered and laughed. She stirred and his finger twitched. Nope. He had a plan, and he was going to stick to it. He put the gun away. He bent over her, hearing her labored breathing.
‘Isa?’
She murmured. He pursed his lips and reached into his jacket. He pulled out the hypodermic and slipped the needle into her neck. She moaned as he pressed the plunger.
‘I said sleep, my darling.’ His voice was hard. He kissed her again, covered her with Seb’s jacket and left.
Outside, he drove across the city in the gloom of twilight before using the burner phone to call the police. They’d find them sooner – which meant Sam, the family that was left would know the horror of tonight. It would be all over the local news. His work, his masterpiece.
And it was only the beginning…
Sam was beside himself with terror, with worry. Zoe looked pale, still. Detective Halsey kept glancing at Sam as he took the call from the operator. He put down the phone and took a breath in.
‘They got a call a half hour ago. The caller just said to look for two people hurt at an abandoned business unit out near the airport. They sent a black-and-white, an ambulance. Police just confirmed one dead.’
Zoe cried out, and Sam grabbed her, held her tightly. God, no.
‘Is it them?’
Halsey looked at him with deep sorrow in his eyes. ‘The two victims had no i.d. but they said it was a young African-American male, late teens/early-twenties and a biracial female in her twenties.’
Sam didn’t want to ask the question, not in front of Zoe, but he had to know. ‘Which one is dead?’
He felt Zoe clutch at him, knew she was trying not to hear. Neither answer would comfort her. Halsey shook his head.
‘They didn’t say. The survivor was being airlifted to hospital with serious gunshot injuries. The body of the deceased will go to the coroner’s office.’ He sighed, got up and walked around his desk to sit in front of them. He put his hand on Zoe’s shoulder. ‘I’m so sorry. We’ll have someone take you to the hospital.’
Outside in the cool of the evening, Sam saw Cal talking to a police officer. He came over when he saw them, his face drawn with worry.
‘Hey man, I just got your message.’
Sam nodded tightly. ‘Where have you been? I’ve called you a hundred times.’
Cal balked at the anger in Sam’s voice. ‘At a girlfriend’s. What’s going on? Where’s Isa?’
Zoe started to cry quietly as Sam explained. ‘We’re going to the hospital now. He took her and Seb, killed one of them, shot the other. We don’t know who’s dead.’
Cal looked as if he was going to be sick. ‘Jesus…Jesus…’
Halsey appeared from a car that had pulled up next to them. Cal settled Zoe in the back with him, his arm around her shoulders, whilst Sam sat up front, staring blindly out of the windshield.
One dead, one alive…Sam kept repeating the phrase in his head. He hated that he was praying, begging whatever celestial powers there were to please, please, let it be Isa who survived. God, Seb, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… He felt like a murderer himself as he glanced in the rear view and caught Zoe looking at him. I’m sorry. He wondered what the hell could be going through her mind.
Halsey kept stealing glances at him as the car sped through the dark Seattle streets. Finally, he pulled the car into the hospital parking lot, and Sam darted from the car, not wanting to wait any longer.
‘Sam!’
But he ignored Cal’s shout and sprinted for the entrance. Only at the door did Halsey catch up with him, stop him. He body-blocked Sam – impressive for a man his height against Sam’s huge build.
‘Sam… Sam… listen up.’ Halsey was breathless. ‘You have to prepare yourself. Whoever is alive in there, a friend, a family member has died.’
Sam nodded once and pushed past him to the hospital reception, but found, as the nurse looked expectantly at him, he couldn’t form the words. Halsey showed his badge to her and explained who they were, who they wanted to see.
The nurse checked her computer records. ‘They’re not here just yet.’
‘Do you… do you know who they ar…’ Sam couldn’t get the words straight, but then Zoe gave a cry as a gurney was wheeled at speed passed them. Sam’s stomach dropped as he saw Isa’s too still face, the blood-soaked clothes, and sheets. Her eyes were closed, her skin paler than he’d ever seen. She looked dead. No…no…but then why would they be rushing her to surgery…? He looked at Zoe, whose distress made her eyes wild and scared. She shook her head, confused as he was. Halsey put his hand on Zoe’s arm.
