by JA Huss
“Well…” he starts, then gulps the rest of his drink and slams the glass down on the bar as he breathes out the burn. “Your sister is psycho. Your girlfriend is her target. And I hate to be the one to tell you this, even though I think you’re a total dick. But your dad is dying.”
I just stare at him. “What?”
“Your sister—”
“Fuck my sister, Pax! My father?”
“Cancer, dude.” Pax shrugs and it even comes off as genuine. “And I got a hold of his will—”
“How?”
“Would you just shut the fuck up? I’m not telling you how. Trade secrets, asshole.” He scowls at me and then continues. “Anyway. That will you thought you were cut out of?”
“Yeah?” My heart is racing.
“Not so, my soon-to-be billionaire friend. Your sister was the one cut out. Turns out your old man was quite the cheater before you were born. Claudette isn’t your sister. Well, she is, I guess. At least half. She was cut out several years ago. You were added back the day your father was diagnosed. He’s not doing well. They expect him to die any day.”
I just stand there, stunned. Pax grabs another glass and pours me a drink. I take it and gulp. “What the fuck?” I ask him, grimacing from the whiskey.
“Well, I’ll try to piece it together as best I can. But bear with me, I just got all this tonight.”
I am suddenly disgusted at the thought of Paxton digging through my family history.
“Listen, I know you don’t like me, but I’m straight with you, right? I’ve always been straight with you guys. So what I’m gonna say needs to be taken at face value and then we gotta get your girlfriend out of here so—”
He’s interrupted by the doorbell. “Who the fuck is that?” I ask.
Pax has a huge gun out and he’s pointing it in every direction at once, morphing into some Navy SEAL clearing a building on the spot. “Here,” he says, whipping another gun out of his jacket. He tosses it to me. I catch it, because it’s a fucking gun and no sane person throws one at you. “Keep it close. This shit is going down now.” And then he waves the gun at the hallway and says, “Answer the door.”
Chapter Forty-Two - Ivy
The mattress sinks down as Nolan gets back in bed. “What was that all about?” I ask sleepily.
He grabs my hands and is wrapping them in rope before I can even open my eyes. “What are you doing?” I smile, try to turn, and take a punch to the head.
My vision blurs and then everything goes black as a hood is placed over my head and a cord of rope ties it around my neck. “Nolan!” I scream. “What the fuck? Stop! Stop!”
He doesn’t stop. He hits me again, and again. I am shocked beyond belief. And then the words I was so successful in keeping at bay tonight as we had our fantasy pop into my head.
He really is a rapist. And I’m the dumbest girl on earth.
I kick and land it somewhere, his chest or his back. He goes flying and I scramble in what I think is the opposite direction. I fall off the bed, hit my head, but keep going. I’m crawling across the floor when he grabs my ankle and pulls. I twist my body, kick him once, and land it squarely on what I think is his jaw.
He roars in anger and pain and this is when I realize… I’m not being attacked by Nolan.
A heavy body rests on mine. I gasp for breath as a hand cups my mouth on the other side of the hood. I breathe in the foul-smelling chemical and everything just disappears…
Chapter Forty-Three - Nolan
“It’s the cops.” I can see them the second the glass-front doors come into view as I turn a corner. Pax is approaching from off to the left, so he can’t see them, but I can see him.
“Shit,” Pax says. “OK, play it cool. We don’t know why they’re here, so let’s figure that out first. Just…”
“I know what to do.”
And I do. We’ve been here before, right? I know all the loopholes. I know exactly what to say. And what not to say.
I walk up to the door and pull it open. “Is there a problem?” I ask. There is most definitely a problem. Six patrol cars are in my driveway with lights flashing. More sheriff deputies are on my doorstep than I can count offhand.
“Sorry to disturb you this late, Mr. Delaney. But we’re looking for Ivy Rockwell. Is she here with you?”
“How did you get through my gate?”
