41. Chapter 41
Chapter 41
Rina
I panicked when he lunged for me, and I did the only thing I could think of. Ran.
It led me to the room with the pictures I saw earlier, his “office”. I struggle to get the door open as Tyler chases me with shocking speed. I finally get the door open and go stumbling through it, landing on the floor.
“Now, now, Marina. Is that any way to treat the man you’re with?” His sinister tone sends chills down my spine.
I scramble on the floor, bumping into the desk, which draws my attention to the room.
Pictures. Hundreds of them cover every wall in the room. A lot are of me, but there are a handful of other women on here too.“What is this?” I whisper, not even realizing I’m asking out loud.
“This is where I keep track of my women.” He says it so simply, like it’s normal human behavior to have creepily taken pictures tacked up in a room.
“Your women?”
“You thought you were the only one?” His laughter is cold but has an edge of hysterics to it. “You may be my favorite at the moment, but you aren’t my only. One day, I’ll have all of you here. Serving me just like you should be.”
He’s wistfully daydreaming about how he expects the women he stalks to just fall in line. How utterly delusional. But it’s that thought that forces me to focus. If he’s delusional, I need to use it against him or outsmart him. I can’t be stuck in here with him because Lord knows what else he has planned. Hell, he may have a fucking dungeon somewhere, but I’m not sticking around to find out.
“How many are there?” Instead of asking about what he means by serving, I need to get more information about the other women. I’m not sure how easily the police can figure things out just from photographs, so the more I can get, the better.
“Currently? Six. There were a few other possibilities, but they fell through.” He takes a step closer to me, a coy smirk on his face.
“Why did they fall through?”
“One I lost track of; another was engaged. She wasn’t one of my favorites, so I decided to be gracious and let her go. There were two others who moved away. Following them felt unnecessary since I had the seven of you already in place.” He steps to the side of the desk, grabbing something off of it, and I resist the urge to vomit all over his shoes. Although that may not be the worst way to distract him. He’s holding up duct tape and an ominous leer, and no matter how much true crime I’ve watched, witnessing something like this in person is a whole different ball game.
“Ha-have you done this before?” I’m scared to ask, but I know we need to know if there are other victims.
God, I hate that word. I don’t want to be a victim.
“When I was in college” —he crouches down to my level, almost caging me in— “I became infatuated with two girls. I followed them everywhere and just wanted to be a part of their life. I knew they wanted me to. They were friends and said hello to me a couple of times when they passed by. I followed them a lot, learned their patterns, but then summer break came and the next semester they were just gone.” Anger litters his voice.
Good, they got away.
“And am I the first you’ve … brought home?” I’m not sure if this is the right approach. It could tip my hand or make me sound interested in his life. I’m hoping against hope it’s the latter.
“You kind of forced my hand, lovely Marina. I wasn’t ready for you yet. But that’s okay. I have enough ready that we’ll make do.” He holds his hand out, and I debate what to do. If I take his hand, does it lessen my chance to walk out of here? If I don’t, does he flip his personality like Dr. Jekyll?
Fuck it.
I take his hand as we both stand up, and he forcefully pulls me out of the room and back into his bedroom. He shoves me onto the bed, and fear creeps up my spine. I don’t know how many options I have here, and panic is starting to set in. I need a level head to get out of this, especially since I can’t access my phone easily anymore.
He paces back and forth in front of me, and I calculate if I could beat him to the front door, but his height and speed would beat me every time.
There’s tension in the air, heavy with uncertainty and fear on my end .
I’m not even sure who moves first, but I know that I don’t want to be in here anymore. I don’t want to know any more information, and I want to get the fuck out of here and to my husband immediately.
I tackle Tyler as he lunges for me. He wasn’t going to get the better of me, no; I was going to take care of this once and for all. I have a life to live, after all. I hit him with all my force, my arms wrapped around his middle like a football tackle as I take him down against the dresser. I hear an awful thud, but I know it wasn’t from me, so I don’t care.
I have him cornered against the piece of furniture and the wall, and I think I hurt his arm when I tackled him to the floor because he’s whimpering like a little bitch. Some macho man he’s ended up being. Folds immediately when hurt. I’d roll my eyes if I wasn’t so damn terrified and angry. I scramble to stand up, still blocking any chance of him going anywhere.
“How dare you think you can just take what you want! Especially a whole-ass person! Seven people!” I yell at him. He doesn’t respond, so I nudge him with my foot, which has him sniveling.
“Stop! Please!” he sobs, and now I do roll my eyes. How fucking pathetic is he? A weak man with a superiority complex.
“What the hell were you going to do with me?” I hear people clamoring into the small room, but I hold my hand up. I’m not done here, and they can wait until I am.
“I-I-I—” he stutters.
“Spit it out. You’ve fucked with my life for too long, and I want more answers.”
