by Bry Ann
The only positive thing going on in my life was that Mac and I would spar at the gym after hours, and I mean really spar. It helped me stay calm with everything going on. There was something about coming home a little bloody — either mine or his; didn’t matter — that was just inherently calming to me.
I loved X. There was no doubt about that.
I didn’t want to lose him, but I still had no idea what I was going do with my life. I knew it was about time to leave X’s parents’ house, and every morning, the weight of the decisions I had to make became heavier and heavier to carry. Despite being a couple, I felt myself holding back with X now more than ever. My fear of the future was like a dark cloud hanging over my head, suffocating me.
Since we became a couple, X told me I could use his car anytime. If he needed to go to boxing or something, he’d ask Mac or call me to pick him up. I had never used his car without asking him, but I needed to today. X’s parents left last night for a quick twenty-four-hour getaway, and X and his dad had a long talk on the porch before they left. I knew that talk revolved around the fact that X and I were being extremely immature and avoiding each other at all costs. We both occasionally mentioned our futures and leaving X’s parents’ house in passing, but anytime we went to talk to each other about it in depth, one of us would make an excuse to change the subject, kiss the other one as a diversion, or just flat out leave.
I quietly snuck out of the house before X woke up. I put the car in drive and sped out of the driveway. I went to a local coffee shop and sipped on passion tea while I read some random book I found in the downstairs bathroom. I read for several hours before I realized how ridiculous this all was. I was avoiding X again. My self-doubt and fear almost caused me to lose him once, and it was about to ruin any chance I had at making our relationship a lasting one. I bolted out of the coffee shop and back towards the house. X would be just waking up, and we needed to talk. We were just starting out in our relationship. It was too early for us to be having issues, especially when they were simply from lack of communication.
When I got to the house, I ran through the front door, threw my keys on the stairs, and let my purse fall from my shoulder into my left hand.
“X? X?” I called out. “We need to talk.”
No response.
“X?”
He wasn’t on the couch where I’d left him. I walked through the living room. The further I got in the house, the more unsettled I felt.
“X?” I called out as I headed into the kitchen.
I glanced around the kitchen and didn’t notice anything until I looked at the door that led to the backyard. Blood. I held back a scream and held my purse closer as I walked to the door and started to open it. My heart was pounding uncontrollably in my chest because some how I knew – I knew what I was going to see when I opened the door.
The door swung open.
Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.
Ryan was holding X with his hands behind his back and a gun to his head, and X was bleeding…badly. He’d been stabbed. He didn’t look beaten, though. There was just a single stab wound. Around them were several of Ryan’s men and Brandon. Brandon?
I felt myself go white and stumbled back a few steps. X looked at me with deep concern. He was bleeding a lot but still upright, staying strong. He wasn’t fighting, and I knew it was because there were guns pointed at me. If he had fought, I would have been dead already. If he fought before I got there, they would have shot me, before I even opened the door. The stab wound was simply to have stunned him long enough to lead him to the backyard. It wasn’t intended to maim or seriously injure.
“Alyyyy…” Ryan said with an exaggerated friendliness. “Glad you could join us. Why don’t you come on out here and shut the door?”
I looked at X, and he looked downright pissed. Underlying his anger, though, I could tell was a whole lot of worry. I took a few hesitant steps forward and shut the door behind me. I walked into the middle of the backyard. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of X’s injury or the gun pointed at his head. The only thing I could feel, however, was Brandon’s eyes on me and it made me want to puke. If having a gun pointed at X and being trapped in the backyard with Ryan wouldn’t have already set my teeth on edge, Brandon being there brought me to the point of tears. I tried to stifle back the memories he bought up. He had been my best friend, someone I had confided in, and someone I thought would have had my back. I tucked my purse in close to my body and quickly pulled out the gun I had bought ages ago.
“Let him go,” I said, pointing the gun at Ryan. “Now.”
“What the fuck, Aly?” X gasped. “Where the hell did you get that?”
Brandon stepped forward, but Ryan put a hand out to stop him.
“Well, well, Aly, you are always full of surprises. I thought you were Christian,” he said, paying no attention to the gun I had pointed at his head.
I glanced at Brandon. “I do what I have to. Now let him go,” I said, jerking the gun and clicking the safety off.
“See, here’s the thing, Aly. If you pull that trigger, my men will pull theirs. You can’t kill me without killing yourself.”
“Aly,” X warned. “Put it away.”
I kept my gun where it was.
“What’s he doing here?” I asked, gesturing to Brandon. “I’m surprised you didn’t loop my dad in. I’m sure he wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on the chance to torture me again.”
“You see, this is where it gets entertaining, Aly,” Ryan said with a smile.
I glanced over at X, and he was breathing deep to try and manage the pain, but the minute he saw me looking at him, his face went back to neutral.
“After you told me what happened to your arm, I knew I had to bring them in.”
“You did WHAT?!” X yelled.
I took a step back but steadied the gun. Somehow X yelling at me made me cower more than anything else going on.
“Oh yeah,” Ryan jumped in. “I asked why the hell her arm looks like it went through a meat slicer and she told me.”
