Chapter 23 #2
Matthias and I walk into the kitchen, and my brother stops dead as he looks around. “Damn, Marius. This place is nice.”
“Yeah, yeah. Compliment me later. For now, let’s separate and search the entire apartment. You take down here. I’ll handle upstairs. Call me if you find anything.”
He gives me a strange look and asks, “Why can’t I just yell out that I found something?”
“Because I can’t hear you. It’s a big place, okay? Just call my damn phone, all right?” I say, my patience completely gone now.
“Jeez, okay. I’ll call.”
I race upstairs and stop at the area Eden calls the mezzanine where we talked the other day. Everything here looks normal.
To be honest, I’m looking for blood. Thankfully, I guess, this penthouse hasn’t been redone, so it’s all bare bones furniture that’s incredibly fucking uncomfortable to sit in and white (sorry, white smoke) walls that would show blood splatter if someone had…
I don’t let my mind go where it wants to. Shaking my head, I repeat over and over in my head, “Eden is okay. She’s fine, and when she sees me, she’s going to explain what the fuck that message was all about.”
When I finish thinking that a third time, I turn and start walking down the hallway, stopping at each room to look for her.
I’d call out for her, but since that’s the same thing every person in the movies does just before they find who they’re looking for dead in a pool of blood, I’m not going to do that.
After checking the second bedroom and finding nothing, I walk into the upstairs living room, or what I’ve been secretly referring to as my future mancave.
Eden would roll her eyes if she heard me say that.
I can hear her already. “Mancave? What the hell does a grown man need a cave for? It’s the twenty- first century, Marius.
The world has decided. We aren’t doing immature men anymore. ”
That’s my Duck. She doesn’t put up with any nonsense. It’s one of the million reasons why I love her.
I walk back out to the hallway and a noise hits my ears that makes my heart skip a beat. Eden’s muffled voice is coming from our bedroom.
Quickly, I walk down the hall and stop in front of the closed door. Something is very wrong. Eden never closes the door. She told me one time that whoever built this penthouse didn’t understand it’s so big that it gets cold when you shut the doors to the rooms. So she leaves them open all the time.
Christ. She’s in there. But is she alone? Is Sam still here, or did the doorman make a mistake?
I touch the doorknob and look down to see my hand shaking. I’ve never been this fucking terrified in my life. If I walk in there and she’s bleeding out like Ronan was when I found him, I’m going to lose my fucking mind.
Slowly, I push the door open and hear Eden sobbing. As soon as I step into the room, I see her sitting on the bed with a gag in her mouth. Her wrists and ankles are bound, so she doesn’t move when she sees me.
“Duck, what the hell is going on? Are you okay?” I ask her as my emotions threaten to overwhelm me.
Whatever’s happened, at least she’s alive and safe.
And then, out of the corner of my eye, I see something move. I turn to find out what it is, and I see my assistant standing there with a gun.
“Sam, what’s going on? Put that gun down. What the fuck are you thinking?”
She frowns and walks around the bed behind Eden, pointing the gun at the back of her head. “No, Marius. I wanted you to come here for me, and you did. Now I want you to do something else.”
I have no idea what the hell is happening right now. Has my assistant lost her mind? Do she and Eden know one another?
Raising my hands so I seem to be surrendering, I calmly say, “It’s okay, Sam. You can ask me to do anything. You know that. You’ve always been a great assistant. I tell you that all the time, don’t I? Tell me what you need me to do, and I’ll do it. Just put the gun down.”
“Tell her you don’t love her. Tell her you love me. That’s why you asked me to come to that party. Tell her.”
I could say those words. I wouldn’t mean them, but I could say them. The problem with that is people who are out of their minds are never logical. No matter how much I tell Sam what she wants to hear, it won’t matter.
“Come on, Sam. Put the gun down. You don’t want to hurt Eden. She’s never done anything to you. If anyone deserves to have you hold a gun to their head, it’s me. You know that, so let her go.”
Sam’s expression twists into a distorted grimace, and she shakes her head wildly as I try to calm her down. “No! She’s the problem, not me. I’m not the problem. I’ve done everything you ever wanted me to do. Tell her! I have, and you know it.”
I take a step toward where Eden sits on the bed, but Sam screams, “Stop! You can’t be with her! You’re supposed to be with me.”
Eden looks up at me with eyes filled with dread for the person behind her with the gun. I wish I could tell her everything will be okay, but I have the feeling if I speak to Eden at all, that will only enrage Sam more.
So I keep my focus on the person who could make or break my entire future right now and give the woman I love a tiny smile to let her know I won’t let her get hurt.
I force myself to give Sam a big smile and say, “You don’t want me.
You know that. I’m terrible with remembering what I have to do.
You have to remind me constantly. I drink too much, and how many times have you complained that I smell like cigars and liquor when you’ve seen me at a shoot?
Think about it, Sam. Being with me would be like working twenty-four seven with me, and that sounds awful, now doesn’t it? ”
Tears fill her eyes, and she continues to shake her head as I attempt to be as self-effacing as possible.
“We had a good time on the shoots you took me on. Remember Fiji? I bought that pink bikini especially for that trip. You said it looked great and that I looked as good as the models you were shooting.”
If I tell her the truth—that we’ve never been more than employer and employee—she’s going to lose it and probably shoot Eden. If I lie, though, that might backfire too.
Then an idea pops into my head, and I go with it. If she shoots me, at least I can pray Matthias will come running in and save Eden. That’s all I’m hoping.
I sneak one more glance at Eden and pray to God she understands what I’m trying to do before I start walking around to the other side of the bed. I’m betting on Sam regretting shooting me and not being able to hurt Eden before Matthias can come rushing in.
“Sam, listen to me. You’re a great girl, but I’m too old for you.
I’m nearly thirty. What would a beautiful twenty-year-old want with me when you can have guys your own age?
Think about it. I’m old, a pain in the ass to deal with, and I have terrible habits like drinking and smoking. You don’t want me.”
As I talk, I make it halfway around the bed before she screams, “Stop! You’re just saying that because you don’t want to hurt her feelings!”
Shaking my head, I keep walking toward her.
“I’m not lying. You know me as well as anyone does.
How many times have I been late for a shoot because I was having too good a time the night before?
And that’s saying nothing about how I often don’t work for months at a time. Who wants someone like that?”
Sam winces like what I’m saying bothers her. “You take time off because you have your family to worry about. I know that. I understand the kind of man you are. Anyway, what does it matter since you’re a billionaire?” she says, her voice filled with sadness.
I take another few steps toward her, and finally, she turns the gun on me. Tears roll down Sam’s cheeks, and I sense she’s about to have a breakdown at any moment. Now’s the moment when Eden has to escape.
“Duck, now!” I scream before lunging at Sam.
We fall to the floor as I try to wrestle the gun away from her. I don’t know if Eden got away, but as long as Sam is busy with me, she’s not aiming her gun at my Duck. That’s all that matters.
As small as my assistant is, she’s got a hold of that gun like it’s stitched to her hand, and I can’t wrestle it away. I hear Matthias bark out something, and then a second later, the gun goes off.
“Marius! Oh, God! Marius!”
Between Sam’s crying and screaming my name, I’m not sure what’s happening. My brother grabs her by the back of her shirt and lifts her off me, but when I try to stand up, I see blood.
My blood.