Chapter 15
Ashley
***
I looked around the room for any means of escape after he tied me to a chair. My arms and legs were cut and bleeding but that was the least of my worries. How was I going to get myself out of this? No one knew where I was and my phone was still back in mom’s car.
It was the guy from the campus, the one who’d given me the creeps. I saw now that the facial hair was indeed fake and that more than anything sent fear racing through my heart. Why would he need a disguise? It was hard not to let fear take over, and I marveled at the way the mind works, because I was trying to remember every abduction story I’d ever watched on one of those investigative shows mom is so fond of.
Even though he’d kept ranting and raving on the way here, I still had no idea who he was or what he wanted with me. If he was a stalker, he was damn good at it because I didn’t even know he existed until that day he’d approached me on campus. I couldn’t for the life of me imagine who else he could be.
I followed him around the room with my eyes as he kept repeating the same thing over and over. Something about me thinking I could stand in the way of him getting what was his due. I’d stopped asking him who he was or what this was about because he didn’t answer. So instead, I paid attention to what he was saying in the off chance that it made sense and I could talk my way out of this.
He was wild looking today. Nothing at all like the character who’d approached me before. He wondered out loud if anyone had seen him take me, and though it was my only hope, I wasn’t sure anyone had. I thought of Simon and what he’d feel as he stood over my corpse, as I was sure that’s what was going to happen to me.
The morning’s drama suddenly seemed so pointless. Had I not convinced myself that Simon would see me differently, I never would’ve got the bright idea to buy him something first before I spent a dime of his money on myself, and I wouldn’t have gone to the stupid mall. They probably didn’t have anything in there he’d want anyway.
Of course now that I thought of it-it was too late. I was already starting to mourn the life I could’ve had. All the beautiful things I would’ve shared with my Simon and it hurt like a knife slicing through my soul. I made a sound of anguish and he turned angry eyes on me. I wasn’t about to tell him what I was thinking though so I thought of something fast.
“My hands really hurt, could you maybe loosen this a little?” He just glared, but said nothing. My legs were beginning to tremble as he paced the room. What was he going to do? It would help if I knew what this was about, but nothing he said so far shed any light.
I knew that I didn’t know him-had never seen him until that day on campus. So when or how had I crossed him? He stopped suddenly in front of me and my fear factor went up a notch. I swallowed around the lump in my throat and fought not to pee myself.
“Okay, I want you to say these words. I’m okay for now, but if you don’t do as he says he’s going to kill me.” He held a phone out to me and waited. For some reason that pissed me off. I knew what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to do as he said. But if this asshole was going to kill me anyway, why should I make it easy for him? Maybe the longer I held off the longer I’d get to live and somebody just might find me before it’s too late. That was a lot to think about in a short space of time, but I was going on instinct.
“No.” His face registered shock ten seconds before he hauled off and slapped me across the face. I cried out before I could stop myself and that’s when all hell broke loose.
There was a crash at the door and a shot, followed by a yell of outraged pain. Through a flurry of movement, I saw Simon’s pale face as he tore the rope from my arms and legs before lifting me from the chair. I barely had time to notice another man holding my captor at gunpoint as he laid on the floor clutching his arm.
“Let me see you are you okay baby? Did her hurt you?” His palm covered the heat in my cheek from where I’d been slapped and his eyes smoldered. I was too overcome with relief to form words and just went limp in his arms as he hurried me to the car. I had to pee so bad I was afraid I would go on myself but the relief mixed with fear held it locked inside.
“Stay here baby, I’ll be right back.”
“No don’t leave me.” I looked around the isolated place in fear as I clutched at him. Now that I was free, all I wanted was to go home. I didn’t even care what happened to the crazy man who could even now be heard raving like a lunatic.
“You’ll be fine, I promise. Just let me take care of something.” He extricated himself from my arms, which barely had any feeling left and headed back inside. The other man came out and stood guard next to the car as Simon walked in.
Now, I was worried for a different reason. I’d seen the gun in his hand. What if he shot that guy? He’d go to jail for sure and it would be my fault. I started to get out of the car but the door was held shut against me. The towering man who stood there just shook his head at me and went back to keeping watch.
