Chapter 30 #2
“You have cameras, don’t you?” Brody snarks through the speaker. “Oh, and Allison? Call me when you’re ready to be picked up. I’ll send a car.”
The phone clicks, telling me he’s hung up. Before I can even react, Garett is flying from the car. I swing my door wide, following as closely behind him as I can. His steps are much wider than mine, and I’m still in my mud splattered heels, meaning he quickly places distance between us.
“Luke!” he roars as he tears through the house and up the stairs.
“Fuck this,” I grumble as I stop to finally kick off my stupid heels. I take off running after him once I’m free of the oppressive footwear contraptions.
“What the hell is going on?” Luke mumbles as he comes down the hallway, pulling a shirt on over his bare chest.
I notice a slight slit of bare skin beneath.
He’s muscular too, just leaner than Garett.
His dark brown hair is messed up and his normally very stoic demeanor seems to have melted away slightly.
He looks almost casual. Behind him, the two women slip from the open bedroom door.
Both of them look slightly dazed but in a satisfied way that has my eyebrows hiking up my forehead.
Guess they reconnected.
“Brody called,” I tell Luke as we both head up the stairs, chasing Garett. The wooden treads are cool and slick beneath my bare feet. “He said something about consequences and Will noticing you took something.”
“Shit,” Luke grumbles before taking off, scaling the steps two at a time and running down the second story hall.
I follow after him, aware of Celeste and Liv behind me. I stop in the doorway of the control room, watching as the screens all show the same blurred static.
“What are you doing?” I ask as I hesitantly take a step inside, letting the two women behind me take my spot in the doorway. I glance behind me, noticing the way their fingers are intertwined as they hold hands, finding strength in each other.
“Rewinding,” Garett responds in a clipped tone. He’s clearly piecing something together that I haven’t caught on to.
“The room in the casino?” Luke asks with a hesitant look behind him. He and Celeste exchange a silent agreement, both nodding before looking toward their partner. Clearly, they’re worried how Liv will react to seeing some of this.
The screens stop as Garett pushes buttons.
Then it begins to play. The entire wall of displays is showing the same scene—an empty room with an unmade bed.
It’s the same room Liv was in. This must have been from after they went in and grabbed her to bring her back here.
I chance a glance behind me and watch her shutter.
Celeste wraps her girlfriend tightly in her arms, kissing her lightly on the temple and whispering something in her ear.
Suddenly, two people appear on the screen. Erika is being pushed backward toward the bed by a towering Will. There’s no audio but he looks angry. His body language suggests he’s yelling. Erika looks terrified.
Luke moves swiftly across the room, burying his pink-haired girlfriend in his chest. He spins her so her back faces the screen and her forehead is pressed against him.
His arms wrap around her protectively. Next to him, Celeste keeps herself wrapped around Liv as well—both of them protecting the girl they love.
My chest warms slightly as I watch them.
“Keep your eyes closed, Flower. You don’t need to see this,” Luke tells her as he places a chaste kiss on the top of her head.
My eyes flit back to the screen, watching as Will’s hand flies out. I knew he was a bad man, an evil man; and yet, watching him strike out sends terrible shockwaves through me.
My eyes can’t look away as I watch in horror as he hits her again, and again, and again.
Erika throws her arms up in a desperate attempt to save herself, but it’s no use.
His arm cocks back then his fist drives forward, cracking against her face over and over.
Blood begins to splatter; her skin splitting as he continues his assault.
“Garett,” I whimper as red begins to pool around her, staining the sheets beneath her.
He spins, his eyes wild and filled with swirling fury. He catches sight of me, the tears threatening to spill and he instantly softens.
“Shit, Princess,” he whispers before closing the space between us and pulling me into his arms. “They will never get anywhere near you again. I promise you. I will cut off each of their fingers and shove them down their esophaguses until they choke on them if they ever so much as think of touching you ever again.”
I watch over Garett’s shoulder as Will finishes his assault.
He looks down at Erika’s lifeless body. And then comes the knife.
There’s so much blood. Too much blood. It spills like a sea of scarlet onto the sheets, the walls, and every surface around from the large wound in her neck. Eventually, the blood slows.
She’s dead.
I just watched a woman being murdered. Murdered in cold blood. Murdered because of us—because we took Liv back. That’s what Brody meant by consequences. He wants me to think that this is my fault. But it’s not my hands stained with her blood.
I watch as Will hikes her body over his shoulder, carrying her from the scene. My mind begins reeling, a plan formulating. It’s a crazy plan, one that would truly take a miracle to pull off, but if we could…
“Garett…” I pull back slightly to look up at him. He stares back, his face so full of worry that it warms my heart. “Can you track his car or phone or whatever? Find where Will went after this?”
“I should be able to,” he says as he gives me a quizzical look. “Why?”
“I think I have a plan,” I tell him. “That should solve all of our problems.”