A Knock From The Past: (The Phoenix Series Book 1)

by Emma Vikes

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I fished it out. The screen lit up, and I was notified that I’d been sent a video. I already knew what I’d see the moment I opened it.

  Lily, unconscious and in the hands of the person threatening me.

  CHAPTER 12

  Lily

  My head was still ringing as I slowly woke up. Whatever object that had been used to hit me, it had done the job well. But I was surprised that I hadn’t bleed. They had hit me hard enough to make me unconscious immediately, and the amount of force they’d had to exert to do that should’ve made me bleed, but I was free from any trace of blood.

  But the tie on my wrist, on the other hand, was so tight that I swear it almost drew blood with how tightly I was bound. Crying out in pain was the last thing I needed to do. My father had drilled into me that if I - for some unknown reason - ended up as a hostage, the last thing I should let my captors know was that I was awake and conscious, that was, for as long as they didn’t notice it first.

  However, my captors seemed to be in a heated discussion. I couldn’t really move my head around without it being a giveaway that I was already conscious, but from what I could see, I was in a small house. Probably a trailer house judging by how cramped everything was. And my captors were just a few feet away from me, in a very heated discussion.

  “I told you that we shouldn’t have brought her here!” argued the female, her voice rising in annoyance. “If the cops get here, Aidan, if they find out where she is, we’ll get ourselves in even bigger trouble!”

  “Love, relax!” There was a drawl in the way the male spoke, but not in a Southerner kind of way. It was like he just talked like that, like his words slurred together, like he was drunk all the time. Maybe he was. For someone as sadistic and cold-heartedly cruel as he was, I wouldn’t have doubted that he was an alcoholic too.

  A drug addict and an alcoholic - I wondered when his choices would become fatal.

  “Artie will come here. He’s going to save his damsel in distress.”

  She snorted. “You talk like you know your brother when you haven’t seen him since you were ten.”

  He slapped her.

  I gasped.

  Both of them turned to look at me.

  Well, so much for remaining undetected.

  They both walked to where they had tied me, and I gasped again when I recognized the woman. “Margaux?”

  She smirked and then flipped her golden locks at me, her confidence taking control. “Ah, the revelation does make me feel giddy.”

  It wasn’t that she had been kind to me at work. No, we weren’t even friends and had only talked that time at the pantry. But she had tipped me about the shooting incident. “But the shooting incident?”

  Margaux scoffed and waved a hand, slipping an arm around the guy’s waist. He kissed the side of her head and smirked at me as he waited for Margaux’s response. “Of course I was the one to tip you off about that because I was the only one who knew it had happened.” She spoke to me like I was stupid and maybe I was for never figuring it out. “No one else in the office knew about it. Didn’t it bother you that no one asked how Art was?”

  I hated how - now that she had mentioned it - it made sense. I didn’t know how to react or what I was supposed to say. If I weren’t the hostage, I would’ve complimented them. Margaux never really pushed herself to be my friend or made herself known to Art as an employee. She was just in the background, and I guess that was why they’d both pulled this off as nicely as they had.

  The guy cleared his throat and then moved forward, leaving Margaux’s side. “Lily Stone. I know a lot about you. But you don’t know who I am. If the circumstances were different and we’d met in an alternative reality, maybe it could be over dinner and my brother introducing me to the girl he was screwing. But we’re in this one, so I guess we have to make do. I’m Aidan Collins, Art’s little brother.”

  So Art was right that someone from his family was behind it. I looked at Aidan. I could see the resemblance. The same dark eyes and thin mouth, the same build; I wasn’t sure how much younger he was but Art was older than me by six years so I was guessing that Aidan and I were of the same age or he may be have been two or three years younger than me. It didn’t matter though. The trace of youth was gone from his face, and I was pretty sure drugs and alcohol were responsible for that.

  “Why have you been doing this to him?”

