by Nikki Wild
He looked over at me watching him, and he shook his head.
“You can’t understand. You think I’m a monster, but it’s not me. It’s him. He’s the monster,” he said, his voice rising. “Ally suffered. Night after night, crying herself to sleep. I tried to comfort. I tried to give her the love he’d deprived her of. She was never the same. He ruined her.”
He picked up one of the biggest knives and walked over to me. My eyes widened in fear as he brought the tip of the knife up to my chin, trailing it slowly up my cheek, stopping right under my eye. Slowly, he twisted it, poking into my flesh. I whimpered, pulling away before he could break the skin, as he laughed.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for years,” he said, spinning away from me.
“At first, I thought I’d only be able to take his money,” he said, “but then you came along!” He turned back to me, sliding the blade of the knife between his fingers, his eyes wild and frantic. “It’s so much better this way! He can always make more money. But after this, he’ll never fall in love again.”
My stomach sank with the realization that this was all my fault. If I wasn’t here, if I hadn’t slept with Liam, gotten close to him, none of this would be happening. If I hadn’t poked around trying to find something good to include in the story, none of this would be happening. If I hadn’t opened my mouth and told Callum what I’d discovered, then I wouldn’t be here tied up in this chair waiting for the man that I loved to come and save me.
Loved.
I loved Liam. There was no denying it.
If we got out of here alive, I intended to tell him just that. He’d made something come alive in me that hadn’t been there before. He made me feel alive just being in his presence.
It was magical.
And I’d gone and fucked it all up.
I looked at the door and then looked at Callum, pacing across the kitchen floor like a fighter waiting for the bell to ring, his weapons laid out at his fingertips, a hatred that had been brewing in him for years on the verge of exploding, and I couldn’t help but wonder.
After the lightening strike, what would be left?
40
LIAM
The Jag couldn’t move fast enough. I sped through traffic, weaving around every car in my path, ran red lights and blew through stop signs, my head spinning.
I still couldn’t figure it out, I had no idea what could be happening, but something deep in the pit of my stomach told me it wasn’t good. Fear gripped me in a way I hadn’t felt since Lennon was in his last days.
I hoped like hell it was something simple, a misunderstanding, miscommunication, something like that. But there was something about the tone in Callum’s voice, his ominous words, the way he hung up on me, that told me it wasn’t just a simple misunderstanding.
With all my erratic driving, it still took me almost half an hour to get through traffic and arrive at my house. My heart raced as I climbed up the winding driveway. I grabbed my phone and continued to ignore Ian’s calls. It was still ringing - it was the third time he’d called. I hadn’t answered while I was driving but I didn’t take the time to answer now either.
The front door was wide open, and I walked in slowly.
“Catherine?” I called. The living room was empty. I walked down the hallway toward the kitchen, and just before I rounded the corner, Callum appeared in front of me.
“Hey, mate, what’s going on?” I asked, peering into his eyes. Something was definitely off about him. There was a darkness in his eyes, and as he ran his hand through his hair, I saw his trembling fingers. “Are you okay, Callum?”
He narrowed his eyes, and I looked down at his other hand just as he pressed the gun into my stomach.
“Callum, what the fuck?” I froze.
“Put your fucking hands up, Liam!” I raised my hands over my head.
“Callum, where’s Catherine? What the bloody hell are you doing?”
First, I was shocked, but that quickly turned to being pissed. I looked over his shoulder, but she wasn’t in sight.
“Catherine!” I called out, and Callum dug the gun in deeper. I looked down at his little weasly face and knew it was going to feel amazing to slam my fist into it. As soon as I made sure Catherine was safe, I was going to do just that. Seriously, who did this wanker think he was? “Catherine!” I yelled again.
“Where is she?” I asked him again.
“That’s all you care about, Liam? Don’t you want to know why I’m so upset?”
“Listen here, you little worm! Tell me where she is right now!”
“You don’t care about anyone but yourself, Liam.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Callum. I care about lots of people, I just don’t care about you, you fuckin’ twat! Now where’s Catherine?” I pushed past him, taking a chance that he wouldn’t shoot. I was right.
I assumed Catherine was in the kitchen, since that’s where he’d emerged from, but the kitchen was empty. I ran back into the living room, and stopped when I saw he’d walked out onto the patio, a bound Catherine sitting in front of him, his gun pointed right at her head.
“You motherfucker!”
“Now, you’re going to listen to me,” he seethed. I froze, and put up my hands.
“Fine, Callum, what’s wrong? What’s going on?” I asked, my heart seizing in fear. I didn’t care for one second if he shot me, but if he hurt Catherine, I wouldn’t be able to take it.
“I’ve waited years for this,” he said, his voice shaking. “For revenge. You just went on like nothing happened. Like she never mattered.”
“What are you talking about, Callum?”
“Ally, you asshole! She didn’t mean anything to you, did she? She gave up her life for you, you selfish prick!”
“Callum, we’ve had this talk before,” I said.
“No! You’ve talked. Now it’s my turn. You thought giving me a job would make up for it? For losing her? You start a million dollar charity over the memory of your precious little brother, but what did you do for Ally? Nothing!” he spat, tears streaming down his face.
