His Confession
(By His Command #8)
by Ana W. Fawkes
Jonathan Black is not supposed to be fighting for his life.
But he is.
At the hotel and miles above in the sky, Isabella still must obey his commands. When 'K' persists, Isabella is forced to make a decision whether or not to save the life of one of Jonathan's enemies. Once pushed too far beyond her capabilities, Isabella Grace's thoughts could change everyone... forever.
-1-
I stood frozen, shocked and scared. Normally, when those kinds of feelings ran through my body, I would look to Jonathan. He would help to ease them just by the look in his eyes or the strong touch of a single finger.
But I didn’t have Jonathan Black with me right then.
He was in the bedroom of our hotel room and all I could see were his feet, pointed in the air. There was a lifelessness floating around the room that was only competed by the vibrant life that was Katherine. She stood in a red dress - the red dress I wore on a forced date with Kellen - and looked at me.
“You’re K?” I asked.
“I’m K... K for Katherine. I’m sure you know the alphabet, correct?”
She was stunning, beautiful and deadly all in the same breath. I had a chance to run; I could have been out the door and gone before she knew what was happening. But she didn’t need to keep her guard up with me. I needed to keep my guard up with her. I had no idea what she was capable of.
And even if I ran, what would I do? Where would I go? I had no connections and no contacts. As much as Jonathan Black let me into his multi-billion dollar lifestyle, I wasn’t in all that far. And that realty crushed my heart.
I touched my chest with one hand and my lips with the other.
“You’re trying to escape right now,” Katherine said. “Your mind is spinning. If you need a moment, you can have the key to my hotel room. I’m right across the street...”
I gasped and remembered the text messages Katherine had sent to me. How she claimed she had been watching, waiting, wanting to kill both Jonathan Black and I. I looked again the bedroom and felt my stomach turn. Katherine did not need to touch me at that point to kill me. And when I met eyes with her, she knew it. By killing Jonathan Black she would have effectively killed me.
I would have nowhere to go and no urge to even try.
I would wait and wilt, wanting nothing more than my own death - no matter how painful - just to have the chance to maybe find Jonathan Black again. In some other realm.
“What do you want?” I asked, my voice too shaken to even try to appear normal.
“Everything he took,” Katherine said. “Doesn’t it bother you? Doesn’t it make you wonder... why you? Why now? What about tomorrow? You think he’s going to stay with you forever?”
I swallowed and didn’t answer. I didn’t want to think about tomorrow or the future. I’d much rather live in a world where Jonathan Black did all the thinking and acting, leaving me with surprises around every corner, keeping me alive and feeling like I had purpose.
Katherine stepped towards me, the red dress hugging her wide hips perfectly. Her hips shot left to right, left to right. If this was the woman Jonathan Black once had and left, then what was I? I compared nothing to Katherine... not in looks or action, obviously.
She reached for my face and touched my cheek.
“So soft,” she whispered. “You’re like a delicate flower, aren’t you?”
“Is he okay?” I asked.
“Look at you, so worried about him. Does he worry about you?”
“Yes,” I said, starting to cry.
“That’s why he sent you into the arms of a stranger,” Katherine said, referring to Kellen. “The arms of a stranger with enough power, money, and connections that he could make you disappear. You’d be... gone.”
The thought made me shiver.
Jonathan wouldn’t do that to me, right? He wouldn’t just let Kellen steal me away and do nothing about it.
“He stole me from Kellen,” Katherine said, “or that’s what he believes. Kellen too. The bottom line was that Jonathan Black was much sexier than Kellen... which I’m sure you can agree with... right?”
I nodded.
Katherine laughed. “Oh, Isabella Grace, your innocence just pours out of you. Marvelous. Beautiful. It actually turns me on and I have no interest in women.”
Katherine turned and walked, moving as if she owned time and that time owed her something. The slower she moved made me feel worse and worse about what waited for me in the bedroom. I looked at Jonathan’s feet, still pointed in the air. They hadn’t moved an inch.
He’s dead, I thought.
I shook my head and closed my eyes, forcing the thought away.
I couldn’t believe it.
Katherine took a bottle of wine from the counter and poured some into a glass that was next to the wine. She swirled it and the wine danced around the wide glass. She smelled it and smiled, then took a big sip.
“Not sure what I’m smelling it for or tasting it for,” Katherine said. “Just looks good, doesn’t it?”
It did look good. So did Katherine in my body. She wore it better than I had. She was meant for dresses. She was meant for wine. She was meant for the lifestyle Jonathan Black had given me.
And maybe that’s what she wanted.
“If I did anything...”
“Oh, Isabella Grace,” Katherine said, “you can’t just start apologizing, can you? You don’t know enough to apologize.”
“Then tell me. You tell me right now why you sent text messages to me and Mr. Black.”
“Mr. Black?” Katherine laughed. “I remember a time when I called him that. But not anymore. He was the one begging me. He was the one desperate to get away. But in the end...”
