With His Love (For His Pleasure, Book 16) (17 page)

“Lydia,” Kallie said. “What are you doing here?”

“I was invited.”

Kallie looked to Nicole, who just nodded slowly. “I mean, I figured she’s going to be your sister-in-law and all…”

“I can see why you wouldn’t want me here, Kallie,” Lydia said, stepping further into the room.

Scarlett groaned. She was going to have to put a stop to this, sooner rather than later, because she knew what Lydia intended to do.

“I don’t want you here because you said you and Sean aren’t attend the wedding.

I think I have every right to ask you to leave.”

Lydia just laughed. Her eyes were psychotic. “I’ll leave,” she said. “But first I think everyone here deserves to hear the truth about you and the amazing Hunter.”

That’s when Scarlett stepped forward. “Stop it, Lydia. You have no right to come in here and try and ruin this party. This is Kallie’s night.”

“Oh, please,” Lydia said, rolling her eyes at Scarlett. “Don’t think for even a second that these people like you or accept you. They’re only using you like they do everybody else.”

“You should go,” Scarlett said. She was going to fight her if necessary, she decided. She’d been in a few girl fights in her life, complete with hair pulling and slapping and scratching. She’d do it again.

“You’re only saying this because you know Kallie’s secret,” Lydia said. “You know that Hunter’s been using her as his secret sex slave.”

There was an audible gasp from everyone else in the room.

“That’s it,” Scarlett said, and got ready to attack that bitch Lydia with everything in her.

But before she could do so, something terrible happened. It was so sudden, so quick and horrific that Scarlett could hardly realize it was occurring. It was like a bad dream.

Just as Scarlett was about to charge Lydia, a shadow appeared behind her in the doorway. And then the shadow became a man, and everyone screamed.

He had a gun, and Lydia didn’t see him. She was still trying to talk.

“You should tell them about the contract Kallie keeps in her purse, the one where—”

The man smashed the gun into Lydia’s head and she knocked into the doorway, sliding to the ground in a crumbled, unconscious heap.

It was Terrence’s son, Trevor.

Scarlett shrieked along with everyone else.

He pointed the gun at all of them. “Shut the fuck up or I will blow someone’s head off! I couldn’t care less who it is. One more fucking word, and someone’s brains will be all over this beautiful wall and these pricy paintings.”

Scarlett felt her insides give way and the world started to shift, become shimmery and unreal. She couldn’t breathe and her ears were ringing.

Trevor pointed the gun right at her. She could see straight down the barrel.

That’s it,
she thought.
Here is where it all ends.

“Come on, bitch. Come with me. Right now.”

As if against her will, Scarlett began walking forward. Every step felt like death.

“You too,” Trevor said, motioning to Kallie. “Come on, move it or I’ll shoot your little friends in their faces. Hurry. Hurry the fuck up.”

Kallie did as she was told.

There was no sound, other than Danielle, Nicole and Kallie’s mother quietly sobbing as they watched him take Scarlett and Kallie from the room. He looked in at the women. “I’m going and I’m taking these two with me. So help me God, if you call down to that guardhouse, I’ll put a bullet in each of their heads. It’s a promise.”

He grabbed Kallie and shoved her forward, and she nearly fell, but somehow managed to keep her balance. Scarlett grabbed her arm and helped her keep walking.

“It’s okay,” she whispered to Kallie. “It’s okay.”

“Shut the fuck up, bitch. Move. Hurry up.”

The three of them went outside and he ushered them toward Hunter’s SUV.

“Your jackass boyfriend left the keys in the car. You know how I know that?” Trevor asked. “I know because I was hiding in back while you idiots drove me around town today. And I was just about to kill you both when you took me to this fucking party.”

Trevor laughed. “Fine by me. Now I can kill two birds with one stone. Am I right?”

Scarlett and Kallie stayed quiet and let him rant and rave.

“You get in the driver’s seat,” he told Kallie. Then he pointed at Scarlett. “You get in the passenger seat, and I’ll sit in back. Come on. We’re going to all take a nice, scenic drive together.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Kallie said. “Hunter will pay you a lot of money.”

