by M. G. Morgan
Dropping it in front of me she pointed to a small clump of islands the biggest called MorKult.
“That’s where we are, MorKult,” she said proudly.
“Who’s there with you?” David said suspiciously.
“It doesn’t matter, we’re on an island called MorKult but…”
He cut me off his voice suddenly filled with excitement.
“Carrie, we’re near there, when they took you I started tracking them with a little help from Tamara. I can be there in a few hours…”
“David,” I tried to speak but he was so excited and he continued to speak over me.
“I’ll have you back soon and when I get you safe I’m going to wipe those bastards, from the face of the earth…”
The sound of voices outside the warehouse made me freeze.
They were far too close for comfort and Rosa shot a confused glance towards the main door.
“Rosa, what’s wrong?” I asked as the young girl stood, her face pale and her eyes wide.
“Carrie, talk to me, tell me what’s going on?” David said, his concern wrapping around me like a blanket.
But he wasn’t here with me and there was nothing he could do.
“I’ll call you back…” I said ending the call as Rosa took a tentative step towards the door.
“Rosa, we need to hide, if they find us in here,”
“Rosa!” A female voice called from outside the boathouse and the remaining colour in Rosa’s cheeks drained away.
She stared at me, her dark eyes bright with unshed tears.
“Mother,” was all she whispered as she started for the door.
“Rosa, no!”
It was a trap, I was certain of it.
Scrambling to my feet I raced after her but I was too late and Rosa disappeared out through the door before I had a chance to stop her.
The world went silent as I strained to hear something, anything and the moment I did, my heart sank in my chest.
Chapter 12
“I know you’re in there, Carrie, so you may as well come out.” Andy said, his voice carrying through the night air.
I couldn’t hear Rosa but I knew he had her.
“If I have to send my men in for you then little Rosa here is going to pay the price.”
His words sent a chill of fear racing down my spine. Glancing over my shoulder at the speed boat bobbing in the water my stomach flipped.
What choice did I have? I couldn’t leave her behind, I’d promised to keep her safe.
“You leave her out of this, she’s innocent,” I said, my voice filled with resignation.
Stepping out of the warehouse I covered my eyes, shielding them against the glare of the white light torches directed at me.
“Innocent? Are you kidding me, this brat is far from innocent. If my father had any sense at all he’d have gotten rid of her years ago. Instead he keeps her around because of some sort of sentimentality.”
There was an anger in Andy’s voice that I hadn’t been expecting.
He stepped out in front of the light, his body silhouetted in the darkness. I could just make out the short struggling form of Rosa as he held her pinned against his body.
“This is between you and me,” I said, keeping my voice as calm as I could.
“Wrong, Rosa made her choice and now she’s going to have pay the price.”
I started towards them, the torch lights dipping so I could see that Andy had a gun pressed against Rosa’s head.
Her brown eyes were wide and she kept struggling against his grip, seemingly unaware of the cold steel pressed to her temple.
Her gaze darted to the side as Andy turned with her still in his grip.
It was then I saw her, the woman was on her knees, her body bent forward on the dock, her dark hair covering her face.
“Mama!” Rosa called out as Andy loosened his grip on her and passed her off to one of the guards.
“I told you, Rosa, I told you what would happen if you didn’t do as you were asked. It was a simple task, I don’t think I asked too much of you now did I?”
Andy spoke as he crossed the dock to the woman on her knees.
I raced forward only to find strong arms wrap around my body holding me back, forcing me to watch the scene unfold in front of my eyes.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… I’ll be good, I’ll do what you want now, I swear!” Rosa was babbling her voice high and hysterical as Andy reached down and wrapped his fingers through the woman’s dark hair.
He jerked her head up and pressed the gun to her temple.
“Don’t do this! She’s sorry, Andy, please she’s just a child.” I said, pleading with him. “Not her mother,” I said.
“I never got to beg for my mother’s life, Carrie, I’m giving Rosa more than I had. But all children must grow up and this is her time…”
“Rosa, te amo!” The woman’s voice was heavily accented and her face was tear streaked.
The gunshot echoed around the dock and I jolted against the arms of my captor, shock washing through my body in an icy wave.
Rosa’s screams tore through the night, ripping into me and I started to cry with her, struggling against the grip of the guard that held me.
I watched her sag in the arms of the guards that had her, her skinny legs buckling beneath her as she collapsed to the ground.
They let her go and I watched her crawl towards the unmoving body of her mother. It wasn’t something she should see, watching her die had been enough but now that she was gone…
I could only imagine what the bullet had done to her face and my stomach revolted at the idea of Rosa having the image seared into her memory.
With one nod from Andy, the guard holding me let my arms go and I jerked forward, my body jolting into motion.
I reached Rosa as she reached out to her mother’s body and wrapped my arms around her drawing her away.
