by Maxine Storm
And then for a moment, peace, as my mind fled somewhere else. The memory of Armand warming me. His faith in me. I was about to lose consciousness, perhaps for good, but it gave me another burst of will to survive.
And then suddenly, Maximilian's grip loosened from my throat.
I sucked in a volume of air - the now unfamiliar coolness burned my throat but instinctively I gulped as much as I could.
Maximilian's heavy body pressed against mine, like he was stumbling.
What the hell was going on?
And then, I heard a loud thwack, of steel against bone, and Maximilian stumbled off to the side.
My eyes widened.
There he was.
Armand.
Armand standing before me.
He had a metal pipe in his hand, like something he found in the darkness of the dilapidated and purposely unfinished halls of Power.
"You sick fuck," Armand said to Maximilian. "The police are on their way. But they'll be lucky if they find you alive when I'm done with you."
Armand held up the metal pipe like a bat and charged towards Maximilian.
Maximilian, still reeling from the previous blow, could only raise a meager arm up to his head to soften Armand's strike.
Yet Armand swung the pipe with a vengeance, and the loud crack of Maximilian's arm shattering against it filled the room.
Maximilian screamed in agony as Armand set upon him.
Armand picked up the pipe and struck Maximilian again, hard in the ribs, and Maximilian laid motionless on the ground.
Armand looked contemptuously at Maximilian, as if he were about to break him for good. As much as I wanted to see Maximilian pay for what he tried to do to me, and what he did to Britney, I knew that if Armand unleashed his rage that we would be in just as bad a position as before.
But before I could call out for Armand, Armand hurried towards me. I was more important to him than blood for blood revenge.
"Are you OK?" he asked me, while unlocking the handcuffs. "Did he hurt you?"
I was finally freed. I wrapped my arms around Armand, oblivious to the numbness and pain that I had put up with.
I pressed my face into his chest and let the tears flow.
"Yes," I said. "Thank you. I'm OK."
He put down the pipe and held me tightly with one arm and ran his hand down my hair with his other hand.
"Thank God you're alive, Janet," he said. "If he did anything to you..."
I could feel his body stiffening with rage at the thought that something worse could have happened to me.
"I'm OK, Armand, please, don't worry. He just tied me up here. But he didn't do anything."
"I should kill him right now for all of this," he said, his eyes suddenly tensing with fury. "I'll break his fucking jaw first. I'll break every bone in his body. I want him to suffer for even trying to harm you."
Armand bent down to pick up the pipe again, but I put my hand over his.
"Please, don't, Armand," I said. "It's not worth it. He's not worth it."
Armand looked at me, debating whether to give in to his rage or not.
"You said the police were coming, before?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "I told them to come here due to an assault and kidnapping taking place."
"They'll be here soon, then," I said. "You'll be arrested if you hurt Maximilian any further. I just want this all to stop. I just want to be alone again with you in peace."
Armand looked at me, his features sharp against the shadows of the dim room.
"I want that, too, Janet. I've been wanting that since we met."
He kissed me softly and I was transported to another world, the one I had been longing for, and missing in his absence, the world I was meant to share with him.
Chapter 41
"How did you know I was trapped there by Maximilian?" I asked Armand, finally sitting up in his bed at his place. It was the day after Armand took me home. I nearly slept for an entire day. The stress, fatigue, anxiety, all had to be filtered out of my system.
"It was through the chip you were given by Global Eye," Armand explained. "You left it at my place before we fought. I knew something was going on, and that you were getting in too deep with the assignment they gave you against me. So when you were out, I entered your apartment, and used it transfer over your files from your computer. I read some of the correspondence you had saved with Global Eye about me and your assignment. I knew it wasn't going to end well for you if I didn't do something."
"You read my files?" I said, aghast. "How could you do that?"
Armand shook his head, suggesting I didn't understand.
"Only the work pertaining to me. I read between the lines and I understood why you were nervous around me. I know Maximilian well. Too well. I put everything together and knew he was planning something. You had to tell someone at Global Eye after we fought, and I knew after that you'd be in danger."
I didn't say anything, and rubbed the bed sheet between my fingers, wondering what exactly happened.
"I knew you were going to be hurt, Janet," Armand said. "They did it to Britney. I wasn't going to allow them to hurt anyone else."
"You knew about Britney?" I said.
"We were never close. Never as close the way you and I are. We just chatted. She kept her distance. But she must have discovered the dirty truth about Global Eye and Maximilian because of how inquisitive she was. She tried to text me but it was too late. They killed her, the same way they were going to kill you if I didn't intervene. I wasn't going to allow them to hurt someone again. Especially you."
It was starting to make sense. Britney never deserved to die. I could have ended up like her if Armand didn't step in.
"I understand, Armand. But how did you know Maximilian was going to take me to Power?"
