Trouble [New Crescent 1] (BookStrand Publishing Romance)

by Mary Lou George

  Gillian and Reggie exchanged looks in the rearview mirror. Marcus made note of it.

  “I wanted you the first time I saw you Gillian. I got all confused when I saw Regina again. I wanted to have you both. Besides, it’s your fault for pushing her at me after all those years.” He sounded petulant. He smiled and continued in a surreal, sing-song tone. “What luck, you lost your memory. That old man, Smythe, was there all the time, but I managed to keep all your friends out. I waited by your bedside for days wondering how I was going to deal with you when you woke. But all for nothing, you didn’t remember a thing! It was meant to be. I was given another chance.” He wrapped a tendril of Gillian’s hair around his finger and admired it. “I tried to take you that day at the apartment you know. I took the stairs and waited until the Tomasis left you. It didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped, but everything is perfect now. And ladies, two is definitely better than one.” The corners of his eyes crinkled in the way she’d once found so appealing; all pretenses disintegrated and he looked at her through the eyes of the demented.

  Chapter 28

  Travis’s heart dropped when he saw Aunt Ernestine waiting in the Sinclair driveway. Her lonely presence was a very bad sign. He’d barely brought the truck to a stop when Ernestine said, “Gillian and Chase went to get Reggie. They should have been back already.”

  “Damn it! I’ve got almost everyone out trying to find that bastard, Marcus.” He called the office and Caroline picked up the phone. He didn’t get a chance to say anything when she interrupted him. “Thank God, Travis, we just got a report from Regina Stanton’s neighbors. They think they heard a gun shot and I’m the only one here right now.” Poor Caroline was terrified.

  “Thanks, Caro. I’ve got it.”

  He turned to Ernestine and she nodded as if she knew what Caroline had reported. She turned with more agility than her age would suggest and over her shoulder, said, “Go after her now. Sam will meet you there.”

  He barely heard her last words as he peeled out of the drive. Travis wasn’t surprised when he spied Sam’s Mercedes in the rear view mirror, closing the gap. Sam was right behind him as he pulled up outside Reggie’s home. Neither said a word as they moved to her door, quickly and quietly. Travis entered first with Sam right behind him. It was dim and very quiet inside. His weapon in hand, Travis moved through the apartment efficiently, as Sam knelt beside a moaning Chase.

  “They’re gone.” Travis said as he used his cell to call for assistance. Sam helped Chase to sit up and, reassured his friend was alive, he turned to Hank. Travis’s desperate gaze met Sam’s over the big dog’s motionless body.

  Sam rested his ear on Hank’s chest and finally nodded to Travis. “He’s still alive, but just barely. He can’t wait for help. I’ll have to take him in my car.” The look Travis gave him said it all. “Save him.” Instinctively Travis knew Hank’s fate was intertwined with Gillian’s and his own. The brave dog had to live. He willed it so, just as Gillian had, before Marcus forced her out of the apartment.

  Chase used Travis’s arm and the back of the sofa to gain his footing and he rose. Finding his voice, he uttered a string of profanities so creative, he surprised both his friends.

  “That son of a bitch Marcus has Reggie and Gillian. Where is he?” He rubbed his head and examined the blood on his hand.

  Travis and Sam carried Hank to the car. An ambulance and a police car pulled up as Travis headed back to Chase. He told his deputy what had happened and sent him to interview the neighbors, hoping they saw which direction Marcus had taken. The paramedics wanted to take Chase to the hospital for observation but he waved them off, swearing he’d be fine.

  “We don’t know where he’s taken them. I’ve got the whole department out looking for him. The bastard’s been here all along. His mother’s house was searched and they found no sign of him.”

  “Does Marcus own any other property around this county? Didn’t his mother have family not far from town?” Chase asked.

  Travis shrugged and they both cried “Aunt Ernestine” in concert. He punched the number “What was Althea Stevens’s maiden name?”

  “Toaze.” Her voice was dead steady.

  “Do you remember if they lived in this county and if so, where?”

