CRASH (A Logan Brothers Novel) (24 page)

Memories of the previous night
clattered suddenly into my head. The cloth, the man, the rotten
smell. I'd been drugged, carted off into a car, and taken away
somewhere. I had no idea where I was, no idea who'd taken me. My
breathing increased, short breaths rushing into my lungs as I
continued to struggle and pull and scream as loud as I could.

Then, suddenly, the door swung
open and a figure walked through it. My screaming increased as he
quickly rushed towards me, putting his hand to my mouth and muffling
the noise.

I looked up into his face as his
finger rose to his lips. “Shhhhhh,” he hissed, “no one can hear
you but me.”

Brad's eyes looked at me, wide
open and filled with a weird happiness. The sight of his odd smile
was so unsettling that I wanted to scream more, but his hand stayed
locked to my mouth.

“
There's no one here but us
Elle, no one can hear you.” His words words sent shivers through
me. They lacked any emotion at all. “Now be quiet.”

He pulled his hand away and I
lay there, silent. My scream had ended as I now stared on at him, my
eyes wide with a fear of what he'd do to me.

“
Don't look so scared Elle,”
he said, “you know I love you.”

He tried to kiss me but I turned
my head away, his slithery lips landing on my cheek. He pulled away
abruptly, his face growing more angry.

“
I gave you the opportunity to
take me back Elle. I didn't want things to come to this, but you
forced me to do it. Maybe now, here, with me, you'll be able to learn
to love me again. Just like you used to.”

I saw his eyes linger on me,
moving down my body, my legs spread open by the ropes tied around my
ankles. His breathing increased slightly at the sight, a lustful
smile creeping over his face.

“
It's OK,” he said, “turning
his gaze back on me, “you'll be safe here with me.”

A silent tear began rolling down
my cheeks, a tear of fear, a tear of desperation. He reached out and
brushed it away, rubbing my cheek. “It's OK, don't be scared. I
know this is extreme, but I had to make you see how much I loved you,
what I'd do for you. Now we can be together, just the two of us, like
it always was.”

He leaned in again and kissed me
on the forehead as I closed my eyes and willed for him to leave. His
lips threatened to slide down my face but pulled off once more.

“
You must be tired Elle. Get
some more sleep. We'll have a proper talk later.”

He stood and walked out through
the door. I heard a key slide into the lock and then a loud click.

Tears began rushing out of my
eyes as I pulled and twisted at the ropes once more, chaffing against
my skin. I bit my tongue and kept from shouting out despite the urge
to do so. I knew if I did it would lure him back in.

But it was no use. I was tied
fast, my bounds secure. Physical strength wouldn't make a difference.
There was nothing I could do.

Crash

I stormed from one side of my
office to the other, unable to sit down, unable to relax, unable to
think about anything except Elle.

The door knocked and Kyle came
in. “You wanted to see me bro?”

I stopped pacing and looked him
direct in the eye. “I need you to take care of the casino,” I
said. “And there's a meeting I have with the development team
later. You're going to have to fill in for me. Can you get up to
speed with things before this afternoon?”

He nodded. “Of course,
anything you need.”

I tried to smile but couldn't.
I'd had a deep frown on my face for two days now. “Thanks, I'm glad
I can count on you Kyle.”

“
Crash, go home mate, you look
like you haven't slept in days.” I hadn't.

“
That's where I'm going.” It
was a lie. I wasn't going home.

I stepped towards the door,
leaving the casino in Kyle's hands. It was my baby, a business I'd
seen flourish for years, but I didn't care about it right now. I
didn't care about the new development, or the crucial meeting we had
today with the architects and engineers and investors. I didn't care
about anything, nothing except finding Elle.

She'd been missing for a couple
of days now and I couldn't stop Alice from going to the police. I
didn't want to stop her anyway. Anything they could do to help was
welcomed.

But I felt sure that their
efforts would come to nothing. It would be the local police searching
for her, nothing more. She'd gone missing in town, and I doubted
they'd involve any wider police force as part of their search.

But I knew she wasn't in the
city. I knew she wasn't in the state. Something told me she was back
in California. Something told me Brad had her somewhere. It was down
to me to find out where.

....

I stood in Jones' office, an
envelope in my hand.

“
That's everything I have on
him. Where he lives, who his family is, his room number at college,
the course he's on, the name of his professors, everything.”

“
Thanks Jones, I'll never
forget this. Never.” He'd done more than I could ever thank him for
already and continued to be a huge help.

He nodded his thanks, as was
often his way.

I paced straight out of the
office and into my Hummer. I had a plane to catch and time was
ticking.

I caught glimpse of my face in
the mirror as I roared through the streets towards the airport. I
looked half dead, my eyes deep and dark, heavy shadows gathering
beneath them. My skin had gone pale, covered in thick stubble from
several days without a shave. My hair was rough, untamed and messy.

I didn't give a shit. How I
looked was the least of my worries.

The flight was short, only
lasting about two hours.

I could think of nothing but
Elle the whole time, my body increasingly restless as I waited in the
departure lounge and sat squashed into the seat on the plane. I
rarely flew, and when I did I only ever went first class. Not this
time, however. I had to take what I could get.

It was early afternoon when the
plane touched down, the warmth of the summer sun far more intense
than I was used to. I felt weary and drained as I went through the
airport and out towards the taxi stand. I needed to sleep. I needed
to rest. But I couldn't.

