Always For You (Books 1-3) (30 page)

I could sense an excitement in his
words as he spoke again. “When Cain gets here, everything will be
over. I've no desire to hurt the two of you, you'll be free soon.”

He stepped away and turned back to the
door, walking out and once more leaving us alone. “Did you hear
that, Em, we'll be free soon.” I tried to keep her spirits up, to
comfort her, whether I believed what he told us or not.

About
30 minutes after he'd left I thought I heard a slight rumble outside
of the building. It was hard to hear over the rain, but it sounded
like the rumble of an engine.
It
must be Cain, he must be here.

I carried on listening, my hearing
heightened in the darkness. Then another sound, the creaking of
hinges, of a door opening, in the distance. It was faint again, so
faint I couldn't be sure it was real, but it sounded as though Cain
was here, that he was in the building.

My heart shot up in hope and fear
simultaneously at the thought. This man had lured him here, lured him
in to kill him. I could feel the fury he felt towards Cain in his
words, in his tone. He wanted to kill him, and was using us as bait.

I slowed by breathing as much as I
could, as I heard muffled voices through the door. Then, the raspy
voice that would now haunt my dreams exploded into anger, fierce
words erupting from him, before once more abating.

“Is that Cain,” Emily said, her
words riddled with worry. “That man's going to kill him isn't he?”

“No, no, he'll be OK,” I said,
“he'll be fine.”

We both continued to listen in silence,
the conversation continuing in the next room, their words
indecipherable through the door. Then, suddenly, there was a noise
from behind, a sound of metal twisting, of a door handle turning. It
twisted and turned, someone pushing at the door, trying to open it,
but it remained stuck.

My
heart pounded as we listened for more, hoping for the door to open,
for someone to come through and set us free.
Who
was is? Did someone come with Cain?

Then I heard more scraping at the door, the sound of
metal scratching against metal from outside. We sat with bated
breath, not wanting to call out in case our captor in the next room
heard, hoping that whoever it was outside stayed quiet enough so that
his entry was masked. The scraping continued, a bending of metal as
the lock and handle of the door started to give way. Then, suddenly,
there was a loud crack as the lock broke, and the scraping stopped.

There was a soft thud against the door,
the sound of someone throwing their weight against it, and it opened,
sending a dull light into the room. I twisted my neck as far as
possible, seeing a figure standing in the doorway behind us out of
the corner of my eye.

“Grace,” the voice came quietly
against the falling rain, “are you in here?”

Oh
my God, it was Chase
.
My heart almost gave way. “Chase, Chase, we're here, in the middle
of the room.”

I heard him creep forward, his eyes
adjusting to the darkness. “Are you hurt? Is Emily with you?” he
asked as he got closer.

“We're fine, she's here next to me.”

I heard his pace quicken as his vision
improved, moving faster towards us. I looked up towards the door at
the front of the room and saw a slither of light appear around it's
perimeter. “Are you here with Cain,” I asked as Chase appeared at
my side, examining the ropes that bound me.

“Yeah, he went into the building.”
He stopped, for the first time hearing muffled sounds coming from
next door. “That must be him next door.”

“Chase,” I said, looking up into
his eyes, my own face covered in fear. “He's going to kill Cain,
he's brought him here to kill him. We have to do something, we have
to help him.”

Cain

Rex came at me, walking towards me
confidently, a look of hatred etched across his scarred and
disfigured face. “I'm going to enjoy this,” he said, “there's
no one here to save you this time.”

He pounced, quick as a cat, lunging in
towards me and jabbing at me with his left hand. I swerved just in
time, but his right was on me in a flash, cracking into my
midsection, knocking the wind out of me.

I stumbled back as I gasped for air,
his laughter filling the room. He kicked at my shins, scraping along
the bone and sending me down to the floor. I tried to roll away, to
get up, but he was already on me, punching ferociously at my face as
I'd done to him all those months ago. I lifted my forearms up to my
face to protect myself, his fists cracking against them as he tried
to get through my defenses.

