by Dee Garcia
I couldn’t do anything but stare at her, blinking, shocked to my damn core.
Her body was Liza—all five-foot-two of her—but the person within her mind… I didn’t recognize that person at all.
And that’s saying a lot because Liza had always been a little strange—eccentric, if you will.
This, however, was a whole different ballgame. I hadn’t picked up on it much over the phone, but now that I was seeing her in person, now that we were face to face...
It was so blatantly obvious.
The girl had snapped.
“What do you want, Liza?” I finally asked, watching her warily.
Dropping down onto the edge of the bed, that creepy smile of hers widened. “I told you already. I want you, and now I have you.”
A chill rolled down my spine.
That’s what she’d said on the phone… Swore none of this was about Leo. I didn’t want to upset her, because who knows what she was capable of at this point in time, but I was interested to see how she would react if I brought him up.
“What about Leo?” I hedged, gauging her closely.
Her blue eyes darkened, narrowing into tiny malignant slits. “He’s dead. You killed him, remember?” she snapped.
“Of course, he deserved it,” I boasted, lifting my chin high as she shot onto her feet.
“No one deserves to die!”
“And yet, here we are. You’ve stalked me, finally got your hands on me. Isn’t the next part of your plan to kill me?”
Liza groaned in exasperation and thrusted her fingers into her blonde hair. “Why don’t you listen to me?! I’ve already told you—I don’t want to kill you! I just. Want. You!” she screeched demonically.
“What does that mean, though? You want me for what?”
“It means I want you for me. I want you to serve me, to love me. I’ll love both of you back, I swear it.” Her voice was much softer now, tears bubbling in her eyes.
She made no sense whatsoever, and my head was starting to spin from her demented behavior. “Both of you?”
Liza nodded, toying with the belt of her robe. “You and Vic.”
Vic. That’s right—he was here, too. After the bash to my head, I’d forgotten all about him.
“Where is Vic?” I asked.
“In his room. Don’t worry, I gave you the better one. You can’t tell him, though—he may get a little jealous,” she giggled.
Like a child.
Alarm bells blared once more as a heaping dose of nausea twisted my gut like a sodden towel.
What that statement subtly implied…
“How long are you expecting us to stay here?” I questioned, praying to whatever deity might hear me that she was not about to say what I thought she was.
“That’s a silly question, baby.” She advanced several steps forward. “Forever, obviously.”
It was.
Fuck, it was!
I had to get out of here.
This wasn’t what I’d signed up for, involuntarily or otherwise. I certainly didn’t want to die at her hands, but again, I wasn’t afraid to meet the grim reaper.
I’d take death over this fresh hell…
On quick feet, I dashed around her and held a hand out in warning, my back now to the door. “You can’t be serious! You can’t keep us here like prisoners!”
“You’re not prisoners—you’re my men, my beautiful, devoted men,” she cooed, advancing toward me again. “We’re going to have such a wonderful life together, Rome. All of us.”
She really had lost it.
Completely fucking lost it.
Had Leo’s death affected her this much? Or was this a result of something else? Her parent’s death?
“You’re fucking insane!” I barked, chest heaving, my eyes scanning every inch over the room for a weapon.
“No, I’m not!” she bellowed.
“Yes, you are! You’ve taken two men hostage for some deranged, twisted fantasy you’ve conjured up in your head! How is that not crazy?!” The veins in my neck bulged from the sheer volume of my voice.
Tears welled in her eyes once more. “Because I love you!” she cried. “I love you both!”
“This isn’t love, Liza! I don’t know what the hell happened to you after we broke up, but you need help—serious help!”
“I don’t need help, goddamit! I just need my boys!”
“Yeah, well, you’ll be down to only one soon because I can assure you I’m walking out that front door right now.”
It was only after I said it that I realized I shouldn’t have uttered a word…
Wiping the wetness clinging to her cheeks with quick hands, she stared at me, tilting her head slowly to one side. “You can try,” she cackled. “But you won’t get very far. There’s guards at every door and they’ve been instructed to drag you down to the basement if either one of you try to leave.”
Of course there are.
“I don’t even want to know what you could possibly have down there.”
I really didn’t.
“That’s right, you don’t,” she agreed, crossing her arms, a satisfied smirk playing on the corners of her mouth.
“Let me go, Liza,” I tried, moving back yet again as she stepped forward. “I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“I just want you! Jesus Christ, Rome, don’t you get that!”
“And I’ve told you, you can’t have me.”
Silence ensued, but only long enough to fool me.
In a blur of movements, Liza bound up to where I stood and managed to cuff my arms behind my back.
“And yet I already do,” she murmured, running a polished fingernail down my bare chest.
Cringing under her touch, I tried wriggling myself free, but it was useless. These weren’t costume cuffs, they were the real deal. “Let me go!” I demanded, despite knowing it wasn’t going to do a damn thing.
“Shhh—let’s calm you down.”
“I’ll calm down when your psycho ass gets tossed in the looney bin!”
“So cranky.” Another child-like giggle bubbled in her throat. “Don’t worry, baby—we’ll make that better.”