“Callum, mate…c’mon, let’s put the gun down,” I said.
“No, fuck you! You couldn’t even acknowledge her. Not once did you mention her in interviews, you didn’t even come to the funeral!” I winced at his words. He was right. I’d been on tour in Australia, and it had all happened so fast, there was no way for me to attend without canceling sold-out shows.
“You’re right, Callum, I should have come,” I agreed. “And I’m real sorry about that, mate. Now, can we put the gun down?”
“I’m going to kill her,” he cried, his shaking hands terrifying me. It would only take a small amount of pressure to pull the trigger.
“No, Callum, Catherine has nothing to do with this. Let her go. This is just between me and you.”
I’d avoided looking into Catherine’s eyes until now, and when I did, it crushed me. The fear, the tears, the way he had her fucking taped up like that. Rage filled my veins, but I fought against it, resisting every urge to rush him, to kill this twat.
“She’s great, right?” he asked, a sickly smile smearing across his face as he reached down and pulled Catherine’s chin up. She wiggled away from his grip and he grabbed her hair, pulling it roughly. “But she’s just the icing on the cake.”
“Callum, let her go,” I growled, my hands balling into fists at my side.
“She figured it out,” he said. “She went snooping around, so she’s gotta go anyway.”
“What did she figure out?”
“That I stole all your money. The charity money. I gambled it all away. It’s all gone.”
“Why would you do that?”
“To fuck you over. To hurt you. It was the only way I knew how, until she came along,” he said, pulling harder on her hair.
“This is better,” he said, smiling down at Catherine.
“She has nothing to do with this, Callum. I don’t care about the money. Just let her g
o and you can leave, I don’t care.”
“No way,” he said, “not until you see your pretty little love die in front of you.”
“You’re not going to fuckin’ hurt her, mate, you know I can’t let you do that,” I said. “Callum, you need to rethink this,” I said. “Leave the country. You’ll never get away if you kill Catherine. I won’t let you get away, you know that.”
“I’m going to kill you, too, don’t worry,” he said, the smile returning. He looked like a fucking deranged lunatic, and just as I was about to throw caution to the wind and take him down, I saw a glimmer of a light flash behind him.
“Callum,” I said. “what are you going to do after you kill us?”
“Why do you care?”
“Let me give you more money,” I said, lowering my hands slightly and inching forward. “You can have it all, retire, live in style, anywhere you like. You won’t have to be on the run all your life. We can let all this go.” I took a slow step forward and he moved the gun from Catherine’s temple, pointing it at me.
“Stop,” he said. “I don’t want your money. I don’t fucking care about that. That’s not why I’m doing this. But that’s the only thing that means anything in your world, isn’t it? You think money can get you out of anything, don’t you?”
“No, Callum, I don’t,” I replied, inching my feet forward again. “But it can get you out of this. All you have to do is put the gun down. It’s an easy choice.”
“You think this is easy?” he said, his voice rising in anger. “You stupid motherfucker! Nothing has been easy! You killed my sister! I tried to make it better. I loved her. I loved her better than you ever could! You should have seen the way she looked after I made love to her.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I asked, my stomach churning in disgust.
“Ally was mine. I loved her. But she never got over you. It’s your fault she died.”
“How could you do that to her, Callum?” I asked, my head racing. No wonder Ally had turned to the bottle.
“You think it’s easy running the company of someone who killed your sister?” Callum continued. “Having to work for a selfish prick like you?”
“Well, you’re right about that, Callum, I am a selfish prick,” I shrugged. “But you’re the one who’s fucked.”
“What?” he said, his eyes widening.
“Piss off, you prick!” I yelled, just as the bullet from Big D’s gun sliced through his leg from behind, I ran over and jumped on him, and he began wrestling against me as I tried to get his gun. It fired, the bullet ripping through my left shoulder. Pain shot through me, but I sat on top of him and began pummeling him with my right fist.
“This is for Ally, you fucking cunt!” Over and over, my fist smashed against his face, rage ripping through my body like a freight train, until Ian and Big D pulled me off of him. Big D kicked Callum’s gun away, and rolled him over, putting a boot on his back and holding him down.
“Help Catherine!” I yelled to Ian and he ran over and freed her, ripping the tape from her mouth. They ran over to me, as I lay on the ground, white hot heat radiating from my shoulder.
“Catherine!” I called, as she looked down at me. I pulled her into me as she cried against my shoulder.
“Are you okay, luv?” I asked, pulling her to me.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she cried, tears falling down her face. Ian looked at my shoulder, and then disappeared, only to come back seconds later with a towel that he pressed against the hole in my shoulder.
“Oh, luv, I’m so sorry,” I said. “I’m so sorry, Catherine.”
She leaned down, kissing me gently, before pulling away and wiping her tears.
“Are you okay, Liam?” Ian asked me. I looked over at him and saw the concern filling his eyes.
“I’m fine, brother. You aren’t getting rid of me this easy.”
“I don’t want to get rid of you, you bastard,” he said, his eyes shining with tears.
