Sweetest Torture (Sweetest Kill Book 2) (6 page)

“No.”

“She was strung out on drugs when
she told him she was pregnant. He owes an old associate a lot of money. When
Matthew Corvus died and Ryan took over, the human trafficking stopped. You see
Ryan is really the boss of this town. Several towns in the surrounding the area
actually and he’s a big deal. When he took over he put his foot down on dad’s
trafficking. He stopped it. He said my dad would be dead if he ever found out
that another person was traded.

Dad tried to go behind Ryan’s back,
he set up trafficking shipments. Ryan’s men found out and killed dad’s
transporters and released the women and children dad was trying to sell. Dad
ended up owing money back to all of the people who paid him up front for
people. He has nothing left. He might look rich, but all of his money is either
borrowed or stolen. What he makes in drug sales he has to give in repayment.”

“When your brother knocked my sister
up, dad thought he had a perfect in. He could say the baby was being put up for
adoption and sell her to a man he use to work with. Gary Leonard. Gary is a
complete douche but his wife has always wanted a baby. Dad talked to him and
Gary offered $5.3 million to dad if he would sell him Ashley’s baby. Of course
when Jaxon decided to keep the baby, dad lost yet another associate tie and the
lanes he was promising to buy with the money for the baby were given to someone
else. Dad was looking forward to that income.”

“Then he kicked Ashley out. He
disowned her. He was supporting her drug habit in exchange for her doing some
other things for him and his associates. When that happened she kind of
snapped. She blamed you, she knew that you had moved in with Jaxon. She said
everyone in school was talking about it. So she went and hired Dean. She knew
of him through hearing about Ryan and his “muscle” hit man, Dean is good at
what he does and everyone knows it. When Dean didn’t get the job done in time,
she opened another contract with one of dad’s men. Ashley believed if you were
dead, Jaxon would give up on being a single dad. When Dean found out she hired
another hit man, he killed Frank. Frank was Dad’s most prized associate. He had
been with dad for years. So all of that catches you up on why my dad is pissed
at you. Dean killed Frank to keep you alive. You helped Jaxon keep our niece
and cost dad that money.”

I curl tighter under the blankets.
Needing to feel some level of comfort rather than all this talk about how much
I ruined everything for these crazy people. I glance at the Water lilies. I
need to relax.

“Now as for what I have to do with
all of this.” He stops for a moment. He watches me for several moments,
whatever he is about to tell me I think he is worried that he can’t trust me.

“I hate my sister. I hate my father
even more. I work here because I am… I am an undercover agent with the FBI. Now
before you get all excited thinking that I can let you go. I can’t. I am
working with my father, but I am working against him in the bigger picture. We
were not expecting him to take you hostage. You are a slight bump in the grand
scheme of things. I am going to do whatever I can to keep you safe, but if you
let anyone know the truth, or you don’t do exactly as I tell you to do. You are
going to end up dead. My father’s men will kill you before you even get out the
front door. I need you to trust me. I am going to find a way to get you out of
this, especially before you start to show.” He gestures to my stomach “Do you
know how far along you are?”

I am unsure exactly. “I don’t
really know. I was 5 weeks when Dean told me but I am not really sure.”

“So we will have to say you are
about 7 weeks now. Which means we really need to get rolling on Dean, we need
to get his attention and get him to pay so we can get you out of here before you
start to show. Because if we don’t. There will be no going back. My father will
never let you go.”

His words cause an ice cold shiver
to run down my back. Because I know he is right. He fucking sells people to
make a living, whether Ryan knows he is doing it or not, I know that he could
make a sale if he really wanted to and that sale could be my baby.

And for the first time in all of
this mess I am not angry at myself. I am angry at Ashley. This is on her, not
me. I just need to do what Adam asks me to and get the hell out of here.

