Chaos (14 page)

Payton

After I disconnected with Sebastian, I answered the main line, but there was no one there. Not two seconds after I hung up, it rang again. Again, no one on the other end of the line.

I was just about to do as Sebastian told me and grab my stuff and go, because truthfully, I was starting to freak out, but every time I did, the phone would ring. On the fourth time with no one on the other end, I started to panic. I didn’t know if I really had anything to worry about or if it was just Sebastian’s tone that had me on edge, but I suddenly felt a strange sense of foreboding. I figured it was probably nothing, but I decided not to chance it.

Tossing my cell phone in my purse, I undocked my laptop and slid it into the computer bag. Just as I got to my feet, Trevor came up the stairs.

“Hey, Payton,” he greeted, his tone overly cheerful.

“Hey.” I tried to insert at least a modicum of pleasantness in my tone, but that was difficult considering the only thing I could think of was Aaliyah’s face as she’d told the story of what this asshole had done to her. He made me want to vomit by just being in the same room.

“Going somewhere?” he asked as he moved closer to my desk.

“I was going to take off early,” I explained simply. “Wanted to get some last-minute shopping done before Christmas.”

“Does Conrad know you’re leaving early?” Trevor’s head cocked to the side as though he was expecting me to lie.

“I sent him a note.” That was a lie, but Trevor didn’t know that.

“I doubt he’s gonna see it right away,” Trevor told me. “You should probably stick around until you hear from him.”

I didn’t even know what to say to that. I wasn’t sticking around. I didn’t give a shit if Conrad fired me at this point. Being left alone with Trevor made my skin crawl, and there was no way in hell I was going to spend the rest of the day with him hovering over me.

“Are you done for the day?” I was trying to make small talk as I reached in my purse to retrieve my keys. I had a small bottle of pepper spray attached, and I figured if nothing else, I could use it to get Trevor to back off if necessary.

“Not yet,” he said, his tone eerie. “I was just coming up here to see if you wanted to go to lunch.”

I glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s only ten, Trevor.” Not that the time mattered. It could’ve been high noon and I still wouldn’t have accepted a lunch invitation from the rapist standing in front of me. Knowing he wasn’t going to leave me alone until I got in my car and drove away, I decided to do just that. “I’m not quite hungry yet.”

“Well, I think we should get lunch,” Trevor said more firmly. “I’ll drive.”

As I walked past him, intent on ignoring him completely, Trevor took my car keys right out of my hands. I jumped back when he did, startled when his fingers made contact with my skin. “I said I wasn’t hungry, Trevor.” I held out my hand for him to return my keys. “I really do need to go. Sebastian’s waiting for me.”

Another lie.

Sort of.

“Well, I guess he’ll just have to wait, now won’t he?”

A chill ran down my spine at Trevor’s cruel tone. I’d always suspected there was something wrong with him, but until now, he’d always been pleasant when he spoke to me. A little creepy, but nice enough.

There wasn’t anything nice in his eyes. In fact, he looked menacing.

“I’m sorry, Trevor, but I ca—”

I didn’t get my statement out before Trevor’s hand gripped my arm painfully, and he pulled me toward the stairs. I tried to pry my arm out of his grip, but it was no use. He was incredibly strong, his fingers digging into my arm. I had two choices then. I could either follow him or we were both going to go down the stairs, and it wouldn’t be on our feet. I was tempted to sacrifice myself so I could get away from him, but when he pushed me forward, making me walk in front of him, the opportunity was lost.

As I made my way down the stairs, I kept my purse and my laptop bag close while I glanced out the windows into the parking lot. That was when I noticed it was completely empty. I knew some of the mechanics parked out in the shop, but there was no one out front. Maude was gone, Ron was off, Conrad wasn’t there, and no one else was wandering in the main reception area downstairs. I was alone with Trevor, and he had my car keys.

Just when we made it to the main floor, a bright red Mustang screeched to a stop in front of the doors. I immediately recognized Leif as he jumped out of the car, but Trevor obviously did, too, because he caught me off guard, yanking me backward, causing me to stumble. When I righted myself, he pulled me toward the doors that led to the shop. Without stopping, he barreled through the door and then slammed it behind me, engaging the lock.

I’d only been in the shop once. That had been the time that I’d realized it wasn’t a warehouse as I’d originally thought. The only thing they stored there was cars. Most of them were the same, only different colors. One had decals on it, like something they would use at a NASCAR event, but as far as I knew, it had never moved.

“This way,” Trevor growled, pulling me toward another door.

It led to a set of offices that were used by the mechanics. The other offices were in the main building, but I had noticed as Trevor led me through there that the doors had been closed and the lights were off, which meant no one else was there. What was usually a bustling building was a ghost town today.

“Why are you here today?” I asked Trevor, hoping to get him talking. Why, I didn’t know. I had no idea what he was planning to do, but I knew that I needed to do something or, in a matter of seconds, I was going to be in one of those offices with him.

And that was the last place I wanted to be.

“I had something to do,” he said sharply.

“I figured you’d have the week off,” I told him.

“You were supposed to have the week off,” he said, a smarmy grin tilting the corners of his mouth.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. No one had told me that I’d have the week off. It did seem a little strange that I would be the only one working, but truthfully, I hadn’t thought much about it.

“Your boss sent you an email last week, letting you know that you could take the week off. I wanted to see you, though.”

Yep, this wasn’t going to be good. I only prayed that Leif would find a way into the building before I was completely at this crazy man’s mercy. Or better yet, if Sebastian would just walk in… God, I couldn’t believe this was happening.

“Can I ask you something?” Figuring I was in for a world of hurt as it was, I decided to go for broke.

