Married to the Bad Boy (15 page)

Then the man stepped out into the light of the lagoon, fully exposing himself to view.  Brandon and I both drew in quick breaths in shocked recognition. With my chin trembling in fear and betrayal, I took a step forward, fighting Brandon’s hold.  “Daddy?”

That was the only thing that I could get out before everything became dark.

My eyes tried to adjust to the darkness that surrounded me.  It was impenetrable and so absolute that it almost felt cold.  I was lying on the floor and my hands were tied behind my back.  The rope chaffed and my wrists already felt raw from where they had been rubbing against them. My head was pounding to the point I swore I could hear my blood rushing through my veins in time with it.  It didn’t help that, as I soon discovered, they had tied my ankles together as well.

The darkness of the room seemed to enhance the humidity that clung in the air.  I felt like it was choking me, preventing me from taking a full breath.  It enveloped me, wrapping itself around me and holding tight.  Even though the sound was muffled, I could tell I was alone. I felt the stirring of panic and fought it, pushing it away.  I wasn’t going to help Brandon if I was incapacitated by terror.

All I remembered from earlier was that Brandon had gotten into a fight with Maddox on the beach.  We had spoken with the police about the incident and then rented the Jet Ski to come to the island where the lagoon was.  We were standing there and admiring it and I was commenting on how it was as beautiful as Brandon had said it would be.  While standing there, transfixed by the beauty of the place, we were surprised by the couple that we had been trying so hard to avoid.  We could only stare in shock that Maddox and Haley had followed us to the island.  I didn’t understand when they started bragging about how they had ‘lured’ us to the lagoon.

At least, not until my father stepped out from behind the two of them.

I couldn’t process it all.  My father was here.  Haley and Maddox kept referring to some sort of trap. What were they all up to?

Without warning, a window opened from somewhere on my left side, momentarily blinding me.  My eyes squinted and I turned my head away out of instinct.  Remembering where I was, I quickly opened my eyes and blinked rapidly, desperately trying to get them to adjust to the brightness.  I stiffened when I heard who opened the window.

“Aww, look!  She’s awake.  Our little damsel in distress has finally decided to join us.”  I ground my teeth together as I listened to Haley taunt me.  “I hope dear old Daddy didn’t hurt you too bad.”  There wasn’t much in the way of sympathy in her voice.  I didn’t really expect any, however.  It was obvious the distaste was mutual between us.

I decided to ignore the daddy comment and focus on my main priority.  Looking over where the girl stood, I found that I could now see her more clearly.  My pounding head was protesting against the light and wasn’t helping in the vision department. I gritted my teeth and attempted to control my anger.  It was proving difficult, however, as it seemed she was intent on annoying me.  I needed answers though, and she was the only one presently around.

“Where’s my husband?”  I growled the question.

She snorted.  “Don’t worry about him.  He’s off having a great time. He’s having his own little discussion time with Maddox.” She laughed nastily as an uneasy feeling swept over me.  Fear and rage began struggling to win as the primary emotion within me.  Her next words, however, were what allowed rage to win the battle.

“Maybe once the boys are done with him, I’ll go and have some fun with that hottie.”  She was smirking devilishly.  “I’ll offer him a ride that’ll be too good to pass up!  Yeah... it’ll be better than you can give him. You’re a pathetic excuse for a wife.”

I struggled against my bonds while I glared at her with a hatred that I never knew I could feel toward a person.  “Stay away from him, you bitch!”  I was panting, furious, and determined to get out of my bonds.  “You don’t even so much as breathe near him!  So help me, I swear to you, I’ll kill you!”  The last came out as a scream, echoing and resounding off the brick walls of the room.

Haley laughed, pissing me off even more.  She looked at me, knowing that I wasn’t getting out of these knots anytime soon.

“Yeah.  Well, I think I’ll do as I please.”  She gestured to the window, indicating my current situation.  “It’s not like there’s much that you can do to stop me.  Daddy’s little girl can’t do a damn thing.”

I looked at her, livid.  “If you go near my husband, slut, I will kill you.”  Even as I snarled out the warning, I was shocked.  I had never been this confronting before.  Now I was threatening Haley with possibly more than bodily harm!  What had happened to me?  Why had I changed?

Then it hit me: Brandon.  Brandon was what had changed me.  I loved him and I would die for him.  Somehow, I had to keep this bitch here with me, to get her occupied so I get information out of her.  I needed to get myself free from my bonds, too.  I kept working my hands against the ropes, fighting through the pain of the burns and chaffing.

