Ending with Forever

by LLP, Lan

  The second I hear Lil’s name paired with the word danger my heart clenches with fear. My recurring nightmare is no longer just a nightmare. She’s telling me there’s a chance. I don’t take chances. To hell with everything else I need to be by her side, to protect her. “Please. Tell me what you know,” I plead with extreme desperation, sounding pathetic and weak. I could care less if I have to beg on my hands and knees. For Lil’s safety I’d do anything.

  Wes’s eyes soften along with his rigid shoulders. His guards are down, but mine aren’t. I refuse to trust a Montgomery. “First of all I’m not offended by your reaction toward me. I’d have a hard time trusting my opponent’s son as well.”

  “Good,” I reply impatiently. Every second that passes is another second I’m losing with Lil. He needs to hurry the fuck up and spill it.

  “I believe my father and your ex-fiancée, Bianca, have worked out a bargain.” That filthy, evil bitch is involved again. I should’ve dealt with her following Lil’s accident. She won’t get any mercy from me. When I get my hands on her little neck, I’m going to fucking snap her head off. “Unfortunately, he didn’t give me any details, so I don’t have a time, date or place for you. I do know he has someone working on the inside—someone who interacts with Lillian in Boston.” Fuck! Who can that person be? There can’t be that many. I’ve pretty much cut her off from the world. Okay…think, Carson. I go down a list of people in my head: Andrew, Stewart, Belle, Hayden, Nikki, Luke, Rollin, Evelyn, and Edison. I narrow it down to three logical choices: Edison, Andrew or Stewart. They’re acquaintances and have no real ties to Lil. Stewart has hated me for years even though he told me it was a misunderstanding. Maybe that was a cover up so I wouldn’t suspect him.

  “Do you know whether the insider is a man or woman?” I ask.

  Sealing his eyes, I think he’s trying to recall his conversation with Chandler. “It’s a man. I’m almost positive,” he answers.

  “Do any of these names ring a bell for you: Stewart, Andrew or Edison?”

  “I know a Stewart and an Andrew,” he confirms. “How odd that you’d mention those two names together.”

  My hunch was right. Stewart is the traitor. “How do you know them?” I snap as I try to suppress the hostility creeping from the burning hell inside me.

  “Stewart’s my cousin and Andrew’s his partner.” Mother f-er! He’s been scheming with his uncle all this time. He probably convinced Andrew to earn Lil’s trust and then steal her sweatshirt. Damn it. I’ve given Andrew complete access to my place, too. That sneaky bastard. “Stew’s a saint. He’d never hurt anyone. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body,” Wes defends. “That’s why he’s a doctor and not an entrepreneur. He’s not the insider.”

  I don’t believe it. I’ve heard enough. “What do you want in return for this information, Mr. Montgomery?” I ask coldly. Why else would he be here if he didn’t want something in exchange?

  “I don’t want anything,” he snips, appearing offended and maybe even hurt. His eyes, also hazel like mine, drop disappointedly over to Bridgette. “I want to correct my father’s wrong. That’s all.” His voice is glum, seeming very sincere.

  “Carson, I can vouch for Wes. He’s been blindsided by his father all his life,” Bridgette speaks up. “He’s here as a friend, not a foe.”

  “Mr. Bradley, I’m sorry to interrupt you. You have an emergency call from security,” Evelyn buzzes in through the speakerphone, cutting us off.

  Lillian Ly

  Edison drives up to a dark brick-paved road lined with matching red brick buildings adorned with alternating bay windows on every floor. Bianca pays her assistant-accomplice very well. I pray Sasha is still home and she’ll give me what I need so I can put this all behind me.

  “Edison, if it’s okay with you. I’d like to go in by myself.”

  “Sure. I’ll find a parking space somewhere and wait for you. Text or call me when you’re done,” he offers with a pouty smile, knowing parking is next to impossible to find anywhere in Boston. I’m grateful he didn’t ask me for any explanations during our drive here. I just offered him my ears and pretended to be interested in his rambling about expensive cars. Impressively, he was able to rattle off every stat on each make and model of his favorite choices. Carson’s Bugatti was among his list of must-haves. That was the only vehicle I knew anything about.

