Insatiable (35 page)

When she nodded her head, he stood and got behind her. With one swift flick, the knife cut through the layers of duct tape with ease. "Good, now get up and walk in front of me."

Aurora did as she was told but when she stood up, her legs muscles were heavy, unresponsive. "I said move!" He shouted and pushed her along. She fell once, and Benjamin pulled her up from the floor.

"Now open the door slowly, and grab the phone. You do anything stupid Aurora, I swear to god, you’re a dead woman."

He grabbed onto the back of her sweater and twisted the loose fabric around his hand, in his other he held the knife. 

She strained as she turned the door knob. Instantly a burst of cold air rushed into the tiny room. "Not so fast," he threatened and nicked her in the back.  "Do it nice and easy."

When she opened the door, an intense light flooded into her swollen eyes. She couldn't make out any faces and found herself straining into the sea of flashing lights that were outside the place. She felt a sharp prick singe the skin of her back. "You've got two seconds to grab the phone. The pain in her back was excruciating and she knew that she'd been stabbed. She made an agonizing swoop down on the porch and snatched up the black cellular phone. Benjamin pulled her back inside and slammed the door shut.

The SWAT team had found their positions, but with Aurora standing in front of him, no one had a clear shot. And they hadn't been given an order to shoot anyway, the negotiator wanted to talk to Benjamin first. See if he could resolve it all quickly, and without the use of guns. When he pushed her back into the chair, Aurora could feel the warmth of the blood coming from her side. "You cut me you son of a bitch, I did what you wanted and you cut me." She wanted to shout but her energy was draining just as fast as the blood that was coming from her wound.

"Shut up!" He yelled at her. "You took too long, it's just a flesh wound anyway. Quit being such a baby. But the best is yet to come," he sneered, and tugged at the noose around her neck."

When the cell phone rang, Benjamin answered with eagerness. Now he was the one in control, no one would tell him what to do, he'd tell them.

"Benjamin, this is Sergeant Caine. You want to tell me what's going on tonight? How is Miss Collins? She okay?" The negotiator spoke slowly and calmly. This was a tactic so as not to rile Benjamin.

"She's fucking fine, but not for long." Benjamin glanced over at Aurora. Her head was slumped over and she was fighting hard to stay awake.

"Is there any chance that I can talk to her Benjamin? It's alright that I call you Benjamin right? You can call me Mike."

After a brief pause, Benjamin put the phone to Aurora's ear.

"Hello?"

"Miss Collins, this is Sergeant Caine, are you alright?"

"He stabbed me," she whimpered.

Benjamin snatched the phone away from her and made his way over towards the window. The curtains were drawn and he peeked out from the side.

"Got a lot of people out there Mike."

"Yes we do. Now listen Benjamin, you want to tell me what I can do to help?"

"Yeah, you can get the hell out of here."

"I can't do that Benjamin, you know I can't. But what I can do is listen to your side of the story, why don’t you tell me what's going on?"

By the time he'd finished telling the negotiator his side of the story, Benjamin felt justified in what he was about to do.

"You see now Mike? Aurora took my brother away from me and then after she got her claws into him, she drove him to kill himself. Can you imagine what it must have felt like? What he must have been going through to feel as if there was no other way out? Oh sure, some might call him a coward or say that he took the easy way out, but I know different. You see all the years that I was locked away in that fucking place I was surrounded by men who wanted to kill themselves. And I know that suicide is not a cowardice thing Mike, it's actually the opposite.

Selfish? Maybe, But weak? Or cowardly? You aim a gun at your own face and see how much strength it would require to pull that trigger.  Or in this case, you wrap a rope around your neck and see how long it would take to want to snap your neck in half." The sweat was pouring from his face now, and his heart was beating as sluggish as the relentless pounding in his head. It felt good to talk about Randy. It had been years since he even mentioned his name to anyone, let alone a cop. Yes, Randy's death was about to be avenged and he was about to meet his maker. That had been the plan all along, there was no way that he'd be taken alive. For what? To be locked up again in another asylum? There was no way he was going to let that happen, no way in hell.

