Bianca was standing stiffly with her arms crossed over her chest. Fiaaz joined us and Padme played the video attached to the email. It was less than two minutes in length. The voice was disguised and there was never an image of the man’s face.
The camcorder was zoomed in on me as I rode across the flatlands on horseback. Every once in a while the camera would angle down and show the man masturbating. The others had been right, there was a ladder in the shot and the man’s penis was covered with a condom. He gave commentary throughout.
“You’re so beautiful, Ellie. I want you so bad…see what you do to me? See what happens when I see you? When I touch you? I have to jack off several times a day…every time I think about your pretty tits, your tight ass. I want to touch you again. I know what happened to you. I would never hurt you like that. With us it’ll be making love. Oh god, yes, oh yes…just thinking of your pussy around me…oh fuck, I’m coming. I want to feel you come, Ellie. God, it feels so good.”
The video ended with the man obviously ejaculating and then climbing down quickly off the ladder as Jonas went still in the distance on horseback. “Always interfering…I hate them. You’re mine. All mine, sweet Ellie. I come so hard when I think of you. One day soon, I’ll be able to come inside you when we make love. I can’t wait. No one is allowed to touch what’s mine. That would make me so angry. I love you so much.”
Unable to stand another minute, I threw up in the trashcan by the desk. Four strong hands held my hair back, handed me a glass of water, held a cool towel on the nape of my neck. Massaging my shoulders and whispering soothing words that calmed me.
I stayed bent over the trashcan, trying to settle my stomach and catch my breath. With certainty, I whispered, “It’s Adam, the medical assistant.”
Four hands clenched me tightly. “How do you know, Ellie?”
“He says he’s touched me before. He…he’s seen me during exams. He suggested the masseuse through the agency that placed him. Must have paid him to get photos of…of me. He was always trying to touch me, always. No matter how violently I reacted. It’s him, I’m telling you. I wasn’t looking directly at…at his equipment in the video. The sick fuck can’t make me do that. There’s an almost clear skin tag on his upper right thigh.”
I heard Padme typing furiously in the background and she gave a hiss of triumph. When I tried to stand, my stomach cramped and Jonas scooped me into his arms. “Good spot, Ellie!”
Jordan was on speaker phone with Theresa. He explained the email and what I thought. She questioned someone in the background and confirmed Adam had never shown up to work at the new facility in Boston. “It’s been so busy I really didn’t pay any attention. My normal assistant is back from her knee and hip surgery so I didn’t miss him. He did seem a little too fixated on Ellie. I’m sorry. Please keep me posted. Ellie, you’re welcome to come here for a while if you need a bolt-hole until this asshole is captured.”
“Thank you, Theresa. I’m staying put. He’s not driving me out of my home. We’ll keep you updated. Of course, I don’t need to mention about keeping this under wraps.”
She laughed and that made it possible to give a half-smile. “No, Ellie. No one but your team will get a word out of me.” We talked for another minute and Jordan disconnected.
Barely controlling his rage, Jonas said, “Track him. I want a location on this fuck within three hours.”
“Wait.” I said clearly as Jonas moved to carry me from the room. “I have his phone number.” Before the Hydes could object, I pulled out my phone. Taking a deep breath, I scrolled for the number he’d insisted I take. “Trace it and record it. It’s our best chance.”
Swallowing hard, I hit ‘send’ – it was answered on the first ring. Jordan held a small recording device close to my cheek and Padme typed furiously at her control station.
Adam’s voice made my skin crawl but I had to see this through. “Ellie! Wow, it is so good to hear your voice. I can’t believe it’s only been a few weeks since I saw you, it feels like a year. Does it feel that way for you?”
Closing my eyes, I said brightly, “Hi, Adam. Sorry, I’ve been too busy to call before now.”
There was a slightly resentful tone in his voice when he answered, “Yeah, well, everyone wants too much of your time, Ellie. Katie, your security people, even your parents. I wouldn’t let everyone take all your time like that, Ellie.”
