“Oh sweet girl, you know exactly who this is. Did you think I’d just forget about you when I let you go? Did you think because they managed to get you away from me that you’d won? No, I’m sorry to tell you that your punishment is far from over. In fact, since you were such a bad girl and left me for so long, I had to add a heftier price. I wonder how long it would have taken you to realize he’s missing. For a group of people that are so adamant about security, your people sure are easy to kidnap.”
My mind starts racing, and I try to find the connection of what he’s talking about, but I’m drawing a blank. No one’s missing. “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, Dimitri, but it’ll never work. You can’t scare me, and I’m not going to crumble just because you show up again. I’m not the same girl you took all those months ago.” I do my best to make my voice harder, stronger. Inside I’m shaking like a leaf.
His anger is so sudden I nearly drop the phone from my ear when he starts yelling, “I fucking told you what I was doing! You and your family will be punished for what was done to me. I’m not going away, and I’m not giving up. Malcolm, Félix, nor Rémy is enough to keep me from getting the vengeance due to me. If you need any proof of that, you should ask Tristan.”
Pinpricks of sweat blossom on my skin as my nerves jump into hyperdrive. How can this be? My brothers are all supposed to be here for a meeting. Someone would have figured out that Tristan was missing, right?
I look over to the building I know my brothers are in and wonder if Tristan made it yet. I didn’t see him walk in, but maybe he showed up before we got here.
Dimitri sighs out, “On second thought, it might be hard for you to ask him anything on account that I’ve killed him already. It was less satisfying than I thought it’d be. I wish I could’ve kept him alive longer, but he kept squirming. He kept trying to fight back. It’s his own fault that he bled out.”
I shake my head and feel huge tears streaming down my face. This is wrong. It’s impossible. There’s no way. My brother can’t be dead. “You’re lying. You’re just saying this to throw us off our game. Tristan is fine, and when we get him here, we’re going to hunt you down like the dog you are. You won’t get away with this.” I scream into the phone, no longer able to keep my emotions in check.
“Sweet girl, I don’t want to get away with it. I want you to know that I’m coming. I want you to have to sit home and wait for the moment I choose to take your life away. I’m not hiding. I’m just not going to stop until every last one of you is dead. Sleep tight. Oh, good job taking out Gaylord for me. He was becoming quite the nuisance.” Dimitri laughs, and before I can find out more of what he’s talking about, he hangs up the phone leaving me in a state of shock and denial.
What the fuck was going on?
I try to suck in a few deep breaths, but before I can get myself under control, my phone buzzes in my hand to let me know I have a text message. It’s from an unknown number. I hold my breath as I press the notification to bring the message up.
It’s a photo of Tristan. Bloody from his head all the way down his body. Deep gashes line his chest, and his head is hanging to the side. He’s dead.
My scream should’ve broken the windows in the car.
I suck in air, but my lungs are seizing up from how hard I’m shaking. I can’t breathe, I can’t think, I’m fucking breaking to pieces.
I need Malcolm. I need my brothers.
I yank the key out of the ignition, and I force my legs to take me in the direction of my family. I stumble a few times, cutting my knees on the concrete sidewalk before I burst into the building. Tears blur my vision, and the sounds of half my soul dying come from my mouth.
“What the fuck?” I hear someone say behind Félix’s office door.
“Désirée!” Malcolm calls out, and I hear chairs scraping hard against the floor. I fling myself at the door just as it opens, and I collapse into Malcolm’s chest.
“Fuck, oh fuck, what’s wrong. You have to talk to me!” He’s trying to get me to back up, but I’m clinging to him like my life depends on it. I can’t get close enough. Half of me is just gone.
“Désirée! Talk!” Félix screams at me from behind Malcolm.
I feel them back up, so I’m fully in the office, but Malcolm doesn’t let me go.
“Mon trésor, Please, you’re killing me. Please talk to me. What happened. Tell me what happened!” Malcolm says, his arms holding me so tight it hurts.
The door to the office opens again, and I hear Rémy, “I don’t see anything outside.” I don’t even know when he left.
“Désirée!” Félix calls for me again. He’s panicked.
“He’s dead. Dimitri killed him,” I barely get the words out, but the dead silence in the room lets me know that they heard me.
Malcolm pushes me back and looks into my eyes, “What are you talking about? Who’s dead?”
I force my hands to move, and I hand the phone over to Félix. “Tristan, he killed Tristan.”
Félix gasps, and he stumbles back into the wall, his hand over his mouth and his eyes wide as he stares at the photo of Tristan on my phone. He shakes his head like he’s refusing to believe it.
“What are you fucking talking about. No, man. No!” Rémy rushes over to where Félix is and rips the phone out of his hand. When he sees the picture, he drops the phone on the desk and falls to the ground with his head in his hands.
My tears start again as I feel my soul tearing to shreds inside of me. I thought Dimitri finding and kidnapping me would be the worst thing to happen, but I’d let him have me a million times over if it meant Tristan would walk through the door. Dimitri broke me before, but when he killed Tristan, he broke us all. There’s no coming back from this. Things will never be the same, and part of me starts to think that’s exactly how Dimitri wants it to be.