Katherine slid around to the other side of the counter and opened a drawer. I stiffened and took a step back. I immediately prepared my last thoughts as I waited for the gunshot.
So be it, my mind told me.
Instead, Katherine pulled out a knife. She held it up and where there should have been a glistening coming from the blade, there wasn’t. There wasn’t a glisten because the blade had blood on it.
-2-
I didn’t run, I went faster than running. My mind had a one track purpose and that was to get to Jonathan Black right then and there to know the truth. If he was dead, I couldn’t take it, but I could see it. I could hold him. I could kiss his lips, one last time. Maybe he was still alive, dangling by the threads of his own heartbeat. Maybe he was waiting for me, to see if I’d come back to him.
Of course I would.
Did he doubt for a second I wouldn’t?
Did he believe that something would happen with Kellen?
I moved, my eyes on the room. I made it no more than ten charging steps before I saw the flicker of the red blade again. Katherine waved the knife at me and I panicked. I couldn’t explain it but something about knives just freaked me out. I tried to stop but couldn’t. I tripped over my own two feet and fell to the floor. On my hands and knees I was in the position Katherine wanted me to be in.
I kept my head down, trying to catch my breath and trying not to break down. As I turned my head I saw Katherine’s black heels moving towards me. I looked up at her, feeling broken, on the verge of my own death.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
“The knife. The blood.”
“Oh, that. Just something I needed from Jonathan.”
“No... you didn’t...”
“Oh, I had to,” Katherine said.
She was so calm and collected. She was much like Jonathan, as horrible as that sounded. She held the knife betwe
en her pointer and thumb and hung it over me. I watched the very tip of it moving left to right, left to right.
“Now that you’ve seen this, I don’t need it anymore.”
Her fingers opened and the knife fell. It hit the floor and fell to the side, blood smearing on the carpet. It was just a few inches from my face. If I wanted to, I could have licked the blade and the blood. Maybe the idea went through my mind for a second, I’m not sure. When I looked back at Katherine she was smiling ear to ear. She then bent her knees and in the most elegant fashion I’d ever seen, she lowered herself to my level.
It was amazing to see.
In such a tight dress, she moved with ease.
Some women would have fallen. Some would have torn the dress. Some would have exposed themselves somewhere.
But not Katherine.
She was perfect.
She touched my hair and I felt tingles run through my body.
“Come talk to me,” Katherine said. “Don’t make me go after your heart too.”
I whimpered and looked at the bedroom. I moved to my feet and realized I was closer to Jonathan Black but not close enough to know the truth of what actually waited in the bedroom for me.
“Tell me if he’s okay,” I whispered.
Katherine took my arm and held it gently, patting my shoulder, guiding me to the couch.
“Oh, Isabella Grace, was Jonathan ever okay? We have to be honest with ourselves now, don’t we?”
“I don’t understand what that means,” I snapped.
“Oh yeah?”
That’s when the vile, violent side of Katherine made a sudden appearance. The gentleness of her touch a few seconds ago was gone. She grabbed my hair, pulled, and twisted. I cried out as she turned me and threw me at the couch. She had strength that I definitely didn’t see coming at all. I was at least thankful she threw me to the couch and not into a wall or worse yet, out the window. My nerves ached at the thought of falling from the hotel window to my death.
Katherine stepped to me again. She leaned in and put her hands at the top of the couch. Her long, curly hair dangled down. Her breasts were pouring from the dress. Under other circumstances she was like an erotic dream, but right then she was a living nightmare.
She managed to spread her legs enough to climb on top of me. I was shaking and uncomfortable. I gripped the cushions on the couch and wasn’t sure what to think next.
“You see,” Katherine whispered in a seductive voice, “Jonathan didn’t just leave me... he left me with nothing. His eyes changed, he was moving beyond anything I could do or try to do. After all I did for him.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Trust me, Isabella Grace, I did plenty. Much like you. I covered things up. I kept him happy. I kept him alive. I kept him out of jail. I... did anything he needed to help him further himself along.”
I swallowed and thought about pushing Katherine off me. If she fell back at the right angle and the right speed she would crash through the coffee table. I wanted to hurt her so I could get to Jonathan but I didn’t want to kill her.
Right?
“Please, just let me go,” I said.
“You? Or you and Jonathan?”
“Of course us,” I said. “What do you want from him.”
“The money he owes me. I heard there’s... oh... three billion dollars floating around somewhere. Money that’s not his but he thinks it is. Money that I want. Right now.”
The way Katherine growled at me made me shake uncontrollably.
“I’m like you,” I cried out. “I don’t know where he keeps things. Does things. I...”
“Shh... shh...” Katherine rubbed my cheek. “Of course you don’t know. Why would you? He doesn’t share secrets with anyone. You’re my messenger Isabella Grace, that’s all.”
Katherine rubbed my cheek for a few seconds, her crazy eyes were ready to pop. She slid off me and stood, doing so with polite movements that once again amazed me. She definitely had experience in dresses like that. It made me wonder what it was the woman did. She looked the part to get what she wanted and then leave, but did that include murder?
