Trained To Kill (28 page)

Later, they both were lying awake in
the dark side by side, Alex tracing the scar on Isa’s stomach. That
was becoming a habit as well. He hadn’t asked her about it again,
preferring to let her talk at her own pace. She had explained the
small crisscrossing knife scars on her arms. Isa looked over at him
in the dark and placed her hand over his on her stomach. “Anna had
been at the stables that day. She loved horses,” Isa whispered
bringing her hands up to cover her eyes. Alex continued to stroke
her skin, soothing her.

“
I was tucking her in when
he started yelling for me. He was drunk. I went to him to try and
quiet him down but he wasn’t cooperating. He raped me. He raped
almost every night, so it wasn’t a surprise.” Alex cursed softly
and held her close, kissing her hair. “We were in his study after.
I don’t remember why. But he was still so angry and I didn’t know
what I had done.”

She was quiet for so long, Alex
wondered if she was done talking about it. “She came in looking for
me, scared by the yelling.” Isa’s breath came faster. She had only
ever told this story to Dr. Jannsen; it was so hard to get the
words out. “He picked her up. I thought…at first I thought, he was
hugging her or going to take her back to bed…but he turned and he
threw her. Out the window. He threw her.” Isa’s breath hitched, and
Alex gathered her against his chest.

“
Shhh. Baby, it’s ok.” Isa
held on to him with all her strength.

After a moment, Isa could talk again,
“I ran to try and stop him, even though I knew it was too late. But
he caught me and he stabbed me. I don’t even know where the knife
came from.” She dragged his hand over her scar. "It was a shock at
first, but the doctor said it went right between my organs so it
wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t sliced upwards.”

A shiver went over Alex, raising goose
bumps on his skin. He couldn’t imagine the pain she went through.
Emotionally or physically.

“
I fell down, but I pulled
the knife out of me and I went crazy. I don’t know how many times I
stabbed him.” She stopped for a minute. “After…I walked…they said I
walked…I don’t really remember…around the house to where Anna was.
Her neck was broken. My little Anna.”

“
I’m so sorry.”

“
I miss her so much. A
part of me wants to kill those men that hurt me as a sort of
revenge by proxy. I can’t kill Thorn again, but I could kill them.
It’s all I could do.”

“
That’s not all you can do
Isa. Killing those men doesn’t honor Anna’s memory.”

“
I know. I’ve been
thinking a lot about it since that night I told you about
Thorn.”

“
Thinking about
what?”

“
I’ve killed people
Alex.”

Isa was just as stunned that she had
spoken out loud as Alex was at her words. Alex breathed hard,
staring at her, trying to process what he had heard.

“
Killed? What do you mean?
Killed in self-defense like your stepfather?”

“
No Alex,” Isa
whispered.

He was silent. Asking more questions
would just dig them both deeper and he didn’t want to go deeper
into this territory…unless…“Who?”

“
The ones that raped me.
They deserve a thousand slow deaths for what they did to
me.”

It sent a chill up Alex’s spine
followed quickly by his own rage. How dare Roger Thorn. Those men
deserved worse than death. Isa was right. A soupcon of rationality
kicked in though and Alex thought, But what if she’s caught? Jail
or worse. Alex’s anxiety went through the roof.

“
We could…”

“
Call the DA?”

Alex nodded weakly.

“
There is no evidence
Alex. Just my word against theirs, and I won’t be dragged through
that mess.”

Alex sat still for a few minutes. He
held her hand tightly. He wondered if it hurt her but she said
nothing, just sat quietly waiting for his next rebuttal. When none
came she looked back over at him, shocked to see tears in the
corner of his eye. He was looking at her with sadness and
tenderness. Love. He looked at her with love. She didn’t know when
it had turned to love.

She felt her own eyes tear up and
decided enough was enough. She took her hand out but Alex pulled
her back around and held her. He didn’t kiss her because he had the
feeling she wouldn’t welcome it right now and he didn’t want to do
anything she didn’t want. He didn’t want to struggle with her, but
he didn’t want her to leave either. Isa didn’t fight
him.

“
I love you Isa. I know we
don’t know each other that well yet and what you just told me is
huge, but let me tell you what I feel for you isn’t going away
because of anything you say or do. I love all of you. And again, I
know you don’t know this about me yet but that word, that feeling,
isn’t something I have ever or would ever throw around lightly. I
have never felt this way about anyone before; I’ve never said it to
anyone before and haven’t ever wanted to until I met you.” Alex
took a deep breath.

“
What about the future
Alex?” Isa still refused to look at him. “Are you telling me you’re
ok with what I did?” She had already decided to stop with her
plans; killing brought her no respite from the past, but she needed
to know what Alex would say. He was quiet for so long, she finally
turned to look at him.

“
No.” Alex turned his head
toward her. “But, I understand why you did.”

“
Do you?”

He simply looked at her with
compassion in his eyes. She was facing an impenetrable wall of love
and it was going to be the end of her.

“
What I understand is that
I would kill them for you if I thought it would erase it for you.
But Iz, that can’t ever happen. No matter who you kill or how you
kill them.”

Isa was dangerously close to crying.
She hadn’t cried since she came out of the hospital after Anna’s
death. Laying her head back against the pillow Isa sighed. “I can
understand that.”

Alex lay back with her and pulled her
onto his chest. “Thank you Alex.”

He kissed her head, and they fell
asleep again.

Chapter 34

Isa woke up feeling more relaxed and
comfortable than she could ever remember. Now she was certain Alex
was magic. He wasn’t in bed, so she got up and went to take a
shower. It was Sunday; he didn’t have to work unless he got called
in.

After getting dressed quickly in jeans
and one of Alex’s flannel shirts, she hurried downstairs to find
him.

