by D. A. Young
She was about to leave the room when she spied the tumbler on his nightstand behind the box of Kleenex. Kat frowned and quickly retrieved it.
“Put that down!” Ivar screamed, trying to reach for it.
Kat ignored his command. “You shouldn’t be drinking in your condition. How much of this have you had?”
He lunged at Kat and she easily sidestepped him, sniffing the glass. A chill invaded her bones. It was the same liquor she smelled on Jefferey. He’d also looked like hell. “Ivar! Calm the fuck down and answer me! Where did you get this from???”
Ivar tried to answer, but instead fell to the floor clutching at his chest. Kat bent over him to examine him. “Thea! Tage! I need you!”
Tage reached her first. His eyes widened at the sight of his unconscious father. “What happened?”
“Call an ambulance! I think he’s been poisoned!”
“Poisoned?!” Thea echoed as she arrived. She grabbed her phone and dialed while Tage started with CPR.
“Stay with him! I need to check something!”
Kat ran down two flights of stairs, past Vera and Cleo who was holding Jules.
“Slow down, my dear! What’s wrong?” Vera attempted to grab her, but Kat evaded her grasp.
“I can’t! Has anyone seen Jeffrey?!”
“I saw him on his break ten minutes ago by the stables,” Cleo offered. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ll explain shortly! I need to check on Jefferey first!” Kat took of out the door and sped as fast as her stupid heels could carry her. Seriously, after this ordeal, she was going to buy sneakers, and the family could kiss her entire ass with their no casual wear rule.
She pulled her phone out and dialed Holt. He didn’t answer, and she immediately redialed. The door was opened midway. Holding her breath, Kat pushed it open and her heart sank. Jefferey was slumped over, not breathing with his eyes wide open. Finally, Holt answered.
“Babe.” He sounded pissed.
“Holt! Ivar was being poisoned!”
“What?!”
“It’s true—”
The cold press of metal on her nape stopped her.
“Kat?”
The phone was taken out of her hand and thrown past her into a nearby stall. The gun was removed from her nape.
“Turn around,” Cleo ordered icily. “Nice and slow.”
Kat obeyed, mind swimming with ideas on how to get the upper hand. It stopped working when she saw Cleo aiming the tiny pistol.
At Jules instead of her.
“You and I are going for a ride. You’ll chauffeur, and I’ll be in the back. If you indicate you’re distressed in any way, I’ll blow his adorable little head right off. Understood?”
Kat nodded and Cleo smiled sweetly.
“Perfect! After you. Chop! Chop!”
“Kat! What’s going—”
Thea froze when she saw Cleo with the gun. “Are you out of your mind? Bitch, put that fucking gun down!”
“Thea, Cleo just explained to me that she will use it on Jules if I don’t go with her,” Kat spoke calmly. “I’m going to go with her now.”
“Actually, there’s been a change of plans. Looks like we’re taking a girls’ trip, ladies. Let’s move. The both of you in the front seat while I ride in the back with Jules. Thea, you’ll drive. Make it look good.”
They walked to Thea’s Jaguar, nodding and smiling at the security guards they passed. No incidents occurred as they drove through the main gates.
“Where to?”
“Where else?” Cleo laughed softly. “Take me home.”
***
“What do you mean they’re gone?!”
Holt snarled as Blaise wove in and out of traffic. He lowered his window hoping the fresh air would calm his rage. It was like a physical ache and Holt could barely sit still. Rubbing his face vigorously, he tried to refocus. They couldn’t afford to make mistakes. The way these monsters moved their victims was like a conveyer belt system. He’d seen many things in his life and been exposed to the ugliness it offered yet, nothing could have prepared him for Samuelsson’s victims. If even a single strand of hair on either his wife’s or cousin’s heads was disrupted, limbs would start piling up around the world. Holt’s heart broke for the families experiencing these tragedies daily.
Matty was right. Standing by and doing nothing wasn’t an option.
“Gone where??”
