Always Angel (The List #4)

by N. K. Love

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Tuesday 16th June 2015

  2:07am

  Jax

  Bear and his men found the bungalow empty and there was no car on the drive. He found Beth’s handbag in her room, but not Carmel’s. I asked him to take it with him for safekeeping. There’s no more time for distractions now so I push away all sentimental thoughts and visions of Beth and concentrate on taking action.

  Jack and I split up at the airport. I took a cab home to collect my car and a couple of guns from my cabinet. Jack has gone back to his place to fetch his medical supplies and to get hold of some phone numbers he can call to enquire, off the record, about possible admissions into the local hospitals.

  Now I’m on my way to meet him back at the bungalow. There’s got to be evidence or clues there of some sort, even another calling card. We can speak to the neighbour’s and see if somebody saw something out of the ordinary. There’s got to be a clue, an indication of their whereabouts. The only positive thing that I keep focusing on is that if Samara had just wanted them dead, he would’ve killed them at the bungalow.

  I remember when I stripped down that laptop, one of the messages mentioned my money, so there’s a good chance of a ransom situation. His message from the hotel, threatening the blood of three women, may have been to spook me.

  The speakers spring to life in my car, snapping me away from my surmising.

  “Jack. Anything?”

  “No, sorry. Nothing. It was a long shot, but worth a try.”

  “Okay. Are you strapped?”

  “Of course. I’ll be there in fifteen. You?”

  “Twenty. Just hold tight until I’m there.”

  “Alright, brother. Keep your head. We’ll find them.”

  The call cuts off as I pull up at a set of traffic lights on a dual carriageway. Given the time, the roads have been quiet so there’s been no delays.

  A drunk man slowly staggers into the road, almost bent in double he’s so wasted. When I was heavily drinking, I thought it was the best place to be; drunk out of my skull, completely oblivious to the world existing around me. I was miserable, living in a bubble. Living at the bottom of a bottle—in fact, I wasn’t living at all.

  Suddenly my passenger door opens and I reach for my gun, then relax when a half-dressed girl, wearing torn fishnet tights climbs in.

  “Looking for a good time, mister?”

  “What the fuck…? Get the fuck out of my car!” She just sits there, fluttering her eyelashes at me. I swivel in my seat and point to the door. “Out!”

  Finally getting the message, she pulls the handle. But, as the passenger door opens, so does mine. The unmistakable feel of the wrong end of a gun presses against the back of my head.

  “Put your hands up.”

  The prostitute has the balls to mime ‘Sorry’ as she backs out of the car and runs over to the pavement where the drunken man has suddenly sobered up and is now stuffing a wad of cash into her greedy little hands. She makes off down the street, no doubt having been paid off with more money than she could make in a week.

  I’ve been tricked. Now, I’ve got to be careful. If I die, I can’t save Beth.

  Caught at an impasse, I raise my hands up as the blackness fades down.

  Beth

  “Wake up!”

  Carmel slaps me across the face a few times, rousing me. I don’t even remember falling to sleep so God knows how long it was for. It’s so easy to lose track of time down here. All I know is that it’s dark outside, but the lanterns are lighting up the basement.

  I squint and blink until my vision clears and I see the deluded, crazed face of Carmel is back. She seems to have overcome whatever it was that happened in here earlier.

  “What time is it?”

  “Never mind that. I’ve got something exciting to tell you. We’re going to be having some visitors soon… Well, ask me who then!”

  “Who?”

  “Your beloved, Jaxson Carter.”

  “What? Carmel, what have you done?”

  “Thanks to him, you are going to die and now, thanks to you, he will too! It seems you really are a perfect match after all!”

  “Leave him alone. It was me you wanted.”

  “Yes, well, that was when I wanted him. Now that I know he has betrayed me just like everybody else, he will also be punished.”

  “You’re a fucking lunatic… Please don’t do this. He doesn’t deserve any of this. Carmel, he is the person you fell in love with. It doesn’t have to end this way.”

  “Too late for all that soppy mumbo-jumbo. It’s done. He’ll be here soon enough. Of course, it wasn’t easy—nothing ever is with Jaxson. The men I had tailing him are too wet behind the ears to even attempt to bring in a man like him. The only muscle I know with the power and the balls to do it, already bloody know Jaxson and wouldn’t touch him out of respect for him and the relationship he had with my father—ironic really, considering it’s his betrayal that’s led us here… So, I had no choice but to reach out to the darker side of the underground—people we have never done business with. They’re usually the fools we come up against when hitting our targets. Anyway, after presenting an extremely lucrative golden contract, I’m having him brought in. Oh and Jack is coming to the party as his ‘plus one’.”

  “What…? Don’t do it, Carmel. It’s not too late. Please, please don’t do this.”

  “Here, have some water.” She shoves the nozzle of a bottle into my mouth and squeezes, forcing me to take a gulp full. “And we’d better fix your face. We don’t want him thinking I’ve been mistreating you!”

