by Harper Sloan
“Please, Brandon. Please leave us alone. What do you want? Money? I can get you plenty. Please leave,” I beg. My only thought is getting free and getting Dee and my baby safe from his insanity.
He swings his wild eyes on me and throws his head back. The sound that comes out is animalistic and has me scared out of my mind. The chill of dread rocks through my body, all the way to my bones.
“You think I’m going to let him have you? Oh no, Isabelle. What you need to understand is that you will never get rid of me. He thinks he can take you from me? He can try, but he will be swimming through a sea of bullets before I let him get those vile hands on MY WIFE!”
I can see the control in his eyes snap and it’s like watching a light go out. This is not my ex-husband. The irrational madness has taken over any common sense and chance of reason I could have made with him.
“I’m going to make him watch you when I bend you over my knee and punish you for all the shit you have caused. I’m going to rip your clothes from your body and make him watch me take you for all the shit HE caused. That’s right,” he says when my eyes widen. “You think I don’t know it was him who had the police barking at my heels? And then do you know what will happen next?” He doesn’t even blink when he pauses. That malevolent smile forms and his face is transformed from his normal somewhat handsome look to one of pure evil. “Then I’m going to put a bullet through your fucking heart while he watches. While he is helpless to stop me.”
Even with the fear coursing through my body, I know I have to get away from him. He’s blocking the hallway to the front door but not the one off to the kitchen. It’s risky, but I might be able to get away quickly enough to hide. I know Axel is coming and that has me more afraid than the madman standing in front of me with a gun.
A low moan sounds from the couch and I see Dee start to stir. Shit! I can’t leave Dee.
“Why, Brandon?” I ask, hoping to distract him from Dee. I have to keep him focused on me.
“Why? Because that motherfucker ruined everything! I was finally going to have it all and he had to ruin it all! I won’t let him take you too! YOU ARE MINE!” he screams. He brings his hand up and starts pulling at his hair, and banging the handle of the gun against his forehead before leveling it back on Dee.
He’s completely lost it. There isn’t an ounce of humanity left in this man.
His pacing continues. He moves slightly from the open hallway but he doesn’t move his gun from Dee’s body. I see a shadow cross the threshold, and my heart picks up speed when I realize who it is.
Greg.
Oh God no! I’m going to lose everyone I love in one moment if Brandon sees him. He holds his finger up to his lips. He taps his wrist and then cocks his head toward the kitchen, silently telling me to run when he makes a move.
My heart is going to stop. There is no way it can beat this rapidly and not just give out. Dee’s eyes are wide. She looks over at me and I can see the fright in her alarmed brown eyes.
I bring my hand to the side and motion to her to wait then bug my eyes toward the kitchen. Her legs aren’t bound, and if she can run, we might be able to get out of this room.
We wait in stone-cold fear while Greg inches closer to Brandon, but before he can reach him Brandon spins around. He seems to pause for a second in confusion, and that’s all it takes for me to jump up, grab Dee by the arm, and pull her with me as we run into the kitchen. I hear the sounds of them colliding behind me as we take off.
The sound of the gun going off causes me to falter. I push Dee behind the island and look around for some form of protection. Damn! The knives are by the open doorway we just ran through. The only thing I can see is the cast-iron frying pan left on the oven from Dee’s breakfast. Thank God! Picking it up, I test the heaviness of the metal out in my hand before holding it down to my side. I bend down and check on Dee. She is shaking but seems okay.
“Get under the desk and don’t you move,” I tell her. I make quick work of the knot behind her back before letting her move from my side.
I watch her scurry around the far side of the island and burrow under the desk built into the wall. I push the chair in behind her and cover her body the best I can.
Moving back to the center island, I brace my legs apart and wait. I don’t know who is going to come around that corner but I’m ready. I won’t let him win. I won’t let him take my happiness.
It’s time that I remember what is important and fight for the future I want.
The future I deserve.
The future I have earned.
A future with Axel and our baby.
With an evil laugh, I hear him and my fears are confirmed. Oh, God. Greg!
“Oh, Isabelle? Come out, come out, wherever you are!” He laughs again before stumbling into the kitchen. “Where is that little bitch friend of yours, Isabelle?” He cocks his head to the side, and I notice that his left arm is hanging at an odd angle and the gun is missing.
I feel slightly better knowing Greg was able to put up a fight. The fear for Greg bubbles back up, but I push it back and straighten my shoulders.
I won’t let this man win.
Never again.
“Where is Greg?” I ask, shocked that my voice sounds strong and sure.
“Don’t you worry about him, Isabelle.” He takes a step forward. There are only a few more steps before he will have rounded the island. “Come here, bitch.” he spits out.
“No.” My voice sounds powerful in the stillness of the house.
“You’re going to be sorry for that.”
He lunges forward but doesn’t make it far before I swing wide and crash the frying pan against his skull. He looks into my eyes in confusion before crumpling to the floor. I throw the frying pan to the side and jump over his fallen body.
I run into the living room and almost fall to the floor when I see Greg’s still form and the pool of blood forming under his chest. Choking on the sob that escapes my mouth, I begin to frantically look for the gun. I get on my knees and search under all the furniture before finding it in the far corner of the room tucked under the couch.