‘I’ll find out what’s going on.’
Sam stared after the gurney, disappearing down the corridor into the surgical wing. Halsey was right – deep down, Sam knew she was alive but where was the joy in him?
Seb... Seb was dead. He whirled around, hearing Zoe’s scream. Halsey was accompanying a gurney, the black body bag on top of it so final, so horrifying. Seb was dead.
Sam caught Zoe as the older woman collapsed, screaming for her murdered son.
The hospital was deathly quiet by the time a surgeon came to see them. Huddled together in the relatives’ room, Zoe had sobbed herself into an almost catatonic state. A grey-faced Cal, fear, and distress making him look younger than his years, watched his brother pace back and forth across the room, his angular face rigid and fierce with worry and defeat. Isa had been in surgery for hours, and no-one had come to update them. Halsey stayed with them as long as he could before he was called back to work. Two uniformed cops stood vigil outside their room.
The surgeon, an efficient looking woman in her fifties, nodded to them as she entered the room and introduced herself as Dr. Reinhold. She pulled up a chair and motioned for Sam to sit. He sat down next to his brother, who put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
‘As you may have been told, Mrs. Levy was shot in the shoulder. The bullet missed the bone, thank goodness, but what we were more concerned with was the amount of blood she lost, which was considerable. We have stabilized her now and hopefully, she shouldn’t need another surgery, although we certainly can’t rule that out.’ The doctor took a deep breath in. ‘As I say, we’ve stabilized her, but I must warn you: Mrs. Levy is very seriously injured. Her recovery will take a long time both physically and, considering what she went through, almost certainly psychologically.’
No-one spoke for a minute then Zoe sighed. ‘Doctor….do you know what happened to my son?’
Dr. Reinhold glanced at Sam, unsure but he nodded. ‘Your son… Sebastian? Sebastian suffered a single gunshot to the head. He would have died instantly, so he didn’t suffer. I know it’s not much of a consolation, Ms. Marshall, but I am truly sorry for your loss.’
Dry-eyed, Zoe tried to smile. ‘Thank you, Doctor. And thank you for saving my daughter.’
The tension Sam had been holding in released, then and his whole body slumped. He realized he’d been waiting for Zoe to crack, to scream about how unfair it was her son had died, how it was Isa’s fault. He’d been revving himself up to handle that and now, hearing her name Isa now as her true – and beloved - daughter made something in him break. He dropped his head into his hands and sobbed.
The police went to bring Louisa to the hospital, and when Zoe went to meet the young woman, Cal accompanied her. Louisa’s face was pale, and when Zoe told her that Seb was dead, her legs gave way, and she sank to the floor, shaking her head. Both Zoe and Cal managed to shift
the sobbing girl into a chair.
When she had calmed herself, Zoe took her hand. ‘I know, sweetheart, I know, but we have to be realistic here.’
Seb was dead. Louisa looked up into Zoe’s kind but drawn face. ‘Zoe, I can’t even imagine how you must be feeling right now. How’s Isa?’
‘She’ll recover okay, we think, at least physically. It remains to be seen as to whether any of us will be okay ever again.’
Zoe sounded utterly bereft, utterly exhausted and Louisa squeezed her hand. Wiping her eyes, she shot a look at Cal. She may not be keen on the guy, but she couldn’t deny he looked completely shattered. She remembered Seb telling her about Cal’s mom… no, wait it had been Sam’s mom who was murdered. She shook her head. God, so much loss.
Cal looked up, sensing her scrutiny and he tried to smile but just sighed. ‘I’m so sorry, Lou.’ His voice was low and broken, and her heart went out to him. He’d lost his friend, his roommate, his buddy.
‘Look,’ she said, ’why don’t we all go down to the diner on the corner and grab some breakfast. Not that I think it’ll make any of us feel better, but it’s better than waiting here.’
‘Good idea.’ They all looked up at the sound of Sam’s voice. He stood in the doorway, filling it, his green eyes a mask of pain and anger. ‘The surgeon just told me, Isa’s come through the op but she’ll be in post-op for a while yet. I could do with some coffee.’
Zoe, although reluctant to leave, was persuaded by the fact Sam was coming with them and they all went to the diner.
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