“Hey, Haley!” I called, and the girl’s attention centered back to me, her eyes narrowed.  “I need to know why.  Why are you doing this?”  I waited, actually curious as to her answer.  Silence was all I got, however.  I groaned, but tried again. “Why us?  What did we ever do to you?”

Haley threw me a look of such contempt, it almost took my breath away.  “You’re pathetic!  You just don’t get it, do you?” I shook my head, having no idea what she was talking about.  She looked at me with disgust and annoyance.  “You’re here because that sad-ass family didn’t do their jobs like they were supposed to.”  She paused and rolled her eyes. “Since they couldn’t get it right, your loving father decided to do it himself.”  Her eyes narrowed as she stared at me for an instant.  “It really is too bad you went and married Pretty Boy.  He’s going to go down for all of it.  It doesn’t matter if he was involved or not.”

She stepped back from the window, a hand hanging onto one of the bars.  “Since he’ll be tied up where they put him, I think I’m going to go and give him a last rodeo.  He looks like he’s got some skills…” She knew she hit a sore spot with me when I scowled at her.  I hated this bitch and when I got a chance, I would rip her eyeballs out.  Until then, I had to keep her talking.  I took a deep breath and focused.

“What the hell are you talking about?  What did who not do?  Are you talking about Mom and her husband?”  Despite needing to be strong for Brandon, I could feel the cold trickles of fear trying to overcome me and take over.  “What is my father going to do now?”  None of this was making any sense!

Haley stared at me for an instant before breaking into laughter.  “Oh, honey.  Just you wait.  Just you wait and see what you have coming.” Then she stepped back and closed the window, plunging me back into the damp darkness.  All I had left to keep me company were my fears and my thoughts.

Neither provided any comfort.

I sat there in the darkness and tried to figure out what my father wanted with me and what exactly was going on.  She spoke to me like I was supposed to know the answers to all of this, but none of it made any sense.  How did my mother and stepfather factor into this?  What did my father want with me?  What were they going to do with Brandon and me?

My thoughts then moved back to Brandon and I hoped that he was all right. I still could not understand why they dragged him into this.  There were plenty of times that I had been alone and they could have taken me.  Unless…

Could he be in on it?

I felt ashamed the instant I allowed the thought to go into my mind.  I knew, without a doubt, that my husband would never hurt me.  Brandon would do everything in his power to protect me.  He loved me.  There was no way that he was a part of this.  He’d more than proved himself when he married me to protect me.

But then I remembered how my father had acted that night at dinner.  One second he was upset that I had married Brandon.  He’d said that if he’d known I was going to run away and get married so young, he’d have never left me behind.  Even then I’d had my doubts about that statement. 

Then the next thing we knew, my father was sitting at the dining table and apologizing.  He offered us his honeymoon trip package as a way of making amends.  Honestly, I was suspicious at that point.  But like Brandon always says, I’m too trusting.  Because of it, look at where I had landed us!

After what felt like hours, the door opened again.  I turned my head and had to quickly blink my eyes as they adjusted to the blinding light from the doorway.  After blinking several times, I was able to make out that my father had walked into the room.  Meeting his eyes, I almost cowered in fear at the hatred I saw in them.

Gathering my courage, I forced my way up to a sitting position, watching him.  “I want to know where Brandon is.  I want to know right now!”

No sooner had the words left my mouth than I was once again lying on the floor.  My cheek and eye throbbed from where the backhanded slap landed.  I hadn’t even seen it coming and was in a state of shock, still processing everything.  I could taste blood in my mouth from where the slap had caused me to bite the inside of my cheek.

 I scooted back a hair when he moved to stand over me.  “Don’t you dare speak to me like that!” He pointed at me, his hand shaking from a rage I didn’t understand.  “You will not speak unless I tell you that you can.  I’ve lost everything I’ve ever loved, thanks to you, you little bitch!”  His chest was heaving as he squatted down in front of me and grabbed my face in a painful grip.  “I lost my wife and I lost my mother.  All because of you!” He was screaming by this time and I wrenched my head away, releasing the grip he’d had on my face. 

“What are you talking about? I didn’t take my mother away from you.” I tried to sit back up instead of lying on the floor, where I felt vulnerable.  It was a wasted effort as he reached down and grabbed me by my shirt and lifted me up to my feet.

