Captured Lies (25 page)

“When Geoffrey turned eighteen he
was going to leave home which I think my parents were quite happy about. They
were tired of paying off and trying to cover up all his law-breaking stunts,
which were bad but not as bad as his immoral behavior. He went out of his way
to humiliate them, not unlike what mother had done to him. I’d left home but
came home to celebrate his eighteenth birthday. He got very drunk. He had taken
down one of dad’s many swords that at that time adorned the walls of this
place. Some dated back to the fifteen or sixteen hundreds. They were massive,
beautiful. I don’t know where they ended up. They disappeared after that
night.”

Guy felt his hands curl into
fists. He wanted to punch something but knew Dorothea didn’t need to see any
more violence. She’d seen and experienced more than her share.

“I was the golden child. I could
do no wrong in Mom’s eyes. To Geoffrey it must have been another slight against
him. Anyway the night he came of age, he had a huge party. There were lots of
lowlife people, who were the type he surrounded himself with. They filled the
pool with booze, broken bottles. Drugs were everywhere. Sex. There were people
doing ‘it’ everywhere. There was this young woman who was on something. She was
wild. I told her she’d have to leave. We got into a bit of a tussle. Next thing
I know, Geoffrey has a sword. He’s swinging it around like he’s in a dual and
stabs me in the leg.”

Her thin chest heaved with
emotion. “He always told me he was sorry and that he’d been trying to get the
woman off me. But I knew... I knew in my heart he’d done it on purpose. That
young woman had turned out to be one of his whores.”

“Why didn’t you turn him in?”

“I couldn’t. He was like my
child. I felt I could fix him.” She laughed harshly. “I’ve been trying to do
that my whole life. And I’m still making excuses for him. No more. He’s evil.
If he hurts that beautiful child, I will kill him.” Pushing herself to her feet
with the energy of a twenty- year old, she strode to the door. “There’s an old
house on the back part of the property. Geoffrey wanted it. Said it was his
sanctuary. It’s all boarded up. It’s at least a hundred years old. So, not
safe. Anyway, I know he spent a lot of time there. I don’t know if that’s where
he is but I’ll bet on it.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m coming with you.”

Guy took her arm and steered her,
with difficulty, back to her chair. “No. You’ll wait here. Don’t worry, I’ll
bring Bailey back. I promise.” He gave her a quick kiss and sailed out of the
room. As he was nearing the ground floor he heard the sound of a vehicle. It
was Graham. He raced out of the mansion to meet him, jumping in the Hummer
before it had fully stopped.

“The old house.” He’d told Graham
about it and the beating Geoffrey had given him one night they’d been
melancholy over their beer.

“How do we get there?”

He pointed to the cobbled path.
“Take that.”

Graham’s eyes widened but he
gunned the Hummer and shot down the ornate, colorful and well flowered path.

“You do realize your grandmother
will string you up by your nether regions.”

Guy grimaced. “Yeah but I think
she’ll forgive me. If I’m right about Geoff...”

No more words were spoken as
tires turned beautiful exotic flowers into exotically scented mulch.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

“You’ll never get away with this.” Bailey tested the plastic
tie wraps he’d used on her wrists. They didn’t budge. Every time she moved they
cut into her skin like a row of tiny razor blades. He placed his hand firmly in
her back and pushed her forward. She tripped but was able to stay on her feet.
They rounded a dense growth of trees and entered a small clearing. He directed
her to walk towards the thick foliage. The only thing she could think of was
that he had a cave he was going to throw her into. She couldn’t see anything
but she didn’t want to stick around to find out either. She glanced around
looking for an opportunity to run although the blade he was carrying though,
rarely left contact with her shoulder. Her t-shirt clung to her back in several
places, glued there by the blood oozing from the cuts he’d had great pleasure
in giving her.

He pushed her to walk around the
side of the massive, plant covered area. The smell of mold, mildew and rotting
lumber assaulted her. There was an underlying pungent smell that was so strong,
she coughed a few times and tried to bury her nose in her shoulder.

He laughed. “Don’t like the
gourmet scents I’ve made. You disappoint me.” Shoving her hard, she tripped
over the vines and thick undergrowth, falling but able to twist in time to land
on her shoulder. Rolling over, she glared at the man who had a sick, demented
smile on his face and the evilest darkest eyes she’d ever seen. Maybe she
really had seen the devil in them earlier.

“Stay there.”

He moved aside the cascading
vines. Behind them was a solid structure, from which he removed a few boards.
She rolled over but the quick stab of the knife into her arm kept her immobile.
She could do no more than lay there and watch. The camouflage had been so good
she hadn’t thought there would be more than a den area. He flipped open a small
door before jerking her to her feet and shoving her towards the hole.

“Climb in.”

The door was three feet off the
ground, three feet high and three feet wide, not an easy place to climb into.
She’d obviously taken too long for him, though. He planted his hands on her
butt and heaved her through. She shot through like a missile. Unable to brace
herself she landed head first. Black and white spots danced before her.