  Aidan chuckled and then leaned against the wall. “Why shouldn’t I? I’ve plotted this for years, Lily. But I couldn’t strike out because of that damn Julian. That dumb fool was always ahead of me, and everything was so tight when he was around. He screened everyone that Artie hired without him knowing and Margaux couldn’t get past him despite her credentials.”

  He looked at Margaux, and I could see something in his eyes. Even though he was abusing her - it was obvious because I’d now noticed the bruises on her arms - it was clear that he loved her and I could see it in her face too. She adored him, even when there was nothing about him to like.

  “I had to wait until the dumb fool was dead. But I decided that maybe I could give my brother some time to think that he doesn’t have enemies other than his business rivals. I did visit him during the burial though.” Annoyance filled his face as he crossed his arms. The gesture made him look his age. “But he didn’t recognize me. I guess money does turn you blind.”

  There was a moment of silence as Aidan gathered his thoughts. It was the moment I needed to see that he clearly did not have any control of his thoughts. That was his weak spot. Margaux’s was the fact that she was helplessly in love with him. If I used those things to my advantage, I could probably get away.

  “Why did you take me?”

  Aidan stared at me as if I’d just asked a stupid question. He looked at Margaux. “I thought you said she was smart.”

  Margaux rolled her eyes and then turned her attention on me. “You’re Art’s girlfriend. Didn’t you realize that you’d be a hostage at some point while you were staying with him? You already were aware that you were at risk. Even your brother saw this coming.”

  Aidan shook his head and stepped forward. He placed a finger under my chin and tilted my head up so I could meet his dark eyes. “You fucked my brother. I watched you two do it over and over again, all over his apartment. He confessed his past to you before anything could happen between the two of you. You knew what you were getting yourself into, Lily.”

  They had their points. There was no use asking. I already knew that Art was coming even though both of them hadn’t said it. “What do you want from him?”

  Aidan chuckled and shrugged. “I told him to bring five million. But I’m also just gonna kill him. I just want to kill him. I’m still thinking whether or not I want to kill you or let you run away. You’ve already served your purpose anyway.”

  I couldn’t understand how Art could be related to someone so sadistic.

  A banging on the door ruined the conversation that had been playing out and the smile of excitement on Aidan’s face answered my question regarding who was at the door. He dashed to open it and left Margaux and me alone.

  “Why are you even with him? After he murdered innocent people.”

  “Sometimes sacrifices have to be made to get to the goal,” Margaux replied with a shrug of her shoulders as if the death of Rivero wasn’t such a big deal. But I guess you could never really get through to sociopaths. “Your brother is cute.”

  My fists clenched. “Don’t touch him.”

  Margaux chuckled and then stepped closer to me. “I’m sure he’ll be grief-struck when you turn up dead. I actually mentioned that to Aidan. Why don’t we just kill you first and let Art suffer with guilt and with your brother’s anger? But he’s hell-bent on killing Art, so there wasn’t any room for argument. Pity, I would’ve loved to kill you, slow and sensual, just the way you like it.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her just as Aidan came back into the room, Art following behind him. Our ey
es locked the moment he was in the same room as me, and I wanted to scream at him to get out. But his eyes were hard as stone, and he wasn’t looking at me with any sign of tenderness or concern. No, Art meant business, that much was clear.

  “I have the money you need, Aidan. Let her go.” Art was all business, and I admired how he didn’t shake under that kind of tension.

  But Aidan just laughed and rolled his eyes at his brother. “You don’t even want to know why I planned this heartfelt reunion?”

  Art looked at me levelly. “Why?”

  “Dad’s dead,” Aidan announced but I couldn’t see any remorse or sorrow in his face or in the tone of his voice. He said it so monotonously as if he was just stating a fact. “An enemy killed him. Don’t worry, Alex and I took care of it.”

  But Art didn’t look like he cared. He didn’t even look surprised. “Alex started leading the pack. He continued doing what dad did. But you know what? When dad died, I realized it was the perfect time to get back at you for killing mom.”

