by D. Griffith
“What can I say; I’m turning a new leaf. Regardless of what I’ve done to Danni, I still love her.” I chuckle at that ridiculous remark.
“You’re incapable of love; if you did love her, you wouldn’t have tried to kill her.”
“I tried to kill her because I love her.”
“That is twisted.”
“Look, after being in here and your boy over their beat the shit out of me, made me realize my regrets. I’m paying for what I did to Danni and Carl, seeing as I’m the one who told them to go for him. I’m paying for my sins, when are you finally going to pay for yours? You cannot run away from them forever and if you think about it, you’re just as bad, possibly worse. I knew what I was doing and I have always held my hands up to it but you, you thought you killed Sabrina and left her there to rot and you’ve been hiding from it since, that makes you much worse.” He rolls backwards in his wheel chair and straight to Henry “I’m ready to go back.” He looks over his shoulder, “Thanks for the visit guys, it’s been insightful. Don’t come back.” I drop my head because I know he is right, I am terrible for what I did and I should not run from it anymore. I need to come clean, If I come clean for what I have done, then I could stop all of this, but I need to find Danni first and make sure she’s safe.
“Come on, Jared! We should get a move on.” Adam states, pulling on to my arm. I jerk his hand away from me.
“Don’t man handle me, dude!”
“I wouldn’t have to is you weren’t stood there going off into space. The longer we wait around, the less chance we have finding her, so let’s move our ass.”
We leave the prison and head straight for the car, feeling even worse than we did arriving here.
Once we jump in and speed of, I place my head on the headrest and gaze out the window, Its pissing down with rain. The raindrops thudding over on the car, seem to be all I can hear, as I’m left wondering in my mind with the answer, what if? What if I came clean now, then maybe they’ll bring her back. What if I stayed away from Danni, what would her life be like if we never met? It would be carefree, no stress, no one trying to break her and everyone she loves dear. She would still have Carl. All this bad karma for what I did and she is getting the backlash of it all. Dillon was right, I am worse than he is, I should have grown balls and paid for my sins all them years ago.
Through all these negative thoughts and I still only see Danni and I, being together, happy, having everything we could ever want. Is it selfish to still want all of this, considering what has happened to her, because of me? I guess it is, maybe I should set her free once and for all. Maybe then, she can have her life back finally and live a drama free life.
“Jared, I’m not one for hand holding, but since we’ve been back in the car, you’ve been turning the whole atmosphere it to a sorry cave, it’s suffocating and I cannot breathe. Is this to do with what Dillon said?” I roll my eyes towards him and shrug my shoulders because I cannot be arsed talking about this, he’ll only make me feel worse. “Look man, suck it up and get over it, what you did to Sabrina was unspeakable.” I interrupt him.
“I really don’t need a pep talk from you; you don’t need to make me feel even worse then what I do.”
“Well tough luck, you’re getting one, If I’m stuck with you for a while, I do not want to be dealing with a grown man who looks like he wants to weep like a little girl, so just listen.”
“I’m not weeping; this is what you call a pep talk? Wow dude, you suck.”
“Shut up and listen. Yes, it was unspeakable, hey, we’ve all done unspeakable things, I have, ones I will not speak of. You need to look at the positive here. Look at all the good you have done to redeem yourself. All that good you’ve done since then, rules out the one bad experience and if my sister can see past all of that, then trust me when I say, it’s something to feel better about. My sister went from a monster to you. If you put both of you in a room in front of anyone, they’d all agree, that it’s not you, and that is one fucking hard thing to admit to, seeing as I can’t stand you.” That was actually a compliment coming from him, I must have died and hell froze over.
“Thanks, I think! So are we going to kiss and make up with some hot chocolate?” I joke to ease the awkwardness he would have felt expressing that.
“You wish, you know I’m to manly for you.”
