“Why was the door in here barricaded? Why were all the lights off?” Alex pressed.
My eyes found the fat, black spider still sitting on the counter.
I lifted a weak hand and pointed to it.
Alex’s body went rigid.
“He was here,” I told him and then went slack in his arms.
Liam
The second I unlocked the cabin door, I knew something was wrong. Nothing appeared off, including the giant slobbering dog wagging his tail at me the second I appeared.
But the way everything felt?
Major alarms in my head.
“Where’s Bellamy?” I demanded, gruffly pinning Alex with a stare.
“In the bedroom,” he said, his voice equally as gruff.
I paused by where he was sitting at the island, his back still to me. “What happened?”
Alex moved only a few inches, sliding over enough to reveal what he was sitting in front of, glaring.
The blood in my veins turned to ice.
“Why didn’t you call me?” I yelled. “Jesus, fuck…” I started as I rushed toward the hall.
“She begged me not to,” Alex replied, not even fazed by my cussing tirade.
I stopped and turned, angry. “I thought you were my best friend.”
“I am, and you fucking know it. But she is, too, now.” He gave me a look. “I kinda see why you can’t ever tell her no.”
“She cry?” I worried.
He nodded.
“Bellamy!” I roared.
Alex caught me as I started back down the hallway, his hand clapping down on my shoulder. “Slow your roll,” he demanded. “She’s had a rough night. Don’t go back there yelling and ordering her around.”
I glanced down at his hand on my shoulder and then around at him. His icy eyes levelled on mine.
“You telling me how to handle my girl?”
“I’m telling you to calm the fuck down.”
I spun back around, knocking his hand off my shoulder. My pointer finger drove into his chest. “You didn’t call me.”
“I had it handled.”
Red tinged the outer parts of my vision. I stepped up to my best friend, our toes hitting. “You don’t ever handle my girl.”
“I will if you aren’t there to do it.”
I reared back as though he’d punched me, my fists clenching at my sides. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
“Liam?” Bellamy’s small voice from the doorway at the end of the hall cut my anger like a hot knife through butter.
I spun instantly, forgetting about my bonehead of a friend.
My chest caved in seeing her there. She was maybe half my size (or less), standing there with wet hair, bare feet, dark circles beneath her eyes, and frighteningly pale skin. Her body was drowning in one of my BearPaw T-shirts and nothing else.
“Sweetheart,” I practically crooned. “What happened?”
Her lower lip wobbled.
Without looking away from her, I reached back and shoved Alex toward the living room. “Don’t leave,” I ordered.
“What a nice invitation to stay,” he muttered, but I tuned him out.
My legs made short work of the distance between us, and the second she was within distance, I picked her up, her legs winding around my waist. I felt the quiver in her thighs and noted how weak they felt. Even though the image of the spider sitting on the kitchen counter haunted me, even though I wanted nothing more than a full report of whatever the fuck happened, I didn’t demand anything.
Instead, I held her a little tighter when her face pushed into my neck and carried her into our dim bedroom, lit only with the bathroom light.
Wet strands of her long hair fell over my arms and dampened the front of my shirt. I sat on the end of the bed, keeping her tightly in my lap. I felt her feet fall against the mattress behind us. Her body relaxed against mine, so I supported all her weight.
Behind us, Charlie jumped on the bed and lay down, taking up more space than us. My palm rubbed up and down her back as I kissed the side of her head.
“Bells,” I spoke gently. “What happened tonight?”
“He was at The Inn tonight,” she said, still collapsed against me.
The muscles in my jaw ticked. “Spidey?”
I felt her nod against me.
“Like that night at the hospital? He showed up and left the spider, then disappeared?”
Bellamy pushed up. Her hands fell between us, and she gazed down toward them. I followed her gaze, immediately stiffening when I saw the crudely wrapped bandage around her finger, blood staining it.
I cursed and lifted her hand. “What the fuck is this?”
I heard Bells swallow. It sounded as if her throat were the Sahara Desert and her spit a giant rock. She pulled her bandaged hand from mine and glanced up.
“He didn’t just leave this time.”
I felt like a lit fuse that someone just doused in gasoline. I stood up brusquely, jolting both of us. “Tell me now,” I demanded, unable to keep composed.
Bellamy slid down my body and squirmed a bit, right out of my arms. I watched her race across the room and rush into the bathroom. Seconds later, the sound of her retching filled the silence.
I went instantly, opening the door she weakly tried to push closed on her way through. Heaviness settled on my shoulders seeing her on her knees in front of the toilet, her small frame spasming with every heave.
Reaching down, I gathered her hair and held it back, noting how wet the T-shirt was from the long strands. Bells paused long enough to lift her head slightly. Her voice was raw when she spoke. “I don’t want you in here.”
“Too bad,” I said and squatted down behind her until she finished.
Even after she stopped vomiting, her body remained poised over the porcelain until she was sure she was done. Once she was, she sank back onto her butt, almost curling into herself.
I wanted so badly to pull her against me, to tuck her against my chest and make all this go away. I didn’t like feeling helpless…
It was a feeling I’d become well acquainted with as of late.
