Vengeance (3 page)

“Now?” I asked.

He sighed. “May as well. The sooner you do this, the sooner I’ll get you back.”

Once again, I wished I had as much confidence as he did. With my stomach churning to the point I thought I was going to spew, I reached inside his mind and took away his love for me. The moment I did it, the way he looked at me and the way he held me in his arms changed. Yes, he still knew who I was, and he remembered that he had loved me, but he
didn’t
love me anymore.

I thought I would be okay with it. I thought I’d already accepted it. But seeing the change in how he reacted to me broke me in ways I never knew possible. I slowly sank down to the sand, curling my legs in front of me and burying my head between my chest and my knees as fresh tears streamed down my cheeks.

Aiden sat down beside me and put his arm around me. “Let me take this pain away from you.” He didn’t love me, but he still cared for me in the same way he cared for Chelsea. And I hated it.

“I can’t do this,” I said, standing up. “You can’t be the one to console me when you’re the one I’m crying about!”

Aiden sighed as he got up. “Come here.” He pulled me into a hug. He hated seeing me in such a state, but it wasn’t breaking his heart as it had only minutes ago.

I buried my head in his chest, but the familiarity was just too much. “I can’t do this,” I said then transported back to the hotel room.

I collapsed onto the bed with my head buried in my hands, but my fall was broken by something—or someone. I opened my eyes and screamed at Chrissy’s lifeless eyes staring back at me.

I scrambled up off the bed and backed up against the wall. Chrissy’s throat had been slashed, and a note was pinned to her chest.

“What’s wrong?”
Aiden’s voice filled my head, making me jump.

I hadn’t let him in since I’d been able to block him permanently, so either I had accidently let down my guard, or Aiden was somehow able to penetrate my barrier.

Ignoring Aiden, I slowly edged forward to get a better look at the note.

DISAPPEAR AGAIN AND IT WILL BE YOUR BOYFRIEND.

I fought the bile that tried to make its way up my throat. Chrissy was dead because of me. Memories of our childhood together flooded through my mind, and my eyes welled with tears. We had been friends, and although things had changed between us, I would never have wished that on her. She deserved to grow up and have a happy life, not be killed for some twisted reason of Nathan’s.

My phone vibrated on the bedside table where I had left it. I cautiously picked it up and had to wipe some blood off the screen to see it. I had a text from Aiden.

Don’t shut me out.

With my phone still in my hand, I sank down on the chair beside the bed and curled my knees up to my chest. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her body. Another person was dead because of me. And I didn’t understand why.

The only thing that made sense was that Nathan had killed her to bring me back into his life. After all, my DNA would be everywhere. I would need someone to fix it, and that someone would be Kai.

Whatever the reason, I knew I needed to stop hiding. It didn’t matter how I felt about my relationship with Aiden. I had to put a stop to my father before he took another innocent life. I would do whatever it took to put an end to his game.

Inhaling deeply, I prepared myself for what was to come and brought Aiden to me.

He took one look at the blood smeared on my face and knew something had happened. He slowly turned around to look at the rest of the room and laid eyes on Chrissy. “Shit!” he said, turning back to me. He kneeled on the floor in front of me and wiped some of Chrissy’s blood off my face with his sleeve. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. It was time for me to stop being the needy ex-girlfriend. “I’ll be fine.” I lowered my feet to the floor and stood just as the sound of sirens wailed in the distance.

Aiden got to his feet. I ripped the message off Chrissy’s chest and scrunched it in my hand.

“What was that?” he asked.

I balled it into my fist and held my hand behind my back. “Nothing.”

“Don’t give me that crap,” he said, walking closer to me.

He stopped inches away, making me realise that the feelings I had just promised wouldn’t get in the way were totally in the way. I sucked in a lungful of air as he leaned forward, stretched his arm around my back, and grabbed my hand. I knew he was just after the paper, but I still couldn’t help the way I felt whenever he was near me. Hell, if I was being truthful, my body went crazy whenever I thought about him.

He tried to pry open my hand, but I phased out of his reach. I didn’t want him to see the note. He didn’t need to know his life was in danger.

Aiden blurred as he rushed toward me, stopping a little farther away than the last time. He held out his hand. “Please?”