  Aidan looked at his brother and smirked. “You took away the only person that could’ve taken care of me the right way, but instead I grew up being abused, sexually, physically and emotionally.”

  I saw Art falter at that. He cared about his brother even when Aidan had been the one who put him under this stress and hell. All I wanted was for Art to tell Aidan that he didn’t kill their mother, that it was their father who did so, that he had been framed. I wanted Art to tell his brother the truth, but he didn’t.

  “So you’re going to kill me?”

  Aidan scoffed. “Don’t be stupid, brother, you already knew that the moment you arrived here. You knew that the moment I called you that first time. An eye for an eye.”

  “He didn’t kill your mother!” I exclaimed, wishing that Aidan would give me his attention again. If Art wasn’t going to tell him the truth, then I sure as hell was.

  Art looked at me and shook his head, his eyes pleading with me. He wanted me to stay out of this. “I want you to let her go first. I don’t want her to see what happens next.”

  Margaux laughed. “Oh, sweetie, if that’s what you want then your wish is my command.”

  My father would have been disappointed with the fact that I hadn’t seen what was near Margaux, which meant I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. It was too fast. One moment Art was far from me, and Margaux just an inch in front of me.

  The next, there was a metal object aimed at my head, and when I felt the impact, that was only when I understood what Margaux had meant. If Art didn’t want me to see what was going to happen next, then knocking me unconscious was the next best solution other than letting me go.

  The last thing I saw was Art lunging at Margaux.

  And everything else just faded to black, but not before I realized I was bleeding.

  CHAPTER 13

  Art

  All that mattered to me was for Lily to wake up. I didn’t even care that Lucas wanted me out of the room. I didn’t care that he punched me the moment he found Lily unconscious. He wasn’t thrilled with the fact that his sister had been made a hostage, and he was angry when he saw Lily bleeding. He would’ve killed me instead because of it.

  As for my brother and Margaux, they were in police custody. Before the charity event, Lucas had already managed to find the rest of my brother’s allies and had police sent after them, making sure that they were caught in the act of doing drugs. The murder at the charity event was done by my brother and Margaux because apparently my brother had had an argument with his allies and told them that he could finish this on his own.

  As smart as he was in the entire process, one blow at his ego made him become a fool.

  “I’m taking her to Australia as soon as she gets discharged,” Lucas said. He was sitting on the chair across from mine, patiently waiting for his sister to wake up. Since Lily had been rushed to the hospital and since I had gotten her the room, Lucas had made calls to their family back in Australia and had practically told them everything that had happened. I was pretty sure I was banned from there before I could even defend my case.

  I understood though. I understood why they hated me at the moment. I had put Lily’s life at risk. Had I not changed her position to become my assistant and had let her be part of the creative team, I was certain that Aidan and Margaux wouldn’t have used her as bait.

  “Okay,” I said with a sigh. I was in no mood for an argument, and I was sure that Lucas would just have punched me if I’d tried. I would’ve let him too. I would’ve allowed him to beat me up because I did that to Lily.

  When I had got to the abandoned trailer park, the one that used to be my home as a kid, I wasn’t entirely sure who was behind everything. I knew why they’d taken Lily. They must’ve realized that she meant something to me and that hurting someone important to me would inflict a greater deal of pain on me, just like how destroying my company’s name would have too. But before I got there, Lucas had already told me that Aidan Collins was behind all of it.

  Aidan Collins was my little brother, and I didn’t believe him when he’d said that, hence why I wasn’t sure who was behind everything when I arrived.

  But when Aidan had opened the door for me and greeted me with his warm smile that used to light up the room when we were young, the truth was hard to accept. I would’ve believed it if it had been Alex. It would’ve explained a lot if he was behind it because he believed without an ounce of doubt that I was the one that had killed our mother. But Aidan was so young when all of those things had happened, and I could still remember that he was the one who had told me to run away.

