by Sarah Clay
When I look down at my phone I see I have no reception.
“What the fuck” Tony walks over and snatches my phone from me, fiddling around with it.
I stand and start pacing.
“Fuck I need you to take this meeting, it’s last minute. Victoria called me just earlier about it.”
Tony’s brows nearly go straight into his hairline.
“How would Victoria know what meetings you have today? She’s not working, called in sick this morning.” I can feel my heart racing.
“What do you mean she’s not working today, she fucking called me and told me I had to get in here to meet with fucking Lewis” I practically bellow into the room.
Snatching my phone out of his hands when he holds it out to me.
I scroll through to Olivia’s name and hit call.
“She’s not fucking answering, why isn’t she fucking answering?” I’m trying to stay calm, but something is not adding up here.
“Wait did you say Lewis, Tom Lewis?” I nod over to him, as I hit call on Olivia again.
Hoping I’m just overreacting.
“Tom Lewis isn’t even in the state at the moment, I just spoke to him a few days ago, he called through to the offices and you and Coop weren’t available so they patched him through to me.”
My eyes widen at his statement and I start shaking my head.
Grabbing my keys from beside me on the desk, I race out to the lifts, Tony hot on my tail.
“Somethings not right.” I try to explain to him but I’m getting fucking impatient, hitting the call button repeatedly.
I get sick of waiting and sprint towards the fire exit, jumping down bunches of stairs at a time. I can hear footsteps following me and I know Tony has come to the same conclusion as I have.
We need to get to Cooper's apartment, right fucking now.
∞
I was running every red light on my way to Cooper's apartment, I would pay every damn ticket ten times over, so long as Olivia had just fallen asleep on the couch and that’s why she was missing my calls.
But my gut told me that wasn’t what was happening; I could hear Tony on the phone, he was leaving a message for Cooper to call us back immediately.
“Tell me I’m wrong, tell me I’m overreacting and she’s just asleep or in the shower. Tell me something Tony” I growl into the car.
I’m met with silence as I continue flying through the streets.
When I see Coops apartment building in front of us, I swerve off directly in front of the entrance. Slamming my foot down on the brakes and shutting off the car, before jumping out and legging it inside, we see the doorman Frank and he waves us in with a frown, we leg it up to Coops floor.
When I get there I use my spare key to let myself in, each of us had a key for the other places.
“Olivia” I yell out as soon as I rush into the room.
“Olivia” I frantically go from room to room looking for her.
“She’s not here” I yell out as Tony comes up behind me.
“Where the fuck is she? She wouldn’t have just left Tony, her things are still in her room!”
“There’s no mess, nothing is broken, no one has physically pulled her out of here Jackson. Hold on to that for now.”
I can’t swallow, my mouth is so fucking dry. My heart is racing, I can hear it beating in my ears as I think over everything that’s happened to her, all the threats and photos.
“Fuck!” I hear Tony grunt into the room. I look straight up at him, just as he grabs out his phone
“Jackson the fucking photos. Why was there a photo of me and Cooper and not you?”
I frown in his direction, thinking it over. But I’m just getting more irritated with the more time we waste.
“The threats were all about her leaving and not belonging here. The photos never included you. You were never threatened. The person was never going to harm you. They were never going to harm anyone because it was enough of a threat to get Olivia to leave. The person who was doing all of this obviously cared for you, and felt Olivia was getting in the way of that.”
I turn and grab hold of the closest thing to me, a large fucking ceramic bowl, pitching it across the room.
Watching on as it shatters against the wall and falls to the ground.
Fucking Victoria.
Chapter Nineteen
Olivia
“I swear he only left 5 minutes ago” I mumble to myself as I walk towards the door and swing it open.
“Really Jackson…”
I freeze when I spot Victoria standing on the other side of the door.
“What… What are you doing here?”
She leers at me before pushing me aside and walking into the apartment uninvited. I follow after her, speaking to her back
“Why are you here Victoria? you need to leave” I demand.
When she turns around, she’s giving me a menacing look, while reaching into her handbag,
“I believe I told you the exact same thing, dear Olivia.” I freeze when I see what she’s holding.
“Victoria…” I barely choke out.
Watching her raise a handgun up in the air. She wasn’t aiming it at me, just running her hands along it; admiring it almost.
“You ruined everything sweet, young Olivia. But I can fix this.”
I look around for anything I can use in my defence. But some logical part of me knows that nothing is going to protect me against gunfire.
“You couldn’t just go back to where you came from, you had to go and disrupt Jackson.” She tuts out at me, “you just had to go and invite your father here didn’t you, now I have to resort to this” shaking her head in my direction, acting like I was forcing her hand.
“Victoria” I try again but as soon as she hears the worry in my voice she points the gun in my direction.
Cocking her head to the side and looking me over.
