Chapter 46 Ella
ELLA
The hotel staffer shuts the door and locks it behind me. What the hell?
“What are you doing here?” I say, my stomach sinking. “How did you find me?”
Kyle holds up his phone, smirking. “You forget that we were together for three years, Ella. Our phones are linked as friends, I can track you. Not that it’s been helpful for the last month since you’ve obviously been using a new phone.
But when you started texting me from your old phone, all I had to do was pull up the locating app, and I knew exactly where you were. ”
Shit.
“And what are you here for? What do you want?”
His smirk is gone and without it, I note an unhinged glint in his eyes.
“You fucked me over.”
“I did no such thing.”
“You cheated on me and then ruined everything.”
“For the last fucking time, I didn’t even meet Asher until after we broke up! You were horrible to me for months, then you stole my money, assaulted me, and left me destitute—you are the one who ruined everything.”
“The bank canceled all of my accounts the day you and your boyfriend broke into my apartment,” he says, ignoring all the words out of my mouth, as if he can’t be bothered with them.
“An hour after you left, I got an email that said all of my accounts were closed, and then they sent me to collections for the amounts owed on all my credit cards. And when I tried to open accounts with other banks I was denied. I can’t run a business if I can’t have a bank account and can’t get any more loans. No one will work with me!”
“And how is that my problem? You stole from me and I reported it to the bank. It’s your own fault if they punished you for it by closing all of your accounts.”
“Your fucking boyfriend blacklisted me. And now I’m three-hundred grand in the hole and my business is failing before it even takes off!”
“I’m sorry, Kyle, but this is your own doing. You went into this risky venture without talking to anyone about it, and you did a lot of illegal and shady shit along the way.”
“I was going to return your money after everything got off the ground, you fucking cunt,” he seethes. “But you couldn’t give me time. After three years together, you couldn’t give me a little more time. I would have given you everything back and more.”
I scoff.
“I need the money I was going to get from the article!” he shouts. “But now RTZ has backed out. You fucked me over, again, and now you’re going to make it right.”
“Make it right? You have some real nerve.”
“You will make it right, you whore. You went and spread your legs for a billionaire, and he’s got the cash to fix this. I want a million dollars.”
I let out a harsh laugh. “If you think Asher will give you a million dollars, you’re even dumber than I thought you were.”
“He will if he knows what’s good for him. Or more specifically, what’s good for you.”
He pulls a gun out of his jacket.
I gasp and my head spins. I blink for a moment, unable to believe what’s right in front of my eyes.
“Wh-what are you doing, Kyle? Please. Put that away.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Ella. But you did this. You’ve forced my hand. If your boyfriend gives me what I want, you can walk away.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“He will.”
“How are you so sure?”
“He has to.”
“And if he doesn’t . . . you’ll kill me?”
“Just shut up and just call him, you stupid bitch.”
“Okay.” I hold up my hands. I’m just realizing my purse and laptop bag are still slung over my shoulder. I slowly peel them off and set them on the ground, then crouch down. “Let me get my phone.”
I blink hard and try to focus, but shock courses through me, and my mind is a mess of jumbled thoughts. Kyle doesn’t own a gun; I don’t think he even really knows how to work one. Where did he get it from? Would he actually shoot me? Is he willing to kill me? Is this really happening?
“Hurry!” he barks.
Hands shaking almost uncontrollably, I pry open my purse and dig through it.
I peek up as I do so, not daring to drop my attention from Kyle.
The mad glint in his eyes is even stronger now, as if he’s continually convincing himself to keep pointing the gun at me.
He’s desperate and half out of his mind right now, and I have no idea how far he’s willing to take this.
I know I have to do something. But what?
“This will work, this will work, this will work,” Kyle mutters to himself over and over again as he paces, still watching me with a half crazed look on his face.
My hand bumps into a small bottle in my purse. I still for a moment, frantically trying to get my thoughts in order. This may be my only option.
I wrap my hand around the bottle to hide it behind the phone as I stand, then I tuck that hand slightly behind me as I open my phone and pull up Asher’s contact and hit the call button. Kyle bounces on his heels and runs his hand through his hair over and over again as it rings.
“Ella!” Asher gasps. “Wh—
“Threatening me isn’t going to get you money, Kyle,” I interrupt, my voice shaking. “Put the gun down.”
“Put him on speaker,” Kyle demands.
I do as he says. “If you hurt a hair on her head I’ll kill you in ways you’ve never even thought of,” Asher yells.
“I won’t hurt her if you give me what I want.”
“And what is that?”
“A million dollars, wired to the account number I give you. You and this whore fucked me over and you owe me.”
“You said you didn’t have an account,” I say, then bite my tongue. Pissing him off is the last thing I want to do.
“It’s an offshore account my buddy set up for me. That’s the only option I have left.”
“Get me the information and I’ll have it wired.”
