I blinked back tears. “You…you killed my father?” I asked softly, his face still uncomfortably close to mine.
His laugh echoes down the hall. “Oh no sweetheart, I didn’t kill him. My father took care of that before I could get ahold of him. But he made sure your father paid for what he did.” Taking another step closer to me, he brought the tip of the gun and traced it along my lower lip, as it trembles in fear. “You see, my father not only murdered your father, he made him suffer. In case you don’t remember, considering you were only six years old, as was I, he was unrecognizable by the time they found him. Each limb in various places around his body and his head was smashed in so much, I puked profusely after I completed my mission.”
A wave of nausea crept into my body and I fought back a sob, but it was inevitable. “You sick bastard! How could you do that to such a good man?”
I watched as he took a step back and secured the pistol in its holster while keeping his eyes on me, almost like he was assessing my question.
“You think your father was a good man? He deserved everything he got and more, love. Your fucking father was one of the biggest crooks this city has seen in years, decades even. My family was rich and powerful which angered him. Jealousy is an ugly thing my dear, and it does stupid shit to people. When somebody has something you don’t, and it boils your blood to see them so happy with themselves, that turns even the best people into greedy, soul stealing monsters. Your father was at the top of my father’s list.”
I shake my head in disbelief, fighting back more tears that won’t stop falling. “You’re lying. My father would never do that to anyone. I don’t believe you. You’re a sick fuck. If you want to kill me, do it already! What are you waiting for?”
Please god, if you can hear me. Don’t let this man kill me. What did I do to deserve this? If he is telling the truth, then who the fuck was my family? I don’t get it. I grew up the perfect storybook life. Maybe that’s the fucking problem. My life was a lie, just like a fairy tale that wasn’t real. And my prince charming was never going to come rescue me. He was too scared to act in fear of me getting shot. I don’t blame him, I’m just as scared.
He seems to think about my question for a second before answering. “Oh Jayde, I’m not going to do anything. In fact, I have a job for you to do.” He says and fear grips me in every which way. There’s no way I’m doing his fucking dirty work. Not a chance in hell.
But I find myself asking the exact question I didn’t want to ask. “What do you want me to do?” Gripping my arm again, he pulls me down the hallway towards the back door where I pray cops are standing by with their guns drawn. But we get out the back door and the cool autumn air hits my face and sends a slight chill down my body. Or maybe it was the monster attached to my arm. We walked out through the gardens that were covered in rows of sunflowers. I took a moment to admire the beauty of the gardens. Maybe Heaven will be a field of sunflowers I can spend all of eternity in. Then an angel with eyes as blue as the ocean will come, reminding me of my beautiful savior down on earth.
“Well, for starters you’re going to lose the attitude and be thankful I haven’t killed you…yet.” Finn says as he leads me through the gardens. Maybe he’ll kill me and leave me here to die in this beautiful garden. That wouldn’t be too bad, right? I bring my gaze from the ground and stare straight ahead at an old beat up ford truck parked by the woods that looks like something off of Men in Black.
“Where are we going?” I ask, trying to pry him for information. Pulling open the car door forcefully, he shoves me inside the passenger’s side without answering my question. He stands right outside my door and pulls out a small black phone. His call his muffled from this end due to the window being rolled all the way up. I glance down and the truck is old enough to have crank windows so I roll it down barely so I can hear what he’s saying on the phone, and try and figure out who he’s talking to.
“Yeah. I know all that. Yes I know the consequences but this is personal. Don’t worry, she won’t talk. I’ll make sure of it.” And he hangs up the phone then turns to me with a scowl. Shit, busted. I turned in my seat to face the front as he quickly gets in the driver’s side and starts the car.
“We are going to a nice place where nobody can find you. Then maybe, that’ll jog your memory a little quicker.” I stare out the window, more tears threatening to fall. “I already told you I don’t know what you’re fucking talking about Finn! I have no idea what my family did to you! I don’t know anything!” I cry, hoping somewhere, deep down some ounce of compassion will seep through and he’ll believe me. But he grips the steering wheel and scowls, the corner of his lip twitching in the moonlight. Fuck he’s pissed.
“You’re lying and I’m going to prove it! Stupid little rich bitch.” He pulls back his fist and lands a hard blow across my face. I grab the side of my face as the bruise begins to appear from the throbbing in my cheek. We pull away from the woods and pull onto an abandoned road not far from the hotel. I watch in the rear view mirror as the lights and camera flashes of the hotel disappear into the night.
Along with any hope of Zac finding me and rescuing me once again.
