Holly knew everything and had her hand in every criminal empire, getting her piece of the American pie a different way than others. She had a network and there were eyes everywhere reporting back to her.
I stopped in mid-stride when I heard someone behind me.
The footsteps were unnerving and they matched my pace step by step. Somebody was following me from a safe distance but they were practically screaming for me to run. I felt a moment of despair with the knowledge I might never see my three lovers again. They had become important to me and I couldn’t imagine living without them in my head and in my bed.
I started to move a little quicker and the footsteps stayed with me not deviating from their course of action. Looking behind me quickly and abruptly I didn’t catch the person off guard. There was nothing there but I knew the footsteps were not imaginary. It stood to reason I might be letting my mind play tricks on me but I had become well versed in listening to my instincts.
I tried to lose them. They were tenacious simply playing a game of cat and mouse with me. They could have made me run but they wanted me to be on edge, about to make a mistake they could pounce on. The alleyway provided me a few suitable avenues for protection including a dumpster and a few cardboard boxes.
Hiding and waiting for the moment of truth was a nerve-wracking experience.
I couldn’t keep my fingers from shaking with the excess adrenaline running through me at Mach speed. The excitement and danger looming around the side of the dumpster had me poised and ready to strike.
“If you want to live don’t move a single solitary muscle.” I froze in my tracks to the whisper in my ear and my heart began beating nervously in my chest.
Chapter Eighteen
I stayed completely silent, without moving, well aware that the voice was cool as a cucumber. I didn’t know what to make of it but something told me this was the same person who had come to my rescue during the fire. They were remaining a secret and I felt I didn’t have a leg to stand on to confront him.
My body was plastered tight against the wall when those soldiers dressed in camouflage were standing right in front of me. They were sniffing the air and I found it weird they couldn’t see me. They must’ve sensed something in the air and stayed right there until, finally, they walked past. I was invisible to them, although that only worked until I moved from my current position.
“I don’t know if you can hear me but I just wanted to thank you for your assistance. I’m not sure why you feel you have a vested interest in protecting me. It could be you are loyal to the Black family and I fall into that category but I think it goes beyond that.” I stepped from the alley and this time the footsteps were comforting.
They slowly receded until I had to stop and put my hand on the brick wall a few feet from the door leading into the building where I was currently residing. My breath was short and I had to slowly come to terms with the fact that I had a guardian angel. I wasn’t sure what to tell the brothers, knowing they would, understandably, be concerned. I figured it would be best to keep this information to myself for the time being. They didn’t need the hassle and the drama, after everything they had been through.
I walked into the lobby and bypassed the elevators for the stairs. This was my form of exercise and I bounded up the flight of stairs three at a time, feeling the burn in my calves. I thought of Callan and his big brown eyes. I was not about to let them out of my sight but I couldn’t remain glued to them twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week.
Suddenly, it was like Déjà vu and I felt like I had been here before in a previous life. It was almost like I was seeing through the eyes of another woman in a similar position in the past. Things began to spin around me and I dropped to my knees, with my legs collapsing out from underneath me. I couldn’t manage to keep my balance and everything was these disjointed images of colors and shapes in front of my eyes.
I tried to say something but nothing came out of my mouth. Something was attacking me. Although this wasn’t a physical altercation, it was more spiritual, like a mental barrage, leaving me stymied and unable to defend myself.
The stairs were exchanged for a shack that had seen better days. The hands I was looking at were not my own. Somehow I was a passenger looking through the eyes of this woman. The three men talking in hushed tones at the hearth of the fireplace had similar features of the Black family. Their sense of style was one of a different era and I thought I had to be hallucinating.
I tried to wrestle free and wake up from this nightmare.
“We have to do something about this betrayal. She slept with him and must pay for it with her life. To do anything else would show favoritism and they would perceive that as a weakness. We can agree this was a mistake but there’s no way we can forget this trespass.” The man looked like Callan but his features had been altered by a bushy beard and a pronounced scar underneath his lip.
“She has been with us and has given us a child. How can we throw her to the wolves, if you pardon the pun? I understand this is an unforgivable sin but maybe we can find another way to deal with it more humanely.” This guy seemed familiar and something about him was making it hard for me to look away.
“Shane, what do you suggest, and take into consideration everybody knows about her infraction. She hasn’t been exactly shy about telling everybody within earshot. It should be known she shows no remorse for what she has done. Her death will serve to be an example to others and it must be public. You can hear them out there calling for her blood and we can’t turn a blind eye to community justice. Look at her and tell me what you see without the blinders on,” He demanded, with his cold dead eyes looking right through the woman I was inside of.
“I didn’t want any part of this but I made the best of a bad situation. Living with the three of you and dealing with your disgusting habits have tried my patience. It makes me sick to my stomach to sleep with any of you. I thought I would grow to love you but I loathe you all with every fiber of my being. Kill me while you still have the chance, I would rather die than to spend another minute in your presence,” Her words were like venom, she could have used a little liquid honey to soothe the savage beast but she refused to capitulate.
“Why did you take the gag out of her mouth? I really don’t want to hear another word out of her lying mouth.” The one that looked like Callan didn’t take kindly to her speaking her mind and rectified that with the gag being placed back in her mouth.
It was funny, but I could actually taste the rag and I wasn’t just seeing through her eyes. I could feel everything, including her hatred and the way the ropes chaffed her wrists, with the skin burning with the effort. I was looking out from the inside to a time of their ancestors. The ritual was sometimes forced on the individual with surprising results.
A child crying in the crib was making a fuss, thrashing and turning in his blanket. He must have sensed the animosity and was acting out accordingly to his parent’s bickering. He was beautiful and I saw Callan at the age of three looking back at me through his eyes.
“Duncan, death is too good for her. Besides, she still has to give us two more children and I don’t care how it happens. She can be willing or not. The choice is entirely up to her. I know it seems distasteful but this has been foretold. We will have three children and they will take over where we left off. When she is finished birthing our next two children then we can cast her aside without further thought. We have a duty to perform.” This one was the quietest of the three but he made his voice ring out with conviction.
“Niles, as much as it pains me, I agree with you in theory but this goes against everything we have been taught growing up. Forcing her to breed our children is wrong but it’s better than the alternative. She has to agree in public and swallow her pride by apologizing for her infidelity. If she can do that, then maybe we can pull the wool over their eyes,” Duncan said in response to Niles. They had come up with a game plan which depended on the woman who was to bear their children to agree to.
They took out the gag to hear what her response was going to be.
“I will never forgive any of you for this. My children are more important to me than breathing. I don’t like it but it looks like we’re going to have to live with each other for a few more years. You have no idea how much I want to wipe those smug looking grins off of your faces. I won’t forget any of this and will carry this putrid stench of revenge with me everywhere I go. Don’t mistake my smile in public for being a willing concubine.” She sighed deeply and sat there in silence while they discussed the elephant in the room.
“I think it goes without saying somebody is going to have to pay for this crime. None of us have to like it but it has to be done. He will be labeled and killed without mercy by the three of us. I understand he was our friend but this cannot go unanswered.” They all agreed and they released her with a fake smile painted on her face.