by Nicole Fox
“Kill Op—al. Frame Van—essa—ah.”
“Frame Vanessa for Opal’s death?” What in the world? He was even more evil than Hunter could have possibly imagined. Whatever Vanessa had told him of Jeremy, she’d been far too nice. Jeremy might actually be the devil walking around in skin and bones.
“What’s the room number?”
“Top—floor.”
The man had gone pale and was barely breathing. Every word he spoke took enormous effort. He wouldn’t live another hour. Hunter considered for a moment. The man was probably in pain. He clung to life by threads because Hunter’s shot had been so close to main blood lines and hit near his heart. Calling an ambulance would do nothing for the man. Really, there was only one humane thing to do.
“Thanks for your help.” Hunter took out his gun again and shot him in the head.
The man slumped down, dead. Hunter wasted no more time. He had enough of the answers he needed. Now he had to get to Vanessa and Opal before Jeremy could kill one of them or hurt them worse than he had.
He ran to his car and slammed the pedal to the ground as soon as the car was started.
# # #
Vanessa watched as Jeremy tightened a tourniquet around her arm.
“What are you doing?” she asked. The other times she’d been given a shot to drug her, she’d been stabbed in the arm. This was different.
“You’ll see, darling. I just want to make you feel good. Give you a little taste of what I get to experience all the time.” He mixed some liquid together in a small cup, then sucked it up in a needle. “My favorite heroin, with just enough tranquilizer to make you think you’re in a dream.”
“Hunter will come,” she insisted. “He’ll save me.” Somehow he would find them. He’d go to where Opal had been, he’d see that she was gone. Maybe Mari’s parents had some information and could tell him something. She was counting on Nicholas being able to do the same for her. Hunter would barge through the door any moment and save the day.
Jeremy laughed. “Hunter? You want your little knight in shining armor to run in and whisk you off your feet, take you away into the sunset?”
“He’ll come.” Vanessa set her jaw.
“Oh, I’m counting on it. In fact, that’s part of my plan. It’s one thing to frame you for Opal’s death. But why not frame you both? If I leave one alive, there’s a chance that somehow, the truth would come out. This way, you’re both criminals that no one will listen to. You’ll sit in jail for years and years, paying for what you’ve done to me.”
“Me?” Vanessa was so deep in her emotions, she couldn’t contain her words. There’d been too much pain, and she no longer cared what she said. She hoped someone heard. One of his hired men. Let them know the real man they worked for. “You were the one who beat me. For years, you hit me and threw things at me, hurt me any way you could. You raped me, and forced me to do other things I didn’t want to do. If that wasn’t enough, you hit our child. You’re a sad junkie who lost everything by being a complete asshole. And because you have money, you’ve convinced people to think you’re special and to do what you say. But all you’re ever be is alone and miserable, living with what you’ve done. I hope you suffer every day. I hope you see our faces and it makes you sick.” She spit the words at him, but knew they would have little effect.
He grabbed her cheeks and squeezed hard. “You’re so cute when you’re trying to be indignant.” Then he let go and slapped her hard across the cheek. “You know nothing. You stupid woman. I had no choice but to put you in your place. A wife is meant to listen to her husband and do what he wants. If you’d tried being a good wife and mother, maybe I wouldn’t have had to discipline you. But you weren’t. And now you’ll pay.”
“Please don’t hurt Mommy,” Opal whimpered from by her side.
Vanessa looked over. Opal was awake now. They’d both been drugged and brought here. She figured it was some sort of hotel room, possibly an apartment. It was a large space. Several rooms and a small kitchen. They were in a bedroom. What made her think it was a hotel rather than an apartment were the signs on the doors. Escape plans. If only it were that simple.
What she didn’t know was what sort of hotel wouldn’t notice a woman and child being carried in unconscious. Did Jeremy have some sort of ownership in the hotel? Did he know the people and have them in his pocket, too?
Opal was crying, and every sound she made broke Vanessa’s heart. She wanted to reach over and comfort her daughter. She wanted to tell her it was going to be okay and to somehow make it be true. Maybe Hunter wouldn’t make it to them in time. Maybe Opal would be killed right before her eyes, and they’d go away forever. It seemed like the most likely thing.
After all, Jeremy always won. When he’d gotten her pregnant, her family and his made them get married. It wasn’t what he wanted, and it was the last time he’d lost at anything where Vanessa was concerned. Never mind the fact that Vanessa hadn’t wanted to be married to him, either. She had been perfectly fine being a single mother and leaving him out of it. But he’d held it against her. It was her fault for getting pregnant in the first place. Her fault for not getting rid of it quietly. Her fault that he was “stuck in this marriage,” as he often put it.
Every day since they got back from their short honeymoon, he’d been winning. He decided how things would go in the house, what the decor would be. He decided when the laundry and other cleaning would be done and who would do it—Vanessa of course. He decided what they watched on TV and what they would eat for dinner. When Vanessa was sick of it and through with trying to please her new husband, she tried sticking up for herself and voicing her own opinions. The first time he’d slapped her, she’d been so stunned, she almost run out the door to her mother’s house. But he’d stopped her, cried, and said he was sorry and that it would never happen again. She’d forgiven him and that night they had watched the movie she wanted to watch. He’d held her close, and it was maybe the greatest night of their marriage. Until the next week when she tried to surprise him with something different for dinner.
