by Stella Noir
“Eight rooms, yes? Okay, one minute,” the desk clerk said while he typed something into a computer that looked like it had been around since the Cold War.
Lucas and I looked at each other when we saw the size of the bed we were going to be sharing. It barely seemed to be a double.
“Well, this is going to be cozy,” Lucas said as he set his bag on a small dresser. While Lucas tipped the bell-boy I threw my bag on the floor and pulled off my jeans and shirt, throwing them in a pile on top of the bag. I was beyond exhausted and after having almost no sleep on the yacht for three nights, then nothing but horrible dreams last night in Gina’s hotel room, I just wanted to crawl into the bed and shut my eyes.
Every time I drifted off while I was on Gina’s couch in the hotel in Bitung, I found myself running through what felt like an endless maze. I knew I had to find Brooklyn, but every turn I took led to a dead end and I woke up multiple times in a cold sweat, consumed by a feeling of panic and dread. I wasn’t sure I would be able to sleep in this hotel room either, but I could barely keep my eyes open, so I flopped down on the bed and got under the covers.
“Have you heard from any of the local guys?” I asked, my eyes closed but my mind still racing.
“Yeah, Gregory is keeping in touch with one of them and he’s been texting me with updates. Apparently they’re going to meet us here at the hotel in the morning.
“It looks like they’ve got a plan worked out on how we are going to get into the caverns. There’s an entrance in the woods that’s about a half mile away from the main house. It seems to be the way he gets most of his girls in and out.”
“And that’s where they think Brooklyn is?”
“It’s likely, but we don’t know if she’s even there yet.”
“Yeah, that’s true. So, how are we going to get into the caverns? He has to have that place guarded and locked up like a fortress.”
“From what I understand, the entrance to the tunnel runs underground for a half mile and leads to the caverns under the house. It was built into the side of a hill so that it would stay hidden, but our local contact knows where it is and he has a key.”
“How does he have a key? Does he work for the Russian?”
“Yeah, we’ve got a flip-flopper working for us.”
“How do we know we can trust him, that this isn’t going to be an ambush?”
“Well, we don’t. But this is all on the fly, Adrian. You have to take some risks if you’re going to attempt a surprise attack on such short notice. We’ll get through the tunnel and into the caverns and we’ll fucking storm the place. I’m pretty sure a guy with his kind of funds will have an extensive security system, but we have a good number of men with us—inside men who know what to expect in there. So, we might be able to pull this off.”
“Might?” I said, my eyes opening as Lucas got into bed. “I don’t like the sound of that at all.”
“We don’t have enough information for anything better at this point. We don’t know if he has the main house covered, and if he does we don’t know how many men he’s got up there. The local guy said there’s usually only one or two guys down in the underground level at a time, and they’re usually pretty bored because the girls are all locked up in cells. So all we have to worry about is getting down the tunnel and into the caverns. You want the lights off?”
“Yeah, I’m exhausted.”
“I’m not too worried. There are always unknowns no matter who or what you’re dealing with. We’ll figure it out once we get there and we’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Okay, that makes me feel a little better.”
It felt strange but comforting lying in a bed in a dark room next to my brother. It felt like we were kids again, even though now we were both at least twice the size we had been since the last time we slept in a bed together.
It was funny because I didn’t feel like this around him at any other time. For years now, whenever we were together he felt like adult Lucas. Especially over the last few years with the way he had changed toward me. But right now, when I stared into the darkness, I pictured us both as the kids we were almost twenty years ago. Kids who would whisper and giggle in the dark, hoping not to get caught because we knew what our father would do.
“It doesn’t sound like you’re anywhere near falling asleep. I can hear your teeth grinding.”
“It’s just … this is hell, Lucas. I feel like I’m in hell. Like I’m being punished for all the horrible things I’ve done. And when I think back about everything, when I think about all of the kidnapping and torture and rape, I’m afraid that this hell is never going to end because I’ve done so many awful things.”
“Oh, come on. Do you really think that?”
“Yes, I really do. Don’t you ever feel bad about the stuff we’ve done? About all of the girls and all of the lives that were ruined? That we ruined?”
“Not really.”
I could hear Lucas breathing as he lay there next to me in the dark for a long time without saying anything. It didn’t really surprise me that he wasn’t as affected by any of it. I couldn’t even fathom some of the things he had done. It scared me sometimes, how brutal he could be with the girls and the ones he had mutilated and sent back to the families that still owed money. I didn’t understand how he could do any of it. But whenever he talked about the things he’d done he never seemed bothered by them at all.
But I was afraid it was not only the things I’d done back then to all those faceless girls that had put me in this hell. I was terrified it was everything I was still doing to Brooklyn. I didn’t deserve to have her. I didn’t deserve someone who loved me so much and let me treat them like that. I deserved the hell I was in.
“I’m really different than you, Adrian. Haven’t you ever noticed that?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I don’t think I’m capable of feeling the same things that you feel.”
“Well, we’re different people. Of course you don’t feel the same about things I like or people I love. You have your own feelings.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I don’t have feelings for anyone. Not like the feelings you have for Brooklyn, anyway.”
“Never? Not for anyone?”