Suddenly, I struck out at him, seeing
an opening as his fury got the better of him, my left fist cracking
straight into his jaw and sending him flying backwards off me. I
jumped to my feet as he got up, smirking as he wiped the blood from
his broken lip.

“Look, we don't have to do this,” I
said, my hands out trying to calm him. “I'm sorry for what I did to
you, I didn't mean to make you like...this.”

He shook his head, his breathing heavy.
“Oh no, there's no going back for me now. There's nothing you can
say.”

He charged at me again, sending all his
weight into mine as his fists flew. He wasn't like before, when we'd
fought in the cage. He'd fought like a pro that day, a proper
fighter. Now he was an animal, ripping and biting at me, trying to
draw blood in any way possible, trying to inflict as much damage as
he could.

We rolled on the floor, grappling, as his knees and
elbows continued to fly. I tried to subdue him, to lock my hands
around his neck, but he elbowed me to the jaw, sending my brain
rocking in my skull. I saw spots as things went hazy for a moment,
releasing him from my grip as he turned on top of me again. Once more
his fists came at me, flying towards my face from the left and right.
I got my defenses up again just in time, twisting my body and sending
my knee crushing into his side.

He fell off me and I managed to get
back to my feet, my vision now back to normal. He came at me once
more, an insatiable desire in him to see me suffer, to disfigure me
just like I'd disfigured him. He swung his fists and kicked his legs,
his poise gone, his ability to think straight overtaken by his anger,
his hatred.

I defended against his swinging arms,
his punches flying into my arms or missing me entirely. He was crazed
as he continued to come at me, as I looked for an opening. I saw it
as he stumbled in his desire to catch me in the jaw, slipping on an
old piece of plastic on the floor and losing his footing slightly,
crashing forwards toward me. I swung my right fist as he lumbered in,
connecting flush with his cheek and sending him careening backwards
against a pile of boxes near the wall.

He hit with a thud and crumpled to the
floor, blood tricking out of his mouth as he sat slumped against the
boxes, seemingly knocked out.

Grace

Chase fumbled around in the dim light
as he set about untying the ropes round my wrists. He released them
as quick as he could and then moved to Emily, leaving my hands free
to release my legs. I heard him speaking softly to Emily, checking if
she was OK, as my mind turned back to Cain.

A sound of grunts and groans could be
heard from the next room, the sound of two men fighting. “We need
to help him Chase,” I said as he continued to untie Emily's ropes.

I stepped gingerly in the darkness
towards the door, my body feeling stiff as I got to my feet. “Grace,
no,” Chase said, turning to me. “It's not safe for you.”

He stepped towards me and put his hands
to my arms, staring straight into my eyes. “I need you both to go
out and into the car,” he said authoritatively. “I want to know
that you're safe.”

“No,” I said, “no way.” I
looked over at Emily. “We're not going anywhere.”

He stared at me, sensing the resolve in
my body, and turned to the door. “Stay behind me,” he said, as he
started walking forwards towards the sound of grunts from the next
room.

I stayed a couple of steps back as I
saw him slowly turn the handle to the door, opening it slowly as the
light poured in. It took my eyes a moment to adjust as Chase put his
hands up to his eyes and continued through the door.

The sounds of grunts had now subsided
and I saw Cain standing there ahead of us, his back to us, looking
down at a man on the floor. I blinked as I looked at him, his face
horrendously scarred and mangled as he sat there, eyes shut and blood
dribbling from his mouth.

I looked up as Cain turned towards us,
his grave expression turning to one of relief as he saw us all
standing there, safe. Then, suddenly, Chase launched himself forward
towards Cain as the man on the floor flew to his feet, pulling a
knife from behind him. He jumped at Cains back, aiming the blade
straight for his neck, but Chase was there first, thrusting his hands
towards the knife and sending the two of them tumbling towards the
ground.

Cain turned on the spot as they hit the
concrete floor, a howl of pain issuing from Chase's mouth as I saw
the blade slip into his chest. My eyes went wide as I rushed forward,
screaming, but Emily caught me and held me back, screaming at me to
stay where I was.

