Betrayal: Kyle's Revenge (The Betrayal Series) (21 page)

“Okay, but I want to go to my apartment before going to the hospital.”

“Why?”

“I need to pick up my health insurance card and some clothes in case I have to spend a few days at the hospital. Kyle’s at work, so it is safe to go now.”

Brianna agreed to the change of plans. She helped Abby off her chair and out of the backroom. On their way out of the bookstore, Brianna told Jeremy she was taking Abby to the hospital and warned him that she may be gone for a few days and may not come back to work ever again.

Jeremy offered to go with them to the hospital, but Abby refused. She told Jeremy she’d keep in touch. Brianna gave Jeremy her address so he could visit Abby once things had settled down.

Jeremy was sad over the possibility of losing Abby as an employee but also relieved that someone had finally knocked some sense into her and she was leaving that nut job of a boyfriend. Jeremy and Abby exchanged hugs and well wishes before she and Brianna walked out the bookstore and hopped in a cab.

Chapter XIII

After a very short cab ride, Abby and Brianna arrived at the apartment building where Abby had lived with Kyle for the last two years. When Abby and Brianna stepped inside the apartment, they immediately headed to the bedroom to retrieve Abby’s insurance card and throw a few things in a duffle bag. They needed to get out of there as soon as possible in case Kyle decided to come home early.

Abby’s worst nightmare came true when she went to turn the handle on the bedroom’s door and the knob began to turn by itself before she reached it. Terror washed over both her and Brianna when the door swung open and a sleepy, tousled-hair Kyle emerged from behind the blue-painted door. They both shrieked and backed away from him.

Kyle was still wearing his work clothes. When he showed up for work that morning, his boss determined Kyle was too drunk to work. After writing him up, his boss ordered Kyle to go home and sleep his hangover off.

Kyle stood at the door, looking dazed and rubbing his eyes. The sound of the front door slamming shut when Abby and Brianna walked in had woken him. He had taken some sleeping pills and could barely keep his eyes open, but he quickly perked up when he saw his deviant sister standing behind Abby. “What is she doing here?” Kyle asked through gritted teeth. With the purest of hate lighting up his gray eyes, Kyle stumped forward, forcing Abby and Brianna to back away from him.

“Kyle please. Calm down,” Abby pleaded.

“You have some balls bringing her here. Wasn’t I clear last night? I guess I’m going to have to make that phone call after all. I guess you don’t care about her as much I thought you did.”

“Go ahead Kyle,” Brianna chimed in. “Make the call. Call anyone you want. Leak that arrest record to the entire universe. I don’t care.”

Kyle stopped cold. The arrogant smirk on his lips vanished. His eyes couldn’t hide his surprise and frustration. It started to dawn on him that his seemingly fool-proofed plan B may have backfired. His face flushed with anger, and his eyes kept bouncing from Abby to Brianna and back to Abby.

“That’s right, Kyle,” Brianna continued. “I know all about your little scheme to keep Abby and I apart. Guess what? I don’t care about losing my career. Do whatever you want. Talk to whomever you want about my past. That arrest was bogus, and I have nothing to be ashamed of.” She stepped from behind Abby and stood between her Kyle. She stared up at her brother, confident, defiant. “I’m not letting Abby stay another second here with you. She is leaving with me whether you like it or not.”

The veins on the sides of Kyle’s neck looked as if they were going to burst. It looked like every drop of blood in his body had rushed to his face. He regretted not doing a better job of keeping Abby and Brianna from talking to each other. He also wanted to kick himself for underestimating Brianna who didn’t look like she was bluffing when she said she didn’t care if the world thought she was a sexual predator. Kyle thought Brianna was the type of person who would do anything to preserve her career and reputation. It turned out she was a much better person than he thought.

His scheme was crumbling in front of his eyes, but Kyle was not conceding that fight yet. Abby and Brianna had caused him a great deal of pain, and he was not done getting even. He began to stump forward again, staring Brianna down and making her back away.  Abby, who had her arms wrapped around Brianna’s waist, also began to retreat.

“Fine,” Kyle sneered. “You and her can leave, but it doesn’t mean this is over. I will dedicate the rest of my life to making your life and her life as miserable as possible. And if you think I’m bluffing, ask Abby whether or not you should take my threats seriously.”