Forcing myself off the floor, I grabbed a cup of water and handed it to her. Bells took it without looking at me, rinsed her mouth out, and spit in the toilet. I took the empty cup back and tossed it, then grabbed one of those fluffy hair things—a scrunchie I think she called it—and tied her hair back in a style that definitely wasn’t going to win any awards.
When that was done, I retreated from the bathroom. Each step that took me farther away from her actually caused pain to lance through my chest. Moving fast, I grabbed another one of my shirts and carried it back to her.
“Arms up,” I said. She obliged, and I quickly swapped the wet shirt out for the dry one. “You done?” I asked gently, reaching toward the toilet lid.
She nodded. I closed it, flushed, and picked her up off the floor. Before heading back to the bedroom, I grabbed the first aid kit, which was still open and mussed on the counter.
Charlie moved down to the foot of the bed when I approached, and I moved to lay Bells on the mattress. When her arms tightened around my neck, I slid between the covers, propped myself against the headboard, and let her settle against me between my legs.
“Do you need to go to the ER?” I asked.
“No.”
I figured as much. I might be miffed at Alex, but if she needed the ER, he would have taken her there immediately.
Glancing down, I lifted her poorly bandaged hand. “He do this to you?” I couldn’t help the coldness in my tone.
I felt shake her head. “I did it. Trying to get away.”
My teeth slammed together forcefully enough it made my jaw ache. He’d been chasing her. While I’d been sitting at some boring-as-shit dinner meeting in a stupid tie. I should have been there tonight. Not Alex. Me.
Why hadn’t I been there?
Because you were doing something for your father.
I didn’t know how
to feel, so instead of thinking about it, I went about taking off the crooked, half-done bandage on her finger to replace it the right way.
“My hands were shaking when I did that,” she admitted. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” I murmured and kissed the top of her head.
We didn’t talk as I cleaned up the cut, which probably could have used a stitch or two. I got it to stop bleeding, though, put a couple butterfly bandages on it, and then wrapped the entire finger in gauze and medical tape.
What? I’m a thorough guy.
Once that was done, I tucked her hand against my chest and pulled a blanket around her legs.
“I need to know what happened.” I reminded her.
“He told me once I was dead, he was coming here to take care of you,” she wailed, her voice breaking partway through the sentence. Charlie lifted off the bed and looked at her, tilting his head.
Bellamy started openly sobbing, and the darkness inside me rose up to match the anger. My tongue slipped along my teeth, and my arms wound around Bellamy so tight I thought she might complain.
“Tighter,” she said.
I obliged.
Eventually, her crying turned into sniffles, the sniffles gave way to hiccups, and then she lifted my tie and used it as a tissue.
There was a brief pause, and then she glanced at it. “Why are you wearing a tie?”
“Sweatpants piss off the execs,” I muttered.
After a few quiet minutes, Bellamy’s voice filled the bedroom. “I thought he was just playing a game like that night at the hospital. But he wasn’t. He came back and tried to kill me. I hid, b-but he almost found me. Alex showed up and scared him off.”
“You’re safe now.” I promised, stroking the side of her head.
“Until he comes back,” she echoed, almost as if she was warning herself.
Chills raced up my spine.
“Get some sleep, sweetheart. We can talk more in the morning.”
“I don’t feel so good.”
“I know,” I murmured. “I got you now. Everything’s okay.”
I held her for a long time, staring over her head at the wall, just thinking. I felt pulled in many directions. Between the business, my father, my girl… hell, even snowboarding.
I might say I was done with my career, but the truth was I still yearned for a board, the crunch of snow, and a pristine halfpipe.
Every single thing I loved was being threatened. I could lose it all in the blink of an eye.
How the fuck was I supposed to hold it all together while being stretched in so many directions? A rubber band could only bounce back so many times before it snapped.
Before I snapped.
A while later, the sound of the kitchen door opening and closing and booted footfalls against the floor drew me from my stormy thoughts. Charlie gave a low woof and leapt off the bed to go see what was up.
I knew it was probably only Alex because Charlie stayed quiet once he was out there. Bellamy was sound asleep against me, her breathing calm and even. I didn’t want to move. I liked my position far too much, but answers couldn’t wait ‘til morning.
Slowly, I slid out from beneath her, tucked two pillows at her sides, and made sure the blankets were securely tucked around her. I glanced toward the door, and as if on cue, Charlie bounded back in and hopped on the bed, taking up position right in front of Bells.
“Good boy,” I whispered, scratching behind his ear.
Alex was standing in front of the fridge, his body bathed in the harsh light from inside. He grabbed a beer from one of the shelves and tossed it in my direction, all without even looking to see if I was actually there.
Dude had like fifty eyes. He never missed a thing.
I snatched the bottle out of the air, opened the top, and took a long pull. Alex grabbed another for himself and did the same. The kitchen plunged into darkness when the fridge door closed, leaving only the light from the hallway behind me.
“I told you not to leave.” I bitched.
“Oh, my bad. Did you suddenly become the boss of me?”
I gave him a salty look and then went to the living room and flipped on the fireplace. It was fucking freezing.
