The cyclist gave the stricken woman chest compressions as the woman blew oxygen into the girl’s lungs. She told him to stop a moment, felt for a pulse then shook her head. “She’s gone. She’s gone.”
A cop car pulled up then, and two cops rushed over. The cyclist, trembling shook his head. “She’s dead.”
One of the cops was staring down at Soleil’s dead body intently, and then he cursed loudly. “Fuck.”
“What?”
“That’s Bodhi Creed’s girlfriend. Jesus H Christ, that’s his girlfriend.”
The other cop looked shocked. “Dammit, call it in. And someone get over to Bodhi Creed’s house. This is going to be all over the news.”
As the first cop called in the murder, he examined Soleil’s car and paled. “God…look.” He held up a child’s knapsack. “She had a kid in the car…where’s the kid? Where’s the goddamned kid?”
Bodhi and Sailor sat on the couch too shocked and devastated to say anything. The detective watched them carefully. “You understand what I’m saying?”
Bodhi turned pained eyes to him. “Soleil is dead…and my son is missing. Missing.”
The detective, Jim Wallis, nodded. “Obviously, this has just happened, so we’re gathering information. Before she died, Ms. Fonseca told a witness that she was given a message for you, Miss King. Something like “This will happen to the boy or it will happen to you. Your choice.” Does that mean anything?”
Sailor, haunted, nodded. She explained everything about her escape from Bartholomew Foy and the cult, how Bay Tambe had been dragged into it, and now Solly. Oh god, Solly, I’m sorry… “He likes to kill women, detective. That’s the crux of the matter. He wants to kill me. That’s why he’s holding Tim so that I’ll go to him.” She turned to Bodhi. “Bodhi…I have to go to him. It’s Tim’s only chance.”
“No,” both Bodhi and Jim Wallis were vehement in their response.
“That’s not an option, Miss King,” continued Jim Wallis as Bodhi dropped his face into his hands. “We will find Tim, I promise you.”
“You don’t know Bart,” Sailor said in despair, “He has no humanity, no morality, and his people are everywhere. He probably has some in law enforcement.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Jim said grimly, “But I can promise you for sure; he will not get away with this.”
His cell phone rang, and he excused himself. Bodhi put his arms around Sailor “Soleil’s dead.” His voice was breaking, and he leaned his head against her. “And my son…god…”
Sailor couldn’t help the tears. “I can’t believe it,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry, Bodhi. If I hadn’t…”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” he said, his eyes closed. “I couldn’t live without you, Sailor. This is when it ends, you know, this is when Bart Foy is brought to his knees.”
Sailor nodded. “Even if it costs me everything, Bodhi, I will get Tim back for you.”
Bodhi opened his eyes and gazed at her. “We do this together, okay? Don’t you dare sacrifice yourself. Bart Foy doesn’t get to kill anyone else.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I have to call Claudio to tell him. How the hell am I going to do that?”
Jim Wallis came back a short time later. “Mr. Creed…I’m sorry to have to ask you to do this, but we need someone to identify Ms. Fonseca’s body.”
Bodhi nodded, his face drained of color. “Of course. I have to call her brother; I think he’s still in Seattle…he’ll want to come and claim her body once the medical examiner releases it.”
“Of course. Look, we’re going to keep some people here for protection and to keep the press away. Someone must have called them almost as soon as it happened. Some journalists are outside now, but we’re keeping them away from the gate. Would you come with us now, Mr. Creed, before they start flocking?”
Sailor told him she would wait for him at home and he went to grab a sweater. Sailor pulled Jim Wallis aside. “How did she die, Detective Wallis? Please tell me. Bart…he has a favorite method.”
Jim Wallis hesitated then sighed. “Ms. Fonseca was stabbed repeatedly, Miss King.”
“In the abdomen?”
He nodded and Sailor sighed. “Yes. That’s Bart’s mo. That’s what turns him on. I just hope to god that Tim didn’t see it happen.”
“I hope so too.”
Bodhi gazed down at the face of his much-loved friend. In death, Soleil was just as beautiful, but the sparkle, her light, her humor, her energy…now Bodhi knew what the term ‘snuffed out’ really meant. She lay naked under a blood-soaked sheet; the medical examiner hadn’t had time to clean her wounds yet, but it was obvious where she had been stabbed, how horrifically she had been murdered.