Brianna did not have to ask Abby anything. She only needed to glance at Abby’s battered body to know Kyle was not bluffing. The sweet little brother she knew was no more. A vicious, callous, vindictive monster had taken over her brother’s body, and he craved revenge. Brianna realized Kyle was never going to let her and Abby be happy, so she made him a deal. She stopped moving and so did Kyle.

“Look, Kyle. I’m the one you’re angry with. You think I lied about being raped and about our father allowing it. Fine. I will never convince you that I’m telling the truth. You’re also angry at me because I caused our family’s financial ruin. I’m sorry about that. I had no idea until Abby told me not long ago. I thought the case had been dismissed because it was a bogus case. I had no idea Dad had made so many sacrifices to keep me out of prison. You’re angry at me, and you don’t want to see me happy. I understand and have a proposal for you. You let Abby leave this apartment and promise to leave her alone and be happy. In exchange, I promise to stay away from her too even if it kills me.”

“Brianna, no,” Abby protested.

“It’s the only way, Abby,” Brianna countered without taking her eyes off Kyle. She continued with her proposal. “I will put her on a plane to Michigan tonight and won’t contact or see her ever again. I give you my word. Her safety and happiness is more important to me than having her. This is what you want, right? To keep us apart? We will stay away from each other then, but you have to let her go and leave her alone. So what do you say, Kyle? Are you going to let us walk out of this apartment peacefully, or do we need to get the police involved?”

Both Abby and Brianna held their breath, waiting to find out if Kyle was going to take the deal.

Kyle felt rage boil inside him. He was on the verge of exploding like a volcano. Brianna’s deal did not satisfy him. Yes, his main goal was to keep her and Abby apart, but the deal did not quench his thirst for revenge. He wanted to see them cowering in fear in front of him and cry for his forgiveness. Kyle was not getting any of that from Brianna’s deal.

Suddenly, images of Abby and Brianna rolling around in bed and laughing at him invaded his thoughts. His chest rose and fell rapidly as the laughter that only he could hear taunted him and stripped the few remaining rational thoughts out of his head.

Without warning, Kyle lunged forward and grabbed Brianna by the throat, swinging her around like a rag doll and slamming her against the wall. “I told you the next time I had my hand around your neck you were going to regret it,” Kyle hissed, his hand shaking as it closed around Brianna’s neck.

Abby let out a blood-curdling scream while gripping a handful of the back of Kyle’s shirt. She desperately tried to pull him off Brianna, but Kyle was too strong and she was too sore and in too much pain. “Please Kyle. Don’t do this. Let her go,” Abby pleaded while Brianna gasped for air. Brianna had her hands wrapped around Kyle’s wrist, white-knuckling it in an attempt to get him to loosen his grip, but Kyle was too strong for her too.

When Brianna stopped struggling and Abby saw life began to flee from her ocean blue eyes, Abby realized she had to do something and do it quickly before it was too late. So she wobbled into the kitchen as fast as she could.

Unable to speak, Brianna pleaded with her eyes for her brother to let her go. But Kyle had reached the point of no return in his quest for vengeance. The monster that had taken over his body didn’t care that he was squeezing the life out of her own sister’s body.

“I shouldn’t have let you out of your bedroom where Dad had you locked up,” Kyle growled. Even his voice sounded like it was coming from someone else. “Dad did the right thing by locking you up. A poor excuse for a human being like you needed to be locked up and away from normal people. You’re a sick, twisted deviant, and you’re going to burn in hell for all the evil things you’ve done.”

Seeing Brianna pinned against that wall, shaking, crying and pleading for her life with her eyes gave Kyle a great deal of pleasure. She was finally paying for all the pain she had caused him and his family. The consequences of ending her life didn’t even register with him at that moment. He had completely gone to the dark side.

Brianna’s vision began to blur as she stared into the pits of darkness that were Kyle’s eyes. Her legs and hands began to feel weak. She couldn’t hear anything around her except for the rapid thumping of her own heart. She thought that was it for her. Her life began to flash before her eyes. She never thought her life would end at the hands of her own brother.

Then it all went dark for Brianna, just before she heard a single, loud bang followed by an ever louder thud. After the thud, she no longer felt Kyle’s hand around her throat. Having no strength in her legs to keep herself in the upward position, Brianna let her body slide down the wall and drop to the floor like a rock. She landed on her knees.

