Chapter 19
Nineteen
Ledger
Iwake to the sound of footsteps.
When my eyes open, it’s still dark. The footsteps are in the main part of the basement but coming closer. Though the sound is soft, the footsteps seem loud in the silence that surrounds me.
My ears strain, trying to focus on that and not my racing thoughts.
That has to be the worst part of this infernal confinement. I can’t escape my own mind. It’s like every mistake that I’ve made is determined to play on repeat until I’m driven to madness. Well… further into madness.
I’m no longer in denial about the state of my mind.
I’ve fucking lost it.
I wish I could blame Blair but that wouldn’t be fair. I let my madness get the best of me. It clouded my judgement and made me so singularly focused that I didn’t consider that anything could possibly go wrong.
But, wrong it went.
So now, awake, I suffer with regret. Asleep, I’m plagued by nightmares of witnessing Blair dying over and over again because I let all of this get out of hand.
The thing is, I could get out of this cage.
There’s a key hidden within it for this very situation. Even with my hands cuffed behind me, I could reach it and get out of here. Yet doing so would only dig me further into trouble with the others.
I’ll play good hostage for as long as I need to.
Maybe then they’ll give me a chance to explain.
Forcing myself to sit up, I use the physical discomfort to distract me from my mental one.
The motion sensor lights flicker on as I right myself.
My shoulders scream in protest from the hours of having my wrists cuffed behind me.
The rest of my body aches from days on the move from chasing down Blair and to laying here on this stiff metal bedframe.
Fuck, does this suck. What’s more, the corners of my mouth are cracked and bleeding thanks to this damn gag no one thought to remove.
Even my wrists are swollen and raw due to how tight the cuffs have been slapped on.
My stomach growls.
How fucking long has it been? Time means nothing. It’s not marked by when meals arrive because they don’t. I’m not graced with water either. What little I have in my body is expelled into a bucket in the corner of this infernal cage.
I’m guessing it’s been at least two days.
It’s not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. Somehow, though, these past forty-eight hours have felt like a fucking eternity.
I can hear the shuffling of feet and the sound of voices speaking quickly and with irritation. A moment later, the door opens. My friends, my family, file into the room one by one.
Wes.
Rhett.
Santi.
And finally, Blair.
Her eyes snag on the wall full of photographs of her. Rather than comment on the collage, Blair simply shakes her head and moves to lower herself onto the metal chair I’d tortured a man in for her just weeks ago.
I drink the sight of her in. As I do, my heart begins hammering against my ribs. The thundering of it is so loud that it’s almost astonishing how no one else seems to be able to hear it.
Behind Blair, Rhett walks over to the metal table to lean his back against it before crossing his arms over his chest. Santi comes up to stand behind Blair, his hands coming to rest on the top of the back rest. His familiar smile is nowhere to be seen.
Wes is the one to come over and unlock the cage.
The fact that they’re here standing with her rather than aligning themselves with me, the man who brought them all together, is fucking perfect.
This is exactly what I’ve wanted for Blair.
When Wes steps into the cage, he pauses. The dark glare he pins me with is filled with a warning.
“I’m going to remove your gag so we can talk,” he warns. “I highly suggest you be cooperative.”
I give him a stiff nod.
Wes steps forward to undo the gag. The minute it's off I lick my dry, split lips. The motion is useless. My tongue is just as dry as my lips. Wes notices but doesn’t say anything as he leans back against the interior of the cage and crosses his arms over his chest.
“Before we begin, I want to warn you, Ledger,” Wes growls. “We’ve had an exciting morning with some unexpected visitors. I don’t think the bloodlust has abated. I highly suggest, when you open your fucking mouth, that it’s the truth that comes out.”
My achy body stiffens. Ignoring the pain that comes with the motion, I demand, “What happened?”
“Blair found herself in danger again because of you!” Santi yells from across the room. “You’re lucky we were prepared and no one got hurt.”
Relief fills my veins.
It’s not great to hear that people are snooping around Caddawalk again but knowing that these guys handled it eases the trepidation coursing through me.
Rhett’s jaw ticks before he says through clenched teeth, “We need answers, Ledger.”
“I’ll talk,” I tell them, my voice raspy from lack of use. “That’s all I’ve wanted to do.”
I look from the others to Blair—the most important person here. That’s when I notice the box in her lap. A smile spreads across my face. Maybe now she understands?
