Chapter 2
Indie
you said you'd grow old with me - michael schulte
We arrived back at the Pit hours ago; Saint headed straight for his office with Rex and Dawson in tow. I’m in bed and staring into the pitch black.
I went straight to my room when we got back, tore the dress off my body and stood under the spray of the shower for what felt like an eternity. Hushed tears stung my eyes as they mixed with the warmth of the water. Paralysed, I watched the red liquid slowly swirl into pink, until it was clear.
Even when I’d showered up all the hot water, I still didn’t feel purified from sharing the same space with so much evil.
So many faces I recognised either by name, by chilling memories, or by eating at the same table my mom prepared.
By loving them as family.
Hidden behind their positions of power, of names you’d expect to protect you, or never be in a title to harm you. Yet the worst is still my own flesh and blood.
My sister whose very job is to check and balance the powers of the upper levels of authority. Yet there she was, standing amongst the very evil she should be fighting to protect us from.
And for what?
I spring out of bed to throw on leggings and a hoodie. I’m not sleeping with all this energy in my body, so a run might be the only answer.
When my sneaker won’t immediately go on my foot, a bolt of aggravation surges through me. I throw it off the bathroom door, hands harshly running through my hair as I squeeze my eyes shut.
A sob rattles to get free, and the moment it gets too much, my knees buckle at the joints.
My back hits against the wall on my way down to the floor, and I wrap my arms around my knees, trying to drag in the oxygen my lungs are screaming for, to relieve them from the pain clawing my chest apart. It’s about to consume me whole.
Betrayal.
That’s all I can feel running through me as it poisons my memories, icing over the red-hot blood in my veins.
She knows.
She’s had to have fucking known what they did to me.
Never mentioning a damn word about it whilst she believed Mom’s story that I was dealing with a heartbreak, even put aside our normal teasing to comfort me, holding me in her arms as the pieces of myself left me.
I never told her because I felt ashamed and didn’t want her to use her influence to bring them down. All the while?
She. Fucking. Knew.
A soft voice breaks through my spiralling of rage. “Indie?”
My watery eyes glance up to see Regina, standing at the threshold of my bedroom with her hand still on the door. She cautiously walks inside, closing the door behind her with a soft click, heading towards me as she kneels down in front of me.
“L-Louisa,” my voice stutters, war waging with the agony that now accompanies my sister’s name.
It feels like my sibling has died, and she somewhat has.
“Saint told us,” she whispers, her hand reaching out to clasp my forearm, running her thumb against the skin.
I drag in a lungful of air. “I don’t kn-know what to do.”
I don’t even feel in control of my body. My composure can’t slot itself into place, like I’ve swapped the key out and it won’t jam into the grooves.
My heart won’t stop fucking racing, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep the tears burning behind my eyes at bay.
“We’ll figure it out. We always do.”
I glance up at her, and thankfully there isn’t a trace of pity in her eyes; she looks as devastated as I feel. Regina was always by my side as a kid, and wherever Lousia went, so did we.
I now know the reason she distanced herself from us wasn’t because she got a boyfriend.
“I’m so fucking mad at myself.” A hiccup breaks my stride in forming solid words. “I looked at their police files. I should have trusted my instincts,” I admit quietly.
An admission I’ve found myself chanting over and over in my head for the last six years. Those dark days were exactly that.
A distrust followed me around for years. The only two people I could truly count on were Regina and my mom, never having a single flicker of doubts when it came to them.
Saint was no longer in the picture, otherwise he would have made up the third.
For my own sanity, I checked their names with Regina’s software, never saw anything that could have implicated them in wrongdoing.
Now I know why.
They both wielded the same power as the Montgomerys.
A shudder rakes through my bones at the thoughts of what they’ve both been capable of doing.
My face screws up tightly at the potential crimes Louisa has on her hands.
Has she committed any? Or has she merely been conditioned to follow, turning a blind eye at the horrors.
If that’s the case, she’s just as fucking compliant, and all the bullshit she spewed on her podiums has been a performance to hide her from the serpent she really is.
“You didn’t know; you can’t blame yourself for this. Look how easily they’ve all been hidden the entire time,” Regina says as she pulls me towards her.
The minute her arms capture me in hers, I break.
The sobs keep rolling, my bones keep shaking, and the pain?
It burns me alive.
After what feels like forever, when the tears finally dehydrate me, we break apart.
She gives me a faint smile, brushing the flyaway hair that’s glued to my face through the drying tears. “One of Saint’s people has contacted someone, a doctor of some sort, to come look over…Jenna.”
My muscles lock up. “Have you seen her?”
I feel her nod. “When they brought her in, I almost fell over on the spot. Dawson told me to stay so they could explain everything.” She inhales deeply, gaze dropping between us. “I can’t believe she’s alive.”
