Use Somebody

by Riley Jean

  The two men moved as if I hadn’t spoken. Gabriel threw the other man a set of keys and barked out quick-fire instructions. “Take the Honda. Conceal the money in the boot. Meet me in the alley.”

  He hesitated. “C’mon mate, this was the one thing you always got right. You always said, no surv—”

  “Arguing with me would be unwise. Leg it.”

  The masked man hurried along to follow orders. Gabriel stayed behind another twenty seconds to wipe away finger prints and clean up any possible traces of evidence.

  When he finished, he grabbed my arm and hauled me up and out the back door without a word or glance. Determined, he marched us through the parking lot behind the bank.

  A few crates had been aligned like steps in front of the brick wall, where he forced me to climb up and over. It was nearly impossible without the help of my arms, so Gabriel gave me a push. I yelped, landing in a dumpster in a dark alley on the other side. He then tossed the crates over the wall one by one and hopped over last, before helping us both to solid ground.

  “Gabriel,” I implored shakily. It was no use to hide my fear. It was crystal clear in my large brown eyes. But I wasn’t merely afraid, I was terrified and desperate and pleading. It was all written there for him to see.

  Deep down I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. He had refused outright and called me an innocent. So I appealed to him as such. “What’s going on?”

  Still avoiding my eyes, he straightened his coat casually, then produced a handkerchief and proceeded to wipe his hands. Not a trace of the mayhem I had just witnessed could be found in his demeanor. After tending to himself, he helped to dust all kinds of gross trash remnants off my arms and shoulders. I watched his unaffected movements in a state of disillusion. Who the heck was this guy? And what had he done with my Gabriel?

  “You’re coming with me,” he said again, calm and collected. “We’re going to have to disappear for a little while.”

  Go with him? Disappear? I shook my head frantically, but words failed me.

  At last he looked up at me, those blue eyes steady but intense. “Isn’t that what you wanted? To be together? I’ve been watching you for a while, you know. You won’t be leaving much behind. How many weeks do you think will pass before someone even takes notice?”

  My eyes stung, but I couldn’t stop moving my head back and forth. Never in a million years would I have thought Gabriel could be so callous. He was all I had, and he knew it.

  “Nothing has to change, love,” he promised, caressing my cheek with his hand. “Should you come willingly, I can take care of you. I can give you anything you want.”

  My eyes fell closed, confused by the way his touch comforted and repulsed me at the same time. But I had no capacity to stop him either way. I knew he wasn’t really giving me a choice, he was going to take me one way or another.

  “I don’t want anything,” I said. “Especially anything bought with that blood money.”

  “Yes. Well. That’s too bad. Alas I did not intend for tonight to go down like that.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” I beseeched, whisper-soft. “Just let me go.” I looked directly up at him, slowly but deliberate, and brushed my body against his.

  Stone-faced, he watched me, giving nothing away. It was crazy and stupid but it was my only idea. I wanted to remind him of who I was. Of what we had. Of a human connection apart from this ugly mess.

  He remained impervious. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, love.”

  My lower lip quivered. “But why?”

  “Because you know too much. I can’t allow anyone to connect my name or face to my record. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Oh I understood alright. “A living witness would interfere with your… big dreams?” Big dreams… the reason he gave me for coming to California during our very first conversation.

  Life was full of poetic little ironies.

  “Clever girl,” he remarked, haughty smirk in place.

  “How could you?”

  The question fell from my lips like dry tears. I wasn’t sure why I asked it. No rationale on earth would make me understand how he could’ve possibly done this.

  He laughed. “How could I?” His voice rose. “How could I?” He shook his head indignantly. “I suppose I can’t expect you to understand. You live in a bubble. You’ve never lost everything. You’ve never wanted for anything.”