The hitting came more regular after that. Any time she did something he didn’t like, he’d smack her or punch her. One night after a particularly bad fight, he’d hit her hard enough for her to taste blood, and she’d tried to lock herself in the bathroom. He got the door open, and she refused to let him touch her. That was the first time he’d forced himself on her, and he seemed to get a taste for it. After-beating sex became a norm after that.
The first time Opal witnessed the fighting, when she was old enough to know what it meant, was when she finally told her mother. Opal had been up crying that Mommy had been hurt, and Vanessa didn’t know what else to do. Her mother had suggested she leave, but Vanessa had been too afraid. By the time she’d gotten enough courage, her mother had passed. Then, she had no place safe to go, unless she wanted to be on her own, which seemed even more impossible than leaving.
She’d tried, though. Five or six times at least; she’d made plans, gotten money, found a place. But she’d given up or he’d found out each time, and her plans were ruined. Until that last time. When he’d hit Opal hard enough that Vanessa had taken her to the hospital, that was what finally did it. She’d taken the money she had stashed from the last time she tried to leave and put her plan into action.
Of course, even in that, Jeremy had won in the end. Even though he’d agreed to the divorce, he’d found them quickly. Now they were all paying the ultimate price. He was done playing games. This would be the final go-around with him. The last fight. The one that ended it all. He would kill Opal, and send Vanessa to jail. And then he’d be rid of them both forever, just like he’d always wanted.
There was nothing Vanessa could do to stop it. This was happening. This was reality. Maybe Hunter would come, maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he would save them, maybe he wouldn’t. Whatever time she’d had with him, with Opal, when they were happy and free, that was all over now. That was a dream and her waking nightmare was unf
olding in front of her. She’d failed yet again, let Jeremy win yet again. She had never been able to protect Opal, and now she wasn’t even able to keep her alive. Opal’s life would be over and so would Vanessa’s. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.
She closed her eyes, still refusing to let Jeremy see her cry. She pictured Hunter and their last kiss.
A loud, sudden noise made her eyes fly open and abandon her daydream. Someone was firing gunshots. In another room. In the main room, maybe, where the entrance was.
Several more shots close the door. Jeremy was on his feet and pulled open the door. There was a haze of smoke. From the gunfire? Then, he stepped into sight. Tall, strong, covered in a thin layer of sweat and dirt. Hunter.
Vanessa let out a sigh with the strongest relief she’d ever felt.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Hunter
When Hunter saw the door open, Jeremy startled, Vanessa bound to the chair, with dead and bleeding men all around him, he felt every bit the hit man he was meant to be. He’d come to save and protect those he loved, and no one would stop him.
They weren’t alone in the room, though. Vanessa and Jeremy were there, but so was Opal and another of Jeremy’s thugs. The thug pulled out his gun, but Jeremy picked up a needle. He wasn’t sure for a moment what was going to happen, until Jeremy turned to Vanessa with a frantic look in his eyes and injected her with whatever concoction he’d prepared.
Hunter could play this any number of ways. Shoot Jeremy, but he was close to Vanessa and if he missed, it would hit her. Shoot the assassin seemed obvious, but he was close to Opal. And the worst part, Opal was watching Hunter like a hawk. And he didn’t want her to see any of this. It was also the least expected move.
He dashed across the bed. Not toward the obvious threats of Jeremy or the thug, but toward Opal. He crashed into the chair she was tied to and half caught her as she hit the floor. The chair broke, and she was free of it.
“Get under the bed,” he hissed at her. “Hide your face.”
That way she wouldn’t see what he was about to do, or what anyone else might do. She’d already seen far too much. That poor little girl would need years of counseling to get over all of this. Lord knows, Hunter needed it and never had it, and it messed him up big time.
He had a unique position on the floor. The element of surprise was already fading, though, and he needed to make his next move quickly. The men in the other rooms were all either dead or severely injured. The chances of one of them getting up or someone new coming in were slim, so it didn’t matter too much if he put his back to the door. It was still a place of possible vulnerability and if nothing else, he should shut it so he didn’t have to think too much about it.
The thug was closest. He was worried about Jeremy killing Vanessa while he fought the other man, but he could only focus on one at a time. If he put his attention on Jeremy primarily, that would leave the thug wide open to do whatever he liked. It seemed like Jeremy wasn’t too good with a gun, or he wouldn’t have hired so many killers to do his work for him. That made things clear.
Hunter lunged forward from his position on the ground. He grabbed the leg of the thug and sent him crashing to the ground. He didn’t drop his gun like Hunter hoped. Hunter crawled over the man and wrestled with him, trying to get the gun. But this guy was better trained than most of the others he’d fought.
Hunter’s knee pressed in the man’s groin, but the man turned and bucked him off, then punched him in the jaw. Hunter shook away the pain and rolled on top of the man’s gun.