Epilogue
Zac
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! This is all my fault!” I shout into the air. He took Jayde. And I let him. If I didn’t, he was going to kill her. I knew he was. The fear shook my body as I turned around to stare into the eyes of Sarah and Anna who were sobbing uncontrollably and holding onto each other. Powerless and helpless. That’s how we felt as we watched that sick mother fucker drag the woman I love into the darkness.
“What are we going to do? If he does anything to hurt her. Oh my god, I can’t imagine it.” Sarah cries and tries to speak through muffled tears. I pull out my phone and immediately call Craig, my partner and he picks up on the second ring.
“What’s up Romeo? Haven’t gotten between her legs yet?” He jokes and that only adds fuel to the fire of the scorching anger boiling inside me. “No I’m not and you need to fucking listen. She’s been kidnapped.”
He gasps and I hear him shift in his bed. “What? By who?” I can hear somebody talking in the background. Female. Probably late 20’s. A little bit of shuffling, a door close and no background noise. “What the fuck, Zac?” This is all too much. I run my hand down the front of my face then begin the story of telling him what happened. “It was Finley Cole, the guy chief was having us track. Remember? Or were you too busy fucking some random chick to even remember that little detail?” I growled. That was a dick response but how could he possibly be fucking when I’m having a major fucking meltdown?
“Low fucking blow asshole. Look, I’ll be down to the hall in about fifteen. Let me get situated and I’ll be there soon, okay?” He insists as I hear the faint female voice in the background. I hear him tell her something because it’s muffled by his hand on the speaker.
“Look man, I’m sorry. But you know how I feel about her. Dude, I fucking love her.”
Silence. A gasp. More silence. “Holy shit.” He says a minute later.
“Yeah.” I say with finalization. “I fucking love her and if something happens to her because of that douche bag, I’ll never forgive myself. He kidnapped her and took her to I don’t even fucking know where.” Craig says goodbye to the woman in the background and gives her some bullshit apology about a “family emergency” and sends her on her way. “Okay, Ariel is gone and I’ll be there as soon as possible.” He says and I hang up the phone. Anna walks up behind me and gently taps me on the shoulder. The once touch chick I met when I met Jayde was gone. Replaced was a fragile, and scared woman in her place. “Zac, please tell me you can get her back. She’s my best friend. If something happened to her, I don’t’ know what I’d do.” A sob breaks from her chest and she slumps in defeat. I pull her into my arms and comfort her, softly rubbing her back. “Shh, it’s okay. I’ll find her. I promise you I’ll find her and bring her home safely.” Sarah joins in on the hug and I cradle them both. I silent
ly vow that someway, somehow I’ll bring Jayde home.
I pray that she’s alive when I do it.
TO BE CONTINUED…
If you liked this book, please keep reading
for the prologue to book two!
Coming spring of 2016!
Remember, stalking is always highly encouraged!
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Check out the prologue for book two!
Bound by Trust
(Bulletproof Series Book Two)
Prologue
(6 Weeks Later)
Jayde
Sometimes in life we only get a handful of chances. Chances that could ultimately determine the very future we are destined to venture into. Everybody has to make their choices in life in order to keep everything in balance. The balance between good and evil. That line that has never been crossed until now. Where ever I am, it’s dark. Oh god, am I dead? No I can’t be dead. It’s not possible. I imagined heaven wouldn’t be dark like this. No, I won’t believe I’m dead.
Little bits and pieces of what happened are coming back. If there was a time I should have trusted my damn instincts, it was now. I can’t move my hands. There’s something covering my face. A blindfold? The darkness of whatever happened is creeping back into me. A shuffling of feet and scraping of some chairs brings my mind back to wherever the hell I’m at.
“Is she tied up?” A male voice asks.
“Yeah, she is tied up real good and tight. The bitch isn’t going anywhere.” Another male voice asks. This one, more familiar. I can’t place it but I know I’ve heard it before. The familiar tension in his voice is what makes it recognizable.
“I still don’t understand why you had to kidnap her. She wouldn’t have talked if you just threatened her. The girl was no liability to us at all, so this shit is pointless.” The other calmer voice said. There was something about him that was still unnerving. I listened very closely to both voices who sounded a million miles away. There was an echo in both of their voices so maybe I’m in some kind of warehouse? Oh god, where the hell am I?
“She’s a liability to me! The bitch will pay, and if she doesn’t pay then there will be consequences. I have plans for her.” The other male voice shouted out angrily. A loud bang was heard then footsteps. They’re coming over. A sharp pain radiates through my skull as a hand grasps the back of my head and pulls. Ow, that hurts like hell.
