His Confession (By His Command #8) (6 page)

She was vicious.

“So, the choice is yours.”
Katherine stood from her seat and looked at her nails. “I guess this
is
my fault. I did attack Kellen right after getting my
nails done. But, oh well, once I have my three billion, everything will work
out just fine. Won’t it, Isabella Grace?”

“I...”

“Think about Kellen. Make
your decision.”

Katherine walked towards the
cockpit of the plane. I couldn’t believe it when I saw her enter the cockpit.
She sat down like nothing else mattered.

And that’s when it
clicked...

Why Katherine chose Kellen.

He was Jonathan’s newest and
greatest enemy. Maybe somewhere inside of Jonathan he wanted Kellen dead. And
if that were true, he would want it done by his own hands. Not someone else’s.
Especially at the hands of Katherine.

My heart pounded.

It made sense.

I had to leave Jonathan
Black, for a little while.

I had to save Kellen’s life.

-7-

When we landed and Jonathan
woke, I had to sit on the bed with him and explain what had happened. His face
turned a deep shade of red and when he grabbed my wrist I thought he was going
to break it.

“You didn’t wake me then?”
he growled.

“Mr. Black, I tried...”

And I honestly had tried. I
maybe could have poured ice cold water over his face but I was just remembering
what the doctor had said. That Jonathan needed rest. That he was going to be
exhausted. Not to mention what Katherine would do then if I pulled Jonathan
into another situation.

I sat confused and hurt.

“She’s on my plane?”
Jonathan asked.

“She was co-piloting,” I
said. “She was waiting for me...”

Jonathan hurried from the
bed. When he stood I watched him stumble. He put his left hand out and when it
hit the wall, it looked like his entire arm collapsed. He fell into the wall,
his forehead resting against it. I cried his name and hurried to his aid. I
touched his sides.

“I’m fine,” he said.
“Just... woozy. When are we landing?”

“We did land,” I said. “Five
minutes ago. I’ve been trying to wake...”

Jonathan threw an elbow, not
meaning to hit or hurt me, but to move me. To find his own balance. To find
Katherine.

He took two stumbling steps
and then opened the bedroom door. He stormed out of the bedroom and after a few
seconds I heard him let out a series of curses. His voice was of a man
possessed, a man that was scarier than anything I had ever experienced in my
life.

And worse yet, I saw
something hanging on the bedroom door.

A black coat.

My heart sank as I walked to
it.

The coat hadn’t been there
an hour ago. Someone had put it there. And I knew just by looking at it that it
wasn’t one of Jonathan’s coats. I took the coat down and brought it to the bed.
I checked the pockets, and sure thing, in the left breast pocket, I found a
cell phone.

A black cell phone.

I pressed a button and the
screen lit up.

A text message.

From...
‘K’
...

I opened the message.

He’s still dying. No
Jonathan. Only you.

I looked over my shoulder
and Jonathan was still gone.

I wrote back to Katherine,
moving as fast as I could, fearing the results if Jonathan caught me texting
her.

Where is he?

I left the jacket on the bed
and took the phone. I left the room and hoped that Jonathan would sell the
plane - or burn it. I never wanted to be on that plane again. In fact, I wanted
to never be anywhere Katherine had been. When I saw Jonathan appear from the
cockpit I realized my last thought was false. There was one place I would be
that Katherine had been... Jonathan. Only I would have him until death. It
would be the only way to take me away from him forever.

The phone vibrated as
Jonathan spoke.

“It’s all clear,” he said.
“She must have had a car waiting.”

He took a step and leaned to
the left, seeking something to balance on.

“Let’s get back to the
hotel,” I said. “Then we can figure out what to do next. Get food. Get wine.”

“Get revenge,” Jonathan
added.

Thankfully, when we left the
plane, the limo waiting thankfully was waiting only a few feet away. Jonathan
didn’t have to do much walking which was good. He had no balance and he looked
tired, famished, and too annoyed to function. We got into the limo and it
started to drive. It actually took off with a little more speed than I had
anticipated. I gripped the door handle and Jonathan’s leg. My heart jumped and
I expected Katherine to turn around and secretly be the driver.

It was just a regular limo
driver and we had a normal ride to the hotel.

However, two men held the
doors open for us and we rode the elevators in silence. I looked down a few
times at Jonathan’s hand, his fingers lingering so close to mine. I thought
about all the romantic things he had said to me and I wondered (and worried) if
he meant any of it. It could have been the poison making him say crazy things.
Or maybe the poison had opened his mind enough that he spoke the truth to me.

The elevator doors opened
and we walked to the room. I slipped my arm around Jonathan’s arm and made sure
he didn’t fall. We successfully made it into the hotel room where Jonathan
promptly went to the couch and collapsed. He did so in such a graceful fashion
that I pretended nothing was wrong.

“I’m sort of hungry,” I
whispered.

“Yes,” Jonathan said. “We’ll
get food first.”

Jonathan ordered as I snuck
into the bathroom, pretending to need to use it. That’s when I checked the cell
phone.

The message from Katherine
read a number and nothing else.

251.

Room 251?

I opened my mouth to ask
something as though someone was with me. I was about to text Katherine back
when it finally hit me.

Kellen was in the same hotel
as Jonathan and I.

I slipped the phone back
into my pocket and left the bathroom. When I walked to the couch I noticed
Jonathan was asleep.

I didn’t have time to wait
for food.

