Come for Me

by Ford, Mia

  “Did no one hear him?” Mr. Donald interjects. “We need to get to my office to see what he’s done.”

  “We can’t keep driving around the city on Bryan’s orders. We’ll end up nowhere. We need a plan…”

  “No, trust me, this is what we need to do. Bryan wants me to be punished. This is all a sick sense of justice for him. He wants me to know that I shouldn’t have gone against him. We need to do what he says.”

  “With all due respect, Mr. Donald…”

  “No, you aren’t listening to me. This is what it’s about. This is what has to happen. This is the only way to save Savannah and Peter. Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do, but this is necessary.”

  I consider arguing with him for longer, but to be honest I think he might be right. I put the car in gear and do as he asks. I take his directions and drive all the way to his office, wondering what the hell we’ll find. Certainly not Savannah, not at this point. Pippa is right, this is just a small part of a game. Bryan is playing with us. He will toy with us for as long as he wants and until we have anything else, we’re just going to be pawns…

  * * *

  “Oh my God.” I’m gobsmacked. I wasn’t expecting this at all. “He’s destroyed it.”

  I turn back, half expecting to see Mr. Donald falling apart. Clearly, this business has been important to him, he’s done what he can to fight for it, things that no one else would even consider, but actually he looks determined. Maybe he’s been fighting for it for so long that it’s actually quite nice to let it go a bit.

  His building is destroyed, the windows have been blown out and there is technical equipment everywhere. A group of cops stand around it, but they don’t seem to be doing too much. Further proof that they cannot be trusted.

  “Okay, so lesson learned, Bryan. Why isn’t he calling us to give us the next steps?”

  “Maybe he wants us to call him?” Tommy suggests. “Do you think that could be possible?”

  “Oh, fuck knows.” Pippa shakes her head in shock. “I’ll do it though. Screw it.” She presses her phone up to her ear and starts barking out the moment Bryan picks up the phone. “Bryan, point proven. Mr. Donald has nothing now, the business is up in flames, we get it, so what the fuck do you want us to do next?” She drags her eyes upwards and slowly hands the phone to me. “He says that he wants to talk to you.”

  “Me? How does he even know me?” I take the phone. “Oh, stupid question. He’s watching us.”

  I put the phone up to my ear to immediately hear him. “So, you are the one fucking my wife, huh?”

  I choose to ignore his question. “Where is Savannah? What have you done with her, you monster?”

  He laughs loudly. “Oh, I’m the monster? You are the one getting involved with another man’s marriage.”

  “One that you don’t even really want. Not for Savannah anyway, just for her money, am I right?”

  “Don’t start talking shit about something you don’t understand.”

  “Don’t be a coward and keep Savannah and Peter away from us. You should face us.”

  “You think I’m scared?” he sneers. “I’m not scared of you at all. I just need you to see…”

  “See what? Some fucked up game that you’ve created? Well, we aren’t playing anymore. It’s bullshit.”

  “You don’t have any choice if you want to see your lover alive again. Not that I should let her live for you.”

  “If you have a problem with me then you should take it up with me.”

  “I have a problem with all of you, I want you all to be punished for what you’ve done.”

  “Okay, and you don’t deserve any punishment for what you’ve done then?”

  “This isn’t anything to do with me. Don’t try and get into my brain. Now, the next thing I want you to do is meet me in the ice cream factory around the back of the school building. You think you can do that?”

  “I’m not going anywhere now until you reveal where Savannah really is.”

  “How do you know that isn’t where she really is?” I’m silent because I don’t know how to answer him. “Exactly, so you will go there and maybe I will meet you there. Maybe not.”

  He hangs up which causes a string of expletives to fly out of my mouth. I try to call him back a couple of times but he keeps cutting me off. This is sick and wasted, I hate every second of it. Most of all I hate that I have no control. With Savannah and Peter under his control, every damn ball is in his court. I don’t know how to play it.

