Eluded (20 page)

"Is that what you wanted to see,
Trojan horse? Happy now?" He clenched his jaw as he walked past me,
barely brushing his wet arm against mine. I rubbed the wetness away
and a dark liquid coated my fingertips. The thought of someone
else's blood on my hand made me queasy.

Five men were dead. Any of which
could have been fathers, brothers, or husbands.

Watching Abbot kill without care
made me question if I were really safe on this side. Maybe I wasn't
safe anywhere?

Now at least I knew what Abbot was
capable of. His wrath was frightening and dangerous. He was a
killing machine and felt no pity.

I had too many questions with no
answers. Helplessness was an evil emotion, one that could pull the
deepest feelings from the core and force them out in different
ways. Depression, fear, and panic were all derived from
helplessness. Would I be spared, or was I next on his list? If I
did somehow make it out alive, I would find Lindsey. I’d try to
save her from Derrick before he did horrible things to her, like
he’d done to me, and Sophie, and no telling who else. But a little
piece of me knew Abbot wouldn't make the same mistake as Derrick.
He wouldn't so easily let me go now that I was here. Freedom no
longer existed for me. Death seemed like the only
escape.

ABBOT

Twenty-seven

A
few went to the roof to
search from above while the rest of us searched the grounds of the
building. The surroundings were clear, but I couldn't help but
think how that group of men entered without any alarms sounding. We
were on fucking lockdown, which meant someone had to let them in or
they had to know the codes. My mind reeled with all the different
scenarios. If I had kept one of them alive, would he have told me
what I needed to know? Or would he have been like the rest of the
tortured souls that I threatened and kept his mouth shut? They all
tried to die with dignity, which I didn't understand, but I
supposed that was better than dying without a respectable bone in
their body.

My blood continued to sing from
killing. I wasn't one of those people who got off from murdering
people, but to know that I could take something as precious as a
human life with my bare hands made me feel powerful in a sense.
Invincibility didn't exist, but not feeling fear made killing easy,
which in return made me dangerous.

The lights of Dr. D's Lexus
rounded the corner and he rolled up with his normal swagger, no
rush in his step. The man never slept, and I knew that I could
count on him to arrive promptly no matter the time. That was what I
paid him for.

"Looking good, Abbot. The blood
compliments your skin tone."

I rolled my eyes at him. The man
loved to annoy me, as well as deliver guilt trips, mend broken
bones, sew up wounds, and help with my many concussions. He was a
literal lifesaver. As he continued to compliment the dark-red tone
splashed across my clothes, the bottom of the eggplant-colored sky
dropped out. Rain poured, but I didn't move. Instead, I waited for
every person to enter before I did. In the current state, no man
would be left behind. As soon as I opened the door, Lauren ran to
me in a hurry with fear in her eyes.

"You have to come quick." She
reached out her hand and grabbed mine. I couldn't find it in me to
push her away, though sharing innocent human affection, even
something as slight as that, was beyond me. Urgency blanketed her
as she pulled me through the hallway back into the open
room.

One of the men that I had stabbed
in the stomach was still alive. With all the strength I had, I
rolled the large man over on his back. Blood ran from the side of
his mouth as he gurgled and choked on it. I pulled him up by his
arms and stared into ice-blue eyes.

"Fuck you," he mumbled, and I
dropped him back to the ground, placed my boot on his face, and
pushed with all of my weight. Wrong answer.

"He's dead," Lauren
whispered.

I continued to slam my heel into
his face until his skull crushed and became nothing more than a
pulp.

"He's fucking dead," she screamed.
"Stop it!"

But I didn't. That man had plans
to infiltrate what was mine, and that riled me. It wasn't like he
would have lived much longer anyway, considering the depth of the
wounds in his stomach. She covered her face and turned her back,
but I didn't care. I walked away, tracking blood from the bottom of
my boot to the next room, where Dr. D was helping the injured. Most
were okay, with a few cuts and bruises, while others had broken
noses and arms.

"They were like machines, Abbot,"
Jackson said. "No matter what we did, they wouldn't stop. They
didn't tire. They were fucking tweaked out and bizarre, and said
weird shit like they were disoriented."

"It couldn't be." I clenched my
teeth. "Angel dust. So un-fucking-predictable."

Lauren walked into the room and
stood in the doorway, after having been in the other room with the
dead for quite some time. My eyes met hers, and she looked away. As
Jackson talked, I stared at her. Red hair struggled to stay behind
her ears. The day-old makeup complimented her eyes, though the
shadows of streaked mascara lined her cheeks. I wondered what she
must be feeling at that moment.

Liam entered and looked around the
room, and slowly everyone else crowded in. Text messages were a
beautiful thing.

"Since you're all here, I think
it's time we have a meeting and discuss what will take place in the
next few hours." I looked around the room at my men. We were fifty
strong, and if I needed more to join our ranks, I knew I could
count on Sebastian to send men over.

All eyes were on me as I spoke.
"Derrick Black is back." I waited for the shifting in the room to
stop. "It was confirmed a few days prior." The
how's
and
not-possible's
filled the room.

"It seems we were betrayed by our
brothers, or he had someone waiting to scoop him from the depths of
the ocean. Regardless, he's alive, well, and killing."

"Have you seen him?" a voice asked
from the back of the room.

"I haven't," I
answered.

"How do you know she wasn't
lying?"

Lauren stepped into the middle of
the room and spoke up. "I've seen the bastard."

All eyes turned on her. As I
looked around the room, lust and want crossed several of my men's
faces. They were loyal to me, but it was dangerous for her to be
here. Most of them I knew, but some I didn't trust as far as I
could throw them. I cleared my throat and crossed my arms. "Lauren.
Come here."