He scrambled over the top of her
not giving her time to recover. Then he grabbed her by the shoulder and the
crotch and tossed her the rest of the way in. His lower hand digging in much
more than was necessary. She shuddered. A look of lust contorted his face. He
stood over her, pressing his fingers to his nostrils as he drew in deep
breaths.

A violent revulsion shook her
body. Fear and panic fought for control, moving over her in waves, like the
tide crashing on the shore, rolling over itself.

Hang on. Hang on. Don’t give
in. Guy will come. DO NOT GIVE IN!
Her tiny voice of sanity, repeated over
and over in her head. Guy would get there in time... she hoped.

“Get up.”

Not wanting his hands on her
again she quickly got to her feet. Swaying slightly, she stared at the man
she’d make sure would pay for this. He gestured for her to go up the stairs.
After taking in her surroundings, she noted that although the outside of the
building looked like nothing more than vines and trees, the inside looked as
solid as a vault. It almost looked like he’d built a house within a house. Then
it hit her. That’s exactly what he’d done. He’d left the shell of an old place
and built a new one inside. Sturdy two by fours framed several unfinished walls,
obviously the support for the place. The floor was dusty plywood. But all of it
was new.

“Couldn’t find an interior
decorator? You know, if you’d asked I’m sure I could have come up with
something fair. You didn’t have to get me here under these pretenses. You know
I’m really good at what I do. I won’t charge you that much. I’m sure we can
agree upon a price.”

He growled at her.

No sense of humor.

She moved up the well built bare
stairs. At the top, he shoved her to go left. The upstairs looked much the same
except there were finished walls. He opened the only door, hustling her through
it.

A king size bed filled one end of
the room. A beautifully multi colored – browns, oranges and reds - silk
bedspread was draped over it. Two large mahogany dressers stood against one
wall. Two oak closet doors completed the room. It was very masculine but
classy.

The dread that had been trying to
crawl through her veins earlier, threatened to do so again.

His raping me is not going to
be the last memory I have on this earth.

“I see you did a better job of
getting a good decorator in here. May I suggest you stick with the one you
found. Not good practice to change when in the middle of renovations. No two
designers ever see a place quite the same. And since you seem happy with—”

He slapped her with the force of
a crack of a bat. Her head whipped back. She stumbled, falling into the wood
support structure. He shoved his face into hers.

“Shut your mouth, bitch. I
thought I’d dealt with you a long time ago. You will not ruin my life!”

She scanned through her memory
but couldn’t come up with ever meeting him before.

“I’m sorry about that. I know I
sometimes talk or do things without thinking—”

“You have no idea what you’ve
done.” Stepping back, he grabbed her upper arm in a vice grip and forced her
towards the twin oak doors just off to her right.

“I need–”

He jerked her hard, snapping her
body around like a pretzel. Pain radiated through her body. It also reminded
her that her hands were securely tied behind her back. She’d thought about
asking him to let her go to the bathroom only to realize that he might have
taken that to be an invitation to help her with her pants. He dragged her
through his clothes closet, twice the size of her bedroom.

That thought brought back all
that had happened over the last seven days. Weakness threatened the stability
of her knees. The emotional clutch, sitting at the back of her throat, caused
her nostrils to flare and tears filled the corner of her eyes. Bowing her head
slightly, she struggled to pull herself back into control. It wasn’t until he
set her aside, unlocked another door, flipped on a light and pushed her
through, that her disturbed state turned to one of horror. Her mouth went dry.
Her breathing became choppy, labored. Any thought of escape or help vanished.
This was to be her grave.

The state-of-the-art, shiny
electronic equipment caught her immediate attention. Other than it, everything
else was black - the thin carpet, the walls, the ceiling and the one tiny
window. Well, almost everything. Her eyes widened as it registered what she was
seeing. Sticks of dynamite adorned the walls, in about ten places around the
room. She couldn’t blink as her gaze followed the path of the connectors, going
from one stick to another around the room. Wires, hanging as though hastily put
up, dropped behind a small square box in the corner. One that looked as
innocent as a clock radio. The number twenty blinked at her. The detonator was
set and waiting for its final command.

Everything seemed to stop as the
import of what she was seeing hit her. “Why?” she gasped.

He straightened himself to his
full six-foot two height, as though it improved his status. “Because you will
ruin everything. You never should have been. I did everything to prevent you.
Everything. Yet you came. The joy for everyone.” His fist came so fast she
didn’t have time to avoid it. It landed full in her stomach with the impact of
an amateur boxer’s punch. With the wind knocked out of her, she doubled over,
crumpling to the floor. Bile rose in her throat. Pain radiated, spiraling
outwards. Dry heaves threatened to produce something more substantive.

He walked across the room and
flipped a switch. The wall turned into a larger than life screen. It wasn’t
until he’d hit the third button and she saw Guy’s grandma sleeping in her bed,
that she understood. He continued to flip through live video feed from the main
house.