“God, Solly, I’m so sorry,” he whispered again and again. Her eyes were closed, and Bodhi couldn’t understand how he’d never see them dance with laughter again. How could Soleil, of all people, be dead? Funny, smart, sexy, loving Solly. His tears dripped onto her face as he kissed her cold forehead and he heard the medical examiner cough. Jim Wallis touched his arm.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Creed but, you know, chain of evidence.”
Bodhi nodded. “Of course.” He shook his head, still unable to believe Soleil was dead. He turned to Jim Wallis. “We need to call Claudio Fonseca now before the press puts this online.”
They were too late. Sailor took the call from a near hysterical Claudio, who screamed at her that it was her fault Soleil was dead, and why the hell hadn’t they called him immediately and how could his beloved sister be dead?
Sailor took it all, every word of abuse, feeling like she deserved it. Finally, when Claudio, sobbing, had calmed down, he asked to speak to Bodhi. “He’s not here, Claudio…he’s at the medical examiner’s office…identifying Solly’s body.”
Another wave of ranting, and cursing in Italian. Sailor waited for him to finish, feeling as if she were in the body of someone else. Numb. “Claudio, Tim is missing. They took Tim. If you think you’re the only one blaming me for this, you’re wrong.”
The phone went dead. Sailor put her cell phone down gently, and steadying herself, switched on the television. Sure enough, Soleil’s murder was breaking news on every channel. A photograph of Bodhi Creed’s now dead ‘girlfriend’ was front and center, along with a photograph of Tim.
Too late, Sailor realized they had forgotten someone in the terror, the horror of Tim’s abduction. Someone who, if they had seen this broadcast, would now be in hysterics.
Tim’s mother. Gemma.
Her legs shaking, Sailor went to find a police officer. There was a commotion at the front door, and for a terrible moment, Sailor thought the press had got in. A moment later, a smartly dressed man with short brown hair and a kind but serious face approached her.
“Miss King?”
Sailor nodded, glancing at the officer behind the newcomer who nodded. The visitor saw her hesitation and reached into his pocket for his i.d.
“Miss King, my name is Evan Teal, I’m an F.B.I, agent and…”
Sailor recognized the pain in his eyes and immediately knew just who he was. “And the man who brought up Tim.”
Evan Teal nodded, and Sailor did the only thing she could think of to do in this situation. She hugged him.
Evan hugged her back tightly. In this situation, they were family even if they had never met before. When they released each other, Sailor led him to sit on the couch with her. Evan ran a hand through his short brown curls. “Sailor, please, just tell me everything. Everything. I called Gemma; she’s on her way down, so for everyone’s benefit, let’s get it all out in the open.”
Sailor had braced herself for the torrent of rage coming her way, but when Claudio and Gemma arrived at the same time, she realized she had under estimated. The grief and anger were all-consuming and entirely directed at her, so much so that by the time Bodhi arrived home, Sailor had been corned by both of them and was almost cringing at the force of their barrage.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Bodhi batted Claudio and Gemma out of the way and stepped in front of Sailor. “Enough!”
Both Claudio and Gemma were silent then. Bodhi turned to Sailor. “You okay, baby?”
She nodded, too stunned to speak. Bodhi turned back to his friend, and the mother of his beloved Tim.
“Stop it,” he said gently, “both of you. This isn’t Sailor’s fault. This is the work of a very, very sick man. Claudio, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am…Soleil didn’t deserve this. She was murdered because I stupidly believed she and Tim were safe, that Sailor was the only one at risk. I should have insisted on them taking a bodyguard, but, from what I understand, they were ambushed by a few people.”
“And my son?” Gemma’s voice broke.
“Our son…our son has been taken, yes. But, I believe he is alive. Bart Foy wants Sailor, so he’ll keep Tim alive as long as he hasn’t got her.”
Gemma sneered at him. “So? Give her to him, what is she to me? What is she worth when Tim’s life is on the line?”
Sailor closed her eyes. Nothing. I am worth nothing.
