Chapter 45
45
PENNY
My arms and legs flail in the darkness, as I try to wrestle my way from Rex’s hold. But he has me gripped.
I wiggle and kick and punch anything I can connect with.
“Let me go!” I bellow.
But it’s useless.
The ogre presses my back onto the tiled floor, and my hair slides along the surface, soaking up his blood from where his head hit the ground.
Adrenaline rushes through me, sobering me up enough to recall Collins and my self-defense lessons. I think of the blindfold and the whole purpose of those practice activities. I think of the words he shared on how to get out of the hold if someone was lying on top of me.
And then I apply them all.
Rex grunts as I maneuver my way in the darkness and roll out of his grip. Taking his head, I slam it against the tiles, hoping he blacks out long enough for me to get the hell out of here.
As he lies there unconscious, I rip the keycard from his body and dash down the hall in the direction I think makes the most sense.
I’ve spent nearly a year here.
I know this place well.
I just need to trust the instincts that I’m already in tune with and stop overthinking things.
When I get to the end of the hall, in the pitch blackness, I slam my body into the door. Taking the keycard, I swipe it against the box.
Nothing.
Dammit!
Of course it wouldn’t work. The electricity to the generator was probably cut.
I’m an idiot.
A stupid, pathetic girl.
But I can’t stay here waiting for Rex to get up and look for me. And I can’t take the chance that the three Mark Tanners are real and not some figment of my imagination. I refuse to be a sitting duck. So I sneak my back along the perimeter, staying alert with my fighting fists level with my face.
When I find a door handle to a patient room, I open it softly and sneak inside. Then using only the light from the stars and moon seeping in through the windows, I go about barricading the room with furniture and anything that I can get my hands on.
It’s not much, but at least I have the illusion of being safe.
When I push the last piece into place, I see a shadow move from the attached bathroom.
My breath gets stolen from my lungs, with the thief being fear.
But then I don’t see it again.
My mind is just playing tricks on me. It was my own movement reflected back to me in the mirror. Leave it to me to be afraid of my own shadow.
I am safe.
It’s a lie, but I think it anyway.
Moving to the window, where I can at least see better, I hop up on the windowsill and dangle my feet. Then I think of the most calming Grace and Jace slow song and allow that to be the words in my head while I wait and pray that someone rescues me from this hellhole.
With winter’s end,
Spring blooms,
Cascading emotions,
Romance looms
Out of the darkness,
I can see the light,
Good things are coming,
Just hold on tight
My breathing returns to normal, and the tension that was once in my shoulders releases.
Someone will find me here.
I just have to wait.
Then I hear it. Screaming. Bloodcurdling bellows.
Gunshots sound, and I tug my knees up, wrapping my arms around them. Rocking back and forth, I try to block out everything happening around me.
But it’s the sound of footsteps I hear from outside the door that pulls me from my tranquil state, followed by the buzz of an alarm blaring throughout the building.
In the darkness, I hear the screeching of the legs of the furniture scraping against the ground inside the room and see the movement of the door opening.
Fuck.
The scratching sound returns and the once darkness becomes a sea of moving shadows.
Then the lights flick on, and…
I am face-to-face with the devil himself.
“Hello, Penelope,” Mark greets, pulling off his rain hat and tossing it on the bed that is now barricading the door.
My back goes rigid. My throat tightens.
I hop off the ledge and glance around the room for anything that I could possibly use as a weapon.
“What do you want from me?” I cry out.
“My life back,” he says nonchalantly. “And I’ll get it back.”
“How?”
“At the expense of yours.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question,” I snap.
Mark snickers. “Because the entire world now thinks I’m dead in the back of a police transport vehicle. It’s amazing how life can be so ironic. One second, I’m in prison. The next”—he makes his fingers go poof—“I’m free.”
“Who was back there then?”
“Oh, just some poor guy who looked like me. Sadly, he had to die, but at least he did it in a sacrificial way. And just think, if I hadn’t had help arriving here in time, I’d miss all the fun that’s about to go down. And that would have been the most tragic thing of all.”
“They’ll do a DNA test and know that’s not you.”
“How can you do a test when the bodies are burned beyond repair? Oops, I forgot to tell you that little detail.”
I look at his face in confusion, trying to keep my mind from shutting down.
He smiles a wicked grin, while tilting his head to the side. “Remember when I paid you a little visit at the waterfront during the photoshoot?”
I don’t confirm or deny. I just stay still.
“Well, that was courtesy of my lookalike. Granted, I have several. The world just needed more of me, I guess.”
“Lookalike?”
Mark shrugs. “Well, the genes are strong from my dad’s side of the family.”
“You are related?”
He nods. “Yup. It’s just me and my twin brothers left on this planet. But that’s the thing about family—the bond of blood is thicker than water. And when I introduced the plan to them, they nearly salivated and decided to come out of hiding and fly across the world just for this special occasion.”
“You are sick!”
“It’s kind of amazing the resemblance, yeah? Striking?” Mark makes a weird face. “I think I’m much more handsome than they are, but I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts. Oh, and if you’re wondering, we don’t mind sharing our women.”
I want to throw up.
All this time he’s been putting the pieces together for his ultimate plan and working somehow through the prison system to still conduct business.
“And my brother who met you out on the balcony at the charity fundraiser? He nearly fooled you too.” Mark makes a face. “I think you missed me and thus started seeing me in your fantasies.”
