Faith (Rescue Me, A Contemporary Romance) (16 page)

Now it was 12:30, she saw on her computer clock. She still didn’t see him and he hadn’t called or contacted her at all since they’d spoken last night. Maybe he had decided to just let it die, she wondered. As much as she wanted to see him one more time, she knew that it would be for the best if he had decided to drop it with that phone call. She’d said everything she wanted to say after all, anything left to say today would just be repeating her position…she couldn’t see him right now. The timing was all off.

She sat at her desk for the next hour without moving. She didn’t want to leave and grab some food and accidentally miss him, and make him angry that she’d stood him up. She thought it was the least she could do for him – to give him the option of letting her break up with him in person. Besides, maybe he thought she’d said 1:30 and not 12:30.

When 1:30 and then 2:00 passed, she knew he wasn’t coming.

Oh well, she thought as she put on her coat at her normal 5:00 quitting time. Some men’s egos wouldn’t handle letting a girl break up with them. She supposed that as a movie star, Rory would have a bigger ego than most men’s. It wasn’t a surprise that he didn’t relish the thought of keeping an appointment for her to break up with him.

Although, she reminded herself again, just like she’d reminded him yesterday, can you really call it a ‘break up’ after only two dates? And one of those dates wasn’t even supposed to have happened, she thought defensively. Many women she knew, maybe even her, would have just stopped taking his calls and considered it enough of a response to fit the level of the relationship. However, Rory hadn’t really given her that option. Not with his incessant calling and even asking her point blank if she was ‘breaking up with him.’

Yes, she thought again, it was definitely a good thing that he’d decided not to show up for lunch today. The more she thought about it, the more relieved she felt that she hadn’t had to deal with that drama.

By the time she turned onto her block she was feeling downright happy. She had everything in the world to look forward to now. Her relationship with her mom was wonderful. Her relationship with Liam would be much improved now that she wasn’t seeing Rory. And she was starting school, which meant a whole new future for her and Liam.

Yes, things were definitely looking up, she thought…until she saw Rory’s car parked in the driveway.

For the second time in her life Faith felt a shiver of fear travel up her spine and down her arms. The first time had been the night her husband was killed. She didn’t want to know what the second time had in store for her.

She parked on the curb so she wouldn’t have to move her car for Rory to back up and leave. She didn’t know what he was doing there, but she knew she didn’t want him to be there one minute longer than he had to be.

Grabbing her purse she walked up to the front door and opened it with her key. All the lights were off in the living room, and she couldn’t hear any sounds coming from the brightly lit kitchen.

The fear in her stomach started to grow and pulse with her heartbeat. Something was wrong. This wasn’t right.

“Mom? Liam?” she called out as she stood stock still by the front door.

She heard a rustling in the kitchen and knew something dreadful was waiting for her. She didn’t want to step forward and walk around that corner to face it. She wasn’t sure she could put one foot in front of the other. Not when she’d just gone through one terrifying experience that year. How could this be happening to her?

But, she had no choice. She had to move. Liam or Myra could be hurt in there. What did you do Rory, she thought to herself as she took a deep breath and moved toward the kitchen,

As she rounded the corner the first thing that struck her was how bright it was in the kitchen. The overhead light, the stove light, the dining room light, the under-the-counter lights – they were all on and shining at their highest intensity. It looked like a movie set, she thought, which made sense because standing in the middle of the kitchen, in the starring role was the movie star himself, Rory Reynolds. And he was holding a gun.

She stood motionless staring at him. Her mother and Liam were sitting bound and gagged to their chairs in the dining room. They were seated in the same spots they had been when Rory had eaten with them during their anniversary dinner.

Myra
’s eyes were wide with anger and shock. She didn’t look afraid, Faith thought, she looked pissed off.

That’s good mom, she tried to convey to her with her eyes, that’s real good. Stay angry, don’t get afraid, he can smell fear.

Liam’s face was the opposite. He was terrified. His eyes were bulging out of their sockets with fear and she couldn’t get him to look at her. His eyes were shooting around the room in a crazed panic. He glanced at her, then Rory, then at the gun, then at his grandmother and did the cycle again without seeming to focus on anyone or anything. It was obvious that this second traumatic attack was cracking his fragile psyche. She hoped he would survive this mentally as well as physically.

She had to be smart about this.

“What are you doing Rory? Why are they tied up?”

She tried to keep her voice even so as not to spook him. She didn’t want to upset him or make him mad.

“I needed to talk to you, and they were getting in the way,” he replied calmly.

“Okay,” she said, “we can talk, no problem. Why don’t I just go ahead and untie them and then we can go somewhere and talk.”

She started to slowly move toward the table, but Rory stepped into her path and pointed the gun at Liam’s head.

“Just leave them there, Faith. I don’t want to have to hurt Liam, but I will if you insist on putting his needs before our relationship.”

She held up her hands in surrender and backed away to the counter. She had to get him to put the gun down. Watching him point a gun at her child’s head was making her want to jump at his face and claw his eyes out. Rory was truly crazy, that was obvious. She had to try and control her animal instincts to protect her son and get him out of her house before anyone got hurt.

“What’s the matter baby?” she a
sked him coyly, “Why do you think I’m putting Liam in front of you?”

“Don’t patronize me Faith,” he said. “I know you don’t want to be with me anymore and it’s his fault.”

Again he swung the gun back over to Liam and when he did Myra howled with rage against her gag.

“Shut up old lady,” Rory warned her, emphasizing his words with the tip of his gun.

“It’s not that I don’t want to be with you Rory,” Faith tried again, “I just got scared. You make me nervous, you’re a big star and I’m no one. I wanted to hurt you before you could hurt me, I ‘m so sorry.”