“No. Olivia. Here’s what’s going to happen. I know your brother will be arriving soon. So you are going to walk out of this building with me like nothing is wrong, you are going to get into my car and drive us where I tell you too... do you understand little Olivia?” I bite down on my lip to stop myself from crying.
I know enough to know that leaving with her would be a stupid thing to do.
But the second the thought crosses my mind to stay, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. And I wonder if it’s Coop. If he walks in and spooks her or says the wrong thing, he could get hurt; or worse.
“Okay, Okay Victoria. I’ll go with you” I nod hesitantly, not wanting to make any sudden movements.
“So she’s smarter than she looks” she virtually spits in my direction.
I watch as she swipes my keys up from beside her and pockets them before pulling her handbag to her side, trying to hide sight of the gun she’s gripping beneath it.
“Don’t go trying anything stupid, the safety’s off and I’m not afraid to use it on anyone that gets in my way, you’ll see.”
∞
We’d made it through the lobby with no troubles. No one had looked at us curiously at all. Victoria was smiling and walking along like she didn’t have a qualm in the world. She’d kept talking the whole time, obviously trying not to draw any attention our way.
Apparently, it wasn’t too hard for her to get into the building either. She’d been by to drop off documents for Cooper before; so it wasn’t unusual to see her around. When she’d arrived she told someone she was in a rush to pick up some papers and couldn’t get a hold of Cooper to let her up.
We make it to the carpark, she crudely pushes me into the driver's side of her car; demanding I drive out to Jackson's house.
“Victoria, I’ll leave. I’ll go. We don’t need to go there.” I shake my head furiously in her direction. “You will go, but first to Jacky’s house” I start to reason with her again but the second she pulls the gun to my head, I feel my eyes widen and I nod slightly.
Starting the car up and pulling out of th
e space.
We make the first half of the drive in silence before Victoria finally speaks.
“Jackson and I were building up our relationship and then you had to go and appear. You distracted him, you took him from me.” I don’t respond.
I don’t point out that they weren’t even in a relationship. I just stare straight ahead as I drive. Trying to concentrate on anything other than the gun I can feel her running alongside my arm.
“But I know if you leave if you’re not here. He will come back to me and Jacky and I can work on getting us back to a good place.”
Every word she speaks is with utter belief, there is no doubt in my mind that this is some crazy notion of hers.
“I overheard him and Tony speaking about us one day, Jackson just forgets how good we were together, but I’ll remind him.” I swallow past the ball in my throat.
I should have known she’d had something to do with all of this. I feel so naive, not even adding her into the equation.
But I would have never imagined her going this far, to threaten me with a gun.
I thought she might have been a bit jealous, sure, but never this. I try to placate her once more.
“I had no idea, I’m sorry Victoria. Truly, you and Jackson will be happy again. I’ll leave, I’ll pull over now and I will go away. I will never come back. Just please let me pull over” I puff out.
“Oh, no sweet Olivia. You see, apparently, you have some magic fucking powers with the opposite sex. First Jackson and then my brother” I frown, looking over to her; but the dark mask that’s taken over her features has me looking straight back to the road. “Oh yes sweet Olivia, poor Dean was so disappointed when he couldn’t get you to look at him like he looks at you. He’ll surely be sad to see you leave.” She cackles to herself.
“But since you were so kind as to inform me that your things were still at Jackson's house, we are going to go and collect them first. Save him the hassle of throwing them out when I move in with him.”
I count to ten in my head, trying to calm my heart rate.
“Then you’re going to write my Jacky a little letter telling him you were never interested in him and you’ve gone back to your father. You’re going to tell him you never want to be contacted by him. By any of them”
I know she’s referring to Coop and Tony too.
“Cooper is my brother, he will come and find me. He’ll have questions. I need to call him and tell him what I’m doing, that I’m leaving.” I plead with her, maybe if I can get Cooper on the phone he will be able to pick up that something is wrong and be able to help me.
“Cooper might try to call you, but we both know well enough that he will never come and visit you while you live with your father. You will just have to distance yourself from him, Olivia, because if you don’t; Cooper might get hurt.”
I can hear her underlying threat; it instantly makes me want to vomit.
So I concentrate on driving. But my hands are sweating, making it hard to grip the steering wheel.
“Make sure we get there in one piece Olivia, because if we don’t; I promise you your friends won’t make it much further either.”
∞
“You have 5 minutes Olivia, we are going to go upstairs and get your things and then you will write exactly what I tell you too.”
She points the gun in my direction and I nod.
Before unlocking the door with my key. I wait as she pushes it open.
The second she does Charlie appears in front of us. The poor furball looks just as unsettled as me.
“The fucking dog, I forgot about the dumb stray” she growls, swinging the gun in Charlie's direction when he growls at her.
I quickly knock her arm to the side before jumping in front of him.
“Wait, no. He won’t hurt you, don’t!” I practically screech as I kneel down in front of Charlie.
“Shh Charlie boy. Go to your bed.” I say in the strongest voice I can manage.