“Um…” The deputy looks nervous, but another officer is there to save him.
“The gate was open, sir.”
“The gate was not open. I didn’t come here tonight using a road, so the gate was not open.”
“Is Ivy Rockwell here, Mr. Delaney?” the first guy repeats. “We got an anonymous tip to check on her house tonight and found her door wide open. We went inside and found this letter signed by you.” The deputy holds up the letter I wrote Ivy and placed in the box I had her dress delivered in.
“Close the door, Nolan,” Pax says from off to my left. He’s got his gun ready, pointed up towards the ceiling, and he’s hidden from view by the hallway. My gun is in my hand, hidden behind my back. They will shoot me if they see it. I know this for a fact. They will fucking shoot me if they see it. “Close. The. Door.”
I tap the door and it swings closed with a smart click.
“You don’t want to do this, Delaney,” the deputy says through the glass. “You don’t want us to come back with a warrant.”
He’s wrong. I do want to do this. And if they have to leave and come back with a warrant I can get a hold of the situation. Because everything happening right now is a little bit too familiar.
“Step away,” Pax says. “Get out of their line of sight.”
I turn the lock on the door first. Not that it will stop them. But if they break the glass, there will be a fantastic alarm and security companies will be notified. They are all yelling at me from outside now, but I don’t care. I back away.
“What the fuck?” I ask Pax once I’m in the hallway with him. “Why the fuck are they here?”
“What are they going to find, Nolan? What kind of shit went down tonight?”
He’s not asking me if I killed her or anything. He’s asking what kind of kink I was up to. “Her shoes are in the pool. Her clothes are outside, panties are ripped down the middle, out there as well. There’s lube on the stairs, which we can’t retrieve without the cops seeing, since it’s a straight-line view. There’s rope in one of the bedrooms. She’s… got some marks on her wrists. Maybe her face, but I think those are gone by now. I didn’t come inside her.”
“I tell you what, Romantic. You sure as fuck don’t make life easy.”
“It was planned, Pax.”
“I figured that out, asshole. I’m not accusing you. But we should wake her up and get her to come down and talk to them. Outside,” he stresses. “They cannot come in the house without a warrant. Otherwise we’re gonna be on the news tomorrow.”
“But who knew she was here?”
“Your sister?”
“No,” I say, as we walk to the other end of the house so we can take the back stairs instead of the main ones in the foyer. “I haven’t told her shit.”
“She has people following you, Nolan. I’ve been on your case for one day and I know this.”
I say nothing. Fucking Claudette has gone off the deep end.
The path back to the bedroom Ivy and I were sleeping in is complicated. This whole fucking house is complicated. More than twenty thousand square feet and filled with bedrooms, storerooms, garages, offices, and even two separate guest houses outside. By the time we reach the right hallway, I’m relieved. “Ivy?” I say, walking into the bedroom. “Ivy?” I call again, looking in the bathroom. “Where the fuck are you—”
And that’s when I see what’s on the bed.
Pax crossed the room and snatches it up just as I’m about to.
“What the fuck?” I ask him. “How the hell did that get in here?”
But Pax is stunned silent. And I can’t blame him. I know t
his little piece of history he’s holding. I know because the cops showed it to me once when I was being questioned.
I just didn’t know it was his. His little part in the whole Mister Browns rape case.
“What the fuck is going on?” Pax asks. “Is your little girlfriend part of this?”
“No, fuck that. She’s here—” But my words trail off as I step around the other side of the bed and see blood on the floor.
“Someone is here,” Pax says. “Someone who knows very intimate things about what we did that night.”
“They took Ivy,” I say.
“Nolan, they can’t get off this island. They can’t even get over to the main part of the island. There’s cops out front. No one is getting past them. I didn’t see a boat at the dock when I flew in. So she’s still here. In this house somewhere. Where would she be?”
“Fuck me. This place is huge, Pax. There’s so many places.”