  Stunned into silence, I let her use the wet wipes on my face. She’s going to kill Jax. Squeezing my fist, getting set to punch her, I feel glass digging into my palm and remember I’d taken it out of my bra shortly after she left earlier.

  Without considering so much as a ‘shall I…’ I move the shard into a tight grip between my thumb and forefinger then swipe out fast, pressing hard and dragging the glass quickly from her cheekbone down to her mouth. Her arm was blocking her neck, but her face will do for now.

  Carmel screams in pain. I expect retaliation, but she doesn’t attack me.

  “There’s something to remember me by.”

  Cursing through gritted teeth, she grabs my dirty tee from out of the bag and clutches it to her face to mop up the blood.

  “You will regret that, sweetie. Remember what happened when you cut my arm? But, I think I’ll wait for an audience before I return the favour this time! Incidentally, that’ll be sooner than you think. Turns out Jax and Jack are already back in the country. I called the airport to check my lovely passengers had boarded safely and found that they’d transferred the tickets to an earlier flight. Curious really. What could have possibly happened to make him leave so suddenly…? Well, that’s neither here or there now.”

  Jax knew I was in trouble. He has come back for me and now I’ve led him into danger. All I can do now is hope that whoever she’s hired underestimates him and he outwits them to stay safe.

  Carmel takes the glass, unties me and takes me out to the car where she handcuffs me to the door again. She starts driving and I keep an eye on the time, which tells me that we’ve driven for seven minutes before she picks up a signal on her phone. Parking up, we sit in silence and wait.

  I don’t know how long we wait or what we’re waiting for. As she keeps checking her phone I glance over and see that it’s now after 4am. The singing of the birds will soon break this eerie silence.

  Startling us both, her phone starts ringing and a nervous energy fills the car—I’m not sure if it’s from me or her, possibly both of us. She takes a deep breath in and out before answering.

  “Talk to me.” She states confidently and I hear the distant muffle of a man talking. I cross my fingers hoping that he’s calling to say they can’t find Jax. “So I can hear! That’s excellent news.” Shit. “Be sure to keep that precious cargo alive until he gets here! What about the oth
er one, were they not together?” I can’t make out a word he is saying. “Okay. Well, it sounds as if you have got it all under control.” Carmel gives the caller our precise location and then asks him for a timeframe. “An hour and a half sounds perfect.”

  “JAX!!!” I scream at the top of my lungs, surprising Carmel enough for her to drop the phone, but thankfully not enough for her to accidentally pull that trigger. “Leave him alone!!”

  I’m silenced by the end of the gun being forced into my mouth, whilst her other hand squeezes tightly around my neck until I feel my eyes start to bulge. Once she’s satisfied I’ve gotten the message she lets go of my throat, leaving me coughing and gasping for air, as she picks up the phone from her lap.

  “Sorry about that. Right then, I’ll look forward to seeing you shortly.” She ends the calls and looks over to me chewing on my lip to stop it from trembling. “I could’ve done without that melodramatic outburst thank you very much. It looks bad on me.”

  Carmel drives back to the house like a maniac, whilst blasting classical music out of the speakers with the windows down. The noise, the speed, the gun, the wind in my face—it all becomes a blur.

  5:42pm

  “Pleased to meet you.”

  “Likewise, C.”

  “You’re late.”

  “Apologies, it required further persuasion to convince him to play nicely.”

  “I bet it bloody did. I’m pleased to see you haven’t messed up this handsome face of his too much… Okay, I want eyes at the front steps outside.”

  “No problem.”

  “Then one of you behind her and one next to him, in case he gets any heroic ideas.”

  I don’t move a muscle, not even to breathe. The inside of the hood is dark, but not pitch black. The light from the lanterns helps me to make out vague outlines of movement. Instead, I close my eyes and focus on every single sound. I ache to hear Jax’s voice. I literally ache to see him, to breathe the same air as him.

  Listening carefully to the footsteps around the room, I visualise the basement and place people around the room depending on the distance of the sounds. Carmel’s easy to pick up on because she got changed as soon as we got back here. She applied some make up, did her hair and put a dress and heels on! When she sauntered down the stairs, it reminded me so much of the first night I met her. I thought back then how weird it was that she’d made an effort considering the circumstances.

  Somebody reaches the top of the stairs and leaves. Meanwhile, a man has walked up close to me, but takes his position behind the chair, as instructed. Next, two more sets of footsteps walk towards me. Carmel brought down another chair earlier and placed it in front of me before taping up my mouth and putting the hood in place.

  I’m not fearful of dying anymore. It’s partly down to having come to terms with what’s going to happen to me, but it’s mainly because Jax is here. I mentally acknowledge how selfish that is of me, but it’s in my nature to be consumed by him at any given opportunity. It’s not a choice. It just happens.

