Temptations - The Complete Series Page 24
She crinkled up her face and snapped her fingers. “As you wish.”
At that, the goon who brought me into this house took me forcefully by my arms and dragged me off. I had no idea where he was taking me, but I knew that it wouldn’t be good.
To my dismay, when we got to a door that led into a room in the house, the goon patted me down. He took my cell phone and I despaired. He then threw me into a dark room that had no ventilation, so it was sweltering. There was nothing in this room, at all, just a concrete floor. It had no windows, so I couldn’t see a thing at first. When my eyes adjusted to the darkness I still couldn’t see anything.
I was essentially left, and there was a good chance that I would be left there for good. No food, no water; just wasting away in the darkness, completely alone. I couldn’t imagine a worse fate for me.
I knew what Charlotte was doing. She was going to keep me in this prison until I panicked and told her that I was going to do what she asked.
My mind started to go into survival mode, but I also thought about Slade. I had fallen in love with him, and I would do anything for him. That was the main reason why I was put into this cell. I wouldn’t do what Charlotte asked for me to do because I didn’t want to give up on Gianni taking the rap for the murder of Jordan. I couldn’t, because, if I did, Slade was back to square one. I was going to keep him out of prison, no matter what it took.
My mind also ran to Malcolm. What was that dream about? The spirit was misdirecting me? Or was Malcolm still involved with this whole affair? If so, how did that relate to the fact that Slade hired our firm in the first place? Why would Malcolm not try to stop me from implicating Gianni if he was behind it all? I was totally confused, and, I had to admit, I started to question whether Malcolm was involved after all. I didn’t exactly remember seeing his face in my dream. I only saw a figure in a hoodie, who very well could have been Gianni.
But, then again, my reaction to being around Malcolm was so strong…
I was completely confused.
I figured out who was behind the killing of Jordan – it was clearly Charlotte. She hired Gianni to do it, and he carried out the killing like a good soldier. But that didn’t fill in many of the missing puzzle pieces. Why did Charlotte do it? Did Slade know that Charlotte was behind it all, which was why he was so adamant about my not implicating the Garancinos?
Augh! I had to shut off my brain.
Then I thought about something else. I had to close my eyes and try to contact Jordan. I didn’t have an article of his clothing, though, so I had no idea if it was going to work out. But maybe he had some answers for me.
That wasn’t going to help me get out of this situation, of course, but it might help me get some answers on all of this.
So, I concentrated. “Jordan,” I summoned. “You showed me in a dream that Malcolm is behind this. You didn’t show that Charlotte was. Please communicate with me. Show me the answers to the questions I seek. Please.”
I waited a few minutes, but nothing happened.
I then tried to get into Charlotte’s head. I closed my eyes, trying to summon her and her thoughts, but she was probably too far away, because I heard and felt nothing.
Then again, Charlotte probably actually was a sociopath, which would be why I felt nothing.
Malcolm was, too. He must have been. I never got an inkling that Malcolm was anything but above-board. The fact that I felt no guilt or remorse coming from him told me that he didn’t feel those things.
I finally laid my head down and tried to sleep. It was impossible, though. How could I sleep when I was in a dark cave and I had no clue if anybody was even going to feed me or give me water? For all I knew, they just put me in here to rot.
Don’t panic, Serena, don’t panic. But telling myself not to panic was like telling the sun to stop shining. It wasn’t working, of course.
After a few hours, I wanted to bang my head against the wall. There was no doubt about it. I was really starting to panic.
Then, to my absolute relief, the goon who kidnapped me peeked his head in the door. “Are you ready to do what Charlotte asks?”
My heart raced. Getting a conviction against Gianni was Slade’s only chance. “No.”
He slammed the door again.
I was, once again, alone in a dark room with no hope for survival.
It seemed like days that I had lain there on the concrete floor. Time had no meaning. I was beginning to panic as I felt myself getting dehydrated. I was also starving. The room had no ventilation, and it was June, so I was also roasting.
Yet I couldn’t give in. I was left there to die, but at least Slade would possibly have a chance to beat the rap. Charlotte couldn’t threaten everyone on the legal team, could she?
Right then, when I was at my most desperate, I saw him. Jordan. He was standing right there in front of me, as plainly as if he were alive. I reached out to try to touch him, but of course, there was nothing there.
“Jordan?” I said to him. “Why are you here?”
He spoke. “You’re finally at the point where you’re actually ready to see me; to speak with me. I need to tell you what you need to know.”
Finally. “Please tell me. Although I don’t know what good it will do now. I doubt that I’ll see the outside of this cell alive.”
“Ask me any questions. I’ll answer them all.”
“Who killed you?”
“Who killed me or who was responsible for my being killed? Because those are two different things entirely.”
“Gianni killed you. I know that.”
“Gianni didn’t kill me. He had nothing to do with it. Michael either.”
I shook my head. “I’m so confused. Why did Charlotte all but tell me that Gianni did it?”
“Gianni is not exactly her favorite cousin. They’ve had many arguments over the years, and more than one falling out. So, she wants you to believe that it’s Gianni, when it’s not.”
