Chapter 27 Once You Die #5
“Callum is the one who found her. He’s on the plane with them.”
My mouth fell open, but I still nodded. The information took me a while to process, though I pretended otherwise.
I pushed back strands of my hair from my face.
My obsession to find the top men running this empire had taken quite a turn in the last few months, and I’d abandoned my usual self-care, including cutting my hair on a regular basis and shaving my beard.
Now my hair would constantly slip into my eyes and my beard itched, but by the time I’d get to my quarters, I’d be too tired and forget to shave yet another day.
“Fuck. I knew it had to be him. He’s been so fucking obsessed with finding her.
I hoped he was too crazy to do it successfully. ”
“Mm-hmm.” He nodded. “I know.” It helped that he wasn’t reacting like me, it helped keep me from freaking out.
“Was she in that stupid school?”
“No, she was at her parents.”
“What?” I realized too late how loudly I spat the question. “Are they...”
“I honestly don’t know.” He shrugged.
“Jesus fucking Christ!” I cussed while fidgeting. “I knew this would happen. I warned her. I didn’t think—I just hoped I was wrong.”
“I know.”
“I can’t even fucking think!” I paced the grass, digging my thumbs into my temples. “I’ve been planning for this ever since… and now I don’t know what the fuck to do.”
He sighed. “Maybe, kill her before he really hurts her? Or—”
The laughter erupted from me, surprising him.
“You don’t understand.” I shook my head.
“She has nine lives. I already tried to kill her once to save her, and honestly, I wasn’t even alive until I discovered I’d failed.
” Again, I shook my head. “I can’t live if she’s dead. I—” I swallowed deep. “Just. Can’t.”
“Well, then there’s only one other option.” It was the first time since he’d told me the news that I lifted my gaze from the water and grass to meet his.
“I’ll have to get rid of him. I’ve definitely gathered enough,” I said it as soon as I understood why he was looking at me so intensely. Drugs. I’d gathered enough drugs to kill him.
“You know I’ll always help you, right?” he asked.
When I sighed again, my shoulders sagged. “Did you find him?” I was referring to the silver fox, the last overlord I needed to gather real hardcore evidence on, to shatter this trafficking ring forever.
He shook his head. “No. The bank account number keeps disappearing and changing with every deposit.”
“Is the location still in New York State?”
“Japan.”
“Same bank?” I asked.
“It changed three days ago.”
“Have you checked any employee changes in the bank?”
He nodded. “I’ve started cross posting the accounts.”
I grimaced. “That’s too many. Besides, it’s going to crash the system.”
He shrugged. “I can at least try.”
The cargo arrived late at night, and they were rolled into the building’s basement as always. What I didn’t foresee was Master arriving the very next morning. There was only one person who dared knock on my door and immediately barged in.
Fuck.
The very next second, I saw his face. “Gorgeous,” he said, with a smile, leaving the door as wide open as his arms while approaching me.
I stood, biting the inside of my cheek, and met him halfway.
It was so ironic to me that I was taller than him, yet he still terrorized me.
He planted a kiss on my lips, and I immediately pulled back.
“I’m so surprised. Didn’t you have a meeting in Japan?” After all these years, I’d gotten so good at faking a high-pitch voice full of excitement at his arrival by imagining stabbing him once for every fucking day I’d been in this hellhole.
“Canceled. The silver fox is getting more and more paranoid, says someone keeps tracking his bank accounts,” he explained. He never called him by his name in front of me, not even after all those years.
I lifted my eyebrows and bugged out my eyes. “Oh? Uh… You want me to look into it?”
“No. Thank you, darling. At this point I suspect he’s going crazy with paranoia.
” As he spoke, he pushed his hands into the back pocket of my jeans and yanked me to him so forcefully our chests crashed.
“You just relax…” He pulled his bottom lip into his mouth while still carrying a grin and leering into my eyes. “With me. God, I’ve missed you.”
I hesitated, then said, “I’ve missed you too.
” His mouth crashed onto mine even before I could think.