Our best friend is alive.
Well, though? That’s to be determined.
I don’t want to let my mind dwell into the horrors she’s suffered all the time she’s been away from us.
Regina unwraps herself from me, leaning against the bed to speak. “It feels weird. I’m so desperate to go speak to her, but at the same time, I don’t want to scare her.”
I nod. She’s likely traumatised; she’ll need help and support to get her back to where she once was.
Look at how long it took Regina and I to find our new normal, and we only endured that horror for a fraction of time.
“We’ll wait until the doctor comes and speak to her,” I say.
She lets out a breath. “They should be here by the morning. Shona contacted someone we could trust.”
The word trust makes me wince. I don’t think I could trust anyone outside of my safe circle again after tonight.
A jarring thought spears through me, and I jump up to my feet. “Fuck, Gina. We need to contact the girls at Egnever—”
“Already sorting it.” She smiles at me, rising to her feet. “The minute Saint said they’d outed us, I got to work on the fail safe. I’ve decommissioned our site and sent emails to take our company off the register. I sent the girls a ‘severance’ package.”
The breath I was holding during her words eases out of me. “Did you tell them to leave?”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to disturb you when I heard you in the shower. Dawson suggested we use the app and just tell them a half-truth. The girls are smart; they’ll put two and two together and realise it was us who got rid of their abusers.”
My eyes flutter shut.
It’s not how we would have wanted it, but in all honestly, we never really thought it would get to a dangerous point like this. We’ve worked hard to keep those girls safe; they don’t need our revenge plan to whip its tail on them.
“No one’s replied yet. They’re likely sleeping like normal people.” Her lips flicker up at the sides. “He’s going to come with me to make sure they’ve taken our advice.”
My shoulders snap taut. “Gina, that’s risky.”
She shakes her head, walking over to sit on the edge of my bed.
“Well, Miss Risk Taker, you’ve done most of the leg work in our gig.
Now, it’s my turn. It’s better if it’s Dawson and I that go—your face is likely the biggest target, especially with Saint.
We’ll have a group of their people with us, should only take a couple days.
Besides, we’re only making sure they have actually left. If I need to talk to them…I will.”
My feet lead me over to her, plopping me down beside her. “I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, Gina, but I really, really don’t fucking like this.”
I glance up at her, and she rolls her eyes at me, causing a lopsided smile to tilt on my face. The closest thing to appear within me since I locked eyes with my sibling during the event.
She huffs a laugh. “Mocking my earlier words, how observant of you. At least this time we have a bunch of tactically trained maniacs looking over our backs. It’s not just the two of us anymore.”
A sigh forces itself from me, and I rub my forehead with my fingers, trying to soothe the ache from the tornado of feelings that’s taken over my body, and the pounding headache from my tears.
“As long as Dawson knows I’ll fuck him up if you don’t get back here.”
She nudges my shoulder with hers. “I’ll be fine. He’s promised to keep me safe.”
My throat works down a gulp, and I shift my gaze from her to stare at the wall. “Did they tell you who we saw on stage?”
The names and faces of the hierarchy are still burning hot in the back of my retinas, something I’ll likely never forget.
“I missed that part; I was too stunned at seeing Jenna being wheeled away and actually alive.”
I cock my head, glancing down at my hands, palms sliding backwards and forwards as I think of the new additions to my kill list.
Each name tastes like venom as they pour from my lips.
Judge Montgomery
Conrad Montgomery
George Montgomery
Barry Kensington
Louisa Kensington
And last but by no means least, the Chief of Police…Craig Patterson.
Regina jolts back at the last name, her word lowered by a whisper. “No.”
“Makes sense now, doesn’t it?”
The chief wouldn’t take our statement seriously.
He wouldn’t even give us a chance to bring in witnesses, because he’d deemed us liars from the moment we said his fellow buddies’ names.
All the while, he knew we would have been telling the truth.
My molars threaten to crack when I think about it. How long has he worked with my sister and brother-in-law? Did he tell them the minute I left the station?
That just solidifies that Louisa knew fucking all along.
My eyes bat closed, and I interlink my fingers as I squeeze my hands together tightly, trying to conceal the new wave of rage coursing through me.
And when I speak, I don’t even recognise my voice.
Like a darkened force has taken over me, washing away any traces of the Indie I once was.
What happened to me after my assault changed me, but the Indie who’s been betrayed by her own flesh and blood?
She’s lethal.
You could even say she’s about to become heartless, because no one in their right mind would even consider what I’m about to do.
This will tear my family apart if I’m ever caught, but right now, I’m so far down the path of destruction that I can’t find it in myself to care.
“They won’t be a problem for much longer.”
“What do you mean?” Regina asks, leaning forward, and I twist my head to look at her.
“Because all six of them are going to die, Gina. Even my sister.”