  “I wanted love,” I insisted. It was all I wanted, all I needed. What else was there? Certainly not flings, alcohol or parties, not money or possessions. I hadn’t wanted any of that, I just wanted him. “What about everything you said? That you’d always protect me? You gave me your word. I thought… I thought you loved me…”

  “I am protecting you.” He touched my face, tenderly at first, and the tiniest flame of hope flickered inside me. I wanted to believe him; I wanted his love even more than I wanted truth at the moment. Reality was too painful to accept. Hopelessly, foolishly, I wanted the lie.

  “Do you love me?” I asked, begging the words to be spoken.

  He looked away. “Extenuating circumstances—”

  “Do you love me?” I cried, this time a desperate plea.

  His eyes came back to mine. To my surprise, they were fierce, hard. I could even see cords of tension protruding from his neck.

  “Don’t be so damned naïve, Scarlett! What more must I do to deter you? Open your eyes for once and see who the bloody fuck I am!”

  It didn’t matter. I didn’t care. Of all the things Gabriel made me feel, fear had never been one of them. “You won’t hurt me.”

  “You’re a child.”

  My face went ashen.

  A child?

  After everything we’d been through together, how could he say that?

  It was only then I began to see how truly blind I had been.

  Looking at him now… He was no young college boy, he was a man. Aged with years and experience. Darkly powerful and rugged at every beautiful angle.

  And me?

  What a fool I was. No one can pause a sunset.

  Our surreal, whirlwind of a romance wasn’t at all as it seemed. One perfect month together had been just that—too perfect. Too perfect to be true.

  By the way his blue eyes glinted at my vulnerable state, I knew.

  My innocence… my naïveté… my unwavering trust…

  It was never me he loved. It was always the money.

  I jerked away from his grasp. My plan to connect with him had backfired. I couldn’t do it; I couldn’t let him touch me.

  He had used me to chase his obsession with greed. And now he wanted both the money and me. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of making this easy. I wouldn’t choose the lie. If he wanted me, he would have to take me.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you!” I shouted in his face. He was still manipulating me, running hot and cold, using love and fear to control me. He wasn’t the man he pretended to be. He wasn’t the angel I had fallen in love with. But love like that doesn’t just disappear. It only morphs into something else just as powerful and intense: hate. “You’re crazy! Thief! Liar! Murderer!”

  It was the wrong thing to say. Features hardening, he stood up at his full height which made me stumble backwards. But there was nowhere to go. With my hands tied behind my back, I was helpless to protect myself.

  “Gabriel, please…”

  He grabbed me by the neck and forced me up against the wall. Bricks scraped and bit into my back. With the other hand, he shoved the gun into my temple. I squirmed and choked and sputtered, unable to breathe.

  “Wrong move, you foolish little girl,” he hissed, his whole presence menacingly guttural and threatening. The warmth of his accent had vanished along with his gentleness. “Do not mistake my mercy for weakness. One little flick of this trigger and you’ll be dead before you get a chance to scream,” he said. “My name is not Gabriel. And this is not a game. Capisce?”

  Yes. I was starting to grasp that. He w
asn’t trying to assure me or protect me now. And he wasn’t just terrorizing me for show, the other man wasn’t even here to see it. I nodded my head as best I could. He stood so close our noses brushed.

  Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to kill me earlier. But I saw murder in his eyes right now; I felt the hostility in his fingertips digging into my throat, bringing painful and degrading tears to my eyes. I would not repeat the mistake of doubting him. My best chance to survive now was just to do as he said.

  “All you had to do was keep quiet for five fucking minutes. And nobody would’ve gotten hurt. Why couldn’t you just let him take the money? Why?”

  His anger shook me. More tears spilled over. He was right. It was my fault an innocent man was dead. It was my fault I had been dragged into this mess. If I’d just sat still for a few minutes, this would have all been over by now. They always tell you not to try to be a hero. Who knew why I did it—I panicked.

  “You’re mine.” He used the tip of his gun to brush my hair aside, giving me a full view of his glacial blue eyes. “So do as I say and keep your mouth shut.”

