I’ve known Cecilia for as long as I’ve known Eli. She came bursting into our lives after being on the run from her husband, much like Ana. She’d spent years fighting her way out of it and it wasn’t until her husband hired Eli to install security cameras into their home, that she’d finally get the chance to escape. I remember the day Eli told me about a woman he’d found on a job, that she didn’t need to beg for help, he could see it in her eyes, much like he could see it in his mothers eyes too.
I quickly clear my dry throat and step towards Eli who’scurrently sitting at the kitchen island, his laptop open in front of him.
“Where are the girls?” I ask, not wanting them to witness what’s going on.
Cecilia pulls out a chair and sits opposite to her husband. “They’re with my mother for the day.” She says with a knowing look in her eyes and I give her a sharp nod then place the box down onto the unit.
“When did you get that?” Eli asks.
“It came this morning. No name, no label. Just a quick knock on the door and this was on the porch.” I say whilst placing my hand on top of the box, and I swear I can feel the negative energy radiating from it. Eli nods and I push the box over to him. He lifts open the top and I watch the muscle in his sharp jaw tick, a quiet anger bubbling under the surface. Cecilia must notice the same thing and rises from her seat before coming to stand next to her husband, her hand resting gently on his shoulder. I watch her peek into the box and immediately she lifts her hand over her mouth in shock.
“Is that?”
“Yeah.” I confirm. “Lyla had a quick sniff of the hair and clothing, and she pretty much confirmed that they belong to Ana.” Silence quickly fills the kitchen, like we’re all too afraid to say something until Eli speaks first.
“Ricky is fucking with us. He must have seen the dealer we left behind and now he’s throwing it back at us.”
I tip my head towards his laptop. “What did you find?”
“It’s not what I found, it’s what foundme.” I look at him in confusion and he begins to tap away on his laptop, the keys clicking a million miles an hour until it stops suddenly.
“I’ve got a secure server that I use for jobs outside of my security firm, the same software we used for our previous jobs.” He says, his eyes darting to Cecilia before landing back on the laptop again. “It’s the same software I’ve been using to scope out these locations.”
“So?” I push, feeling my patience growing thin.
“Well, I had an email come through. Now, no one should be able to contact me on this email without me giving the address out, so whoever Ricky is working with, and I’m gonna take a wild stab in the dark that it’s Nico, is pretty fucking smart when it comes to computers.”
I hang onto every word he says, and the look in his eyes is telling me it’s something that I’m not going to like.
“Have you opened this email yet?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I was waiting for you, so I have no idea what’s on here.”
Fear and anxiety grip my stomach in a vice as I stand on the opposite side of Eli, Cecilia on his other, as all three of us stare down onto his laptop, the mouse hovering over the only email in his inbox.
“Open it.” I demand. I need to know what’s in that email. Eli nods his head and clicks on the unopened email. The moment it opens, I swear I feel the floor underneath me crumble away before I’m ripped violently into a black hole. A place where nothing exists, no time or space, just nothingness surrounding me.
I hear Cecilia gasp and then sob into Eli’s shoulder, but it all sounds so warped, like the sound isn’t even real or it’s so far away. I can’t seem to focus on anything except the horrific image before me, each pixel burning a gaping hole into my soul. The pain is so visceral that I have to grab a hold of the unit to steadymy balance, and I can feel my whole body begin to shake with ferocious anger.
Ana’s perfect, pale face stares back at me through the screen, her once ocean blues are now gray and empty, like her soul has been ripped right out of them. Ricky might as well of yanked my heart straight out of my ribcage and set the fucker ablaze because the agony I feel right now, staring at the love of my life being hung from the ceiling, her naked body littered with wounds and slashes, her face battered and bruised is enough to make me want to rip myself to shreds, to dig around into my chest cavity with my bare hands to rip the beating organ out and stand on it until it’s nothing but mush. To stop it from feeling anything anymore. To stop this fuckingachethat’s radiating through me.
I grab Eli’s laptop and pull it towards me to get a closer look.
“Dean..”
“Shh,mi amour.Let him do this.” Cecilia whispers to her husband.
I can’t hear anything outside of what’s going on in my mind, the war zone that’s exploding in my brain, sending body parts flying in a bloodied mess. Seeing Ana like this makes me want to fuckingdie.To see clear as day, the torment and abuse she’s been through.
How the fuck does someone cause this much pain?
My blood begins to boil at rapid speed through my veins and I have to place the laptop down before I send it flying across the room, and step away from the kitchen island. I fist my hands into my hair and stare up at the ceiling as if it will give me the fucking answers I so hopelessly need. Eli places his hand onto my shoulder and I jump at the contact before spinning to face him, heavy tears welling in my eyes.
“What the fuck has he done to her, Eli?” I say through gritted teeth. “She doesn’t deserve this.. she..” I fumble over my words, causing Eli to pull me into his embrace.
I was always told by my father that boys and men shouldn’t cry, that it’s a weakness, a vulnerability that people will play on so I never cried. I never showed my emotions, or let my guard down for anyone until now. Tremors wrack my body as I cry through gritted teeth into my best friend’s shoulder.
“Let it out man. Use that anger to fuel the flame. We’ll rip that bastard apart until there’s nothing left of him. I promise you that.” He swears into my ear and it’s enough for me to pull the tears back and slip into Vipers’s personality.
