Vicious Love (Barrington Heights #1) (14 page)

chapter 19

chris

Everyone was going strong at the party, but Claire and I were still standing outside, staring up at the wide-open sky. It was serene and incredibly calming. Even with all of this mess with the Nugents, Barry Bouldore, and Jennet, it was good to feel like this.

I turned to Claire, who was still peering up at the sky. She looked beautiful, and my heart began to ache. She didn’t deserve to be falling for someone like me: a depraved degenerate who loved being a depraved degenerate. She deserved someone kind and sweet and innocent. For a second there, I believed that I could be that person, but I snapped myself out of it. I had responsibilities to uphold, and I couldn’t change for Claire or Jennet.

Oh, Jennet.
I wondered what she was doing right now. Probably sleeping next to her fiancé, happy and content. I doubted that I was even on her mind.

“What are you thinking about?” Claire asked from beside me, clearing noticing the pain on my face.

“Nothing,” I responded as I regained my composure.

“If you say so.” She could tell that I didn’t want to talk about it, so she left it alone.

That surprised me, but I really couldn’t talk to her about this. I couldn’t talk to anyone about this. How would I even explain my situation? What would I say? How could I explain that not only was I a psychopathic killer who headed a small crime operation that was currently in a turf war with our school’s principal, but I was also in love with my economics teacher, whose fiancé could possibly be working with the enemy? It sounded ridiculous to me and I was actually fucking living it!

“Thank you,” was all I said instead.

Claire turned to me and smiled before heading back to the party. “Whatever it is that’s bothering you,” she said on her way back, “I’ll always listen.”

“I’m sure you will.”

Claire nodded to me and closed the sliding glass door behind her.

“But you’ll never believe me,” I whispered when she left.

I was left alone again. Alone with all of my thoughts—a frightening thing. I’d never been a good kid, but I’d always been loyal. When Grandfather died, I’d taken over, but I hadn’t had any of the old ties Grandfather had had. For some unknown reason, they’d all stopped communication. When I tried to approach Dad, he dismissed me, saying that it was all for the best. The coward. He wasn’t worried about our family’s souls; he was just a coward.

I’d witnessed him making corrupt acts: bribing politicians, okaying illegal dumping, sleeping with hookers, doing drugs, and gambling away small fortunes. The man was no better than the rest of us, but he held his narcissistic self above everyone else. It disgusted me, but I was stuck with it.

I turned around when I heard the door open, surprised by who came out.

“Sara?” My ex-girlfriend never went to these parties, but here she was.

“Hi, Chris.” Her straight, champagne-colored hair fluttered in the light breeze, and her large, brown eyes captured my attention like they always did.

“Is there something you need?” I turned my back to her.

“No, I was just coming out to see if you were okay. You know I can always tell when something is wrong.” She seemed concerned, but she was always playing a game.

“I’m fine. You?”

“Well, I’m okay. Miss you, but I’m okay.” Sara walked up beside me and stared right into my eyes.

“You cheated on me, remember?”

She turned away. “Only because I thought you slept with Jessica.”

Jessica and I used to be friends until Sara forced her away. I hadn’t slept with her, but Sara had decided to sleep with some football-playing fuck head to try to get back at me.

“It was a mistake, okay?”

“Which time?” I asked.

Her face got red.

“Oh, you didn’t know that I knew about everyone, did you?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She started backing away, but I advanced on her.

“I know about everyone. All five guys. Now, what is it that you really want?”

“Fine. What are you doing with Claire?”

There it was. She was jealous.

“What? Are you jealous?”

She didn’t respond, which was always a yes with her.

“Yeah, I thought so.”

“She’s a whore,” Sara rebutted.

“So are you.” I laughed, but she gasped and took a couple of steps back as she turned red with fury.

“Well, you know what? I’m glad I cheated on you! You’re a fucking asshole!”

“What? I thought you liked assholes. You got fucked in yours.” I winked.

“Fuck you!” Sara ran back inside, clearly pissed off because when some poor kid was in her way she pushed him over. Sara is a small girl, but she can be incredibly strong when pissed off.

“Thank god that’s over.” I muttered to myself, returning my gaze to the stars.

My phone began to vibrate and I took it out of my pocket. It was Drake, probably calling to tell me that he was done.

“Hello?” I answered into the phone.

“Yeah, hey. It’s done. He’s on a plane down to Belize, and I’ve arranged for our doctor down there to take a look at him. We also have all of the information for the face-to-face, and it’s set for tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Drake. Good job.”

“Anytime, sir.”

I hung up the phone and let out a sigh of relief. Finally, this was going to all be over.

It’d been so long since I’d actually let out a sigh of relief. I’d been so stressed since I’d taken over, and everything had been an uphill battle. That and it was really hard to be a psychopath in my position of power. It would be so much easier if I were both insane and a psychopath, but nope. That wasn’t how things worked apparently.

I let out another sigh as I looked back up at the sky. I didn’t want to leave this spot, but I had to. There was work to be done.

Navigating through the party was harder than I’d thought it would be. Everyone was completely trashed, and now, I was avoiding three people instead of just two: Sara, Audrey, and Heather. I laughed as I fought my way through hordes of drunken teenagers and thought about how normal it was for me to be trying to dodge three girls. It was so normal-teenage-boy like, and it was hilarious to me.

