Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-Four
KIT
“ J ax?” I peer into the dark and another flash of lightning behind the man tells me I’m right. It’s him. I can see his dark hair and the familiar set of his shoulders. I nudge Alana so she can look and she nods.
“Yeah, it’s him.”
I let out a breath of relief. “Oh thank god. I was–I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You ladies okay?” Jax calls out to us. He starts walking towards us and I nod, even though he probably can’t tell.
I shine my flashlight towards him when I answer. “Yeah, we’re good. Just shook up some.”
Jax raises his arm to shield his eyes from the light and I swing it away from him. “Shit, sorry, I didn’t mean to blind you.”
“It’s all right. Glad you two made it down those stairs. It wouldn’t do for you to fall and break your neck.”
I go still at his words. It’s an odd choice of words, but I don’t know how he talks. Alana is the one that spends time with him and she doesn’t seem to have noticed anything strange. “I-uh, yeah, it wouldn’t be great.”
“Where’s Scott?” Alana asks.
“By the generator,” Jax tells us and gestures for us to follow him with a flick of his gun. “Let’s go.”
It’s then that I notice he still has his gun out. “What do you need that for? It’s just us, right?” I look around nervously. “Is there-is something wrong?” The energy feels wrong. It feels like it did when we were coming down the stairs, like someone was watching me—someone that wanted to hurt me.
Jax looks down at the gun like he just realized he was holding it and shakes his head. “Nothing at the moment but you can’t be too prepared. Your safety is the most important thing to me.”
“Always thinking of everyone else,” Alana says and smiles at Jax. “Lead the way to the generator.” She falls in line right behind Jax and when he starts walking, I do too. I slow my steps though, letting a little distance build between me and Alana because it means space from Jax. What could be going on? Was there a threat that he isn’t telling us about? Is someone here now and that’s why there’s no power?
What if it wasn’t the storm? What if it was someone who did something to our power?
A cold sweat breaks out over my body and it makes the rainwater soaking me feel warm. I pull out my phone to see if I have any texts from Rafe. He would tell me if something was going on. There’s no texts from them other than the one they sent saying they would be home soon and the instructions from Rafe about the generator. That was nearly two hours ago.
They have to be home soon. Maybe half an hour max.
God, I want them here. I’m not scared of anything when I’m with them. It’s like the world stands still and kneels when they’re with me.
I start to text Rafe, asking when he’ll be home and that the power is out but the most I get out is “Generator out, trying to-” before Jax speaks.
“Put that phone away, Kit.”
“What?” I look up at him in surprise. He’s standing with Alana right beside the generator. Alana’s flashlight is on the floor and it lights up enough of the space that I see Scott is there too, just like Jax said he would be. He’s leaning up against something with his arms crossed.
Jax snaps his fingers. “Phone. Put it down on the ground now.”
My breath catches because the voice I hear him use isn’t his normal tone. That’s respectful, always professional but now…now he sounds so much closer to the way Rafe and Grant do when I’ve seen them flip the switch that lives inside of them. He’s angry.
“Why?”
He looks like he wants to fucking kill me.
“Put the fucking phone down, Kit.”
I try to swipe my phone to the call button but before I can, Jax sighs and grabs Alana. “Put the phone on the goddamn ground!” He yells at me and brings the barrel of his gun up to Alana’s temple.
“Leave her alone!” I stop moving and Alana screams.
“Get off of me!” She swings at him but it doesn’t do anything. He’s a trained professional and she’s just pissed off that he’s got a gun on her. “You asshole!”
Scott clears his throat and slaps his hand against the thing he’s leaning against. I thought it was a box, maybe a desk a minute ago but I was wrong. I see that now when he hops up to sit on it.
It’s a freezer.
“What the fuck is going on here?” I ask. I look between Jax and Scott but neither man answers me. They look to the other before Scott gives Jax a slight head tilt.
“The phone, Kit.” Jax gives Alana a shake. “Or your friend here gets one in the head, which I gotta say would be a waste because she’s beautiful. I’d hate to ruin her pretty face on account of blowing the back of her head off.”
I hear the hammer of his gun cock and I hold up my hands. “Okay, okay, I’m putting my phone down. Just don’t hurt her.”
I bend down and put my phone on the floor and look at Alana. I try to will the thought that everything is going to be fine to her. I give her a shaky smile as I stand but she looks like she’s about to faint. Everything is going to work out. Rafe and Grant will find us. They will.
Jax nods at me. “Good girl. Kick the phone over here.”