I was a nervous wreck as I strained for any sound coming from the cabin. There was yelling but I couldn’t decipher the words, but I knew it wasn’t Simon’s voice. The shakes started somewhere around the time I heard the first scream. Shit! I flung open the door and made a mad dash for the bushes. The guy started to follow until I stopped just at the edge and threw up. Once I was sure he wasn’t going to follow I hid behind some trees and relieved my bladder. Somehow that was the best damn feeling in the world.
***
Simon
***
We’d been making our way around the cabin as quietly as possible so as not to alert whoever was inside. There was no other vehicle here, but who was to say Jen wasn’t in there as well? I was barely keeping myself in check when we got into position at the backdoor and could see into one of the dusty windows off to the side. The door was flimsy at best with weathered and grey wood that had been weakened by the elements, which was good for us.
I breathed a little easier when I saw that she was still okay and in one piece. She was tied to a chair and a man was walking around and around, pacing, with a gun rubbing the side of his face. The sight of that gun sent shivers down my spine, but I bit back the growl of anger.
I felt helpless as I watched him hold out the phone to her, having a good idea what he was saying. But then he hit her and everything else ceased to exist. I don’t remember crashing through the door, or pulling the trigger to get him away from her. I just remember the feel of her in my arms when I picked her up from that chair, safe, whole, alive.
Once I got her out of harm’s way, I was finally able to think clearly again, which might not be so good for the asshole I’d left writhing on the floor. He’d be lucky if the shot to his hand was the only one he suffered before the day was done. There are a million ways he could find his end out here in the backwoods of Tennessee never to be found again.
Back inside, I had to caution myself not to end him before I had some answers. “Who the fuck are you and what do you want with me?” He was either very crazy or very brave, because all he did was grin at me like I wasn’t standing there with a gun pointed at his head.
“So you don’t remember me huh?”
“Am I supposed to?” I knew for a fact that I’d never seen this asshole before in my life.
“Sure you are. Or do you make it a habit of going around destroying other people’s lives? Other than mine of course.”
“Am I supposed to know what the fuck you’re talking about? Why were you and Jen after me? I’m not your usual mark, so there must be something else going on here, tell me. ”
“You really don’t remember huh. Well that’s just great.” I waited for him to tell me what the hell he was talking about but he just glared up at me with venom. “I need to get to a hospital.” He raised the hand with the hole in it at me.
“We’ll get to that as soon as I get some answers. That is, if there’s anything left for them to patch together when I’m done if you don’t start talking. Now I know you and Jen had some kind of racket going, what I don’t know is why me? You keep inferring that I’ve wronged you in some way but I don’t see how that’s possible, since I have no idea who the fuck you are.”
“Does the name Rosalinda Strait mean anything to you?” It sounded familiar but obviously wasn’t someone I dealt with on a regular basis because I still couldn’t place it. He seemed to become more irate at my blank look, and forgetting the gun I had pointed at his head struggled to his feet.
“She was my mother and you destroyed her with your lies.” Spittle and blood came flying from his lip where I’d punched him when I walked back into the cabin. “Now do you remember?”
“Not a clue.”
“So you don’t remember the woman whose name you dragged through the mud. The woman you destroyed until she slit her wrist in the bathtub of a filthy motel after her family turned their back on her.” I was starting to get a picture but it couldn’t be, could it?
“Are you, was your mother the one who took me in as a teen and treated me and others like me like shit?” Now I was incredulous. Granted he was about three or four years younger than I back then, but there’s no way he didn’t remember what the hell went on in that house.
“Ding-ding-ding-ding, what have we got for him Johnny?”
“You’re just as fucked as she was and if she ended herself all the better. Your mother was a sick twisted fuck.” He charged me, giving me the perfect excuse to put a bullet in his head, but instead I kneed him in the balls.
Maybe if she wasn’t sitting out there scared half out of her mind I would’ve pulled the trigger, but there was no justification for it. Too bad, but I was sure this little prick would suffer even worse behind bars.
“And the judge and the ex-DA worked the case I presume?” Now it all made sense, the connection between me, and them. How long had he been planning this shit? What a fucking waste of life. I remember the family, outside of his demented mother, there was a grandfather I think, and yes they did come from money. He could’ve gone on to become anything, but instead he chose to give his life over to vengeance for a woman who didn’t deserve it. That still didn’t answer the question of Jen and her involvement.
