Chapter 29: Now You’re Mine: Chapter 29

“I’m going to kill you,” Hayden says to my captor.

“Yeah, like you did Senator Green?”

I stare up at Hayden, waiting for him to deny it. He doesn’t look at me. Anxiety slams into me, and my heart stutters in my chest. Why isn’t he saying anything?

“Oh come now, don’t play dumb.” Russell shakes his head, clicking his tongue in admonishment. “I know all about your little confrontation with the dear Senator that night.”

For the first time, I think death might not be the worst thing to happen to me. As if I’ve been kicked in the stomach, I suck in a breath and curl in on myself. Part of me wants to reach out and grasp Hayden’s leg to anchor myself emotionally, while the rest recoils at the idea.

“Whatever it is that you think you know is wrong,” Hayden says.

Russell holds his arms out. “How can I be wrong when I’m the one that put you up to it?”

Hayden doesn’t move, but the muscles in his legs tense underneath his slacks. If they weren’t in my line of sight, I doubt I would’ve been able to tell. I glance up at him again and then Russell, unsure of who I should watch. Which man is my true enemy?

Right now, they both are.

“What are you talking about?” Hayden asks.

“You think you’re the only person who employs a hacker?” Russell lets his arms fall to his sides with a slap. “I made sure to plant ‘clues’ that would lead you to believe the Senator killed his secretary. It was actually me, by the way.”

“Why?” I say, my voice barely above a wheeze.

Both men glance in my direction, but I keep my focus on Russell. My desperation for knowledge overrides everything.

“Your father helped me a lot when I first bought AstraRx,” Russell says, holding my stare. “When I wrote my doctoral thesis, it was about depressants and their effects on the central nervous system. After buying the pharmaceutical company, I wanted to expand that research and develop a marketable drug. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to pass FDA standards until Senator Green got involved. But that didn’t stop me from putting it out on the street.”

He turns to Hayden. “Your addict mother came into contact with it through her boyfriend and died in this very room. It might comfort you to know she wasn’t the only person who overdosed. That drug was so potent, it didn’t take much to cross the line.”

“You son of a bitch!” Hayden takes a step forward, and I throw out my arm to grab his shoe. He stills at the contact and drops his gaze to me. When our eyes meet, I swallow at the unholy rage burning in their depths.

“Don’t,” I whisper.

“Listen to her.” Russell nods in my direction. “If you don’t, you’ll get yourself killed faster than I’d like. Anyway, after that debacle with the first drug, I moved onto something else. The users call it a roofie, but it has the potency of Valium. It creates the effect of cocaine binge while feeling the high similar to being on heroin.”

He sighs. “It’s a thing of beauty. Don’t you agree, Calista? After all, this is your second time experiencing the narcotic. I doubt you remember the first time I gave it to you in the children’s center.”

“Oh, my God.” My stomach heaves as memories, both clear and muddled, barrage my mind. I gag until I’m sick all over the carpet. “It was you.”

Hayden gently lifts me onto the dusty couch before spinning to face Russell. “Did you rape her?”

I watch the exchange while struggling to control my panicked breathing. The letter opener digs into my side and I slowly dip my hand inside my coat, concentrating on keeping my expression dazed. If the man who kidnapped me had searched me like he did Hayden, he would’ve removed the only weapon available to me.

“I’m sure you’d like to know what I did to her while she was passed out.” The man lifts a sardonic brow. “But as much as I’d love to continue fucking with your mind, I really want to get to the reason why I brought you both here. Mr. Bennett, did you really think you could kill all of those people and get away with it?” Russells asks with an incredulous expression. “I’ve been watching you for many years. It might’ve taken me a while to pin certain deaths on you, but eventually, I figured out the pattern. If you hadn’t researched my company on the government databases once you became an attorney, I might’ve never found you.”

Hayden folds his arms. “Really?”

