Chapter 32
Lily
M y lungs burst open in tandem with the doors of the hospital as I stepped outside of the medical air. The machines, the chill of the room, the examination of my stitches, the brain scan...all of it had me trembling like a leaf. Even though I was surrounded by my men, I could see the crazed kidnapper flicking his knife across the room. I'd glance toward the door and my head would cramp, along with my chest. My throat was parched the entire time I was inside there. All I wanted to do was come out.
Now that I was, I looked across the parking lot and hurried alongside my men toward the car. Dashing glances from left to right and over my shoulders, I wondered if I'd see the predators' eyes locked on my movements or their hyena snarls.
Shuddering, I ducked into the car, shutting my eyes and wrapping my arms around myself.
My nails dug into my arms as I suffocated inside my head. "Can one of you call Ann-Marie?"
My men hadn't said a word to me all morning. It might have had something to do with me snapping at them every few seconds because my lung felt like there was a python wrapping its slithery self around me until I became snake food and I didn't know how to communicate that to them.
"Yeah, sure." Ryan nodded.
The bags under his eyes had darkened from his lack of sleep. Neither of the men had slept. I knew because I hadn't slept either. I couldn't close my eyes and refused anything that would knock me out. But he'd had it even worse than the rest of us, nursing a hangover.
He'd reeked of alcohol last night. I didn't have any clue how he'd managed to last without rest. He'd left to go to the bathroom a few times, returning more spent each time. I didn't smell the sickness on his breath though. He must have taken advantage of some mouthwash.
He handed the phone to me and I shook my head. "Can you tell her that I'm ready?"
"Ready for what?" he asked.
"Ready for her to come with me to the Women's Center for that therapy session." I hissed.
He didn't react to my irritability. The doctor said it was a side effect of my injury. I hated that, so I rested my hand on his thigh in apology. Eric's red eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. Ethan spun around, flipping his glasses off the top of his head to study me closer and Matt looked at me with wide-eyed appreciation.
"What, now?" Ryan asked.
"Yes." I nodded. "Before I change my mind." He placed his hand over mine.
The other guys didn't move as if they were afraid any sudden movements might set me off running again.
I didn't like this state of being so terrified, I was short of breath just because the outside was looking at me too intensely. The doctor also said that therapy should help with the whole short temperedness and I'd like to stop snapping at my men. If they started walking on eggshells around me, I'd want to curl up in a ball and die. So, I had to be brave. Bravery was a lot easier knowing I had a literal support group accompanying me.
Ryan
Okay, well, that was unexpected, but welcome. I was happy that Lily was going to see that therapist, finally. However, me and the guys kind of made plans. Chalk it up to a head pounding hangover, no sleep, no food in my stomach after expelling all the contents inside it, but I wasn't regretting that message I sent to Tyler last night, and again this morning. I was a little delirious, but that was okay. Or it wasn't. It didn't matter because my brain didn't have the capacity at the moment to think beyond what I was feeling and what I was feeling hadn't changed.
After the doctors gave us the rundown of the side effects of a fractured skull, in both places, my anger only amplified. That red ball of light and fury only expanded. We'd decided that after dropping Lily off, two of us would meet with Tyler, while the other two stayed with Lily. I was one of the two who would meet with Tyler.
There was no way I was missing out now. I know, I'd changed my tune. You'd be surprised what seeing the love of your life lying unconscious will do to you. After worrying about whether they're about to lose their life or not, while being under the influence, and while being offered the chance to enact revenge on the people who caused it... I wasn't saying it was justified. I was just saying, this was where I was at.
Except, Lily was going to need us there with her for support.
She'll have Ann-Marie. Okay, but I didn't know how to tell her that we were walking away from her when she needed us the most.
Oh, get your head out of your ass. You sound cocky as hell. Do you want to go or not?
Instead of the devil and the angel, it was like having two devils on my shoulders. One was telling me to go with Tyler and the other was simply telling me to wait. They were both in agreement with going with Tyler. If there was an angel there, I couldn't hear or see it.
Taking the plunge and bracing myself for attack, I smoothed my hand over hers when we'd pulled up to the women's shelter where Ann-Marie and Tyler were waiting. She took a deep breath at the sight of them and reached for the door handle.