He put his full weight on his shoulder, using the hard bones there to press into the man’s wrist, causing him to loosen his grip. The man let go of the gun, but positioned himself on top of Hunter.
With two free hands, he started quickly pummeling Hunter with punches. His jaw, his cheeks, his stomach. It didn’t take long for Hunter to push the man off, though. He reached up and punched him in the throat. The man gasped for air and in the second it took him to put his hand to his throat, Hunter tackled him.
The gun that had been on the floor was now in Hunter’s hand. He pressed it against the thug’s head and squeezed the trigger. His body jerked when the bullet tore through, then lay still. Hunter got up, gun still in hand, and turned to Jeremy.
Jeremy stared back, horrified. Hunter hoped he realized what a predicament he was in. That the man he’d hired to kill his wife was now turning on him, and all the other thugs he’d hired to protect him and go after Opal and Vanessa were now also dead. Hunter glanced at the bed. He couldn’t see Opal, so she must still be under there. Vanessa was in the chair, slumped over, but still breathing and moving. Now was his chance to take out all the anger he felt toward Jeremy for what he’d done.
He walked past him and kicked the door shut. Jeremy was frozen. Hunter pulled out his gun and shot him in the foot. Jeremy screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground.
Hunter stood over him, looking down with an evil smile. “You’ve hurt Vanessa for a long time, in a lot of ways. Now, it’s time for payback.”
Jeremy looked up at Hunter with real fear in his eyes. The look sent a thrill through Hunter to know he would make Jeremy suffer like he’d made the woman he loved suffer. He wanted to enjoy this as much as possible and make it hurt as badly as it could.
Hunter took out his knife. Jeremy wasn’t going anywhere with an injury like that. He could barely even fight back. Hunter made several long slashes across his chest, arms, and face. With each one, Jeremy cried out in pain and tried to hide from Hunter’s knife, only to receive another slash.
“What’s the matter? You don’t like it when people mistreat you?” Hunter kicked him several times in the ribs, making sure to hit hard enough to break them.
The slashing started to bore him, so Hunter pointed his gun at Jeremy’s knee. He pressed the gun directly against his knee cap and fired. Jeremy screamed again and Hunter immediately shot out his other knee cap.
“Stop, please,” Jeremy begged, whimpering and crying, clutching at his knees.
“Did you stop when Vanessa begged you to?” Hunter kicked him in the jaw. Blood dribbled from his mouth and he turned his head to spit out a tooth.
“Did you?” He kicked him again.
In the moment Hunter was deciding which way to hurt Jeremy next, he heard Vanessa make a noise. He looked over at her and froze. She was still slumped over, but she didn’t look good. Spittle dribbled from her mouth and her eyes were rolling back in her head.
She needed him more than Jeremy needed to be tortured. Hunter stuck his gun at Jeremy’s temple and pulled the trigger. Blood exploded over the floor. He turned to Vanessa. She fell to the side, her and the chair crashing to the ground.
# # #
The drugs hit Vanessa like hot butter being poured over her body. Her head immediately drooped forward and she couldn’t keep it up or straight. Her mouth felt loose. She’d never done drugs. The occasional pain killer from the dentist was about all the experience she had. This felt very wrong and very scary, but very good all at the same time. She was warm and pain-free and felt like everything was going to be okay.
She thought back to her happiest times. Meeting Hunter and how she’d been unsure of him at first. That made her smile. To think she almost walked away from the best thing that ever happened to her. Silly. But the way he was with Opal from even the beginning, winning her the bear at the fair. He was good guy.
She grinned widely and thought of their first date, how it’d been a little awkward, but she was so attracted to him. And of course, that made her think of their first kiss and first time together. She thought a little too much of that and it got her all warm and excited. She wanted him. Where had he gone, anyway?
She tried to pick up her head to see him, or turn, but it was difficult. Her head weighed a hundred pounds. But she heard gunfire. He must be killing someone, then. Oh good. She saw the side of him come into view and heard him ask Jeremy a question. Something about how he hurt her
. Aww, he was defending her. Hunter was so great.
No wonder she’d fallen in love with him. She thought of the conversations where he’d said he wanted to kill Jeremy for her and that he’d do anything to protect her and her daughter. Oh. Where was Opal anyway? Oh well, she was fine, surely. Hunter would make sure she was okay because that’s just what he did. He took care of them. He was there and he protected them. No wonder she loved him. She was lucky he loved her back. He could be like Jeremy and decide that she was no good. And that would be no good because she really liked—no loved—Hunter. Maybe, when this was all over, she’d even marry him.
As she pictured their wedding, she was seeing it bathed in bright white light, shining from above, like heaven calling to her. She started to let herself drift toward the light, but had a vivid realization. If she went to the light, that meant she was dying. She couldn’t be dying. Not now. Not yet.
Suddenly, she was panicking. Where was Opal? What was happening to her? Jeremy had been about to murder her. Had he succeeded? Jeremy had Opal. Jeremy had her. Jeremy had injected her with something. Something that might be killing her. And if she wasn’t dying, she might face a worse situation being alive if her daughter was dead. No, she couldn’t go toward heaven. She needed to face this hell happening on earth. She had to be here for Opal.