“Here’s what we’ll do,” Katherine said, so soft spoken. “I’ll tell you something about me, then I’ll get out of your hair. Only for a little while. See, the thing is, if you still had your cell phone I’d be able to send you a text message. But I’m assuming Jonathan destroyed the cell phone. Correct?”
I nodded. I knew Jonathan’s temper, would come back to haunt us. My mind went back in time, thinking about the cell phone and how I came to have it.
“One thing you’ll learn about me, Isabella Grace, is that I always get what I want. Nothing can stop me. Not even the great Jonathan Black… or his father…”
Of course it only made sense that Katherine and Jonathan’s father were connected someway. After all, it was John Black’s coat where I found the cell phone with the text messages from the mysterious ‘K’.
“How do you want me to get the money?”
“Don’t try to turn anything on me,” Katherine said. “I know how this game goes. You try to tell me you don’t know where the money is and then you explain to Jonathan that you desperately need the money. You tell Jonathan your life is in danger, and that if he doesn’t put out the money you’ll never see the light of day again.”
Katherine began to pace the living room of the hotel room. Her hands were at her sides and the way she walked was sultry enough to fill the hotel room with sexual tension, even with Jonathan in the other room possibly hurt… or dead.
“That’s why I had to send a message to Jonathan,” Katherine said. “The message has been delivered, loud and clear. And I’m sure you too, Isabella Grace, will get the message. But understand me… I expect my money to be delivered very soon. If you try to run, I will kill you.”
Katherine spun around and stared at me. She wanted me to say something and of all the things running through my head at that exact second none of them were able to come forward. I was stuck between standing up for myself and standing up for Jonathan… and stuck between groveling, collapsing to the floor in a motion, or just quitting. But what would I be quitting? I was literally stuck. My entire life and existence at that moment was dependent on both Jonathan Black and Katherine.
“I hope you understand me,” Katherine said. “I really do. I’d hate for anything else to happen… I mean, come on, do you really think I’m this evil of a woman?”
Katherine laughed and I shivered.
“Can I please go see Jonathan now?” I asked.
I needed to know Jonathan was alive, dead, or somewhere in between.
“Yes, you can go see Jonathan.”
I started to stand when Katherine snapped her fingers and pointed at me.
“I just realized, Isabella Grace. You’re wondering about your dress, aren’t you?”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I honestly don’t care about that though…”
“Oh, I do,” Katherine said. “I know what it’s like to have something stolen from me. It’s a terrible feeling. I wish that feeling on nobody… including you…”
Before I could even attempt to question what Katherine meant or what she was going to do, she reached back and grabbed the tiny zipper on the dress. She pushed it down as far as she could then reached from a different angle to get the zipper and pull it all the way down.
I gasped for air as Katherine removed the dress from herself to give back to me. She slithered her way out of it and revealed a lacy red bra and matching panties that hugged her hips and curves as well as the dress had done. She stepped from the dress and tossed it to the couch near me.
“I don’t believe this,” I whispered.
“Believe it,” Katherine said as she stood in bra and panties.
The way she had taken herself from the dress may have amazed me, but the implications got to me. Had she done the same thing for Jonathan Black? Had he accepted her to do so? Worse yet, had she done something to him
without allowing him to speak or defend himself?
Katherine put her hands at her hips and curled her lip at me.
She was evil.
Beautifully evil.
I could see her sending those text messages to me, tempting me, scaring me, knowing it would all lead to a moment like this.
“Remember, Isabella Grace,” Katherine said, “you can’t win this one. You won’t. It ends with money or death. If you choose death, you and Jonathan will be dead and I’ll still get my money.”
Katherine turned and I cursed myself for looking to the lines of her panties. It was a thong that cut at the right places. Katherine opened the door and left the hotel. Just like that. Walking the halls in a bra and a thong. Oh, and her black heels. She would certainly look like a dream to any man that saw her in the halls... but good luck getting near her or taming her.
I took a breath and jumped from the couch.
I was finally alone.
More so, I was finally able to check on Jonathan Black.
-3-
He was on the bed, his eyes shut. That was the first thing I noticed. The second thing I noticed were his hands. Folded across his chest, looking eerie and morbid. I stood for a second, trying to see if I could see Jonathan’s chest or stomach moving. But I couldn’t focus enough to tell. My breathing was so erratic, everything looked like it was moving in the room.
“Mr. Black?” I called out.
No response.
“Jonathan, no...”
I touched his black shoe. My finger left a small smear print on the shiny shoe. I touched his ankle and shook. Even though it was Jonathan Black, it still terrified me that he may actually be dead. Something about a corpse was just... horrifying.
There was blood on his shirt, from a cut made by the knife on his arm. Nothing serious at all, but enough to get blood on the blade of the knife. Just to mess with me.
“Jonathan, it’s me, it’s Isabella,” I said. “Isabella Grace. Katherine is gone. She left.”
For now, I thought. But I didn’t say it.
His Confession (By His Command #8) Page 1