“They’re gone! Thea was concerned about Kat and went to check on her. Vera said Cleo expressed the same concern that she and Jules also felt. They never returned, so I went to check on them, and all three were gone. I checked with the guards at the gate, and he said they left in Thea’s car. She’s not answering her phone. What’s going on, Holton?”
“It was the Bergqvists, Julian! They’re responsible for Matty and Otto’s deaths. Say nothin’ to no one for the time bein’, and I’ll be in touch.”
Kat’s phone had obviously been confiscated.
“Why would they do this?” Blaise raged. “That viperous bitch! Matty worshipped the fucking air she breathed! How could she betray us like this?”
Holt’s own words came back to haunt him.
“Betrayal is the harshest truth to accept, darlin’. It always comes from the people you’d least expect.”
He could see this from Ras but Cleo? That bitch had fooled them all with her supposed heartbreak and grieving widow act. Holt was going to see to it that justice was served endlessly and painfully.
“Ebbe made some bad investments that negatively impacted his family’s fortune. The merger between my mother and Nolan would have had him sitting pretty again. Ivar made a killing while his friend’s wealth nosedived. Ebbe kept up pretenses for friends and business acquaintances but was drowning in debt. Nolan’s bad investments compounded with Ebbe’s solidified their destitution. Their luck turned when Cleo was finally able to snag Matty. Ivar gave Nolan a check for twenty million dollars on their wedding day.”
“Matty had a dowry?” Blaise wondered. “Can you track Thea’s phone?”
“Hang on. I can actually do more than that. The phones would have been disposed of since Cleo’s proven to be crafty as fuck.” Holt activated the tracking chip Alexei confessed to having installed in Vivienne’s locket. He’d noticed that Kat had worn it every day of their trip. Never had he been more thankful for her parents’ insightfulness.
“Blaise, they’re at the Bergqvist estate.”
***
“Move it, bitches!” Cleo barked when they pulled up to her picturesque-looking family home.
Kat and Thea walked silently toward the front doors. There were no security guards Kat observed. The closest neighbors weren’t too far off. The inside of the house was expensive and tastefully decorated but not of Falk opulence. Once you passed the dining room, the quality of the décor drastically changed. The kitchen was run down and outdated, paint dingy and faded. The long hallway off to the left had peeling wallpaper and scuffed floors and dirty baseboards. They passed an old woman Kat assumed was a housekeeper, and she attempted to make eye contact. The woman simply moved past her as if she or they were apparitions but took a sleeping Jules from Cleo’s arms.
“Last door on the left, open it.”
Kat obeyed and saw there were a set of descending stair steps.
“Walk. When you get to the bottom, go and stand against the wall.”
Again, she obeyed, eyes on the rows of large empty cages. “What is this place?”
“This is the inventory room, where new merchandise is received,” she answered with pride. Cleo pointed at the chair with stirrups. “We check them in and make sure none of the merchandise is sampled or damaged.” She pointed at a large bed in the corner. ‘And then they’re broken in until their mind snaps. Once that’s done, they’re moved up stairs for clean-up and prepared for auction. The merchandise tends to move very fast.”
Kat thought she was going to be sick, looking at the bare, filthy mattress that was stained with blood
and urine. Hamish’s explanations should have prepared her but to hear it discussed as casually as the weather was mind-jarring. “You use the women you’re supposedly rescuing to have a better way of life? How is this possibly better?”
“Quit being such an innocent! Those flies in the eyes of kids with their distended bellies and dollar a day we can save blah, blah, blah commercials are the real deal! If all they need to do is spread their legs for food and have a roof over their head then they’re a lot better off than we found them!”
“You’re a disgusting piece of shit, Cleo,” Thea said quietly. “I can’t believe I never saw you for who you really are.”
The door above them opened and two sets of footsteps could be heard approaching.
Cleo’s eyes narrowed, yet she managed to hold onto her smile. “I think you mean what your family has made me. You’re such an entitled little bitch flying all over the world, partying under the Falk name, not giving a shit about those your family has trampled on. I’m going to be front and center for your breaking, Thea. I’m going to make sure you are jampacked until your eyes are begging me for mercy.”