“That’s so nice of you to say. I think maybe I am spreading myself too thin. I should take a vacation…I bet that wouldn’t go over very well.”
A sharp bark of laughter was followed by, “You’re one of the most powerful women in the world, you can do whatever you want, Ellie. A vacation would be good for you.” There was a long pause. “You know, Ellie, I liked you from the moment I met you. When you gave me that beautiful smile that first day, I knew you liked me, too. It was an honor being able to care for you.”
Swallowing the bile in my throat, I answered, “Thank…thank you, Adam. That’s kind of you to say.”
“You did, didn’t you, Ellie? Like me? From the start?” a pleading note infused his words.
Glancing at the monitor and remembering the things he’d said, I barely managed to grit out, “Of course I did. I…I always thought you were a great…comfort to me.” Padme gave a signal and the team other than the Hydes gathered around her. “I was, you know, sad to see you and Theresa go.”
“Theresa shouldn’t have left you so soon. That was wrong of her. She should have moved her work to you and made you her full-time concern.”
“She had a life and a career to return to, Adam. She took a long time away from her family to devote to me and I was very grateful.” I paused only a moment before adding, “I bet I took you away from your life, too. I’m sorry about that.”
“I would happily give up everything to devote myself to your care, Ellie. No one could take care of you like me. Those, whatever you want to call them, bodyguards are no good for you. They smother you, so do your parents. But I know you’re lonely and I’d make it my life’s work to make sure you were never alone again, Ellie.”
“I’m not lonely. I have Katie and my parents. My team is like family, I love them. No one smothers me.” I gripped the phone with white knuckles.
“You should have never had Katie, Ellie!” His outburst was yelled into the phone and I could hear him breathing rapidly. I know the shock must have shown on my face because Jonas and Jordan held me tighter. “I…I didn’t mean to say that. I know you love Katie. Still, to keep the child of the men who’d raped you. I did a DNA swab, Ellie. I know which one is Katie’s father…”
“Adam! Do not…do not tell me that. It isn’t important.” I was shaking so hard I didn’t know if I could keep holding the phone to my ear.
“It is…don’t you see? You should give her up for adoption. Her father was the worst of them. I’ve seen the video of what they did to you. He was the one who…”
Icy dread settled around my heart. “What video? What are you talking about, Adam?”
There was silence for so long I didn’t think he would answer. Then he said, “I shouldn’t have told you that, Ellie. That is one thing I should not have ever told you. I have to think now.” The call disconnected.
“I…I’m going to be sick again,” I barely managed to get out before Jonas held me over the trashcan again. The two men, my men, were rubbing my back and dealing with the others in the room. They were speaking in tandem, I had no idea which one said what.
“I want him found. Padme, lock him down, keep him in sight while we mobilize the team. You’re in charge of monitoring their progress and relaying comm among the others.”
“Right now, a motel six miles away. Running a check on their computer system. He’s checked in under a fake ID. Cross-check shows he has a rental under the same name.” A long pause. “Traffic cam across the street shows the rental still in the motel parking lot, sir.”
Steel laced the voices of the men holding me so gently, careful
ly. “I want him brought to the main house, to the storage rooms beneath the manor. All systems are on high alert. We need to get Ellie and Katie to the main house immediately. Robyn comes with us. Si, you’re in charge of retrieval. I expect reports every fifteen minutes.”
With that, one of the brothers lifted me and carried me through the house to my bedroom. Clothes were found for me by Jonas while Jordan supported me at the sink so I could brush my teeth and wash my face. I was relieved of my sundress and a t-shirt and jeans were pulled over my body. A hip-length, bulletproof jacket followed as well as my boots.
The entire time they murmured to me; kept me calm without being condescending.
When I was fully dressed I was walked between them to the armored SUV in the garage and gently pushed into the backseat beside Katie in her car seat. Robyn sat on her other side. We drove to the main house and into the garage where there was complete chaos.
