Chapter Chapter Sixteen

“Sam! Don’t do anything stupid!” Taylor shouts as I near the building, the door was half open as I pushed it, it swung to reveal the corridors empty.

“I’m calling Tobias, just wait until they get here first before you go in” Taylor says holding my arm.

I lift my fingers to my lips and whistle as it echoes through the corridor while Taylor holds me beside him.

“There’s no one here Taylor” I shake my arm from his grip and head inside.

“Sam!” Damien shouts as they both follow me in.

Papers were strewn across the ground, rooms were empty, not a weapon or person in sight.

“Taylor! Sam!” Tobias booms from the doorway as he and a few of his men storm in.

“Up here!” Taylor shouts as they make their way to us.

“I told you to stay put!” Tobias booms.

“Sam went running in. Did you want me to leave her on her own?” Taylor snapped back.

I stepped in front of a pair of doors I knew all too well.

“What’s in there?” Damien asks as Rueben steps behind us and passes a gun to Damien.

I try opening the door and it doesn’t budge.

“Look” Taylor points to the ground as blood is seeping underneath.

“Out of the way” Rueben warns as he and Tobias kick down the door.

The words traitor were written across the wall in blood as a body hung from the ceiling, drenched in blood.

“Oh shit…” I murmur.

“Who is it?” Damien asks as I step forward, my hands being coated in blood as I pull the body down.

“It’s Marcus” I answer.

“Who would do this? You killed Seb, Greyson and Kai, who else could have done this, this must have been done today, the bloods too fresh” Rueben checks his body.

“Did anyone ever find Craig?” I ask.

“No…You don’t think he did this? Do you?” Taylor asks.

“He was working for Hayden, he knew where I lived before, he could have been the one who did the photo’s too” I said.

“He’s not smart enough, nor strong enough to string up Marcus like this” Damien says as I stand hearing something, a quiet bang.

I walk between the guys as I head down the corridor cautiously.

“Sammy? Where are you going?” Tobias calls out as I move further down the corridor.

“Shh!” I call out, finger to my lips as I hear a noise again.

The only room left was the room I’d been tortured in before as I kicked it open. “Oh shit” The person shouted as I walked into the room.

“Looking for me?” I smirk at the man cowering in the corner, he was bruised and bleeding, Marcus had obviously hurt him badly before dying.

“You killed them all! He was a traitor! I killed Marcus because he betrayed Hayden!” He shouted.

“Who did you find sweetheart?” Tobias comes into the room.

“Craig” I smirk.

“We’ll take him in and deal with him” Tobias said as I wheel around to him in anger.

“He’s not leaving this building alive Tobias” I growl.

“Don’t leave me to her! Tobias! I swear I’ll do anything! Don’t leave me with her!” Craig cries out scared.

“You killed Marcus, you tried to hurt my family” I shout as I walk up to him as he crouches in the corner afraid for his life.

“I gave them the photo’s I proved to them you were still alive!” He shakes.

“Not for their benefit…For Hayden’s, the more they knew I was alive the more people they sent out… I tore men apart because you helped Hayden…You are not making it out alive today Craig” I snarl as I grab his hair and drag him to the middle of the room.

“Samantha I will not stand here and watch you kill another person!” Tobias booms.

“Then get out” I order as I kick Craig hard in the face as he lays on the floor shaking.

“Sammy no, you’re better than this” Taylor says from the doorway.

“Am I?” I reply as I pummel into Craig’s face as he screams in pain.

“Please! Don’t kill me!” He cries, peeing himself from fear. Which just spurred me on, smirking.

“Samantha Jones come here right now!” My eyes dart to the doorway as my Grandpa looks at me angrily from the doorway.

“Sorry Grandpa, but no” I shake my head as my fingers press slowly into Craig’s eyes as he screams in pain, they pop against my fingers as the blood spurts everywhere.