Charlie goes between wanting to stay with me and wanting to obey. Thankfully he relents, slouching away from us. I stand up, turning back to Victoria.
“You can take the damn mutt with you” she decides.
I just stand there staring at her, wanting to say something to get her to understand how crazy she is acting. But I know when someone is acting batshit crazy they never appreciate being called out on it.
“You’re down to 4 minutes now.” She smirks over at me. I quickly spin around and head towards the stairs. She’s hot on my heels, not leaving me alone for a second.
I can feel my phone vibrating against my thigh, but she’s watching me so intently she would notice if I made a move for it. As soon as I pull my bags out, I start piling my clothes into them. When she’s happy with what I’m doing, she disappears into the bathroom; obviously determined on collecting all of my belongings, even my toiletries.
When I know I have a couple of minutes I quickly pull my phone out of my pocket, unlocking it and bringing up my call log. I pause for a second, deciding on whether to call the police or Jackson. I don’t want Jackson to get hurt at all.
But if she’s going to force me away, or worse kill me; then I want him to know that I love him. I hadn’t told him, I hadn’t spoken the words out loud and now It was my biggest regret.
I hear movement and seconds later I feel something cold and heavy come straight down on the side of my head.
Dropping my phone, I fall to the ground. Groaning out in pain instantly.
“What the fuck are you doing!” Victoria screams down at me. Hurling her foot into my side. Stealing my breath from me.
I roll to the side, sucking in oxygen. My head is pounding and I can feel a throbbing pain coming from my cheek and temple.
I blink through the pain and focus on her.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” I wheeze out. Her face is a menacing replica of what she normally looks like, her pupils completely dilated now.
“Stand up.” She screams, pointing the gun in my face as I stumble to my feet, holding on to my aching ribs. She rips my bags off of the bed from beside me and points from me to the doorway with her gun. Instructing me to lead the way back downstairs.
Just before I reach the last steps, she nudges me in the back with the tip of her gun, and I trip down them; managing to stay upright, but the pain in my ribs intensifies.
“Hurry the fuck up” she rages as she walks a few steps away to the bench, never taking her eyes off of me.
Charlie must pick up on her tone because he bolts up from his bed and comes to my side. Growling in her direction.
“Charlie, it’s okay. I’m okay” I choke out through the agony.
Not wanting him to get in her path. But he doesn’t give up. When he takes an aggressive step towards her she immediately swings the gun at him.
I push him out of the way and he skitters a few steps.
“On second thoughts, you don’t deserve any pieces of Jacky.” She smiles a menacing smile in my direction.
Before taking aim and cocking the bullet into the chamber.
“Victoria NO!” I Scream, forgetting the pain I was in and throwing myself towards Charlie to knock him out of the way.
Hopefully distracting her enough to rethink the idea.
But just as I do, I hear the sound of gunfire echo through the room. It sends a piercing crack through my ears. When I hit the floor pain slices up my right side. And then everything seems to happen in slow motion.
I feel a burning pain coming from my shoulder and when I look down I see blood absorbing through my shirt quicker than I thought possible.
Charlie takes action, springing in Victoria's direction with his teeth barred to her, growling with a ferociousness I’ve never heard before.
She drops the gun in surprise and it fires off again into the room. I can’t move to see anything. Everything seems far away as it is.
My body feels sluggish, my ears ringing and every breath I take is harder than the last.
“C
harlie” I barely manage to breath out, the pain hitting me tenfold the second I speak.
“What have you done!” Victoria screams, but it sounds far away.
All of a sudden I hear something shatter and Charlies growls, followed by the door opening and then utter silence.
I try to move, I need to. I need to know what’s going on.
Where’s Victoria, Where’s the gun, Is Charlie okay.
When I attempt to move I feel excruciating pain radiate everywhere. I close my eyes for a second, trying to let the dizziness pass.
With my eyes closed, I move my left arm up to the shoulder that had been hit. I know I need to put pressure on it, at least that’s what they do in the movies, but every part of me feels heavy. Gripping my shoulder as much as I can, I lay there in the same spot I’d landed.
Charlies whining comes from beside me and I open my eyes to peek out at him, everything seems disorientated, but I can make out his furry coat brushing my side.
“Shh I’m okay” I speak between quick shallow breaths.
Every movement hurts, even more so because my body has started shaking uncontrollably. I feel Charlie's body lay alongside me. His cold, wet nose pressing against my bare arm.
My head is pounding, my shoulder and ribs are a mix of unbearable pains. I close my eyes to it all.
I want to get up, I want to go to my phone and call for help. But my hand is coated in blood. It just keeps coming, I don’t want to lose anymore. But, I don’t know the right thing to do in this situation either.
I open my eyes after a few minutes, or seconds. I don’t know, I feel clammy and nauseous; like I’m about to vomit everywhere. I must have let up on the pressure of my arm.