Up the back stairs and into my old apartments, where my parents were waiting with frantic expressions. The instant I entered the room with Katie in my arms my mother ran for us, hugging us in relief. My father laid his hands on our heads and said, “I’m sorry you’re dealing with this again, Ellie. No one is going to hurt you this time.”
Jonas and Jordan pulled me between them as Mom took Katie in her arms. “We need to check the other rooms on this floor. Don’t leave. We’ll be back in ten minutes.”
I nodded and watched them leave, flipping an all-armed button on the way out. Everything in this suite would be monitored by voice and video until they keyed the re-entry code. I heard them relaying messages to Padme and the rest of the team as they moved away.
I turned to my parents, preparing to walk toward them, when the closet door behind me opened. A gun was pressed to my temple as Adam pulled me back to his chest.
“Don’t move.”
Robyn moved in front of my mother and Katie for which I was grateful. My father edged to the side until his shoulder touched Robyn’s. “Ah. You understand I’ll take what means most to dear Ellie if you don’t do exactly as I say.”
He looked at me, inhaling the scent of my hair at my temples. “Do you want Katie to live, sweetheart?” I nodded. “Then you’re going to come with me into your bedroom. We’re going to talk and make some decisions about our future. I hope once you hear what I have to say, you’ll agree that you belong with me.”
A hard light entered his eyes, “If you don’t, that won’t make me happy, Ellie.”
He pulled me backward into the bedroom, making me close and lock the door. Only then did he step away. Gesturing with the gun, he said, “Sit, Ellie.”
I did so and as calmly as I could I asked, “How did you get in here?”
“That was the easiest part, darling. Living here over several months really gave me an inside track on the workings of this estate. I came in with the laundry service. I left the motel I’ve been staying in and the car I’ve been driving. I knew it was only a matter of time before they traced your stalker.” He imbued the word with a hint of disbelief, as if his actions were above all that.
I wasn’t going to let him rattle me. Not this time. “What do you want, Adam? If it’s me, this isn’t the way to go about getting me.”
The skin around his eyes and mouth tightened. “I wouldn’t have had to do this if those assholes had followed the fucking plan years ago.”
Years ago…college?
Everything inside me went cold and I wasn’t sure I could keep the hysteria from bleeding into my voice. Inhaling deeply, I said, “I didn’t go to school with you, Adam. I…I would have remembered you.” I had to keep him talking. Padme would have already reported his presence.
He smiled and my skin crawled. “Thank you, Ellie. That means a lot. It really does.” Adam put one hand on his hip and used his gun hand to gesture. “I was doing my post-graduate studies. I had no choice but to supplement my income by tutoring the school jocks three nights a week.” He shook his head as if I should empathize with what he’d had to go through.
I nodded and tried to appear sympathetic.
“One night, the subject of you came up. They all wanted you, Ellie and I knew they weren’t good enough. You needed a man of brilliance and cunning; someone who could appreciate your beauty and make the most of being married to the wealthiest woman in the world.”
Adam smiled and I couldn’t think what good I should have taken away from that statement but I gave him a weak imitation smile of my own. “They were only supposed to take you. I didn’t want you hurt. I would never have hurt you, Ellie. The plan was so simple but they were just too stupid.”
“Wh…what was the plan?”
“They were supposed to take you to an abandoned building I’d scoped out. They were not to touch you, Ellie. Just keep you confined. I told them we’d share you and your money but it was a lie. My real plan was for you to know me as the man who’d saved you.”
Adam glanced just over my shoulder. “In your gratitude we would have been married. The first time I saw you, I knew I had to fuck you, Ellie. I knew that you were mine.” He ran his hand over his groin and I realized he was hard.
Sick fuck.
He began to pace. “Watching you and that bodyguard bring down all seven of them…I don’t believe I’d ever been so angry.” The look he gave me was one of disappointment. “You infuriated me!” He screamed in my direction then calmed instantly and continued. “Then I realized you thought you were defending yourself. You didn’t know the plan.”