  “I will. Thanks so much for doing this,” I tell him and exit the car with an eerie tightness trussed around my chest. A part of me fears that she won’t confess her guilt, but I won’t give up until she does. I’ll pressure her until she can’t refuse me. She’s my only hope of purging Bianca out of my life.

  I make it past the main entrance into Sasha’s building, walking in with a young couple and their baby stroller and groceries. Now I need to find her unit. I politely ask the young couple, “Can you please tell me where I can find this address? I’m from out of town and would like to pay my cousin a surprise visit.” Graciously, they tell me to take the elevator down the hallway and then it’ll be on my left when I exit. Of course it’s on the top level. I choose the stairs instead of the elevator. I already have enough anxiety. After five steep flights up I’m completely out of breath. Briefly, I drop down on the last step and lean my head and body against a metal railing to settle down. Damn it. My well-crafted plan is a lot more work than I pictured in my head. Alright, it’s time. I can’t waste another minute. Carson will be worried sick and livid if he comes home to find me missing and my bodyguard zonked out. I straighten my spine, square my shoulders and open the metal door to enter Sasha’s floor. Just like the couple instructed, it’s to the left of the elevator. With one last large inhale, I press her doorbell. There’s no answer. I wait another thirty seconds, counting it down in my mind and then press it again. The door swings open with Sasha on the other side wearing a fluffy pink robe, caught off guard. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes appear unrested, and her hair is tousled. She must’ve had a late night and I’m interrupting her sleep.

  “May I help you?” she asks uncaringly as she examines my face through her tapering eyes. She adjusts her robe in the front to cover her exposed breasts when she notices my disapproving face.

  “I’m Lillian.” Her expression tenses as her eyes enlarge at the familiarity of my name. Of course she knows me. “I have a proposition for you,” I tell her and let myself into her swanky place. She closes the door behind with no resistance and locks the deadbolt. Right away, a foreboding, dark cloud hovers over me. Something feels really wrong to me.

  “Why would I be interested in a proposition from you?” She rolls her eyes at me with her back against the locked door.

  “Because you don’t want to go to jail,” I tell her frankly, feeling the bile in my gut crawl slowly upward, making me nauseous. I’m no good at bluffing and my poker face sucks. “I pretty much have everything I need to pin you for my attempted murder.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she denies as she settles her bottom on the white leather sofa with her legs and hands crossed.

  “I have a copy of a car-rental contract with your signature and witnesses who saw you in the red sports car before and after the accident.” I continue to bluff, keeping my shaky hands in my pocket.

  “Then why don’t you have someone arrest me?” She dares me haughtily. Shit. This isn’t playing out how I thought it would. “Obviously, you have everything you need.”

  “Do you really want to go to jail for Bianca? Aren’t you tired of being used over and over again like an old dishrag? She doesn’t give a shit about you. She only cares about herself. Tell me I’m wrong,” I stress. “After she’s done with you she’ll let you rot in jail and never think twice about it either. All I need from you is a confession, claiming Bianca’s involvement. Carson will have his lawyers work out a deal so you won’t have to serve any time.”

  Sasha seems to be considering what I just told her. She starts biting nervously on her nails. Oh God, please let her come to
her senses. Give me the break I need.

  “Sasha, don’t listen to that whore,” Bianca’s voice projects loudly from a hallway by the entrance, choking the life out of me. Oh shit. I didn’t consider her being here. Panicked, my eyes rush to the exit door. Bianca is already standing in front of it, blocking my only means of escape. “She’s trying to separate us like she separated me from Carson.” Bianca tugs at Sasha’s heartstrings with a pathetic, emotional plea. I hope she doesn’t fall for it. “She doesn’t want us to be happy together. She’s trying to take me away from you,” Bianca continues her lies.

  With each step the devil takes to come closer to me, my heart races even faster, knowing death is approaching me and my baby. My body trembles with fear. I’ve never been more scared. Between her and Sasha, I have no chance of fleeing. Why didn’t I listen to Carson? Why did I think I can handle it my way? My eyes start to burn while tears beg to be released but I won’t allow them. I can’t let her see my weakness. That’s what her wicked soul wants and feeds on. “Sasha, free yourself. Don’t let her control you anymore. Please,” I persuade desperately. She’s my only hope of getting out of here alive. Bianca isn’t going to let me escape her grip a second time. I know this for a fact by looking into her empty, icy blue eyes. She wants me dead and nothing will make her happier.