She turned her head, hesitated,
and then came to me. It wasn't because she wanted to, but rather
because she had to.

"Search this fucking city high and
low, and bring him to me alive tonight. I don't care what it takes.
Kill who you have to kill. Spare the innocent. But find him." A
wicked smile crossed my face, and Lauren took a step away from me.
I knew my actions frightened her, but this was bigger than her. It
didn't matter if she was afraid of me or not. Though she didn't say
a word, her reaction said it all. A part of me hated that she
feared me, but I knew it was better this way, better for both of
us. At one point, it was about a game, making her mine, but
sometimes the rules of games change and throw the whole outcome off
of its axis. Lauren was no longer a game, but a project; one in
which I would break her down and build her back the way I
wanted.

LAUREN

Twenty-eight

W
hen Abbot took me, I had
no idea where I was going or what would happen. I thought he was a
good guy who was sexy as hell, someone who could be respected, who
had honor, but watching him kill that man, with no feeling at all,
made me reconsider that. With a firm grasp, he pulled me through
the crowd of men, up the metal stairs, and slammed the door behind
him. Dried blood covered his face, arms, and clothes like war paint
that he had spread across himself. I couldn't stop staring at
him.

"I didn't tell you to fucking
talk." His nostrils flared as he clenched his jaw. Obviously he was
angry, but I didn't understand what the big deal was, and the way I
looked at him said as much. "You spoke as if you weren't taking
direction from anyone but yourself, and with an attitude like that,
not even I can protect you from the wolves. I bet you didn't even
notice the way half of them looked at you like you were a piece of
fucking meat. Learn to shut the hell up and not speak to strangers,
something you should have learned weeks ago."

"What is that supposed to
mean?"

He stabbed the knife into the
wooden table in the kitchen, causing me to jump. After giving me a
look, he walked by me, grabbed clothes, and then slammed the
bathroom door. Water and blood mixed in the next room, and I could
only imagine how many bloody showers he had. It wasn't his first
kill, or second, maybe not even his tenth.

Not only was he an assassin, but
he was also a master manipulator. Considering he didn't reveal his
true identity when we first met, and how we conveniently ran in to
one another, made me think I was his target from the beginning But
that couldn't be . . . could it? Was that paranoia creeping in or
logical thinking? So many outlandish things had happened, and I
couldn't tell the difference between the two.

When I closed my eyes, all I saw
was Abbot crushing that man's skull with his boot, and all I heard
was the sound of cracking from his heel being slammed down
repeatedly. Without a doubt, my dreams would be tainted by the
nightmares that I’d lived the past few days. Sleep might not come
ever again.

The cell phone rang on the table,
then the call ended, then it rang again. Whoever called was
persistent. I knew that I probably shouldn't answer, but I did
anyway, and after it was said and done, I wished I hadn't. I
pressed CALL and waited for the person to speak first.

"Some things never change, do
they? Still screening your calls, I see."

The voice on the other end was
rough, familiar, and malicious . . . Derrick.

"Since you're too much of a pussy
to talk, then I'll fill you in. I know you're looking for me.
That's easy considering the spray paint you left across my
building. To return the favor, I sent a few of my best men to say
hello to you for me." He laughed. He had the nerve to fucking laugh
knowing damn well he had sent those men to their deaths.

"You'll meet me at Trevor and
Lilac. In your spot. You know where. Oh, and Lauren, she will be
mine and dead before you know it, but I'll make sure to fuck her
one last time for you before I kill her like your girlfriend so
many years ago. Make sure to bring her when you come." Then the
call ended and I was shaking so bad I dropped the phone.

Fresh soap smells filled the room
when he opened the bathroom door, and I couldn't say a word. I
stood frozen in the place while the phone lay on the
ground.

"What have you fucking done?" He
picked up the phone and looked at the call history.

"Who was this? Who was this
blocked number?"

I swallowed and forced myself to
look into his eyes. They were the color of crisp grass in the fall,
golden brown and green. I could have gotten lost in them if he
wasn’t who he was and I wasn’t who I was. But considering how much
of a monster he was . . . I stopped.

"Lauren. Who was that?" He raised
his voice and shook me again.

"Derrick."

"Fuck. He has my goddamn
number?"

I nodded my head.

"What did he say? What the hell
did he say?" Abbot was shaking me more violently, pulling me away
from Derrick's words.

"Umm. He said. He knows you're
looking for him. He sent those men for what you did to his
building. And . . . he would meet you at your spot on Trevor and .
. . "

"Lilac," he whispered, and
everything seemed to drain from him as if he had seen a
ghost.

"He said he will do to me like he
did to your last girlfriend. Fuck and then kill me."

We stood without speaking while
our silent demons chased one another around the room. Abbot held my
face in his hands, as he stared into my eyes. The hate that I had
felt over the last few weeks seemed to melt away as he softened his
touch and looked at me. He ran his fingers through my hair and
kissed me on my forehead. I closed my eyes, wanting to get lost in
the moment forever. For that slight moment, I saw a different side
of Abbot, one that a woman could easily fall in love with. Gentle.
Caring. Kind.

"You're safe with me,
Lauren."

I nodded my head. A cold chill
swept over me, and I crossed my arms to stop the panic attack that
was building inside my core. The screams inside of my head wouldn't
stop.

Abbot sucked in a deep breath and
released it slowly, then pulled away from me and began typing on
his phone, probably another mass text.

"I know when he wants me to meet
him. Evening. The same time . . . " Then he trailed off and lost
himself in a memory, one that must be horrific, because the
expression on his face and his demeanor completely
changed.