I try a few times to reach it before I finally succeed. Right when my hands wrap around the handle, I hear him. Before I can straighten from the floor, my hair is gripped in his strong hands and he throws me towards the far wall. My body collides with Greg, who doesn’t move even with the force of my weight slamming into him. His warm blood soaks through my side.
I look up into Brandon’s disturbing face and smile when I feel the cold medal of the gun still in my hands. He takes a step forward but stops when I raise the gun level with his chest.
“Fuck you!” I scream and pull the trigger, empting every bullet into his chest.
I can hear Dee screaming from the other room, but before my arm falls back down, I overcome with the overwhelming fear running through my veins and let the numbness take over my body. I vaguely hear the gun hit the floor before I slump back against Greg’s body and the darkness rolls back in.
Axel
“IZZY!” I scream again into the phone. I run down the stairs and jump into my truck. When I heard her ex-husband’s voice coming through the line instead of Izzy’s, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. For days we have been searching for him. Not one goddamn clue to where he has been, and the second she is out of my sight . . . the worst possible situation is playing out and I am helpless. There is no way I can get there quick enough.
I grab my phone while I tear out of the driveway and call Greg, the only one I can think of who will be close enough to save my girl.
“What’s up, Reid? Just talked to—”
“Shut up. Where the fuck are you?” I interrupt.
“Damn. On my way to Dee’s house. Izzy ca—”
“Brandon is there,” I interrupt again. I don’t have time. Izzy doesn’t have time.
“What?” All teasing has left his voice now.
“Just got a call from Izzy but it was him I heard over the line.
I didn’t hear her once, Greg.” I take a second to calm down before I’m able to continue. The fact that I don’t know if she is okay is not lost on me. “I’m too far out. Get there. God, please get there and save my girl.” I don’t even realize that tears are rolling down my face until I hear the anguish that colors my words.
“Be there in five. I’ll get her.”
“Don’t let him take them from me,” I plead.
“Got it.” He takes a deep breath, and I know . . . I know how much he is holding back right there.
Greg loves Izzy, and for the first time, I realize just how powerful their bond is. He was her family and support when I couldn’t be. If anyone else can understand what my panic feels like at this moment, it is Greg.
I have to trust that he can make it in time. There is no way she can be taken from me twice.
I break every speed limit and every traffic law to make it to Dee’s in half the time it normally takes, pulling my truck right into the grass in front of her place and throwing it in park before jumping out and sprinting towards the door. I notice Greg’s truck off to the side parked at an odd angle. I check but don’t see him outside. The front door is wide open and there is no movement inside.
Silence.
Silence and sobbing.
Pulling the gun out of my ankle holster, I slowly walk through the threshold and down the long hallway. The sobbing is getting louder, and for the first time since arriving, I breathe. That is a female sob.
Hope flares to life and I rush around the corner but stop dead at the scene before me. The first thing I see is Brandon’s lifeless body in the opening to the kitchen. I don’t need to check to know he isn’t breathing. No way would he survive with that many holes in his chest. Dee is on the floor next to the tangled mess of Izzy’s and Greg’s bodies.
“NO!” I roar, running towards them, slipping on the blood that covers the floor around them. “Oh God, Izzy!”
“I c-c-called 91–1,” Dee stutters out next to me. “It isn’t hers,” she whispers.
“What?” I sob, running my hands down Izzy’s still body, looking for any sign of injury before moving her gently to the side. Her chest is rising and falling normally and her color is just slightly paler than normal. Besides a few cuts and bruises, she doesn’t appear to be harmed.
When I turn to Greg for the first time, her words register. “Fuck!” I roll him over and notice the wet hole on his side. “FUCK!” Ripping my shirt over my head, I press it against his belly and hope I can do enough to keep him stable before the ambulance arrives. “Check his pulse,” I say to Dee, but when I look over, she is weeping over Izzy’s body. My heart stills for a second when I look again at her still form. Why isn’t she moving?
Bringing my attention back to Greg, I bring one hand off his wound and check his pulse. Slow but there. I hold my shirt against him and wait.
We wait for what seems like an eternity before the paramedics start running through the house. Greg is quickly loaded up and taken away with Dee in the back with him. I drop down next to Izzy, where the paramedics are working on her.
“Sir? Sir? I need to ask you some questions,” the officer off to the side asks.
“Not now.” I run my hand over her hair and pray. She has to be all right. She has to survive. “Why isn’t she waking up?” I ask the paramedic next to me.
“I don’t know. Looks like her body’s way of protecting itself. All her vitals are fine, great actually, considering.” He gives me a look full of compassion. “She’s going to be fine.”
I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding, drop my head to her shoulder, and cry.
“She’s pregnant,” I whisper to the man beside me. “She’s pregnant with my baby.” My words sound odd to my ears, and I know I won’t be able to hold it together for long if I don’t see those beautiful pale eyes soon.
“Got it. We’re going to load her up now. You the husband?” he asks.
“Yes,” I answer and quickly follow them out to the ambulance.
“Sir. We need your statement,” the officer says, running behind us.
