Passion (19 page)

Josh

I had lamb tucked away in my bed;
I’d convinced the Captain that since he was going to be busy for the
foreseeable future that it made more sense for her to come home with me, there
was always someone here.

 She
wasn’t sick as much as she was shaken up, she’d eaten without argument this
morning after a restless night where I’d kept watch over her while she tossed
and turned.

I knew she was going to be
okay when she gave me shit about my breakfast choice of oats and fruit.

Now she’s upstairs asleep while I’m down here going over the guest
list with mom.

“Joshua, are you sure about this?”

“Yep.”

“It just seems so...extreme.”

“Mom, someone kidnapped dad, dragged him off somewhere to murder
him, they’ve used his love for you to trap him, telling him that you’re the one
he’s going to meet, you have that person at your mercy, is there anything you
wouldn’t do to that person short of killing them?”

She’d drawn in her breath from my first sentence.

“Son, sometimes your mind scares me, I get you, I get what you’re
saying, I can’t even begin to imagine, it’s just you kids are so young to have
to think this way, you should be going out for ice cream and to the movies,
things like that, not dealing with rapes and murder.”

“You play the hand you’re dealt mom, besides, Carrie and I have a
more mature relationship I guess you can say, we know what we mean to each
other, we know who we are together so we don’t have to do the dance, we’re
young yes, but we’re far from stupid.

She’s the girl I’m going to spend the rest of my life with we’re
going to go to college but we’ll be going together, where I go she goes and
vice versa, anyone who doesn’t understand our relationship doesn’t need to, it’s
no one’s business but ours.

As to what I’m planning here, it’s for Carrie, she’s been fucked
with her whole life, no one’s going to fuck with her again, not while I’m in
the picture and I plan to stay in the picture.”

“I just feel so sad for you though, that you have to start your
lives together like this, it’s such a dark place.”

“Mom you’re looking at it wrong, she survived where others didn’t,
she wasn’t touched, this is a good thing, because if they’d touched one hair on
her head you’d be visiting me on death row, so count your blessings that things
are as they are.”

She brushed her fingers through my hair, something she hasn’t done
in a while.

“Don’t worry mom, we’ll be fine, I promise.”

Carrie

Fuck this shit; I’ve been
listening to everything that’s been going on around me though I haven’t said
anything.

I know that that bitch Patricia used Joshua’s phone to send that
text, that her and Rodney were planning to set me up to make it look like I was
cheating on Joshua, they’d placed a strip of nails in the way to flatten my
tires to trap me.

I know that Travis had been the one to take me because she’d gone
to him first, stupid bitch.

Travis was behind bars without bail while Patti and Rodney had
been released on bail.

I’ve had lots of time to think and get pissed the fuck off.

I’m not too fond of people messing with me and getting away with
it.

Travis was out of my reach but the other two were fair game, and I
know just where I wanted to start.

I waited until Joshua was out of the room for a good ten minutes,
I knew I didn’t have much time, he’s like a general when I’m sick, watching
everything I do, making sure my every need is met. Along with the crazy I got
the sweet, it was nice.

He’d taken such good care of me since bringing me home with him.

I snagged my phone from the bedside table and called Vanessa’s cell
that bitch owed me and she knows it so I was pretty sure she’d do anything I
asked.

“Carrie?”

“Come to your brother’s room.”

“Be right there.”

 Josh

I hadn’t realized planning a
party last minute around the holidays was such a pain in the ass, or that it
would take up so much of my time.

It was almost time for Carrie to wake up if she hadn’t already.

I didn’t want her alone too much, not this soon, I want to keep
her well occupied until we got through this party and then jetted off to the
island for some much needed R and R.

“Mom I have to go see Carrie, I’ve been down here for a couple
hours already she’s got to be hungry by now.”

She smiled at me like I’d accomplished something note worthy.

I guess she’s not accustomed to seeing her son being this caring
towards a female other than family.

“Go ahead son, how about I make something special for dinner,
Carrie likes my pumpkin ravioli.”

“She’s still building her body back up, she needs red meat.”

“Yes Dr. Steele, one half of a cow coming right up.”

She laughed as I got up to go.

“How about a nice prime rib, I think that might be good and some
spinach or something, that’s on her list.”

“No
problem I can certainly see about that.”

I took the stairs two at a
time suddenly needing to see her, to touch her, to celebrate the fact that she
was here and whole and that we’d have another day together, lots of other days.

My wrist alarmed just as I reached my room.

“Carrie....Lamb.....”

I checked the bedroom, the bathroom, my whole floor, no Carrie.

My heart started racing in fear, where the fuck could she be, there’s
only one way out and that was through the front or back door both of which I
would’ve known if she’d used.

Fuck me, my window was slightly ajar, had someone come in after
her, but no, that didn’t make sense, she would’ve had to let in anyone who came
to the window, which meant she’d left through the window on her own.

The
question was why, and where the fuck had she gone?

I checked the tracker; she
was moving fast which meant she was in a vehicle.

I took the stairs two at a time yelling for my brother on the way
down.

“What’s up?”