"The chip you gave me was also able to track your phone using GPS, so I knew 100% where you were going. But I didn't need it. I know how he thinks by now. We've been fighting since I can remember. It was going to be his best attempt at framing me. It would be disastrous in the public eye. It would be devastating to me if he laid a finger on you."
Armand stopped speaking. He looked at me intensely and raised his hand to feel my cheek.
"Thank God nothing happened," he said.
Tears welled up in my eye and I held his hand with mine. I could barely clasp around his whole hand so I used both of mine to hold him tightly.
"You are so beautiful, Janet. I wouldn't know what to do if you...if anything was done to you."
Armand clenched his other fist but I rubbed the hand still near my cheek to soothe him.
"I'm OK, Armand. You saved me. I knew you would be there for me. Even in the darkness, even when I was most afraid."
"I would never let anyone hurt you," Armand said.
I pulled Armand's hand toward me and he sat beside me against the bed board and wrapped his around me.
I ran my hand along his arm and felt more protected than ever.
"Armand," I started, "what is it between you and Maximilian? How did this all start?"
Armand's fist clenched again and I rubbed his arm once more to calm him.
He looked at me and nodded.
"Remember I told you about when I was growing up? How my father used to beat my mother and eventually abandoned us, leaving me to fend for ourselves?"
I nodded.
"Yes, Armand. I remember everything."
Armand shifted his jaw from side to side.
"Maximilian," he said, "is my father."
I couldn't believe it. What kind of terrible father would treat his son and wife in such a way?
"He abandoned us when we had nothing. We could barely eat. He left us and started a business with some old friend of his. It started booming during heyday of the news business. He was always crooked, so he'd get well paid by other corrupt people to write bullshit stories for them. It grew from there. He was raking it in. We didn't get one cent from him. We were dead, worth less th
an nothing to him. No contact."
"That's so awful, Armand," I said. "I had no idea."
"Nobody knows," Armand said. "I wanted this to be my own battle. For myself, and for my mother. It was my mission to excel and fight back. We've been in skirmishes ever since. He hated that I succeeded. He hated that I didn't give up. He hated that I was honest. It was just his sick pride. I proved him wrong and he couldn't take. If he hurt you, and had me blamed, it would have been total victory in his eyes. He would have tried to destroy the one I loved and destroy me in the process."
I twisted and held Armand so closely I could feel his heart beat through his thick chest.
"I'm so sorry he treated you so terribly, Armand," I said. "You never deserved that. You and your mom never deserved any of that. You are the most amazing man I've ever met and you proved him wrong the day you decided you wouldn't be like him."
Armand wrapped his arm around mine. He tilted my head towards him and kissed me softly.
"I've never told anyone that before, Janet," he said. "You're the only one. I couldn't trust other people and I knew no one would understand."
I stroked Armand's arm.
"It was terrible what he did," I said. "I know you've overcome whatever he tried to put in your way."
"I overcame it," Armand said, "because of you. I was waiting for someone who I could trust. Someone who deserved my trust."
"Armand, you're the only man who I've been with like this. The first person who I could talk to so intimately."
Armand smiled.
"And I didn't mean to hide anything from you before, about Global Eye," I said. "I was lost and confused and conflicted. I didn't want to lose you. I couldn't lose you."
Armand put his finger over my lips softly.
"Shh," he said. "I understand. Forget it all. I should have listened to you better. I was just frustrated. Upset. Enraged about what they might do to you if they found out. Worried if they were going to hurt you."
I held his hand and kissed it. I felt the same butterflies in my stomach the first time I did when he and I met.
"I can't believe I met you, Janet," Armand said. "You drove me fucking crazy when I first saw you. You drive me crazy now. Damn it, I want to have you right now."
I looked up to him and my eyes widened like the moon.
"Armand," I said, "I need to be with you. The way we were before. I want you to take me. I've been missing you so bad."
Suddenly Armand crawled on top of me and pinned me down onto the bed.
"You were so damn sexy when I first saw you, Janet," he said. "You're even sexier now."
He kissed me deeply and my chest lit on fire from the heat as my body yearned so badly for his.
"Please, Armand," I said. "I've been waiting for this."
"I've been waiting for this, too," he said.
He kissed me again and it was like a thousand fires burst forth again in the darkness that was overtaking my life spent away from him. It was stronger than any time we had ever been together. It was a longing for him, for him and forever.
He turned my head to the side and bit my neck and my back arched so strongly it almost lifted his body up from the bed. I shut my eyes and felt the waves of lust course through my body, every nerve thinking "Armand, Armand, Armand."