  “Grab her,” Bianca yells out to Sasha making her jerk timidly. “This stupid bitch just made things so much easier for us by walking into our trap.” She cackles hysterically.

  I back away but there’s nowhere to run. I yank the coffee table up to blockade them and it crashes over to the side, shattering the glass center into a hundred razor-sharp blades. Angrily, Bianca grabs a hold of my wrist and jerks me down to the ground. My palm hits the edge of one of the broken pieces and it slices into my flesh like the world’s sharpest knife. Blood seeps all the way down the sleeve of my white coat before the shooting pain hits me, radiating to my fingers and forearm with an unfathomable burning sensation. I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore as I remove a glass blade lodged in my hand.

  “You dumb bitch!” Bianca scolds me. “Look at what you’ve done! Your blood is everywhere. We’ll have to deal with this shit later,” she barks at Sasha, who appears aghast and terrified by the gory sight of my bright blood. “Just don’t sit there like an idiot. Get some rope or duct tape for me.”

  Unexpectedly, the doorbell chimes. I celebrate furtively between each hitch breath. This could be my break. Whoever’s on the other side will hopefully see me and free me. “Help! Help me! I’m in here!” I scream as loud as I could. Bianca shoves her hand over my mouth to muffle me, but it’ll take more than that to stop me. I’m fighting for my life. She better believe I’m going to give it my all. With the intention of maiming her, I bite the center of her palm. Appalled, she releases her grip of my mouth momentarily. I know there’ll be severe repercussions for my retaliation, but I’ll take my chances.

  “You wild animal. You fucking bit me!”

  She strikes her hand brutally across my face and knocks the wind out of me, throwing my body down to the ground again. The taste of raw blood fills the cavity of my mouth after my teeth cut into the side of my cheek. My other palm now has a matching gash. I lay helplessly on the floor, weeping almost soundlessly.

  “Open the fucking door, Sasha! Do I have to do everything myself?”

  Shaking off her paralysis, Sasha runs to the door and pulls it wide open without even questioning who’s on the other side. I lift my head to see my hero, but lose all hope when his recognizable face comes into view. Horror overtakes me. It’s Edison, the only person I’m relying on to have my back. I’m good as dead. God, how could I’ve been so stupid? It all adds up now. He’s the mole who stole my sweatshirt from the dance studio. He vanished to his car that day when Carson paid me a surprise visit. When he returned, my sweatshirt disappeared out of the bag that Andrew and I clearly remembered me putting it into. How could I have been so wrong about him? Now I know how he’ll be able to buy his expensive cars. I’ve never been one to give up easily, but there’s no use in fighting now. Three against one, and they have Bianca on their team.

  “What the fuck happened here?” Edison grumbles, running over to my side, alarmed. He’s sickened at the sight of my body covered in blood. “Mr. Montgomery isn’t going to be happy about this. He told me no harm should be done to his niece.” Niece. Did I hear him right? I’m starting to fade in and out. He grabs my hands and applies pressure to them. “Get me a damn towel or something so I can slow the bleeding down!”

  “That’s not what he told me,” Bianca argues. “He said she’s my problem after he gets what he wants.”

  “He hasn’t gotten what he wants yet. Did he? You are a dumb blond,” he smarts off to her.

  “Don’t fucking talk to me like that,” Bianca snarls. “Who do you think you are?”

  “I want no part of this anymore,” Sasha surrenders, crying and trembling on the wooden floor. “I don’t want her blood on my hands.”

  “You don’t have a fucking choice, Sasha. You’re already in knee deep and there’s no way out,” Bianca enlightens her.

  “Yes I do. I’m leaving.” She stands up and starts to walk away in her pink robe.

  Bianca rushes over to Sasha and pulls out a gun on her. Shit. She’s crazier than I could ever imagine any human person to be. “You’re going to do as I say or I swear I’ll shoot your fucking brains out. Go to the kitchen and sit on the barstool.” Sasha paces obediently over to a metal chair and sets her bottom down. She’s shaky and whimpering. “Watch them both,” she barks at Edison. “I’m going to find some duct tape.”