“No, it wasn’t like that,” I said desperately to X. Tears started to fall down my face. I felt out of control. “It was the day you went to the bar. Ryan told me he knew where you were. I was so scared you were going to drink, do drugs, all the stuff that you know is bad for you! I was so worried. So I agreed to tell him what happened to my arm and in return he told me what bar you went to. I never thought this would happen. I couldn’t have known.” I started crying harder. “I’m so sorry.”
“Jesus, Aly,” X groaned. “I told you to stay away.”
I looked at my feet. “I’m sorry.”
Then, Ryan jumped in again. “Back to my fucking story! I had a plan going already, but once I knew there were other people out to get you, Aly, I knew I had to rope them in as well. It was even better that it was your own family.”
I winced as he said this. Hearing the reality of my situation from another person – especially someone who had made X’s life miserable – was painful, really painful.
“Brandon came easily, but it took a while to find your dad.”
“Oh really, where is he then?!” I yelled.
X was bleeding. He needed to get out of here.
“Dead,” Ryan said with a shrug. “Hung himself.”
“What? My dad’s dead?” I said as my skin went ghost white. He’s dead. My dad’s dead.
“Yeah. Fucking disappointment. He left a note too.”
“What did it say? Tell me what it said!”
“Oh, that he’s sorry. He hates himself. He hopes you’ll forgive him. Blah blah blah.”
“He did?” I squeaked out. I sounded more like a twelve-year-old girl than a woman with a gun in her hand.
“Yeah, he mentioned Carmen too.” Ryan smirked. I stiffened the minute the words left Ryan’s mouth. “Does X know about this?”
“Yeah, he does.”
“All of it?” Ryan said with a grin. “Because Brandon didn’t even
know.”
“Stop it, Ryan,” I said with tears welling up in my eyes. I felt the gun going limp in my hand.
“Aly?” X said, looking at me curiously. He was studying me carefully, studying my reaction. He knew I had lied to him.
“Ohhh, this is so good! Should I tell him or should you?” Ryan asked, practically jumping out of his skin with excitement.
I gripped my gun.
“Let X sit down. He’s losing a lot of blood. I’m not joking,” I said as I made a clicking sound with the gun.
“Fine,” Ryan said, raising his hand in surrender and letting X slide to the ground.
With his freed hands, X immediately went to work putting pressure on his wound and ripping some of his shirt to stop some of the blood loss. I blinked back tears. I had to keep it together if we were going to survive this.
“Just so you know, Aly, you are not in charge here. I need this to last a while and can’t have Axel bleeding out on me. So tell Axel the truth, or I put a bullet in his leg,” he said, and he took a shot less than an inch from X’s thigh. X barely flinched. “Now talk.”
I looked at Brandon, who was grinning, and then at X, who nodded for me to continue.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked desperately.
“Axel knows. Now answer the damn question.”
“Carmen didn’t die in a car accident,” I began as I stared into X’s stunned face.
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Fifteen
I was ambushed by that motherfucker Brandon. He stabbed me in the side, and I couldn’t fight because I went into shock for a few minutes. By the time I pulled myself together, I was outside and they threatened to shoot Aly if I moved. So I stayed frozen and focused on managing my pain and staying conscious. Seeing Aly walk up to this mess ripped me up. It sent fire to my heart, and there was nothing I could do about it.
This was one of those very few instances in my life where fear was the reason for my fire over anger, and it was only because of Aly and what he’d do to her to get back at me. This was my fault, and Brandon was here as well.
Dear Jesus.
Aly wasn’t even out here for two seconds before throwing every single motherfucker in that room for a loop by pulling out a gun. Where the hell did she even get a gun? Honestly, in that moment, it didn’t matter to me where she got the gun because there were too many guns pointed at her and she was entirely too concerned with saving me.
I usually didn’t take anything Ryan Oakland said seriously, but it was Aly’s reaction when he brought up Carmen that caught my interest. Aly was hiding something from me, something big.
I stared at her blank face. “What the hell do you mean Carmen didn’t die in a car accident?”
I hated that I was giving Ryan the fuel he wanted by reacting. I told myself I wouldn’t get worked up over what she had to say. She could have told me she was a freaking axe murderer and I would have kept my cool. But she managed to keep a secret in the one area that was certain to get a reaction from me, the death of a loved one.
“I didn’t want to lie to you,” she cried, still holding the gun up at Ryan. Her grip was faltering. “It wasn’t personal. My whole family has told this story for ages. It’s just what we tell people…versus the truth.”
“Oh yeah, well, your family members are such upstanding citizens you should listen to them.”
“It wasn’t their lie I was telling,” she said quietly. “It was mine. My story.”
I looked at her, completely stunned now.
“I begged my parents to say she died in a car accident because I never wanted to face the reality of what happened again. Carmen was different from birth. She never cried, was never angry, and couldn’t understand rules. It was like speaking to a wall sometimes. She only reacted when it strictly pertained to her. We ignored all the signs, though. She and I played well together, and she did as she was told. But then…”
Aly stuttered and looked at the guns and then at me before sitting back on her heels to keep from falling over.