He pulled down his pants and unveiled himself, every nerve flush with desire. I felt his hand undress me without hesitation and the warmth of his body as he neared me, slowly entering, slowly making himself one with me again. My eyes shut and my arms instinctively wrapped around his back, feeling his thick cords of muscle like pillars that shielded me from the rest of the world. He rocked his hips back and forth, steadily driving himself into me, his breath hurried and warm, each exhale like a whisper telling me what I have been waiting to hear for so long.
He raised his head so he was face to face with me, and wrapped his hands around my temples, cradling me gently, bringing my soul back to life with all his masculine energy.
"Janet," he moaned, "I need to have you like this."
He bared down on my body, his abs rubbing against my stomach, the heat rising throughout our bodies, the climax generating between us like a supernova, exploding into a new world.
Armand moaned and my arms pulled him tightly against me, drawing him close, drawing him so closely as he drew out all the pleasure that could be taken from body, for him, for me, for us.
It was time for us, it was so meant for us to have this, and my body felt totally alight, the waves of pleasure radiating uncontrollably throughout me as if they were fusing with his. He swelled inside of me, finally erupting forcefully, and every contraction we shared, every pulse of nerves, energy, excitement, shared, finally consumed, finally consummated.
Our bodies shook together and there was no time, only us, together, locked as one being, in bliss, and I lost where I ended and he began. I only knew that it didn't matter, that we were meant to share this incomparable moment and connection.
Armand brushed my hair from my face and looked deeply into my eyes. I knew everything we had gone through was finally worth it. Every struggle and moment of doubt, worth it. The quest for something real that we had always been searching for was finally over. We had found it.
"I love you, Janet."
"I love you, Armand."
Chapter 42
Armand
She was the one I wanted.
When I first saw her, I knew I had to have her.
There was no one else. There was no one comparable.
Finally. We were together.
We were one.
Chapter 43
Epilogue - 6 Months Later
I had been working for Armand since I left Global Eye.
He's taught me so much. He's truly a business genius. Each day I think about how lucky I am to be so close to him, to be able share our time together in business and in pleasure.
I'm doing a lot of stories on local people in the city, discovering the amazing histories of the many communities that go unnoticed. And I'm working on book on my experiences. I want it to be a motivational book for people looking for a new career. After all, I went through quite the experience in establishing mine.
I breathed a gigantic sigh of relief when Maximilian pled guilty to the murders of Britney and Philip. Armand had plenty of information collected on him throughout the years. Maximilian definitely picked the wrong guy to mess with.
But Armand didn't help out the prosecutor just because of a grudge. He wanted Maximilian to face justice for putting me in danger. And despite Armand's tough exterior, he believes in fairness, in doing the right thing. In helping people and raising them up, not punching them down. That's also why he got into the media business. He wanted to give a voice to people, because his and his mother's was taken away when they were young by Maximilian. This case was personal and philosophical for him.
I was sitting on the couch watching TV with Armand, unwinding, later in the day after we found out about Maximilian's guilty plea. That's when my phone rang. An unknown number.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Janet?" said a woman's voice.
"Yes. Speaking. Who is this?" I said.
"It's Alex."
I didn't say anything. I never heard or saw Alex after the night Armand rescued me from Maximilian. I asked some ex-colleagues but they had no idea where she had gone. She just disappeared.
"Alex," I said. "Where are you?"
"I can't tell you, Janet."
"Are you OK?"
"I'm OK. I can't talk long."
"What's going on, Alex?"
"I wanted to say that I'm sorry, Janet. I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry for Philip and Maximilian putting you in danger like that. I'm sorry for anything that could have happened to you."
I had no words. Alex apologizing. Out of nowhere.
"Janet, are you there?" Alex asked.
"Yes," I stammered. "I'm here."
"I'm sorry for everything," Alex said. "I was just desp
erate. Lost. Not sure what to do. I bought into the cult Maximilian had running. I couldn't think straight and I would just do whatever he said. Inside of me, I really didn't want you to get hurt. But it's like I had no choice."
"It's OK," I said. "It's in the past now. I've moved on."
I heard Alex sigh.
"Thank you, Janet."
"Are you alright?" I asked.
"I can't say much right now, Janet. I have to go. I saw that Maximilian pled guilty and I had to get everything off my chest."
"I understand," I said.
"I have to go, Janet."
"OK."
"Bye."
"Bye, Alex."
Click.
I put the phone down. I felt disoriented, yet relieved at what just happened.
"Who was it?" Armand asked, running his hand along my arm.
"It was Alex," I said. "She wanted to apologize."
Armand's eyes widened.
"Wow," he said.
I just sat back down the couch with Armand and cuddled up with him.
"I'm just glad that whole thing is over," I said. "I want to move on now to something new. Something with you."
"We will, Janet," Armand said. "We will. There's no else I want to be with."
I rested my head on Armand's chest. Armand ran his fingers through my hair gently and I felt protected in his total embrace of who I am.
"I love you, Janet."
"I love you, Armand."
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