I broke it off when bile rose in my gut.
The first day of his visits was always the most challenging.
I had to start getting used to him all over again.
He’d never let me know if he enjoyed it.
Instead, he took a step away and stretched.
“These flights are really starting to kill me.” He yawned. “How’s Callum doing?”
“I wouldn’t know.” I shrugged.
“What? Last time we talked he said he’d come back here the next day.”
“Well, he never came.”
He sucked his teeth. I wasn’t sure if it was because of my answer or the phone ringing.
“Sir, I’m so sorry to disturb you, but there’s a cleanup in seven-oh-three,” Manolo said. Why was he whispering? He was right outside my door, waiting for me like always, so it might have been so Master couldn’t hear him.
“Huh? Who?”
“Sir, Callum is deceased.”
I raised my eyes to Master but masked my shock and distress by grinning and jutting my chin at him.
“How?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
They’d brought her into my building, of course there was a dead body less than twenty-four hours after arrival.
It was so her style. I shook my head and rolled my eyes.
A headache thundered in my mind. How the fuck was I going to get her out now when everyone knew she killed Master’s son? Jesus fucking Christ!
“Not sure, but there was a new girl with him in Dr. Laurent’s office. Apparently, she was having her evaluation session?”
“I’m coming.” I sighed, hung up, and hurried out of my seat past him. “I’m sorry. I gotta go pick up a big mess.”
“Oh, that’s alright.” He yawned and waved his hand in the air. “I need a long nap.”
I kissed his cheek before he could even ask for more, and rushed out of the office.
Eight hours later
I walked into her cell. She was curled up on the corner of the bed, with her puppy eyes looking at me. She was the same height and had the same color of hair. Her lip trembled, and even in the low lighting, I could see the goosebumps on her body.
“Me vas a matar?” she asked, with a thick British accent.
“Hablas inglés?”
She nodded. I sighed. For a second, I wondered if I should tell her why I was killing her. “Come sit next to me.” I patted on the mattress. “I want you to know that I didn’t want to do this. You were supposed to keep living, to be sold to another man.”
“So, why can that not happen?”
“Because I either kill you or I kill another girl who looks like you.”
For a long time, all I heard was the dripping of water in the bathroom.
“Can you make it not hurt?”
I nodded. “I will make it feel really good for you. You’ll simply go to sleep.” The first tear dropped from my eye straight to my jeans. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this.
“I don’t want to die,” she sobbed. “Please...”
“I know you’re scared but there will be no pain.”
“I have a family, I have a little brother. Please. Find another way.” She shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears and her face contorted by the agony.
“Shhh… Come here.” I opened my arms to her, but she crawled back to a corner of the bed, still begging me not to do it.
My heart was breaking for her, and something about the way she spoke, her accent, was killing me.
She was so petite that she could easily be mistaken for a younger girl.
I decided I just had to do it, so I took out the syringe and closed the distance between us on my knees.
“I’ll do anything you want. Please! Please! Don’t do it! Please don’t do it! Ahhhhhh! No! No!” She was getting increasingly hysterical, looking at the door as if someone would come to rescue her.
I pinned her arm against the wall behind her and pushed all the liquid in as fast as possible while she screeched and tried to pull herself away. “Please don’t! Please! Somebody help me! Somebody help me—”
I caught her body as it relaxed, and her eyes became heavy. Gathering her in my arms, I rocked and cooed her.
She looked up at me, tears streaming down her temples.
I never broke our gaze. “Shhhh ... It’s going to be okay.
Someone told me once that when you die, you go where there are unicorns and fairies, and fireflies that you ride in the night.
It’s never too hot or cold, even when there’s snow, and there are flowers that glow.
That’s why the night is never scary there.
It’s going to be so beautiful that you won’t believe your eyes and only the nice people go there.
” I rocked her, and her eyes fluttered closed.
“So, you will never have to see me again.” My tears were continuous; out of all the things I’d ever done, I wouldn’t forgive myself for this one.