“So tell me, how did you get Jen in on this hair brained shit storm of a scheme?”
“She loves me, she understood. You all had to pay. I lost everything because of you.” He seemed to go off into his own head as he talked it out.
“After the whole mess, grandpa cut us off completely. He’d been looking for an excuse for years since mom didn’t marry up as he’d expected. Instead, she married my dad, a lowly desk clerk who he kept down after they got married just to spite her. But he hadn’t cut her off entirely even then, had to keep up family appearance after all. Couldn’t have his only daughter living below her means.”
“But after the scandal and the trial, he was clear to wash his hands of her, of us. I should’ve inherited everything he had as the only grandson. Instead he left it all to some stupid university and I was left with nothing. But I got my own back though didn’t I?”
He was back in the room and that sick fucking grin was back in place. “Until that little bitch came along and spoiled everything. Jen and I figured it out you know, after that day she followed you in the car and saw her beloved niece. We put our heads together and realized what must’ve happened. But I was going to get mine anyway. All I needed to do was grab her and you’d pay.”
By now, I’d hit record on my phone since I’d decided to let him live. But I needed more if I was going to bury both of them and get them the fuck out of my life. “So you went after Sorenson who was the judge on the case and then Jonas who prosecuted.”
“Yes, and they paid.”
“And what happened to all that money?”
“Why do you need to know that? The money’s safe. No government can touch it where it’s at and you’ll never find it.” He seemed sure of that so I was assuming it wasn’t under either of their names.
“Fine, but what I don’t understand is how you caught them. I can’t see either of them having anything to hide that would cause them to pay out millions to keep it hushed.”
“Oh, that was easy. We both know that even the hint of something foul would’ve tripped them up. Plus they talked a lot. Jen’s good at getting people to talk. They let slip certain things about people they did business with that if it got back to the wrong ears would’ve been devastating. We still have those tapes hidden away nicely in a safety deposit box that you can’t reach. You never know when they may have come in handy again.”
He was very pleased with himself, not realizing it wouldn’t take a genius to figure out where they were. Find the money find the tapes. I’ll let Sorenson and Jonas handle that one. “So you blackmailed them, used extortion to get back at them for doing their jobs.”
“Yes, they deserved it and so do you. I was going to take you for the biggest haul of all. I even gave Jen permission to sleep with you after the wedding. I knew you were going to be harder to shake down, but I knew she could do it. She’s good isn’t she?”
“Not good enough apparently.” I pulled the phone from my pocket so he could see what I’d been up to before hitting end and dialing nine one-one.
“You bastard.” I guess he like my foot in his balls because that’s what he got this time when he charged again.
While he was writhing on the floor in agony I gave the cops the general location of where we were.
It was another hour before they reached us and I spent that time listening to him threaten and rail. I hit record again just for the hell of it and just in case he said something else that would tack on a few years onto whatever sentence he and Jen were gonna get for the admitted blackmail and extortion. I knew fuck all about the statute of limitations on these things, but I was sure the others would know what to do.
We had to answer a shit load of questions but I’d had the presence of mind to call my lawyer to the location so there was no need to head to the station for questioning. I could take care of that tomorrow or the next day.
Ash refused to go to the emergency room so the EMTs checked her out on site and sent us on our merry way. Had I not been in a hurry to get her home behind those walls I would’ve insisted, but I could see for myself that she was just a little shaken and not really physically hurt.
Last I heard, the cops were headed to Jen’s place of business to pick her up and that was the end of that, although her partner in crime swore at the top of his lungs that she had nothing to do with it. I’m sure there would be court dates and whatnot in our future, but for now the nightmare was over.
“Let’s go home sweetheart.” She was beat as I buckled her into the truck and not saying much of anything. All the way home I held her hand as reassurance and apologized profusely for not taking better care with her. Now that the ordeal was over, I thought of all that could’ve gone wrong and wished to fuck that I never lived through another day like this.
I listened to her stupid ass reasons for why she was at the mall in the first place and figured she’d had enough for one day so I’d take her to task later for being an ass. All she got for now was a look that I was sure spoke volumes.