“Starting with us two,” Ras drawled. “Wouldn’t you agree it’s time to start fucking the Falks as hard as they’ve fucked us, Father?”
“I couldn’t think of a more satisfying way to pass the time than to have that one at my mercy,” Nolan agreed, coming to stand in front of Thea. His hand grabbed her breast and twisted it until she finally cried out. He grinned spitefully. “We’ll see how well her sarcasm serves her when she’s on her elbows and knees.”
“The both of you have a care!” Cleo chided them affectionately. “There’s at least one lady present.”
“You!” Kat exclaimed, astonished to see the man from Bait and Switch and Hooligans.
He graced her with a mocking bow. “Rasmus Bergqvist at your service. It was nothing against you. But you have no idea how much pleasure I derived at giving you that present, and the impact it would have on Brammer. You’ll have to share it with me when I take you on that mattress. I want to hear all about it as you tell me how much more you enjoy my cock than his.”
“That’s enough, Ras!” Cleo snapped. “Despite the circumstances, I really do like you, Katerina.”
“Lucky me.”
Cleo smiled. “It’s your husband I loathe. He’s just like his mother and the rest of the Falks. They are without honor, and I’m glad my child will not be raised amongst them.”
“All of this is about the broken engagements?”
“That’s an incorrect way of putting it. This is about reclaiming our family’s honor and wealth. The broken engagements left our family in poor shape financially. My grandfather died brokenhearted from the way his dear friend treated him. I bided my time and was able to get Matty to notice me.” Cleo rolled her eyes and laughed derisively. “Poor, pathetic Matty. He was so eager to have me! It really was like taking candy from a baby.” She leaned in conspiratorially to Thea. “You should have seen his face when I entered the room and then when I stabbed him! What a fucking sap!”
“You bitch!” Thea screamed, lunging at her. Kat caught her around the waist and held her, pushing her back to the wall, talking to her the entire time.
“Not now!” she whispered. “Please, Thea. We need to focus on stalling long enough for Holton to find us.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
Eyes blazing, Kat slapped her hard enough to center her. “Then you never really knew your cousin. But I know who my husband is. He will come. If not, we will handle shit. Either way shit will get handled because I’m. Not. The. Fucking. One. Are you???”
Thea straightened up. Kat was right. “Don’t worry about me. I’m straight. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry! Be focused!” Kat whispered.
“How touching,” Ras jeered. “Sisters in solidarity.”
“You’re the fucking devil, Ras. Otto considered you to be his best friend!”
“He was pathetic! Even more than Matty with his constant need for petting. That fucker Brammer broke my hand because of him! His payback was a bitch named Geneva. I couldn’t wait to be rid of Otto. It felt like Christmas to press the bomb’s remote-control button. Feeding his demons about Holt was always fun, though.”
Ras ruffled Thea’s hair, laughing when she knocked his hand away. “Just think that if it wasn’t for me, you guys could have been one, big, happy family.”
He was going to die a painful death by her hands or Holt’s, Kat decided, fingering the locket.
“This has been fun, but has anyone heard from Daniel? He should have been here by now. Father, will you please see what the holdup is? Ras, go hide Thea’s car. Get rid of it when I return to the estate.”
“Why would you go back?” Thea asked.
“Because we all have roles to play for your arrogant family. It’s how we were able to get as close to you as we have,” Cleo explained as if talking to a wayward child.
“Daniel Samuelsson?” Kat innocently expressed. “What does he have to do with anything?”
Cleo pursed her lips considering them. “I can tell you. It’s not like you’ll be around to retell the story. Daniel’s sister and I were friends. Daniel mentioned that he had a side gig that was potentially lucrative was enormous. I wanted in.”
“Sex trafficking,” Kat spat.
“Don’t knock it until you try it, princess. He showed me how to start moving shipment and the money,” Cleo laughed. “It’s not Falk money, but it does insure that my family will be taken care of for the rest of our lives. I decided to leave the business, but I wanted Ivar dead first. I bought the case of his favorite cognac and put the poison in. Cyanide. Odorless and colorless. Symptoms mimic those of a heart attack. He drinks it like a fish, so I didn’t have to use that much per bottle.
