Shut Up and Kiss Me (27 page)

Would he hurt me? Should I go to the police? Was I an accessory to a murder now?

The phone went silent, only to start vibrating mere seconds later. I had to answer it. I had to. He would just keep calling until I did. He hated to be kept waiting; it was one of his biggest pet peeves.

Oh God, was I in danger? Was I in danger from my own husband?

With a violently shaking hand, I hit “answer” and brought the phone to my ear. But my mouth wasn’t working; my tongue felt fat and useless.

“
Anna, baby? Where the hell are you? I thought we were meeting for lunch.”

I wanted to laugh hysterically. Yes, we were supposed to be meeting for lunch…at his office. But he hadn’t been there, so I’d had decided to surprise him and meet him at the warehouse instead. And then I had seen him, the real him…

“
Baby? You there?”

He was getting irritated now. I had to say something before he started to yell. Oh God, would he hurt someone if I pissed him off? Is that what he did whenever we had a fight? How many deaths was I accountable for?

“
I’m here,” I whispered.

“
You don’t sound so good, baby.”

“
I…I don’t feel well,” I stuttered quietly, silent tears still trailing down my cheeks.

He was silent for a moment, and in the background I could hear the sound of the wood-chipper—a sound I’d heard so many times before, always thinking he was working, because that’s what they did at the warehouse. But now, hearing it, all I could envision was that poor man, and…

I squeezed my eyes closed and fought off the wave of nausea.

“
I’m gonna come home,” he said. “I’ll take the day off and look after my girl.”

“
No!” I yelped quickly. Too quickly.

“
Why not?”

I was shaking so hard now that my teeth were chattering, and I could barely keep the phone to my ear. How could he just carry on like everything was normal after what had just happened? How? How many times had his hands brought death and pain to another person only to come home to me, a smile on his face, touching me with those same hands…

So as not to vomit, I hurriedly covered my mouth with my hand.

“
Baby?”

“
I saw you,” I whispered. “Luke, I saw you.” My chin quivered at the following silence.

He could have said many things, and maybe I would have believed him—maybe I would have turned a blind eye yet again because…I wanted to. I wanted to climb back into my ignorant bubble and forget what I had witnessed, but he didn’t say a word. He didn’t deny it.

“
It’s not what you think,” he finally said, his tone cold and hard.

I had hoped for emotions—for denial, for apologies, for something, anything at all, but instead he gave me nothing.

“
He stole from me, Anna. He had to be taught a lesson.”

I started to cry loudly, no longer able to contain it. “You can’t just kill a man for stealing, Luke,” I sobbed.

“
Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.” He spoke with venom, punctuating each word as if I were dim-witted.

“
I don’t know who you are!” I cried. “I don’t know you at all!”

“
I’m on my way. You stay where you are, you hear me?”

I stopped crying, the sudden fear I was feeling making me dizzy. “Why?” I whispered, “Are you going to kill me too?”

“
Anna,” he laughed, “you’re my wife.”

“
And he was probably someone’s husband!” I screamed. “Someone’s father!”

“
Anna!” he shouted. “You don’t have a goddamned clue what you’re talking about. He was a drug dealer and a thief, a good-for-nothin’ nobody. Those were my drugs, that was my money, and no one steals from me. Now I’m on my way home, and we’ll talk about this—”

“
There’s nothing to talk about,” I sniveled. “I’m leaving.”

I hadn’t planned on saying that. I hadn’t planned on doing it, either—not until the very moment it had slipped past my lips. But now that it had, I knew that’s what I had to do. I had to leave.

“
Like hell you are.”

“
I can’t stay with you, not after this. It’s either I leave or I’ll go to the police.”

Luke laughed then, the sound so unbelievably cold that it froze my heart.

“
You think they don’t know?” he asked. “Hell, darlin’, I have those greedy assholes in my back pocket.”

A door slammed, keys jangled, an engine revved to life.

“
Listen to me carefully, Anna. Till death do us part. You remember that? Those vows that you took? Because I do, and I take them very fucking seriously.” His drawl was stronger, thicker now because he was angry. “And, darlin’, you knew about the drugs. That makes you part of this. There isn’t anywhere you can go! Ain’t no one gonna help you!”

Hearing his tires squealing, I stood up quickly and clicked off the phone. Oh God, what had I done? I needed to move, to go, to get the hell out of there! He was coming home, he was coming home right then!
Move legs, move,
I pleaded silently.

I ran out of the bathroom and into the bedroom and threw open my closet. Grabbing my suitcase from the back, I dragged it out and tossed it onto the bed. Next, I grabbed coat hangers full of clothes, not bothering to look and see what they were and simply tossing them inside. Opening drawers, I scooped armfuls of clothes and threw those in as well.

“
Hey, Anna.”

Screaming, I spun around to find Monica in my bedroom doorway. She paled and held up her hands, her eyes going wide. “Anna, are you okay?”