Her hand made contact with my chest.
I stumbled back from the force of her shove, falling right into one of the parlor chairs I’d seen earlier.
It wasn’t until she slithered into my lap that I fully understood what she meant.
“Don’t you fucking dare. The answer is no,” I gritted out.
Unperturbed and quite determined, Liza leaned forward and flashed her tongue out against my neck, licking all the way up to my ear.
“Relax,” she cooed, grinding herself against my dick.
Again I cringed, trying and failing to get away from her. “Get off me.”
“But I wanna get you off, baby. I want you inside me again.”
“No.”
“Just play nice, Rome. I wouldn’t wanna have to hurt you,” she growled, her tone low.
Deadly.
“You’re fucking crazy!” I yelled, struggling beneath her.
“Not the first time I’ve heard that.” She chuckled, biting her lip as she leaned back, her hand smoothing over my length, palming it. “Ugh, this cock. I missed it. So big, so thick…”
“Don’t…” I clamped my eyes, willing my dick not to fucking react. It was already twitching with every roll of her hips.
“Look at this pussy, Rome—your pretty little pussy. So wet, aching for you, ready for you. Imagine it sliding down on your cock…”
My eyes snapped back open to find Liza naked, hovering above me, her fingers spreading her cunt wide open.
I wanted to fucking wretch.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” I roared, full—blown panic seizing me.
Crippling me.
Is this what Lux felt when…
Lux.
I swallowed a heap of air as her beautiful face, the one I loved so much flashed into my mind. Tears leaking down her face, sadness and b
etrayal swimming in her eyes…
As agonizing as that image was, that’s what I held onto with all my might as Liza stripped me of my freewill, of my dignity and my sanity, impaling herself on my semi in one fluid move, gasping her praises.
“Fuuuckkk! Oh my god, I fucking missed you, Rome! I missed you so much!”
And I missed my Queen, whom I hoped like hell would find her way on the twisted path that led to me.
♫ Die For You - The Weeknd ♫
Vic’s location steadily showed as somewhere in the countryside—for hours.
Literally hours.
Suki and I didn’t think that was right, but we decided to look into it anyway. A quick Google search revealed a massive estate on a large plot of land, entirely secluded and surrounded by trees.
No neighbors in the near vicinity.
Away from prying eyes and vigilant ears.
My gut told me this was it, but it also screamed danger, especially with Suki and I unarmed.
We drove out there regardless, though. I mean, what other choice did we really have? It was our only lead after declining Liza’s offer for an exchange, which I was seriously regretting now.
By the time we made it out there, night had fallen upon us. The sky was clear, littered with dozens of stars from the lack of streetlights on the winding roads. Suki suggested we use the darkness to our advantage, but I shot that down before she could even finish uttering her reasoning.
Stealth was great, but we weren’t familiar with the grounds. And again, being unarmed put us at a huge disadvantage.
We needed daylight desperately if there was any hope we’d be able to get to Rome and make it out alive.
All of us.
The one thing we did have at our advantage was the thicket of trees across the street from the estate. I was able to reverse the rental car a ways in, enough that the greenery shielded us from plain sight.
From there, we could do nothing but play the waiting game.
We used the time to get a better feel of the land with Google maps and tried to devise some sort of concrete plan. The night seemed to go on forever, though, and eventually, Suki passed out in the passenger seat with the heater hitting her at full blast.
I knew I should get some rest, too, knew I needed to recharge before what laid ahead of us the following day—whatever that may be—but I couldn’t sleep. I was too nervous, too anxious, far too fucking worried about Rome to even think about resting.
And that’s when the floodgates opened.
As hard as I tried not to cry, as hard as I tried to keep it together and remain strong, I couldn’t hold them back any longer. I’d been tamping them down since we got on the plane at Miami International, but no more.
I couldn’t anymore.
I wept quietly behind the steering wheel, expelled every white-hot tear that came until there was nothing left to cry.
Until I was bone-dry and hollow.
Until the early sun began streaming through the tops of the trees.
“Suk,” I hissed, shaking her awake.
She jolted upright, disoriented, her platinum blonde locks a wild mess. “What happened?”
I laughed weakly at her disheveled appearance, motioning around us with a whirl of my finger. “Daylight, that’s what.”
“Oh, right.” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and stretched out to the best of her ability with a boisterous yawn. “I need coffee.”
“We don’t have any,” I pointed out.
Suki groaned. “I can’t function without coffee, L.”
“Gonna have to, baby girl.” I shut off the car and peered over her way, reaching for my coat in the backseat. “It’s show time.”
Our trek out of the thicket and across the street onto the estate’s property was made in complete silence. All that could be heard were our footsteps crunching through the grass and an odd bird here or there, chirping it’s early morning song. The sky was as clear as it was the night before, only now, it was painted in splashes of pink and gold, the temperatures equally as chilly, if not more so with the sun not yet having reached its peak.