“I was being sarcastic dude, that image is just wrong.” He chuckles to himself from my reaction. Yes, I fell for that. “So does this mean you finally accept your sister and I being together?”
“Don’t push it! For what it’s worth, I finally realize what my sister
means to you, so it’s a start. Now shut up before I have to punch you in your pretty boy face, to prevent my testosterone levels from dropping from this conversation.”
“Once we get to London, we should hit a hotel, it’ll be late and then come tomorrow morning we can work on searching around London for her.”
“There has to be a quicker way to narrow the search down. Actually, they could be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Couldn’t you use your sources to track her by her mobile number? That would give us a definite location?” I slap my forehead, how idiotic can I be.
“Why didn’t we just think of that first, we could’ve have saved ourselves from this pointless trip and seeing that prick, it can lead us straight to Danni.”
“Well not lead us to Danni; it’ll lead us to her phone. If Sabrina has Danni, she wouldn’t be stupid enough to let her have her mobile on her because she’ll know that’s what you’d do, but if we find the phone, we can access it and see her last messages, emails, calls, the lot.”
“You’re right, good thinking. I’ll ring them now and it should be ready for us in the morning.” I grab my cell from my pocket and start dialing for Tye, and give him specific instructions. Once I’m done I hang up and a grin flows across my face and a spark of hope has finally hit me, as we’re a step closer to finding my girl and once we have her back, I’m done playing the nice guy, I will make them all pay and they will regret ever crossing me.
*****
“Danni is in room twelve, that’s what the message of Tye says.” We are at a modern hotel, a standard one. It didn’t take Tye long to get the information. When we got here last night, it was late, so we decided to get some shuteye and first thing, we would come straight here.
It is only nine in the morning, but we could not wait. I am scared to actually go inside, what if it’s a dead body of my girl? That would be torture. “Are you ready Adam?” He nods, ready. “After three guys! One, two, three.” Andrew kicks the door in and some lad jumps up from the bed half-naked. Before I can even say anything, Adam rushes over.
“You’re a fucking prick, where is she?” He’s grabbed this poor guy, by the throat and knocks him one in the face.
“Adam, seriously, is it always hit first, ask questions later with you?” I walk closer towards him and have a glance around the room. Oh my, this is Danni room all right; it’s full of pictures of Sabrina and Phillip.
“It’s the best way to be, and then he knows he can’t lie.” Adam replies knocking me out from my trance.”
“Well, we won’t get information of him like this.”
“Let me go Adam.” This guy snaps pushing him away.”
“Where is Danni? I won’t ask again, Tyler!”
“You know this guy?” I ask,
“He’s an old friend. I won’t ask again.”
“Geez Adam, calm down, I stayed here waiting for you to turn up.”
“Wait, are you and Danni erm.. You know?” I cannot finish that sentence, I’m afraid to know the truth, she’s moved on already?
“What, no! I just kissed her.” My eyes widen with rage.
“Can I hit him now?” Adam asks,
“No!” Then my rage gets the best of me and I launch at him with a right hook ready to brawl around with him.
“Damn it Jared, I thought you said no hitting.”
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“The prick deserved it.” I go for another blow but Adam gets in the way.”
“He’s not worth it, man”
“That’s right, listen you dick, what the fuck?” Tyler snaps.
“Adam, what am I missing, how does he know Danni?” I think I’ve just clicked on. “Is this the guy you made break up with her?”
“Yes, I am. I’ll never forgive you for that dude. You couldn’t have just let us been happy.”
“You were like my bro and you were sleeping with my sister.” Yeah, I don’t want to hear this conversation, the thought of Danni being with someone and in love with someone else, pisses me of and is making me want to rip this shit to pieces. “You were as bad as me back then, why would I want my sister to be with someone like that?”
“For your information Adam, It was different with her, but no, not in your eyes, you fucking wanker.”
“What the fuck have you just called me? Are you serious?” Adam goes straight for him again and I get in the way.