"How the hell could I have let her go alone?" Liam found himself pacing. He was as close to the barricade as the officer would allow and through the trees, he saw only a barrage of flashing lights. Every now and then he could hear words being spoken in what sounded like codes over the officers walkie, but besides that, he knew nothing. If anything happened to her, he would have to live with it for the rest of his life. But while he was living with it, he would make it his mission to hunt down the maniac, whoever he was, and see to it that he paid. When his cell phone vibrated, he immediately picked up.

"Liam, I saw her, she's alive." Nick's voice came through loud and clear.

"Oh thank god," he sighed and whispered the news to Mari.

"When can I see her?"

"I'm afraid I don’t know the answer to that. I just wanted to fill you in. It looks like the guy's name is Benjamin Parker and he…"

"Parker? What? Are you saying…"

"Yes. He's the brother of Aurora's dead husband, Randy Parker. "

"And why is this the first time we're hearing about this Nick?"

"Because the guy's messed up in the head Liam, he's been in an institution, and it looks like after he got out, he kept to himself. But when he found out that his brother had committed suicide, something inside of him snapped, and he blamed Aurora. Look, that's all I can tell you right now, I've got to go. I'll call when I know more."

Nick hung up the phone leaving Liam with more questions than answers.

"Benjamin I'm sorry about your brother but tell me, are you responsible for the deaths of Ken Holmes and Ronnie Carr?"

Benjamin replied with no hesitation. "Yes, I thought that by killing them, I could frame this bitch, but turns out that she had alibi's during the killings. So I had to switch things up a bit, you see, I really didn’t care whether or not Ronnie and Ken were abusing their women. That wasn’t important to me, but I'll tell you what was; the fact that those men were associated with Aurora, that's what mattered."

"Benjamin, holding Miss Collins captive is not going to bring your brother back." The Negotiator was trying his best to calm Benjamin down. It was another tactic, he could tell by the tone of his voice that Benjamin was getting tired. He wanted to use that to diffuse the situation. He didn’t know how badly Aurora was hurt and his main objective was to get her to safety as soon as possible.

Aurora kept her hands at her sides, when he'd forced her to retrieve the cell phone; he inadvertently forgot to tie her hands. She made no movements while he was speaking to the negotiator. She was glad that her hair was covering her face, she'd slumped over on purpose, she wanted him to think that she was about to pass out. As she listened to Benjamin talk about his brother and how he blamed her for his death, her frame of mind sharply veered towards anger. She couldn’t take much more, she was ready to fight, the wound that he'd inflicted was throbbing, but it wasn’t anything that she couldn’t handle. None the less, she wanted out and she wanted out now.

"I'm ready for this shit to end Aurora, how about you?" Panic set in as he moved away from the window and made his way towards her.

When Benjamin disconnected the line, the negotiator hit the redial button.

Benjamin answered and told the man that he had no more desire to talk. He told him that he'd said all he needed to say and that his and Aurora's time was up. "Time to tighten the noose," he smirked and disconnected the call.
People do some incredible things when they want to survive
. She remembered Nick telling her that once.
And if you see a window of opportunity, climb through it because you don’t know how long that window is going to stay open.

Benjamin forgetting to tie her hands after she'd retrieved the cell phone was her window. It's fight or be killed, she told herself. Words that she'd told her
friends
time and time again began floating around in her mind.
If it comes down to you or him think of it this way, its hurt or be hurt.

When his calls continued to go unanswered, the negotiator asked the SWAT commander to wait five minutes before infiltrating the house. He still believed that he could get Benjamin to give himself up peacefully. "The guy's getting tired, I think I can get him to give up, just give me five minutes. Let him think about what's really going on and understand the severity of the situation. I'll try calling back in five minutes."

The commander looked at him with skepticism. "You've got five minutes, after that, we're going in."

Chapter Twenty Two

"You're a sick son of a bitch you know that?"

Benjamin turned towards her and looked at her in disbelief. "What the fuck did you just say to me?"

