Chapter 28

Phil was sitting in the living room, going through a newspaper when he suddenly felt a shift in the air behind him. Before he could react, a small arm came from behind and curled around his neck.  He would have jerked forward if not for the fact that his eyes darted downwards to see a small knife in the person's hand. His eyes widened in shock and the newspaper fell from his hands. 

“Don't move, or you won't be here to know what happened next,” a female voice said behind him. 

Instinctively, he tried to turn around to see who it was but he felt something hit his head hard and that made him stop moving.

“Please, don't hurt me,” Phil said quickly, his heart pounding. “What do you want? I can give it to you. Anything at all.”

“I need just one thing from you and that's what will decide if I hurt you or not,” the person replied, but the voice was far from reassuring.

“What do you need?” Phil asked, his eyes following the knife as it idled around his neck. Who the hell was she and how the hell had she gotten in when the door was locked?

“Heather. I need to get to Heather and I need your help to do that,” the voice stated.

Wondering why someone would be looking for Heather while holding a knife to his throat, Phil almost turned his head again but he quickly caught himself and shifted uncomfortably as the knife came closer to his neck. The last thing he wanted was to be gutted on the chair in his own living room, not when he still had a lot of things he planned to do with his life.

“Heather doesn't live here.”

Another hand grabbed his head roughly and jerked it backwards, then he sensed movement towards the left side of his face. “I know she doesn't live here. I need you to help me get and capture her,” the lady said with her mouth close to his ear.

“Okay, okay. I'll help you. Just don't hurt me.” Phil was almost close to tears, not wanting to believe that the woman wasn't really going to hurt him. The way she held the knife made it look like she was waiting to get what she needed before she slashed it across his neck.

“That's up to you,” the woman said with a low growl. “I'll reach out to you in 48 hours. And I hope you know better than to tell anyone about this.”

“Yes, I won't. I swear it,” Phil cried out, clamping his eyes shut as the woman slid her hand across his neck. Then, just as suddenly as she appeared behind him, she disappeared. Opening his eyes, he swung his head around, hoping to see her retreating towards the door but there was nothing behind him. 

He blinked repeatedly, trying to control his breath as he tried to process what had just happened. The whole thing now seemed like a dream and if not for the image of the knife hanging around his throat that was dancing in his head, he could have believed that he'd imagined the whole thing. As he rose from the chair, he realized that the top part of his shirt and the sides were soaking wet. 

Who was the woman and what did she want with Heather? What had Heather gotten into to make someone come to threaten him with a knife while looking for her? Was that why she had come running to look for Carol?

A heavy knock came on the door and he froze, darting his eyes in the direction on the door. Another knock came again, harder than the first and it was after the third knock that he relaxed as he could guess who was at the door. Just like he guessed, Carol was there when he opened it and her face bore an irritated look.

She looked at Phil once and, without saying anything, she moved past him and headed towards the hallway. As Phil watched her go, he decided he wasn't going to tell her about what happened, knowing how stubborn and pig-headed she was. He knew she would want to fight it and that might only lead to her death, considering the manner of approach of the intruder. 

Returning to the living room, he picked up his phone and dialed Heather's number to tell her the jet she wanted was ready to take her out of the country. If the intruder wanted Heather so badly to pull a knife on him, then he didn't want to think of what she could do to Heather if she found her. He knew he had to do everything possible to prevent that.

The phone rang and rang but it went unanswered. He tried it once more and seeing that the result was still the same, he decided to drop a voicemail instead.

***************************

At the mansion, Kyle was stepping out for a smoke, enjoying the evening breeze as it caressed his face. As he was lighting up the cigarette in his hand, his mind was burdened with the sound of Heather's cries as Darren punished her the previous day. Irritation brewed inside him as he thought of it. Darren and his irrational acts! 

Drawing heavily on the cigarette in his mouth, Kyle knew Darren could have forgiven and overlooked whatever Heather had done to him but he just had to go and vent his spleen on the poor girl. He had felt pity for her as he'd heard the cries and as he was thinking about it now, they became louder and he had to grab his head and shake it vigorously to force them out. 

Wisps of smoke danced into the air as he opened his mouth, then he closed it around the butt of the cigarette again and drew heavily. Enough was enough. He had to do something about it before things went completely out of hand. Taking one last puff on his cigarette, he threw it to the floor, stomped on it repeatedly, then headed to his car and slid behind the wheel. 

Starting the engine, he reversed and drove out of the highway, driving with no destination in mind. All he wanted was to be out of the house. As he was driving down the road, he heard a phone vibrating but he decided to ignore it since he didn't feel like talking to anyone. The phone vibrated again, then a third time and he realized that it wasn't his own phone because the sound was coming from the back of the car. Turning his head back, he glanced in the direction the vibration had come from and he spotted the phone in the back seat of the car. 

He immediately recognized it as Heather's own. What was her phone doing in the back of his car? He thought to himself. Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, he reached into the back of the car and his hand fumbled around for a few seconds before he was able to grab the phone and bring it to his front. There were three missed calls on it and a voicemail. 

Curiosity got the best of him and he was already opening the voicemail before he could stop himself.

“Hey, Heather,” a voice was saying. “About that jet that you asked for, I have it ready so you can fly out whenever you want. Call me when you get this so we can finalize the process.”

The person's voice was shaky and it seemed familiar to Kyle but he couldn't place it. After the audio stopped, Kyle stared at the phone with a shocked expression on his face, wondering who the person was and what jet he was talking about.