“Try nightmare,” I mumble, my voice sounding so meek.
“It’s so fun to play head games with your fragile mind.”
“I hate you,” I snarl.
“Me? Nah. You should thank me for giving your weak brain something to focus on while you stupidly thought you could leave this place and magically be healed. Stupid, pathetic girl.”
“Why Rex?”
Mark frowns. “Aww, you thought he was your friend. Now, that’s cute.”
“But why him?”
“My psychotic nephew isn’t fit for society.” He winks. “And that’s saying something coming from a monster like me. I was simply giving him some purpose in his lonely life.”
“You all are going to die here.” I don’t know why I say it, but as soon as I do, I regret it.
Fire blazes behind Mark’s cold eyes, swollen from the prison fight. He looks like he’s been to war and I guess he has. He leans forward and grips my jaw between his rough fingers. Then he spits on me.
I try to turn away but he’s just too fast, and the whole shock over him doing something so vile has me spiraling down.
I wipe away his nastiness, using my formless cotton outfit. The fabric is still damp from the shower and is sticking to all of my curves.
“You won’t get away with this.”
“I already have.”
“No!” I snap.
“You made it too easy for us. Once my brother saw you leaving the charity event, he followed your taxi and alerted his twin of your predictable intentions. Said twin came to my rescue by intercepting the transport van and voila, I got here just in time. Fun fact, my brothers have been living in the little abandoned apartment above the Rose City Cafe and working there for cash so their transactions didn’t have a paper trail.”
“But how did you get inside here?”
“Paying off the receptionist so Rex could enter with his dad without a fuss was impulsive.” He scratches at the back of his neck. “Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.”
“You are evil!”
“I am an opportunist,” Mark counters. “And just think, I’m the normal one in my family. My brother who went to the waterfront to watch you slutting it up in the water wanted to take you right then. But he’s such a sicko that he makes me look docile.” He leans forward, lowering his voice. “And he’s a hoarder of lifeless women. But, shhh, that’s our little secret.”
“You’ll never get away with this.”
“I already am. Except it’s not officially over until I wipe out every person you love before we say our goodbyes. The good news is your brothers decided to show up for you.”
“No.”
“No? Aren’t you relieved to end this once and for all? May the best team win.”
“Where are your brothers now?” I ask in panic. They were in the hall the last time I saw them before they vanished with Mark.
“Wiping yours off the face of the planet.”
I feel my face contorting with confusion.
He laughs at me. “Apparently that doctor bitch was faking her injuries a little too much and crawled to the end of the hall where the door was locked when I was distracted. Good for her. Bad for you. Now my two psychotic brothers are hunting for yours. Oh, fun fact. Did I tell you they love the sight of blood?”
“Shut up!” I snap, not believing what he’s saying.
“Show some respect,” Mark spits at me, accompanying it with a slap with the back of his hand on my cheek.
I rub at the sting. “I hate you!”
“Quit flirting with me.”
Mark may have tried to knock me off guard with the threat to my brothers, but they are survivors.
And I am too.
So I decide to fight.
Charging forward, I push Mark and send us both plummeting onto the twin bed.
“Now we’re talking,” he says seductively, making me want to claw his eyes out.
I get up and start pushing items from the door in a panic, but Mark loops his arms around my waist and pulls my back to his front.
Rubbing his nose into my hair, he breathes in my scent. “My only regret is not fucking the life out of you when I had the chance. We could have been good together.”
I twist and try to dislodge him from my body.
His mouth licks at my ear. “But we can remedy that now. It’s not fun going through life with unfinished business. Yeah?”
“Get off me!”
“I bet whatever family that survives your loss will have a memorial for you here in the courtyard where they pay remembrance to your name. Won’t that be so sweet? What kind of flowers should they plant?”
I thrash and dig my nails into his skin, finding my efforts futile.
“It’s a lovely place, here. You should thank me for facilitating your reason for being here. It’s fate really. And a wonderful place to die.”
I allow Collins’s voice to replace my own inner monologue of self-doubt. And it’s my mental version of him who walks me through my next steps.
I can do this.
Even in the darkness of my own mind’s breakdown, I can still do this.
I am strong.
I stomp my foot onto Mark’s, and then immediately follow it up with a backward punch to his groin. While he’s distracted, I push all the furniture from the door and race into the hallway, distancing myself from the key player in this horrible game.
But when I get into the fluorescent light, all chaos breaks out.
“Penny, get down!” a familiar voice screams.
Collins.
And I do.
Throwing myself to the floor, I cover my head and ears.
“Mark’s in the room!” I yell, hoping he doesn’t have a chance to escape through a window or something. “Get him! And his twin brothers and Rex! His family!”
Gunshots fire around my head, whizzing past me and making chills run up my spine.
Feet stomp around me, and then suddenly I’m covered by Collins.
He wraps his arms around my body and rolls us toward the other side of the hall, so I’m facing the painted bricks and he is?—
“Ugh,” he chokes out. “Who gave him a fucking gun?”
Turning my head, I see the blood at his neck.
“You’ve been shot,” I cry out. “You’ve been shot!”
His hand goes to the site. “I’ll be okay. It grazed me.”
But I don’t believe it.
Collins’s blood gushes from his wound, and when I look up, I see Mark Tanner and the smoking gun that did it.