Chapter 20 Chapter 20
Audrey
Gabriel was gone the next morning, there wasn’t even a indent in the sheets where he had been laying. It was like he had never been there before and i had just imaged it.
I knew I hadn’t though. The burning ache on my shaved mound told me it hadn’t been some warped nightmare.
But I couldn’t bring myself to look in the mirror , not even when I dressed and pulled my hair back.
That would make it too real.
And I didn’t want it to be real.
Pulling on a light dress which was more suited for the summer months than the upcoming autumn , I left out the underwear. The thought of having something pressed against that wound was enough to make me want to cry it was the reason I hadn’t slipped on underwear.
The dress wasn’t practical either, but I was pretty sure if I layered up with sweaters and a coat I would manage the scramble across the grounds to the Kings residence.
I had just pulled on a thick wool cardigan when I saw it.
Right there on the drawers.
What looked like medical supplies next to one of my scented candles. Some kind of transparent wrap, tape, salve and- reaching out I picked up the white bottle.
Antibiotics?
My eyebrows shot up.
My phone rang , breaking the spell and making me jump and I rushed to pick it up. I expected Bethan, or even Duncan but the number was withheld.
Chewing on my lip I stared at it. Did I ignore it? But could I ignore it.
It was probably work.
“Hello.”
“Hello Audrey.” It wasn’t work.
I sucked in a deep breath. “How did you get this number Gabriel.”
His deep throaty chuckle filled my ears, and my body reacted before my brain could tell it it was treasonous bitch.
“I know everything I need to know about you Audrey.” There was a noise , something that sounded like a metallic void ringing out down the connection and I stood up a little straighter.
“Where are you?”
It was probably the wrong thing to say, his sigh sounded happy. “I knew you cared ,Audrey, and I’m sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye but I had to leave for work early.”
My eyebrows kept rising, if they carried on they would disappear into my hair completely.
Why was he acting like we were a couple and he had just left early for his office job without kissing me goodbye.
“But I shouldn’t be more than a day or two. I can see you have found the antibiotics. You need to take one twice a day with food ok Audrey? With food. And make sure you keep the area clean. I’ve left some special soap in the bathroom.” His voice grew almost soppy. “I know you don’t look after yourself properly and I’m not there to do it so I am going to take your word that you will do what I ask.”
Wordless. Which was the only way I could describe how I was feeling.
Nervously I looked around my bedroom, I peered into every corner.
How had he known I had found the antibiotics ? Unless/
Fuck, was he watching me?
“Do you have cameras in my room Gabriel?” My voice shook.
His silence spoke volumes.
“Gabriel.” I snapped at him.
“You need someone to look after you Audrey and I feel better if I can keep an eye on you.”
My stomach twisted. No wonder he always seemed to know what I had done or was doing. Deep down I had known he wasn’t just watching from the windows.
He had invaded my privacy in the most awful way and I felt violated.
More violated than I ever had before. Even when he forced orgasms out of my body and branded me because this was different.
I just wasn’t sure why it was.
“That is fucked up Gabriel. This whole situation is. You need help.”
“I don’t need help Audrey.” He said angrily, the tone of his voice cold enough to cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up on end. “I have you and once you read the diary you will understand.”
My free hand clenched into a fist. I didn’t want to understand his warped and fucked up mind.
I didn’t but at the same time I did.
I needed to get my hands on that book. Not because I thought it would make me think differently of him because he was certifiable but because I wanted to know what made a man that way.
“You can’t be having cameras in my bedroom Gabriel.” Forcing my tone to turn softer I looked around the room again. “It’s a massive invasion of privacy and friends don’t do that.”
He hissed at the word friend. Like it was some sort of dirty word.
I walked out of the room. If he was watching me from wherever he was then I didn’t want to be in there.
“We aren’t friends.”
I rolled my eyes. Of course we weren’t friends. I chose and liked my friends. Gabriel king was nothing but a perverted shadow of a man who was meant to be dead.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me Audrey.”
I froze in the hallway. There was no way he could see that. None, not unless he had cameras in more than just my bedroom.
A fresh chill swept over me and with it came realisation. He was never going to stop. I could pretend to understand and be his friends but you couldn’t reason with crazy.
The older King men had been right. I had to get away. Away from this house and away from him. The sooner the better.
“You need to stop this Audrey. Stop fighting fate.”
“We aren’t in some god damn romance book Gabriel. I am not yours. I don’t know you, I don’t want to know you. You need to LEAVE ME ALONE.” I screamed the last bit.
In answer he chuckled. “Read the book Audrey. Read it and you will know that there hasn’t been one day since that night that I have ever left you alone. You’re right this isn’t a book. There probably won’t be a happy ending for us because there won’t be for me but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go. Not now and not ever.” He sucked in a breath and lowered his voice to a whisper that seemed to brush against my skin.
I shivered.
“I’m going to hell Audrey, I’ve always known that and I shouldn’t want to because I love you but I’m going to drag you there as well. I have to because without you i am-“
The line went dead.
Nothing but silence filled my ears.
After several seconds I dropped the phone to my side. He had said he loved me.
In his warped mind we really were a couple but in a way hadn’t I let him think that. He had been breaking in for weeks, he had touched me and not once had I phoned the police.
Not once, did that mean I was as warped as he was?