 “Do not play games with me, little girl!” He was snarling in my face.  “You know that woman you lived with wasn’t your mother.  That wasn’t your family!  You weren’t even related to them.” Spittle landed on my face as he had his so close to mine.  “I paid that woman and her family to raise you.  I didn’t want to be near you.  You killed her!  You killed your mother!” He was practically frothing at the mouth by this point and I was so confused. What was he telling me?

“I don’t understand!  What are you talking about?”  Nothing was making any sense.  How did I kill my mother?  My mother was still alive. She was probably sitting at the kitchen table getting drunk.

He stared at me, fury and disbelief covering his face.  “What?  You’re going to play dumb now?  You killed the love of my life, you brat!”  He looked like he was starting to come a bit unhinged.  “She died giving birth to you!” His other hand came up and gripped me by the throat, squeezing.  “Then, my dear mother loved you so much.  She was so proud of how well I was ‘handling everything’. I played it out, trying to seem like the perfect father in front of her, but I couldn’t stand spending a second with you. I was just waiting for the day she died so I could get her money and forget you forever.”

He gave me a hard shake.  “Mother made other plans without telling me, though.  She left everything to you.  I had to come up with a way to get rid of you and keep you gone.” He sneered at me.  “That’s when I found your lovely family.  They were willing to take you in, for a price.  Everything was planned perfectly until that fucking boy jumped in and destroyed it!” He glared at me, blaming me for everything that had gone wrong.

As he spoke, I could hear gunshots going on outside the door. People were screaming at one another as more shots were fired. Who was outside the door? Was someone there to finally rescue me? Had they gotten to Brandon yet? Was he saved and helping them?

Those thoughts went through my head as I felt my father’s hand tighten around my throat to choke me. I gasped, trying to drag air into my lungs.  I struggled against the ropes around my wrists frantically, but they wouldn’t give.  I could feel myself losing consciousness.  Black spots appeared behind my eyes and my struggles were slowing down. 

I could feel myself finally slipping when I sensed someone breaking through the door, and the gun shots became louder. It sounded as if a war was happening outside the door now that it was wide open. I felt relief knowing that there was someone here to save me, but how?

Surprised by the sudden opening of the door, my father released me, causing me to fall back on the dirty floor. I got a glimpse of someone tackling him to the ground. With that, my eyes closed, unable to open now as I heard two gunshots go off near me. Then I felt a body fall near me.

That was the last thing I remembered before slipping into the darkness I had felt for so many years in my life. But now, it was at the hand of the man who was meant to love and protect me. He only had hatred and coldness in his heart for me.

When I opened my eyes, there was an off gray color on the walls with a tiny window near the ceiling to let in a bit of sunlight. The room had a strange odor. Looking down, I saw myself wearing a hospital gown. I wondered how I had gotten here. 

I couldn’t remember anything beyond the point of my father chocking me, but I recalled hearing noise outside the door. Right before I had lost consciousness, I heard a loud gunshot in the room, and the sound of a body falling near me. All these left me baffled. In all hopes, I was praying it was my father and not someone I love or care for, like Brandon.

Brandon! Where was he? Didn’t he get saved alongside me? Did my father murder him before there was anyone to save us? Then the questions arose about who saved us and how they knew we were in danger.

I closed my eyes and tried not to think too hard about my harrowing experience, knowing that panicking wasn’t going to solve any problems.

Then I heard the door open.

I opened my eyes and turned my head to see a girl with black hair walking in, holding what looked to be a textbook. When I examined her a little closely, I remembered seeing her at school, sometimes talking to Brandon. But he never introduced us. So why was she here now?

She looked up to see that I was awake. Her green eyes were about to pop out of her head. “You’re awake!” she said, looking around the room as if there was someone else there to witness it.   “Let me go find a doctor.” Then she was back out the door again, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Why did she seem so shocked that I was awake? How long had I been out? These questions started to make me feel dizzy to the point that I wanted to go back into a peaceful slumber, but wasn’t able to when the doctor walked back in with the same girl from earlier behind him.

The doctor asked, with a slight foreign accent, “Hello, Mrs. Mitchell. How are you feeling?”

I tried to speak, but my throat felt raw, making it hard to speak. So I pointed to it as he picked up a clipboard from the end of the bed and started writing stuff down. “Ok. Besides your throat, is there anything else wrong? You can just point to it, if it helps.” I pointed to my head and then made a circular motion with my finger. “You feel dizzy?” he asked with a raised brow and I nodded my head. “That’s normal when you come out of coma. It will wear off soon.”