“I thought you wanted me. We saw each other a long time ago, and you looked at me like you wanted me. And I tried to get you to go out with me, and then you left with him.” He sneers, looking behind my shoulder, where I assume Arlo is. “And it made me crazy. You were mine. All those other women are supposed to be mine too,” he says under his breath. “Treat me like a king and love me the way I should be loved.” He gains an air of his complex back, and it only makes me want to punch him.
“And do the others know about you? Have you left them little presents too?” I push. This is what we need.
He looks at me with hatred in his eyes, but he doesn’t talk. I shove him again with my foot, careful not to give him the opportunity to grab me, even though he’s now surrounded.
“Most don’t know I’ve been watching them.”
“And the others?”
“I brought them here,” he murmurs, and I can barely hear him.
“Speak up. Did you do something to them? Did you take without giving a shit about them? Without asking if they wanted it?” I sneer. I feel like Arlo’s going to have to pull me off of this piece of shit. “Did you go into their houses too when they slept? Go through their underwear drawer? Their dirty laundry and steal shit, like you did me?” My voice gets louder as I start to lose my patience. I’m shaking with disgust and on the verge of being sick. The realization of what’s happening, what’s been happening, is becoming overwhelming.
“Y-y-yes.” He trembles with fear. I take a step closer to him and he curls in on himself, probably realizing he isn’t getting out of this.
“You’re a piece of shit. Using fear and manipulation to feed your ego because you can’t get a woman any other way. You put on a persona and fake us out, and then strike like a fucking coward. So pathetic.” I close my hands into fists and take a step back, right into Arlo’s arms. I can feel him shaking, or maybe that’s me. I can’t tell. I grab his hand and drag him out of the house. I need out of here as much as he clearly does. Judging by the number of officers here, they’ll take care of Tyler. I don’t even care if I never hear what he did to the others. Honestly, it’s probably better if I don’t know. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to handle that at the moment.
Once we’re through the front door, I sit down on the front step and urge Arlo to join me.
Relief like I’ve never known mixed with the adrenaline drop make me feel like I’m back in the hospital, waiting for news on Lennox.
“God, I fucking love you,” Arlo breaths out with sheer awe on his face. “I was so damn scared when the officers noticed things were happening. I burst in there to find you telling him off while he cowers in the corner. Such a badass.” He shakes his head with mirth.
“I don’t even know what just happened,” I breathe out. “What the actual fuck was that?! Also, don’t ever let me pretend to plan an epic police shakedown because that was a terrible fucking plan! I’m not cut out for this shit.” Tears start to well up in my eyes, and I know I’m very close to losing my shit. The comfort of having Arlo here makes me feel safe enough to just feel everything.
“That’s what I was saying the whole time,” he grumbles.
“You were right.” I sniffle, trying desperately not to cry. I was a total badass back there, according to my husband. And now I’m close to a full-on breakdown.
My husband.
That’s the second time I’ve thought that today. The realization jolts me from my almost meltdown. I know I told him to burn the divorce papers, but that feels very different from perceiving him as my husband. And yet, it’s the most natural thing I’ve ever felt. Like building a dresser or hiking to the falls, it’s like he’s always held the title. Not because of paperwork but because we were always connected, always meant to be husband and wife, no matter what life threw at us.
“Hey.” He wraps an arm around my shoulders. “You’re okay. You’re safe. I’d never let anything happen to you,” he mutters against my temple.
“I’m okay,” I attempt to say with conviction. All I want is to go anywhere but here and talk to him. “Are we able to go home?”
When he doesn’t answer right away, I look up at him and see tension in his eyes. Sighing, I know we’re in for a long night.
“I’m sorry. They’re going to want statements. If they don’t get them tonight, they’ll need them another day, and I’d just as soon get all of this over with. They probably need to check you out too.”
“I’m fine. They need to check Tyler out because he was crying like he broke something in there.” I chuckle, but he doesn’t join in.
“You could be in shock,” he says quietly.
“Listen, I’m not going to pretend I’m perfectly fine after that, but don’t micromanage my reaction to it all. I just want to put this whole thing behind us, getting these statements over with so we can go home and decompress with each other, and I can freak out in private.” I’m rambling—I know I am—but I don’t want to be here any longer than we need to be. The house creeps me out, and knowing that Tyler is only a few feet away is starting to get to me. Maybe this is shock, but I’m not going anywhere but home to deal with it.
Oakley walks through the front door, nodding to us both as he walks around us on the front steps.
“Lieutenant Kempe said we could go down to the police department and give our statements to one of the officers there. He knows how to reach Arlo and me if he needs more than that. He said as long as Rina doesn’t need medical attention, we’re good to go.” He eyes me like he’s waiting for me to lie to him.
“We’re good. Do we have a car to take us there? My truck is still at the station,” Arlo says as he stands up and then helps me to join them.
“Yeah, an officer is going to take us back.”
We follow Oakley, no one saying a word. The entire drive to the station is the same, and I’m grateful because there is too much running through my head right now. What I do know is I’m ready to put this nightmare behind me and start the life I always wanted.