Renée was back in the kitchen and she
asked about Alex, “No chère, I haven’t seen him.”

“
He must have gone for a
run.” Isa sat down to a cup of coffee waiting for him to come back
thinking about last night, when a horrible thought skittered across
her brain. She jumped up from the table, startling Renée and ran up
the stairs. Alex’s running shoes and his off duty gun were exactly
where he had left them since his last run. He had kicked them off
in the corner on his way to the shower. She ran to the closet and
checked. His boots were still there, the ones he wore every day.
People don’t leave the house without shoes in 35 degree weather.
Not unless they were forced too. She grabbed her phone and dialed
him. The stupid ring tone he put to her name sounded in her ears.
She closed her eyes, but then looked over at his cell phone on the
night stand. She ran back downstairs and searched every room.
“Chère, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.” Renée said. “Something’s
not right. I can’t find him. He’s not out running, his phone and
guns are still here.”

“
Chère…”

Renée started to reach for her, but
Isa reared back, “Let me think.”

Isa called Captain Williams and Johnny
Merrick and neither had heard from him. She called his father, no
word. She had only asked casually, not wanting to alarm them, but
she was scared now. She had a feeling in her gut that there
wouldn’t be a simple explanation. Alex wasn’t swaggering through
the door with a funny story anytime soon. Fear made her heart beat
thin and fast. She was afraid she was going to be sick. How could
this have happened? Did he leave the house for some reason? Or had
he been kidnapped while she slept next to him. She sat down hard on
the floor, trying not to be sick.

“
Ok, girl, ok. Calm down.”
Renée put a wet cloth on the back of her neck and told her to take
deep breaths. Isa did as she said, and began to think.

Why would anyone kidnap Alex? To get
to her?

She had a sinking feeling in her gut.
She picked the phone back up and dialed Rafael.

“
What did you do?” she
began.

“
What do you mean
bella?”

“
Alex is
missing.”

There was silence on the other end of
the line, then, “I didn’t do anything bella. When did he go
missing?”

“
Late last
night.”

“
Let me see if I can find
anything out, I will see you soon.”

Isa hung up and lay down on the floor
clutching the phone to her chest. She could feel Renée hovering,
but she just closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing. She
should be looking for him herself, but she had curiously become
paralyzed. The fear of what happened to Alex was like a lead weight
pressing her to the cold marble floor. Visions of Carmine Deplores
swam in her head, Alex’s body being tossed in a construction hole.
She took deep breaths counting as her chest rose and fell, trying
to use meditation techniques taught by Master Yukimura.

The phone rang and she shot upright.
“Hello.”

“
Bella I think I know what
happened. Come downstairs.”

Isa ran for all she was worth. She
skidded to a stop next to Rafael’s Black SUV on the sidewalk
outside of her building. Throwing open the door, she jumped in.
“What did you find out?”

Rafael didn’t answer her at first,
directing his driver where to go.

“
Rafael!”

“
Coltello wasn’t there
this morning.”

Isa sat stunned. She looked out the
window at the passing buildings to keep herself from killing
Rafael. She needed him to find Alex. It felt like a piece of her
had been ripped off.

“
Bella…”

“
Don’t call me that,” Isa
whispered. “You don’t get to call me that when Alex has been taken
by your crazy brother,” she continued in a stronger
voice.

“
Isadora. I won’t let him
hurt your poliziotto.”

“
What makes you think he’s
still alive?” Isa felt the words get stuck in her throat, and had
to put her head between her knees.

“
Isadora,” Rafael said
placing a gentle hand on her back. “Calm down. We’ll find
them.”

The drive was taking too long. Isa
heard a giant clock in her head ticking Alex’s life
away.

Chapter 35

Alex woke in a semi-dark room. There
were no windows but the door had been left open an inch, revealing
that the sun had come out. He was still tied to the chair he had
been in for hours. Coltello had been standing over them when Alex
woke late last night. He had a gun equipped with silencer pointed
at Isa’s head while she slept. Coltello simply indicated with his
head that Alex was to leave the room, so Alex did without
hesitation. It was fear of the man and what he could do that had
Alex follow him silently out the door. Even if he had somehow
managed to wake Isa in time to do something one of them would
likely get shot at least once before she could stop Coltello, and
Alex was pretty sure it would be Isa. He couldn’t risk
that.

Coltello had given either Alex a break
or himself one. Either way, Alex was grateful. Coltello was very
skilled at torture. Or so Alex surmised. He had never been tortured
before now. Isa had gone over some of the basics with their
training, but she hadn’t actually tortured him for practice. He
kind of wished she had at this point; at least he would have been
slightly more prepared for the pain and mental anguish.

It was his mind now that caused him
the most pain. It kept telling him he would never see Isa again.
Never get to hold her or kiss her one last time. Coltello had given
him a break, he said, to make it all the more fresh when he came
back for the grand finale, and with that he had set down a pair of
needle-nose pliers and left. He didn’t want to know what those were
for but his mind came up with all sorts of fun ideas. Coltello was
very creative. Alex’s body was like a map of Disney World, each
highlighted area had different delights of pain.

He was struggling to stay awake at
this point. He didn’t relish the idea of falling asleep with
Coltello in the next room. Alex worked on his restraints trying to
find a loose end or some wiggle room, anything. But he was bound
tight. Maybe if he could reach those pliers? Alex’s pain-fogged
mind struggled with the thought until he realized he would actually
have to move to get to them. That didn’t sound like fun. He gritted
his teeth and started to rock a little, testing the chair. His
injuries howled at the movement. He scooted an inch to his left.
Yes! The pliers were two feet away on the dresser. He could do
this. He stared at his goal, and scooted another inch.