I grind my teeth when he calls me “good girl.” I do what he says and kick the phone over to him. Why was I stupid and left my knives behind? I wouldn’t be able to take both men but I’d be able to catch them by surprise. Grant and Rafe didn’t let anyone know they showed me how to defend myself.
“Nice little surprise for the fucker that puts their hands on you.”
Knives or not, I’ve at least got the element of surprise on my side. I can work with that.
Jax jabs his gun into Alana’s back. “Pick up the phone and hand it to me. Give me yours, too. No funny shit or I’ll kill you.”
Alana scowls and grabs the phone off the floor. “I can’t believe I thought you were hot. Fuck you.” She slaps her phone and mine into Jax’s waiting hand.
She would be talking shit right now when our bodyguards turned out to be double agents. But double agents for who? Who the fuck did all of this?
“Why are you doing this? Who put you up to it?”
“Nobody put us up to anything,” Scott says and crosses his arms over his chest. “We’re doing this because we want to. And I gotta tell you, it’s been a fucking blast so far.”
“The blood, that was you, wasn’t it?” I ask. He nods and I feel sick.
He smiles. “You work in Hollywood long enough and you’d be surprised at the random things you pick up. Corn syrup really is versatile.”
I start trying to figure out who brought them here and I think of Holly first but that doesn’t fit. She wouldn’t risk the movie like this. I’m not sure if I’m right but then Holly’s words come to me about Jane being a family friend. She was worried about Jane. She wouldn’t have brought these men in.
Jane.
“Oh my god, Jane. You took Jane, didn’t you?”
He touches his nose. “Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner.”
“We took more than Jane,” Scott says and he points a finger at me. “You’ve been a beautiful model, Kit. Absolutely stunning, just like we knew you would be.”
The photos.
They’ve been taking the photos.
“ Why ?” I whisper. I look around me for anything I can use on them. There’s a lamp to my left and a bunch of boxes to my right. I see a set of golf clubs leaning up against those boxes and hope springs in my chest. If I can get my hands on those clubs, I can take off Scott’s head. I start to ease myself towards them but Alana whimpers when Jax starts to drag her over to Scott and just like that, my play for the clubs dies.
If I go for the clubs, they’ll shoot her. I know they will. The way Jax spoke, it was cold and detached. It was the voice of a killer. Someone who already knows how everything is going to play out.
“When I decide on someone, there’s nothing they can do. That’s it. They’re mine.” Rafe told me that once when I asked him why he did what he did. Murdering people.
Jax is a killer just like Rafe. I can sense it.
He thinks he already knows what’s about to happen. Begging or pleading isn’t going to change it so I don’t bother. Even if I didn’t know it, I don’t think I’d bother begging for my life. I couldn’t stand to die like that.
“Kit,” Alana calls to me. My heart hurts. For Alana I will beg. That’s why they have her here. She’s my weak point.
“It’s going to be okay,” I tell her. “I swear it.”
“That’s a big thing to swear. You shouldn’t break promises like that, Kit.”
I glare at Scott. “I’m not breaking anything. My boyfriends are going to kill you. You know that, right?”
Jax sneers. “Oh, we’ve got something for those two idiots. You think we’re scared of a couple of actors? They fake that hero shit, honey. We’re the real deal.”
I want to tell him to eat shit and that he has no idea who he’s fucking with when it comes to Rafe and Grant but I don’t. I’m not going to give away who and what they are to their next victims. I hope they take their time. I want Jax to die screaming. Scott can follow right behind him. I don’t care if Scott screams so long as it hurts.
“Where’s Jane? Is she okay?”
Jax snorts. “She’s chillin’.”
“Dude, shut the fuck up. Really?” Scott snaps.
“Well she is. I’m being honest here.”
I want to stamp my foot but I don’t. “What the fuck are you two talking about? Where is Jane?”
“I’m so glad you asked. I’ll take you to her no problem.”
That surprises me. “She’s here?”
“Of course she’s here, we wouldn’t leave her alone. She had a very important role to play, especially with your little midnight walk. You like that champagne? That was a custom vintage just for you.”
I’m processing his words. So much is happening, it’s like a key is turning in my brain and everything is clicking into place. Jax and Scott took Jane. They’ve been stalking me this whole time and they were responsible for the champagne I had that night. The bottle just showed up in the fridge. We assumed it was a gift, one of many that was left for us in the cabin. Grant and Rafe get gifts like that all the time.
We didn’t think anything was out of the ordinary when this bottle of champagne appeared.
“You drugged it.”