“But she wants me to lay off of Gianni. That’s why she threw me in here.”
“She threw you in here because you’re getting too close to who really did this, but it wasn’t Gianni. Gianni isn’t going to take the rap for killing me, either, without singing like a canary about who really did this. That’s why she needs for you to lay off of him.”
My heart started to pound. I didn’t want to ask the next question, but I felt that I had to. “It wasn’t Slade, was it?”
“You need to trust Slade more. He loves you. And, no, it wasn’t him.”
Relief poured through me. I finally knew, for sure, that Slade didn’t kill his business partner. I vowed to fully trust him from that point on.
“So, who did it? Who killed you?”
“Malcolm did it.”
My heart started to race. I knew that he was in my dream, altering the video. But I never imagined, never in a million years, that he would have actually done this. “I don’t understand. Why? And why has he been so encouraging with me, as far as not trying to block my way when I wanted your clothes? And how did he get involved with the case in the first place?”
“One question at a time.”
I took another deep breath. “Why did he do it?”
“Charlotte persuaded him to. Malcolm met Charlotte at a fundraiser and he became obsessed with her. He has always wanted to be on the arm of an A-list actress, so when she said ‘jump’, he said ‘how high’?”
“So why did Charlotte persuade him to do it? What did she have against you? And how come I never picked up on the fact that Malcolm was behind this?”
“Malcolm is apparently a sociopath. You always feared that a true sociopath could get in under your radar, and he did. As for Charlotte, as obsessed as Malcolm was with her, she was just as obsessed with Slade. They dated for awhile, but he got bored and dumped her. She vowed her revenge, and having me killed, and framing him, was the perfect way of getting this revenge.”
“Okay. Now, how did Malcolm get involved with this case?”
I shook my head. Something wasn’t quite adding up. Yes, I could understand that Malcolm could be very persuasive and charming, and that he got Slade at a bad time. But, that still didn’t entirely make sense to me. Slade could have his pick of law firms. He could literally afford the best attorney in the entire country, and the best attorney in the country would have been eager to represent him. I imagined that high-profile celebrity attorneys were lined up at his door. So why would he continue to retain Malcolm’s firm? Our firm was well-regarded locally, and our firm did have its share of very high-profile local cases, but nothing like Slade’s case. Nothing even close.
“Okay. So, Malcolm caught Slade when he was vulnerable. But why didn’t Slade switch attorneys once he came to his senses?”
“He was going to. He was in the process of doing just that. He had some interviews lined up with all the heavy-hitters in the business. But then he met you, and he decided to continue on with your law firm. You changed his course single-handedly.”
His words were registering with me, and I knew that Slade was right when he said that he fell for me at first sight; just as I did for him. Now that I finally knew that Slade was innocent of Jordan’s murder, I was finally able to admit to myself that I was in love with Slade. And he apparently felt just the same way about me.
This made my present situation all the more tragic. I certainly wasn’t going to give up on Slade’s defense. But, then again, if I died there, all alone, then it was going to be up to Malcolm to defend Slade. Malcolm, who was clearly going to throw Slade under the bus, any way that he could; he had to. He was the “other dude,” after all.
“But what about that marijuana pill that you were showing me? How does that fit into all of this?”
“I was trying to get you to think about the possibility that a mobster was involved in the case. I didn’t know what else to do. You were blocking me, for the most part. You didn’t really want to communicate with me, so I was only able to show you very limited pictures. The marijuana pill was the best way to get you to start thinking about drug dealers. You didn’t take the bait, though, so I was disappointed in that.”
“But a drug dealer didn’t do it. Malcolm did it.”
“Malcolm might have done it, but Charlotte was the one who was responsible for putting it all into motion. I knew that if you followed the trail of Jordan’s drug problem, that you would eventually be led into the right direction on this. I apologize that I couldn’t have been clearer with my hint to you.”
“Okay. So, I need to tell Charlotte that we’ll lay off Gianni. Now that I know that he didn’t do it, then there’s no need for me to continue to tell her that we’ll keep pursuing him.”
That didn’t exactly solve my problem, though. Charlotte knew that I was onto her, of course. I doubt that she knew that I was now onto Malcolm, though. Regardless, Charlotte was dangerous. She might just leave me here to die anyhow, just because I now knew what was going on.
“I have another question,” I said to Jordan. “Why didn’t Malcolm try to block me from implicating Gianni? Doesn’t he know that Gianni is going to rat on him if he gets the chance?”
“Malcolm thinks that he’s insulated from what Gianni has to say about this case, but he’s sadly mistaken there. He clearly underestimates Gianni. Charlotte has no such delusions about Gianni. She knows that he’s very intelligent and can be very persuasive. That’s why Charlotte is angling to get you off of Gianni’s trail, while Malcolm is encouraging in pursuing him as an alternative suspect.”
This changed everything, of course. I couldn't think clearly, but I knew, from that point forward, that I could tell Charlotte that I would stop going down the Gianni path. If I had my way, I would tell Malcolm that pursuing Gianni wouldn't be prudent, and I would also talk to the prosecutor and tell her that Gianni wasn't good for the murder.