  “Artie?” The small voice of my baby brother roused me from the pain that I was trying to sleep through. My entire body was reverberating with the pain from the punches and kicks that I’d received from my father, not to mention the shovel that he kept on slamming against me.

  I tried to lift up the corner of my mouth to flash him a smile. “Hi, Addie.”

  Our mother had called him Addie and the nickname made him choke. I shouldn’t have called him that because it was like stabbing him with a knife and twisting it to make him feel the pain even more. But Aidan didn’t react further. He sat beside me and placed a hand on my waist.

  “You should leave, Artie.”

  I sat up slowly and stared at my little brother. His dark eyes were a mirror of mine, a mirror of our father’s. Aidan reached and touched my swelling face. “You should go, Artie. I saw daddy hurt you. He’s going to keep on hurting you.”

  I wondered for a moment if my brother knew that our father was blaming me for the murder of mom or if he didn’t believe him. “Aidan, about mom…”

  But Aidan shook his head. “Please go, Artie. Come back to me and take me away from here when you’re okay.”

  I was starting to choke up. My ten-year-old brother was begging me to save him from his life. I nodded vigorously. “Yes. I’ll come back for you, Aidan. I promise.”

  I never came back for him because Julian had told me he was dead.

  Lily moaned, and Lucas and I shot out of our seats. Lucas reached her and touched her cheek gently. “Lily?”

  Slowly, her eyes fluttered open, and I felt the relief slowly seep into my body. She was okay. She was alive. “Luke.”

  Lucas exhaled in relief and then kissed her forehead gently. The gesture made my heart clench slightly, the brotherly affection unfamiliar to me and I almost felt like I was intruding in their private moment until Lily turned her head to the side and gasped when she saw me.

  “Art,” her voice slurred as she said my name but I saw the way her eyes lit up when she realized I was right there in front of her, “you’re okay.”

  I nodded slowly and then Lucas quietly backed away and, just as he reached the door, told us that he was going to get the nurses and doctor. He was giving us the privacy that we needed. As much as he hated me, he still acknowledged who I was to Lily, despite everything that had happened between the two of us.

>   “Hi,” I whispered and then sat on the chair, reaching for her hand and wrapping it in mine. “I’m so happy that you’re awake.”

  She tried to nod, but I could see that it hurt her. “What happened?”

  “Margaux slammed hardwood on the side of your head to knock you unconscious. Right after that happened, I lunged at her, forgetting whatever plan I had. Aidan tackled me, and we were throwing punches at each other until I was right beside you, that’s when I pulled out the gun and told him I would kill him if they laid another finger on you.”

  Lily smiled. “My hero.”

  I touched the stitches on the side of her head. A hero was the last thing I deserved to be called. “Lucas already knew where we were. It was only a matter of cornering them. He was ready to shoot him when the moment was right. As long as the shot wasn’t fatal, of course.”

  “But didn’t Aidan have allies?”

  I nodded. “Yes but Lucas had already taken care of them. Let’s just be thankful that Aidan managed to piss his team off. It made everything easier for us.”

  “So it’s over?”

  It was the same question I’d asked myself when Aidan and Margaux were placed in the police cruiser. I wondered if the threats were over or if that was just the beginning of it. “I don’t know. But I’ll have to go to the station to talk to Aidan later.”

  Lily furrowed her eyebrows. “Why would you do that?”

  I never told her that my little brother was the one who told me to leave. That was information that I kept to myself. I had to know if the reason behind all of that was because I hadn’t saved him or if it was about something else. “Aidan told me he wanted to kill you for killing your mother.”

  It was my turn to be confused now. “But he knew that I didn’t. Before I escaped, Aidan was the one to urge me to do so. Before I left, I wanted to explain to him about our mother, but he didn’t want to hear it. I assumed he understood that it wasn’t me.”

  Lily shrugged her shoulders and then squeezed my hand. “You’ve been gone for years, Art. Your father must’ve manipulated him to believe the lie.”