As he wrote on the clipboard, I couldn’t help but think what he meant by coma. What dramatic event would make me fall into a coma? Did something else happen besides my father choking me? 

The doctor was saying, “Ok, the good news is that from the X-ray, you didn’t have anything broken. Bad news, you did have some bruising along your throat, which explains the difficulty to talk.  It doesn’t show any major damage done to your windpipe or vocal cords, which is a good thing, knowing the force you were being choked with. So just give it some time and your voice will come back.” He gave me a tight smile, putting the clipboard back down “So, I’ll leave you two girls alone and send the nurse in to check you later.” 

 He then left, leaving me with this unknown girl who still had a shocked look on her face. I lay there trying to remember her name, but came up blank. 

 “So, I bet you’re wondering who I am?” she asked, sitting down in the metal chair that was against the wall. I nodded my head and she let out a deep sigh. “We should have been introduced a while back, but Brandon likes to keep his distance from me. I’m his cousin April, really step-cousin since Uncle Louis isn’t his biological dad.” She looked around the room as she explained. “Not many people at school knew we’re related since Brandon had that bad boy vibe and didn’t want me around those kinds of people.”

It was hard to miss the sadness in her voice when she spoke his name, informing me that something serious did happen to him.

I started looking around the room for pen and paper so I could ask her, but found nothing in sight. I looked down to see the wedding ring that Mr. Mitchell had given us the morning after we had gotten married and I lifted my hand up and pointed to it. At first April seemed confused, then understanding dawned in her eyes.  “You want to know where Brandon is?” she asked with even more sorrow in her voice as if she didn’t want to tell me.

I nodded my head, then froze as her whole aura changed to something negative.  Her head bowed down, and she was looking at the ground right before I noticed the single tear running down her cheek. Seeing her like this felt as if someone had stabbed my insides and was trying to rip them apart. I was thinking now that Brandon hadn’t made it, that my father killed him. My father had won, but he had killed the love my life just because he blamed me for killing my real mother during childbirth.   

 April took a deep breath and then let it out very slowly. “I don’t know if I should tell you this, but you have a right to know since you are his wife.” 

 She lifted her head and looked around the room again as if expecting someone to be in the room with us, but it was still just the two of us. “We got a call about a week ago that you and Brandon had been kidnapped and were severely injured.  Brandon’s parents were in such a state of panic that I and my dad flew out here with them. When we arrived, we didn’t know what had happened, only that you both were in induced comas and that you would probably be all right. But Brandon...” She stopped and I watched as tears began running down her cheeks.  She took a deep breath and swallowed hard.  

 Seeing her like that broke my heart, knowing what I was about to hear would change my life forever. That no matter who I let into my life, it would just bring them danger and that I’d be better off alone, since the man I had learned to love was most likely dead.

 She managed to get herself under control after a few more sobs. “He’s in ICU, Kami. He was shot twice and had lost a lot of blood. I was told to stay with you while the adults watched over him. They still aren’t sure if he’s going to make it or not. From what his mother told me, it looks like his vitals were getting worse the other night.”

I didn’t look back at her after that, thinking how this was all my fault. If I had just stood up against my stepfather, then maybe this wouldn’t have happened. Brandon wouldn’t have felt the need to protect me, leading to him wanting to marry me to make sure I was safe. He would still be that same boy going to school and causing as much trouble as he possibly could. But no, I had been weak. I let Brandon into my dangerous world, and now he was lying on his death bed in a foreign country, when it should have been me in his position.

I walked into the room as everything went dark and blurry around me. All I could make out was the light shining down on Brandon’s face. As I got closer to his bed, I watched his eyelids flicker but never open. His normal peaceful sleeping face now had a hard and angry look about it. It was like he was stuck in a nightmare that we were unable to wake him up from.

Letting my eyes travel down to the wires sticking out of the hospital gown, I knew then what kind of danger he was in. My eyes found the machine that was keeping him alive. I could feel the tears running down my cheeks knowing I was the cause of all this.

