by J. L. Beck
As badly as I’m tempted to see him do it, I want to explore the island. His lips flutter against mine, and it’s the softest kiss, gentle, kind like he is telling me a secret with his lips. I’m frazzled and confused, and my knees tremble, barely holding me up.
“Okay,” I mumble, and a moment later, he releases me like I’m a hot branding iron on his skin. Lifting a hand, I rub at my throat while my heart thunders inside my chest. I can still feel his grip there. My lungs burn as if I’ve been holding my breath, and I sigh loudly into the room.
“One of the guards took Celeste to the mainland for supplies. Only Clyde and Marie are here right now,” Julian explains. “If you need anything, I can still text them to pick it up for you.”
“I don’t need anything,” I say, my voice still breathy.
With one last lingering look, I dart across the room and over to the foot of the bed where my suitcase is. It’s not like I’m wearing anything overly revealing, a pair of sleep shorts, and a spaghetti strap top, but I’m not going to push him or give him another reason to shackle me to the bed because he will. I have no doubt in my mind that he will do everything possible to remind me of the power he holds.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see him turn away from him. He pulls out his phone, giving the device his undivided attention. Quickly, I change out of my PJs and slip into a pair of shorts and a dressy tank top. Momentarily, I pause and consider putting on a bathing suit but decide against it. I’m not going to be going into the ocean alone, especially not when I can’t swim.
Julian has his nose buried in his phone, so I slip out of the room without notice. I’m bubbling over with excitement as I walk through the house.
The island isn’t very big, but I plan to search every inch of it. I enjoy being with Julian, but I want more freedom, and I need to see my father. To warn him of what’s to come. Eventually, Julian will forgive me for escaping.
The mansion is set right on the beach and is the focal point of the island. Julian claims there is only one way on and off the island, but I don’t believe him. What if there were an emergency? With the placement of the house as it is, there is nothing but open concept throughout. Every window you look out of, there is ocean and beach. It’s peaceful, and part of me wants to stay here in this bubble of perfection forever.
Rushing down the stairs, I enter the kitchen, which is empty. The French doors that lead outside are wide open, letting the breeze from the ocean in. Where should I go first? I walk out the doors and look both ways. I see nothing but the beach for miles.
The air is salty as I breathe it into my lungs, but I love it. Love the freedom that surrounds me, the sound of the ocean, and the way my toes feel in the sand. Randomly choosing, I go left and head away from the mansion.
Walking along the beach, the water creeps closer and eventually washes over my feet. The water is cold, and a shiver runs down my spine. I’m not sure how long I walk before coming to a small area that’s overgrown with trees and vegetation. I almost don’t see the small boathouse peeking out in between the green leaves.
I consider turning around because the last thing I want to do is go trespassing into something, but there is a nagging at the back of my mind that tells me to investigate further.
Julian said there were no other boats on the island. Was he lying? Or is this boathouse empty? Maybe it’s not a boathouse at all?
Curiosity gets the best of me, and I continue walking toward it. My steps are hesitant, and fear coils deep in my gut. It could be nothing just a small abandoned outbuilding, or it could be something bigger than that.
Just a small peek inside, I tell myself. I just want to know what’s inside.
As I get closer, walking deeper into the overgrowth, I realize how old and run down this building is. The slats of wood are debilitated, and the paint on them is chipped away by the elements. Smiling to myself, I feel as if I’ve won a trophy.
I bet Julian has no idea that this is here. I get to the door and tug on the handle, which is barely hanging on. I find it’s not locked but cracked open. The hinges creak as I pull the door open and stick my head inside.
My eyes go wide as I take in the motorboat inside the wooden building. I could leave right now, without a word, get a head start. It’s what I should do, but deep down, I know I can’t.
I can’t leave Julian. I want to warn my father, and I plan to, to tell him to leave me alone, that I’m happy where I am, but I can’t leave, not yet.
Taking a step back, I let the door fall closed, and feel like I’m betraying myself a little as I walk back through the heavy foliage and onto the beach.
Awareness washes over me, and I realize that I’ve been gone for some time, so instead of continuing on with my adventure, I head back to the house.
Instead, maybe I’ll find Marie, and we can do something together. Make some cookies or watch some tv together? The secret of what I found presses heavily like a stack of bricks on my shoulders. I’m walking up the backside of the mansion, returning the same way I left when I hear what sounds like scuffling in the kitchen. I’ve not yet reached the French doors to see inside, so I have no idea what is happening, but my heart thunders in my chest, and my legs kick into overdrive when I hear a deep male voice.
“You’ll do as I fucking say, or I’ll tell Julian that you’re a spy…” I know that voice. It belongs to one of Julian’s guards, Clyde, I think.
“Please, don’t…” Marie softly cries, and I know whatever is happening is bad.
Rushing into the kitchen, my blood is pumping, and I’m ready to destroy. When I spot Marie facing me, her eyes are wide with fear, and tears slip freely down her cheeks.
Clyde is tugging at her clothes like she is a ragdoll.