“No, no, no, no, I need to see her, she’s not dead, she’s not, I need to hold her…” Rosa babbled incoherently as I held her, pressing her in against my body as I drew her away.
“There’s nothing you can do…”
Rosa stiffened in my grip then, tilting her head up to stare into my face, her eyes filled with rage.
“This is your fault, if I hadn’t tried to help you, if I’d…” She paused and fought against my grip.
I released her, and she backed away from me slowly, the hatred in her eyes making her look even more like Taylor.
She turned and made a run for the tree line but Andy gestured for the guards to follow her and they did so without question.
Shock washed through me and it wasn’t until Andy was standing right in front of me that I registered his presence.
“My father wishes to deal with you personally…” he said, reaching out and pressing a small blade into my hands.
I stared down at it, my body numb.
What was I supposed to do with it?
Andy smiled at me, “just a little something to even the playing field, Carrie, I know he has a terrible temper…”
I returned my gaze to the blade once more as Andy turned and stalked away.
Gripping the blade hard, I felt its cold weight in my hands as I pushed it up inside my sleeve hiding it from sight. One of the guards caught my elbow and started to tow me back in the direction of the house.
All I needed to do was hold on long enough for David to get here, and without realising it, Andy had given me the means to do so.
I would see them all dead for the things they had done.
And if Taylor thought he was going to lay a finger on me, he was sorely mistaken.
Chapter 13
“I need to get you back to the house,” Andy said turning his back on me.
I contemplated sinking the blade he’d just given me in between his smug shoulder blades. It wouldn’t do me any good, it certainly wouldn’t help me survive any bit longer.
The best thing I could do was to try and survive as lon
g as possible. David would come now no matter what and I just needed to hold on for him.
The thought of him landing on the island scared the hell out of me. It had been so easy for Dom and Andy to take me from the Sovereign Club, this was their strong hold, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine they would be capable of defending it.
“What about Rosa? What’s going to happen to her?” I asked, shrugging free of the grip of one the guards.
“She’ll be tracked down, but I don’t have the time to hang around here and wait for her. I know you contacted David.” Andy swung around once more and smiled.
I didn’t say anything, if I denied it he’d know I was lying. He obviously had some sort of proof and I wasn’t about to walk into another of his traps.
“What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?”
Andy nodded and the guards moved in on me once more.
“What’s Taylor going to do to me?” I said stalling. The longer I could stay away from the house the better the chance of surviving.
“What’s he going to do to you? I think you already know the answer to that, Carrie, you’re not a fool.”
“I have no idea what he’s planned, I…”
Andy shook his head and chuckled.
“I know the conversation you had with him, I know what he threatened you with, what he promised would happen if David turned up here. If you failed to keep up your side of the bargain.”
“I haven’t failed to keep up any bargain, you abducted me and brought me here against my will. There can be no bargain in that situation.”
“And we’re back to that are we? He told you he would take your child if David set foot on this island.”
Andy’s words sent a cold shiver down my spine and I bit down on my lip to keep my emotions in check.
“How can I stop him from coming for me? He loves me,” I said fighting to keep the edge of hysteria out of my voice.
I needed to make him understand that what they were planning on doing was insanity.
“You spoke to him, you could have told him not to come. You could have warned him and you chose not to. You’ve always had choices, Carrie, and every single time it’s your selfish choices that get you into this mess.”
“Don’t you dare pin this back on me,” I started to say but Andy shook his head and my words died on my lips as a shot rang out in the woods.
Rosa…
“How could you!” I screamed, “she was just a child and you killed her mother, wasn’t that enough?”
A wide grin spread across Andy’s face and I saw him then, truly saw him.
I’d known the kindness he’d shown me had been nothing but a pretence. He’d used it as a way to get closer to me, or at least that’s what he’d thought.
He was just as bad as all the rest of them, in fact he was worse.
At least Dom and Taylor were honest about who they were, they didn’t hide their cruelty, their obsession with violence. They wore it like a badge of honour.
But Andy hid, pretending and getting inside the defences of those he met.
“She needed to learn her lesson, this life is nothing but pain and hardship, Carrie, you know that. If we’re honest here I’ve helped her, I’ve given her a way out.”
He sighed and pushed his hands back through his hair as though he was dealing with an ignorant child who needed to know the harsh truths in the world.
“At least this way she won’t have to endure the pain her mother did. I can’t imagine being nothing more than a play thing to the men around you is a pleasant experience,” Andy said, staring down at the broken body still lying on the dock.
A dark pool had spread outwards from her head, her hair wet and even darker than before.
My stomach rolled and I gagged, my eyes watering as I tried to control my body’s urge to purge itself of the knowledge Andy had just shared with me.
I should have expected it, they were monsters, it made sense and yet I couldn’t help but look down at the woman on the dock and feel relief that it wasn’t me.