I halted her.
"I know this is terrible timing..." I started.
She directed an impatient glare at me. I could tell she was already trying not to talk herself out of meeting with the therapist, and me stalling her was helping to drive her anxiety even more to the surface. I hurried my words with that in mind.
"It's just the guys and I had something important to do today. Something we can't miss," I worked up the nerve to say.
She balked at me, turning her attention to the other guys. Eric and Matt glared at me with the unspoken, ' don't bring us into this' or rather, 'don't throw us under the bus along with you.' She swallowed and her body went still for a moment as hurt flashed like lightning through her eyes. Confusion drew lines between her brows as she dropped her head, trying to process what she'd just heard. When she caught her breath, she dipped out of the car without a word, looking over her shoulder in disbelief as she made her way over to Ann-Marie who was waiting.
My heart cried out at my stupid words. Still I remained seated in the car, reminding myself that what I was about to do was for her.
"What the fuck, man?" Ethan hissed, his eyes on Lily being wrapped into a tight hug by Ann-Marie who pulled back to run her fingers over Lily's cheeks before glaring at our car.
Her own mouth fell open as she responded to something Tyler said and watched him leave them there. She hooked her arm through Lily's elbow, posturing her shoulders as they walked inside together.
"It was just you and Eric who had plans to go with Tyler. Now she hates all of us," Ethan grumbled.
"Okay? I didn't hear you object. Why didn't you follow her inside?" I asked him and Matt.
Ethan sighed and narrowed his eyes. Matt looked out the window.
"Yeah. That's what I thought," I said, playing devil's advocate.
"So, what now? Are we supposed to follow Tyler?" Eric asked, looking back to see if he could spot where he went.
We were all startled when he moved in front of the car.
A text message followed. ' Ditch your car here. We're taking mine.'
I gulped. I didn't know about the other guys, but I guessed that he drove a nondescript car so that what we were about to do or witness wouldn't trace back to us, and that fact chilled me. The inside of that Women's Shelter was looking a lot more appealing by the second. Still, once we parked, I followed my legs over to his odd-looking jalopy where he was waiting for us.
Matt
The small unremarkable car that we were all piled into bobbed along the bumpy terrain.
"Really? This is the car you chose?" I asked, as the engine puffed out exhaust co-mingling with the putrid scent of the deep forest. I shuddered at the prospect that the smell of death had little to do with dead animals.
It wasn't the forest that Lily was dragged through by her kidnapper. But it was close enough of a resemblance for my fear to be topped off by fury. Still, I couldn't help but try to at least say something to lighten this heavy silence.
"The thing doesn't even have air conditioning," I said, speaking like a true member of the one percent.
I don't think I've ever driven in something this disgusting, and I'm not even a picky guy. Seriously. If you look at me, you wouldn't guess that I have money. It's either sweatpants or basketball shorts for me, and a T-shirt. Sneakers or slippers.
And when I went on vacation, I didn't always fly my vehicles over. Sometimes I rented cars that were far from being luxurious. But they always had the basic functions of a car, a good engine that didn't sputter and blow smoke from its lungs like a granny smoker, and air conditioning.
Sticking my nose out the window wasn't pleasant, and I was developing a headache on top of this nausea. The whole forest didn't stink of decay, but when it hit, it fucking hit. One moment, you were breathing fresh air and the next, you regretted even having a nose.
"Your wife didn't think, 'where the hell is he going with that?'" I curled my lip.
"Of course I didn't drive her around in this. I had it parked at the shelter." He shrugged as he went over another bump that rattled my brain around, but apparently didn't faze him one bit.
"And you just happened to know that we'd be coming here today?" I grimaced.
"Call it a sixth sense. Serves me well in this business." He grinned.
He's a fucking maniac. What are we doing here again?
"There's no way." Ethan continued. I guessed that was the thing that interested him the most about this situation. He was just so intrigued over Tyler's sixth sense, he had to know more.
Tyler was happy to share. "The other night, the women were talking about therapy. I knew that despite the moral ground you were standing on, you guys were going to come. So I bought this piece of scrap metal for a bit of change and parked it here, just in case."