Matt was trying to come to terms with the fact that he’d wasted so
many years on a psychotic bitch, as much as I hated the bitch, I respected the
fact that he’d had real feelings for her, so I hurt because he hurt.

“Carrie’s gone.”

“The fuck?”

We were moving on the run by the time we reached the garage.

I checked the coordinates on my tracker as soon as I got in Matt’s
jeep and my heart almost gave out.

“Fuck I know where she’s headed.”

Josh

“What the fuck is she doing,
I don’t want her anywhere near these fucks, why doesn’t she ever do what I
expect of her?”

“Bro, you want her to humble herself to just you or to everybody
else?”

“What?”

“Just because she’s supposed to be all nice and easy with you
doesn’t mean she has to be that way with other people, just hear me out, I
think the reason you fell for this girl in the first place is because you like
that fire in her, you know the fire you told me about ad nauseam, when you
first met? Yeah that. Well she’s only supposed to be that way with you bro,
that’s the idea, when two people meet and fall for each other that’s how it
works that doesn’t mean she’s going to stop being her own person, you know what
I mean?”

“So you’re saying I should be totally fine with her going to
confront someone who almost got her raped and killed alone?”

“Nessa’s car was missing...”

“Great, what’s Nessa going to do, throw her Hermes bag at them?”

“Look,
all I’m saying is don’t go all crazy on Carrie try to understand where she’s
coming from.”

It didn’t escape my notice that my brother who hardly ever stuck
his nose in was giving me relationship advice. How could I make him understand
my way of seeing things, how could anybody, I know I’m a whole other breed when
it comes to this shit, especially where lamb is concerned, I don’t want her
involved in any of this shit, that’s my job. I guess on some level I get what
she’s doing and why, that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Hardheaded as fuck.

“Drive faster Matt, maybe we
can get there before anything happens.”

“I don’t think so bro, I think we’ll be doing clean up.”

I shoulda tied her ass to the bed, that’s what I should’ve done,
sneaky little brat, played me, I’m sure she heard everything when I thought she
was asleep, it’s okay though, I was learning all her little tricks, by the time
I get a ring on her finger she won’t be able to pull the wool over my eyes.

Carrie

“Hurry up Vanessa, I’m sure
your brother is going to be checking on me any minute and he’s going to freak
if I’m not in that bedroom.”

“You expect to kick somebody’s ass and get back home in time for
Joshua not to miss you? Dream on crazy person. He’s going to find out and I’m
going to be dead five minutes after we get back. Why did I let you talk me into
this mess?”

“Because you owe me for acting like a douche when your brother and
I were on the outs.”

“I told you, it wasn’t like that, he’s my brother, I’ll never go
against him for anyone I’m sorry if you don’t get that but that’s just the way
it is, but with you, Matt and I both stayed on him to make things right, we’ve
never done that before.”

“It’s fucked up is what it is, but whatever, you’re here now so we’re
good, how much farther?”

“We’re
here.”

We pulled off to the side of
the street out of sight of the mansion at the end of the

Cul de sac.

There were lots of trees which was just perfect for my purpose,
Vanessa had already made the phone call, I just needed my prey to make an
appearance.

“How long?”

“Not much longer, should be any minute.”

“Tell me again what you said?”

“I said that I knew something that would help, something about you
that would make all this unpleasantness go away, and since you’ve been giving
me the cold shoulder for the last few weeks I was very believable apparently.”

“She bought your story about meeting in secret because you didn’t
want anyone to know what you were up to?”

“You were there Carrie you heard everything.”

“Just checking, still not sure about your loyalties, I mean she
was part of your little

family posse.”

“My loyalty is to my family why can’t you get that? Patti went
against the family for her own selfish purposes, she’s not a part of our
family, if she was she could never have done what she did to you, on top of
that, that shit was just wrong, you could’ve been killed.”

I heard the rustling of leaves as the bitch came through the back
of her family’s

property.

I stayed well out of sight as
she approached, just the sight of her made me see red, I always knew this day
was going to come, smarmy bitch.

“Thanks for meeting me here Vanessa; my dad is being such a jer...”

She never finished the sentence, how could she with a mouthful of
coins in a sock.

I’d filled one of Joshua’s socks with coins from his bank, this
shit had a nice weight to it, and I wanted to really hurt. No one knew she was meeting
us, she had to sneak out because her father had grounded her or some shit, a
bit late if you ask me, maybe if he’d leashed her stupid ass she would be half
human. Since no one knew I was here she had no witnesses against me except
Vanessa and I’m sure Joshua would never let that happen.

“That’s for talking shit bitch, and this, this is for trying to
fuck with my relationship.”

“You...”

Her
bleeding mouth never formed another word as I swung into her stomach with all
my might.

I beat that bitch like she
stole something, there wasn’t a part of her I didn’t attack, bitch couldn’t
even fight, it was almost pathetic the way she tried to deflect my blows.

“You know for someone with so much mouth you shoulda really
learned how to back that shit up.”

I lifted my foot to stomp her ass as she fell to the ground, all I
saw was that dark road and the fear when that hand first covered my face.

My foot was back and coming in for landing, but a voice came out
of the dark and stopped me cold.