Guilt gnawed at me and yet I couldn’t change how I felt.
“She was your sister… Taylor’s daughter,” I said to no one in particular as the guard holding me started to walk me off the dock.
“She was nothing to me, just like she was nothing to my father. The only daughter he had is gone because of your family. And if you’re not willing to help us get her back then he will take your daughter instead,” Andy said, his voice filled with anger.
“You’ve stalled enough, Carrie, my father won’t wait forever.”
He stalked ahead and off the dock, leaving the guard to drag me after him.
Shrugging out of his grip once more, I shot him a black look.
“I can walk,” I snarled, folding my fingers a little tighter around the blade Andy had given me.
Whatever his reasons for arming me I would make him sorry he’d done it.
There was so much pain and unhappiness I would pay his family back for. And when I sank the blade into him I would do it for Rosa and her mother.
I would make them pay, all of them.
Chapter 14
As the house came into view, the glow from the windows made it look warm and inviting. The complete opposite of what it truly was. My legs grew heavier, each step becoming more deliberate and harder to take.
I didn’t want to keep walking towards it.
I wanted to turn and run screaming back into the night the same way Rosa had.
My throat closed over at the memory of her, the look of pure hatred in her eyes.
She hated me, whatever Andy had wanted her to do had been a failure and for that she was holding me accountable.
I certainly couldn’t blame her.
It was easier to blame other people when things fell apart and tonight Andy had made sure Rosa’s world hadn’t just fallen apart. He’d insured it had imploded.
I couldn’t imagine what it was like to watch someone you love die in front of you.
David and I had come close on so many occasions, to many occasions but we still had each other.
“Keep moving,” one of the guards growled in my ear, prodding me forward with the butt of his rifle.
It was an effort to keep my temper in check, I wanted to turn on him. To swing around and wipe the smug look from his face but it wouldn’t serve any purpose.
I’d end up hurt or worse…
David is close.
The voice in the back of my mind reassured me. All I needed to do was survive a little longer and then…
My mind conjured an image of David, on his knees Andy standing behind him his gun pressed to against David’s temple.
“Carrie, te amo!”
It was shock, watching Rosa’s mother die in such a horrific manner had effected me in ways I hadn’t imagined possible.
Andy was dangerous and he was more than capable of doing something like that to David if he was given the opportunity.
I stumbled as we reached the front door, my legs were like lead weights and the only thing that kept me moving was the feel of the blade in my hand inside my sleeve.
Andy had to know what I would do if I had the opportunity, it didn’t make any sense for him to give me the means to kill his father.
“Bring her in,” Taylor’s voice filled me with dread and my body halted, suddenly refusing to move forward.
I remembered the look in his eyes as he’d dug his fingers into my belly.
I wouldn’t let him kill my child.
The guard who had prodded me in the back with his gun just moments before did so again, this time nudging me hard enough that I practically fell.
But it was enough to snap me out of the panic that raged inside my head.
Hold on.
Fight.
Kill them.
Protect.
The words spun faster and faster in my head like a prayer to a deity that I wasn’t even certain existed.
But I needed someone to hear me, to help me
.
Following Andy into Taylor’s study I paused.
He sat in his chair, his brown eyes sparking with rage as he caught sight of me.
“I thought I told you what would happen if he set foot on this island,” Taylor said, pushing to his feet.
“He’s not here.”
“Yet,” he qualified, “I would have thought you smarter, Carrie. I honestly didn’t think I would need to teach you this lesson but you leave me with no choice. Dom…” Taylor said, nodding to someone behind me.
Fear sent my heart rate spiralling as Dom stepped into view, the look on his face turned the blood in my veins to ice.
“Father don’t you think it would be better if it you taught her the lesson…”
“Dom is more than capable,” Taylor said his dark eyes never leaving my face.
“But it’s your daughter they took and now you’ll take hers, wouldn’t it be more fitting if you had the honour…”
Dom’s hand pressed against my throat and he walked me back to the wall, the glint in his eyes as he produced a knife had my knees threatening to buckle.
My hands shook as I changed my grip on the blade Andy had given me. I would have only one shot at this and if I failed…
I couldn’t fail, wouldn’t fail.
Dom leaned in against me and pressed the tip of his blade against my abdomen.
My breathing halted, my body deathly still.
“Wait,” Taylor said with a sigh, “Andy is right it’s only fitting if I do it.”
Dom growled in frustration and edged the knife against my body.
“Step away from her, Dom. Give me the knife.”
“I can do this, Father, let me do this for you.”
“I said step the hell away from her!” Taylor exploded, his voice cracking around the room and Dom froze.
“Do you think me weak? That you need to do my dirty work for me? That I’m incapable of taking the life of her unborn brat? You forget who you’re talking to, I was the one who taught you, I was the one who gave you your first kill and now you will give me this.