Chapter 12

Twisted souls.

I wake up for the second time, drowsy and confused, wondering if maybe my memories were merely a bad dream. Lee couldn’t have locked me up in some posh apartment, telling me that he was doing me a favour. Suddenly a pair of wide dark eyes startle me. I scream and move back to the sofa, noticing a tall Asian guy who is sitting in front of me on the chair. My head hurts, even worse than before. I shouldn’t have taken the pills. That was stupid.

“Hello, sleeping girl, do you want good news or bad news first?” the stranger asks. I think he is from the Indian subcontinent; his accent is thick. He looks in his mid-thirties.

“Who the hell are you and where is Lee?” I demand, trying to pull myself together, stretch my arms and get rid of cramps in my legs. I have no idea how long I slept, but I must have dozed off as soon as I took the pills. I wipe the sweat from my forehead, looking around and noticing this guy’s tattoos. Two large lions on both arms. Well, that’s doesn’t tell me anything, but that odd uncomfortable sensation stirs inside the pit of my stomach. Something is off about him.

“I guess you want to start with good news then,” he sighs, licking his bottom lip. “Lee has some business back in that crappy town of Braxton and he asked me to watch over you,” he says. “You’re pretty. Did anyone ever tell you that?”

I cross my arms over my chest, narrowing my eyes at him. I might knock him out, but what’s after that? I need to get out of here and find Micah.

“You know that you don’t have to do this. Whatever Lee told you isn’t true. I didn’t kill anyone,” I say. I have a feeling that the guy in front of me is not a cop. Lee got me out of trouble before, but there is no way he will keep me here in this apartment. He must have a plan.

“Girl, I’m here to watch you, so don’t try doing anything stupid. This apartment is like a fortress. Trust me, stick to the plan and you will be fine,” he adds, sounding bored.

“Come on, don’t be so uptight. We can have some sort of understanding, right?” I tease him, shifting into a desperate Tahlia, the sexy and teasing girl that is willing to sell herself for freedom. This isn’t the same as when the rat forced me to be a whore; this is my choice. In the past the sex was ugly and twisted, and by the time they were through with me, I was defeated. “Hold on, you said there is good and bad news.”

“Oh yeah, well, I’m here to watch you, to let you know that Rudolf is taking care of business, but he will be here soon. Very soon in fact.”

Several long moments pass by while I try to gather myself, to understand what he just said.

Thump, thump, thump.

This is how hard my heart is beating right now, hammering loudly in my chest and in my ears. I’m surprised this guy can’t hear it too. He has to be lying to my face. Lee is on the side of the good guys. He wouldn’t betray me like that. All these years ago he was determined to track rat down, to finally bring him to justice. He covered for me and created a new life in Braxton for me.

“You are lying. Rudolf has no idea that I’m here,” I say, holding my head high. I must be still dreaming, besides, I might even have a concussion, so maybe I’m imagining things.

Then suddenly I feel like the air has been punched out of my lungs. Terror consumes me, swallowing me like a silent scream in a raging storm. I remember that Lee was the one that identified Rudolf’s body; he was the one that covered for him. I lift my head and look back at the stranger in front of me. He is watching me intensely. Nausea rolls through my stomach.

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Rudolf has people everywhere. He is a god and your friend Lee is in his pocket, a very deep and wide pocket,” he says. “So how are we going to do this? The easy way or the hard way?”

A tendril of panic seizes the breath in my lungs. It all makes sense now, being knocked out, waking up here and being locked in. Lee was supposed to keep me safe, but the rat got to him. He must have offered him money, a lot of cash. That’s why he knew that I was moved to Braxton; that’s why he moved there himself. My hands clench into fists, and the fear collides inside me, spreading everywhere. I need to calm down and think about an escape plan. I still have time; that rat is on his way.

“Please, I’m begging you. Let me go. You don’t have to do this. Rudolf will kill me. He is a sadist, a devil. You don’t want to have me on your conscience.” There is no way I’m going to just wait patiently for him, for the man that caused me so much pain, so much suffering, just so he can have me again. I can no longer trust people. Kiki, Tequila, and Micah, they are all lost. I might have only days or hours left. Once the rat wraps his hands around me, there won’t be any way back. My freedom will burst like a bubble, and I’ll be back to being his slave.

The stranger sighs loudly, takes out a cigarette and lights it.

“He pays me well. You can’t top it up, love,” he mutters. “If he wants something he will do anything to get it.”

I stare at him blankly. He is right—rat wants me, he never stopped wanting me. When police raided the house all those years ago, he left me there, hoping that they wouldn’t find me in the basement, in the hole. I was his unfinished business and now I’m back to square one. It’s just a matter of time before he shows up here to end what he started three years ago. Before me, there was Steph. I remember well that he wanted her too, like he wants me now.

I’m pacing around his room, knowing that something is wrong. The gripping fear slowly cools the hope that is still deep inside me. Josh has been gone for hours. I have tried calling him, but every time the voicemail picks up. That uncomfortable unease is drilling holes in my stomach. The clock on the walls shows 3:00 a.m., but the minutes have been dragging since I’ve been up waiting for him. His mother is sleeping in her room downstairs, oblivious to the fact that her son is not home, that he might be doing something wrong.

