Persona (The 'Professional' series) (10 page)

Daniel was
smiling to himself, he was in high spirits.  He was going home early
because he knew that Ella would be back.  He knew he couldn’t ever be with
her in the physical sense, but he enjoyed her company and he had decided over
the last couple of days without her, that he was not going to deprive himself
of another minute with her. 

He had gone
out this morning to buy red wine, thick, juicy steaks and beautiful prawns to
make a ‘Surf and Turf’ meal for them.  Eric had phoned him earlier on to
say that he had a date and so would not be home.  Usually, that would have
been the time that Daniel would make sure he wasn’t home either.  Today
was different, he felt different, sort of calm.  Tonight would be relaxing
and pleasant, just him and Ella.

His calmness
vanished as he walked into the apartment.   A lamp was smashed on the
table.  There was something not right, he looked around searching quickly
for answers to what was going on.   Christ, Ella.  His heart hit
his toes quicker than a rollercoaster.  His stomach lurched.  What
happened if there was a burglary and Ella had been hurt?  He desperately
called out her name.

Ella was
dazed, but she tried to muffle out a warning.  The ties around her mouth
were too tight.  It was no good, she couldn’t do anything.

A movement
from his bedroom caught his eye.  He was confused.  Wasn’t that
Lindsey leaning up against the doorjamb, clad only in some sort of thin, black
negligee?  She smiled suggestively at him.  Now he was confused.
 Usually she looked at the floor when he was around. 

He caught
his voice.  “Oh, Lindsey isn’t it?”  He tried to play a long, he was
an actor after all.  He hoped Ella was not back yet. “Not that I am not
over the moon of having a beautiful lady coming out of my bedroom, but what are
you doing here?”

“Waiting for
you.”  She tried to answer sexily, her arm still draped up the door jamb.

Daniel’s
brain was still tumbling wildly, trying to make sense on what was going
on.  He noticed something silver glinting in her hand, was that a knife or
gun?  Christ.

“Well, you
seem to have caught me on a bad day.  I have a friend coming around
tonight.  So perhaps we could take a rain check?”  He noticed her
body stiffen and something unattractive flitted across her eyes. 

Her eyes
darted towards Ella’s bedroom.  “I know all about your
friends
.”

The same
time he noticed Ella’s suitcase, he spotted blood on Lindsey’s hand. 

If he thought
he felt bad when he thought he was on his own with her, he now felt sick. 
What had she done to Ella?  He looked back at her. What could he do? 
If it was a knife, perhaps he could overpower her.  She was tiny, although
looking at her again, he realised that most of her was pure muscle.  He
kicked himself for not noticing her strength before.  She had hidden it
well under those frumpy clothes.  What if it was a gun?  Well he
wasn’t silly.  He would have to pretty much do anything she asked. 

He had to
pretend he didn’t know Ella was here.  If she wasn’t hurt already, he had
to make sure that Lindsey’s attention was on him only.  He had to push
down the rage that was boiling at the thought that she had hurt Ella. 
Control things, control the situation his mind was telling him, through the
haze of fear.   He tried to think straight.  “Would you like a
drink?”  He started to walk towards the kitchen, plenty of knives there.

“Stop. 
I don’t think so.”  Lindsey showed her hand - so it was a gun. 

He swore
under his breath. 

“The
bedroom, I think.  You normally take all your lovers there don’t
you?  I’ve been watching you for years, I know all about your
lovers.  Now it is my time to be with you.”  She rubbed her hand over
her body cupping her breast, it made him feel sick.

Oh Christ,
she was delusional as well as psychotic.  How was he going to handle
this?  He did not have much choice; choices were taken away when she had
shown him the gun. 

He took a
hesitant step towards her and the bedroom, hopefully away from Ella. 
Perhaps if he kissed her, he could make a play for the gun. It was worth a try,
although the thought of kissing this psycho was turning the food in his
stomach. 

She smiled a
sickly smile when she saw him move towards her.

“Oh no,” she
waved the gun. “The first time we touch, I want to pleasure you.  You can
return the favour next time.  Sit down.”  She pointed to the bed.