And I didn’t have time for
anything really. If Katherine was telling the truth - and so far her record
with me remained unblemished - Kellen was slowly dying. If Kellen died at the
hands of Katherine and not Jonathan, that would be the end of Jonathan. He’d
flip. He’d lose all control.

I kissed the top of
Jonathan’s head and paused for a second to admire how he looked when sleeping.
How his face still looked stern. How I knew he was still thinking. Still
processing. Still planning. His face was beautiful, intense and almost scary.
But I knew the capabilities of his mind. Of his hands. Of his body.

And I had to save it.

I had to keep Jonathan Black
level.

And I had to do something
about Katherine. Maybe just standing up to her would chase her away. Maybe she
sought fear over money. Jonathan would never give her a penny. Even if it meant
dying because of it.

The thought made me shiver
as I snuck to use the phone to call room service. I told them to please hold
the order for another hour, that Mr. Black and I were napping and were not to
be disturbed. The man on the other end of the line had the cheery sound of a
person who won the lottery... and it was because they were on the line with
Jonathan Black’s room.

I put the phone down and I
left the room, running to the elevators.

I had the general idea of
the hotel setup and found Kellen’s room with no problem. When I got off on his
floor I saw a trashcan in the corner of the elevator area and I threw the cell
phone out.

I wanted nothing more to do
with Katherine.

I’d save Kellen, for
Jonathan’s sake, and then it would be up to Jonathan to decide what to do. I’d
tell him and then it would be done.

At Kellen’s door there was a
Do
Not Disturb
sign hanging from the door
handle. Even the smallest gestures from Katherine were laced with lethal
intentions.

I pushed on the door handle
and the door was open. How, I didn’t know. I rushed into the room and looked
around. It was clean and eerily perfect. The bedroom door was open and I saw
something that looked all too familiar.

A pair of black shoes
pointing in the air.

-8-

When I walked into the room,
I screamed at the sight of Kellen.

He was tied to the bed with
ropes and chains, the worst of it being a thin black leather belt strapped
across his neck. It was tight and I understood what Katherine had done. She
made it so tight that it was just cutting off Kellen’s air. Any movement he made,
any sound he made, made the belt tighter on his neck. The panic would set in
and that’s when Kellen would die. He’d thrash and scream to death.

When he saw me, his eyes
widened.

He whispered, “Help me...
Isabella Grace...”

“What did you do?” I asked.
“Did you talk to her?”

“She said she was working
for Jonathan. I knew it was a lie. She always lied to me.”

Kellen coughed and his face
turned red. He tried to move his head and the belt cut tighter against his
throat.

I grabbed the belt and fought
with it for a few seconds. I was finally able to loosen it enough to open it. I
pulled it off the bed and threw it. I fell to my knees next to the bed and let
out a cry. Kellen coughed and began to thank me.

“Isabella Grace,” he said.
“You saved me. You came for me.”

“Not for you,” I said,
forcing myself to stand. “For him. For Jonathan Black.”

“He wanted me alive?”

“I don’t know. But I know he
didn’t want you dead at her hands.”

“She attacked me,” Kellen
said. “Does she actually work for him? I thought he finally set me up. I never
thought he’d be that crazy.”

“Crazy?” I asked and
laughed. “You don’t know crazy, Kellen. Katherine does not work for Jonathan
Black. If he has something to take care of, he does it in person.”

I don’t know why but I
started to get angry. I was loud, annoyed, and defending Jonathan. Something
about the idea of Jonathan not being able to handle his own business really
bothered me.

“I’m sorry,” Kellen said.
“Can you get the rest of these undone?”

I looked at Kellen on the
bed and had the urge to walk away. If I walked away, Kellen would live. He’d
have a hell of a time getting out of the bed but he’d make it.

I walked to the bed and
untied one of the ropes, freeing his right hand. Kellen made a fist a few times
and let out a sigh of relief.

“That’s all I’m doing for
you,” I said.

“I don’t care,” Kellen said.
“I can get out now. Thank you, Isabella Grace.”

“Don’t thank me for
anything,” I said. “I wasn’t sure what to do about this...”

“You’d let me die?”

“I thought about it.”

Kellen flashed his perfect
smile and his perfect eyes. A sense of confidence waved over him, chasing away
the look of fear and death. He knew he was okay now and in that quick moment, I
regretted helping him.

“And this is the life you
want?” he asked.

“What life?”

“This life. Running up and
down a hotel, saving people. Worrying about dying. Watching those close to you
face death. All because of Jonathan Black?”

My lips moved but no words
came out. Kellen had a point, even if it was one I didn’t want to believe. Of
course everything was Jonathan Black’s fault. That’s what happened when people
wanted what you had. When people wanted to be you. What happened when you were
the best at what you did... everyone wanted their shot. But for all the bad
Jonathan and I had to face - together - he gave me purpose and pleasure,
something Kellen didn’t understand and never would.

“We can go right now,”
Kellen said. “I have a plane waiting.”

“Save your breath,” I said.

“I can take you from this.
We can hide anywhere in the world, as long as you want. I’ll let you into my
business. We can work together... you won’t work for me...”

“I don’t work for anybody,”
I said.

Kellen laughed. “Yes you do.
Think about it.”

I leaned closer to the bed
and hated Kellen for talking. I should have put a sock in his mouth before
helping him. An urge came over me and I swung my hand at his face. The slap
echoed in the room and Kellen groaned.

It felt good to do.

“Never,” I said. “Get out of
this bed and get out of this hotel for good.”