I stepped straight into a cab
that was waiting out the front of the airport.

“
Where you headed mate?” he
asked cheerfully.

I slid the envelope Jones had
given me from my bag and took out a sheet. I peered over it quickly,
my eyes settling on an address.

“
Denver Halls,” I said.
“Make it quick and I'll pay you double.”

“
Yes sir.”

I've got someone I need to
talk to.

Elle

I didn't like the look of Brad's
face when he sat on the bed next to me. I didn't like the way his
eyes were beginning to drift more and more towards my legs, still
tied open on the bed.

I'd begged him to take the ropes
off me, pleaded with him that they were chaffing and giving me
blisters, but he didn't relent. I then woke, the next day, with a
softer fabric around my wrists. It gave me hope that eventually my
pleas to be released would be heard.

It must have been a couple of
days that I'd been there now, my arms aching above my head. I could
hardly sleep at night, my outstretched arms preventing me from
rolling over and curling up as I usually would.

I'd wake often, the night dark
and silent outside. I couldn't hear the sound of anything save birds
in the day and crickets at nights. There were no cars, no voices,
just the odd distant rumble of a plane as it soared miles overhead. I
knew from the warmth of the sunshine that I was no longer in Montana.
No, I knew this weather well. I'd grown up with it.

I was back in California.

Brad came and talked to me
often. I had little to say to him, but tried my best to engage. He
tried to kiss me again, but I resisted. The look on his face made me
shudder as I shunned him. I knew that if I didn't give him something
he might get violent, force himself on me. But, at the same time, I
knew that if I did kiss him back he'd take it as a green light for
more. Either way, every time his eyes lingered on me my heart began
racing, my body tensing and retracting into it's shell.

He seemed completely unstable.
One moment his eyes would be full of compassion and regret for what
he was doing, while the next they'd fill with anger as he told me he
loved me without getting the reply he wanted.

I knew now that I wasn't just
dealing with a man with a broken heart. I was dealing with a man with
a broken mind, damaged and malfunctioning.

I lay there now, thinking of
what was going on back home. I knew Alice would have raised the alarm
by now, seeing as I hadn't been there for days. I knew that word
would have reached Crash's ears after I'd failed to turn up for
dinner with him. I knew that they'd be doing what they could to find
me, that the police would have been informed.

The thoughts surged through my
head and gave me hope. Hope that they'd track Brad down and find me.
Hope that my torment wouldn't last too long. Hope that they'd realize
that it was actually him who was to blame.

That's all I had right now
though - hope. Without it, I'd begin to go as mad as he was.

Crash

I knocked on the door and waited
patiently for an answer. There were footsteps inside as someone
approached.

“
Who is it?” came a voice,
suspicious and frosty. It was a woman.

“
Mrs Scott? My name is
Richard, I'm an old friend of your son's.”

“
He's not around,” came the
quick reply.

“
Well I wonder if you might
know where he is?”

“
Probably at college, I don't
know. I don't frankly care.”

“
I've been to his college and
he's not there. They told me that they hadn't seen him in days. I'm a
little worried Mrs Scott.”

I'd been there earlier that day,
going straight to his halls from the airport. I'd asked around and no
one had seen him for a few days, ever since Alice went missing.
So
it was him. It must be him. The fucking little cunt.

There was a short silence before
the door cracked open, still locked on it's chain. The woman peered
through, her eyes hooded and dark and heavily wrinkled. She looked
old, too old to be his mother. She must have had him late. Or aged
fast.

“
Who are you? I don't
recognize you. You're not from college?”

“
No, I'm an old friend from
school.”

“
You look a little older than
my boy.”

I planted a fake smile on my
face, trying to be as easy as possible. “Yes, well he was a couple
of years younger. Do you mind if I come in and have a glass of water,
it's really warm out here.” Now that wasn't a lie.

Her face remained completely
suspicious. “What school?”

“
Granborough High. He was a
couple of years below me but we played basketball together.” Jones
had done his job well, giving me a whole load of info about Brad to
allow me to flesh out this charade.

“
He always did like his
basketball,” she said, her face easing up.

I saw her hand lift to the chain
and slide it along the latch, opening the door up fully.

I stepped inside, smiling, as
she shut the door behind me.

She walked me through into the
kitchen and poured me a glass of water. “So what's all this about
Richard,” she asked, handing me the cool glass. “You say Brad's
not been around college?”

I took a sip. “Yeah, by all
accounts he's gone missing, run off somewhere. I went up there to
surprise him but he wasn't around. Thought he might be here, but
obviously not.”

She shook her head, her eyes
dropping a little. “No, he hasn't come back here in a while. We
don't really see eye to eye these days.”

“
Oh,” I said, planting a
look of sympathy on my face, “that's a shame. Why's that?”

“
You probably know more that I
do if you're his friend. He was never the same since
that
girl
broke his heart.”

“
You mean Elle?”

She nodded. “I usually don't
like to swear but she was a real bitch.”

My body stiffened at her words.

“
I mean, she was everything to
him and then she just ditched him like that, without a reason,
without a word. I mean, asking her to marry him was a bit much, but
the way she reacted was very hard on him.”

Marry him! Holy shit.

“
After that he was always
depressed and lonely. Couldn't recover.”

I nodded. “Yeah, he was pretty
low when I saw him last. That's why I wanted to surprise him. Come
and cheer him up and see how he was doing.”