Her instincts kicked in. “So I’m
the basis of all your problems. I’m sorry but I don’t remember meeting you
before. Can you refresh my memory?”

She’d seen a lot in her life. Not
much shocked her - not the ugliness of people, the selfishness, nor the
meanness. But she’d never seen anything like him. The muscles in his face
contorted, displaying ridges and dips that looked more like a mask than
something that was physically possible. His eyes went black. Lifeless. It was
the meanest, ugliest thing she’d ever seen.

“Oh, we met my dear. You were
only a few hours old, so I’ll forgive you for not remembering. You never should
have been. I was giving Gina stuff that should have prevented a baby. But you.
You had to be born. Damn you.” He pointed his finger. “I had everything
planned. Then you came along and ruined it. Threatened all I had built up.”

“I was only a baby.”

“BUT A LEGITIMATE ONE!” His face
was almost purple with rage. He stormed over and drove his fist into the wall
over her head, missing only by inches, thanks to her quick slump sideways. He
backed away, his eyes glazed.

She couldn’t help but cringe as
she waited for the impact, which thankfully never came. “But what about–uh–Dorothea’s
daughter? M–my mother?”

“Was not interested in the
business, which broke Dorothea’s heart. Of course it was really easy to screw
up that relationship. Gina hated her mother for a long time.” He laughed. “But
with you she was already making plans to groom you, to bring you into the fold.
To teach you to be president of this company, my company. Which means, she’d
have started looking a little more closely at what I was doing. Even back then
the company was paying me well for things that never existed.” He chuckled at
his own joke. “That was not going to happen. You were not going to mess up
everything I worked for. She was talking about you being her little golden
princess. Her opportunity to make things right. She was always trying to make
things right. To make up for our parents’ shortfalls. To make up for how our
parents treated me. This company was mine. Should have been mine. I deserved
it. Not her. She already had the one thing that meant anything to me and she
planned on giving it to you as soon as you were educated. You. So I took away
what had meaning for her. I am not the acting CEO, I own this company... she
just doesn’t know it yet. You were not going to be. You were not going to take
what was mine.”

He straightened his tie. “How did
you survive? I’d gotten rid of you. The woman who took you died. Why didn’t
you? That would have solved everything. Everything.”

The time to get away from him was
now. She scooted on her butt, along the wall. Something tore into her hand,
causing her to wince in pain. Her first thought had been to shift away but then
it dawned on her that whatever had ripped her skin just might cut through the
plastic bands on her wrists. Quietly and slowly she lifted her arms
methodically up and down over the sharp object. Things could not end this way.
Guy flashed in her mind. She hadn’t ever really given him a chance. Them a
chance. She did what she knew and what she knew was how to protect herself.
Could they have had anything? Would she get another chance to find out?

The ties hadn’t given yet but she
felt they were close to it. She just had to keep him from figuring out what she
was doing. He glanced her way, she squirmed around as if protesting sitting on
the hard floor.

“Do you know how much I paid to
make you disappear?” he bellowed at her. Then he smiled at her with the
anticipation of someone who’s won.

“Well obviously not enough
because I’m still here.”

He growled fury radiating off
him. He stormed over to the window, grabbed the black covering about to pull it
back. It was then she realized that the loud hum she’d heard was a vehicle.
Praying that it was someone looking for her and not someone to help him, she
kicked out with her foot. The metal stool sitting in front of his electronic
equipment clanged loudly as it crashed into the table. He whipped around. Rage
contorted his face. He stormed over to the detonator and punched in a code. The
flashing stopped. The countdown began.

19:59

19:58

19:57

19:56

She stared at the numbers that
were steadily dropping one at a time, slowly, methodically.

“You’re finished. And all because
of me.” He laughed. “Oh, the people that will cry over your death. It’s like
music to my ears.”

“You really think you’re big
enough to get away with this?”

He strode over to her and clipped
her jaw. Her lip immediately bloomed into a fat puff ball. A buzzing sound
filled her ears. Just at that moment, the ties gave way on her wrists. She
jumped to her feet, driving the top of her head into his nose. There was a loud
cracking sound followed by his howl as he stumbled backwards. Blood gushed
between his fingers as he tried to stop the flow. She spun on her heel and made
it about three steps before his hand lashed out, grabbing her shirt. Fighting
for all she was worth, she twisted, raised her arms and ducked at the same
time. The top slipped over her head. She was free. She ran for the door.

A loud thwack sound brought her
head around to the right. She wasn’t sure if he was a bad aim or if she was
just damned lucky but the knife he’d been holding to her neck earlier was now
embedded in the wall three inches from her chin. Panicking, she raced through
the closet, out of the bedroom, grabbing and slamming the doors behind her.
Using the railing, she jumped down the stairs, three at a time. On the main
floor, she raced for the entrance they’d used to enter the house. She was about
to shove out the makeshift door and dive through, when a bullet whizzed past
her ear.