I didn’t phone the police and I didn’t move. Maybe in some way I had been enjoying him.
Was i as messed up as he was?
Did some dark part of me enjoy the forbiddenness of it all? Did I crave his darkness and the complete lack of control he offers me.
Fuck that.
Tossing my phone onto the nearest side, I headed down the stairs.
I’d go over there and find out all of Gabriel’s secrets because it was the only way I could know enough to get away but I wasn’t like him.
I illustrated children’s books for god sake. My life was rainbows and puppy dogs. Sunshine and ice cream.
I’d read what he wanted me to read but that would be the last time I did what he asked because-
I stuffed my feet into my shoes and opened the front door.
Because I wasn’t like him.
And today I would end this once and for all.
The King house, was exactly the same as how I had see it the first time I had ventured over here apart from one startling difference.
Everything was covered in dust sheets. It looks abandoned on first glance except there was no dust on those sheets, no cobwebs in the corners and every single door was shut and locked. It didn’t matter which door knob I reached for none of those doors would open for me.
When Gabriel had left he had locked this place up right and made it look like no one lived here.
Strange but not out of character for Gabriel. He was kind of a ghost anyway, so it made sense that he would haunt an old abandoned building.
Well when he wasn’t haunting me anyway.
The thought made me smile. I could almost imagine him wailing away.
Had that what he had done when he had seen me kissing-
I shook the thought away. I didn’t want to think about Gabriel watching me. I was here for one reason and one reason only.
I needed to know about his past if I was to escape him. And he had said that diary was somewhere here.
Only known of the doors were open and I didn’t want to drag the covers from the furniture. That sounded like too much of an invasion of privacy.
So where could it be?
Checking the downstairs I found nothing, which meant-
My eyes dragged themselves up the curving staircase and across the landing above me.
Nothing, nothing moved and I couldn’t hear anything but that didn’t mean he wasn’t up there. Waiting for me.
But why would he do that? He seemed to have access to me whenever he wanted it so he had no reason to set a trap.
If Gabriel King wanted me dead I would have been dead by now. No, he wanted me alive for much more nefarious reasons.
Taking the polished stairs slowly, I gripped the banisters. There was more light up here than downstairs because one of the doors was wide open. The drapes hadn’t been pulled over the windows and autumn sunshine flooded the room.
“So this is you room huh?” Pausing in the doorway I studied it. Letting my eyes dart around.
I don’t know what I was expecting but this wasn’t it. It was too normal. Just a normal bedroom.
Maybe a little neat for a man’s room but it wasn’t the lair of some psycho.
The bed frame was wood, and it matched the other finite. The duvet was a deep blue and looked soft and inviting.
There was no art on the walls but there was a silver on both of the bed side cabinets.
Absently I went to the nearest one and picked it up.
Who did a man like Gabriel care enough about to have photos next to his bed.
A stranger looked out at me from behind the glass. Her face heart shaped, blonde hair fell in soft curls to frame her face and she was wearing diamonds around her throat as she smiled at someone off the camera.
Was she flashing that look at Gabriel?
Had she got to see his face when all I got to see was his mask?
She was beautiful. Ethereal.
I dropped it back to place with a frown and that just made me frown even more.
Was I jealous?
No.
Turning my back on the beautiful smiling happy woman I went to the other one.
Me.
That one was me. I was smiling too. Looking all fresh faced and giggly. My arm slung around Bethan as we graduated together, half turned away from the camera.
I remembered the day well but I didn’t remember this picture.
Had Gabriel been there even back then. Watching me. Taking pictures of me.
Had he always been in the shadows?
My fingers trembled as I reached for it and brushed against the folded piece of paper propped against it.
My name was scrawled on the front.
My love,
I know you have so many questions and the diary will answer them. When you read it I know you won’t be able to hate me like you do right now.
Read it, know me and when I get back I know things between us will be different.
It’s time you were close to me, Audrey. So read the diary, eat the food I have left in the top drawer because I know you haven’t had breakfast and the next time I see you it won’t just be your body that I own but your heart as well.
Both have always belonged to me anyway, you just didn’t know it.
G
Folding the piece of paper I sent it down and stared at the photo again.
He had a photo of me on his nightstand.
Not a million on his walls like a stalker.
It was sweet , in a weird way.
Pursing my lips I blew out a breath. I couldn’t keep thinking he was sweet or that this relationship was anything but messed up.
I had to stop him getting to me.
Yanking open the drawer I found snacks. Trail mix, a cereal bar and two rosy red apples.
Where the hell was he getting apples from? It wasn’t from the tree in my yard, I hadn’t seen any fruit on that since I had been here.
“You’re a piece of work Gabriel King.” Shaking my head I reached for one of those apples and took a bite. But I didn’t reach for the worn book underneath it.
It looked like it had some kind of sports car in the front but it was so faded I couldn’t be sure.
The diary of a broken boy.
Could I do this? Could I read his innermost thoughts even if he wanted me to.
Gabriel thought that reading it would bring us closer together, I hoped it would separate us but which one of those things was true?
I pulled it free, and sat down on the edge of his giant bed. Flicking open the first page the first thing I noticed was the blue ink seemed to be smudged with the tears of a teenage boy.
I took another bite of the apple and curled my legs under me. Settling back on pillows that smelt like him and began to read.
Dear diary.