  “Yes, the Toaze family owned a lot of property around here once. They had a place at the end of Dawes road and huge parcel of land off County Road Nine. I have no idea who owns all that property now. I think it’s gone to ruin.”

  “I need directions to both locations.” He turned to Chase. “I’ll send my deputies to one and we’ll take the other.”

  Ernestine gave him directions to the Toaze properties. “You and Chase take the farmhouse. They’re most likely to be there. That was Althea’s childhood home. Keep your eyes peeled for a laneway. The house isn’t visible from the road and I would imagine the drive is almost completely overgrown.”

  “Thanks.” Travis said, and hung up. He turned to Chase, “You sure you can do this? I could use your help.”

  “Just a headache. You’re not going without me.” Chase said.

  To Regina’s discerning eye the farmhouse would have been beautiful if anyone had taken care of it. It was obvious that Marcus had been living in it. He’d made two of the rooms almost livable.

  “I do apologize for the house’s condition but since no one could know I was here, I couldn’t get the place spiffed up”

  He pushed each woman onto hard, ladder-back chairs and tied them securely. He placed them side by side facing him as he walked around the room caressing objects and waving the gun in their direction, obviously very pleased with himself and in the mood to brag.

  “I’m in control now! I have the power of life and death over you both. You’re mine. My God, I had no idea how wonderful this would feel! All those years ago Regina, when you left me, my mother reminded me no one would love me the way she did. And she did love me, at least when my father wasn’t home. I was her beloved then. She was all mine. She liked to touch. Her touch was heaven but she always rejected me when Dad came home. She didn’t like you Reggie.” Then he giggled like a child. “I think she was jealous.” His giggle ended abruptly and his voice turned cold. “Well, at least she got a little of her own medicine. I caught them! She’d put on our music for him! Our music—hers and mine! They both acted like nothing happened. Travis even had the nerve to look confused when I confronted him with it!” He pounded his fist on an old table. “But I knew! I could see it in her eyes. She wanted him.” He shook his head, “No, no, she was mine. Mine…yes…mine.” His voice trailed off and he started to sob like a child.

  Gillian and Reggie, while repulsed by the relationship Marcus was describing, felt no pity for him. Each was desperately working the cords that tied their hands. Marcus turned the gun on Gillian and both women froze. He’d stopped sobbing but his voice still held a note of desperation.

  “I thought I’d found love again when I met you, Gillian. So beautiful and so strong, but you were always too busy for me. I got tired of your dismissals and finally decided to take what I wanted. That’s what all strong women need; a man who can control them. That’s what my mother needed; but I was too young to understand and I failed her.”

  He ran a hand down Reggie’s throat, and kept the gun pointed at Gillian. “Well, I understand now and I won’t fail either of you. I know what you both need.” He rested on his heels in front of them, his face just inches away, the gun still aimed. “Those other women were just practice. Now I know just how much persuasion to use, how much force. I know just what the female body can withstand; what causes pain, mental and physical. What maims and what kills.” He smiled as he felt Reggie flinch from his touch. “You both need me now. You both have to depend on me for everything.”

  He tilted his head towards Gillian and she forced herself not to cringe as he touched her lips with his. The contact was almost more than she could bear. She knew what he was feeling in that brief moment and she wanted to struggle, to
scream, but instead, she pushed the impulse away and said calmly. “I never knew how you felt Marcus.”

  Her tender manner confused him and he frowned but he couldn’t resist Gillian’s gentle tone. In a plaintive voice, he said, “I wanted to make a home for us in New Crescent. I’m part of this town too. My family has roots here. We were supposed to be happy together. I set the whole thing up. All you had to do was need me. I watched you, you know. Could you feel me? We are connected, meant to be together. You belong to me.”

  “Yes, Marcus, I could feel you. I just didn’t know it was you.” Gillian spoke softly, persuasively. “My mind was all messed up. You knew that. You were there for me.”

  “Yes, you needed me.”

  “I need you now, too.”

  He nodded and smiled. His full attention was focused on Gillian and what she was saying.