After finally making it to the door, I looked back at the party before leaving, realizing that I hadn’t said bye to anyone. But, unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time. I had to get home.

I got into my car and turned the keys. No explosion—good. I backed out of Heather’s driveway and sped off towards home. I was actually going the speed limit, which was strange of me, since I usually went thirty or forty, sometimes fifty, over. As I sat in my car, enjoying the drive, I felt a shiver go down my spine. My eyes darted around the road, looking for other cars, but I saw nothing. I shrugged it off and kept driving.

A couple of minutes down the road, I got the same eerie feeling, so I examined my surroundings again. This time, however, I spotted car lights behind me about ten car lengths or so away. I laughed at myself for being so paranoid. It was probably just another kid leaving the party, especially since the car lights were coming from the same direction I’d come from. I kept driving until I got to a stop sign. When I looked back, I noticed that the car lights had disappeared and thought it was weird since there weren’t any turns or any houses down there. It was all farm land. I fully turned around in time to see the reason why I couldn’t see any car lights. It was because the driver turned them off.

“Fuck,” I whispered to myself as the SUV slammed into my car, sending it hurtling forward into the intersection.

I stumbled out of the car, pulling out the gun from underneath my seat. My vision was blurry, but I could see four distinct figures getting out of the SUV and rushing towards me. I lifted the pistol and shot out a few rounds, taking down two of the four as they returned fire. I dove for cover behind my car and noticed that there were three more SUVs coming this way, all the same make and model with the same paint job. I was surrounded, but I kept fighting.

I let out two more shots, taking down the last two original assailants, but the three SUVs were now stopped. An army of men got out of the vehicles and all of them rushed for me. I aimed at the closet ones and let out several rounds, taking down three more. Then I turned to run, but it was too late. Three men were on me, pulling me to the ground. I tried fighting them, but they were too much as a fourth man came up to me and hit me with the butt end of his rifle, knocking me out.

I awoke with a bag over my head, and I couldn’t see anything. Dizzy and disoriented, I attempted to stand up but realized that I was cuffed to something and couldn’t move. I could feel myself moving at the same time though, so I must’ve been in a vehicle. The vehicle stopped and I was escorted out of it, hearing voices in the distance. As I was pushed forward, the voices became clearer and clearer. One of them was Mrs. Nugent. I couldn’t exactly tell who the other was since they’d stopped talking.

“Did you run into trouble?” Mrs. Nugent asked one of the men pushing me.

“Yes, ma’am. He killed seven of our men,” the man pushing me said.

“I’ll get a team to clean the bodies up. And don’t worry. He’ll get his soon enough.”

“I’m guessing you’re talking about me?” I piped up, but I felt a slap across my face. “I’m taking that as a yes.”

Someone said, “Shut up!” and punched me in to stomach. I almost fell, but the two men holding me pulled me back up. 

“Take him to the back,” I heard Mrs. Nugent say, and then I heard a door open and felt a rush of ice-cold air.

We must have been at a warehouse with cold storage since this was the first door, other than the vehicle door, to open up. The two men pushed me roughly into the cold, frigid, air, but the door didn’t close behind us. I heard a shuffle of footsteps as about two or three other people entered the room behind us. Mrs. Nugent and the other voice started talking again, but I was taken too far away to identify the other voice. It sounded so familiar though.

I was pushed into a seat and my hands were handcuffed to the chair. Then the two men who were pushing me began to brutally beat me. They kicked my shins, punched me in the face, pulled me back, and waterboarded me. They broke my nose, and I could feel a couple of cracked ribs on my right side from one of the men. The two hadn’t asked me a question kept on beating me.

When they were waterboarding me, I felt like I was dying as I coughed water back up through the bag on my face. I couldn’t see anything, so I couldn’t prepare for any of the hits they were giving me. One second, they were hitting me in the face, and the next, they were hitting me in the side, and I couldn’t even prepare myself for it. They were doing a good job, but I did better when I was doing it. Primarily because I would actually ask questions and have a purpose behind it.

“Stop,” came a voice. “I think he’s had enough.”

It was pitch black under my bag, and I couldn’t see anything, but I could tell that the voice was coming from my right. Or left. I probably had a concussion or two, so any guess was as good as mine.

“If I ask you a question, will you answer?”

That voice—I knew it, but I just couldn’t
identify it.

“Did you hear me?” It’s so familiar. “Did you hear me, boy?”

I gasped.

The bag over my head came off, and there was a light shining in my eyes, blinding me. I couldn’t see anything and the room was spinning. There was a high concentration of pain in my left hand, and I noticed that there was an IV hooked up to me and the bag was filled with god knows what. I turned to my right, still blinded by the light, and saw a heart rate monitor beeping along with my rapid heartbeat. I swung back to the light, but I still couldn’t see.

“I said—” the voice began, but I didn’t let him finish.

“I know what you said, Dad.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Since this is my debut book, these are going to be short…

Lexi & Adam – Thanks for supporting me along this journey.

Mickey – Thank
you for polishing my story with your editing skills. I know the sex scenes had to have made you a little uncomfortable, so I’m glad you powered through.

Josh – My debut book & your debut cover. Thanks man.

Tiffany, Midian, Ella & Crystal – Thank you for taking some time to read the first part of Chris and Jennet’s story & give me your feedback.

Readers – Thanks for taking a chance on an unknown author.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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