Irrevocably Mine (Imagine Ink Book 3) (22 page)

But instead of a bullet to the brain, she got a butt to the temple. She went down hard, but mercy was not on her side, for she maintained consciousness. Hank came down on top of her, digging the barrel into her side. It was so hard, she thought for sure it would penetrate her skin. The good thing she noticed, or bad, depending on her current fluctuating perspective, was it was angled hard upward, toward the ceiling. If he shot now, she would bleed like a stuck pig, but it would pierce little more than her fat.
Thank you, pizza
.

“Don’t say that! DON’T YOU EVER SAY THAT!” He went from angry to hurt little boy so fast, Stacy couldn’t keep up. “You love me. ME. Not him. ME.” Then, he kissed her, gentle and almost lovingly. If Stacy didn’t know better, she would believe he was honestly in love with her.

Stacy twisted her head enough to dislodge his lips, and spat to the side. “Gross. Do you kiss your brother and sister lovers with that mouth. Besides, didn’t you catch some root rot or something from the Pryces? I don’t want any of that.” The flash of anger that preceded the punch wasn’t enough to give her dodge time, so she took it. Once the birds stopped tweeting, she met his eyes again.
Yep, he’s fucking off his rocker.

The calm manner with which he spoke let her know he was all-in. This was a death match. One of them would not walk out that door. “Don’t ever speak of them or your goddamned bearded giant ever again. Once I’m inside you, everything will be all right. And after I come, I’ll blow your fucking head off while my dick is still twitching in your cunt. And do you want to know why? Because you ruined my life. From the moment I met you, all the good things in my life turned to shit. Even now, I want you, but I fucking despise you and that makes me hate you more. As long as you’re alive, I can’t be happy. So, you have to go.”

Holy shit on a Triscut. Hank is crazier than I thought.
After he spoke, the anger melted out of his eyes and they were just…blank. Nothing. No hate, no love, no anger, no recognition, nothing. This was it. She would die in a few minutes, but not before being raped. It was incomprehensible to her. How could it come to this? She needed to spark his anger or something, because this nothingness was bad news. Stacy had been around enough psychos and sociopaths to know that
nothing
was the end game.

“I hate you, Hank. I once cared for you, but I never loved you, not like I thought I did, not like I love Dax. I fucking hate you and if I die at your hands, I will fucking come back and haunt you. You’ll see me around every corner and you’ll never be free. Mark my words, I will find a way, because you’ve taken something from me that I can never replace. Something that will follow my soul into the afterlife and haunt me…”

Still,
nothing
. Hank was damn near placid in his answers while absently petting her hair. He exhaled loudly. “Quit bitching. It won’t change anything that’s going to happen and I find it tedious that you are still holding onto the crap about the fake tit or the short hair or the sense of peace or any of the other things you said in your victim statement. Get over it already. Embrace your fate. I have.”

“Oh, my God, you’re such a simple-minded creature, Hank. You think this is about what you did back then? Oh, honey, you didn’t really do shit back then, that was all DJ and Meshelle, they were the brains, you were just the hired help. What you really took from me just stood in that doorway.” There was a flash of anger in his eyes.
Good.
She needed that. It fueled her own and her voice rose. “What you took from me is the only man I ever loved and now I will sit back and die at your hands without a single piece of him with me. That is what will cause my restless soul, not you, but Dax.” As soon as the words exited her mouth, another thought swirled in her mind.

Wait, I do have a piece of Dax with me, and I will not die without him. I will not die at all. I may be a badass modern woman who doesn’t need a man to save her, but this time, one will.
She angled her body and reached for her boot.

D
ax was devastated
, absolutely devastated. That was the only word for it. It was like someone detonated an H-bomb in his chest and leveled his whole world except for Macy. He would go home, hug his daughter, and build a life for them without Stacy. He didn’t have a clue how to do it, but he had to try. Maybe he could sell his house and move out of the state, hell, out of the country. Go wherever Macy wanted to live. Maybe close to Sam’s rehab and halfway house so Macy would have her mom, too. All he knew right now was that his heart was breaking and he didn’t know where to turn. He couldn’t run to Gus, which was his first inclination.

Not only was she pregnant and didn’t need the stress, but she and Stacy had started getting close. He wouldn’t interfere, especially since he knew how hard it was for Stacy to make girlfriends. The Reids were out, he’d imposed on them already and didn’t want to see the disappointment in either of their faces when he said it was a no-go. Walker was his go-to guy, but hell, he wouldn’t take a dump on his weekend at the beach.

He was so discombobulated, he was having trouble driving, so he pulled over a few blocks down the road. Picking up his phone, he dialed John. While it rang, he prayed he would have a better cell connection and some wisdom for him. If not, he was screwed. Royally.

“Hey, Dax, what’s up?”

Dax took a deep breath and started to spill. Everything.

“It’s your sister, man. She told me it was just sex and we had nothing and never would. She had a guy over already, a freaking guy. She made the asshole dinner, can you believe that? It took a year to get her to cook for me, hell, I didn’t even know she could. Her hair was all fuck-rumpled, too. Sorry man, I know she’s your blood, but it was pretty obvious she just crawled out of bed. Not to mention the short-ass skirt and kitten boots. How could I have been so wrong? Hell, how could you? You, of all people, should have known.”

Dax heard John trying to get a word in edgewise, around his accusations, but he talked right over him. Dax was in full-on emotional blast, it couldn’t be helped.