“Of course you don’t - you’d never find another singer like me.”
“I’d never find another brother like you,” he said. He reached down, hugging me hard.
“I’m calling an ambulance,” he said, standing up and looking down at Callum laying beside me.
“He’s not even worth killing,” he muttered, as he walked away. When I looked back at Catherine, my heart swelled with love.
“Are you sure you’re okay? I couldn’t bear it if you were hurt,” I said, looking her over. My heart was racing with worry.
She nodded, shivering. I pulled her close, as best as I could with my bloody shoulder, the urge to wrap my arms around her protectively overwhelming.
“I’m never letting you go again,” I whispered, as she kissed me again.
“Promise?” she asked.
“I love you, Catherine,” I said, peering down into her bright green eyes.
“I love you too,” she whispered. I kissed her again, relief flooding my limbs now that I had her safely in my arms.
41
One Month Later
Catherine and Liam lay in bed in Liam’s LA mansion, as Catherine read from the Rolling Stone article she’d written. They’d been holed up for a month, allowing time for Liam’s shoulder to heal.
‘Rock star. Bad Boy. Troublemaker. Rebel. Liam Mercury is more than the usual labels placed on him. Liam Mercury is an enigma. Just when you think you’ve got him all figured out, he shows you a side of him that you haven’t seen. That’s what happened to me, when I was assigned the pleasure of spending a week tagging along with the insanely handsome and brutally sexy god of rock during the last leg of his band’s American tour.”
“You think I’m insanely handsome and brutally sexy?” Liam said, interrupted her.
“Sometimes,” Catherine replied. “Hush!”
‘The week would prove to be the single most adventurous week of my life, and as much as I would like to say it didn’t change me, it did. And, surprisingly, I think it changed Liam, too.”
“Changed the size of my cock, that’s for sure,” Liam quipped. “In fact, I think it’s growing again right now, luv!”
“Stop it! Shall I stop reading?” Catherine said, her voice filled with laughter.
“No, no, go on!”
“Full disclosure to readers: this journalist fell in love with Liam during this week and this article is entirely biased, but the events told are factual.”
“You included a disclosure?” Liam asked.
“Yes, I had to, it’s only ethical,” she replied.
“The events of the week unfolded into a perfect storm that ended in embezzlement, kidnapping, a violent stand-off, and topped off with a brand-new number one hit song, co-written by Liam Mercury and myself, performed by the Electric Horses, that raised millions of dollars for The Lennon Foundation, Ian and Liam Mercury’s children’s cancer research charity that is now leading the nation in donations to help find a cure.”
Liam grabbed the magazine from Catherine’s hand as she read.
“Stop! I’m getting to the best part!” Catherine protested.
“Unless you’re wrote about how skilled my cock is, I’m not interested in hearing about myself anymore!” Liam said, pulling Catherine into his arms and kissing her.
After being subjected to Callum’s deranged lunacy, the two of them had come together and written a song while Liam spent a week in the hospital. The band recorded it quickly, the label releasing it immediately as a surprise single, and the world had eaten it up.
It sold five million copies in the first day, and had gone on to sell millions every day since then. All the proceeds went to the charity, and they’d raised ten times the amount Callum had pissed away.
After learning Callum had abused Ally, Liam was making sure he was prosecuted to the full extent of the law. He was looking forward to seeing Callum locked away for a very long time.
“Wait, you have to at least skip to the end,” Catherine said, opening the magazine back
up. “Read the last paragraph.”
“Oh, alright, if it means I can get you naked faster.”
“Just read!” she insisted.
“Fine!”
“After all was said and done, after my week was over, I’d learned new things about Liam, but also a few new things about myself. I learned that love finds a way, no matter how much you resist. I learned that no matter what life throws at you, it’s never what it seems. I learned that underneath the renegade exterior, there’s a softer side of Liam Mercury that most people never see. In spite of all the wild stories, the extravagant partying, the thousands of adoring fans, at the end of the day, Liam Mercury is just like the rest of us - a normal guy that’s going to be a father in about eight months.”
“What!” Liam cried out excitedly.
He looked over at Catherine, and saw her smiling eyes, tears running down her face as she nodded enthusiastically.
“You’re pregnant?” he asked.
“I am. I didn’t know how to tell you…”
“I’m going to be a father?” he yelled.
“Yes!” Catherine cried, as Liam’s lips crashed down on hers, his arms pulling her in tightly.
“I can’t believe this,” he said, breaking away, his voice cracking with emotion.
“I know it’s sudden, I know we just met, but I —-,”
“But nothing! This is bloody fantastic, luv!”
“You’re happy?”
“Happy? I’m fuckin’ ecstatic!” His eyes lit up with excitement.
“Wait here!” he said, leaving her alone on the bed and disappearing into his closet.
“Liam, what are you doing?” Catherine called.
“Just wait!”
A moment later, he walked back in the bedroom and climbed back on the bed with her. He brought his hand from behind his back, and revealed a tiny black box. He opened it slowly, and the biggest, brightest, shiniest diamond she’d ever seen shined back at her.