It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since our discussion, and he knew that Lily was going to speak to a therapist today and that we were all going to meet here at the women's center. What didn't this man know? He freaked me out.
Not only was he Lily's best friend's husband, but I doubted that after this we were just going to be able to walk away and not see him again. We'd be seeing a lot of him after, and I didn't like that idea. But there was no turning back now.
I could hop out of this car, sure.
However, I was met with images of him hunting me through this forest and putting a bullet in my head. That thought sobered me though, not because I feared dying, which I did. But because for that split second as the image flashed in my brain, I was in Lily's shoes. Instead of being on the other side, watching and holding my gutted heart in my hand, dying at the thought of her dying, I experienced the terror of running through an unknown forest, with nowhere to hide with a man intent on killing me, on my heel. That fear was what my Lily felt.
And as we approached the container in the woods, that bleeding heart beat with the need to let these guys experience that same fear.
Eric
It was so fucking satisfying when we stepped inside the rusted container to find rat face and his stupid partner tied up on chairs in the dark, windowless 'room'.
"Kind of a full circle moment here, isn't it?" Matt gasped a laugh as if the realization just hit him.
Tyler, pleased with himself, nodded. "Thought the shipping container was a nice touch." He grinned. "Figured you guys would like the whole vibe."
"Well, that's...thoughtful." Ryan hesitated before training his eyes on the bloody men.
From deep within me, a laugh bubbled, unexpected as I watched the pure horror in Terry's eyes. I didn't know why I laughed. I supposed it had something to do with seeing him humbled, once and for fucking for all. As I said, so damn satisfying.
Ethan had been silent, his shadow looming as he stepped forward. I couldn't see his eyes, but I imagined they were red as he was the first one to grip rat face by the jaw and squeeze the shit out of it. I wasn't there to see him lose his temper on Marco, but fuck, he was terrifying when he was mad.
I was still shocked that I didn't know this about one of my best friends of over a decade. I thought there was even a snap in Terry's jaw. He groaned in pain around the gag in his mouth. Turning his gaze on the whimpering guy seated next to Terry with a black eye, Ethan lamped him one and something inside me burst free.
I'd only seen this man's face in blurred CCTV photos. I didn't know anything about him, but I knew everything I needed to know. He was the voice in the taunting videos, the smug idiot who left Lily with fractures in her skull which would need further examination. Terry was the 'mastermind'—and I use that word loosely—but it was this piece of shit who tortured and terrorized her.
Ethan's action inspired my own and I marched toward him, blacking out and coming to with blood dripping down my arm. Tyler laughed behind us, applauding like an audience after a moving theatre performance.
Ryan's voice was a roar of emotion behind us. "You made us do this. You turned us into this."
I turned to find him trembling and staring at Terry.
"It's always you." He continued. "You're the reason Lily's had a broken life, you're the reason she chose Marco, why she chose drugs, why her mother chose drugs, why she endured the most terrifying days of all our lives. I mean, how could you turn two days into the worst hell she's faced after having you for a father for all those years? It's always fucking you! What the hell is the matter with you?"
Ryan marched toward him and pulled the gag from his mouth.
"I want to hear it." He yelled. "What the fuck is the matter with you?"
I was wound up tight, because I'd been saving my anger for him and if he had the audacity to spit a threat, as usual, I was going to fucking snap.
"People are responsible for their own choices. You can't put what Lily or her mother did with their lives on me," Terry braved.
Ryan went eerily still. My eyes went wide and I lurched forward.
"Okay! Okay, okay. Please." Terry cried out. He surprised me when he broke down into sobs. It might have been just me, but I froze and dropped my fist.
I'd met this man on a few occasions, all spanning over a decade, and he'd always been the same shit-talking, smug fucker. The only emotion he'd ever shown was anger and dominance. To see him break down like a little toddler being scolded, I almost felt sorry for him. And that feeling frightened me.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Are you really sorry, though?" Matt asked. "Or are you just saying that, because you can sense your last moments approaching?"
Damn. He had a point.
"Surprised that... what did you call us? Lily's 'lapdogs' would bite? You know all of this could have been avoided if you'd have just told us the truth at your workplace." Matt sighed.