Apparently, Red knows a banker.
Several bankers who were on his old payroll before shit went south. These
bankers have been filling out fraudulent loans and giving the money to Red who has
not been able to pay them back. The bankers have stopped reporting on the loss
of money. Some of them have ended up in prison, while others have ended up
dead. Adam said that Red is killing the bankers off before they can tell the
Feds that he is the one that owes the money. Adam said he has embezzled
millions over the last 10 years. Not just from banks, but from other
organizations. He’s a sneaky man. Add on the human trafficking and drug cartel,
he’s wanted.

That’s what you get for being shady
and stealing money. Now the FBI have enough information, but want to try and
nail Red on all charges possible. So Adam is working with him to get the inside
information on how he does his dealings. Adam said he is has one more thing
that he has to solve, he says it’s a human trafficking sale that he needs to
find the location of the woman. He doesn’t tell me who. But I get the feeling
that he has a personal stake at finding whoever is missing.

There is nothing for me to do but
sit back and wait he tells me. I will do as Red says. I will do as the other
men say, and I will act like I am afraid unless I want to tip them off. It
doesn’t matter that I know that Adam is helping me, I am still going to be
afraid. My entire life is being placed into the hands of a man I do not know
yet is fully on my side. Really I have no choice but to trust him.

Adam calls Dean. He doesn’t call
him from the room with me however. Which I found odd. I would have liked to
talk to Dean and find out if he was going to do what Red was asking to get me
back.

When Adam comes back in he doesn’t
look overly pleased.

“Dean and Red made contact. Dean
just told me.”

Relief rushes through my body.

“So he’s going to pay, he’s going
to get me out?”

“No.” Adam says

My heart sinks. “Oh.” I manage

I mean that was a possibility. I
knew that all along there was a chance that he wouldn’t pay the money.

“He needs something from Red. He’s
not going to deal with him unless he gets what he needs. But I have a feeling
he wants you back too. He’s not happy. He asked me if you were okay.”

He’s trying to make me feel better,
and he is failing miserably.

“Thanks Adam. I am actually pretty
tired, I think I am going to go to sleep if that’s okay?” I know my voice
sounds totally defeated. I can’t manage another fake emotion today. I just
don’t have it in me.

“Yeah, sure.” He pauses “Don’t give
up yet Olivia. We are going to find a way to get you out. Even without Dean’s
help.”

The problem was, that I knew that.
IF Adam was really working for the FBI, even if Red was brought down and I
could be taken away. Why wouldn’t Dean help me? Why would he have another
matter with Red that mattered more to him than I did? I knew he didn’t love me,
but I still thought… I still had this small sliver of hope that he might care
about me. That he might feel sorry for all of the pain he has caused me. That
he might try and find a way to get me out of this situation because part of it
was his fault.

But I am naïve. I know this. I have
lived a life so sheltered that I have no fucking idea just how selfish people
can be. I am seeing it now. I am obsessed with Dean. Every many I see I compare
to him. Their size, if they are better looking than he is. I close my eyes and
his face is all I see. I rub my hand along my flat belly and think of the small
life growing within and I think that this life is half of Dean. Half of a love
I thought we shared. And I realize that while he is my every breath, my every
thought, I am nothing more to him than a chip in a game called vendetta.

I don’t ask for Adam when other men
come into the room. He told me he would be the only one entering. At this point
I think I have about had it with taking people at their word.

Food is brought in. Food is taken
away. The lady with the hard face comes in and takes my laundry. A few hours
later she brings it back. She never makes eye contact. She never smiles. After
a while I stop trying to make eye contact. I stop trying to smile.

3 weeks. 4 weeks. I don’t know how
much time has passed. I stopped keeping track. Adam comes back one day. It’s
raining. It was storming all night. Loud crashes of thunder and bright bolts of
lightning kept me awake all night. I blame the storm, but I know that wasn’t
it.

“Everyone is out.” He says

It’s like his only greeting.

“Great.” I sarcastically reply

“Today is the day Red is brought
in.”