When light returned to her eyes, she could make out Abby’s face in front of her and could feel Abby’s hands cradling her face. She looked up for Kyle and didn’t see him. Then she looked over Abby’s shoulder and saw Kyle sprawled on the floor. His eyes were closed, and he was not moving. Next to him was a metal pipe.

“Are you okay?” Abby asked while Brianna knelt on the floor, wheezing and coughing.

Brianna nodded, her eyes fixed on Kyle’s motionless body lying inches away from her and Abby. Her eyes grew wider when she spotted a thin stream of dark red goo coming from the back of Kyle’s head and dribbling across the hard wood floor. Fearing the worst, she shoved Abby to the side and frantically crawled towards her brother.

 Abby crawled towards Kyle and hovered over him as Brianna checked Kyle’s neck for a pulse. A huge sigh of relief escaped Brianna’s lips when she determined Kyle was still breathing.

“Call 911,” Brianna ordered Abby before getting on her feet and rushing to the bathroom. Abby spotted her bag lying on the floor next to the metal pipe and fished her phone out of it. While she talked to the emergency operator, Abby watched Brianna return from the bathroom with a towel in her hands.

Brianna knelt next to Kyle, folded the towel several times and stuck in under Kyle’s head to stop the bleeding. The compassion and concern Brianna was showing Kyle perplexed Abby. Just a few seconds earlier, Kyle was about to end her life, and there she was, taking care of him, trying to save his life.

After finishing the call with the 911 operator, Abby crawled to kneel next to Brianna and wrapped her arms around her. They both stared down at Kyle who was still unconscious. They held each other and silently tried to wrap their minds around what had just happened. A few minutes later, sirens blared outside the apartment building, and within seconds, the apartment was swarming with paramedics and police officers.

****

When Kyle woke up, there were two men in blue and white uniforms hovering over him. They had latex gloves on and were touching his neck and asking him questions. Kyle could barely make out their faces. His vision was still blurry. He couldn’t understand what they were asking either. There was also a man wearing a police uniform hovering over him and asking him questions. Kyle stared at all of them blankly. He couldn’t remember much of what happened. He remembered Brianna’s almost lifeless eyes pleading for mercy, but that’s about it.

Kyle was in a lot of pain, but he still made an effort to look around the room to find Abby. He spotted her sitting on a nearby chair. A paramedic was kneeling in front of her and touching her mid-section. Next to her was Brianna, standing against a wall and rubbing her neck while a police officer stood in front of her and wrote something on a white notepad.

The police officer hovering over him tried to press Kyle into answering his questions, but Kyle remained mum. He still couldn’t hear or understand anything. He couldn’t feel anything either, except for the throbbing pain in the back of his head. He ended up passing out before the police officer or the paramedics could get a word out of him.

****

Later that day, Brianna sat on a chair inside a hospital room. She was keeping an eye on Abby who lay asleep on a bed a few inches away. After the incident with Kyle, the paramedics took Abby to the hospital. Her x-rays revealed her ribs were not broken, just bruised. The emergency room doctor prescribed her a ton of pain pills and lots of rest. He wanted to keep her at the hospital for a few hours to make sure she was okay, but he expected Abby to be fine.  

Kyle was taken to the same hospital where he received stitches to the back of his head. He was going to spend a couple of days there but was also expected to be fine. But unlike Abby who was going home after getting discharged, Kyle was headed to jail.

When Abby and Brianna talked to the police back at the apartment, they told the detective interviewing them that Kyle had tried to choke Abby the day before and then Brianna that day. The detective determined Abby had acted in self-defense, and Abby and Brianna were granted restraining orders against Kyle. But Abby did not tell the police about Kyle forcing himself on her the day before, much to Brianna’s dismay.

After Kyle had tried to kill her, Brianna felt nothing but hatred for her brother. At the apartment, she took Abby aside and tried to convince her to tell the cops about the rape. Brianna felt that reporting that assault would ensure that Kyle was going to spend some time behind bars and away from them. But Abby refused to say anything to the cops that morning. She told Brianna the experience was just too fresh and too painful for her to talk about it. She claimed to feel ashamed even though she was the victim. She did, however, promise Brianna she’d tell the cops at some point.