I was too afraid to question him earlier on, but I know that he is furious with Micah. Last night, he accidentally found out that Steph was planning to stay with friends overnight, that she had some sort of studying session planned out with them a while ago.

I squeeze my arm and then hiss with pain, forgetting that I have a large wound there. Josh lost his temper yesterday. I tried to ask him about his secret obsession with Steph and he lost it.

He took me in, helped me to get away from my mother, but then everything changed. He is the same boy that I fell for months ago, but he turned into a monster. He wasn’t even a real person anymore.

“I fucking fancy that bitch. Don’t you get it, Rosie?” he shouted yesterday, when I started asking him about her, when I was trying to understand him. “You are here because I need you, not because I want you. Micah has always been better than me, smarter and sharper. He has a better life, better grades, better pussies, better parents, but this time I’m going to be better than him. Trust me, he won’t be living happy ever after with her, not after tomorrow night. He doesn’t deserve her; he never did.”

I stared at him then, unable to comprehend why he became so bitter and resentful over Micah. We’d been happy together. For weeks he was telling me that I was the one for him, and then he was telling me he was in love with his best mate’s girlfriend. I didn’t want to believe him.

“Josh, what are you saying? You know that he loves her. There is nothing that you can do to change that,” I said.

“I can find a way to keep them apart,” he replied, grinning.

“What? What are you planning, Josh?”

He slapped me then, and it wasn’t just a light slap, but a hard slap that made me see stars for a split second. I crashed on the floor, lying there for good few moments disorientated and confused. This had been happening more often than I wanted. Josh had a bad temper, but I always knew when I deserved to be slapped or pushed. This time I was only asking questions. Sometimes he couldn’t control himself, but yesterday for the first time in my life I was petrified of him.

He leaned down next to me, and then I saw that he was holding a knife. He caressed me with it and my heart stopped. Pain throbbed across my jaw.

I didn’t scream when he cut me. I was too scared to find out if he was going to kill me. In that moment I knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to do it; his eyes were glazing with power and triumph.

Now I can’t sleep, pacing around, knowing that he was going to do something terrible to Steph, because of some delusion that his best mate is better than him. He wants to hurt Micah, so he is ready to stick the knife into the person Micah loves the most: Steph.

Several minutes later I hear the door downstairs and dive under the covers. It’s Josh and he is back. My heart starts to jackhammer in my chest when he comes upstairs and opens the door. The lights come on and he is standing there, staring back at me covered with blood. His face, his clothes and hands. I see blood everywhere, but it’s his face that disturbs me the most. That euphoric expression on his face is horrifying. I open my lips to ask him what happened, but no sound comes out of my mouth.

Before I can take another breath, he climbs on the bed and brings his face closer to mine.

“I have done it, Rosie. I have killed her and this felt fucking amazing. She wanted to scream like a banshee, but I told her to zip it, to be quiet. She thought that I only wanted to scare her, so she complied with my orders. There was blood everywhere, so much fucking blood. It was beautiful,” he says, smiling widely.

My heart leaps in my throat, and the air freezes in my lungs. It’s my fault that she is dead. I should have stopped him. I should have called the police when there was still time.

“I touched her soft skin, I held her tits and ass, and then I slashed her throat, watched her life leave her. I felt so alive. She never belonged to him, and now she will finally be mine—forever,” he says, sprawling on the bed next to me.

I don’t want to believe that the man that rescued me has transformed into a psychopathic killer. This is impossible. He couldn’t have done it.

Then, Josh rises and takes something out of his cargo pocket. It’s a knife, smudged with stains of blood.

“Now that she is gone, you’re going to fuck me, Rosie, like a good girl. You know that I can gutter you with that knife if you won’t keep this little secret to yourself. Do I make myself clear?” he asks, staring at the knife as if it’s some sort of symbol of power. I start to tremble wondering why I’ve been so blind, so stupid in believing that he was decent. “Now suck it, Rose, suck me long and hard like a professional.”

That night Josh killed Steph, Micah’s girlfriend, and then came home to have sex with me. I was too petrified to say no, to disobey him. Something in him shifted that night, but I still wasn’t sure what drove him to become a sadist, a psychopath that hurt people for fun.

He made me have sex with him when he still had her blood on his hands, and by early morning I threw up in the bathroom. That was the beginning of my nightmare, a teaser of what was about to come. The next day Micah found her in the room, dead with her throat slit. The police arrived and Josh was never linked to the case. I have no idea how he managed to get away with sneaking into her room in the middle of the night, and how he became undetected.

I didn’t have proof that he was the murderer. The knife that he had disappeared, and knowing him, he most likely hid it somewhere safe. From then on Josh was on his best behaviour around other people. He kept an eye on me. He made me stop going to school and talking to other people, mostly my old friends. He made sure that I wouldn’t dare to betray him. That night when I decided to show up on Micah’s porch was the last night that I saw him. I desperately wanted Micah to know, also hoping that he could protect me, but then Josh showed up and everything went to shit. Shortly after that there were rumours that Micah moved away, left the estate and his parents.

That night I realised I made the biggest mistake in my life trusting Josh, being with him. I was trapped, unable to find a way out. I had no money, no family or anyone that could have helped me. A couple of months later, we moved out of his mother’s house, far away from our estate. I had no choice in the matter, so I followed to something much worse, followed the evil.