Once again I’m covered in warm, sticky blood as I stand, Craig screaming on the ground, his hands over his face, bleeding to death in agony as I smirk.

“Nothing but a blood-soaked rose” I laugh at the state of me as I push past everyone as they stare in shock.

“What the hell was that Samantha?!” Taylor grabs my arm and twirls me around.

“THAT was revenge, THAT was for killing Marcus and THAT will happen to anyone who comes after me or my family!” I shout angrily.

“You’ve got to let this go it’s eating you up Sam.” Taylor takes my chin in his hands.

“When I know that every son of a bitch that was involved with Hayden is dead, then I will let this go” I shake free of his grip.

“It will never end Sam, it never does! Let it go!” Taylor grabs me again as I glare at him.

“Get your hands off of me Taylor”

“No, I’m not going to watch you destroy yourself over this! Come home and stay with us, don’t do something stupid like going after them” Taylor begs.

“blood soaked rose, blood soaked rose” I mumble to myself closing my eyes.

“STOP IT! You are not some blood soaked rose! That’s Hayden getting in your head. You are Samantha Jones, badass girl of the Midnight Rose, mother to a beautiful little boy who needs his mother, you’re our family, we need you Sammy” Taylor sobs as I look into his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Taylor” I sob as he takes me in his arms tightly.

“It’s ok Sammy, I’ve got you babe” He says stroking my hair as I break down.

“We should get going” Tobias says behind him quietly as I break from Taylor’s grip.

“Tobias, I’m sorry” I say as he smiles at me before kissing my head.

“You’ve been through a lot little one, I don’t blame you for wanting to kill him, I just didn’t want you to have to.” He sighs.

“He’s not dead” Grandpa says behind him as they drag Craig out, a jacket held on his eyes.

“Let him bleed to death, he deserves it” I say.

“Tobias, we found the CCTV unit, we’ve got all footage we could find” One of the guys comes out holding a hard drive.

“Give me the drive, take him to the cells, wrap him up” Tobias orders.

“Let him die” I snap as he looks at me.

“We might need information from him as of yet Sam” He sighs.

“Information, he’s a fucking weed, he doesn’t know anything! I can’t believe you want to let him live!”

“Sam, come on, we need to get you back home” Taylor takes my hand.

“Give me the drive” I order holding my hand out.

“Why?” Grandpa asks.

“Because I want to see what’s on it myself before you lot watch it and possibly see me doing things I never want you to see!” I shout as realisation hits their faces.

“Fine” Grandpa nods as the drive is given to me, I put it in my jacket pocket as I get on my bike.

“HE will die” I point to Craig who is still crying out about his eyes in agony.

“When we’ve had a little chat, yes” Tobias sighs and nods.

I nod and put my helmet on as I start up my bike, Taylor and Damien race to follow as I head home.

“Sam, you’re covered in blood, don’t be stupid by storming inside!” Taylor shouts as we park up.

I shrug and head into the house, luckily it’s quiet as I head upstairs.

“Daddy! Play airplanes with me!” I hear Cody’s voice giggle as I hear Jayden making airplane noises. I smile as I peek in to the bedroom as I see Jayden swinging Cody around playfully.

Suddenly I’m dragged away into a bathroom.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?! What if Cody saw the blood on you? What happened?!” Savannah exclaims at me.

“I…Fuck…I don’t know…We…We found the place that I was kept in and…Marcus is dead, Craig killed him…Savannah, I’m losing my mind, I crushed Craig’s eyes with my bare hands and enjoyed it” I cry as she looks at me in shock.

“Craig deserves everything he gets. You have to talk to us, tell us what’s going on in your head babe, we can only help if we know everything” Savannah kisses my head before helping me clean up the blood.

I open my jacket as I take out the hard drive and the baby scan as I lay it down on the side as she goes wide-eyed.

“What…Are you…Oh babe” She sighs caressing my cheek softly.

“It’s going to kill Jayden I have Hayden’s child inside me” I cry.

