Heavy Metal (A Badboy Rockstar Romance) (28 page)

I desperately wished I hadn’t thrown my phone away in a fit of anger.  Then again, I still didn’t have any idea where I was, so it wasn’t as though I would have been able to give my location to the 911 operator.  In any event, there was no time to obsess over could haves and should haves.  There was no time to waste.

Brandon was close.  I could feel him, if that made sense.  At least I thought I could.

Maybe that was nothing more than wishful thinking.  Maybe I was delusional.

The lights were off, but that was alright.  My eyes had pretty much adjusted to the dark.  I wanted to use the shadows to my advantage if I could.  If I was lucky enough to find Brandon and his abductor, I wanted the element of surprise on my side.  So the darkness was good.

But so far there was no sign of life.  I was all alone in that long, desolate hallway.  All I was seeing were a bunch of small, empty offices that didn’t even appear to be used anymore.  It wasn’t encouraging.

Beginning to lose faith, I poked my head into yet another room.

I nearly screamed as I unexpectedly came face to face with something tall.  Choking back my panic, I willed myself to keep quiet as I ducked out of sight.  Then, gathering my courage, I forced myself to slowly peer around the door to face whatever was there.

That was when I saw the bushy leaves.  The thing that had frightened me half to death was nothing more than a tall potted plant.  It was probably trying to get revenge on me for barfing all over its cousin.  Jerk.

Trying to still my beating heart, I continued my sweep of the building.  There weren’t many doors left now, and I was swiftly losing hope.  What if Brandon and his unstable abductor had been there and left already?  What if I was too late? 

I opened the door at the end of the hall with a heavy heart.  I was fully expecting to find yet another cookie cutter office, empty and cold. 

But I didn’t.

Instead, I found myself staring into a much, much larger room.  It was dark, but not so dark that I couldn’t tell what it was.  It appeared to be a soundstage much like the one where the late night talk show was filmed, only smaller.  It also appeared to be out of commission – I immediately noticed that most of the audio visual equipment was covered in tarps as though dust might otherwise collect.

I took a step inside and shut the door behind me as quietly as I could.

That was when I heard something.

It was the distant, disjointed sound of a woman singing one of Brandon’s ballads.  It was eerie.  Actually, it was nothing short of bone chilling. 

Immediately, I hit the floor.  I couldn’t explain why crawling around on my hands and knees felt like the smart thing to do.  But it did.  Instinct kicked in and I found myself acting on autopilot as I quietly crept closer while attempting to make myself as small as possible.

That was when I saw her.

A lone figure sat alone in one of the seats, as though she was an audience member at a performance only she could see.  I could only make out her outline in the shadows, but it was enough to know she was rocking back and forth as though trying to self-soothe. 

She looked so tiny sitting there alone in the dark, thin and fragile and harmless.

But she wasn’t harmless.  I knew that.  And when I got closer, my blood ran cold.

I saw a man’s foot sticking out from between the seats, as though he was lying on the floor at the woman’s feet.  And even in the darkness, I was pretty sure I recognized the sneaker on it.  It was Brandon’s shoe.  It was Brandon down there lying on the floor.

Why was Brandon’s foot so still?  I stared at it and focused all my energy on it as though trying to will it to move.  But to my horror, the foot remained completely motionless.  Why wasn’t he trying to make a run for it?  Was he hurt?  Or was he...

My brain was threatening to go to places I couldn’t bear for it to go.  Shoving those vile, unthinkable thoughts aside, I crept even closer.  My stomach was in knots and I wanted to cry.  But I knew I couldn’t lose control.  I had to be strong.

The woman appeared to be so wrapped up in her singing and rocking that she was completely oblivious to everything else.  I used that to my advantage and continued my slow, calculated descent down the tiered aisle until I could see more of Brandon.

When he turned his head ever so slightly, I nearly sobbed with relief.  The worst hadn’t happened, thank God.  After double checking to make sure the woman wasn’t looking in my direction, I frantically waved my hand, trying to get his attention.

Brandon must have seen the movement out of the corner of his eye, because he turned his head and looked right at me.  Then he shook his head frantically as though desperately trying to give me an important message. 

But I didn’t know what he was trying to tell me. 

I stared at him in confusion as I struggled to understand.

He was growing increasingly agitated.  He lifted his hand and pointed to the door.  He was motioning as though he was telling me to leave.  Like hell that was happening!   I wasn’t going anywhere without him.

Unfortunately, Brandon’s movements caught his captor’s attention.  As soon as he saw her looking, he pretended to be swatting an imaginary fly.  But she didn’t buy it.  She stood up and looked in my direction.

“Hayley, she’s got a gun!” Brandon suddenly yelled.  “Run!”

With that, he grabbed his captor’s legs, presumably to give me time to make a break for it.  But of course, I didn’t.  I couldn’t.  And it wasn’t
only
because I refused to leave Brandon behind.  It was also because I was basically frozen in horror, unable to move or breathe or think.

I was certain that was the moment I would never be able to get out of my head.  It was the moment that would haunt me for the rest of my life.  It was, in fact, the moment that would singlehandedly
destroy
my life. 

I was certain I was about to watch Brandon get shot.  He had put his life on the line for me and now he was going to get shot and possibly even killed.  And I was going to have to witness it.  There were no words to describe the panic that washed over me.  Ice ran through my veins.

It was singlehandedly the worst experience of my entire life.  I was probably about to see the man I loved die and there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it.  I had never felt more helpless in my entire life.  It was as though the world had crumbled beneath my feet.

But then the woman who had abducted him did something I wasn’t expecting. 

Brandon clearly wasn’t expecting it either.  As he grappled with his abductor for the gun, she suddenly delivered a well-placed kick.  Letting out a howl of pain, Brandon grabbed his groin and collapsed to the ground.  There he writhed around and was momentarily unable to do anything but focus on the agony he was feeling.