“This is what happens when you double cross me.” My head is pushed forward and if it wasn’t for the rope holding me back, I would have been thrown to the floor. Thank god for this damn rope. My mind is hazy. Nothing makes sense. Do they even know I’m awake and I can hear them? Probably not so I should stay quiet for now.
The other male voice sighs in defeat and speaks again. “Alright fine. But this is your fucking mess Cole, nobody else is going to clean up from the damage you’ve caused.”
That name. I know that name. Shit, what happened? A memory flash hits me full force. The ball. Finn. Zac. Oh god Zac. The memories start to flood back and the tears can’t be held in any longer. Without drawing any unnecessary attention, I lean my head down as if I’m still asleep but I’m clearly anything but.
“Just to be on the safe side, you should give her another dose of whatever the fuck you gave her because if she wakes up and has memories, she will go straight to the police and you don’t want that.” Wait, give me something? Is that why my memories are so fuzzy? This can’t be happening. It has to be a dream. Maybe I’ll wake up and be laying in Zac’s arms as he snuggles me close to protect me from this hell of a nightmare.
“Don’t worry boss, I got it taken care of.” Bracing myself for what’s to come, I cringe when I feel a sharp needle plunge into my skin, making the dizziness return. A throbbing in my temporal is the only recognition that this is real. Whatever he gave me takes effect immediately. It’s clouding my brain. I can’t let go just yet. Zac would want me to hold on. I just…wait, what’s going on? What am I doing here? Who am I?
Cold, clammy hands softly touch my face, removing this fabric that’s covering my eyes. Dammit, what happened and where am I? I blink a couple times until the blurriness disappears. Looking up, I notice a beautiful pair of brown eyes staring back at me. He seems to be studying me, analyzing me, looking at me like he wants to devour me. God, he’s handsome but I sense an uneasiness from him.
Whoever he is, he smiles maliciously at me when I start to look around. “Wakey wakey little robin. It’s time to pay the piper.” He says with an evil smirk making my senses go on high alert.
“What do you mean? I don’t even know you. I don’t even know myself.” I stammer for coherent words. Nothing.
Another smile crosses his beautiful face making me shiver from either pleasure or from pain. It’s hard to tell right now.
“Oh trust me sweetheart, you’ll get to know me. You’ll get to know all of me very well. I have big plans for you my little robin. Just wait, you’ll see.”
Please god, let this nightmare be over soon. Oh my god.
Acknowledgment
There are a lot of people I could thank for helping me along this writing journey of mine. I have so many inspirations behind this story and the characters, I can’t be grateful enough.
Firstly, I’d like to thank my cover designer, Clarise Tan. For somebody who changes their mind a LOT and I do mean a LOT, she was so patient with my constant changing of details and the end result was amazing! She produced a beautiful cover that I instantly fell in love with after all the changes. Hahaha. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful cover. She really captured the allure of the story with the cover alone. It’s attractive and really grabs a reader’s attention. Thank you so much Clarise!
Second, I’d like to thank my best friend and PA Christi Minnick. Without you keeping me on my toes and pushing me to stay focused, this story would probably still be half finished and not anywhere close to being published. You’re always on my ass when it comes to getting stuff done because of my horrible procrastination skills. Yeah, I’m one of those people. So thank you Christi (aka cuntcake) because despite our differences, I love you dearly. Thanks babe!
Third, I would like to thank my new author best friend Kinsey Taylor. Since the very beginning when we first met, I’ve always leaned towards her for advice since she was new at the author world too so going to her for advice was the way to go. She is too always to kick me in the ass if need be and I would welcome it! I know I have a best friend for life in her and love her face. Also, I stalk her regularly but she loves it. ;)
I would like to send a special thanks to all of my beta readers! Without you taking the time to read, review and give me the necessary feedback then my book would still be a jumbled mess! My beta team; Kimberly McCalla, Christi Minnick, Kinsey Taylor, Bella Bright, Joy Chapman are awesome ladies and I couldn’t ask for better beta readers!
I have so many friends to thank that I can’t list them all! So from the bottom of my heart, I thank each and every one of my friends who helped me along my journey and helped me to succeed in writing this book. They are always willing to fangirl with me (Yeah, I’m talking about you Sunny) and be there when I am struggling to push through the tough times.
To all my future readers, thank you for taking the time to read this book I poured my heart and soul into!
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Unbound Faith (Bulletproof #1) Page 21