"Doubtful," Tyler added. "Although, I don't know if I would have killed him. I think his lies just gave me enough time to settle back into my killing mindset. Thanks for that." He winked at Terry with that devilishly handsome face of his.
I saw what his wife was attracted to, must have been enough to distract from his venomous and terrifying ways. Although, she might have been attracted to that too. But, she didn't strike me as the dangerous type. Then again, I didn't strike myself as this type either. Neither did Matt or Ryan, or damn, Ethan.
"No, please." Terry yelled. His partner struggled against his ties. He was yelling something too, but it was all muffled behind the soiled cloth tied around his mouth. "I'll apologize to Lily. I'll leave. I'll do anything. Please."
"Too late for that now. He's intent on killing you and there's nothing me or the other guys can do to stop it." Ryan shrugged. "Trust me, I've thought about it all night. Can you believe that there was one moment last night where I contemplated saving your life?" Ryan's laugh echoed without humor. "I drank myself into a stupor, because I couldn't bear the thought of blood on my hands. Thought of a million ways I could prevent this from happening. Considered blackmailing Tyler..."
Bro, you're talking too much, my eyes popped out of my damn head.
"Ahem." I coughed, short and tight, enough to, hopefully, get Ryan's attention without attracting Tyler's.
Matt was gobsmacked as we shared a glance. He paced back and forth to get Ryan to look at him, but it was a lost cause. Ryan was too engrossed in his speech, and Tyler's attention was honed in on him.
Tyler's gray eyes darkened in slow motion, in time with him turning around to regard Ryan. The pure coldness in his glare reminded me that this was not your average man. He was evil, yet he hid it so well.
Normally.
Well, as long as we'd known him, at least.
That's what makes him so chilling.
A shiver ran through me and I stepped away from Terry and the other piece of shit, no longer wanting to touch whatever Tyler had put his hands on. I had a feeling it was already too late for that.
Ryan leaned down, nose to snout with Terry. He scrunched his nose and sniffed. His breath—the weasel patriarch of Lily's f'ed up 'nuclear family'—smelled like death. I got a whiff from where I was standing. It was surprising that Ryan didn't drop like a rock being so close to that hot ass breath.
"But, then," Ryan continued, "last night, you'll never guess what happened." A wildness twinkled in his hazel eyes as well, though it was no match for Tyler's onyx gaze. "Lily fell unconscious. Yes."
Ryan nodded and I balled up my own fist. He walked over to kidnapper number two, the one whose chest Ethan had been crunching his booted foot into for the past ten minutes as the little rodent squeaked on repeat.
"You'd never guess the reason why." Ryan stooped down next to the man and wobbled off balance.
I was wondering why he was talking so much. He was a little bit deranged at the moment, his skin was pale despite the melanin in his skin, and his eyes were drooping.
"You okay, man?" Ethan placed a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off.
"I'm fine." He gritted his teeth, angry Ethan had the nerve to interrupt him. He turned his attention back to the turd. "As I was saying. Turns out you fractured her skull in more than one place."
He wagged his finger at Terry's accomplice.
"So, who knows what the future holds for Lily? Huh? For us?" Ryan threw his hands up, defeat in his shoulders. "I don't know. You guys weren't thinking about that, though. Were you? You were thinking about your futures." He started to laugh and swayed in his attempt to stand up. I helped him to his feet. "Well, I can see into your future now and it's looking a little bleak if I'm being honest."
"Okay, brother." I patted him on the shoulders and pulled him away.
We all shared the same pain and his words were clear expressions of the turmoil within us, but we didn't come here to talk the men to death. "Don't you worry about them. Let's get you back to the car."
"Not so fast." Tyler stopped us both on the way out.
Convinced there was a cymbal crashing somewhere, and realizing it was my heart, I turned around from the cutting tone of his voice.
"What's up? Ryan needs some rest and some food. Let me get him to the car," I reasoned, though my pulse was throbbing.
This was the part in the movie where the mob boss turned around and killed everyone, leaving no witnesses, wasn't it?
"Oh, he can do all of that..." Tyler started.
Oh, thank goodness, I breathed. Solid sign that we wouldn't be joining Lily's kidnappers on the spit roast today.
"After all of you help me kill these men," he announced.