LAURA DIEGOAlexander caught me easily when I launched myself at him with the last of my strength, letting out a crazed scream as the glass I had broken off from the ring chief’s taillight dug into the flesh of my palms.I bucked wildly, struggling against his iron grip as the din of laughter dulled in my ears, before he shoved me roughly to the side, making me let out a strangled sob. “Is that all you’ve got Edward scissor hands?” He joked, in a voice that sent razor-sharp daggers straight into my plump, cushiony chest.I had not wanted to believe that it was his stark, humorless baritone I had heard as I lay facedown on the carpet.It was impossible! “What were you doing at Du Merges Hotel?” Alexander boomed, and I scooted backward when I saw the hate swirling in his green glare.I struggled to still the wobble in my chin as my heart beat a jagged tune in my chest. My head felt hot, hotter than it had been since I murdered my father in his workshop armchair.I would not let these
DARLENEThe crunch of my fingers working between my teeth snapped me out of my reverie just before the knock came on the window again and I let out a shaky gasp, allowing my eyes to adjust to the stretch of darkness outside the white-washed pane rims.”Hey? Is that you?” I whispered, cautiously moving to the door and hanging my neck over the overhang, not at all feeling like I was peering through the hole of a guillotine that was bound to drop down at any moment.The man had been the only one I thought to call after Alexander had dropped me off at the manor and rushed away into the darkness. The memory of our lovemaking in his car seat made me blush so hard I brought a hand to my cheeks, stumbling back to let the man fall into the cool tiles of our bedroom floor.“Jesus fucking Christ Darlene, fancy keeping a man out in the cold do you? It's about as cold as Elsa’s fucking undergarments outside,” The copper-haired man growled, his almond-shaped eyes flashing with heat as he stretched
LAURA DIEGOI spat out the clumps of blood in my mouth as the wood-walled room whirled and blurred dramatically in my vision.It had taken me longer than I would have liked to realize I wasn't alone, the gray-eyed man with the dark linen of clothes hanging off his lithe, sinewy frame still standing only feet from me, the black plastic of my mobile pressed firmly against his ear.I let out a small breath, surprise choking my frame so that I couldn't call out to the Umbrella Man, and warn him that he was exposing us to the enemy.“Mmmph,” I groaned, sagging against the restraints the man must have put on me when I had been passed out and throwing back my head to meet his emotionless gray eyes as the whirl of the ceiling fan above us grounded.Goosebumps broke across my skin as I watched the man as though seeing him for the first time and letting him watch me too, predator to predator, as though we were sizing up ourselves. There was something wrong with the picture, the rake of a man a
ALEXANDERMy eyes felt like they just about exploded out of their sockets when I saw Darlene pacing around the lobby of my father’s secret penthouse.I fisted my hands by my sides, gritting my teeth when I met Dennis’ sea-green eyes.“Babe? What are you doing here? What's going on?” Darlene’s honeyed voice had gotten octaves high as I felt the rest of the ring members file in around me.I locked eyes with my copper-haired best friend who had an unreadable expression on his face as he stared at the toned form of Prince Charles who had been standing beside me.“What a nice, peachy fucking family reunion, I ought to shoot you where you stand Lucas,” Erwin drawled, leveling the gun with Dennis’ head before I stepped in the shot, making him sneer at me as he hesitated before he lowered the stiff arm.“This isn't fucking divorce court Alexander, your wife can't keep showing up here with outcasts,” Prince Charles growled in a voice that sent shivers down my spine so that I turned to match hi
DARLENE“Is this a bloody joke?” I screamed, feeling my hands shoot into the yellow candescence of the wide, tubular-looking room as the blood pounded hotly in my ears. “Dar please, I can explain all this,” My husband’s baritone was even as usual, but I could sense the undercurrents of panic in the way his voice wavered at the end as I whipped my hair this way and that, trying to register everything I was seeing.There were long winding chains dragging from the low stone ceiling of the cellar, the workbench and gurney at the end of the room with the flickering white of a fluorescent dangling above it made my blood run cold.What had they been doing here? The room was empty, save for the ominous-looking barrels that were piled high in the corner, their deep brown backs throwing off the yellow light.“My God,” I whispered before realizing that I had gasped out loud when the ugly-faced man in the ring chuckled dryly.“Ain't no God here Lassie, count yourself lucky, not everyone who gets
ALEXANDERLaura Diego was gone. Gone like a pack of crackers in a chicken coop. It was all I could do not to choke out a scream when I had run in only seconds behind my wife to find the cellar empty, the bloodied chains we had used to hold her scattered uselessly on the floor.“I think we should all go home,” My last words hung heavily in the air as Darlene’s face contorted with an emotion that made white hot pain spike through my chest.I exchanged uneasy looks with the purple-eyed man then, watching the dots of perspiration on his upper lip before he jerked his head so violently to the side it was a wonder everyone else didn't notice.I took a cursory glance around, seeing that Dennis and Darlene were talking in low tones and that the gray-eyed ghost and his Rottweiler side chick Erwin were nowhere to be found.“What the hell happened back there? How the fuck did Diego get out?” Prince Charles hissed, looking more worked up than I had ever seen him so that I had to wonder if there w
FREDERICKI had stolen into the manor the way I came, my heart ripping me the reaper’s jagged drum beats in my chest.“Fucking hell,” I groaned, spreading my arms to brace myself on the tough mahogany wood of the dresser to stare at the blue-eyed man in the mirror.My strawberry-blonde hair had fallen limply over my face so that some of the short strands brushed against my eyelashes, making my eyes water animatedly.“Where the hell are you Laura?” I hissed through clenched teeth, glancing around the ornately designed rustic room once more, my eyes lingering on the brick-red wallpaper as though the dark-haired woman would be hiding between the creases.“Fucking hell, what a day,” I wheezed, raking my fingers through my hair and trying not to remember the state I had been in when I watched Darlene chase after my brother back at the hotel.How her eyes lit up when she told me Laura was not to be trusted. There was a lot of shit that wasn't adding up, shit that made gas bubbles grow in my
LAURA DIEGO“Jesus fucking Christ,” I groaned, kicking out the thick wood of the barrel cover to crawl out of the sloppy mess of rich wine that had soaked through my clothes and wounds.I drew in a large gasp, feeling every bit like that one girl from The Revenant movie as I crawled out of the barrel, the red juice sloshing noisily onto the floor as I squinted through the sharp sizzling pain that clawed at my sides and back.I had lost the gun in the mess of neatly arranged barrels after I had contemplated going up the damned stairs and shooting that bitch Darlene in between the eyes once and for all, imagine MY surprise when the sound of footsteps pounding above me and rushing down the stairs reached my ears.“Fucking hell Laura,” I chuckled dryly, knowing it was a good thing I had been fast on my feet, limping to one of the barrels and searching for an empty one, before throwing myself headfirst into one of the tubular coffins just as the door snapped open behind me.I’d listened to