“Where’d you go?” I asked, staring at the red flickering flames.
“The Inn. Someone had to clean up the place.”
I spun from the mantle, crossed to where he stood, and offered my fist. He looked between me and my knuckles, then touched his against mine.
“I’m grateful,” I told him.
“I know.”
“You still shoulda called me.”
“She wanted to make sure the house was clear before you got here.”
My beer slammed down on the top of the mantle. “And you fucking let her make that call?”
“She was so upset she could barely walk, man. I wasn’t gonna argue. I knew no one was here, and I swept the place when we got here.”
I felt my eyes flash and my tongue get ready to fling out some harsh words.
Alex’s eyes landed on mine. “He would’ve had to go through me to get to her, and you fucking know it.”
I relented. I did know it. Alex was a tough son of a bitch, and I knew Bells was safe with him.
“Don’t put my safety above hers again.”
He made a sound. “That’s not what this was. I knew by the time we got here you’d be wrapping it up anyway. We were only here long enough for her to rush into the bathroom and puke up her guts, then take a shower.”
“She was sick before I got here?” I murmured.
“Stress and adrenaline will do it to you, man. Every time.”
“What happened?”
“He was there when I got there. Had the door barricaded shut, the lights off. This fucker is some twisted shit, Liam. When I made it into the kitchen and walked into the back room, Bellamy climbed out of a cabinet, with no shoes, brandishing a knife.”
“She said she was hiding,” I murmured, recalling the little bit she’d told me. How much more shit was this girl gonna have to live through?
Alex nodded. “Guess he shut off the lights a couple times on her. One time, he left the spider before showing up to take her out.”
I let out some curse words while Alex dropped onto the couch. “They tried to kill her in Chicago, then showed up in Denver at the hospital.”
“Dude,” Alex intoned. It was a lot of implication in one simple word.
Huh. Maybe Bells was right. Alex and I had our own language.
I nodded. Something had to be done about this. “What did you get back at The Inn?” When Alex said clean up, he also meant casing the place for any kind of clues the asshole left behind.
He shook his head, regretful. “Not a damn thing. This guy is good at what he does.”
“We have to be better.”
“So we will be.”
Snatching my beer off the mantle, I dropped down in the chair near the sofa. “Tell me everything Bells told you.” Hopefully, it was a hell of a lot more than what I’d managed to get out of her.
We talked for a while.
Until Bells started to scream.
Bellamy
Darkness enveloped me like a protective blanket, but I didn’t feel secure.
If anything, I felt as though the darkness wouldn’t protect me, but the evil that lurked within it.
I didn’t have to contain the shudders wracking my body again and again. The enclosed space did that for me. The drywall was hard and solid, the space between it so tight it actually hurt to be squeezed inside.
I had no idea what was going on out there, but the sounds couldn’t be ignored. Moaning, hitting, and the slap of skin on skin was crystal clear. My fingertips pressed against the drywall as if I would be able to claw my way through if needed.
“Please, no,” a familiar voice begged, and everything inside me seized. Bile rose up the back of my throat, and the panic I was holding back flooded through my entire body.
The lou
d sound of a gunshot reverberated through the room. It seemed extra loud in this enclosed space. I shoved the heel of my hand into my mouth to muffle my sobs. Another shot rang out, and the gurgling noises that filled the silence between shots ceased.
Daddy.
“Next!” demanded a man on the other side of the wall.
I sucked in a breath as terror consumed me. Pressing close against the wall, I strained to hear what was happening. Shouldn’t they be leaving? Wasn’t that how this went?
There was a loud thump and the sound of a slamming door. “Tell us where she is!”
“Fuck you.”
I’d know that voice anywhere.
“Liam,” I whispered, shocked.
Flesh hitting flesh was the only reply to his words. It seemed to go on forever, and tears rolled down my cheeks as I strained to hear anything at all.
“Tell us where your girlfriend is, and we’ll think about letting you live,” the man demanded again.
“Never,” he spat, his voice weaker this time.
They took him to get to me! And here I was hiding, cowering while the men in my life were being murdered.
Not Liam. Not him.
“Hold him,” the man instructed. A few grunts followed, and I knew they were hitting him again.
“Liam!” I screamed and beat on the wall, trying so hard to get through. “Don’t hurt him!”
“Shut up!” someone yelled, but I was beyond listening. I was fighting the stupid space to get out, panicked I wouldn’t make it in time.
“She’s here.”
“No!” Liam yelled.
The sudden explosion of the gun made me shriek. It plowed through the wall just above me. I ducked, cowering as low as I could in the crammed space. Light shone through the newly ripped hole, a beam in the dark.
I’d been wrong before.
The darkness had been concealing me. It was the light that would reveal my presence.
Silently, I lifted my chin, glancing up to that beam of light that others might have equated to hope. In horror, I watched as a black object crawled through, unfolding its body and stretching out its legs.
The black widow seemed to zero in on where I was and silently began crawling down the wall. Biting back a scream, I returned to the struggle of getting out of this space. Why was it so hard? Why did I feel trapped?
Blizzard (BearPaw Resort #2) Page 18