“I’m going to fuck you, and you’re going to enjoy it. Do you understand me?” Clyde’s voice is nauseating, and I hate that I have to slow my steps. My eyes dart to the butcher block sitting on the counter near the stove, and I don’t even think, I just react.
Darting toward the butcher block, I grab the first knife my fingers touch, which also happens to be the biggest. The blade gleams in the light, and my hands shake while rage simmers just beneath the surface.
Rushing around the island, I lift the knife above my head just as he slips a hand beneath Marie’s maid dress. All I see are her tear-stained cheeks, the pain in her eyes.
I put everything I have into that strike, and the knife cuts through him like hot butter and sticks like an ax in a piece of wood in his back.
Immediately, he turns on me, fury in his eyes, his lips curls up, and he roars with rage. I reach for the knife, attempting to tug it out of his back, but a sting of pain ripples across my hand as my palm makes contact with the blade instead of the handle.
“You will pay for that, you little fucking bitch,” he snarls, and before I can comprehend what is going on, his fist is flying at my face.
The blow lands against my cheek with the intensity of a house slamming into me, and nearly sends me to the ground. Somehow, I manage to keep my footing, even as pain radiates across my cheek, and blood fills my mouth.
Clyde takes a menacing step toward me, his eyes gleaming with red hot rage. Lifting his hand as if he’s going to punch me once more, and my eyes drift closed as if out of instinct.
Oh, god.
The hit never comes. Silence surrounds us, and that’s when I open my eyes again and find Clyde on the ground, his eyes vacant and Marie standing in front of me.
“He will blame me for this.” Her voice is nothing more than a tremble, and I know she is right. Julian will kill her for this, even while knowing it isn’t her fault.
My face aches, and my hand throbs, reminding me of the fresh cut there. Warm blood drips down my fingers and onto the white tile, where an even bigger splotch of blood is forming beneath Clyde’s body.
Instantly, I know what I have to do.
Grabbing a kitchen towel, I wrap it around my hand as tightly as I can. “Come on. I’m going to get yo
u out of here. He can’t hurt you if you aren’t here.”
Turns out, my plan to save the boat for another time was a good choice. Marie needs to be saved far more than I do.
38
Julian
“There was no sign of him being there. Not recently, at least,” Zeke explains over the phone.
“He must have anticipated that Elena would tell me about it.” I lean back in the leather office chair. “Keep looking. He can’t hide from us forever. If I have to, I’ll draw him out of hiding.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll find him. In fact, you’ll have him by the end of the week,” he promises me.
“I’ll be looking forward to our next conversation then,” I say before hanging up the phone. I have to say, I’m impressed by his confidence. Let’s just hope he can actually deliver. I want Romero dead and gone. I want him out of Elena’s life. In my eyes, she will never be safe so long as he’s breathing.
Closing the laptop, I push up from the chair. It’s almost dinner time, and I don’t want to leave my wife waiting. My wife. It is fucked up how much I am enjoying this whole marriage thing. When I chose to marry Elena, I never anticipated caring for her, wanting her as deeply as I do. In ways, she’s changed me, made me see things in a different light. She brings a goodness to my soul that I thought would never return.
As soon as I step out of my office, a feeling of unease overcomes me. I can’t explain why or what or how, all I know is that the small hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My heart rate picks up, and my breathing becomes uneven.
Fear creeps its way up my spine and settles over my skin like a thin sheen of sweat. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been scared in my life.
Something is off.
The house is completely quiet, too quiet. The silence is deafening.
Frantically, I start moving, racing through the house like a chicken with my head cut off, checking every room. She said she was going to go walking around the house.
“Elena!” I yell into the empty space, but silence still surrounds me. I keep moving until I’ve checked every room upstairs and find myself rushing downstairs. I’m seconds from calling in the guards when I come around the corner leading into the kitchen and come to an abrupt halt.
My feet and heart stop at the same time as I take in Clyde, one of my guards, dead on the kitchen floor. He’s faced down, with a knife stuck in his back, a puddle of blood surrounding him like a black blob of ink against the white tile.
No, no, no. It’s like I’m living a recurring nightmare. This can’t be real. No one knows we’re here. No one could have known.
“Elena!” I scream again, hoping for a different outcome now. Hoping she will walk around the corner and into my arms but the seconds tick by, and she never comes walking into the kitchen.
I’m so shocked that for a moment, I forget about her tracker. Pulling out my phone, my fingers slip over the buttons as I type in the code to unlock it as fast as I can. Navigating to open the app to find her is a pain as the simmering rage inside of me beats to get out. It feels like an eternity until the location loads.
Then it finally pings, and the map lights up the screen, a red moving dot pinpointing her exact location.
Anger floods my veins, rushing through my body like a tidal wave hitting the shore. She is out on the ocean, heading toward the mainland. Someone fucking kidnapped her. Someone took her, and I didn’t even realize it.
They took her right out from under my nose, killed one of my men, and escaped the island with her. Failure. I’m a fucking failure. I failed to protect her all over again. Instantly, a million terrible images enter my mind.
Someone else’s hands on Elena, hurting her, causing her pain, violating her… killing her. The anger becomes almost unbearable like a knife being plunged into my chest over and over again, and I use it as fuel as I rush outside and toward the boathouse.