I felt terrible for him, of course.  I hated to see the man I loved hurting, obviously.  But he was alive and, if that was the worst that happened to him, he would be just fine.  That was something to celebrate, as far as I was concerned.  Maybe his captor was too obsessed and in love with him to hurt him...I wasn’t sure.

What I did know was that she had no affection for me.  And as she advanced on me menacingly with coldness in her empty, dead eyes, I knew without a doubt that she would have no qualms whatsoever about hurting me.  In fact, it wasn’t at all unreasonable to expect her to kill me – especially since she was pointing the gun right at me!

I had been so concerned for Brandon that I had momentarily forgotten about my own wellbeing.  But now that I was quite literally staring down the barrel of a gun, that had changed.  Swallowing hard, I tried to remain calm.  And then, feeling I had no other option, I tried to engage the woman who was glaring daggers at me.

“You don’t have to do this,” I told her quietly, surprised that my voice actually still worked in spite of my terror.  “You can put the gun down and this can all be over.  Don’t make this any worse than it has to be, okay?”

“Me?” she replied, her tone flat and emotionless.  “Don’t act like this is my fault.  I didn’t do any of this.  You have caused all of this.  Brandon and I are meant to be together – I’ve heard the hidden messages in his songs.  It’s me he wants and needs, not you.  You’re in the way.  I need to get rid of you to make him come to his senses.”

Oh boy.  She was hearing hidden messages in his songs.  She was even more far gone than I had first suspected.  How does one reason with insanity?  I had no idea, but I knew I had to try.  It was my only hope.

“I didn’t know,” I told her.  “Tell me about the messages you’ve heard?  What do they say?”

“Only I can hear them,” she bragged, her words tumbling out of her mouth at an alarming speed.  “It’s because the messages are only meant for me.  I’m the chosen one...I’m the one Brandon is supposed to spend the rest of his life with.  We’re soulmates.”

I had asked the question in the hopes that it would serve as a distraction.  But that had been a mistake.  Now I could see I had only provoked her.  The more she spoke about the messages, the more disjointed and frenzied her words became. 

Her eyes were unfocused now, her pupils large, unseeing and wild.  And, though her hands were trembling something awful, it didn’t stop her from aiming the gun right at me.  If she chose to pull the trigger, I would be a dead woman.

It didn’t take a mental health professional to ascertain that she was having a psychotic break.  Her body language was terrifying and her words were every bit as fear-inducing.  There was no telling what she was capable of.  And when her shaky finger moved to the trigger of the gun, I saw my life flash before my eyes.

At that instant, Brandon lunged at my would-be murderer. 

I hadn’t thought he had it in him.  I had expected him to be completely unable to function as he recovered from being kicked Down There, but I guess seeing a gun pointed at my head gave him some kind of adrenaline surge. 

Maybe it gave him superhuman strength, too.

As I stared in disbelief, he wrestled with the woman.  He took her down, tackling her to the ground and attempting to pin her.  She howled and shrieked, raging at him and fighting violently as he tried to get the gun away from her. 

Then, without warning, she sunk her teeth into his forearm.

“Shit!” Brandon screamed as blood gushed out of the wound.

But to his credit, not even that made him lose focus.  Even after being savagely bitten, he didn’t lose sight of what he needed to do.  And he didn’t let go of the gun.  Instead, he only fought harder, scuffling with the woman until he managed to get the gun away from her.

It was a miracle the damn thing didn’t go off during the brawl.

When I saw the gun in Brandon’s hand, it was as though a switch in my brain flipped.  No longer was I paralyzed in fear.  I sprang into action and cautiously moved forward, intending to help subdue the woman. 

She was wild.  Maybe she was past the point of being subdued.  She was fighting so viciously that Brandon stopped trying to hold onto her, likely afraid she would wind up injured.  He let go of her, and I understood why.  It didn’t seem like a mistake to me. 

Brandon had the gun so there was really no need to keep the hysterical woman pinned to the ground, right?  Besides, at least if they weren’t wrestling around on the ground anymore, she wouldn’t bite him again.  I still couldn’t believe she had done that!

Brandon and the woman were both on their feet now, him guarding the gun as he looked at her warily.  But she wasn’t making any attempt to grab the weapon from him.  Instead she stood there sweaty and wild-eyed, her fists clenched at her sides as she let out ear-splitting scream after ear-splitting scream. 

“It’s okay!” I shouted over her screams.  “You’re alright!  Everything will be fine!”

My attempts at soothing her apparently didn’t go over too well with her.  She abruptly stopped screaming and fell silent.  For a moment I thought that was a sign of success.  But then I saw the way she was looking at me.  My heart sank and, fearful, I took a step back.

She charged towards me with blistering hatred in her eyes, but Brandon was quicker than she was.  He grabbed her from behind, wrapping a strong arm around her waist to keep her from attacking me.  His actions were nothing short of heroic.

But not even heroes can predict the actions of a mentally unstable person who is in the midst of an episode.  That said, maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised when she sunk her teeth into his arm a second time.

He winced and pulled back, putting some distance between himself and the unhinged woman.

Then he seemed to remember he was holding the gun.

He aimed it at her reluctantly, clearly not wanting to use it.  “Sit down,” he ordered, nodding toward the nearest empty seat.  “I don’t want to hurt you.  But if you attack Hayley or me again I’m going to have no choice.  So just sit down, okay?  Just stop.  We’re going to get help.  Sit.”

Ignoring the order, she took a step toward him.  And then she took another...and another.  She moved unsteadily, like she had suddenly turned into a frail old woman instead of a young able-bodied one.  Everything about her body language seemed unnatural and stilted.

She reached out and touched the blood on Brandon’s arm.