“Jayden loves you he won’t care, he just wants you to be safe, happy and he loves Cody, he will love this baby too. This baby will have a loving family and an amazing daddy in Jayden. But you have to be honest with him” She says looking at the baby scan as the finger grazes over the image with a smile.

“I’m telling everyone tonight what happened, all of it” I mention.

“Good, but what’s that?” She nods to the hard drive.

“One of Tobias’s men found the CCTV from the warehouse…I don’t know how much is on it yet…I’m scared to look” My hand shakes picking it up.

“We can look together” Savannah places a hand on mine.

“No, I won’t have you watch it, not after everything I’ve done” I shake my head.

“Someone should be with you Sam you can’t do this alone”

“Sammy? You in there?” I hear Taylor call out.

“We’re both in here Taylor” Savannah calls out as she opens the door.

“We’re watching that with you, no excuses” Damien says behind Taylor, pointing to the hard drive.

“No, I won’t have you watch me be the monster I was” I shake my head.

“Sam, that was all Hayden possessing you, you are not that person. Let us help you” Damien says.

“Ok…” I murmur.

“Sammy? Guys? I didn’t know you were home” Jayden comes out of the bedroom frowning.

“MUMMY!” Cody runs up to me as I pick him up, kissing his cheek.

“Hi baby” I smile as he nuzzles my neck.

“Me and daddy were being air planes!” He giggles.

“I know baby, I could hear you giggling, did you have fun?” I ask.

“Yeah! But now I hungry” He frowns as his stomach gurgles.

“Well how about you come with me and we’ll make some lunch for everyone buddy, mummy and daddy need to talk” Savannah says as Cody jumps from my arms to hers with a giggle as she gives me a knowing look, the scan by my hand still as I nod.

“We’ll give you guys a minute” Taylor smiles, kissing my head as he takes Damien’s hand and heads downstairs.

“What’s going on?” Jayden asks, taking my hand softly in his as my eyes close at this touch.

“I…Ok, I’m going to just come out with it…I’m pregnant, it’s Hayden’s, he tore me apart mentally and physically he claimed me, made me into a monster and I’m so scared Jayden. I understand if you want nothing to do with this baby or me because of everything that happened. But just promise me you won’t leave Cody I could handle it with time, but that little boy dotes upon you” I cry as I can’t bear to look at him as I go silent.

“You think I would abandon you…Look at me Samantha” He tilts my head up with a finger as my eyes meet his, tears clouding both our eyes.

“You are my world baby I couldn’t live without you and it kills me to think you think I would abandon you or Cody. I was so scared to lose you and now I have you back I never want to lose sight of you again. I always wanted a big family this baby will just add to it. No matter the father, we will raise it together. You are my life Samantha and you will be my wife. We will deal with everything together, just don’t leave me kitten, never leave me” He says as I cry and fall into his arms as he hugs me tight to him.

“I love you Jayden” I murmur in his arms as he holds me tighter, kissing my head.

“I love you too baby, so much” He says.

As we release each other I wipe my eyes as his eyes find the scan and the hard drive.

“Is that the baby?” He asks picking the scan up.

“Yeah” I nod.

“The hard drive…What’s on it?” He frowns as he wipes of a blood fingerprint from it.

I explain what had happened and what could be on it as he sighs, a hand going over his face.

“I’m watching it with you” He says finally.

“No you’re not” I say as I snatch it from the side and walk out.

“Samantha, let me watch it with you, let me be there for you” He says as I storm off.

“No, you don’t need to watch this, are you telling me you would want to see everything Hayden did to me?!” I cry out.

“Yes! I want to see what happened to understand what my girl went through so I can help her” He thunders back.

“You want to see him drown me! Taser me, rape me! You want to see him lick blood off my body as he got off on it, because that’s what he did, every time I killed someone he ordered me in his room, licked the blood from my body as he raped me. Is that what you really want to see?!” I shout.