Actually, he did need to read. It wasn’t fair for him to be threatened and not know. I sighed and handed him the paper.

He smoothed it out and read the note. Not saying anything, he balled it back up then shoved it in his pocket. He was pissed. The sirens stopped as the police cars pulled up to the hotel.

“Let’s get out of here,” Aiden said.

“Hang on.” I headed toward the bathroom. I wanted to do a sweep to make sure I didn’t leave any of our stuff behind. I also needed to check for anything else Nathan had left for us. I found nothing.

I grabbed our few clothes from the hangers in the wardrobe and shoved them into a bag. “Okay, I’m ready,” I said, walking back to Aiden. “Are you still up for this?”

He smiled tightly and put his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “No, but what choice do we have? We have to stop him.”

I nodded. “Let’s do this.”

We transported to Aiden’s bedroom in the UK. I no longer felt comfortable calling it “our bedroom” when for all I knew, once it was all over, Aiden’s promise to love me again would be broken. God, I was pathetic. My ex-best friend was dead, I was going back to face my father, and all I could think about was Aiden.

I shoved those thoughts to the back of my mind and prepared myself for the lies to come. We would have to lie to Anna and Dave, and to Lucas, Georgia, and Kai. But the worst was we had to pretend to still like and trust Nathan, and
that
was going to take a monumental effort for both of us.

I let out a strained laugh. “Well this is a first.” When Aiden looked at me strangely, I said, “Your parents not busting in on us, knowing something is wrong.”

As if on cue, they appeared. Anna took one look and rushed toward me. She threw her arms around my neck and held me tightly. “Thank God, you’re okay.” She pulled back so she could see my face. “Where have you been?”

I shrugged. “Around. I freaked…”

Anna gaped at the blood in my hair. “Is that your blood?” She thumbed at it, trying to determine for herself.

Aiden walked up behind me and put his hand on the small of my back, making me tense ever so slightly. He noticed my reaction but didn’t say anything. “Chrissy’s dead.”

Anna put her hand up to her mouth as she gasped.

“It was your father, Adam, wasn’t it?” Dave asked.

I nodded.

“But why? What did Chrissy have to do with anything?” Dave asked, talking more to himself than to us.

“Are you okay?” Anna asked, rubbing my arm. She wondered why I wasn’t freaking out more but put it down to the fact that Chrissy and I hadn’t been friends for the last couple of years.

“I’m a little shaken up, but I’ll be okay.”

“Why don’t you go have a shower?” Anna suggested. “We can talk more once you’ve cleaned up.” What she really meant was for me to get all the blood out of my hair, but she didn’t want me to react the same way I had when I was covered in Ben’s blood, so she tried not to mention it. She let go of me and turned to Dave. “Come on.”

Once we were alone again, I expected Aiden to drop his hand from my back, but he didn’t.

“I’ll go have that shower,” I said, needing to get away without looking suspicious just in case Nathan was watching.

I hustled into the bathroom and closed the door behind me. I wanted nothing more than to sink to the floor and cry, but instead I took a deep breath and turned on the taps. I undressed and jumped under the shower, hoping Nathan wasn’t watching me.

The water turned red as Chrissy’s blood was washed down the drain. I shampooed my hair then scrubbed my skin with a loofah until it was almost raw. I didn’t want to get out of the shower, but I couldn’t stay in there forever. Begrudgingly, I turned off the taps, wrapped a towel around me, and stepped out of the shower.

After drying off, I walked into the closet, thankful I didn’t need to go out into the bedroom to get changed. I pulled on some tights and a long-sleeved top then went back into the room.

Aiden was sitting on the sofa watching TV. “Lucas called,” he said, looking over at me. “He wanted to know if he should take Chelsea back to his house, but I told him to bring her back here.”

“Thanks.”

He got up off the couch and walked toward me. “Are you ready?” He was really asking if I was ready to pretend we were still together.

The answer was no, but I lied. “Yep.”

I flinched when Aiden put his arms around me, preparing to transport us. He sighed because he knew that every time he touched me, it was a painful reminder of what we once were, and that although I still loved him, he no longer felt the same way about me. Aiden felt sorry for me.

