Chapter 45
The second I hear the TV downstairs blaring through the empty house, I tug on the tape binding my wrists together.
My wrists scream as I pull as hard as I can, but still the tape doesn’t snap.
That’s when my fingers catch on something.
It’s a sharp piece of wood that’s splintered on the back of the chair.
It’s only a centimetre or two in length, but I wonder…
I bring my duct-taped wrists to it and begin rubbing, wearing down the tape, hoping the splinter of wood is enough to break it.
My arms ache from the repetitiveness of the action, but I have to try. I can’t let Naylor use me to get to Killian. I won’t.
I have to get out of here. Now.
I don’t know how long I have until he comes back up here, but I don’t give up. It’s at least five minutes of rubbing before the tape snaps and my wrists are finally free.
Yes!
I tear off the tape from my wrists before starting on my ankles.
Once they’re both free, I rise from the chair, tiptoeing across the room towards the door.
I open the bedroom door a fraction, listening closely to any sign of movement downstairs.
My heart pounds in my chest as I slip through the gap and take the stairs one at a time, sticking close to the edge of the steps to avoid the floorboards from giving me away.
The TV is loud, and I hope I can use his distraction to my advantage and find my way out of here long before he realises I’m gone.
Peering around the corner into the living room, Naylor’s sat in an armchair with his back to me, his eyes glued to the football game on the screen.
Taking a careful step backwards, I move for the front door, twisting the handle, finding it locked. Instead, I head through to the kitchen. The place is a mess. There’s empty cartons and piles of rubbish everywhere, the whole place blanketed in a thick layer of dust.
Spotting the back door across from me, I hurry for it, praying it’s been left unlocked. I reach for the handle but before I can pull it open, the creak of a floorboard behind me has my stomach bottoming out.
“I wouldn’t if I were you.”
My heart sinks.
As I spin to face him, I clock the stainless-steel kettle sitting on the counter next to me. I grab it and swing for him. He blocks it easily, ripping it from my hand and tossing it to the ground.
His face hardens, the look in his eyes menacing. “That was a very big mistake.”
Before I see it coming, he back-hands me across the face so hard I’m knocked to the ground. I land on my already injured shoulder and I cry out. The force of his slap spreads through my cheek like wildfire.
He grabs a fist full of my hair and drags me to my feet, shoving me back against the kitchen counter, the edge digging into the base of my spine.
He grabs a huge blade from the knife block and holds the tip to my throat, the cool sharp metal biting into my skin.
“Try something like that again, I won’t bother to wait for your boyfriend to get here, I’ll gut you and let him find you bled out on the fucking floor.
You and that little bastard you’re cooking up in there. ”
My eyes widen. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Your ultrasound scan photo fell out of your back pocket when I tossed you in the van last night. Too bad neither you or Killian will see it born.”
Fear wracks through me. I don’t care what he does to me, but I can’t let him hurt my baby.
“I’m sorry,” I mutter, unable to hold back the tears slipping down my face.
“You will be,” he warns before grabbing my upper arm and dragging me back upstairs.
I’m shoved inside the room and I go down hard on my hands and knees, the rough splintered floorboards biting into my palms, pricking my skin.
Taking the roll of duct tape sitting on the windowsill, he crouches down in front of me.
He grips my ankles roughly and tapes them together before doing the same to my wrists.
He then binds them to my ankles so I can’t move.
Gravel crunches outside as a car approaches, the sound of an engine switching off.
Naylor takes a look out the window. “Right on time.” He then turns to me, waving the knife in his hand in my direction. “You move a fucking inch, I’ll drive the knife through your stomach first.” With that, he heads out of the room and back downstairs.
Who’s here?
Please don’t let it be Killian.
The front door opens and I hear the sound of muffled voices on the floor below me. Footsteps grow louder as they climb the stairs.
Naylor enters the room first followed by…
My heart stops.
No…
My father’s eyes widen when they settle on me, the surprise on his face tells me I’m the last person he expected to see. His head snaps to Naylor. “What the hell is this?”
Naylor looks almost proud of himself. “This is how we get rid of Killian.”
“This was not what we agreed, Naylor.”
What? “You’re in on this?”
If my wrists and ankles weren’t tied together, I’m almost certain I could kill my father with my bare hands.
“We agreed you would disappear when you got free.”
“We agreed nothing. You need to remember your place, Watson. I hold all the cards, remember?”
“Let my daughter go, whatever you’re doing doesn’t involve her.”
“She has everything to do with it, but then again, she’s not really your daughter, is she?”
There something in the way Naylor says that last part. “W-What?”
Naylor smirks. “I’ll leave you to it. Seems you have a lot to talk about.” He strides out of the room, leaving me alone with my father.
I can’t look at him.
“I didn’t know this would happen.”
I huff out a laugh. What did he expect was going to happen letting a convicted murderer, rapist and abuser out onto the streets?
“What did he mean?”
He swallows. “Nothing you need worry yourself with.”
“Don’t lie to me,” I snap, pinning him with my eyes. “Tell me it’s not true.”
He drags the chair I was sitting on earlier and takes a seat in front of me. He leans forward on his elbows. “I can’t tell you that.”
“Oh my god...” I gasp. If I wasn’t already sat on the floor, I’m sure my knees would’ve buckled.
“Your mother had an affair.”
“Who?”
“A man named Tobias Grimes.”
“Wait… He was the leader of The Cobras, right? He’s my real father?”
He nods.
Tobias Grimes is my father.
I let the words sink in, they’re so unfamiliar and strange to me it doesn’t seem real. My mind is racing, skipping from one thought to the next.
“Regardless of the fact you don’t share my blood, you are my daughter.”
“You’ve had a funny way of showing it,” I shoot back. “Did Grimes know about me?”