“Hayden did what?!” A voice exclaims as I turn.

“Zane…You of all people should know what that man was like” I murmur.

“I never thought he’d…We should have got to you quicker, I should have gone back to him, but they wouldn’t let me! I was going to go under cover, Tobias wouldn’t fucking let me. I could have got you out!” Zane swears.

“No, you wouldn’t have done. Hayden would have killed you on the spot Zane.” I sigh.

“I’m watching the footage with you Sam, whether you like it or not” Jayden says as he plucks it from my hands and wanders off down the stairs as I groan and follow.

“What’s going on?” Tobias says as he and my grandpa are stood chatting.

“Watching this fucking thing” Jayden lifts the hard drive up as he goes into the study.

“Give that to me moron, you crashed the computer last time you were on it” Damien says as he takes it from him and begins working on the hard drive.

“I think I’m gonna be sick” I groan with nerves.

“We’re right here” Zane puts a hand on my shoulder as I see Tobias, Jayden, Damien, Taylor, Grandpa all nod.

“That’s what I don’t like” I sigh as Damien puts several screens of footage up at once as we look at his three screens.

One was of my bedroom, the second Hayden’s office, third was of the hallway and then the final ones showed each cell.

“How much footage is there?” I ask as I see the date of the footage was recent.

“At least a years-worth” Damien mumbles.

“Great” I sigh as he takes it to the beginning and puts it on fast forward.

“There’s where they brought Sammy in” Taylor says as I see them dragging me into the celled room.

My hands began to shake as we watch on, the torture of that week begins as I here them seethe, watching as I’m hurt by the men.

“I don’t feel so bad about Marcus anymore” Taylor grumbles.

Then they forward it to when I was first covered in blood as Hayden took me in his arms, licking the blood from my body as he raped me over and over.

“Please stop” I cry.

Fast forward to torturing man after man as they screamed.

One after another as they watched the screens, their faces show a range of emotions.

“Please stop, I’m a monster” I cry.

“You’re not a monster Sam” Jayden says as I lose it, I take the computer from Damien as I bring up a certain point, the worst kill, the man I tore apart as Hayden laughed manically.

“Oh yeah, how about now?” I say as they watch in horror.

“That was because of Hayden, Sam, that wasn’t you” Tobias gulped.

“Sure looks like me” I snap as I flick through some of the worst times as they watch on.

Then we get to the place being empty, Marcus entering on his own before he’s followed by Craig and another man.

“I knew he couldn’t do it on his own” Taylor murmurs as we watch carefully.

“Who is that?” I ask as Damien enlarges it.

“Callum Hanst” Zane answers with a frown.

“You know him?” Tobias asks.

“He’s young, impressionable, does as he’s told, no doubt was working with Craig because he had nowhere else to go” Zane frowns.

“Great just what we need. So where did he go?” Grandpa grumbles as Damien watches him through the footage.

“He didn’t leave…” Damien says as he watches him dart into a vent in the same room as Craig. Craig smirks as he shoots him in the vent and pushes his body further in.

“Well, he’s no longer an issue…” Zane murmurs.

“He was right there in the vent, dead and we never noticed…” Taylor murmurs.

“We’ll get the kid out and give him a burial” Tobias sighs.

“Will you let me finish Craig yet?” I ask.

“No, he’s dead already” Tobias answers.

“WHAT?!” I exclaim.

“He bled out before we got him to the basement” Tobias says.

“Shame” I said sarcastically with a smirk.

“Can we talk about the elephant in the room for a minute…Hayden, what he did…” Jayden sighs.

“What’s to talk about? He did it, he fucked with my head and impregnated me. End of story” I say.

“YOU’RE PREGNANT?!” Zane exclaims.

I notice Damien going through parts of the footage again.

“Damien stop it” I snap.

“It’s not you Sam, this wasn’t you, you wouldn’t do this” Damien says flicking through the footage.