She hoped he believed the words she was saying. She couldn’t believe them herself, her voice sounded sickly sweet in her head, but she had to do or say anything she could to keep his attention on her and away from her family.

This time she wouldn’t let her family get hurt because she couldn’t stop a madman.

It had been hours since Rory had sweet talked his way into her house and knocked her out before tying Liam and her to her own chairs.

Myra was appalled at being treated this way in her own home. She knew she should be afraid, but she was too mad to be scared. This movie star, this stranger, had basically kidnapped her and her grandson and for what? Because her daughter didn’t want to date him? She was so angry she could spit nails.

Faith had managed to convince Rory to come with her into the living room so they could ‘talk.’ She knew her daughter was just trying to distract him to give her a chance to get out of her bonds and escape with Liam. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she and Faith had exchanged enough meaningful glances to know what she was trying to get her to do. She knew her own daughter, and she was just angry enough at the situation to chance an escape. She’d rather have that psychopath shoot her than just sit there tied to her chair like a Thanksgiving turkey ready to be served for supper.

She fiddled with the tape again. Duct tape was tough stuff and Rory had obviously thought this through before he’d got here.

Brought it all with him, yes he did, she thought trying to keep track of everything she wanted to be sure to tell the police when she reported this. She’d seen enough cop dramas to know that bringing supplies like this with him meant ‘pre-meditated’ and that meant more punishment. Not to mention what the press
would do once they heard how crazy he was.

Your life is over Rory Reynolds, Myra promised him silently as she kept trying to work the tape a little looser around her hands. He was a movie star, not a career criminal. When she’d woken up – with a raging headache, thanks to the bump on the head he’d given her to make her go down without clawing his eyes out or kicking him in the balls—she’d seen that her hands were taped in front of her – not in back, his first mistake—and her feet weren’t taped at all. If she could work her hands free, it would be nothing to free Liam and then call the police.

She kept pulling her hands apart, ignoring the tape cutting into her skin. She moved her foot over to Liam’s shin and tried to rub it up and down to let him know that he wasn’t alone and she was okay and trying to save them. It was a lot to ask of a leg rubbing against his leg, but she was thinking it as hard as she could also, hoping he’d pick up on her thought waves.

Her grandson looked crazy. He wasn’t looking at her, and he didn’t even move when she touched him with her leg. He just sat there staring around him like someone who had been pushed too far over the edge. It was only a few months since he’d had to deal with his first violent encounter, twice in one lifetime was a lot to ask of anyone, much less twice in the span of six months.

But she couldn’t deal with that right now. First she had to save them and then she would help Faith fix him. First things first she thought with a gleeful, but quiet, yelp as she pulled her hands far enough apart for her to rip one hand and then the other loose of the tape.

Yep, a movie star not a criminal genius. I guess it’s not quite the same to do things like this yourself instead of the wardrobe person or the prop master or whoever was in charge of tying people up for Rory’s character to come in and save them during a movie.

Ripping the tape off her mouth she had to cover her lips with her hand to avoid making any noise involuntarily. On the other side of the wall she could hear Faith talking to Rory. She was talking loudly—no doubt to cover up any noise of Myra trying to escape—so she could hear everything she was saying.

It was mostly a lot of the same reassurances that she felt the same way about him and she was just scared. For a moment there it sounded like Rory was trying to get her to give him a blowjob, but she prayed that Faith wasn’t doing that even though she could be sure she understood what she was hearing.

I’m adding rape to the list of your crimes Rory, she told him silently as she stepped over to her grandson. Your life as you know it over, over, over.

She kept herself pumped up with
comment after comment until she got the tape off of Liam’s hands.

“Shhh…” she put her finger over her lips to indicate that he shouldn’t make a sound when she pulled the gag off him.

She wasn’t sure what he understood. His eyes were barely focusing on her as she leaned over him.

With a prayer she tried to pull the duct tape off his mouth as quietly as she could.

It wouldn’t have mattered if she did it quietly or loudly. As soon as the tape was off he started bellowing like a wounded animal and she could hear Rory and Faith coming. She had to do something!

At the first sight of Rory and the gun rounding the corner into the kitchen, Myra pushed Liam backward. He fell over in his chair, but he kept moaning and screaming.

Rory yelled and aimed the gun at Liam and fired before Faith could react.

Myra was ready for the shot. She threw herself in front of Liam’s body and felt a thud and a sting as the bullet slammed into her shoulder.

She wasn’t sure but she thought she smiled as she collapsed across Liam. She could add attempted murder to the list of charges against Rory in her head. And she had protected Liam, was her last thought before everything went dark.

Faith ran to her mother’s body lying on the floor and held her son as he lay weeping like a broken child beneath her.

She looked at Rory standing shocked on the other side of the room with such an expression of hate in her eyes that she could see him go pale. She wanted nothing more than to see him dead and bleeding. For the second time her family had been attacked and she hadn’t been able to stop it. She needed to feel Rory’s blood under her fingertips.

With a primal scream she started to lunge for him, but before she could reach him, he pointed the gun again, this time at his own head.

“I’m sorry Faith. I didn’t mean to do it,” was all he said before he pulled the trigger and gave her her wish.

The last thing she saw before she fainted was Rory’s lifeless, bleeding body plastered against the wall in front of her.

Faith fought her way through the crush of reporters toward the hospital front entrance. The two policemen who had been her constant shadows over the last week were by her side, helping her push away the paparazzi who had been hounding her for a comment ever since one of the world’s biggest movie stars had blown his brains out in her kitchen.