“That’s awesome.” I reply. Less
sarcastically

“I talked to Dean again.” He’s
trying to get me to talk to him

“Good for you.” I reply once more

I start to unfold and refold the
laundry that Hard Face brought in

“He asked if you were okay.”

“That’s nice of him. Is he coming
to get me?”

“It’s more complicated than that Olivia.”

I start to laugh. Hysterically.”
It’s really funny you know. I spent my entire childhood hiding away from my
parents. I didn’t want to sit there and listen to their ‘Praise the Lord’ talk
anymore. I had everything I ever needed there though. Who cares if I wasn’t
happy, I was taken care of. I moved in with Jaxon to help him, because he and
he alone made the choice to step up and keep his child. I fell head over heels
in love with that baby. You should see her, she’s really just the most amazing
little person you will ever meet.”

“And then I felt like I needed to
grow up. I felt like Jaxon needed his own space, that I needed to do something,
spread my wings feel what it felt like to be a grown up. So I started my own
business and I moved out on my own. Not even a full day of my new found adult
freedom I fall head over heels in love with a hit man. The most beautiful
fucking man I have ever laid eyes on. I find out he’s married, I find out he
has a fucking wife and then I find out that I am pregnant, only after finding
out he wants to kill me and that the mother of the one human being I probably
love more than any other in this world paid him to do it. I gave my heart to
someone who wanted to make it stop beating. And now here I sit Captive. In love
with a man who won’t sacrifice shit to save me? I gave up my life for everyone
else and no one is even blinking an eye to save mine. I think it’s just
hilarious. Don’t you?”

Adam looks sad for me. Pity is
about the last emotion I want to see on the face of someone like him.

“Do me a favor, next time you talk
to him. Tell him to forget it. I don’t want him to save me. I don’t want him to
ask how I am doing. I don’t understand what in his life could be more important
than saving his pregnant fuck buddy, but whatever it is, it wins. I am done. I
don’t care anymore. I really just… Don’t care.”

And there you have it. The moment
that I gave the fuck up. Because seriously, what else was there to do?

Red gets the money. I don’t know
how he gets the money. Adam talked to Dean and told him what I asked of him.
Adam tried to give me a message from Dean, but I told Adam it didn’t matter.

I might be considered immature to
some. I might be considered a bitch by others.

But at this point. Given
everything, don’t you think I have earned a bit of that? I sure as hell think I
have.

Adam tells me I have to get through
the night. He doesn’t tell me what is going to happen the next day. He doesn’t
tell me if and when I will be released.

I go to bed knowing that there is a
man downstairs that wants me dead who was paid the money he felt I owed him. I
don’t know who gave it up. I don’t really care. All I know now is that I should
feel relief, and that is the furthest emotion from my mind.

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

I wake up to the sound similar to gunfire.
I hear screaming. Yelling. I smell smoke.

I look out the window.

There are clouds of smoke rising up
from the down stairs windows. The house is on fire.

I run to the door. I try the door
knob. I know without the code it is useless. I smash the door knob down with a
shoe. Trying to break it off. Nothing happens.

I try and enter a bunch of numbers
nothing works. Nothing.

I bang on the door, I scream trying
to catch the attention of anyone who might be nearby.

But I am at the end of the hall. No
one else is this far down. I am too far from the down stairs. No one is ever
going to hear me.

I start to cry. I don’t want to die
this way.

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

This time I know that is the sound
of gun shots.

*Bang Bang*

They are faster, coming closer.

I quickly grab something to try and
smash out the window.

I realize quickly it is plastic.
Everything just bounces off between the bars.

“I’m going to fucking die.”

The tears are pouring down my face.
I try to think of things I learned in a first aid course when I was a kid.

Nothing that could be used right
now. I can only Stop Drop and Roll if I am on fire. There is nothing about
being kidnapped and locked in a burning building. Nothing.

Then I remember hearing the story
of a man who was in a hotel when there was a fire. He couldn’t escape through the
window. He filled the bathtub with fire…