“Sure,” he told me as he went to one of the office doors and turned the knob. It didn’t open.

Thank God.

While he was distracted with the door, I tried to pull away, unsure where I was going to go but knowing I had to get away from him. Trevor was faster than I was, though, grabbing my arm roughly and pulling me so that I stumbled, the laptop bag on my shoulder going sideways. It fell from my shoulder, taking my purse with it before it crashed to the floor. For the first time, I realized my cell phone was ringing from the dark abyss that was my purse.

“What’s this?” Trevor asked, glancing down at the floor. He was looking at the paper that had fallen from my purse, the copies I’d made at my father’s shop. “Hmm. That car looks familiar.”

I wanted to slap the creepy grin off his face, but my heart was pounding painfully in my chest, my fear ratcheting up a notch. Until that moment, I hadn’t really been scared, maybe because I knew Leif was out there. Someone was going to help me. I knew they were.

“Where’d you get these?” he asked, picking up the papers and flapping them in front of my face.

“Lauren had the car repaired at my father’s shop. We know all about what happened,” I told him, hoping that when I admitted what I knew, he’d let me go.

I should’ve known that wasn’t how this stuff worked.

Remembering that I’d had a question for him, I waited until Trevor met my eyes again. “When did you start doing Lauren’s dirty work?”

Oops.

That hadn’t been a question that Trevor had been expecting. His shock registered on his face, and then next thing I knew, he was yanking me toward him, his attention back on the doors he had been trying to open.

“What are you talking about?” he asked seriously, his beady eyes raking over my face.

“I was just wondering.”

Trevor stood there staring at me until the sound of one of the garage doors being raised pulled him back to the present. I turned, hoping like hell that was Leif coming inside.

“Shit,” Trevor exclaimed, realizing just as I had that there was someone else there and he hadn’t been able to lock them out completely.

Before I could catch a glimpse of the person responsible for raising the door, Trevor yanked my arm and pulled me to the next door. Unfortunately, that one was open. He turned the knob and shoved me. My momentum sent the door crashing into the wall. I couldn’t keep my feet beneath me, and I landed on my knees on the concrete floor, a yelp escaping me as the pain ricocheted up my legs.

The door slammed behind me, and I looked up to see that Trevor had locked us in the room. There were no windows and only the one door. If someone hadn’t seen us go in there, I doubted they would know that’s where we were.

Feeling trapped, I did the only thing I could think to do — I screamed, and I didn’t stop until Trevor backhanded me. I tasted blood, and the sudden throb of my lip told me he’d split it open. At that point, I knew I was screwed. My heart was pounding like a bass drum, and I was shaking. The fear had taken over, and I was having a hard time maintaining that calm I’d dug so deeply to produce. I knew I couldn’t panic. I needed to figure out how to get myself out of this mess.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t come up with a plan.

Yep, I was screwed.

Not to mention, completely and totally at this bastard’s mercy.

I was just about to scream again, not caring if he hit me, because I didn’t have any other options at that point. I was locked in a room with a psychopath.

“Shut up,” Trevor growled as he pulled off his jacket and threw it onto a chair.

“What are you doing?” I asked, the words coming out in a rush.

I didn’t need him to tell me. I knew.

The crazy man was going to do the same to me that he’d tried to do to Aaliyah.

“Since Lauren couldn’t keep her promise, I decided to do things my way,” he uttered.

“What are you talking about?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know, although I had asked.

“You asked me when I started doing Lauren’s dirty work.”

“Yeah,” I answered softly, my voice trembling.

“Well, the answer is too long ago. It didn’t take long for me to realize just how selfish Aunt Lauren really was. So much so that she would pretty much promise me anything just to ensure that she got her way.”

Why didn’t I have a recorder on me?

I knew that was a crazy thought, but at that moment, I wasn’t sure how this was going to end, and I really wanted to get the information Sebastian needed to prove that his mother had been murdered. I knew, without a doubt, that this man was crazy enough to have killed her, but there was still no proof.

“Payton!”

I heard Leif yelling my name, and I sucked in a breath, hoping he would find me before Trevor lost it. Hell, I could see by the crazed look in his eyes that he was close.

“My sweet aunt promised me that I could have you, but she didn’t deliver.”

“
Me
?” What the hell was he talking about? “Why me?”

“Because,” Trevor said, sliding his finger down my cheek. “When I saw you in Vegas, I just knew you were the one.”

“The one what?” I asked stupidly.

“You didn’t wonder why we’d been introduced that
day?
Why I was there to have breakfast with you and your boss?”

Well, of course I had, but I didn’t tell Trevor as much. “I just figured it was business. Conrad wanted to let me know that you would be working for him,” I lied, trying to keep my hands from shaking. I did not want Trevor to see just how scared I was.

“Oh, that was part of it. I told Lauren that it was time for me to start over. I needed a fresh start. And this was the perfect opportunity. Then she told me she had someone she wanted me to meet.”

Shit.

They were both fucking crazy.

“From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew you were perfect. I was just biding my time, waiting for Sebastian to screw up. The guy’s unstable.”

I laughed. I knew it sounded hysterical, but I couldn’t help myself. “Why the hell does everyone keep saying that?”

“Because it’s true.” Trevor slid his hand down my arm and took my hand, pulling me to my feet. I was tempted to remain on the floor, not wanting to get any closer to him, but he was too strong. I rose to my feet, and he backed me up against the desk. I immediately put my hands up, trying to push him away, desperate to get away from him, but he didn’t budge. In fact, he moved closer. “He’s always been that way. Ever since his sweet mother died. It didn’t help that Lauren hated him and her plan backfired. I doubt she thought about him having to come live with his father when his mother died, but suddenly, one day, there he was. Right on her doorstep.”