  “But Marcus, you know what jealousy is like, don’t you?” He frowned at her and she continued in the same, soft voice. “I get jealous too, you know. Do we really need Regina here? Can’t it just be the two of us?”

  Reggie looked at Gillian with concern. It was obvious what she was trying to do and Reggie didn’t like it. “If you think…”

  Gillian interrupted her and continued to persuade. “See, Marcus? She’ll only get in our way. Let’s let her go, so we can be alone together. Let it be our business alone. We don’t need anyone else. I need you; only you.” Gillian knew as soon as she’d uttered the last two words that she’d said the wrong thing”

  “Liar!” Pulling away, he screamed at her, “Bitch! You lying whore! I know! You’ve taken Travis Sinclair to your bed. How could you do that? You’re mine!” He leaned close again and sniffed her. “You stink of him!” Frantic, he started to pace, panting with each stride. He talked nonsense under his breath but continued to hold the gun. Silently, Gillian and Reggie worked on the cords that bound them.

  Travis turned off the headlights as he pulled the truck alongside the overgrown hedge. They could see Reggie’s Land Rover out front. Travis said, “Right out in the open. He’s not being so careful now. That should work for us.” He used his cell to call for back up but he had no intention of waiting for it.

  “I’ll go around the back,” Chase said.

  Quietly, they crept out of the truck and moved towards the derelict house. They could see one light shining dimly in what could have been a living room. Through the crack of a boarded up window, Travis could see the shadow of a man pacing about the room. He stood outside the front door and waited for Chase to signal he was in position. They’d agreed Chase would send a text message to Travis and ten seconds later they’d enter the house as quietly as possible. Marcus had a gun and Travis didn’t want to startle him. The stakes were too high. He knew despite all regulations, he’d bargain with this man for Gillian and Reggie’s lives. He’d give his life if he had to.

  In that moment, Travis regretted never having told Gillian how much he loved her and how lucky he felt to have her in his life, in any capacity she chose.

  There it was; the signal. He counted to ten and, painstakingly, soundlessly he entered the ramshackle house.

  Marcus was ranting uncontrollably now, moving around his prisoners stroking their faces. He ran his fingers through their hair and down their bodies, possessively.

  “How does it make you feel, Gillian, knowing I killed that mangy dog of yours?” He laughed when her chest heaved as she controlled a sob. “Ah, mental pain can be just as pleasurable as physical. The strong ones always take the longest, but you’ll be mine. I’m all you have. My touch will be the last thing you’ll ever know, ever feel. All mine.” He stood behind them and crouched so his face was level with theirs, the gun still in his hand. He stroked Regina’s cheek with his free hand and she pulled away.

  Reggie rammed her head against his as hard as she could, head butting him. “You’re a sick, pathetic, little turd.”

  Marcus touched his bruised forehead and slapped Reggie hard. He grabbed her short hair and with his face just millimeters from hers, he said, “That’s my girl. You’re so spirited. I will enjoy crushing that in you. There’s no pleasure in controlling the weak.”

  Chase moved silently into the gloomy living room and Reggie caught sight of him from the corner of her eye. She showed no reaction and stayed silent, praying Marcus hadn’t detected the movement.

  No such luck. “Hold it there! Now, slowly move into the open, boys.” Using the women as a shield, he squeezed Regina’s throat and pressed the gun to Gillian’s temple. Both Travis and Chase froze. “I could kill them both before you move another muscle. What will it be, Travis? Maybe, I’ll give you a choice? Your friend or your lover?” He smiled and licked Regina’s cheek. She shuddered with revulsion and Marcus, smiling at his reaction, turned his attention to Chase. “Chase, it’s been years since I’ve thought of you. I should have ignored Regina and killed you at her place.”