“Not. Now,” I repeat. “You want a statement? You get in your car and follow me to the hospital. I am NOT leaving her side. You hear me?”
The young officer stops short and seems shocked at the heat behind my words. Not what he was expecting. I can tell he is gearing up to protest, but I quickly interrupt him.
“Look”—I pause to check his nametag—“Officer Benson, I’m not trying to fucking run off. That woman is MY life and I won’t be letting her out of my sight after this shit. Can you just try to understand for a fucking second what I am going through and follow to the goddamn hospital, yeah?” I say but turn around and climb in without waiting for his response.
The ambulance pulls off, and I take her hand in my own and bend down to her ear. “I love you, Princess. Wake up now so I can see those eyes looking at me. Let me see that love, baby.”
I keep my head down to her ear and whisper everything and anything I can think of to let her know that she is safe and I’m here. The ten-minute drive to the hospital comes to a halt, and before they can roll her out, her eyes flutter open and she meets my gaze.
“Hey there, Princess,” I say, the emotion thick in my voice and the relief rocking me to my core. “Hey, my love.”
“Axel . . . love . . . you,” she says weakly before closing her eyes and drifting off again.
I jump out and follow the gurney into the emergency room, finally breathing easy for the first time since I answered her earlier phone call.
Izzy
The first thing I notice when I wake up is the quiet humming. Opening my eyes, I look around the dimly lit hospital room, trying to orientate myself to my surroundings. I feel a soft tickle on my arm and move my head to the side to look down.
Axel is sitting next to my bed with his chair pulled as close as he can get it. My right hand is held firmly in his and his lips are pressed against my skin. The humming I keep hearing is coming from him, his soft whispering against my skin. He is speaking low enough that I can’t understand the words, but the tone is light and loving.
“Ax-xel?” I say, my throat dry. It hurts to get the word past my lips.
His head shoots up and his red-rimmed eyes meet mine.
“Princess . . .” he whispers. Tears are forming in his eyes and a small smile tugs at the corners of his lips. “My girl, my brave girl,” he says, and a few tears fall over his lids. He closes his eyes tight and more spill over. “I thought I had lost you. When I walked around the corner and saw you . . . saw you lying in all that blood . . .” He trails off but not before his words hit my ears.
Blood? I wasn’t bleeding. Was I? Oh no! The baby!
“The . . . the baby?” I whisper hoarsely. “Please . . .” I shake my head back and forth violently, tears of my own streaming down my face. Not our baby! Please, God, not our baby!
“What? Oh, Izzy, no baby. The baby is fine. You are fine. I’m so sorry I didn’t mean your blood. Princess, stop crying, I promise, our baby is fine.” He is quick to reassure me over and over telling me that our little miracle is safe and fine.
When I finally calm down, I look into his eyes—his beautiful eyes. “We’re okay?” I ask.
“You’re both perfect,” he responds smiling before giving me a soft kiss.
“Greg? Dee?” I ask when he moves away to sit down on the side of my bed.
“Dee is going to be fine. She’s shaken up. Shaken up pretty fucking bad, but she will be okay. From what she said, Brandon had just tied her hands and taped her mouth. He had only been there for about an hour before you showed up. I think the worst of her injuries are where he clocked her when she opened the front door and a split lip. She’s fine, baby.”
“Where is she?” I ask, looking around the room again.
“Beck made her leave. He is taking her back to his place for a while. She said she was putting the townhouse on the market.”
I take
that in and try to process it. I understand. I wouldn’t want to be there anymore either.
“I offered for her to stay with us for a while, but she said she would have to think about it.”
I scrunch my nose at that. “Why would she need to think about staying with us?”
“I don’t know, Princess. That’s something you will have to ask her yourself.”
“What about Greg?” I ask, almost afraid to know.
“He’s going to be okay. He came out of surgery a little while ago. It wasn’t anything serious even though it sure as fuck looked like it. Bullet went straight through and missed everything important. He’s one lucky son of a bitch.”
“He’s really okay? There was so much blood, Ax. And he wasn’t moving. He wasn’t moving at all.” My panic is coming back again, at remembering the way Greg looked—lifeless. He looked dead. “Axel, I need to see him!” I yell.
“Hey, hey . . . calm down, baby. I promise he’s okay. He’s in recovery, but I’ll see what I can do about getting you on a field trip, okay?”
I look up and catch the slight concern that crosses over his eyes before his quickly masks it. I know he has to be a mess over everything that happened, but he is holding it in and being strong for me.
“Okay. I just really need to see him, Axel. I need to see with my own eyes that he is going to be okay.”
“I understand, Princess. I’ll make it happen.” He leans down and gives me a gentle kiss. “Got room for one more on there, baby? I need to feel you close.” His mask slips slightly for me to see the vulnerability simmering under the surface.
“Yeah. Yeah, I do,” I respond and shift slightly so he can lean his body close to mine.
His feet are hanging off the end and a good portion of his body is hanging off the edge, but he wraps his arms tightly around me and I cuddle close, breathing him in and letting the peace only he can give me wash over my body.
“I never want to feel that fear again, Izzy,” he whispers into my hair and squeezes me tightly. “Never been so scared in my life.”