  Edison looks down at me, sweeps my hair away from my face and frowns. “Lillian, I’m sorry it had to turn out this way, baby girl. I have nothing against you. You’re just the means to an end,” he tells me coldly.

  “I hope your end is hell,” I spit, jerking my face away from him and sob quietly while Sasha cries audibly from her seat, begging to be released.

  Bianca stomps back from one of the rooms and unravels sticky tape. I can hear the adhesive tearing away from the roll as she coils it around Sasha’s body and the back of the barstool. “Shit!” she gripes. “That’s the last of the duct tape. What are we going to use on that slut on the floor?”

  Chapter 23

  Carson Bradley

  Apprehensively, I grab the phone to dial the penthouse’s security. They’ve never had to call me before. Something is seriously wrong.

  “Hello, John speaking.”

  “John, what’s the urgency?”

  “Mr. Bradley, you need to come now. Luke’s been drugged and Miss Ly is nowhere in the penthouse.” The world suddenly turns cold and desolate and so does the scorching ember that lights my heart. I can’t catch my breath. I’m being strangled by my phobia of losing Lil now that it’s a real thing.

  “How the fuck did that happen? Isn’t that your job? To watch her?” I sneer loudly, hating him for being the bearer of this godawful news. “I’m heading out now,” I growl and slam the phone down.

  “What happened?” Bridgette asks, concerned, reminding me that I still have two guests in my office.

  “Lil’s missing and her bodyguard is out cold. I have to go,” I spit in haste. The trembling in my hands spread contagiously to my legs. I’m barely holding myself together.

  “We’re coming with you. You’ll need all the help you can get,” Bridgette insists, striding along with me.

  “I’ll drive,” Wes volunteers as he catches up with us.

  “Thanks,” I mutter under my breath, no longer fazed by his likeness of me. All I can think about is Lil being stuck in a goddamn pit, screaming for help as I pace around uselessly. Someone has her. Where did they take her? Did they hurt her? I’d never forgive myself if they… Don’t! Don’t you even think like that, Carson. Fuck. What’s that burning pain in my chest? Guilt. That’s what’s razing me from inside out. It’s my fault. I should’ve never let her out of my sight. Why
did I remove those bodyguards? Why?

  “Where do you live?” Wes asks as we rush into his car.

  “The…Zen,” my garbled mind mumbles.

  “That’s where Stewart’s new place is,” Wes mentions. “We’re supposed to have dinner there tonight with you and…,” he trails off, avoiding mentioning Lil’s name.

  “If I find out Stewart has anything to do with this, so help me God I don’t hurt him myself,” I threaten irrationally through my tightened jaw.

  “I swear on my life he’s innocent,” Wes insists. “You’ve got the wrong man. Didn’t you mention another name? How do you know it’s not him?”

  My mind’s too frazzled to think reasonably. I’m running on pain and guilt for fuel. Gripping my aching head with both hands, I force myself to regain my composure. Lil needs me coherent and strong. I can’t lose my integrity now. “Forgive me,” I tell Wes. “I shouldn’t jump to conclusion without any proof. My judgment is clouded right now.”

  “Don’t sweat it, man. We’ll find her. It hasn’t been but a few hours or less. They can’t get very far.” Bridgette sits quietly holding onto Wes’ free hand. She appears deep in thought, sitting on the passenger side. I can see her mulling reflection from the rear mirror.

  “I’m counting on it,” I mutter under my breath. Decluttering my brain, I concentrate on the fact that Lil’s wearing my bracelet with a powerful tracking chip. Hayden assured me that it’s traceable even fifty feet underground. After weeks of nightmares about Lil being trapped in a dark pit, I couldn’t take any risks. I had to have a way of always knowing where she’s at.

  A vibration inside my pocket demands my attention. “Excuse me. I need to get this,” I tell them, looking at my incoming call. It’s Dr. Laurent. “Bradley,” I answer as my heart’s palpitation elevates exponentially. Since last night, Lil and I have been waiting anxiously for this result.