“You only kill someone who you can’t put behind bars through the legal system,” Russell says, his attention on Hayden. “Matthews. Parkinson. Deter. You’re an intelligent man. Don’t tell me you don’t recognize the names of your victims.”

“I’d be lying if I said they weren’t familiar to me.”

“Familiar? Ha!” Russell slaps his thigh. “You got pretty familiar when you slit their throats and buried their bodies. Attorneys, always carefully choosing what they will and won’t admit to.”

I wrap my trembling fingers around the handle. I might end up shot before I have a chance to use it, but I have to try. Hayden tilts head and simply waits. He bristles with something more explosive that rage and more violent that hatred.

I don’t know how much longer he can contain that dark energy. I have to be ready.

“Do you know how hard it is to find criminals that are intelligent enough to not get caught, but if they do, they don’t take you down with them?” Russell sighs. “Take my word for it. It’s very challenging. To make matters worse, there’s a certain prosecutor who’s very good at putting my drug dealers out of business by sending them to prison or sending them to hell after he kills them.”

“The justice system isn’t always just,” Hayden says with a nonchalant shrug. “How was I supposed to know that you were putting drugs on the streets to be distributed for your own gain? If I would’ve known, I could’ve killed you instead and saved myself a lot of trouble.”

Russell takes a menacing step towards Hayden but stops when he narrows his gaze. “I’ve lost millions because of you, you arrogant prick!”

“That’s nothing I haven’t been called before. You’re going to need to be better than that if you want to upset me.”

“Is this enough for you?” He aims the gun at me. “You talk a lot, Bennett, but don’t forget who has all the power.”

Hayden holds up his hands in a show of surrender. “Easy, Russell.”

“Now you want to placate me?” The man’s lip curls with a sneer. “Go fuck yourself.”

He walks over to where I’m lying on the couch, keeping the firearm pointed down at me. “Back up!” As soon as Hayden does, Russell snatches up a handful of my hair and presses the nozzle against my temple. “I’m going to enjoy watching you suffer when she dies.”

I don’t hesitate. I jab the letter opener into his thigh with all the strength I can summon. Russell lets out a howl of pain right before Hayden lunges, tackling him to the ground. The gun lands on the floor with a thud.

My vision tilts when I climb from the couch and onto the carpet on my hands and knees. I push myself into motion, despite the drugs in my system slowing me down. All I can think about is getting the weapon.

Hayden lands a punch to Russell’s jaw, and the man’s head snaps back. When I’m less than a foot away from the firearm, Hayden snatches it up. He swings the barrel toward the front door and pulls the trigger as the door opens to reveal the henchman.

I cry out at the loud noise, but don’t move. I stare transfixed as red blooms on the man’s chest before he plummets to the ground. Hayden steals my attention when he gets to his feet.

With my pulse thumping in my ears, I watch him as he grabs a pillow from the couch and presses the gun’s nozzle against it. My mouth falls open at the makeshift silencer.

Then he shoots Russell. Twice. One bullet in each kneecap.

Hayden stands over him with a satisfied smile while the man sobs in pain. “That’ll keep you from running while I get Calista to a hospital, but when I get back, you and I are going to have a little chat.”

My head spins. Not only from the drugs, but from the effort to process everything that I just learned.

Hayden murdered my father. Not just him, but countless others.

Russell killed my father’s secretary and assaulted me to intimidate my father and keep him in line. And now Hayden will kill him for that and for indirectly murdering his mother.

I’m not going to be sane ever again.

Hayden tucks the gun into his waistband and crouches down next to me. I look up at him, not bothering to hide my accusatory expression. “How could you?” I ask, tears stinging my eyes.

He doesn’t answer me. Instead, Hayden gathers me into his arms and holds me close to his chest. His heart pounds furiously against my ear, and his grip on me is tighter than normal.

“Let’s get you to a hospital, Callie. I’ll explain everything later. I promise.”

His voice is gentle, but I can detect the concern underneath. He cares for me. I don’t doubt that, yet how can I believe anything he says?