Build a Love (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (16 page)

“Okay. I’ll be okay. It was just so scary. I panicked.”

“Oh my love, you had every right to panic. I’m just so upset we’re not with you.”

“Will you text me when you get on the plane so I know it’s on time?”

“Promise. I love you, Harry.”

I heard Marco call down the phone. “Babe, love you, love you forever.”

I smiled and felt much better.

“I love you both so much. Go back to your work. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Take care. Have a long bath and sleep tight. We’ll be back with you before you know it.”

“Night.”

A double chorus of goodnights came down the phone as I hung up. There had been nothing further from the police so I guessed they had arrested him. I didn’t feel like eating but I decided to take the boys’ advice and soak in a bath.

An hour later, I felt much better. The bath had made me relax and I thought I would go to bed. Much as I hate them, I took a sleeping pill and went to bed. I knew otherwise I would spend the night tossing and turning. The psychiatrist I had been seeing years ago had prescribed them for me, but I rarely took them.

When I got up the next morning, I felt much better. Amazing what a good night’s sleep can do. I was confident that the police would have him in custody. My men would be home soon.

To keep busy until they arrived, I decided I would check the last box of things and then everything would be ready for the studio move. I thought about having breakfast but the idea of it made me feel nauseous. I’d been feeling off lately, maybe I was coming down with something. Even the idea of a coffee wasn’t appealing. Maybe I would make a cup of herbal tea later.

I got a text message from Marco to say they had just boarded the plane and the flight was on time. I gave a sigh of relief, then went back to the packing.

About four in the afternoon, I had a shower. I was starting to feel better and looking forward to seeing them. The boys should be back around six. I made another cup of herbal tea and realised I hadn’t eaten all day. I grabbed a couple of biscuits. When they got home we could get some takeout for us all.

I kept one eye on the clock. Funny how slow time goes when you watch a clock. Still soon it was after five-thirty. There had been another text message from the boys when they landed, they were ahead of time.

I figured they would be here in the next ten minutes or so. I picked up my phone, I decided I would send them a message to ask if they could grab something for us all to eat on the way back. Save going back out.

As I was about to write it, the doorbell went. They must have got green lights all the way back. I almost ran to the door and tore it open, a big grin on my face.

I just stood and stared, frozen to the spot.

“Hello, cunt!”

He slammed the door open all the way, and pushed inside, grabbing me as he went past. I screamed. He slapped my face and shoved me. I lost my footing and fell. As I went to stand, I realised I still had the phone in my hand.

Every number I used regularly was on speed dial and in the number one spot was the police, force of habit. Quickly I hit ‘1’ and pushed the phone into the kitchen as he dragged me along the hallway. I prayed he wouldn’t see it as I started screaming louder and louder.

“Shut your fucking face, bitch! I spent twelve fucking years in prison because of you. It’s taken me the last eight months to find you, now you’re mine!”

“Help!” I screamed. “He’s going to kill me, help!”

“You’re fucking right!” he shouted as he dragged me to my feet, his face just inches away from mine. “You’re dead!” he screamed. “You disrespected me, treated me bad, now I’m back to finish the job I started twelve fucking years ago.”

I kept calling for help, praying the police would trace the number and come soon.

“Shut the fuck up!”

He slammed me against the wall and punched me in the face. The room spun for a minute. I grabbed hold of him to stop myself from falling.

“Why? Harriet, why? I treated you good. Why wouldn’t you see me? Why did you think you could dump me and then have me fucking arrested?”

“You tried to kill me!”

I screamed at the top of my voice. He threw me across the room and I landed with a heavy thud against the kitchen counter. I lay curled up as he walked toward me and then started to kick me.

I screamed loud and long as his foot pounded into me. I was sure I felt a rib snap. I tried to wrap my arms around myself and make myself as small a target as possible. He grabbed my hair and pulled me upright. With the back of his hand, he slapped me across the face a few times. I felt my lip split, blood pouring from it and my nose.

I was sobbing and screaming, pleading with him to leave me alone. He dragged me along the bench to where I had my knives in a wooden block. I shrieked at the top of my voice at him.

“
No!
No!
”

I looked in terror as he pulled out the big carving knife and held it in front of my face. I was sobbing and screaming senselessly. He ran the flat of the blade down one side of my face, then held it under my chin.

“Goodbye, Harriet. You were wrong to dump me. No one gets away with treating me bad.” The knife slid down my neck and onto my shoulder. “Fucking cunt!”

He turned the blade and sliced into my shoulder and down my arm.

I screamed with agony and in dread, almost delirious with pain. I broke out in a cold sweat of fear.

This was the end. My life had turned out so wonderful, and now I wouldn’t never get to live with my men, never feel their arms around me again.

“That’s right, bitch! Scream!”

Spittle sprayed my face as he shouted. Once more, he threw me. I landed awkwardly as he advanced toward me. I tried to crawl backward. He lashed out with his foot again. I looked up at him. He had the knife raised. I tried to kick him with my foot but he slashed at my leg with the knife. It burnt as it sliced through my thigh. The knife went up again.

The room was spinning. I knew I was about to pass out and that would be the end of it all.

“Harry!”

Suddenly he was knocked off his feet. I swore I saw Bryan wrestling him. Marco grabbed me and was trying to carrying me out of the way, as Bryan tried to wrestle the knife away. I screamed again and again. He hit Bryan with the back of the knife and Bryan fell down unconscious, blood pouring from his head. I didn’t know if he was dead or alive.

The monster turned, knife in hand. The last thing I remember was Marco holding me tight as everything went black.