“We were playing some game, and I didn’t let Carmen win like I usually did. She leaped across the board game and held me down. She took one of the trucks and started stuffing it down my throat. I couldn’t think or breathe, and I started panicking. She then took another one of the game pieces and stuck it in me. I was so focused on breathing I didn’t notice until the aftermath of everything. Well, then she wrapped her hands around my neck and started choking me. I tried gasping for air, but her grip didn’t allow for any slack. Luckily, my parents walked in and pulled her offme. My parents called the police, and she was taken to a psych ward for evaluation. It turned out she was a sociopath. She’s in some insane criminalasylum now, and I never spoke of it again. My parents went obsessively Christian after that. I made up this lie and promised to always obey them if they kept my secret. Now move the gun away from X.” She turned to Ryan and stood back up. There was a dead look in her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whispered. How could her life have been worse than it already was? Why did she lie?
She didn’t look at me when she spoke again. “Two of the three people in my life tried to kill me. I didn’t want you to know there was another. I liked you and…” She turned the gun on herself. “…what if I kill myself? Will you let him go?”
My heart raced, and Ryan smiled. I saw Brandon come up behind Aly. I tried to warn her, but he’d already grabbed the gun and tossed it aside. He grabbed her left arm and jerked it behind her painfully. She kicked around, and then he swung his leg under her knees, forcing her to the ground.
“This is your fault, Brandon! You knew there was more to the Carmen story. You told him!” She tried to turn around, but he kicked her square across the jaw.
I jerked forward but was instantly reminded I was stabbed. “Step away from her!” I yelled.
“Oh yeah,” Ryan said, grabbing my hair. “What the hell are you going do about it?” With that, he threw me back down.
“Fuck.” Aly had to hang on.
I had texted Dad our 911 code when I was down after Brandon stabbed me. He had to get here fast, though. I was losing a lot of blood, and I couldn’t pass out and leave her here alone.
“So,” Ryan said with a smile. “Step two of the plan is a favor to both of you. Let’s start with Aly again. Aly, why don’t you tell Axel the one thing you’ve been avoiding telling him...about your feelings.”
“You are sick,” she spat out, wiping the blood from her mouth. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because!” Ryan shouted. “I hate him! He’s gotten every single fucking thing he wanted, and then Sarah befriended this angry fuck and wouldn’t even look at anyone else, so I taught her a lesson. Then you came, and it just reminded me how much I fucking hate him.”
“You liked Sarah?” Aly asked before I could. Then she threw me a look of deep sympathy.
He glared at her. “Talk or he dies,” he said, cocking the gun at my head.
She looked at me and then Ryan, but it was cold and indifferent.
“I love him. Is that what you want to hear? I’ve been avoiding him because I love X and I know he’ll run. There, you happy?”
I stared at her, open mouthed. “You love me?”
She turned slightly red, but she was too focused on Brandon holding her to see me. She didn’t say anything.
“Now,” Ryan said, clapping his hands together. “The final step of my plan.”
He was torturing Aly in the worst way. He was toying with her emotions. Where the fuck were the police? My parents? The downside of a small town…. everything takes forever, and I was going to lose consciousness if they didn’t hurry. I was trying to use skills I’d learned in boxing to manage pain, but that would only last so long. Wouldn’t someone have heard the shouting or the guns by now?
“What the fuck is the ‘final step of your plan’?”
Ryan grinned at me, and I instantly knew. I shot up, and Ryan pushed me back down.
“Relax, Axel. You’ll lose blood. I’m not going touch her,” he paused, “Brandon is.”
Aly gasped, and Brandon grabbed her wrists and started pushing her down.
“You know, Aly. I love how things come full circle. You rejected me, now I get to show you a smidge of all the anger you’ve caused me all these years. Such a cock tease,” he said, turning back to me. I swore I’ve never felt more on the verge of crying or killing in my life.
“I hate you!” she gasped.
He started to push her down further, but she managed to get one of her handsfree and grabbed the gun that he had so conveniently laid down by her. She put the gun to his chest.
“Step away or I’ll shoot,” she warned.
He hobbled back, and she stormed at him.
“You wouldn’t,” he stuttered.
She cocked the gun.
“Aly,” I said slowly, trying to calm her. She’d regret it the rest of her life if she killed him. It’d destroy her.
“You were my best friend!” she shrieked. “I loved you like my own flesh and blood, and you hurt me and lied to me, and now you told them about CARMEN, and you were going to rape me.” She put the gun to his head and cried, “I hate you so much. You’ve ruined everything.”
Luckily, cops came storming in at that moment yelling for everyone to “get down on the ground.” Everyone dropped their guns and fell to the ground. One by one, the cops started taking people out in handcuffs. Thank God for my parents. They must have called the cops right after I texted them. A cop came over to me and started inspecting my wound and asking me a bunch of questions about what had happened. I had lost quite a lot of blood, but luckily, I had sustained no other injuries. It was sort of a miracle. I looked across thelawn and saw Aly still kneeling on the floor in shock. Luckily, the gun had since been removed by one of the officers, but she still looked completely haunted. Her eyes were glazedover, and her mouth was slightly parted. There was a cop crouched down next to her whispering, but it didn’t seem as if she could hear him.