  I gasped for air when he released my windpipe, but didn’t have a chance to catch my breath.

  Like a vise, he grabbed me by the arm above the elbow and ripped me from the wall, hauling me out of the alley and towards the car waiting for us at the end. My little white Honda.

  My feet fumbled and tripped, trying to keep up with his quick strides. The sound of sirens grew louder. Help was so close, yet not close enough. A frustrated sob escaped my throat. I just wanted to collapse to the ground in this very spot and wait for police. They had to be less than a minute away. But I knew if I fought, it would be too late for me once they arrived.

  When we reached the car, he flung the backdoor open, threw me face-first into the seat, and slammed the door after me. I cried out as my cheek skidded across the fabric bench. A second later he was in the driver’s seat and pulling away from the curb.

  With my arms restrained, I struggled to come to a seated position. I fell over twice when the car made sharp turns.

  After we were several blocks away, the car began to slow. The sirens had faded and we were now driving unobtrusively through side streets. No one was on our tail. Even if the cops drove right by us, they’d never know that this was the car they were looking for.

  “What a rush!” the passenger laughed. “Man, we’ve got to do that together again.”

  “You think this is a game?” Gabriel demanded.

  “Hey. What are you so cheesed about? We nicked the cash and got away. And bonus, we got the little broad, too. Stoked is what you jolly well should be!”

  Finally sitting up, I found the passenger turned fully in his seat. He was grinning from ear to ear with a gun pointed straight at my face.

  “Hiya sweetheart,” he said. I tensed. To my horror, he was no longer wearing the ski mask. He was handsome, like a younger version of Gabriel with longer hair. Even had the same striking blue eyes. And his voice… he’d been covering it up before. But the minute we got in this car, it flowed with the same British inflection.

  Oh no. Could this be his brother?

  Seeing his confidently unmasked face brought my fear to the surface. Now I could identify them both.

  That’s when it hit me—I wasn’t walking away from this.

  He smiled wider as the horror registered in my expression. “You’re a cute little thing, aren’t you? Wish I’d had Gavin’s job, watching your every move these last few months.”

  I did not like this bold stranger or the salacious timber of his words. I met Gabriel’s eyes in the rearview mirror, pleading. There was humanity in him somewhere. I’d seen enough evidence of it over the last month to rule it out. Every time I felt threatened he had come to my rescue. I needed him to do it again now.

  Gabriel’s blue eyes regarded mine impassively, then returned to the road. “The girl is none of your concern,” he added like an afterthought.

  “And a virgin?” The other man’s eyes sparkled in delight. “You lucky git. You hit the jackpot with this mark. No wonder you finally needed a second mate for the job. Told you I could handle it.” His disgusting gaze raked over my body. I sank backwards into my seat, certain I was going to be sick.

  Whatever remaining hope I still had in Gabriel was immediately extinguished. I couldn’t invent any reason on earth of how he was ever planning to help me after exploiting such an intimate detail.

  It was official: everything he had ever said to me had been a lie. He was not my protector or even my ally. He was the enemy.

  How could he do this?

  I hated him. I hated him.

  Blinders gone, I looked out the window and away from them both. Anger like I’d never felt before was bubbling under the surface. He had used me to break into my workplace. To rob the bank. To kill an innocent man…

  And I had given him everything he needed to pull this off. Closing schedules. Management shifts. Locations of security cameras and panic buttons. Even the damn vault locking procedures. All because he had been supposedly concerned about my safety.

  I was no longer afraid. I was livid. He had used me. He was the exact opposite of the man he pretended to be. He was no angel; he was a monster.

  Unable to help myself any longer, I shot an angry little glare into the rearview mirror. “Was that your master plan? Make me fall in love with you, break into the bank, then pretend like we were hostages together to point the finger away from you?”

  Again, he met my gaze in the mirror. His blue eyes were flat and cold. The weight of his stare carried a profound threat. If I were smart, I would have heeded the warning. But I was beyond fear. I was beyond thinking clearly at all.

