Chapter 16 - Addison
“Revenge is best served cold.” – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.
“Look behind you; are they following us?”
Instead of heeding his instructions, I turned my gaze on him. Beads of sweat were running down his face to his neck, his knuckles were white on the steering wheel, and he was glancing hastily in the rear-view mirror.
I’d never seen a man so scared.
“No, we’re not being followed. You can calm down now.” My voice was quiet, but he heard me clearly, and a broad grin appeared.
He smacked the steering wheel with a loud cheer. “That’s what I’m talking about! No one can fucking outsmart Logan Mercer. We did it, My Love. We escaped.”
His laughter was so deep that I thought it reverberated from his soul. It bounced against the car doors and made me slide uncomfortably in my seat. And the air conditioning wasn’t working, which made the heavy tension in the air even worse.
I eyed the maroon scarf around his neck and awful green sweatshirt he had stuffed with more sweatshirts underneath. I couldn’t say anything about it because I had dressed the same way. The disguise was the only way to slip out of the building two blocks away unnoticed and act like crazy people with terrible fashion style.
I tugged the zipper on my sweatshirt, but it didn’t budge.
He turned and scrutinized me for a split second before looking back at the road. “I promise you, we’ll get through this soon. I have a plan, it’s a bit risky, but it’ll work. We’ll have to take a few sneaky routes out of town to avoid Mark’s prying eyes. He has all the main routes heavily guarded.”
The heat in the car was suffocating as if I had put my face in a plastic bag. Frustration bubbled inside me like a volcano threatening to erupt. I felt like a hot air balloon with lots of warm air. I tugged at the zipper again.
Didn’t budge.
I snorted and...
“He’s that powerful, huh?” slipped from my lips.
Logan gave me a questioning look as he sped down the road. His lips twisted into a scowl and a thick line formed on his forehead. “You’re impressed with his influence and power, aren’t you?”
Another tug on the zipper and it moved. Then it got stuck. I let out a muffled growl. That was the last straw. The volcano erupted and hot, boiling lava spread with no hesitation.
“What I care about right now is for all of this to end, Logan.” I glared. “I am so sick and tired of running like some criminal on the loose. I did nothing wrong and, so far, you haven’t told me whether you are guilty of something or not. How long are we going to keep doing this? How long are we going to keep running?”
His jaw clenched shut and his gaze was now fixed on the road ahead. The sun”s rays made the color in his eyes seem brighter, but I recognized the conflict brewing in them.
“Be patient with me, Addi. I swear, I’m not happy. I don’t like seeing us like this, unsettled and agitated. I miss the times when everything was normal; when you’d hug me and kiss me like you meant it.”
With an eyeroll, I glimpsed at the blurry buildings outside the window, avoiding his gaze.
“That’s why I want us to get out of here and go back to Chicago. I’m sure that if you talk to your family about the situation, they”ll be able to give us the protection we need. As much as I would like to, I don’t have what it takes to provide you with that solid security, but I will do my best to protect you with my life.”
He put a hand on my thigh, squeezed it a little and smiled sincerely. It played with the strings of my heart and a lump formed in my throat. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him for long. It hurt. And every minute I felt more and more like I was going to burst.
Exhaustion weighed on me like a wet blanket. I needed to vent, to get rid of my pent-up anger at the ugly way things had turned out for us. He wasn’t the only one who wanted things to go back to the way they used to be between us. I did too. Or so I thought.
I had spent nights in that mansion, crying my eyes out, hoping that I would wake up and realize that I was trapped in a terrible nightmare. But no. Every time I opened my eyes, the reality in front of me became worse and more complex than the last time.
Sweat trickled down the back of my neck and with uncontrollable anger in my veins I tore the light blue scarf from my neck and puffed. Breathe in, Addison. Burning tears formed in my eyes and I gasped for air, taking small breaths over and over again.
“If we are doing this, Logan, we have to get it right, okay?” I inhaled. “I ... I don’t want to barge in on them with the news that I’ve got bad people on my tail. You know my dad isn’t doing well. Even the slightest trigger won’t be good for him. I’m thinking, it will be wise to give Robert a heads up, to prepare for us.” Exhale. “Please, I need to speak with him. I won’t tell him everything. But maybe he can help us with another car somewhere. One with a functioning cooling system.”