Then everything spiraled out of control. When Matty realized what Daniel did with the money and discovered his plaything, he confessed it to me the day he left for the last time. I knew I had to act. I called Daniel and we followed him to the flat. Daniel ambushed him and forced Matty to penetrate her to make it look like they were having sex. Then he killed her. Two shots to the face for leaving him. I entered the bedroom when he handcuffed Matty. He was so sad and disappointed to see me…”
Cleo shook her head as if to drive off the memory. “It enraged me. He didn’t even protest when I stabbed him or placed the bag over his head. It was very dreary and dull. Uneventful. Just like his life. A fitting death to be honest.”
Kat breathed through her nose and tried to repress the burning behind her eyelids. She couldn’t even stand to listen to this.
“You’d broken his heart, and he’d already lost the will to live!” Thea screamed.
“It doesn’t matter; he’s dead. Otto was too stupid to be a threat. Daniel decided to instigate a war when I’d told him about Holt and how he would return for revenge. He used his personal vendetta with Bojku in the hopes that Holt would go after him. He believes the man is an undercover agent that exposed a ring Daniel was connected to in Asia five years ago. Ras paid a junkie to tell Otto that it was Pettersson and killed him when he was done. Then he spread rumors about Bojku wanting to kill him and set the warehouse on fire. Everything was working out as planned until Holt disposed of the liquor. I was secretly bringing it to Ivar and he would have been dead soon.”
Except, she didn’t know what they now knew about Bojku, Kat thought. “Why do you think you’re going to get away with this?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I’ll tell them you and Thea decided to go shopping and dropped me off here. Ras will sink the car and your bodies will never be found. While everyone is mourning again and rumors of the Falks being cursed run rampant, no one will blame me for fearing for my life and wanting to take my child. Your pathetic husband will be too busy mooning over you to care about me. I’ve come too far to fail. How’s that for a plan?”
“I think it’s a far reach, but what do I know?” Kat looked past her and up the st
airs. “Let’s ask my husband. What do you think, baby?”
“Do you really think I’m stupid enough to fall for that?” Cleo jeered.
“Unlike you, my wife’s not a liar,” Holt drawled from behind her.
She spun around, her mouth forming an “O” when Blaise punched her in the face and Holt snatched the revolver. Cleo crumbled to the ground. He grabbed Thea and held tight while Holt reached for his wife.
“Darlin’, I really need you to tell me no one touched you…” Holt thickly urged her. “I didn’t think we’d get here in time…”
“You were right on time, babe,” she cried, her relief and happiness to see him overwhelming. “You always are. How did you know?”
“My saint of a mother-in-law’s locket now has a tracking device.”
Kat frowned at him. “You chipped me?”
“No, your daddy chipped your mama,” Holt hastened to correct her as thunderclouds gathered on Kat’s face. “Can we revisit that happy place we were in fifteen seconds ago? That’s really their battle and not ours.”
Kat pressed a kiss to his lips. “I agree and, in this instance, I think she would too. I love you, babe.”
“I love you too, Kat. So damn much.”
“What happened to Nolan and Ras?”
“We caught them off guard.” Holt chuckled holding her and blinking back tears. They were safe. If anything had happened to his baby or Thea…his chest was on fire at the thought. “Blaise drove through the yard and practically ran them down. They gave up without a fight and are tied together upstairs.”
***
“Hello?”
“Hamish, Brammer here. I have everythin’ you’re lookin’ for.”
“You do?” There was a crash and rustling on the other end. “You still there?”
“I’m here. You alright?”
“I’ll come to you.”
“You can. But until a deal is put in place, I’m not givin’ you squat.”
“What do you want?”
“Samuelsson is goin’ to give you everythin’ he knows in exchange for not goin’ to prison.”
“What?! Is he out of his fucking mind? Are you, Brammer?”