  “What now?” Tommy asks me curiously. “Are we going to go to wherever he said next?”

  “Yeah,” I sigh wearily. “I guess so. So help me God, Savannah better be there this time…”

  “Don’t get too wound up, Jayden, or you’ll be dangerous. We need to be calm.”

  Calm? I don’t think that’s possible. I’m too fucking fuming…

  25

  Savannah

  “I’ve just been speaking to your lover boy,” Bryan drawls at me, looking increasingly like a mad man by the minute. “You know the one I mean, don’t you? The guy that you’ve been fucking behind my back. I know all about it. Even more now that I’ve spoken to him.” He walks closer to me, enjoying the way that I shrink in on myself. “He said that you’re shit in the sack, just like I know. You lie on your back and think of England. Boring, I think his word was. Dull as fucking dishwater. We had a good laugh about it.”

  I’m not sure which part of this is true. I don’t think Jayden would have been cruel about me, he doesn’t seem like that sort of person. Plus, as far as I could see we had a good sex life. But I think Bryan’s just bating me, trying to get a reaction and if I give anything away, he’ll know that things really did happen. But on the other hand, he might have actually spoken to Jayden. I don’t know what that means, I don’t want to hold out hope for rescue. Now that Bryan has me, I don’t think he’ll be willing to easily let me go.

  “I don’t want to talk to you about anyone but Peter,” I reply. “I want to see him.”

  “You can see him if you admit that you fucked someone else.” I purse my lips together, not totally convinced that he’ll give in even if I do say what he wants me to. “Ah, I see. You can’t care about him that much.”

  “Don’t be like that, Bryan. You can’t judge anyone for any behavior anyway. You’ve cheated on me lots.”

  “So, you do admit that you did it then? Good, I’m glad to hear it. Now I can get everything in the divorce.”

  “Divorce?” To me, that suggests that I might actually get out of here alive, but I’m not sure that can really happen. I can’t cling to that hope because Bryan can’t really set me free. He must have a bit of fear that I’ll go to the cops. Even if they’re on his side if I have enough evidence they will have to listen to me.

  “You don’t think I’m going to kill you, do you?” he gasps in mock shock. “I’m not a murderer.”

  “I honestly don’t know who you are anymore. This isn’t something I would have ever expected of you either. But here we are. I’m tied up and you are keeping my child away from me. I can’t trust you enough to know how far you’ll go. I don’t know what you would do to me. Honestly, you scare the shit out of me.”

  For a moment, I have a glimmer that I might be getting through to him. His expression falls and I see the mask slip away. I get a tiny glimpse of the man I saw at the beginning of the relationship when things were actually good. And they were good for a while, whatever happened before and afterwards. Peter wouldn’t be here otherwise. I wouldn’t have gone anywhere near him and I wouldn’t be still with him. Even with my father’s command, I would have divorced him already. God, I wish we’d done that part sooner. Before all of this.

  But then his face tightens up again and the moment is over. “Okay, fine, be like that. Maybe I will fucking kill you then. Put us both out of our misery. If I make you so unhappy then you’ll be better off dead.”

  I scoot backwards, fear cascading through my
body now. Much as I’ve tried to tell myself that I might die in this place it’s much too hard to accept it for real. I can’t be brave in the face of death, I can’t.

  “Please, Bryan. Just let me see my son. Let me and Peter have a moment before you do anything. That poor boy needs to know that I’m okay just as much as I do him. We need to be together.”

  “If I bring you two together, you do realize that will spell the end for both of you?”

  I choose to ignore that. I don’t even want to think about the possibility. “If you do bring him in, can you please untie me just so I can hold him? I won’t try anything funny, I promise. I won’t want to harm Peter by acting stupid. I think you can tell that the message has been well and truly received. I wouldn’t want to do anything to upset you ever again, I will not ever step a toe out of line. Just let me hug my son.”