The man once more sprung to his feet,
the blade in his hand dripping with Chase's blood. “Stay back,”
Cain shouted, as he held out his hand to me and Emily, keeping his
eyes locked on the man in front of him.

Chase lay on the floor, blood seeping
through his hands as he clutched at his wound, his cries echoing
through the building. I needed to get to him, I needed to help him.

“I didn't want it to come to this,”
the man spoke, his words cold, “but you've pushed me to it.”

He darted at Cain once more, swiping at
him with the blade as they moved around the room. “Get out of here,
go,” I could hear Cain cry to us as he swerved this way and that,
trying to avoid the bloodied knife.

I
ran for Chase, sliding straight to the floor and putting my hands to
his wound to try to stop the bleeding. I turned to see Cain grappling
with the man, their hands locked together as they fought for the
knife.
Please
Chase, please be OK.

Cain

I'd heard the door open behind me and
turned to see Chase there, Grace and Emily behind him, seemingly safe
and unharmed. I felt a rush of relief run through my body as Chase
came at me. He brushed past me as I heard the sound of movement at my
back.

I turned to see Chase and Rex crash
together, a large knife in Rex's hand. They fell to the ground and
the knife plunged into Chase chest, blood immediately issuing from
the wound. He came at me as I shouted for the girls to get out,
swinging the blade wildly as I stepped back, trying to lead him away
from where Chase lay.

I saw Grace rush towards Chase, putting
pressure on his wound as Rex continued to swipe. His movements were
erratic and I saw my chance, grabbing at his wrist and reaching for
the blade. Our hands came together, squeezing and pulling at each
other as we wrestled for the knife. I saw Emily, stuck with fear in
the corner of the room, her back against the wall as she looked on in
terror.

“You've forced me into this,” Rex
growled in my ear, his mutilated face so close to mine, “and now
I'm going to kill you all.”

His eyes were wide like a animal,
savage and unyielding. “They're all going to die because of you.”

His words lit a fire in me. No longer
would I hold back, no longer would I feel pity for this man, guilt
at what I'd done to him. He was trying to kill us all. It was him or
us.

I kicked at his feet and pulled at his
hands with my bodyweight, sending us both crashing to the floor. I
twisted as we fell, both of us hitting the floor on our sides, and
drove his elbow onto the concrete. I felt his grip loosen immediately
and turned the knife in his direction, pushing him onto his back and
climbing on top of him. I pushed hard, the knife now guided towards
his neck, as he pushed back with all his strength, trying to twist
and turn beneath me, trying to escape.

It wasn't going to happen. Slowly the
knife inched forward, creeping into his flesh and cutting through his
jugular. Blood spurted out of the wound as he choked and gurgled, the
liquid accumulating in his mouth, but I couldn't stop, I wouldn't
stop. I kept on pushing, sinking the blade deeper and deeper into his
neck until his body gave way, his limbs going limp on the floor.

I
breathed deep and stood up, a flood of emotions running through me as
I looked down on him.
Why
did you make me do that. WHY
.
I was screaming inside as I turned to Emily, a shocked look on her
face as she stared at me. I turned back to Grace, still holding at
Chase's wound, whispering to him that it would be OK.

I felt drained but I needed to act.
There was no time to think. I turned to Emily. “Help Grace with
Chase,” I said to her, snapping her from her daze. “Get him to
his feet and out to the front gate.”

I turned and rushed to out of the
building, darting out into the pouring rain and up the path to the
car. I jumped in and turned the ignition, firing the engine and
roaring down the track, parking as close to the gate as possible.

I jumped out of the car and rushed back
into the building, where Emily and Grace were gingerly supporting
Chase as he stumbled along the corridor, spluttering and coughing up
blood.

I took Emily's position as we quickened
our pace, putting him into the back of the car as we all jumped in.
“Keep pressure on the wound,” I shouted back to Grace as she sat
there, wiping the blood from Chase's mouth and sobbing lightly.