"You heard me, I said you're a …"

His back hand caught her in the face and instantly her eye began to swell and bright flashes seared through her head.

"Is that all you've got?" She spat out blood.

Her heart was pounding wildly, her skin was soaked in sweat as she lunged at her attacker.

Deep in the darkest regions of her brain, she knew. She knew that it was going to be her or Benjamin, and there was no way that she'd let go without a fight. Benjamin let out an enthusiastic yelp at the sight of Aurora charging at him. He was challenging her, egging her on, he wanted a fight, was spoiling for one. It would be the perfect ending. A beaten and battered Aurora, hanging from the rafters,
perfect.

The heavy left to his jaw hurt like hell though and he cracked it trying to set it right again. Aurora gave him no time to recover, she smashed her palm down on Benjamin's face, shattering his nose. She was relentless in her attack, she had to be, and lucky for her, Benjamin wasn’t much of a fighter. His eyes dropped as he looked at the blood that was pouring from his nose.

"You fucking bitch!" He shouted. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and with an insane rage he pushed Aurora onto the hard floor.

In her struggle to crawl away, Benjamin took hold of her ankle and twisted it as far back as he could until she screamed in pain. It felt as if he'd just smashed it with a cement cinder block. A lightning bolt of pain shot up the entire length of her leg.

Hearing the screams, the commander told the negotiator that his time was up. "We're going in."

As he was giving his men their instructions, the curtains that covered the large living room window, disappeared.  He gave his men the signal to 'wait,' and his men followed his order. The commander knew when to wait, and this was the time to do just that. They could see inside now, and it was best to utilize this new opportunity. It would help secure success, and most importantly, keep his team members and Aurora safe.

"You're not getting away," he said through gritted teeth.

"The hell I'm not!" Aurora had managed to crawl towards the picture window but her ankle was sprained, or broken, she didn’t know which, but the pain was just too much. Reaching for whatever she could, she pulled on the curtains in an attempt to gain momentum. When the curtains, along with the large wrought iron holder fell on top of her she pushed the heap of fabric to the side. That had given Benjamin enough time to try and regain control. He swiftly moved on top of her and straddled her, his knees dug into her shoulders as he looked down upon her, and blood dripped onto her from his face.

He was struggling for breath and Aurora took advantage of his temporary weakness. Her words came out as whispers and Benjamin had to lean down close so that he could hear her. She concentrated on his nose again and banged it with her forehead. Benjamin let out an exasperated cry and fell over to the side. His head was a starburst as he blinked and stared at her. Aurora struggled and used the wall to help hoist herself up. Using her good leg, she pulled back and kicked Benjamin square in the chest. He gasped sharply, doubled over and then pitched forward into unconsciousness. She was less than fifteen feet from the front door, but it might as well have been one hundred. Heart thudding, she squinted and winced through the pain as she limped towards the door.

"We've got movement!" An officer shouted. With guns at the ready, the officers aimed them at the front door.

Using the door knob for support, Aurora held on and stood at the top of the stairs. "Hold your fire!" Someone shouted. Nick rushed to her side and held her in his arms. "You're alright Aurora, you're alright."  Had she not heard the words, she would have thought differently.

"
Liam," she murmured to him.

"Hang on, I'm sending for him now."

"Suspect is in custody," she heard a member of the SWAT team say.

Liam was breathless when he found her sitting in the back of the ambulance. When she saw him, she wrapped her arms around him so tight as if she couldn’t get close enough. Relief like he'd never known flowed through him.

"Baby, let me look at you. What did that animal do to you?" He looked into her face and tucked her hair behind her ears. One of her eyes was almost swollen shut and there was caked blood around her nose and mouth.

"I'm alright Liam. I love you."

"I love you too."

When he overheard that they were bringing Benjamin out, Liam turned his attention away from Aurora, and back towards the house. Before he could make any sudden moves, Nick grabbed him by the arm.

"Easy there buddy. Believe me, he's not worth it."

"No, he isn’t," Aurora reached for his hand.