He noticed
her hazel eyes looked empty, they had glazed over.  He was in
trouble. 

She threw
some handcuffs at him.  “Put those on.  Only one arm now.”  She
looked him up and down as he slowly stood, trying not to spook her. 

“You need to
take your clothes off first.”  She licked her lips. “Leave your underpants
on though.  I would like to take those off you.”  She blew him a
kiss.

His stomach
was churning, his head was spinning.  He took off his jeans and
 shirt, the gun pointing at him at all times.  He looked at the
handcuffs she had thrown at him, luckily they seemed a cheap pair.  One
tug and they should come loose.  He looked at her face, she looked
smug.  Obviously she didn’t know they wouldn’t hold.  At last
something that was to his advantage.  He put them on loosely.

“Lie back on
the bed. Put them through the spindles.” 

A thought
suddenly came into his mind.  It was Monday, so the cleaner would have
been in today.  She would have opened the lock between his bedroom and
Ella’s bathroom.  He was hoping Ella hadn’t been home long enough to lock
it again, something which she always did.  If he could get in there, he
could lock them both in and hopefully phone for some help.  All he needed
was Lindsey to give him time to escape.

She looked
at him from head to toes, bringing her eyes back up to his broad, muscular
chest. 
Yes, all mine!
she thought.  After all these years, he
will be with me and never need another one of those sluts again.  A wave
of uneasy spread through her as normal thoughts tried to get through, no time
for doubts, she pushed sanity away. 

First, she
needed to make sure she was clean and fresh.  She had taken time read
those disgusting books on how to pleasure a man.  She hoped she could
remember everything that she had read, she never wanted him to forget
her.  She looked at him again, lying on the bed, in her eyes, waiting for
her to join him.  She had saved herself all these years for Daniel to
touch her first. “I’m just going to the bathroom to freshen up a moment. 
Wait there ……… my lover.”

Daniel held
his breath for a minute.  He hoped she hadn’t noticed the door that lead
to Ella’s bathroom.  No, she walked towards his bathroom instead. 

This 
was his chance.  In one swift move, he rolled off the side of the bed and
ripped the spindle with him.  He ran to the bathroom and heard a guttural
cry from Lindsey as she came running after him, gun in hand. 

He slammed
Ella’s bathroom door shut and pushed across the lock.  The gun was
fired.  He ran through the bathroom into the bedroom, not taking time to
look at Ella, although he knew she was there on the bed. 

He put the lock
across the bedroom door and pushed the cabinet under it.  He was able to
tear one of the handcuffs off, while he turned to look at Ella, all bound up on
the bed.  He heard the bedroom door handle rattle. Another shot
came. 

It wasn’t
safe in the bedroom.  He ran over to Ella, swept her and the duvet up and
ran into the bathroom.  He put her in the copper bath.  He didn’t
know if it was strong enough to stop a bullet, but it seemed the safest place
at the moment. 

Daniel bent
down to her, it tore his heart when he saw her tears falling.  He
carefully removed the ties from around her mouth.  He cursed, Lindsey had
not been so careful with her.  Her mouth was swollen and cut. He resisted
the urge to kiss them better.

‘Sshh! I’ll
try and use the phone.’  He placed a gentle finger on her lips to silence
her.  Ella shook her head.  She whispered in a hoarse breath. ‘It’s
no good.  She tore out the phone socket and smashed my mobile into
pieces.’  He cursed, his mobile was in his jeans pocket, in his bedroom with
Lindsey.

Daniel could
hear Lindsey screaming and banging the bedroom door.  Thank goodness he
had gone for solid, quality doors.  She obviously couldn’t get in. 
No more shots came for a while.  The only sound was their rapid breathing.

Suddenly,
the banging started on the door again.  This time Lindsey’s voice was
pleading, with undertones of anger.  “Daniel, get out of there. That
whore
is in there.  You are mine, not hers.”  Her voice quickly switched to
that of a pleading child.  “Please darling, open the door.   I
just want to show you how much I will please you.” 