“No. Not that I’m aware of. I mean, I see the way people around me are and I don’t think I’ve ever felt the things they talk about feeling. Not for anyone except you. And before you get any weird ideas, I don’t mean the sexy feelings either.”
“What you mean, then?”
“I don’t know. I mean, when we were kids I figured everything was a game. I thought when people talked about certain things that they were joking or they were making it up. I didn’t really understand it, but I played along because I thought that was what you were doing. I guess I wanted to be like you so I acted the way I thought you were acting.”
“You thought I was acting? All while we were kids?”
“I didn’t know. Sometimes I felt like things you and Mom and Dad said were real, but sometimes it didn’t make sense to me.”
“But what about the last few years? I thought you hated me.”
“I guess I was jealous. Dad always seemed to like you better and I was bummed about that. But then when you met Brooklyn when we were all on vacation that was when I really realized it.”
“Realized what?”
“That it wasn’t all a game. That there were feelings you had for other people … people that weren’t me. And I didn’t have those feelings. Not for Mom or Dad or anyone except you. You’d always been my best friend up until that point and I didn’t understand why she was so special. I felt like she was taking you away from me.”
“But if I was your best friend, then why did you go after Brooklyn even after I asked you not to?”
“I told you, I was jealous, and years had gone by. And to be honest with you I really didn’t see how you could care so much about her. To me she was just like all of the other girls, and I didn’t understand what you wer
e feeling for her. I still don’t understand. I mean I didn’t until I heard your voice on the phone. The way you sounded, I just … I wanted to help you in any way I could so I could get you to stop sounding like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you wanted to die. It scared me.”
I thought about what he was saying for a minute. It was hard for me to comprehend, but now that he was telling me all this it really did make sense.
“So you don’t feel anything for Mom or Dad? Is that we you’re saying?”
“I don’t know, I mean, it’s not like I’m a robot. I mean, I have feelings for them, just nothing I would consider particularly strong. And at this point I loathe Dad more than anything.”
“Really? Why?”
“I don’t know, maybe because I’m a lot more like him than I’d like to admit and I don’t like who he is very much at all. If I had to guess I’d say that he really has been faking everything with us. I don’t think he really cares. I have a weird feeling he’s been acting the part of our father, the way he saw other fathers do it, and when it stopped being convenient for him he decided to get rid of you. I don’t like what he did to you, or what he’s doing to you now.”
“Wow, I really thought that you hated me, Lucas. I didn’t understand how we could have gone from being best friends to you hating me. But why are you telling me this now?”
“I don’t know. Like I said, you’re the only one I seem to be able to feel anything for, and I was starting to feel really bad about the way I treated you before you left. I was stupid and jealous, but I never hated you, Adrian. Never.”
I didn’t fall asleep right away. The things that Lucas said kept swirling around in my head with everything else until I felt like my brain was going to short circuit. I wondered how what he said was going to affect our future and the family business. And I wondered if he still planned on taking it over.
“What, you gotta be kidding!”
“What’s going on?” I asked. Lucas was on the phone with one of his men as he and I headed, along with Grady, to the location in the back of a black sedan. A number of new men had shown up to the hotel that morning and we took off in cars to meet up with the rest in the woods outside the tunnel entrance.
“Just follow the original plan. Yes, kill anyone that gets in the way. Yes, anyone.”
Lucas hung up the phone and looked over at me. “It’s not just this Russian guy’s men they found surrounding the perimeter. They found some of Dad’s too.”
“He’s here?”
“They don’t have him, but my guess is yes. So far the guys that went in on the first round this morning caught everyone by surprise. They killed most of them and left a few of Dad’s men alive to try and get information out of them, but they’re not talking. I had a feeling he was going to show up.”
“So, they searched the whole area? Are we clear to go in?”
“It sounds like it. I have no idea how many men they nabbed out in the woods, but I’m imagining there will probably be more coming once they figure out we’re here.”
“If Dad’s there then he must have alerted them.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty likely. Unless they don’t have as buddy-buddy of a relationship as Dad led me to believe. He may just be there for you.”
“What, like a showdown? Why the hell would he come all the way here to do that?”
“I don’t know. I have a feeling Dad is scared of this guy, that he really wanted this whole transaction to go smoothly, and it didn’t. And now he’s trying to clean up what he perceives as a mistake. And I have a feeling he sees you as the mistake that needs to be cleaned up. Like I said, I don’t particularly like who he is anymore.”
The car slowed down and came to a stop, and when I looked up ahead through the front windshield I noticed a black SUV pulled over to the side of the road.
“Is that one of your guys?” I asked. But Lucas was already on his phone checking with his men.
“No, it’s not one of ours. None of our guys drove up this road. They came on foot from other directions and are waiting at the entrance to the tunnel, which is about a mile past the end of this road. That has to be Dad.”
Lucas looked at his phone then back at me. “They’re asking if we want them up here with us.”
“No, tell them to cover us, but I’ll go out there and talk to him. I’ll see if I can get him to … oh fuck, here he comes.”