  Blocking out his rants, Gillian suddenly found the answer! It was so simple. She took a deep breath and almost laughed triumphantly as she finally understood what she needed to do. Of course! She’d been fighting it and the answer was there all the time. She didn’t need control. She needed to lose control. She had to trust Travis and loosen the tight rein she’d kept on herself, to take what power was offered to her. That’s the only way they’d survive this. It wasn’t just the four of them at stake in this moment, but everything they cared about. The entire town would break apart if Marcus won this fight. She could feel it. When her eyes met Travis’s she mentally ripped herself open, grasping whatever power she could find. She took it all, completely, without concern for herself. For the first time in her life she risked everything, her very soul. Eyes locked, Travis gave her everything he had. Their thoughts joined seamlessly and they acted as one. They were ready. Focused entirely on each other, Travis and Gillian smiled, fearless, maybe even invincible.

  The air in the room changed. It became thick and movement slowed somehow. Marcus seemed oblivious to it as he continued to taunt them, savoring his power. Reggie and Chase, aware they were about to witness something extraordinary, braced themselves.

  Suddenly realizing he’d lost his audience, Marcus paused in confusion. Gillian threw herself violently to the right, upsetting the chair and striking Marcus with force. Struggling to maintain his balance, he tried to point the gun directly at Travis’s chest but the air still had that strange, heavy quality. The air itself resisted him. Like running in water, he moved too slowly and his shot missed its target.

  Travis dropped to his knees and took aim. Marcus fell to the floor, bleeding from the chest and Chase kicked his gun away. No longer in control, Marcus started to whine and keen incoherently, his madness unmistakable. The air cleared and the sound of sirens pierced the air.

  Gillian started to sob as Travis wrapped her in his arms. “He shot Hank, Travis. He’s gone!”

  The paramedics tried but there was nothing to be done for Marcus. He bled out on the floor of his mother’s childhood home, spewing his madness until the very end.

  Chapter 29

  Travis and Gillian sat huddled together, alone in the waiting room. Reggie had insisted on going with Chase to the hospital to check his head wound and he didn’t have the energy to argue with her.

  Gillian and Travis looked up as Sam approached. “Hank is going to be all right. The bullet missed all major organs but he lost a lot of blood. We lost him once, but he rallied. It was miraculous. You have some dog there, Gillian.”

  “Oh thank God, thank God.” She was crying with relief.

  It was almost dawn when Sam, Travis and Gillian arrived at the Sinclair estate. The whole town was there waiting for their return. Sandy Johnson and Marcie Maitland were the first to see them and sent up a cheer. Sandy looked relaxed and happy for the first time since the whole thing began. A bright smile shone through the bruises on Marcie’s face and she was herself again. Magnus Stark and Dee Dee Esterhouse stood side by side, the hydrangea bush incident a thing of
the past.

  Greeted like returning heroes, Travis and Gillian marveled at the deafening sound that felt like music. It really was a remarkable town.

  Still wound up after the crowd thinned out, Travis did the talking. Gillian added a few things here and there but mostly she was content to sit beside him on the patio swing and listen.

  “It was Marcus who attacked Gillian at her apartment so many months ago. She’d managed to get away from him. He’d followed her to the lobby of her building and struck her from behind. I think kidnapping was the intention all along. Thank God, he didn’t succeed.” He squeezed Gillian’s shoulder. “The amnesia was a real advantage for him. It gave him the chance to get closer to Gillian, monitor her progress, even control her. That was his thing. It’s remarkable how he was able to hide his insanity for so long.”

  “I hadn’t a clue how sick he was until the day he attacked me in my apartment.” Gillian explained. “Then of course the memory loss...I was a mess in the hospital and he was so kind. It’s hard to believe it was the same person.” She shuddered.

  “The man never really had a hope in hell of being normal. When they searched his mother’s house, they found dozens of her journals. I imagine they’ll tell a pretty sick story once they’ve been read thoroughly. In short, she’d been molesting Marcus since he was ten. When her husband was working, Althea took a replacement to her bed; her own son. She was the reason Marcus and I fought. I was too young to see she was coming on to me, but Marcus knew immediately. I suppose, after all those years, he knew the signs.”

  “It’s really creepy knowing he was here all this time watching…the horrible things he did to those poor girls,” said Ruth.

  “He was here the day I arrived and he never left. In a way, he was here because of me,” said Gillian.