He nods. “He targeted your mother specifically. I was in a position of power and he wanted something to hold over my head, something he could use that could benefit him. He got your mother pregnant on purpose. He had no intention of being a part of your life.”
Bile crawls up my throat, my mouth filling with saliva.
This can’t be happening.
My father clears his throat. “You were never supposed to find out this way, Kaia.”
“You mean at all? You were never going to tell me, admit it.”
“What good has it brought you by knowing?”
“That’s why you wanted me to be more like you, so I’d be less like him. That’s why nothing I ever did was good enough for you, why I always seemed to disappoint you.”
Everything makes so much sense, all of it becoming clearer.
“All these years you could barely bring yourself to look at me, because when you do, you see him. That’s why you sent me off the boarding school the first chance you got, so you didn’t have to be reminded of your wife’s affair every time you saw me.
You sent me away to reduce the chance of me learning the truth. ”
He doesn’t answer and it hurts me more than if he’d tried to deny it.
“Grimes was blackmailing me. Before I was the warden of the prison, I was a respected lawyer. I hated giving that bastard even a dime of my money. I knew it would be used to traffic drugs and guns and god knows what else, but I couldn’t have you learning the truth.
I couldn’t have it broadcast to the world that my wife was pregnant with his child.
It would’ve caused a scandal. It would’ve ruin—”
“Ruined your reputation…” I roll my eyes. “Of course.” I could be a millionaire with the number of times I’ve heard that.
“I hid the truth in order to protect you.”
“No, you did it to protect yourself!” I shout. “What’s Curt Naylor got to do with all of this? How does he know about Grimes?”
“Grimes was incarcerated for a time and he and Naylor formed a friendship. I can only assume Grimes told him my secret and when he came up for parole a few months ago he used it to force my hand, to aid his release.”
“So you didn’t let him out just so he could come after Killian?”
He recoils. “Of course not. You really think I would do that?”
“After everything you’ve done, you can’t blame me for thinking the worst. You know he’s been taunting me for months?
Sending me text messages about the things he did to Killian while he was inside.
He came to you for help and you did nothing!
How could you just stand by and allow someone you had a duty to protect be abused like that? ”
“Naylor used my secret to get what he wanted, to keep me on side, to have me look the other way. When Hunt came to my office and told me what was happening, my hands were tied, I had no choice.”
“You make me sick. You know what? I’m almost relieved I don’t share blood with a man like you because the man I’m looking at right now is a stranger to me.”
“Blood or not, I am still your father.”
“No, you’re a coward and you’ve put all of us at risk by letting Naylor out of prison. Whatever happens next is on you.”
“Nothing is going to happen.”
“You think he’s just going to let us walk out of here like nothing’s happened? He’s not just going to kill Killian, he’s going to kill me first and make Killian watch because he knows it’ll hurt him the most. He’ll kill you too just for being here, you’re a witness.”
“Whether you believe it or not, I am sorry. It should never have come to this. Are you alright? Has he hurt you?’
“It’s a little late to pretend to care, don’t you think?”
“Kaia, I’ve always cared.”
“Then help me,” I plead.
Glancing behind him towards the door, he slides off the chair. Dropping to a crouch, he begins pulling at the tape around my wrists and ankles. After he frees my wrists, he reaches for my ankles but his hands freeze when a floorboard creaks behind him.
“For such a clever man, that’s a very stupid thing to do.” Over my father’s shoulder stands Naylor.
My father meets my eyes briefly, taking my hand in his and giving it a squeeze before he spins around, drawing a gun tucked into his jacket pointing it at Naylor. “I can’t allow you to do this, not with my daughter involved.”
“I have to admire you, Watson. Still willing to call your wife’s bastard child your daughter.”
My father rises to his feet, his gun still pointed at Naylor. “Biologically, no. But she’s my daughter in every way that matters.” There’s pride in his voice and a tiny part of me softens, I just wish I hadn’t had to wait almost twenty years to hear it.
Naylor takes a step forward. “You know, Watso—”
The gun goes off and I slam my hands over my ears.
Naylor didn’t flinch once. He glances casually over his shoulder at the bullet-shaped hole in the wall to the left of his head.
His head swivels backs round to face us. He releases a heavy sigh. “You really shouldn’t have done that.”
In the blink of an eye, Naylor launches himself at my father, catching us both off guard.
He shoves my father against the wall with a loud thud, knocking the gun from his hand and it clatters to the floor.
I pull at the tape that binds my ankles and once I’m free, I scramble to reach the gun lying a few meters away, only I’m not quick enough.
Naylor reaches for the gun before me.
I scream as the shot rings out. My eardrums throbbing from the gunshot.
I lift my eyes to where Naylor stands, the gun in his hand pointing at my father.
A huge red blood stain soaks through my father’s crisp white shirt over his abdomen.
“No!” I shout as he drops to his knees, blood pouring through his fingers as he presses against his abdomen.
“Dad!” I cry. I haven’t called him that in years.
I clamber to my feet to go to him but a thick strong arm bands around my waist hauling me off the ground.
“No! Get off of me!” I scream, my nails clawing at Naylor’s arms, my legs kicking out as I struggle against his hold on me.
I manage to spin around so I’m facing him, landing a weak punch to his face that probably hurt me more than it does him. Pain radiates up my arm.
“Nice try,” he grins.
“Fuck you!” I spit, watching with satisfaction as my saliva drips down his face.
He slaps me across the face and I fall to the floor at his feet.
He wipes away my saliva from his face with the back of his hand, staring down at me “You wanna know what happens to women who pull that shit on me, you fucking bitch?”
He rears his foot back and on instinct, I cover my belly with my arm to protect my child, but before his foot connects with me, a loud click echoes through the room.
Naylor’s eyes widen with excitement when they settle on something behind me.
“Kick my girl and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”