“I don’t want money, though. I want to watch you scream.” He opened the front door to Hunter’s car and Kallie got inside. “And when I’m done with you two, I’ll circle back and get Hunter. I’m going to take my sweet time with him,” he grinned.

He pointed the gun at Scarlett. “Now get the fuck in the car.” She climbed in the passenger door, and closed it. She was trying to find a time to make a run for it, but Trevor was watching them both too closely.

And she could tell that he was ready to pull the trigger if things weren’t going his way. She could smell the fear and anger on him—it radiated off of him—pure evil. It was strange, too, because Trevor was not a bad looking guy, he could be considered handsome. But the insanity in his eyes was like nothing she’d ever witnessed, worse even than Terrence had been at his worst.

“Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.” Trevor waved the gun at Kallie’s head and she screamed.

She shakily turned the key in the ignition. The car started.

“Now you drive us out of here, and when we get to the gate, you smile at the guards and tell them we’re meeting your boyfriends out for a drink.”

Scarlett was trying to control her fear. But it was growing. She knew that if he somehow got them out of Red and Nicole’s estate and into the open road, they would be as good as dead. However, if she tried to escape right now, she’d likely end up dead as well.

Kallie backed the car up and turned around so that they were facing the road. As she did so, Scarlett noticed another car was coming down the road towards them. The headlights struck their windshield as the other car approached.

“Who the hell is that?” Trevor yelled. “Who is that?” He pressed the gun to the back of Kallie’s head and she screamed again.

“I don’t know! Please, I don’t know!”

“You stupid fucking bitch, I am going to kill you.”

The car turned into the main driveway and headed directly for them. Trevor rolled down his back window and seemed to be getting ready to fire on the other car. He was just waiting until it got a little closer.

At the moment when he was distracted by the oncoming vehicle, Kallie opened the driver’s side door and bolted.

Trevor shouted something unintelligible at her and fumbled to get out of the car.

As he was going after her, Scarlett got out of the car too. She hid behind it, peeking out so that she could see which way Trevor was going to go.

He went after Kallie, and he fired two shots.

Scarlett ducked and screamed.

The gunshots were echoing through the night sky.

When Scarlett looked up again, she saw that whoever had been driving the other car had gotten out and was now engaged in a struggle with Trevor. It was a life and death struggle. She couldn’t tell who it was because the other car’s headlights were in her eyes and the two men were rolling on the ground.

She was terrified, but knew she needed to try and help. So Scarlett ran around the car and towards the two men. That’s when she saw who the other man was—it was Bryson. He rolled on top of Trevor and began punching him in the face.

After two or three punches, Trevor’s eyes rolled back in his head. But Bryson didn’t stop punching. He hit him again and again. Trevor’s nose broke and his lips split open. One of his eyes seemed to have almost caved in.

Trevor was completely unconscious, one hand trembling slightly.

Bryson got up and stumbled away, bent over, heaving.

Scarlett ran to him. “Are you hurt? Did he shoot you?”

“No. Almost. I felt the bullet whiz by my head.” Bryson had a cut under his eye, but other than that, he seemed fine. He was breathing heavily and his knuckles were bloody. “Grab his gun over there and bring it to me.”

Scarlett went and picked up the gun, which was lying a few feet away from Trevor’s almost lifeless form. He might have been dead for all she knew.

The gun was heavy and oily and she couldn’t wait to be rid of it. She handed it off to Bryson with relief.

Then she realized that Kallie was out of sight. “Kallie!” she yelled. “Kallie, where are you?”

Kallie shouted back an answer. “Is it safe?”

“It’s safe! You can come out now!”

A moment later, Kallie was running back to them. Scarlett hugged her. “Oh my God, I thought he’d really hurt you. I’m so glad you’re all right.”

Nicole, Danielle and Kallie’s mother came out of the house not long after. They all stood and stared down at Trevor, wondering what to do with him.

Nicole was one the phone with Red and she walked over with a strange look in her eyes.

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Scarlett said.

Nicole shook her head. Her face was stony. “I called Red. He’s coming back right now. He said to hold tight for and not to call anybody else yet, not even 911.”

Scarlett wondered what that meant. Trevor was still unconscious from the severe and brutal beating that Bryson had given him.

“You sure you’re okay?” she asked Bryson as they stood and waited for Red and the others.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just a little shaken up. But not as bad as the other guy.”

