***
“Arianna,” Jonny calls through the door, but his voice doesn’t sound right. It sounds close yet distant. “Arianna,” he calls louder but it still sounds so far away. I start to hear my pulse beat a little louder through my ears, and when I open my eyes, I have to blink several times to focus. I’ve felt like this before, I recall the muted feeling.
I’ve been in control of every situation you’ve ever been in, even the ones you can’t remember yet…Stupid, beautiful girl…
And I start to remember. He came for me. He drugged me. He…
My head doesn’t allow me to think any further back. I lean against the cold tiled wall and slide as carefully as I can manage to the floor. My ribs are uncomfortable, but strangely numb, and my fingers start to tingle. I curl up in a small ball, with the water pouring over my body, and thankfully I start to lose control of my thoughts. My mind drifts to a time where I was happy.
I picture myself lying in Denham’s bed. He’s asleep, but we are facing each other and I reach my hand out to gently touch his stubbled jaw. He smiles, because even in sleep, we made eachother happy. Such a small amount of time together, but such a big impact. I picture his lips, and the way they kissed me. The way he tasted. I can taste him…feel him.
There’s a bang, followed by another, then another. I try to open my eyes but they are too heavy. I hear wood splintering in the room around me. I’m too tired. Too tired to fight. Too tired to care.
So, with Denham as my last thought, I succumb to the pull of oblivion.
Freedom …
Escape …
Nothingness …
Chapter 19
Denham
Ifeel like I’ve been thrown into a super-hot inferno of hell.
I sit in my office after another long day at the hospital and pour myself a whiskey. I know I’ve been drinking far too much, but as much as I drink it does nothing to quiet my mind. Thoughts race at the speed and power of a thousand galloping horses, and it never stops. I’m trying to piece it all together, but no matter how hard I try, it still doesn’t make sense.
Why him? Why my brother?
If we had just gone inside a minute sooner…
Why her? My girl…
If she had just given me the courtesy of an explanation.
Even when my father died, I never felt so lost, so angry and as helpless as I do now.
Spike, Arianna …
Fuck, I don’t know what hurts the most. They’ve both torn my heart to shreds, and in totally different ways.
How could she do that to me? To us? Was she really that good of an actress that I felt something that wasn’t there at all? Was I so blinded by her that I opened my heart and let her rip it from my chest? Fuck it…
I slam back the whiskey and grab the bottle to pour another even as the burn is still fresh in the back of my throat. My thumb rolls over the screen of my cell and brings it to life. Her pretty face stares back at me from the screen picture I can’t bear to delete. Then I scroll to the last message she sent me, and my chest goes into a spasm.
I can’t do this. See you around. A x
Fuck, it hurts. I expect the words to have less of an impact each time I open it up, but it doesn’t. So cold. Impersonal, and just…it’s not right. I know I should let it go, but I can’t. She came back here while Spike was fighting for his life in that hospital bed and took all of her belongings. All except for her designs. She took everything else, including the diamonds- $50,000 worth of diamonds. Is that what she wanted all along? Money?
I recall what James Ellis, or Jonny as she called him, said that night, ‘If you’ve got cash, she’s a loose cannon.’ Fucking hell, James Ellis for fuck’s sake. I had heard of him, but he is known as being illusive. He’s also known as one of the biggest investors in Las Vegas, and since that night, no one has been able to trace him. So, they were in it together? Her tall tales about abuse were all cleverly invented to what? Con me?
There is a knock at the door, and then Jack pushes it open cautiously,
“I’m sorry, sir. He insists he has something you need to know,” Jack says cryptically as he pushes the door open wide.
The anger and frustration that’s dangerously bubbling up through my chest, rises a few more degrees when I see Aaron Jamesson standing there.