Scott chuckles. “You’re on fire, Kit. For being a dumb bitch for so long, I gotta say that I’m proud of you right now.”
“Fuck you.”
“Maybe later, after we handle those fuckwit boyfriends of yours. I’ll show you how a real man fucks. Would you like that?”
Rage swirls up in my belly, it nearly chokes me with its fury. “I’m going to kill you, you sonofabitch. I’m going to cut your fucking eyes out of your head and shit in your skull. You’re going to regret ever fucking with me and if you touch my men, I’ll do worse to you.”
“Feisty, feisty. Those men have spoiled you. Made you mouthy. But you know what? I think I have just the thing to settle you the fuck down.” Scott grabs the lid of the freezer and raises it. “Why don’t you take a look and remember who’s going to shit in whose skull by the end of the night.” He gestures for me to come forward but I don’t move.
I shake my head. “No way.”
And that’s when he says. “You wanted to see Jane, didn’t you?”
My heart stops. The lurch it gives is so strong that I feel it down to my toes. “ What ?” I whisper. The only place I can look is the freezer. I take a shaking step forward and then another. “No.” I shake my head, thinking about the kind and quiet woman I knew her as. I never talked a lot with her but anytime I did she was friendly and sweet.
“You know what? I need you to have the full effect, so hold on a second.” Scott motions for me to stop and I do. I feel like I’m trapped in a twisted game of Simon Says.
Scott starts fucking with the generator and a minute later the engine kicks on. The lights come on with it and when he snaps his fingers for me to go towards the freezer, I do.
“Don’t look, Kit,” Alana begs me but I do.
She didn’t deserve this.
I look over the edge of the freezer and see Jane inside.
There’s frost on her eyelashes and in her hair. Her lips are blue, skin so pale that it’s a mix of gray and purples. She’s bound, hands together and her feet are too. The way her neck is tilted is unnatural. Her pretty red hair looks so dull in the light and tears prick my eyes. I don’t have time to think.
“You killed her. Why did you do that?”
“Because she saw us,” Scott explains. He’s to my left. I don’t look away from Jane when he starts speaking. I keep my eyes on her sightless ones. I’d rather look at her than the monster that killed her.
“She saw us the night we took our little photo of you. She went on a walk, not back to her room like that dumb bitch said.”
“What?” I look at him then. “Who are you talking about?”
“Alexia,” Jax rumbles.
“The stylist?” I ask, because this doesn’t fit with the puzzle I’m trying to fit together in my mind. “What does Alexia have to do with anything?”
“She’s my girlfriend,” Jax says with a wink. “She’ll say any fucking thing I want.”
“Well, not anything. That’s an exaggeration. Don’t you think?”
My knees go weak and I have to grab onto the edge of the freezer. The metal inside burns and my skin sticks to it. I don’t move my hand, I let it sit. I let that pain come into me and I grab ahold of it.
“It’s not. You love me.”
I hear footsteps behind me and Alana swears. “Who the fuck is this?”
“Alexia,” I say and turn to look at her. I rip my hand away from the freezer. “How could you do this?”
The stylist that I considered my friend rolls her eyes at me and waves a hand. “I love him, he’s right. You know what love does to a person. Look at you with your men.”
“That’s different.”
Alexia cocks an eyebrow. “Is it really, Kit? Or is it only different because you’re rich and you can cut your family off? Is that what makes it so different? You get to live your dream life while everyone kisses your ass and you let Jax take the burden of caring for your family?”
I don’t understand what she’s talking about. “I don’t have a family.”
“That’s exactly what he said you would say. People like you are disgusting.”
“You killed an innocent girl and I’m the disgusting one? Fuck you, you psycho!” I start for her but Jax stops me.
“Ah, ah, ah, make one wrong move on her and I’ll paint the ceiling with your friend's head.”
I stop and nod at him. “Fine, but what the fuck is going on here? You’re killing people. You have us hostage. What is this for?”
I take the puzzle pieces apart and put them back together. It doesn’t make sense, no matter how I turn them. Nothing makes sense. The chaos is enough to make me feel like I’m losing my grip on reality. Like I’m in a fever dream.
Oh my god, am I dreaming?
Cold from the freezer wafts over me and as I wiggle my fingers, the burn of the icy metal pulses there. No, it’s not a dream. I’m awake. This is really happening.
“Why are you doing this?”
Scott shakes his head at me like I’m an idiot for not understanding what’s happening. “For your mother, Kit. We’re doing it for your mother. You’ve been a very bad fucking girl.”