“Who was this guy? Did you actually see him or did she just say…”

“I saw his ass, all right.” Dax was harsher with John than he should’ve been, so he regulated his volume to defeated. “I saw him. She put her arm around him, introduced him and acted like I was just someone she met in passing. I felt…shit, I don’t even know. But to come from such a high of getting my daughter back and thinking of being a family with her, to this is just…catastrophic. And she was acting weird. Called me Daxton, wouldn’t let the guy introduce himself. Acting shy. I don’t know who he is, but he’s changing her already, and not for the better.”

John’s tone was more serious than he remembered hearing it in the past, and they had discussed some pretty heavy shit in their time as friends. “Dax, what exactly did she say when she introduced him? Word for word, as best you can remember?”

“What does it matter? She’s with him and not…”

“It matters a whole hell of a lot, Dax, now think, damn it, what did she say?” It wasn’t John’s nature to be snippy or interrupt, so Dax took notice. Somehow, it was important to John, and if that were the case, it’s important, period.

“Well, I don’t remember exactly, I was thinking of other things, like the fact he kissed her right there in the doorway. She wouldn’t even open the door all the way for me. Like she was scared of me or something.”

“Dax? I love you, man, but if you don’t fucking focus, I will kick your ass as soon as I get back to Florida.” Dropping f-bombs? Something was seriously under the man’s skin.

“He went to introduce himself, but Stacy jumped in. Said his name was Harrison and they met at a case party or something. What does it matter anyway, John? She’s obviously over me or was never mine at all. I don’t know what to do right now, maybe I’ll take Macy on a vacation. Figure things out. Walker can run the shop without me. I can’t stay here and watch her with other men. Been there, done that, got the damn T-shirt.” Dax’s misery was interrupted by the sound of a car door slamming shut, and the seat belt reminder chime, followed by squealing tires. It was obvious he was now on speakerphone. “John? What’s going on? What am I miss…”

“Dax, hang up and call the cops. Get back to Stacy’s house, now. I am three hours away, but if I don’t get pinched, I can make it in one and half, but that won’t be soon enough. You’ve got to get to her…NOW!”

“Dude, I don’t understand? I told you, she’s fine, shacking up with some douchebag for the night, one that can’t possibly love her like I do, but she’s…”

“JUST LISTEN. I know you’re hurt and you’re not thinking right, but I need you to snap the fuck out of it.”
Another f-bomb, shit.
“Because of the people she deals with, her firm has set phrases for different scenarios, kind of like the military employs fake passwords to indicate trouble. They rotate them every so often, but the current one for hostage situations is to reference Mrs. Harrison’s case party. I insist on knowing them, too, it’s one of the few protections she allows me. While her message was chopped up, it still had the key components. So, I need you to get your ass back over to my sister’s house and take a weapon. I won’t survive it if I lose her. And I can assure you, you won’t either.”

Dax had nothing to say, he was dumbfounded. Did all the clues really add up to this guy holding his Stacy hostage and not her giving up on them? He flashed the whole thing in his mind but in fast-forward. “Shit, I think you’re right.” Dax had already whipped the car around, throwing rocks up on the fenders, but he didn’t give a flying rat’s ass. “What exactly does Hank look like?”

Things started adding up, the hand behind the door that he never saw. “Harrison” trying to introduce himself but only getting a single syllable out before Stacy stepped in. Dax was puzzled as to how Stacy expected him to know the clues…
shit, she didn’t. She was just trying to save me, not herself.
That didn’t matter now; nothing did, except getting inside that house.

“Hank is rather average to me. Five-eight, five-nine, slender build. Brown hair, green eyes. A rose tattoo that you can barely see just a petal of if he’s in a T-shirt…”

Dax interrupted him with a roar of frustration. “That bastard. I was face to face with him and I didn’t know. I swear, if he’s hurt Stacy in any way, I’ll kill him.”

“Take a number, he’s already on my list. Moved to the top when Stacy told me she saw him lurking around.” Dax’s growl must’ve conveyed his thoughts loud and clear. “If it’s any consolation, I was pissed she didn’t tell you, and she planned to, but I ended up with her phone, and you were gone. Well, you know the rest. Are you there yet, how far away are you?”

“We’ll table this discussion for later, we have more important things going on right now. I just coasted up the road. I don’t want them to know I’m coming. I’m going to try to find a way in and surprise them. I’m hanging up now, you call 911.” Dax didn’t give John the time to respond, he was already jogging toward the side of Stacy’s house.

He didn’t tell John, but he didn’t want the cops to get there too fast. Right or wrong, Dax wanted to take justice into his own hands. Guilt drove his feet but love drove his heart. He had failed her in the most basic way possible—not protecting her and believing the worst. Dax knew it would take a long time for her to forgive him, but even longer to forgive himself. He vowed to spend the rest of his life making this up to her.

T
he gun dug
in harder to her flank, halting her quest to reach her boot.
Momentarily
, she told herself,
just momentarily
. As she stiffened her body, Hank adjusted the pitch of the gun until it was no longer in the safe zone. Stacy had to minimize her risk before she revealed the ace up her sleeve, or rather, the knife in her boot. She would get one shot, and one shot only to stop him. If she missed, she would never make it to Dax to tell him that everything she said tonight was a lie, to confess her love or feel his touch ever again. And that was unacceptable.