As per our plan, we ducked low and stayed as close to the tall Italian Cypresses surrounding the estate as possible, taking careful steps to the backyard. From the main road it wasn’t visible, but evidently, behind the estate was a small lake. Google Maps showed the security gate had a back entrance as well, one that led out to said lake and appeared to be much smaller in scale than the brawny gates up at the front. Should that image be accurate, it might be our one and only ticket inside.
Once we made it to the back, the tall Cypresses came to an abrupt end, waist-high bushes taking their place along the rear gate. They lined the pathway down to the lake as well. Suki and I ducked lower behind them, peeking over their rounded tops to scan the backyard for any signs of life.
But there was no one.
All I could see was a decently-sized pool and a lavish patio area, all well-kept and fully landscaped.
“Should we try the gate?” Suki whispered, holding tight to the crowbar she’d found in the trunk of the rental before we’d left.
It was our only weapon at the moment.
“I doubt it’s just going to be open, Suk. Gates are meant to keep people out,” I whispered back, dragging my gaze over every window on the estate.
“It’s worth a shot, L. You never know.”
“Then you check it,” I hissed.
“Fine.” She rolled her eyes, passing me the crow bar. “Don’t lose it.”
“Where the fuck am I gonna lose it?” I hissed again, prompting her to flash me the bird behind herself as she inched toward the gate.
Poking her head out around the bushel closest to the pathway, she glanced both ways as if she were crossing a street, and bound right up to the gates. All she did was tug it gently with a single finger and it gave away, falling open slowly.
My mouth popped open in utter shock as she turned to me, satisfied smirk curling her lips. “I told you,” she mouthed, motioning for me to follow her.
I couldn’t believe it.
It seemed way too simple, suspiciously so, but nevertheless, we had a way in.
I scrambled from the safety of the greenery around me and joined her out in the open, gripping the crow bar for dear life.
“That seemed too easy,” I whispered, as we treaded carefully through the patio to the large French doors.
“Agreed, but don’t overthink it. Could be a total lucky coincidence.”
“If that back door is open, this was premeditated.”
“L…” Suki whirled around in a flash and took my face in her hands, shaking me softly. “Stop overthinking and focus. Rome—we gotta get to Rome, babe.”
The sound of his name paired with the urgency of the moment brought tears to my eyes. “How do we know he’s in there?” My lip quivered.
“We don’t, but it’s all we’ve got. I have a good feeling though—I can feel the bastard.” She grinned, prompting me to grin, too, with a little scoff in tow.
“There’s my girl.” She shook me again. “Ready?”
Passing back the crow bar, I nodded. “Ready.”
We made it to French doors leading into the house without incident. There wasn’t a single light on within the estate, but I figured that was likely due to how early it was.
For all we knew, whoever was in there was still asleep.
But not for much longer…
“You remember the plan?” Suki asked as she set her hand on the golden knob.
“Yes—but you’re sure you wanna do that?” I countered, my voice wary and uncertain.
It was a good plan, don’t get me wrong, but it put us both at risk for different reasons.
I was perfectly fine with risking my own life—I’d fucking die to save Roman if it came to that.
But thinking about risking Suki’s life, for something that, technically, had fuck all to do with her, didn’t sit right with me.
Made me as sick as
thinking what Rome might’ve had to ensure the last two days.
Suki nodded surely, lifting her chin high. “Positive. Based on what I can see of the inside, it’ll work.”
Always so gallant, that one.
“You know I love you, right?” I couldn’t help getting mushy with her. We’d been through so much together, and in the end, she always had my fucking back. No matter what.
“Stop it.” She grabbed my arm thoughtfully. “We’re all getting out of here today—except that crazy bitch.”
“I’m serious, Suk. You always help me out of every shit hole I get myself into. I love you,” I stressed, pulling her into a heartfelt hug.”
I love you, too, L,” she squeezed me back, “now focus, before I fucking kick your ass into gear. You’re making a bitch all teary.”
Chuckling into her shoulder, I squeezed her one last time before easing back. “You wanna do the honors?”
Suki shook her head, a wicked smirk coloring her expression. “Absolutely not—that’s all you, baby girl. Let’s raise some hell.”
I nodded and inhaled a steady breath, readying myself as Suki jiggled the knob.
It actually turned, dispersing rivulets of adrenaline through me in seconds flat.
On another nod, she pushed the door open carefully.
It squeaked softly as ever, barely audibly, but I was more worried about tripping an alarm. Nothing happened, though.
That’s when we busted in, clearing room to room quickly as we made our way to the front. Once we were in the foyer, two spiral grand staircases on either side of us, we made our presence known.
Or really, I did.
Suki hid herself in the shadows.
“Oh, Lizaaa,” I sang, hands cupped around my mouth. “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”
The same stillness that had followed us since leaving the rental remained firmly in place, and still, my heart was galloping.
Why was nothing happening?
I was expecting a calvary to flood around me within milliseconds, but there was literally not a soul in sight.
To be heard.
Until suddenly, a distant thunder erupted from the second floor.
It’s on now.
I braced myself for the worst and bounced my eyes between every entry point around me, hoping we had the right place and hadn’t just stormed into some innocent family’s home.