Silence
followed by more pleading. “Darling, I have saved myself for you.  No
other man has touched me.”  The anger glimmered through again, “Come out
now and that slut can live.”

Daniel felt
his insides curl.  There was silence again.  He turned to look at
Ella in the bath, tension still etched on her face. He remembered that she was
still bound around her wrists and ankles.  He couldn’t leave her trust up
any longer.  He leaned into the bath to turn her and very carefully undid
the ties that had tightly bound her.  It was obvious that she had
struggled against them, her wrists were bloody.   He quietly went
into the bathroom cabinet to get some soothing medicine for them.  When he
came back he carefully rubbed it in.  Her heart felt as though it would
explode.

Daniel sat
on the travertine floor with arms draped over the bath, gently holding and
looking at her arms.  He looked from her sore wrists into her grey eyes.
“I’m so sorry.”

More tears
trickled out of her eyes.  She couldn’t seem to stop them. “It’s not your
fault.  You didn’t know what was going to happen.  Just the same as I
walked into it.”  He wiped her tears away with his thumbs.

“How did she
get in past security and into the apartment?” he
whispered.          

“I don’t
know how she got past security.  I do know that the carpenter let her into
the apartment.  He was here with her when I arrived.” she whispered back.

“Are you
okay, Ella?”

She nodded,
biting her bottom lip.  She hurt all over and was still scared. 
There was still someone outside the door with a gun, but somehow she felt safe
with Daniel.  She breathed in deeply to calm and took in the scent of
him.  “Yes, I’m glad you are here.  I wanted to warn you but I couldn’t
call out.  When I heard the shot…..” She shook her head.  She had
been so frightened.  She thought that he had been shot.

They turned
towards a loud noise. Something had been pushed over.  They heard
Lindsey’s fury start again. “Come out.  If you stay in there any longer, I
know you have chosen her.”  They heard manic crying.  “Right, that is
it.  You’ve made your choice.  If either of you come out of the
bedroom, I will shoot you!  You got that?  Stay in there with your
whore
,
but if you dare to come out, you’re both dead!”

He saw Ella
chewing her bottom lip, she looked terrified.  Her grey eyes had started
to mist up with unshed tears.  He got up on his knees and hugged her
tight.  His breath tickled her ear.  “We’ll be alright.  She
hasn’t got enough strength to push the doors in and the bullets don’t seem to
be able to penetrate them.  We will stay in the bathroom though, just in
case.”

Ella noticed
him shiver.  He didn’t have any clothes on, apart from underpants, and was
leaning over the copper bath, which would feel cold.  What had happened in
the bedroom with Lindsey?  She did not want to know.  “You’re cold.”
  She opened the duvet that was wrapped around her.  “Warm
yourself in here.”

He looked
into her eyes as he climbed in, trying not to fall on her.  Thank goodness
it was a big bath.  “Turn onto your side.”  He tried to make light of
the situation, he wanted to hear her laugh. “Although they do say that to warm
up quickly, you need skin to skin contact.”

She chuckled
and rolled her eyes at him.  “I bet you say that to all the girls! 
Sorry, I am keeping all my clothes on.  I don’t want to be naked when the
police arrive.”  She really hoped they would arrive.

If he hadn’t
loved her before, he knew he did now.  How many women could be so calm in
this situation and even laugh?  She was one strong woman, frightened for
sure, but not at one point had she become hysterical.

He wrapped
the duvet around them both, bending his legs up behind her.  They didn’t
have pillows, he did not want to risk going back to the bedroom, so he gently
placed her head on his outstretched arm.  He made sure the handcuff didn’t
hurt her.  He placed his other arm over her waist and pulled her tight up
against him.  It felt wonderful, so right.  He heard her sigh and
felt her body relax against him. 

She was
exhausted.  Her eyelids were starting to feel heavy.  His arm, which
had become her pillow, comforted her.  She could feel his naked chest rise
and fall in even breathing, making things seem calm.  All the pumping adrenaline,
which had surged through her and was now waning, made her feel really
drowsy.  She felt so warm and safe in Daniels arms, she was asleep in no
time.