My feet pound against the sand, and I almost fall a thousand times as the ocean breeze whips against my face and through my hair. The muscles in my legs burn as I push myself to run faster than I ever have before.
As I get closer to the boathouse, hidden deep in the small patch of trees and tall grass, I can see the door swinging open, and the dreadful feeling in my gut only expands outward. When I get to it, my worst fears come true.
The sand beneath my feet gives way, and I fall to my knees.
The emergency boat is gone.
Elena is gone.
My wife is gone.
39
Elena
I’m making a mistake.
I’m making a big mistake.
The voice in my head keeps repeating the same thing, but it’s too late to turn back now. Marie is right, Julian will blame her and most likely kill her for what happened. She is not safe, and I won’t be able to live with myself if something happens to her, not when I was the one that killed him.
Of course, she is still crying, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs while she rocks herself back and forth with the movement of the boat.
“It’s going to be okay, Maria,” I say softly, trying to calm her down. “Look, we’re almost at the mainland. We’ll find some way for you to get home, and then I’ll go back to the island and explain everything to Julian. Everything will work out.”
Her tear-filled eyes find mine, and the fear I see in those depths makes my heart hurt. She is so scared, the fear I see in her gaze rivals anything I’ve ever felt personally, and there is nothing I can say to her to ease that fear.
Even worse, my husband is the cause of her fear, and I’m not sure even I could stop him from hurting her, which is why we’re doing what we’re doing now. If I can get her away and get her hidden, maybe there is a chance this can all be okay.
“Ah, I think you better hold on ’cause I’m not sure how to stop this boat at the pier,” I warn Marie as we get closer. I shut down the engine and let us float the last bit, but apparently, I didn’t do so early enough. Our boat hits the side of the pier with a loud crack. My body jerks to the front, and I barely manage to stay inside the boat.
Marie grabs the edge of the boat and keeps us pulled against the walkway. I climb out first, then help her to get out. Marie ties the boat up while I tighten my makeshift wrap around my cut hand. When we’re both done, we have our first good look around.
“Let’s head that way,” I point toward the road. “That’s where we came from. We just need to find a phone, so you can call your family.”
“You should just go back, Elena. I promise I’ll be fine from here. You need to go back before Julian finds you missing.”
I won’t lie, the idea is tempting, especially knowing the consequences are going to be dire. “I don’t want to leave you…”
“You’ve already done more for me than I can ever repay you for. Please, head back. I don’t want you to get in trouble for helping me–”
“That’s them!” A male voice interrupts our conversation.
Both of our heads snap up in the direction the yelling came from. Four men in uniforms are running toward us like we broke some unknown law.
“Police! Stop!” Someone else yells.
All I can do is stand there like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. They can’t be after us. We’ve done nothing wrong.
Are the police arresting us? A moment later, I get my answer when one of the officers grabs my arms and shoves me to the ground, tugging my arms behind my back and slaps handcuffs onto my wrists. The whole moment is surreal, and I don’t even know what to say or do. There is no reaction to what just happened.
One moment I’m talking to Marie, the next I’m arrested, and my hands are cuffed together.
What the hell is happening?
We’ve been in a holding cell for a while now, and still, not a single person has told us why we were arrested. No one has tended to the cut on my hand either, and I could use some Tylenol and an ice pack for my face, which is still throbbing.
Mar
ie has been crying almost the entire time, and all I can do is hold her and tell her that everything is going to be okay. Thank god they put us in the same cell, at least. I don’t know what I would have done if they separated us.
Screams echo down the hall, and I cling to Marie with all my might.
Someone came by and brought us water a little while ago. I asked them for a phone call, but they refused. Told us to wait and shut up. I wanted to say something like if you hurt us, my husband will kill you, but I managed to bite my tongue on that one.
The thought of Julian makes my chest ache. All I wanted was some freedom, and as soon as I get it, I have to get myself into trouble.
He’ll never trust me again.
In fact, I bet he’ll think the worst. Think I was trying to leave.
Approaching footsteps accompanied by the rattling of keys have me on high alert. Marie and I both stand up, our eyes trained on the door while I refuse to let go of her.
One of the officers comes into view first. Only a second later, does Julian appear behind him. Marie starts shaking in my hold, and I rub my hand over her arm in hopes to calm her, but when my eyes lock with Julian’s, I start to shake myself.
I’ve never seen him like this. His eyes are a deep sea of emotion. Anger, disappointment, and hurt swimming right at the surface, but there is more. Some depth, I never knew existed. There is raw fear, and it’s almost as if he was afraid that…
The officer unlocks and opens the metal bar door and motions for us to step out. I’m tempted to dig my feet into the ground because I know when we get back to the island, all hell is going to break loose.
“You.” Julian points at Marie, who’s shaking only intensifies under his powerful gaze. “Be glad I’m not killing you right now. Get out of my sight. I never want to see or hear from you again. Understood?”
“You don’t even–” I start defending her, but Julian cuts me off, his gaze like a razor, cutting through the air.