* * * *

We made it to Harry’s in record time. As we pulled into the driveway, we heard it. A horrid scream that echoed across the yard, then another and another. I could hear sirens in the distance as Marco and I raced toward the door. It was wide open.

Never in my life will I forget the scene.

A man was standing over Harry, a knife held above his head, ready to plunge downward. I reacted without thinking and tackled him, praying he would drop the knife and that it wouldn’t fall on Harry. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Marco rush to Harry and scoop her up as we wrestled.

The bastard hit me on the side of the head hard with the back of the knife and I saw stars and went down. Things went black for a few seconds.

When I opened my eyes, the room was filling with blue. I could feel blood pouring down my face. My vision was tinged with red.

Police were everywhere.

I watched in slow motion as the bastard was racing toward cops with the knife. He lunged at the closest officer, the knife held out in front of him. As he went to stab him, I heard a shot ring out.

He stumbled.

As he fell, he turned to looked at Harry, lying unmoving in Marco’s arms.

“Fucking cunt!” he screamed as he fell to the ground. “I’m glad I killed you! Bitch!”

He was still screaming at a lifeless Harry as he died.

Harry was lying still in Marco’s arms. He looked at me frightened and I felt my heart stop. Please, I prayed. Please don’t let her be dead.

I got to my feet somehow. I was feeling groggy and unsteady but I made it to Harry and Marco. She looked awful, her eyes were rolled back in her head, and I prayed she was unconscious but we both knew she was dead.

There was pandemonium as the cops tried to sort everyone out. We tried to explain who we were. Marco refused to let go of Harry even when the paramedics arrived. Police were coming and going. I have no idea what was happening half the time.

When the paramedics finally got Marco to let them check Harry, they told us she was still alive. I think we were both crying at that point. The paramedics managed to stabilise her for the trip to hospital. The gash on my head was cleaned up but they told me I would have to get stitches but, as far as I was concerned, they would wait until we knew if Harry was going to be okay.

One of the paramedics told us she had several stab wounds and they were concerned she may have head injuries as well as internal injuries. She’d been unconscious for so long. He couldn’t tell us if she would be all right. She would be scanned once they got her to the hospital. At that point no-one knew if she would live.

They insisted that I had to go to the hospital to be stitched up. Marco told me to ride in the ambulance with her. He would drive to the hospital. The paramedics got us both in the ambulance, me sitting up front.

Harry was unconscious all the way. I was so scared she wasn’t going to make it. On the way I gave them her details, they rang through to the hospital and when we arrived, she was whisked away quickly to Emergency.

I followed. As I walked into the emergency section, it looked like every doctor in the hospital was there gathered around her bed.

“Sir, you’ll have to wait outside.”

“I’m her partner. I’m staying.”

A man pointed to the side of the cubicle.

“Stay over there.”

As long as I could stay in the room, I didn’t care where I stood. They cut Harry’s clothing off and I groaned when I saw her body. There were angry red bruises all over her. He must have kicked her. Her face was swollen in places and covered with blood. A large cut was down one arm and she had a big long slash wound on her thigh. She was finally semi-conscious and groaning in pain.

The staff worked on her. I had no idea what was happening. About twenty minutes later Marco came in shouting. I grabbed him and pulled him over to where I was standing and told him to be quiet.

The next ten minutes were completely lost to Marco and me. So many people. They poked and prodded her. She was hooked up to machines. All I could hear was her moaning. A few times she called our names. Then they finally took her out to be scanned. Marco and I slumped against the wall.

The man who had spoken to me in the beginning came over.

‘I’m Doctor Ken Delaney.”

“Bryan Garret, this is Marco Campione. What’s happening?”

“Are you related?”

Marco rolled his eyes and angrily replied. “We’re her partners. Okay!”

The doc held up his hands. “Okay, just asking.” He looked a little confused. I patted Marco’s arm.

“Harry and the both of us are in a relationship, we’re getting married soon. Sorry if you find that offensive but honestly I don’t give a fuck.” I was beyond caring at that point. “Now what’s happening with our girl?”

“Ah, so you are the men she was calling for. Okay. At the moment, we are most concerned with her head. She was unconscious a long time, which isn’t good. She has a large haematoma on her forehead. There is a possibility she is bleeding in her brain. On top of that, we think she has a broken rib. So we are scanning her head to toe for breaks and also in case there are internal injuries. She was kicked a number of times. The wound on her arm will require stitches, as will her leg, its quite a long slash. Speaking of which, so does your head, Mr. Garret was it?”

“Yeah. It can wait.”

Marco looked fearful. “Will she be okay?”

“As I said, we won’t know until we see the scan. I’m pretty confident that she’ll survive but just how long it will take to heal her will depend on the results.” He looked at us both curiously. “Can you tell me anything about the old scars on her body? She’s had a lot repair-type surgery, and there are what look like old stab wounds.”

“The fucker that did this to her, attacked her twelve years ago. She was messed up pretty bad. She was raped and left for dead.”

“There’s nothing on the records here.”

“It wasn’t here. She moved here after it happened.”

“Do you know what hospital? I can get the record sent over just for reference.”

“Sorry, no.”

“Okay.” He pulled a small plastic bag from his pocket and handed it to Marco.

“Her ring, necklace, and earrings.” He gestured to a chair. “Sit down, Mr. Garret, I may as well stitch you up while we wait.”

He made me sit on a chair and cleaned the blood off my head. I could feel Marco’s fingers digging into my shoulder as the doc worked. Seven stitches later and it was over. A few minutes later they wheeled Harry back in.