“It WAS me Damien, every fucking bit, he made me tear people apart, look, LOOK! That is ME!” I pause it as I’m smirking up at the camera covered in blood, just before Hayden took me to his office.

“Mummy…” We whirl around as I see Cody wide-eyed looking at the screen as I rush up to him and take him out the room.

“Why were you all covered in blood on the screen?” He murmurs, sniffing like he was about to cry.

“Mummy…Mummy…” I stammer.

“Mummy was helping someone that was hurt. You don’t need to worry little man” Jayden says kissing his head.

“Not mummy’s blood?” He sniffs.

“No, look I’m all safe, no boo boos” I smile as he looks at me.

“Good, don’t like mummy hurt” Cody hugs me tight as I wrap my arms around him.

“Jayden make sure that footage is scrapped” I order as he sighs and nods.

“Mummy come have lunch, Aunt Sav and me make sand…sand…sand witches” Cody wrinkles his nose as I giggle at the cuteness.

“You mean sandwiches, not sand witches, unless there’s a magic witch causing a sand storm!” I gasp dramatically.

“NO! Don’t be silly mummy, we make sand witches, with ham and cheese” he grins as I laugh.

“Ok, let’s go eat some sand witches” I giggle as he takes my hand and leads me into the kitchen.

I hear the guys come out of the office as I try and give them a small reassuring smile which they return.

“The hard drive is locked up for now” Tobias says as I’m sat at the counter with Cody. I glare at him.

“We need to check who else was in there, make sure no one comes after you” Damien says as I sigh and nod.

“Daddy, have a sand witch!” Cody shouts as he hands Jayden a half of his sandwich.

“Yum” He grins stuffing the whole thing in, making Cody giggle.

“Such a pig” I shake my head with a smile as Jayden makes pig noises which causes Cody to laugh louder as I watch them happily.

“You’re not a monster, this is who you are. You are a mother with her family who has done things to survive. We love you no matter what” Grandpa says in my ear as a tear drops down my cheek.

“MUMMY! Mummy no cry!” Cody sees it as he wiggles out of his chair and leaps into my arms as I struggle to catch him.

“Cody, don’t leap like that!” I say sternly as he pouts.

“Sorry mummy don’t like mummy crying” he hugs me tight.

“I’m happy baby, not sad. I just love you so much and missed you.” I kiss his buttery cheek with a giggle.

“Mummy no leave again” He says planting a huge slobbery kiss on my cheek.

“Never” I smile as he giggles.

“Hey Cody, how would you like to be a big brother?” Jayden smiles.

“What mean big brother?” Cody frowns.

“That you had a brother or sister, if mummy had another baby?” Savannah smiles at him.

“Mummy having a baby?!” Cody goes wide-eyed.

“Yes baby boy” I nod.

“Baby brother?” He asks.

“I don’t know yet baby, it might be brother or a sister” I chuckle.

“I don’t want sister, girls icky” Cody pouts. Jayden laughs.

“Girls are super icky” Jayden laughs.

“HEY! I’m a girl” I shove him playfully.

“No, you mummy, not girl” Cody laughs.

“Yeah silly mummy” Taylor sniggers.

For the rest of the day we just spend time together, Cody clinging to me all the time as he spoke to my stomach, talking to the brother he wanted as we all giggled at him.

I felt like a load had come off my shoulders as I was able to feel normal for once.

By the evening everyone was home, but I had told Tobias I couldn’t keep telling people over and over again what had happened, so he did it for me, he took them into the office and explained everything until everyone knew. I was sure he showed some of the footage as some came out pale faced looking at me before hugging me tight.

Even Abraham Henderson came over as I hugged him tight to me, he was sticking around for a little while too and had promised to talk through things with me as he used to in school, almost like a counsellor.

My whole family was here and although I felt like a monster, none of them looked at me like that, they were scared that I would break, they wanted to keep helping me back up, keep me happy and get through it. I was home, safe with my family.