Why didn’t I just run away from Brandon that day in the hall? If I had, he wouldn’t be here fighting for his life. I should have known that the night he pulled up to the chapel and we got married, it was going to blow up in my face. I should have just let him take me to the cops like he really wanted. I would have filed a report on my so called step-father on abusing me and trying to rape me. He would be locked up and Brandon wouldn’t be fighting for his life at the moment. I had been a selfish pig that night and went along with his second idea. Why I went along with it, I was still unsure about.

I sat down in the chair next to Brandon’s bed, thinking how this marriage has become a bigger mistake than we both knew. This marriage has brought us nothing but heartache and trouble, not counting the repeated hospital visits.

I sighed, laying my hand on top of his and entangling my fingers with his, but his fingers lay limp on the bed. I hope that deep down he knew it was me in the room with him at the moment. I remember being told that I was brought back because he needed me. I knew I wouldn’t be leaving his side till he was better and we are both home, so hopefully by then I would know what I wanted to do about this ticking time-bomb of a marriage.

“Kami, how are you holding up?” I heard his mother ask. I was so lost in my own little world that I didn’t know she was even in the room.

“I’m fine. I’ll be better once he awakens and back to his bad boy ways,” I said even though it still hurt to talk. The doctor had said that since I was mainly just bruised, there was nothing more they could do for me and had discharged me, but I was able to stay by Brandon’s bedside since I was his wife.

“I’m sure the day he married you was the day he gave up those so called bad boy ways, but only use them to protect you.” She laughed, putting her hand on my right shoulder and looking down at her son. “I’m sure that now you’re here, he’ll be waking up soon since his vitals are finally starting to show some improvement.”

I didn’t know if that was a good thing that he was making a recovery or if bad since I still have these cross feelings. “That’s good news,” I said, trying to sound cheerful, but came out weak and sad.

“Sweetie, I know going through this must be hard. Emily told me what happened, and I understand that you’re not going to be in the happiest mood about everything that’s going on. But remember, we are all in this together,” she stated

“What do you mean, Emily told you what happened? How can my father’s new wife know anything that’s going on to tell you how Brandon ended up fighting for his life?” I asked as I felt anger sweeping through me.

“Calm down, Kami. Emily is an FBI agent. She had thought your father was acting weird that night at the dinner and when he ran off her, she followed him. She soon found out his plans of killing you and called back up. By the time they got to you both, your father had already gotten to you. She was able to save Brandon and then they got into a heated gun fight with some gang members. And when Emily got to the room you were held in, she saw your father shot Brandon, so in the heat of the moment she did what she was trained and shot your father, her husband, killing him,” she told me.

I sat there thinking over everything that I was just told. It was my father who had shot Brandon, making me feel that I had more of Brandon’s blood on my hands.

I could feel the tears coming a little hard now. “How’s Emily holding up?” I asked, but you could hear the sorrow in my voice.

“I’m not fully sure. She’s been good at hiding her emotions when needed. But with me being her best friend, I’m sure she’s heartbroken to know the man she loved was capable of hurting his own daughter. Then knowing she had to kill him is most likely eating at her,” she answered, patting my shoulder.

“Is she still here?” I wonder, maybe I could find out a little more about my father and see if he showed any signs that he was angry about the way things had gone with my grandmother. 

“No, she left after we showed up, saying there were things that needed to be taken care of at her office.” I could hear her sigh, maybe thinking things over. “I’m going to get something down at the café. Would you like anything?”

“No, thanks,” I answered, watching Brandon’s eyelids flutter a little more, secretly wishing he would finally open them so I can once again get lost into those eyes. I was ready for this nightmare of a honeymoon to be over, so I could face this new demon I was yet fighting.

“Okay, then I’ll leave you to have some alone time,” she said, walking out and closing the door behind her.

I leaned my head back on the chair and looked up at the ceiling, thinking how unreal my life has become. Finding out that I had been abused for years by a family that I truly had no relation with. How my birth father wanted to kill me because my real birth mother died while giving birth to me, plus how my grandmother left everything to me and not him.

Then there was Brandon. How he had tried to save me from the nightmare my life was. Within the same day, he talked me into marrying him and did everything he could to keep me safe and protected, only to find out the other night he was in love with me. We experienced the love we shared that special night and how close we had become, only to have it ripped from us now.

My father might have not been able to kill me physically, but mentally he had.  If it wasn’t for what he did to Brandon and me, I wouldn’t be pondering about leaving him. No, I’d be soaking up the sun and enjoying my husband’s loving embrace. I wouldn’t be in this gloomy hospital room watching my husband fight for his life.