When Bodhi spoke, the steel in his voice was obvious. “She is the love of my life, Gemma. Just as Tim is. Don’t ever, ever talk like that about Sailor again. Do you understand me.”
Gemma turned away, then exclaimed as Evan Teal reentered the room. “Evan!” She flew across the room into his arms. Evan looked uncomfortable, glancing over Gemma’s shoulder at Bodhi, then Sailor. When Gemma released him, he stepped forward and offered Bodhi his hand. “Evan Teal.”
Bodhi shook it. “Bodhi Creed. Thanks for being here, Evan. Thanks for looking after…” His voice broke, and Sailor went to him, ignoring Claudio’s glowering look. She stroked Bodhi’s back, and he wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in her hair. She could feel his silent sobs rack his body.
“Okay,” said Evan calmly, after a few minutes, “let’s all be calm and work this problem through. Shall we sit?”
They were about to sit when another detective came in and grabbed the remote. “You have to see this.”
He flicked on the television and immediately an image of Soleil, bleeding out on the asphalt where she was found flickered on the screen. Claudio collapsed to the floor, batting Bodhi’s hand away, and as they watched in mounting horror, the newscaster told the world about the murder, the kidnapping. A photograph of Tim, obviously taken from a distance, at his school.
“Where the fuck did they get that?”
Bodhi was incensed, but then a moment later, something far worse was shown. A video, taken from an awkward angle, above a familiar scene. Three people. In bed.
Sailor gasped in horror as the television news broadcast the pictures of her being ecstatically fucked by both Soleil and Bodhi to millions of viewers worldwide.
For a long moment, they all froze…then Claudio lunged for Bodhi.
Sailor sat in the darkened guesthouse, watching Claudio and Bodhi argue violently in the main house. After Claudio, had seen the video of his beloved sister making love with his friend, and the woman he blamed for her death, he had gone mad, pounding on Bodhi, who just seemed to take it. After Evan and another cop hauled Claudio off of him, Bodhi had simply got to his feet and turned to her. “Go wait in the guesthouse, baby. You don’t need to hear this.”
She had fled, but now she felt wretched. God, was it worth it? All this horror, this pain?
Sailor pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her face on her knees. How the hell were they going to get Tim back if she, Sailor, was to remain safe? She couldn’t see a way.
Take me, she willed Bart, come take me, kill me, and leave them all alone. She kept seeing the image of Soleil, beautiful, amazing Soleil, stabbed to death. It should have been me.
She started as a cell phone began to ring, and she frowned. Her own cell phone was back in the main house, and there was no land line. Sailor got up, trying to trace the sound of the phone. She walked around, confused until she traced it to the bookcase. She pulled out a heavy copy of Othello and opened it. The book had been hollowed out and inside, a ringing cell phone. She took the call.
“My darling Sailor.”
Her blood run like ice, Sailor heard Bart’s voice for the first time in nearly a year. It sent horror shooting through her; her stomach clenched, her heart beat faster.
“You bastard. Where’s Tim? What have you done to him?”
Bart laughed softly. “He’s fine…a little, how shall I say this, a little subdued, a little traumatized. It was his first time seeing a killing.”
Sailor’s throat closed up, and her knees gave way. She sank to the floor. “You made him watch you kill Soleil? You…” She didn’t have the words.
“What a beautiful woman…what a pleasure to kill her. Now, don’t collapse on me, Sailor, you need to listen to me. Sit back on that couch.”
He was watching her. Of course. That’s how they got the footage of her, Bodhi and Soleil. She glanced around the room, and Bart laughed. “Hello, pretty girl. Yes, Sailor, I can see you. I’ve been watching you for months now, fucking that sleazy rockstar, and the now-dead whore. Well, well, well…you broke the rules, Sailor. You gave away what’s mine. You will have to be punished.”
Sailor went to the corner of the room and scooched down in it so that people in the main house wouldn’t be able to see her distress. “Please…Bart, don’t hurt Tim. I beg you. Don’t hurt him.”
“Sailor, you have my word that I will not harm the child…if you do exactly what I say. If you give yourself to me.”
“Anything, anything. Please just…tell me what I have to do.”