“Look, we’ve no time for this, we need to find Danni. Why did her phone land us here? Where did she go? We need to know everything.”
“Like I was saying, before he attacked me. I bumped into her at the cafe and she told me everything, so I offered to help. I would rather she had my help, then do it all herself. She contacted Sabrina through my email and she emailed her an address. I knew it was a trap and so did she. She wanted me to stay here to have the voice to be able to tell you all. I hoped she’d come back, but she didn’t. Therefore, I knew you would turn up, so I stayed in her hotel and she took my phone instead of hers. She wanted to record them confessing and hers was excessively big, were mines small, it would have been better. “
“Why didn’t you just message me, straight away dude?”
“We’ve not spoke in years and I couldn’t access Danni’s phone, she has a password on it.” I went through her things in the bag she left behind and I found this.” He walks over to the bedside table and picks up a white envelope. He walks back over to me and hands me a letter addressed to me. She wrote me a letter, this can’t be good..
“Have you read this?”
“No, I wanted to, but knowing who you are, I knew you both would turn up. I expected someone in a suit looking all fresh being a billionaire and all, you just look normal.”
“I agree with him there, you don’t wear suits. I mean, that fifty shades guy does.” I huff am them both.
“You know that really pisses me off, I hate the stereo type portrayed as a billionaire. I hate suites, I only wear them for special occasions and they have to be special. I like to dress normal and comfortable, jeans and a shirt is perfect, thank you very much. Now back to Danni and not my look.”
“Here is the address, shall we all go now?”
“You’re not coming” Adam snaps,
“Yes I am, I still care for her deeply. I started this with her, so I am coming if you like it or not, although, I think your boy over their needs a minute to read his letter.” Tyler mocks to Adam. He is right though, I really want to read this letter, but I’m nervous of what could be inside.
“Just give me a moment please, while I read this.” I go to sit on the bed and open the letter, it says.
Dear Jared, if you’re reading this, then obviously something bad has happened to me. I don’t intentionally want to send this, I just need to write this down, just in case, and if you’re not reading this letter, then were either happily together again and having martinis on a beach back in Rome, where it all started, (which I wish for it to happen one day.) Last time I seen you, I said some horrible things, I am truly sorry for what I said; I never meant a single word. I was hurting, but that is no excuse. The truth is, you’re the one person I love and will always love you and every day I am grateful that you came into my life. I thought true love was a myth and for me to find that with you made everything fall into place. My life had meaning and I could finally be the person I always wanted to be. I don’t hate you, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. Please forgive me for what I said, I did come after you, as I regretted it straight away, I was just too late. We will be together again I promise, well that’s if you still want me. First, Sabrina and Phillip all need eliminating for us to finally have our happy-ending but while they are around, its useless us even trying. That’s why I’m hunting them down, I will not be a victim anymore, I will fight them till my last breath, not just for Carl but for us two. They took both my loves from me and I cannot sit back and let them do it to anyone else. Tell my sister and brother I love them and thank them for everything, they’re both my heroes and they make me want to fight. I love you.
Always yours
Danni
Chapter Seventeen
My heart pummels, it literally feels like it has burst and I’m falling to my death. Why does this feel like she is saying goodbye, how dare she? No, I don’t think so, she does not get to say good bye to me this way.
“Jared, what is it?” Adam asks, I hand him the letter for him to read and I sit there in disbelief. I curl my face into the palm of my hands; I try everything in my power not to let my emotions show, but the thought of her saying goodbye is heartrending. I hear Adams reaction to the letter. “What have you got yourself into peanut? Jared, we need to go quick, no way in hell am I letting this sit. We need to hurry up and find her now.” I need to pull myself together.
“Right ok, let’s go to the last place she was, is this place far Tyler?”
“It’s only about ten minutes.”
“Right, let’s get a move on.” Adam demands, and we all rush out and head to this address. We jump in the car and speed of. Soon after we turn up to the building and rush out from the car because we know every minute counts.