“Of course. I’m glad you see that.”
The smugness he felt was obvious. “I got rid of two of them before they went to prison. They were the two stupidest ones; they didn’t see the future you and I were destined to have. They wanted to bring up my name, tell the police about my plan. I had no choice.”
Adam laughed and I flinched. “The two who died in prison were threatening to tell their lawyers about me and appeal their conviction. They were halfway through their sentence!” He gestured wildly with his gun hand. “If they’d been patient they might still be alive. It’s easy to bribe prisoners to do away with another inmate. Prison is a dismal place.”
“So you killed four of the seven. Wow.” You are one shit-bag crazy squirrel.
My stalker smiled with such superiority I was glad I’d already thrown up. “Thank you, Ellie. You’re so good for my ego.” He resumed pacing. “My original plan was still sound. The remaining three were supposed to shoot your bodyguard and take you down with a tranquilizer dart.” He shook his head and sighed as if what they’d done was no worse than teenagers caught drinking.
“They fucked up as usual and ended up hitting you with a brick. With all the blood, they didn’t think they could get you out of the park without being noticed. While they tried to figure it out, they dragged you and the…twin…bodyguard into that shed. I couldn’t believe I’d never figured out Hyde was a twin. That made me so angry.”
“I didn’t know either until I was released from the hospital. Does that make you feel better?”
Adam immediately brightened, “Good. Yes, it does, Ellie. Thank you. I mean, if you didn’t know, it doesn’t seem a lack of intelligence was the issue at all. Wonderful to hear.” He crouched in front of me and took my hand. I fought my body’s reaction with everything I had and let him touch me.
“Ellie, my sweet darling, they were not supposed to touch you. Their excuse was they’d been without a woman for years in prison and they were desperate. That you were just lying there. One of them recorded everything once you were on the path. I saw what they meant about you being so tempting. Even with the blood, you were stunning.”
“They brutalized me, Adam.” There was no emotion in my words.
“I know. I know they did and I am sorry about that. They said they were just going to try a little but when Leon realized you really were a virgin, they wanted you even more. I was angry they took what belonged to me but, well, nothing could be done about it by the time I found out.”
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br /> I schooled my expression carefully as my blood boiled.
He shook his finger at me, reprimanding me, as he said, “Then you woke up and made them very angry. I think if you’d have just let them take you one time each, it would have ended there and we’d have been together. When you started fighting, Ellie, they wanted payback.” One side of his mouth folded down in some expression of scolding and I wanted to take his head off.
“You rejected them, sent them to prison where they were messed with by other inmates, and pretty much ruined their lives when they really hadn’t done more than rough you up and scare you a little in college. The situation…got out of hand, I agree but I could kind of see their point, too.”
“You can see why three men would attack me, Adam? Why they would beat me so viciously? Shoot one of my bodyguards and beat another within an inch of his life? Really? You can see that? Thank you for being so forgiving of the men who held me down, broke my bones, and cut open my body while they raped me.”
Adam frowned. “You can’t be so black-and-white about it. You’re such a gentle soul, Ellie. You’ll forgive me in time, I know. Besides, I haven’t been able to get in contact with the other three so they aren’t even part of the plan anymore.”
The nut still thought he had a plan.
This time my smile was real and Adam responded to it, leaning closer as if to kiss me. My words stopped him. “They are no longer available for contact, Adam. My men hunted, tortured, and shot them before getting rid of the bodies. And guess what?”
He had a look of confusion on his face. Not fear or regret; just an honest bewilderment that he hadn’t known his fellow criminals were dead. He held my hand like a lover. As if he had the right to touch me. My other hand was free.
“Wh…?”
That was all he got out before I punched him in the throat hard enough to crush his airway. The gun clattered to the floor as both his hands went to his throat in an effort to find oxygen.
I brought my feet up off the floor and mule-kicked him across the room. The moment he hit the floor, I straddled his chest and pulled the dagger from my boot.
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