I watched my father step out of the car in front of us and pull a gun out of his jacket as he stalked toward me, and I opened my car door just in time to see his face turn red as he yelled my name. I pulled out my gun and held it on him as I stepped out of the vehicle.
“I thought I made myself clear, Adrian! I told you if you ever saw me again it would not be very pleasant for you! What the hell do you think you’re doing here?!”
“You know exactly what I’m doing here. Did you really think I would just let him have her?”
I heard the click as my father cocked his gun. I did the same while I stared him right in the eye. The driver of his car opened the door, but my Dad told him to get back in. “I’ll take care of this.”
We stood there holding guns on each other for a long time. It was surreal to think that we were father and son and that only one of us was going to come out of this alive.
“Don’t be an idiot, Adrian. Do you really think you’re any match for me or Syrnyk? Do you have any idea what kind of reputation he has? How many men he has working for him? You may think you can steal guys away from me that are on my payroll, but you have another thing coming if you think you’ll last more than two seconds out here. You’ve never had what it takes to be in this business.”
“You’ve finally said something I agree with. I will kill you Dad. I am going into that place and I am bringing Brooklyn out and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”
“The last time I saw you was the only warning you’re getting, Adrian. I can’t have you messing things up for me anymore.”
“The guys I brought with me have already taken out all of the men in the area, and there are almost thirty more in the cars behind me. We’re going to get her out of there. Now step aside or I am going to kill you. Me or the men in those cars.”
“They aren’t going to be fast enough to do any good, Adrian, because you’re as good as dead.”
“I don’t understand, what is it with you and this guy?”
“It’s business, Adrian. I thought you understood. I thought I’d taught you that you need to respect what we do. But it looks like you didn’t learn anything.”
“What I’ve learned is that your family means nothing to you. You’re choosing this Russian asshole over your own son … and your daughter.”
“So you know. I was wondering how long it was going to take you to figure it all out.”
“Why the hell did you do it? Did you think it was funny? Kidnapping your own daughter and asking me to train her?”
“Like I said, Adrian, it was business. What is she to you anyway? There’s nothing she can give you that any other little tramp doesn’t have between her goddamned legs. And if I were you I wouldn’t be so concerned with who that little slut’s father is. I’d be concerned with who yours is. But it’s too late for that now.”
I was too stunned by what my father had just said to realize that he was about to shoot me. But before I had the chance to react, I heard a gunshot come out of the car right next to me and if I hadn’t known exactly who I was with I would have thought I was dead. My father took a step back and moved both of his hands to cover the blood that was gushing out of his stomach, then he looked up at Lucas who was now standing next to me.
“Lucas …”
“You always said I was a lot like you, Dad. I guess you were right,” Lucas said as he shot our father one more time. I watched him fall backward onto the dirt road and ran up to him, grabbing his shirt and shaking him.
“What the fuck was that supposed to mean?!” I yelled as I watched
blood gush out of his mouth and down the side of his face. “What the fuck did you mean?!”
My father’s body went limp and his head fell backward as his last breath escaped from his body. He was gone and he hadn’t said another word to me. I looked up at Lucas, who was now standing over both of us with the gun still in his hand.
“What did he mean by that?” I asked my brother. I stared up at him and waited for him to answer me even though I knew exactly what my father meant. John Pierce was my real father.
His Forever (She’s Mine Book 3) will be released in November.
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THE DARK DOCTOR
by Stella Noir & JB Duvane
© 2016 Stella Noir and JB Duvane
All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher .
This book is a work of fiction and is intended only for adults over the age of 18.
All characters are 18 or over.
A bby
I gripped the steering wheel tightly as I wove my way through the last bits of rush hour traffic at twilight. Steady streams of tears poured down my cheeks.
Streams that mirrored the drops of rain that danced in miniature rivers down the windshield in front of her.
“Oh, Jesus Christ! Shut the hell up with that nonsense.” I said out loud to myself. The rain had just started coming down heavier as the daylight faded away and headlights lit up in long strings in front of me. I’d hoped that leaving would make me feel better, or maybe just relieved somehow. That running away would alleviate the panic that was building inside me every time I kissed Jake. But that wasn’t the case at all. I already missed him and at every exit I passed I wanted to turn back and run into his arms. I was too scared of my own feelings, though, and the dreary weather and darkening of the sky were really very appropriate at that moment, considering that there was no way I was going to be able to stop crying anytime soon.
The irony of the situation I was suddenly finding myself in was not lost on me, though. Here I was, a 24-year-old girl most people would consider an adult, yet for some reason, I wasn’t able to feel good about anything in my life that really mattered to me. And I still wasn’t sure when I was going to start feeling like an adult. I had been writing since I was a kid and selling my books online for years, yet I could never admit to myself, or anyone else, that I was a writer. I would tell people that writing was a hobby, and I would always qualify it by saying that they were just romance novels, which somehow made me feel less like a big old liar than if I were to just come right out and say that I was a writer. My soul sucking day job in retail was somehow more appropriate to refer to as my real job and when people invariably asked “what do you do?” that’s what I told them. As if retail sales were my life. And there was just no way I could even begin to see myself as an adult. I looked at my parents and people their age and just didn’t understand how or when I was supposed to resemble anything remotely like them.