“Choose two,” Pax says, pointing his gun at me and then himself. “And we’ll each take one.”
“The attic and… the basement, I guess. The fucking attic is six thousand square feet. The basement probably the same. But she could be anywhere. We have fifteen bedrooms. Hell, she could be in a bathroom. We have twenty of those.”
“Well, we’re not going to find her just standing here, so let’s go.” Pax takes off, disappears into the hallway, then peeks his head back in a few seconds later. “How the fuck do I get to the attic?”
Ivy.
That’s the only word on my mind as we run through the hallways. I point to another set of stairs, Pax going up, taking them three at a time, and I hop down until I’m in the main room of the basement.
Everything is lit up. Everything is on. The TVs in various rooms. The lights above the pool table. The surround sound is blasting something from the media room. The doors leading out to the pool are wide open and the sea wind is blowing the curtains like ribbons.
“Ivy,” I call. “Ivy, can you hear me?”
But she can’t. She can’t hear anything because of the music, and the movie, and the wind. I walk over to the master control for the surround sound and turn it off. There is still the sound of the TVs, so I enter each room, one by one, gun ready, and turn them off too.
And when I get through them all, I realize something.
She’s not here.
Chapter Forty-Four - Ivy
I wake up lying on a cold concrete floor. My eyes flutter as I try to open them, but all I see is a fuzzy glare. My head is splitting with a headache and everything is silent.
There is no one here.
“Help,” I say, my voice hoarse. “Help,” I try again, a little louder.
But then a black shadow moves in one corner and someone walks towards me wearing a ski mask and bulky clothing.
“Why are you doing this?”
A photograph floats down to the ground in front of me. I can’t even focus yet, so it takes time for me to get a good look at it. To realize what it is.
Nolan and me. Outside near the pool. He’s ripping my panties off and I’m just standing there, letting him. Someone has written Rape Me over the top of the photo.
I look up at the masked person and shake my head. “That’s not what happened.”
My captor says nothing. Just walks slowly towards me.
I panic and start thrashing. My hands are tied behind my back, and every time I twist, my raw skin screams for me to stop. I manage to get into a sitting position, but only because a hand reaches down and grabs me by my hair and pulls me up.
The person leans down and a familiar smell permeates the air.
A sickly smell that tells me exactly who this person is.
I wait for words to explain why this is happening, but none come. I am dragged across the floor until I’m at the entrance to a bedroom. The figure points to the bed inside, lit only by a small lamp of a bedside table.
I shake my head and say, “No.”
I am slapped and kicked and pushed until I am absolutely on that bed, lying down, in my pretty lingerie as my feet are tied to a bedpost.
Where am I? Where is this place? There’s no windows, just this bed and just this one light.
I struggle to free my hands and realize I’m tied up with the same rope Nolan used. His words come back to me. If you ever get stuck the rope stretches. Just wriggle around until it loosens. It might take a while, but you’re not stuck.
I struggle some more and realize he was right. The rope is stretchy. I’m not stuck. And I’m not going to let this happen either. I get one burning wrist through one loop and the whole rope becomes loose. My hands are flying behind my back as my legs are tied tighter.
And then the black ski mask faces me. I know before he takes off the mask who he is.
Richard.
He kneels on the bed and then straddles my waist, gripping my breasts firmly. “Is this how you like it, Ivy? Is this why you never let me fuck you? I’m not abusive enough?” His smile, mixed in with that sick cologne, makes my stomach turn. “Well, if this is what you need, I’m happy to accommodate you.”
I reach for the bedside lamp and swing it against his head. He goes reeling to the side, falling off the bed, and I’m already trying to untie the knots at my ankles. I mess up so many times as Richard comes to his senses on the floor next to the bed. My heart is racing so fast. My breathing is nothing but panic.