Kyle pulls out a small piece of paper out of his pocket and reads the number aloud to Asher. “I’ll release her as soon as I have confirmation the money is cleared.”
He looks at me. “Now hang up.” Kyle looks victorious and pissed off all at the same time as I do. “I knew he’d listen to reason. Looks like that golden pussy of yours worked.”
He takes a step toward me. “As a matter of fact, I’ve missed that pussy.”
I take a step backwards. “Stay away from me.”
“Why should I? I had you first before he stole you from me. I think you owe me one more time. A little goodbye.”
“Don’t you dare touch me,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Come on, Ella. For old time’s sake. No woman I’ve been with fucks like you do. I just want one more taste.”
He takes another step and I thrust my right arm forward with the small pepper spray bottle I’ve been hiding in my hand and squeeze the trigger. The spray hits him in the face, but he’s close enough that he swings his arm, and knocks the bottle out of my hand.
“You fucking bitch!”
He waves the gun around as he tries to open his squinting eyes.
I take advantage of the pause to grab the taser out of my purse.
He’s still flailing, waving the gun like a madman, and I don’t know if this a good idea or my worst idea ever, but I rush at him and touch the taser to his neck.
He hits my arm away just as I press the button, so it only makes a small amount of contact as it shocks him.
His arm twitches and a bang sounds through the small room as the gun goes off.
I scream and drop to the floor on instinct.
“YOU STUPID WHORE!” Kyle roars, slumping to the floor, rubbing at his eyes and twitching from the pain of the taser.
Kyle twitches again and the gun falls from his hand. I crawl over to him, then pick up the gun and toss it away, but before I can put some distance between us, Kyle grabs me by the hair.
“You’re going to pay for this!”
Pain bursts through the side of my face as Kyle punches me along my jaw.
Stars burst across my vision and my ears ring as I crumple in a heap on the floor.
Dizzy, I try to crawl away from him but he grabs hold of my wrist, he kicks his leg out and hits me dead in the ribs.
I cry out in pain and yank my arm, desperate to get out of his hold.
He kicks me again and I curl in on myself, the breath knocked out of me, pain exploding through my side.
Kyle gives my wrist a hard tug and pulls me toward him and I kick out my own leg this time, and hit him in his side. He hisses and drops my wrist, but grabs me by the roots of my hair again.
“I hate you,” he hisses. His eyes are half closed, and red and swollen. “This is all your fault. All of it. It didn’t need to come to this.”
He punches me again and this time when I slump to the floor, black dots swim in my vision. I blink slowly, my ears ringing again, my thoughts slow and swirling in my mind.
Away. I need to get away.
But I don’t. Instead, I freeze and stay down as Kyle nudges me with his foot.
“Serves you right, cunt,” he growls under his breath.
He must think he’s knocked me out. He groans and curses as he climbs to his feet, and I take that few seconds of distraction to scramble away.
I hurry for the bottle of pepper spray and snatch it up.
Kyle notices what I’m doing and dives for me, but he’s too late.
I spray him in the face again, but this time we’re so close that some of it backfires onto me.
I cough as it hits my nose and mouth. My eyes burn.
Kyle drops to the floor again and I pick up the dropped taser. With him writhing in agony from the clear shot of pepper spray to the face, I tase him, this time hitting him square in the neck, with no interruptions.
I back away, rubbing at my burning eyes and collapse to the floor, crawling around and using my hands to look for my phone since I can’t fully open my eyes. Just as I find it, the door bursts open and Asher, Robert, Jenkins, Waters, and three other security officers rush inside.
The security officers descend on Kyle and Asher rushes over to me. He lifts me straight from the floor into his arms.
“Ella,” Asher gasps. “Baby, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”
“I-I’m okay.”
I can’t speak more than those two words. Everything hits me, and the adrenaline that was surging through my veins since the moment I stepped into the room dies, and my body gives out. My entire body shakes, but it also feels like I was hit by a truck, and I can’t even move.
I tuck my face into Asher’s neck and try to drown out the chaos around me. The fire alarms are no longer going off, but sirens are wailing outside the hotel, people are shouting, and police officers rush into the room.
Out of the corner of my eye I see the security officers move away so the police officers can take over.
Two of them cuff Kyle then lift him up and hold him between them as they drag him out of the room.
Another officer retrieves the gun from the corner of the room, as well as my taser and pepper spray.
One of them starts to ask me questions, but Asher practically snarls at him.
“Ms. Hale is not answering any questions tonight.” His voice leaves no room for argument. “You are welcome to come by my penthouse tomorrow when she’s sorted out. You can ask your questions then.”
The officer opens his mouth like he wants to argue but thinks better of it and simply nods. Asher’s security team surrounds him as he makes his way out of the room, still carrying me.
“I’ve got you, baby,” Asher says against my temple.
Relief floods my entire system and even though I know things are strained between Asher and me, I can’t deny the visceral reaction my body has to being in his arms.
“You’re safe,” he whispers. “You can let go.”
And I do.