That was it. I couldn’t take hearing his thoughts anymore, and I knew there would be no way I’d be able to concentrate while hearing how sorry he was for me. The only way to stop that was to block his thoughts. So I did.

He looked down at me and smiled—a pity smile. I was so glad I could no longer hear what he was thinking.

Chapter 5

We transported downstairs to the lounge room where Dave, Anna, Lucas, and Chelsea were waiting for us.

Chelsea was in shock. She slowly turned her eyes toward me. “I can’t believe she’s gone.”

I broke free from Aiden’s pretend embrace, glad for the distraction, and sat down beside Chelsea. “I know,” I said, putting my arm around her. “I can’t believe it, either.”

“It was your father, wasn’t it?” she asked, wondering if she was somehow going to end up like Chrissy.

I wanted to tell her I would make sure that would never happen, but because I’d taken her memory of the fact that I could hear people’s thoughts, I couldn’t say anything without her speaking her concerns first. And I couldn’t put those memories back without endangering her life, since Nathan could catch hold of her thoughts.

“Yeah, it was,” I said. “When I went back to the hotel room to get my things, her body was already there. He had killed her and dumped her body for me to find.”

“Did he leave any messages?” Dave asked.

“Do you think we should show them?”
Aiden asked as he sat down on the arm rest beside me. He put his hand on my shoulder and rubbed it softly. Geez, he was good at keeping up appearances.

“I think Nathan might get suspicious if we don’t.”

Aiden reached into his pocket and retrieved the crumpled piece of paper. He tossed it to his dad.

Dave opened the note. His jaw clenched as he read that Aiden was the next target.

“What’s it say?” Anna and Lucas asked in unison.

The colour drained from Anna’s face when Dave read the note aloud.

“Why the hell would he kill Chrissy and threaten Aiden?” Chelsea asked.

“I think killing Chrissy was his way of getting me to come back and threatening Aiden was to make sure I didn’t leave again. He knew I would need everyone’s help to get myself out of this one.” When Chelsea didn’t understand, I added, “Even though I made sure the room wasn’t in our names, our DNA is everywhere, and we’re going to need Kai’s help to alter any evidence the police will get on us. There was too much blood to clean up, and the police were already on their way when Aiden got there.”

Chelsea laughed nervously. “Remind me to never get on your bad side.”

“
That
is never going to happen to you.” And I’d make damn sure I kept my promise.

“Well, Jade’s right,” Dave agreed. “We’re going to need Kai’s help on this one. And as you said, maybe this was Adam’s way of bringing you out of hiding.” Dave paused, then turned to me. “But then… why would he do that if he knew where you were? I mean, he had to know your location to be able to dump Chrissy’s body in that hotel room. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know.” I was afraid that if he kept thinking about it then he would realise more and more how right he was. The only reason Nathan had killed her was to bring me back to the Scotts.

Aiden squeezed my shoulder slightly. “When does anything he does make sense to any of us?”

“That guy’s a friggin’ psycho,” Lucas said. I hoped he would still feel that way if he knew he was talking about his own father.

Dave wasn’t convinced, and he knew he was missing something, so I slowly pushed into his mind, ready to jump back out at the slightest knowledge of my presence, but he didn’t notice. I felt bad for what I had to do, but it wasn’t safe for Dave to continue his thoughts down that track. I forced him to stop trying to figure out the reason why and just accept what Aiden had said as the truth. My father was a complete psycho, one that no one would ever understand. Before getting out of his mind, I did a quick check to make sure that he wasn’t willingly helping my father with his quest to torture me. I breathed a sigh of relief: Dave was still one of the good guys.

A moment later, Dave said, “You’re probably right.”

“So what do we do now?” Chelsea yawned the last word.

“You need to get some rest,” I said.

Lucas put his hand on Chelsea’s knee. “Well, I guess that’s my cue to go.”

Chelsea knew she needed sleep, but she didn’t want to be alone, which she thought would happen since Aiden and I were back together. Before she could object, I sent her a gentle persuasion to keep her mouth shut and made sure it was done in such a way that no one else in the room would’ve noticed the change in her attitude.