But then again...Gianni was going to "sing like a canary," according to Jordan. He would be the one, therefore, who could implicate Malcolm; as crazy as that was going to sound. I doubted that he could get the prosecutor to even believe him. That made a whole lot of sense, which was why Malcolm was so eager to pursue him. He knew that Gianni telling the prosecutor that Malcolm was behind it all would be crazy talk.
I shook my head. The entire thing was becoming way too complicated. Malcolm did it. Okay. Now, how would I go about proving that he did it? I couldn't very well go to the authorities and tell them that Jordan told me who killed him. I knew law enforcement officials well enough to know that they generally wouldn't believe me.
I had to make a decision soon. Would I tell Charlotte that I would call off the dogs with regards to Gianni? Could I even do that? Malcolm clearly wanted to go ahead and implicate Gianni. Or, at least, he wasn't averse to doing that. And the prosecutor was going to think that I was nuts for trying to convince her to drop her pursuit of the mobster.
Perhaps it was too late. Maybe that goon wouldn't even return to let me out of my prison. Maybe I would never see anybody ever again.
Then the door opened. The person who was standing there wasn't the goon, though.
It was Slade.
Chapter 28
"Slade," I said. "What are you doing here?"
He came over to me, and kneeled down beside me, cradling my head against his chest. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't come sooner. I was with my mother in the hospital, and I wasn't paying attention to my phone. I had it on an alert system that would tell me if you were going out of town. I've been very aware that you're in danger, and I knew that if you were going out of town, there was a good chance that you were not leaving on your own free will. I came here as soon as I could."
"I don't understand. How did you get in here to see me?"
"I just did. Please don't ask that question, Serena. You're safe, that's all that matters."
I felt confused, so confused that my mind wasn't registering the absolute joy that I should have been feeling that Slade was there, and I apparently wasn't going to die in that hole. There was something that was off about Slade right then. He was hiding something, I knew that. Something that I probably shouldn't know.
I tried to stand, with Slade gently attempting to help me up, but my legs collapsed. I was weak from not eating or drinking for however many hours I was in there, and I was shaking all over. So, Slade picked me up, gently, as if I were a Faberge egg. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he put his hand in my hair and kissed my forehead.
"I love you, Serena," he said.
I said nothing, but just wrapped my arms around him tighter. After Jordan appeared to me, and told me, definitively, that Slade was innocent of Jordan's murder, I finally felt that I could trust him completely.
He carried me through the house, and, to my surprise, no one was around anymore. Or, if they were, they weren't standing in our way. "I'm taking you to the hospital," he said.
Back to the hospital. But, I had to admit, I probably needed to go.
He handed me a bottle of water. "Sip this," he said. "Don't gulp it down like I'm sure you want to. It'll make you sick." He shook his head as he put the car into gear, shaking his head while mumbling about how Charlotte was an absolute psycho. Still, he gripped my hand the entire time.
I lay down in the front seat, feeling extremely fatigued and light-headed. "How long was I in there?"
"Three days." He rubbed my hand thoughtfully. "I know this because when I finally turned on my phone, I saw that you were taken to Los Angeles over three days ago. I assume that you were put into
that hole shortly after you got there."
Three days. Three days of nothing but darkness. No food, no water. No hope.
I wanted so badly to tell Slade what Jordan told me in that room. But he didn't believe that I could talk to spirits. He really wouldn't believe me when I told him that I saw him only after I was completely broken down. I knew the truth, though. I knew that I only became truly open to seeing Jordan when I was at the point where I felt like I wanted to die. My defenses were completely down, which was why I was able to see Jordan so vividly. As Jordan himself told me, I wasn't ready to communicate with him before, which was why I was getting his messages in tiny fragments.
Once I was in the hospital, and given IV fluid and rest, I knew that I was going to have to tackle the issue of Malcolm. How was I going to prove that Malcolm did it? Was Gianni going to rat Malcolm out? Could I somehow, someway, find that missing part of the video? Was everyone going to think that I was crazy?
We got to the nearest hospital and Slade gently carried me out of the car and into the ER. "I need a bed right now," he said when he got to the reception desk. "I'll pay any amount of money."
While he was negotiating with the lady at the reception desk, I sat in a chair, feeling weaker and weaker. I vaguely saw that Slade was filling out paperwork and then he came and got me. He was pushing a wheelchair, and he lifted me onto the chair and pushed me through the double doors. "You're going right to a private room," he said. "I arranged that personally."
"Thank you," I said weakly. "Dalilah and Luke. I need to call them. They're probably frantic by now."
"I'll call them and tell them that you're safe. Let's just get you into your room and get some fluid and nutrients in you. That's most important right now."
He wheeled me into a private room that was the nicest hospital room I had ever seen. It had hardwood floors, pictures on the soothing green walls, and a vase of flowers on a table. There were nurses waiting for me, and I was soon in a hospital gown with an IV hooked up to my arm. I felt the liquid flowing into my arm, and I drifted off to sleep, feeling that I was safe at last.