A smile broke out on his face when he handed me his phone. “I’m down for whatever you think is best, my beautiful angel.”
After I concluded the last text message, I returned his phone.
The air was tense, and we fell into an uncomfortable bubble of silence as we drove for another hour. I didn’t want to look at him, so I concentrated on unzipping my sweatshirt.
Up.
It moved.
Down.
It didn’t budge.
With more force and boosted energy, I tried again.
Up.
It moved.
Down.
The zipper went through and before I could let out a cry of triumph, the moment was stolen by the sudden appearance of black cars coming up from all sides of the road and blocking us. Logan slammed on the brakes; confusion showing on his face.
“What the fuck?” He peered closer, seemingly in doubt. “This can’t be happening. How is it even possible? They didn’t have a trace on us. They couldn’t find us ...”
I was crying now. My lips quivered, my fingers fumbled and everything else betrayed me as soon as his gaze touched mine. His eyes softened at the edges as he stared. Disbelief was intense. He shook his head and reached out for me, but I pulled my hand away and undid my seatbelt.
“Addsion...” His voice cracked. “My Love, why? Why would you do this to me? To us?”
“To you, Logan.”
I wiped the back of my eyes and opened the door as he watched silently.
From the windshield I saw the men in black getting out of the cars with their guns raised and aiming at us. They shouted angrily in Russian while he stood there with one hand in his pocket and the other holding a silver gun over his thigh.
I pushed my legs out and stood on the asphalt; the weight of my actions pressed down on me.
Detangle.
No more friendship.
Disassociate.
We no longer had an identity together.
Denounce.
I abandoned him and left him in the hands of his enemies without remorse. The memory of the joy on his face and the sound of his voice when he whispered to me how much he loved me brought more tears to my eyes. Those were happy times, some of the best moments of my life. But the past remained in the past.
A warm, dusty breeze blew, time slowed down and my heartbeat sounded in my ears as I looked him in the eye.
“And just so you know, I am not sorry.”
****
Flashback – Phone call with Mr. Robert
“Skeletons should remain in the sand.” – Anonymous.
“I’m all ears.”
Mr. Robert sighed, and the heaviness in his voice alarmed me. Something was wrong and my mind went into overdrive, thinking that the news had something to do with my father’s health. Panic rose in me, and I fumbled with a button on my blouse; the tension dug deeper into me.
“Are you sure he’s getting better? You can tell me the truth. I can handle it. But don’t lie to me; I need to know what’s going on with dad.”
Another sigh sounded and the sound of shuffling pants and feet followed it. “Addison, you must understand that I cannot say anything until I am sure no one is with you. Confirm when you”re out of earshot.”
I peeked over my shoulder again and strangely enough, Logan was sleeping on the bed, sitting up. He looked so tired and peaceful, and I wanted to make sure not to wake him. I tiptoed to the door, carefully took the key, and went into the creepy hallway, in the basement of the building.
“You can talk.” I was sure the ripples in my voice conveyed how nervous I was.
“Look,” his tone dropped. “What I’m about to tell you now, it’s important you think carefully and consider your next step wisely. And try to listen with your head and not your heart. Don’t panic.”
I was already in a panic. But I nodded, even though I knew he couldn’t see me.
“Talk to me. I’m trying to keep a cool head.”
“It’s about your father’s health. I know I didn’t say anything before, but I didn’t want to worry you. It was strange that he suddenly became ill. You know your father, Addi; he had the strength of an ox. I did some private investigations and found out that he was given a drug that messed up his mind. His medication was changed.”
“What?”
Shock seized me, held me by the throat, and squeezed until I had no oxygen left. My eyes stung and I clutched my chest, feeling strength slip from me. “Messed with his mind, mix-up medications? What are you talking about? Who would do that to him and why?”
“You know, your father does have enemies. He deals with dangerous men, you know that; and that’s one reason that propelled me to dig deeper. My first thought was that a politician had a hand in it. But I was wrong.”
I clamped my hand over my mouth. “So, you know who did this? You know who wants my father dead?”
There was an eerie silence on the phone before he took a deep breath and continued. “I think so. Mr. Logan Mercer has a connection to this situation. There is a high probability that he was directly involved in the deterioration of your father’s condition.”