“Why were you driving back here instead of going out with the men? And whose car is that?”

“It’s a rental,” he said. “Of course, that maniac shattered the window when he tried to shoot me, so I’ll have to deal with the rental company now.”

“You didn’t answer my first question. Why were you coming back to the house just then?”

He smiled. “I don’t think it’s the right time just yet. But let’s just say, I had good reason.”

She looked at him intently. “ESP?”

“Almost like that. But not quite.”

They waited outside, watching Trevor for signs of life. He did finally start to stir, but just at that moment, Red’s car returned. It pulled up in a cloud of dust, and out came Hunter and Kane and Red. The three of them looked enraged, like Mafia bosses with blood on their minds.

When they saw Trevor lying on the ground, Red looked at Kane. “You want to handle this?”

Kane began texting on his cell phone. “It’s already handled.”

Hunter’s jaw flexed. “We should just kill him now, call the cops and be done with it.”

“No, that’s too good for him,” Red muttered. He grabbed Nicole in his arms.

Soon, they were all hugging, comforting one another.

And then they waited for more reinforcements to arrive.

***

The reinforcements turned out to be just one man.

Scarlett and the others watched as Kane’s friend, a strange looking albino man in a skin-tight black t-shirt and jack boots, stared down at the slowly waking Trevor.

The albino man smiled. “Wakey, wakey,” he cooed at Trevor, kicking him lightly in the ribs.

Trevor opened his one good eye. “What the…what the hell…”

“Time to go bye bye, now. You and I have some traveling to do, and oh, the people we’ll see.” The albino grinned crazily down at him.

“Fuck you. I know my rights. You a cop?”

The albino man giggled and looked at Kane, who just grimaced. “Jeffrey,” Kane said, “take him away before I can’t control myself and do something I regret.”

“Come on now,” Jeffrey said. As he reached down and pulled Trevor to his feet, Scarlett noticed that the albino had a long scar down his bicep.

Trevor spit blood on the ground. “Fuck you,” he muttered.

“Don’t ask for things you don’t want,” Jeffrey chided. “Because I’m a big believer in giving what’s asked for. But I do it in my own way.”

The two men walked, with Jeffrey basically carrying Trevor to Jeffrey’s car.

Before they got inside, Scarlett saw the albino quickly inject something into Trevor’s neck. Trevor let out a strangled squeal and then he was pushed into the backseat.

A moment later, Jeffrey was in the car, and they were driving away.

The mood was somber amidst the group as they watched the car disappear into the distance.

“Where’s Jeffrey taking him?” Nicole asked.

“You don’t want to know,” Kane said.

“Shouldn’t he be going to jail?” Kallie’s mother asked. “That man is a danger to society.”

“The cops had their chance with him,” Red said. “They blew it. Now it’s our turn.”

“But what if he escapes?” Kallie’s mother asked.

Kane and Red exchanged glances and laughed a little.

“We’ll see how far he gets without legs,” Kane said. “Now come on, everyone.

Let’s go inside. We need to get very, very drunk.”

It was only when they all got inside that they realized who’d they’d forgotten about.

Lydia was sitting on one of the couches, staring vacantly, a trickle of blood running down the side of her face.

“Where’d everyone go?” she said dully. “And why does my head hurt?”

“Oh, gosh,” Kallie said, running to her. “She’s got a bad gash on her head.”

Nicole and Red went over and examined her.

“She should go to the hospital,” Red replied. “I think she probably has a concussion.”

“What happened?” Lydia asked. “Did I miss the party?”

“You fell down, honey,” Nicole said. “You tripped and fell.”

“My head hurts. Can someone please call Sean?”

Kallie went to call Sean and Scarlett stood next to Bryson, as he nursed his knuckles with ice.

Red came over to them with a serious expression on his face. “When Sean gets here, you need to stay out of the way, Bryson. If he sees your bloody knuckles, he might put two and two together and realize more went on here than meets the eye.”

“What about my car? The window’s busted.”

“I’ll move it.” Red took the keys and walked off.

Bryson shook his head. “Shit never gets dull around these parts, does it?”

Scarlett smiled at him. “I think you and I have earned some dullness, though.