  Bryan shakes his head but then his face twists up into a smile. “You know what, why not? You’re absolutely fucked anyway. There isn’t a way out of here for you. Not until I make a decision with what to do.”

  “Yes,” I gasp desperately. “Exactly. I won’t do anything to upset that. You know me. I won’t.”

  We both know that me and Peter aren’t the main targets here. He might want to punish me for the infidelity that it seems he knows all about, but I don’t think he’ll be so cruel to his child. I hope, anyway. He probably knows that it will be more torture for me to see my son, just to have him ripped away again.

  “Yes, I’ll get him ready for you now. Let me untie you.”

  As he reaches around my back to loosen the knots that are fixing me in place, he makes sure to brush my skin all over, almost as if he’s doing it in a seductive manner. His breath blows all over me too, and it takes everything that I have not to flinch away from him. This is the closest I’ve gotten to my son. I cannot blow it now.

  “You like it when I touch you, don’t you?” he whispers while trailing his finger down my arm. I go to a zen place inside my brain, ignoring him as much as I can manage. “You always used to. I remember it all too well.”

  I slide my eyes closed and tune him out. This is more of his sick game and I have to play along only enough to get Peter in this room with me. “Yes, of course I did, that’s why we have a child.”

  “But you don’t like it anymore, do you?” His hand reaches my stomach. “I wonder why that is?”

  I cringe all over, but keep strong on the outside. He cannot know that he’s getting to me. “Things change.”

  “Things change, huh?” He sounds amused by my response. “Maybe so, or perhaps I just got bored of fucking you so I started doing it with other people. That way, you stopped getting the attention from me.”

  “Bryan, please.” His hand lingers far too low down for my liking. I’m scared that he’s going to take this one step further and touch me in a place that I really don’t want to be touched. “Stop this now.”

  “Are you scared I might turn you on? I am your husband, after all.”

  He inches, but he doesn’t quite make it. His breath is still all over me, making me shiver. A sickness swirls as it suddenly hits me just how serious this could be. I’ve been worried, but not about this and now it seems that Bryan might be about to show me just how serious he is, just how far he is willing to go. I need to stop him before he does. I somehow need to put an end to this before it begins which means keeping as calm as I possibly can.

  “I just want to see my son, that’s all. Bryan, please. I’ve waited long enough, I’ve been through hell.”

  “Oh, sweetheart, this is nothing. There are so many ways this can go.”

  “I know.” My breaths are ragged and panting now and I can almost feel that turning him on. “I know that, I just don’t want that to happen, that’s all. I don’t want this to get more complicated than it already is.”

  “Complicated, huh. That’s one way to put it. You always did have a way with words, Savannah. If only you had finished college. What a shame your father pulled you out just as you were getting started.”

  He remains where he is for a couple more minutes, really tipping me over the edge, then he snatches away, freeing my hands from their prison as he does. He moves over to the other side of the room and he smirks while he watches me rubbing the stinging sensation on my wrists. “I’ll go and get him right now. Just remember what you promised me, Savannah. No funny business. You promised me that and I expect you to stick to it.”

  “No funny business.” I know already that I’m not going to listen to that. “Of course.”

  He slides from the room leaving me alone. My eyes instantly dart around the room, but of course, he’s right. He’s planned this room just for me in the knowledge that I can’t get out however hard I try. But that doesn’t matter, I’m not looking for an escape route for me. I want to get Peter out of here. He doesn’t need to die.

  There’s a window, but it’s small and up high. It’ll be a struggle, I will have to find the exact right moment to make it work but it’s possible. I might be able to help Peter after all. I smile to myself, relieved that even if I don’t make it, I can be a good mom and keep my son alive. It’ll be sad not to see him grow, but I’ll be glad just to know that I saved him. I hope Pippa will be the one to care for him, she’s the only one I trust. Surely, even with all of his power, once everything he’s done comes out, no one will let Bryan near Peter again.