“No.” I shook my head and chortled. It was impossible. It had to be another Logan Mercer. Not my Logan. “Tell me you’re bluffing, Mr. Robert. This is a joke, right? A very mean joke. I mean it must be because my father was already sick before Logan met me. He couldn’t have been connected.”
“That was the same thought I had. It didn’t make any sense, so I pressed further and ran a background check on him. Turns out, he was married ...”
The world around me came crashing down and my heart sank with it. Mark’s voice came back louder than ever.
Your fiancé? He’s no fucking saint. I bet he didn’t tell you about his previous marriage.
It couldn’t have been a coincidence that Mr. Robert and Mark—who don’t even know each other—said the same thing about the same person.
Robert wasn”t done talking yet.
“Her name was Irina. Irina Varkov. Beautiful, and young. A respected woman in society, or so it seemed to the naked eye. Behind the scenes, she has connections to the notorious Bratva, the Russian mafia, a hard-core organized crime gang involved in so many atrocities. Anyway, he married her, claimed he loved her and divorced her eleven months later. In the process, he took more than half of her fortune. If you ask me, I’d say that was a stupid move. If you mess with a mafia princess, you mess with the whole gang.”
“I know you love my father as much as I love him, but don’t play with me like this, I beg you. What you”re saying can’t be true.”
“Listen with your head, Addi, not with your heart. The point is that Irina Varkov wasn”t the only one. He has a long history of extortion, especially of wealthy women. Logan Mercer is a con artist. You were even lucky he used his real name with you. To some, he was Martin, Jace or Conrad. As for your father, he knew him before he met you.”
My throat burned even hotter as I gripped the wall for support. “But that’s impossible. We met—”
“On the way out of the elevator in one of your father’s hotels. It wasn’t a coincidence, Addi. He knew who you were; he knew who your father was and, I don’t know how, but he managed to get close enough to tamper with his medications. He planned everything; charm Archie Mason’s daughter and get closer to her. With your father at the brink of death, who’s going to get the inheritance? You are.”
“I am,” we whispered at the same time, as the dots connected.
I remembered that day at the hotel. After he bumped into me, it wasn’t an ordinary apology that followed. He flashed his charming smile and offered to buy me coffee. I refused but he insisted. And so it began; from one coffee date to the next. Then, a beautiful engagement ring and the big question, five months later.
Tears welled up in my eyes as I tried to process the reality of the situation. Thoughts of all the memories we had shared flooded my mind. The laughter on our road trips, the late-night conversations and the devotion and support he had given me all this time.
And now, he was linked to my father’s illness? He’d conned me. Used me?
“Do you understand the gravity of the situation now, Addi? You are nothing more than another victim on his list. After your wedding, he would have divorced you soon enough to get his hands on your fortune.”
My hands trembled on the phone, and I struggled to find my voice. “I’ll call you back.”
I hung up, slid to the floor, and hugged my knees to my chest as tears blinded me. I wanted to deny it, I wanted to scream–not true. The pieces of the puzzle that were being put together made sense. And the information came from a credible source. Mr. Robert worked with my father for the longest time. He was in charge of operations, and my father trusted him.
He wouldn’t lie about something as grave as this. What did he have to gain by defaming Logan? Absolutely nothing.
I wiped my nose.
I understood Mark’s thirst for revenge. I knew why he was out to get him, to make him pay with blood. Logan had betrayed one of his own, his family, and they were unforgiving. A sob escaped me as I remembered Maria’s concern.
Five months doesn’t sound like such a long time to me, to get to know someone who bumped into you on your way out of an elevator.
I cried more. I wish I had listened. I should have investigated him. All of this was my fault. How could I have been so stupid? So blind?
My heart not only cracked, but it also shattered into a million pieces.
You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my entire life.
Liar!
He’d been married. Married! He had an extensive list of women before me. How many of them had he said those exact words to?
Nothing in this world is too much or too good or too beautiful for you. You deserve so much more, Addison Mae.
He played with my heart, took my affection for granted, and made a mockery of me.
My beautiful angel.
Liar! Liar! Liar!
The pain in my heart soon turned into something much more dangerous, more poisonous. It burned inside me like a red-hot furnace, and my pain turned into rage.
If I had loved Logan Mercer a hundred times before, I hated him now. I hated him a thousand times more.
Sniffling, I rose to my feet. What was the saying about revenge?
It was best served cold.