“
What…what are you doing here?” I stammered, my heart pounding in my chest. I stumbled across the room and pushed past her, checking the hallway. “You can’t be here, you need to go!”

“
Anna, what’s going on?”

“
I’m leaving, I have to go,” I stammered, running back inside the room. With all my might, I shoved Luke’s dresser aside, revealing his wall safe. But my hands wouldn’t stop shaking enough for me to turn the dial. I clenched and unclenched my hands, begging myself to calm down and open the damned thing. Finally I managed it, and pulling the door open, I grabbed the two stacks of cash inside.

“
What are doing?” Monica asked. “Where are you going?”

Spinning around to face her, I glared at her. “Why are you here?” I yelled, watching as she stumbled backwards in shock.

“
Luke called,” she whispered, suddenly breathless, her tone heavy with guilt.

“
Oh my God,” I sobbed, turning back to my suitcase. “I need to go!”

Tossing the cash into my purse, I quickly shouldered and grabbed hold of my suitcase. It fell to the floor with a bang, and continued to thump its way across the room as I dragged it out into the hall and down the stairs.

“
Anna, you can’t leave!” Monica called out, her footsteps behind me drawing closer. “Please, he scares me!”

Nearly to the door, I stopped dead in my tracks and whirled around to face her. “You knew!” I accused. “You knew this whole time!”

Her eyes flooded with tears and she nodded emphatically.

I shook my head and looked away. “How could you?” I whispered, feeling sick, my stomach twisting painfully. I had known Monica my whole life; we had gone to school together, she’d been my maid of honor. “How could you?” I repeated, facing her.

“
I didn’t know at first! I was just in it for the money. It wasn’t anything big, nothing too serious, just a little cocaine!” She shrugged. “I was too far in once I realized he was doing more than just dealing drugs.”

We stared at each other in silence for a long moment, two women both frightened of the same man. Yet when I stopped to think about it, I realized that this was all my fault. I had married Luke. I had introduced her into this life. I had been blinded by him, by his money, all the frivolous gifts he’d showered me with. I had turned a blind eye to what he was really doing, while she had taken the full weight of his crimes—of who my husband really was—on her shoulders.

“
He’ll kill me if you go!”

“
So come with me.”

“
What?”

I let go of my suitcase and grabbed her hands in mine, looking into her eyes. “Come with me. Run with me. We can do this together.”

Shaking off my hands, she backed away, fear washing over her features. “He’ll definitely kill me.”

I sucked in my bottom lip, and then I bit down and swallowed hard. “Then I guess this is goodbye,” I finally whispered.

Grabbing my suitcase, I backed away, turning at the last second, throwing open the door, and running down the walkway. Yanking open the driver’s side door of my truck, I heaved my suitcase up and into the passenger seat.

“
Anna?”

I turned, finding Monica watching me. For a moment I thought she might try to stop me, but then she reached for me, pulling me into a hug.

“
Stay safe,” she whispered.

“
What will you do?” I asked.

“
I have some family in Pennsylvania. I’ll go and stay with them for a while. He won’t find me there.”

I’m sorry,” I whispered, squeezing her tighter. “I’m so sorry.”

“
Where will you go?” she asked, pulling away.

I didn’t know yet, but even if I did I know, I wouldn’t tell her. I didn’t trust her anymore. I didn’t trust anyone anymore.

“
I don’t know,” I said, turning and climbing inside the truck. Pulling the door closed, I rolled down the window. “But I have to go. He’ll be here soon. Don’t go home, just go—drive. Get the hell away from here.”

Reaching inside my purse, I grabbed one of the stacks of bills and thrust it out the window at her. Then, as I was brining my hand back inside, I noticed my diamond tennis bracelet. Pulling it off, I handed it to her.

She took both willingly, stuffing them into her purse and giving me a tight smile as she started backing away from the truck. “Stay safe, Anna.”

I shoved the key in the ignition and turned it, slamming the truck into reverse and pulling quickly away. I watched Monica in the rearview mirror, standing there as I made my escape, praying that she did as I asked and left. Because I had no doubt in my mind—not after seeing what he had done today, and after seeing the deep-rooted fear in Monica’s eyes—that he would hurt us both if he found us.

“
Will,” Mila cried. “Please, please, say something!”

Ignoring her, Will surveyed their surroundings for the thousandth time: a dilapidated motel room just outside the city. The sort of room you pay cash for—and by the hour, more than likely, if the motel had still been in working order, which it wasn’t. It was dark, closed to the public and utterly abandoned. They’d been dragged out of the car, brought inside the room, and promptly tied to their own metal folding chairs when Luke’s cell phone had begun to ring. Luke had then made a big show of grabbing Mila’s face and kissing her roughly before giving Will a sadistic grin and then, oddly enough, the two men had left them both alone in the room. That had been maybe twenty minutes ago. The first ten minutes Mila had spent crying while Will had attempted to free himself from the plastic ties holding his wrists and ankles together, only managing in successfully splitting open the skin on his right wrist and nearly knocking his chair straight over.