Bart laughed softly. “That’s my Sailor girl. Now, listen…”
After a still-raging Claudio had left to go see his sister’s body and make arrangements, Evan, who Bodhi had warmed to immensely, took a weeping Gemma back to her hotel. “I’ll come back in the morning, Bodhi, if I may. I want to be as much help as I can.”
Bodhi shook his hand, holding his gaze. “Thank you, Evan. Not just for today, but for bringing my son up to be a wonderful man. I can never thank you enough.”
Evan smiled, a little shyly. “I love Tim, and it was entirely my pleasure. I’m glad you have bonded so well. He loves you, Bodhi, he really does.”
Bodhi tried to hold back the tears, but was unable. “Thank you, Evan.”
“We will get him back safely, Bodhi, if it’s the last thing I do. I swear that to you.”
Bodhi nodded, but couldn’t speak. After they had left, Gemma still refusing to speak to Bodhi, Bodhi went to the guesthouse to find Sailor curled up on the sofa, her eyes haunted. Bodhi sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her. “Well, my beautiful girl…now it’s a waiting game. The F.B.I. want to wait for Bart to get in touch. We already know what he wants, but he’s not going to get it.”
Sailor said nothing, but buried her face in his neck. Bodhi could feel her trembling. “Try not to dwell on what Claudio and Gemma said to you; it came from a place of grief.”
“They were right. This is my fault.”
“No,” Bodhi’s voice was harsh and he made her look him in the eye. “It’s not. It’s the work of a madman, a psychopath. You did nothing wrong, do you hear me? I would not change a moment of time I spent with you. Nor would Tim, nor would Soleil. I am so in love with you, Sailor, you are my world as much as Tim, as much as Soleil was. God.”
“It hurts to hear her name in the past tense,” Sailor said, her voice breaking, “I can’t believe she’s dead. When I saw that photograph of her body…Bodhi, it was like seeing those photographs of Tilly all over again. The way she was killed…exactly the same. Bart has taken every important female figure in my life away from me, my mother, Tilly, Soleil. I can’t help feeling that if I had just given him what he wanted…”
“That’s bullshit.” Bodhi was up now, pacing. “Sailor, I see you murdered every night, in nightmares, I can’t stop them. Stabbed to death like Soleil was...I cannot handle you talking like that. If
I lost you…”
“Ssh, ssh, ssh.” Sailor got up and wrapped her arms around him, kissing his mouth gently. “I’m still here, baby, still here…” Her voice broke, and Bodhi gave a groan and kissed her roughly, pouring all his pain into the kiss. He tore her shirt from her and took each nipple into his mouth, sucking hard, biting down on the nubs. Sailor pulled him to the floor and wrapped her legs around his waist as he pushed her skirt up over her hips and tore her underwear away.
He couldn’t wait to be inside her and thrust hard, hid cock straining to be enveloped by her velvety cunt.
They fucked each other hard, almost animalistic, feral, desperate to purge themselves of the sadness that weighted them down. They stayed in the guesthouse, the bedroom in the main house they’d shared for that one glorious night with Soleil, now sullied. A tomb.
In the morning, Bodhi woke up, the bed beside empty. He could hear Sailor in the little kitchenette. For a moment, he closed his eyes and pretended everything was normal, everything was okay. That his son, his Tim, wasn’t being held by a madman who wanted to kill Sailor, that his beloved friend Soleil hadn’t been brutally murdered.
Bodhi sighed, the sadness inside him weighing him down. He stared up at the ceiling, and his attention was caught by the tiniest red-light blinking. He sat up and cursed. Fucker had put cameras everywhere. Bodhi was about to reach up and rip the camera out of its hiding place behind the slatted door of the closet when he heard a crash and Sailor cry out.
He darted into the kitchen where he saw her on the floor, moaning, holding her left arm which he could see straight away was broken.
“What happened?”
“I was trying to reach the other skillet, the one that’s on the top of the cabinet,” Sailor winced as Bodhi gently held her broken arm. “I slipped. Oh, fuck it, fuck it…”
“Come on.” He swept her up into his arms easily, “You need to get to the hospital. Cedars is closest.”
Sailor, gasping with pain, stopped him. “Could you grab my jeans? I can’t go to the hospital in my underwear?”
No Promises: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 59