“Lots of cookies, cakes, and any candy you want. And as soon as you get there, they give you a dragon so that you always feel safe. And you take baths inside clouds near the sun so that the water is always warm enough. I promise it’s going to be okay.
” I had to snivel. By the time I finished pronouncing dragon, I was sobbing hard and couldn’t speak.
I’d regretted what I’d done immediately.
“I’ll find a way to make it up to you. I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry,” I repeated when I saw her eyes roll back. “I’ll tell your family soon so that they don’t look for you for too long.” I wasn’t aware how long I held her before I laid her on the bed.
“I’m so sorry, Elizabeth,” I said right before I squeezed the trigger and the gun went off.
Boom!
Minutes later, I rushed into Ben’s office, shut the door behind me, and fell into the chair across from him, still out of breath.
I wasn’t looking at him. In fact, I was leaning forward and holding my head.
I’d managed to walk down the stairs to his office without shedding tears, but once I sat there, I was drowning in them.
Despite how much I’d abhorred Mael and Callum. .. Callum had never had a chance.
I remembered the first time I met him. I’d been thirteen and sent to feed him in his cage.
He tried to convince me to let him out by telling me everything his father had done to him.
I might not have let him out, but at least I talked to him.
I risked getting punished for him. We were never friends, but there was a silent understanding between us.
He’d drugged at five so he’d have a psychotic break and he could lock him up in the fake psych ward institute under the supervision of Dr. Laurent. But it was all really so he could have his way with his own son.
Callum was never allowed outside the compound until his twin brother died.
And that’s exactly what drove him to true insanity.
One would think he’d thank us for killing Mael, but the opposite took place.
As soon as he was out, he got the same obsession Mael and I got.
The same obsession that had just driven me to kill an innocent lady.
Magdalena Michaelson. She was like a fucking disease, killing us one by one.
I could’ve called Callum a monster, but I was much worse than him.
I had thought saving her would keep me safe from the pain, but I was a mess. I couldn’t take one more fucking day in the world I had been living in.
“Uh… Should I even ask?”
“I’m so fucking sick of this. So fucking sick of my entire fucking life.”
“Okay. I’m sorry, but are you… What—Is all the cargo intact?”
“No.”
“What did—”
“Ben… Callum is dead.” I paused, staring at the tiles, watching my tears drop to the floor. “I have to go let him know that his only son is dead and that the girl who killed him has also been eliminated.”
“You—”
“I talked to the doctors and guards.” I sighed.
“It’s a fucking disaster. I’ve never seen so much fucking blood in my life.
T-that... poor—girl.” I grabbed his little garbage pail and vomited into it, wiped my mouth with my sleeve, then placed the can outside the door.
When I returned to his office, he handed me a small bottle of water as I sat back down.
“Sir…”
I was used to everyone else in the training center referring to me by my title but not Ben.
With swollen, tearful red eyes, I met his gaze for the first time. “Are you sure you… Are you sure you want to do this… Give up all this leverage for her? I mean, are you sure it’s… worth it?” He almost flinched on the last two words.
“It’s done. I honestly don’t know, but it’s done. The cleaning crew has been sent to the office. You know what to do, right?” He knew I needed him to get rid of any recorded evidence that it was her who killed Callum, of me killing the real Elizabeth, and to switch their information on the files.
“Of course.”
I waited before placing the files on his desk—Magdalena’s and Elizabeth’s. He opened them and met my gaze.
“D-do you want to… watch it first?” he asked, raising his eyebrows and letting them fall a few times, with a grin on his face.
I burst out laughing. I’d needed the joke. “Do you realize you’re a closeted sick puppy?”
“That’s what Macy said last night.”
I laughed harder. God, I’d needed it, because in a few minutes, I would have to go back upstairs to deal with the drama queen of all drama queens.
He didn’t love them. That was the fucking problem with both Mael and Callum—they always knew their father would only hate them, but for show’s sake, he’d be “grieving” for the next three months.
First, Ben served us half a glass of whiskey, neat.