  The man in the passenger seat laughed. “That was plan B. Initially, I was just supposed to slip past you two before you set the alarm. Too bad Gavin here cocked it up. I would’ve done a better job at keeping you distracted.”

  I flushed, recalling the way he had pushed me up against the building and gave me the most intense kiss I’d ever received. I thought he was revealing his heart to me. But it was all just part of his ploy.

  “Of course,” he continued, “Plan B mightn’t have ended well for lover boy, if you know what I mean.”

  It felt like I’d woken up in the middle of some dark version of the freaking Truman Show. Looking back on our month together, little things began to click. Never taking any pictures of us together: evidence. Telling me stories about his so-called summer in Texas: alibi. Our relationship—my life—had become one massive conspiracy all for his greed.

  I started laughing. Quietly at first, but I soon became quite loud. It was totally inappropriate. The whole thing was just so insane! How was a girl supposed to react when she found out the person she had fallen in love with was a liar? A monster?

  There were so many ways he had deceived me, I couldn’t even count them all. I hadn’t even known his real name. I doubt he was even a student at my school, or that he had ever been to Texas. It was all so messed up. I was on my back, hysterical. They say nice guys finished last. HA! Nice guys ain’t got nothing on me.

  “She’s cracking up, G. Want me to quiet her down?”

  “Sod off,” came Gabriel’s command. There was a crunching sound followed by something hitting the floor. Had he thrown something at me? I looked around until I found it—the rearview mirror. He ripped the damn mirror off my car and chucked it at me!

  I bolted up in my seat. “I bet you get off on screwing with my mind, don’t you?” I shouted. “Bad form!” Gabriel wouldn’t turn around and without the mirror, I was now unable to look him in the eyes. Instantly my laughter turned into uncontrollable sobs. They were right. I was losing it. “You’re going to kill me anyway. What are you waiting for?”

  Gabriel’s shoulders were tense by his ears, but he did not speak.

  The passenger looked on with mild amusement, as if I had all the ferocity a kitten. It only succeeded in twisting my gut.

  “
Maybe if you’re a good little girl, you won’t have to die a virgin.”

  His deep chuckle sounded exactly like Gabriel’s and it brought on a wave of nausea. How had I ever thought the sound of that laugh was like music? I couldn’t stand it now. I couldn’t stand his perfect profile or his deep voice or his lying eyes, but above all that laugh was going to destroy me. And I couldn’t lift my damn hands to cover my own ears!

  Helpless in this backseat, I did the only thing I could—I screamed at the top of my lungs and pounded my feet as hard as I could against the back of driver’s seat. Maybe I figured the only way to fight back now was to annoy the hell out of them.

  An arm reached back and tried to still me. I lashed out and kicked him in the face. I had never been very athletic but the adrenaline must have given me strength. The force was enough that he dropped the gun and clutched his nose. Within seconds, it was gushing blood.

  I fumbled with the gun at my feet, but Gabriel was faster. He reached back and grabbed hold, only my jaw got in the way, and as he pulled it up I was struck. He glanced back only a second before returning his focus forward, using one hand to steer and the other to restrain his brother, who was spitting me curses and threats.

  Bound and unable to attend to my own injury, I glanced outside, hoping we had at least drawn attention to my discreet little Honda. The car swerved only slightly before he regained control. But it wasn’t enough. There was hardly anyone on this street and we were already miles away. No sirens. No hope. I screamed again in frustration. They were going to get away with this!

  I needed to pound on the glass. To get a grip on something. To clear my cheeks of the blood and tears. But I couldn’t even lift a finger. I was so sick of having my hands restrained. I yanked on my arms until the cord tore my flesh and still I gained no freedom. Then I had the idea to at least get my hands in front of me. So I dragged the loop of my arms under my butt and pulled each leg through. It was a lot harder than I thought, but I did it. And sure enough, my wrists were ripped and bloody.