  The door flies back open and I immediately stare at the frame. There I see him, the boy that everyone told me was dead, my son who I knew was alive, the person who can finally complete me again.

  “Peter,” I gasp out. “Oh, my goodness. My boy. How are you? Are you okay?”

  “Mommy!” He runs towards me and jumps into my arms. It hurts because my body aches all over, but it’s worth every moment of agony. To hold my six-year-old son in my arms again, I would give anything. “Are you okay now, Mommy? Daddy said that you weren’t very well and that’s why we came here.”

  I hate Bryan’s lie, but I also don’t want to scare Peter so I nod. “Yes, I’m all better now.”

  “I’m going to leave you two alone for a while. “The door slowly closes behind Bryan. “Use this time wisely.”

  Relief floods me, at least we’re alone now. I can get Peter out of here when I get a chance, but first I need to make sure that he understands what’s expected of him when the time comes.

  “Peter, sweetheart, are you okay?” He nods and I can see that he is okay. He looks surprisingly well. “Do you think you might be up for a game some time soon? Not right yet, but it won’t be long.”

  “I like games, Mommy.”

  “Good, okay. Well this will be like a hide-and-seek type thing. You can do that?” He nods again. “Okay so soon, when the time comes, I’m going to help you get through that window up there. And when I do I want you to run, okay, baby? I want you to run like the wind until you find someone to help you. Anyone.”

  “Help, what for? And why won’t you be coming with me?”

  A tear leaks out of my eye as I don’t have an answer for that question. Luckily, he is six and I think he’ll believe anything I tell him. “That’s just the game, sweetie. It’s just the game.”

  26

  Jayden

  “Okay, so do you think this is it this time?” I ask everyone wearily. “We’ve been driving about everywhere all fucking long evening. This has to be the place, right? I mean look at it.”

  It’s a massive abandoned warehouse, perfect for a kidnapping. It’s in the middle of nowhere too, so not too close to the city for anyone to find this place. I’m getting to the end of my tether which I think means it has to be it. I can’t fucking take more driving anywhere. Bryan is fucking killing me here, I hate him.

  “Bryan sounded weary the last time we spoke to him. I think he’s gotten to the end of his game now,” Pippa confirms. “I don’t claim to know the man too well, but I think this is it. I really do. The game is ending.”

  “Right, so I think it’s t
ime to call the cops. And not the local cops. This place can be classed as in another area anyway, so I’m pretty sure it’ll be okay to call someone else.” I feel like I’m talking to myself since no one is really listening to me. It doesn’t matter, I need to talk my feelings out aloud. “We can’t do this without a back-up, we don’t know what’s going on in there. I’ll feel so much better knowing that we have support.”

  Pippa rests her hands on my shoulder. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I’m scared now.”

  I turn to face her. “Which part? Calling the cops or going in and killing the bastard?”

  She flinches at the threat of violence, but I think she can tell I’m not totally serious. I don’t intend to kill Bryan because we need to work out what he’s done all of this for. He needs to face justice. Also, it doesn’t matter what he’s done, he’s Savannah’s husband and it’s up to her what she wants done with him. I’m here for her and Peter.

  “I don’t know.” The color drains from her cheeks. “All of it. Can we trust any cops by this point?”

  “I don’t know, I think we’re going to have to try.” I shrug. “It makes sense, don’t you think?”

  “Okay then. I see that point. But what about going in there? That’s pretty crazy. What if you get hurt?”

  “I might get hurt, but Savannah might already be hurt. I can’t sit back and let that happen. Especially not while we’re here. We are right outside this building and she might be inside. I have to help her.”

  “But Bryan might have a weapon… He could have loads of weapons. He might have a gang of people inside.”

  “My point still stands. I would sacrifice myself for Savannah in a heartbeat. I can’t just leave her in there.”

  “I’ll be going in there too,” Tommy joins in. “So, you’ll have some back up. You won’t be alone.”