  The air around me unsettles with the close proximity of the two men. The zing of energy and catch of my breath confirms without question that one of them is Jaxson the-love-of-my-life Carter. The wooden chair legs scrape a little against the concrete floor as they must sit him down—inches away from me. My skin tingles with the thrill of having him so near, but there’s an underlying panic about what’s going to happen next.

  This twisted woman has kidnapped us both and pledges to murder us, and Jack, for no other reason than her falling in love with somebody who she’s now decided she can’t trust! With that being said, until a few hours ago, I didn’t think I’d ever see Jax again and now there’s a chance that I will, I find that I’m beaming from the inside—maybe that makes me a little twisted too.

  “How do you want to play this?”

  “When your friends arrive with my third guest. You can leave him up there. I don’t need to see or speak to him beforehand. He’s more of a loose end, unfortunately. Let’s just call it collateral damage in this whole fiasco… You can instruct them to kill him whenever they’re ready.”

  I hear a strange muffled sound and realise they must’ve taped up Jax’s mouth too.

  “Okay.”

  “In the meantime, you can both stand back and leave me to it…” Her heels clip clop on the concrete floor. “For the record, I don’t like this beard, Jaxson. I much prefer the clean cut look on you.”

  I hear the sticky sound tape.

  “You?”

  “It’s good to see you too, Jaxson. Oh, how the mighty has fallen.” She laughs.

  “Take off her hood!”

  My heart skips a beat as the sound of his gruff, angry voice melts over my skin like a delicious chocolate sauce.

  “Hmm. Let me see…” Her condescending tone grates on me. “You’re the one restrained and my men are holding the guns… I don’t think you’re really in a position to be making demands.”

  “Carmel, look at the state of your face! If you’ve laid a finger on her I swear to God, you’ll suffer for it.”

  Her shrill laugh fills the room.

  “Idol threats don’t suit you, Jaxson… If you must know, this… was an unprovoked attack made by your cantankerous girlfriend. And this… And this. She’s been a little, shall we say ‘unpredictable’ at times. I, on the other hand, have been well behaved. There’s barely a scratch on her.”

  “Show me.”

  “Fine.” The man behind me steps forward and removes the hood. “See for yourself.”

  I blink quickly to adjust my clouded vision, raising my head until my eager gaze lands clearly on Jax’s beautiful face. I barely acknowledge his grazed, bloodied cheekbone. With the hood out of the way, that distinguishable, provocative scent of his invades my senses. He may be handcuffed, but he is forever the powerful, dominant man that loves me.

  One single look is all it takes. I don’t need to open my mouth to say the words because our souls have latched on to each other and mine’s whispering to him over and over. I know he hears me.

  How did we end up like this? Our ‘happily ever after’ precariously resting in her hands.

  “You alright, Angel?”

  I nod and a warm smile of relief washes over him. But it’s short-lived, as it quickly fades when his eyes drop down to my mouth, where I’m taped. His eyes continue travelling over my body and he slowly shakes his head. I watch him momentarily struggle to come to terms with the enormity of what’s happening to us. Landing on the cable ties securing me to the chair legs, his brow furrows deeper and deeper and his chest puffs out. I see him internally restraining himself, reining in his fury.

  “You see? She’s fine, for now.”

  “Why is her mouth taped?”

  “This isn’t a bloody soirée, Jaxson! She’s got nothing of any consequence to say.”

  “Then why don’t you fucking enlighten me, Carmel? What the hell is all this fuckery about?”

  “Temper, temper, Jaxson. That’s no way to talk to a lady. I could just have you both killed now and be done with it. But, I have a few things I’d like to get off my chest beforehand. Plus, it wouldn’t be very sporting of me, would it? I’m sure you’ve got questions too.”

  She strokes her fingers down his face and he cranes his neck away from her touch. He would’ve already seen from her dress that she’s not holding a gun—it’s on the table behind me. So I can only assume that the man behind me is pointing a gun at him—or me—otherwise he could easily make a move because his legs are free.

  “Are you working with Samara?”

  “Good God, no!” She rolls her eyes.

  “Then why are you trying to finish his dirty work? Why did you send me on a wild goose chase by giving me those fake addresses? You’re linked to Samara somehow… Tell me!”

  “I used the Samara situation as a cover for me to get rid of her. Simple. I was going to kill young Bethany here, and have you believe it was your fault.”

 
“Why would you do that?”

  “Don’t you see…? You and I were meant to be together.”

  Jax shakes his head, screwing up his face in disgust. The man behind him moves slightly, distracting me, which is when I actually look at him for the first time. He’s not in the same league as Jax, but he certainly looks as though he can handle himself. With his broad frame, dressed all in black, he stands rigidly, clasping his hands in front of him, one of which is holding a gun.

  “Are you seriously telling me that all of this boils down to some weird obsession you have with me?!” I nod and he looks back over at me and then snaps his head back to her. “For fuck’s sake, Carmel! You’re not well. This, this isn’t you.”