“You found my stash.”
“I found me,” Blair corrects as she tips the box over, letting the contents topple out. Then, she drops the box onto the floor. “Pieces of me, anyway.”
Her face is carefully blank, her eyes so empty and lifeless that it sends a chill down my spine.
Blair wouldn’t want to hear it now, but she reminds me a lot of Anchor at this moment. Particularly right now before he would strike down his target.
“You’ve been stalking me, Ledger.”
I nod, holding her gaze. “I have.”
“For years.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“You already know why.”
Blair stares at me for a long moment. Her eyes growing darker, her body going extra still. “Don’t tell me it was because of that stupid kiss.”
“Fine, I won’t say it. Doesn’t make it any less true.”
“So, I kiss you and you decide that's worth killing me?” Blair asks.
I shake my head slowly, still holding her gaze.
Wes suddenly snarls. The sound is so deep and menacing that it forces my attention away from Blair. I see the punch coming too late. Wes’s fist smashes into my cheek with the force of a fucking sledge hammer.
I’m flung sideways down onto the metal bed. I gasp, the sound ragged. It takes a second but I force myself to sit back up. I spit a wad of blood onto the floor before slowly looking back up at Wes.
“This isn’t about a kiss,” Wes snarls. “This is about ownership. It’s about you and what you want.”
“You’re wrong,” I snarl back. “This has always been about Blair!”
Wes’s fist meets my face again. The force of his hit throws me back this time. Fury unfolds in my chest as I bring my head forward to meet his glare.
“Go ahead,” Wes says, his voice icy cold. “Lie again.”
“I’m not lying,” I growl between clenched teeth. “I’ve done everything in my power to make sure Blair would have everything her heart desired right here under this roof, including you all.”
Rhett laughs coldly. “Sure, Ledger. You planned this all down to a T. The outcome seems to be going well for you.”
“This wasn’t for me.”
I expect Wes’s punch this time and brace myself for impact. Except there’s no preparing for a punch from a man Wes’s size.
The world grows dark, and for a second I think I’m about to pass out. A few deep breaths later, though, I’m still conscious. When I lift my head again, Wes is there in my face.
“I can do this all night if you want, so go ahead—keep lying.” Wes straightens.
“Fine! Maybe you’re right—some of the motivation behind this was selfish.
” My voice grows louder as rage unfurrows in my chest. “But you have no idea what it’s like being denied the one thing you want more than anything else in the entire fucking world!
I saw an opportunity to change things and I fucking took it. ”
Everyone but Blair glares at me.
Her cold gaze is the worst. It’s like she’s scrutinizing a bug, not a man. Not her godfather.
“It was for the both of us,” I promise vehemently.
“I did what I had to do to set things in motion. I hired the least qualified asshole to go after Anchor and Blair to scare them. I knew Blair would come here if she and Anchor believed their identities were compromised. They were supposed to kill Earwig and that would’ve been the end of it. ”
Rhett lets out a deep snarl. “That plan went to shit, didn’t it?”
“To put it simply, yeah,” I bit out. “I didn’t expect Earwig to reach out for help. It’s not common in our line of work.”
“Except it is,” Wes counters. “You said Anchor would call you in to help from time to time.”
Shit. Maybe it is more common than I thought.
With a sigh, I nod. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
“Of course, the person who Earwig reached out to just had to be someone with the means to follow through on some fucking grudge against Blair’s dad,” Rhett drawls. “Great job there, Ledger. Real fucking clever.”
“I don’t get it,” Santi pipes up. “You say this was for Blair but it just seems erratic.”
Rather than acknowledge him, I face Blair.
My godchild is the only thing in this world that makes sense. Blair is the beginning and end of it all and there’s nothing more important than her.
“I visited you year after year after you graduated from college. I saw you, Blair. I saw how alone you were. The life you were living before arriving at Gnarly Pines was hollow. You were living a lie and it was eating at you. That half-life you were trying to scrounge together was pathetic. I ripped your world apart only to give you a better one.”
Blair leaps to her feet with a gasp of fury.
“Excuse me?” The endless void in her eyes dissolves as anger surges forward. “Bring him out,” She hisses between clenched teeth.
Wes grabs me by the front of my shirt and yanks me forward. I don’t get a chance to get my feet under me before he throws me to the ground just outside the cage.
Blair crouches down so that we’re eye level as I sit up on my knees.