I get one leg free just as he stands back up and lunges for me. I kick him in the chest with the heel of my foot and he goes down again, this time shaking his head like I stunned him. Blood is pouring down his temple as I scramble back to the other side of the bed. But I’m still prisoner. I’m held in place by the one length of rope. I scream when he gets to his feet again. “Nolan!” I scream. “Nolan!” I don’t know where I’m at, or if he’s even close by. But I know that there is no way I can get my foot untied before Richard gets to me.
“He’s coming,” I say, still frantically trying to get the last knot out of the rope. “He’s coming. And… and… his friend is coming too. The bad one. You know that bad one. Mr. Mysterious,” I spit.
“You’re gonna let them all fuck you, aren’t you, Ivy? You stupid little whore.” He slaps my face so hard, I almost black out. “This is what you’re been holding out for? A gang rape from the most infamous rapists in the country? Well”—he laughs—“I’m sorry to disappoint you with just little old me tonight. But I’m sure you’ll still love it.”
From some far off place I hear Nolan’s voice. Richard stops everything. Goes completely still.
“Ivy!” Nolan is yelling. “Ivy, Ivy, Ivy!”
“Here!” I scream.
And then Richard’s hand is over my mouth and the cold blade of a knife is pressed to my throat.
“Scream nice and loud for your boyfriend, Ivy. Nice and loud now.”
Chapter Forty-Five - Nolan
“Nolan!”
Ivy is screaming. It’s faint, like she’s far away. But she is here. Where? I’ve checked every room. Where?
“Ivy!” I yell. “Pax,” I yell again. I start searching the basement again. Where the fuck can she be? All the doors to each room are open. She’s not in any of them. “Pax!” I yell again. And then I take out my phone and text him.
Basement. Now.
“Ivy!” I yell.
I hear her respond. “Here!”
But where? Why the fuck can’t I find her?
“Think, Nolan. Think, think, think.”
Boots crash down the stairs and Pax comes rushing into the basement, gun drawn, pointing it at every open door and every dark corner before he stops and looks at me. “Where? Who the hell is messing with us?”
“I can hear her.” We stop and listen, but there’s no more calling from Ivy. “Fuck!” I grab my hair and shake my head. I know what that silence means. “I’ve checked every fucking room. It’s like she’s stuck inside the walls or—wait. I know where she is. The safe room.”
“What safe room?”
“The house was built with a panic room, Pax. It’s on the far side of the media room.”
I take off running, Pax following me, and enter the media room. The movie is still playing without sound. Some slasher movie. A bigger-than-life girl is screaming her silent scream as we walk past and I open a door that appears to lead to a mechanical room. But when we step around the giant furnace, there’s another door.
“What’s the code?” Pax demands. “We need the fucking code, Nolan.”
I know the code. I know the code. I know the code.
I know I know the code. It’s been the same since I was a little kid and we first bought this house.
You are a target, Nolan.
My father’s words in my head.
I make you a target. So if anything ever happens, you run in here and you lock yourself inside.
“What’s the fucking code?” Pax yells.
A scream comes from inside. Clear as fucking day because it’s on the little speaker near the keypad used for two-way communication.
A broken, crackling voice comes out of the speaker next. “The code was changed tonight, Mr. Romantic. You don’t know the code.”
I take the butt of my gun and smash the cameras. One above the door, one behind me, one to the left.
Pax catches on quickly and finds more, each one is smashed.
I pull him close to me and whisper, “There’s a master code. And I do know it. No one else on this fucking planet knows it, because I was the one who set it. So whoever this is, they got a code from one of two people. Claudette or my father.”
“Your bitch of a sister is behind this, I know it. I’m gonna fucking kill her when I get inside there.”
“She’s not here, Pax. She sent someone else to do this. And we can make plans for that later. Right now we’ve only got one chance to save Ivy. We bust in and kill whoever it is on the other side of that door.”
Chapter Forty-Six - Ivy
The next thing I know an alarm is screaming. I cover my ears as Richard gets off me, throwing the knife down on the floor as he reaches for a gun.