We approach the building and we gather around and I whisper to Adam and that Tyler guy.
“After three, barge in. Adam, you first, followed by Tyler, then me and Andrew behind, if we’re behind one another we can’t get ambushed, well not singly anyway.”
“No!” Adam declines,
“Why now?”
“Because they would expect you, so it’s best you go first and I’ll follow behind. It makes more sense that way. So we’re doing that.”
“Do you really think this is the right time to show whose alpha? That’s what this is right?”
“Guys!” Tyler snaps, not the best time, let us do it Adam’s way, trust me, he knows what he’s doing. This wouldn’t be his first time.”
“Fine! Let’s just do this.” Straight after, I don’t bother counting to three, I just boot the door and we go running in. This place is empty. Its silent and you could hear a pin drop in this.
We go in the first room and nothing, so we go for the second room and that’s the same. Damn.
“This place is fucking empty.” Adam snaps, I notice Tyler snooping around.
“What are you looking for Tyler?”
“My mobile, but all I’ve found is this rag.” He places it to his nose and gives it a smell, he quickly jerks back with a disgusted look on his face. He looks straight at me, and then I click on with the worry coming from his eyes, that explains it all. He hands me the torn white rag and I smell it for myself. That’s awful.”
“Let me guess, chloroform?” Adam guesses,
“How’d you know? without even smelling.”
“It’s blatantly obviously. No one is here, just that old rag. They knocked her out. Fucking pricks, I’m going to murder them. Well for them to knock her out, we can take comfort in the fact that she is still alive, but not what they’re doing to her.”
“Great, so we’re at a dead end?” I spit out,
“Not exactly!” Tyler announces, “I can’t see my mobile anywhere, which means they still have it on them. You can find my mobile through the find my iphone app, if one of you has an iphone, we can use it to search for mine.”
“Here, use mine!” Adam and I both say in unison handing them both over.
“I’ll just take Ada
ms, thanks.”
“Didn’t Danni have a car with her, do you know?” I ask,
“Not that I know off. After we met in the cafe, we walked straight to her hotel room, and talked about everything. I did try to convince her to ring Adam, but she was too stubborn too. She wanted to prove something by the looks of it. Then when we got the email, I offered to go, she said no, stay here just in case and then I kissed her, she kissed me back and went off and that is everything. I cannot tell you anything else because I don’t know.” My fist starts to clench together ready to fuck this guy up for touching my girl. Adam, can see the wrath I’m feeling and jumps in the way.
“Dude, I know what you’re thinking and don’t.”
“Why not? The son of a bitch touched my girl. If it was Julie, you know you’d do the same.”
“Not the point, and technically you guys aren’t together anymore.”
“Yes we are, she’s just too fucking stubborn to stick to it.”
“For what it’s worth, Jared, It meant nothing.” Did he seriously just say Danni meant nothing?”
“Now can I hit him?” Adam looks at me then him pissed off, for the same reason with what he’s just said.”
“Go for it.” I walk towards him and he walks back with his hands out in front of him.
“Wow, what’s with the hostility? If you want to go rounds then we will, but trust me when I say it’s not like that. I meant with her. I mean, it always means something to me, ask Adam about it if you don’t believe me. Danni will always mean something to me. It was a last minute infatuation. She was going in to some danger, she probably felt it was needed and I did it because, like I said before, she has always meant something alright. Just chill.” I step back and he carries on looking at Adams phone. “Bingo, it online in Cheshire, isn’t that where you guys live?”
“I don’t, Adam does.” I turn to Adam, “They back tracked? It is as if they knew we were coming. There goes the surprise.”
“Let’s head home; I’ll fill Alex and Andi in. You go to your place and see if you can come up with another strategy. Obviously, there is nothing we can do till we arrive home but were best getting the plan sorted now. Tyler, I guess this is goodbye.”