Mr. Romantic: A Mister Standalone (The Mister Series Book 2) (36 page)

“Fuck me. This place is huge, Pax. There’s so many places.”

“Choose two,” Pax says, pointing his gun at me and then himself. “And we’ll each take one.”

“The attic and… the basement, I guess. The fucking attic is six thousand square feet. The basement probably the same. But she could be anywhere. We have fifteen bedrooms. Hell, she could be in a bathroom. We have twenty of those.”

“Well, we’re not going to find her just standing here, so let’s go.” Pax takes off, disappears into the hallway, then peeks his head back in a few seconds later. “How the fuck do I get to the attic?”

Ivy
.

That’s the only word on my mind as we run through the hallways. I point to another set of stairs, Pax going up, taking them three at a time, and I hop down until I’m in the main room of the basement.

Everything is lit up. Everything is on. The TVs in various rooms. The lights above the pool table. The surround sound is blasting something from the media room. The doors leading out to the pool are wide open and the sea wind is blowing the curtains like ribbons.

“Ivy,” I call. “Ivy, can you hear me?”

But she can’t. She can’t hear anything because of the music, and the movie, and the wind. I walk over to the master control for the surround sound and turn it off. There is still the sound of the TVs, so I enter each room, one by one, gun ready, and turn them off too.

And when I get through them all, I realize something.

She’s not here.

Chapter Forty-Four - Ivy

I wake up lying on a cold concrete floor. My eyes flutter as I try to open them, but all I see is a fuzzy glare. My head is splitting with a headache and everything is silent.

There is no one here.

“Help,” I say, my voice hoarse. “Help,” I try again, a little louder.

But then a black shadow moves in one corner and someone walks towards me wearing a ski mask and bulky clothing.

“Why are you doing this?”

A photograph floats down to the ground in front of me. I can’t even focus yet, so it takes time for me to get a good look at it. To realize what it is.

Nolan and me. Outside near the pool. He’s ripping my panties off and I’m just standing there, letting him. Someone has written
Rape Me
over the top of the photo.

I look up at the masked person and shake my head. “That’s not what happened.”

My captor says nothing. Just walks slowly towards me.

I panic and start thrashing. My hands are tied behind my back, and every time I twist, my raw skin screams for me to stop. I manage to get into a sitting position, but only because a hand reaches down and grabs me by my hair and pulls me up.

The person leans down and a familiar smell permeates the air.

A sickly smell that tells me exactly who this person is.

I wait for words to explain why this is happening, but none come. I am dragged across the floor until I’m at the entrance to a bedroom. The figure points to the bed inside, lit only by a small lamp of a bedside table.

I shake my head and say, “No.”

I am slapped and kicked and pushed until I am absolutely on that bed, lying down, in my pretty lingerie as my feet are tied to a bedpost.

Where am I? Where is this place? There’s no windows, just this bed and just this one light.

I struggle to free my hands and realize I’m tied up with the same rope Nolan used. His words come back to me.
If you ever get stuck the rope stretches. Just wriggle around until it loosens. It might take a while, but you’re not stuck.

I struggle some more and realize he was right. The rope
is
stretchy. I’m not stuck. And I’m not going to let this happen either. I get one burning wrist through one loop and the whole rope becomes loose. My hands are flying behind my back as my legs are tied tighter.

And then the black ski mask faces me. I know before he takes off the mask who he is.

Richard.

He kneels on the bed and then straddles my waist, gripping my breasts firmly. “Is this how you like it, Ivy? Is this why you never let me fuck you? I’m not abusive enough?” His smile, mixed in with that sick cologne, makes my stomach turn. “Well, if this is what you need, I’m happy to accommodate you.”

I reach for the bedside lamp and swing it against his head. He goes reeling to the side, falling off the bed, and I’m already trying to untie the knots at my ankles. I mess up so many times as Richard comes to his senses on the floor next to the bed. My heart is racing so fast. My breathing is nothing but panic.

I get one leg free just as he stands back up and lunges for me. I kick him in the chest with the heel of my foot and he goes down again, this time shaking his head like I stunned him. Blood is pouring down his temple as I scramble back to the other side of the bed. But I’m still prisoner. I’m held in place by the one length of rope. I scream when he gets to his feet again. “Nolan!” I scream. “Nolan!” I don’t know where I’m at, or if he’s even close by. But I know that there is no way I can get my foot untied before Richard gets to me.

“He’s coming,” I say, still frantically trying to get the last knot out of the rope. “He’s coming. And… and… his friend is coming too. The bad one. You know that bad one. Mr. Mysterious,” I spit.

“You’re gonna let them all fuck you, aren’t you, Ivy? You stupid little whore.” He slaps my face so hard, I almost black out. “This is what you’re been holding out for? A gang rape from the most infamous rapists in the country? Well”—he laughs—“I’m sorry to disappoint you with just little old me tonight. But I’m sure you’ll still love it.”

From some far off place I hear Nolan’s voice. Richard stops everything. Goes completely still.

“Ivy!” Nolan is yelling. “Ivy, Ivy, Ivy!”

“Here!” I scream.

And then Richard’s hand is over my mouth and the cold blade of a knife is pressed to my throat.

“Scream nice and loud for your boyfriend, Ivy. Nice and loud now.”

Chapter Forty-Five - Nolan

“Nolan!”

Ivy is screaming. It’s faint, like she’s far away. But she
is
here. Where? I’ve checked every room.
Where?

“Ivy!” I yell. “Pax,” I yell again. I start searching the basement again. Where the fuck can she be? All the doors to each room are open. She’s not in any of them. “Pax!” I yell again. And then I take out my phone and text him.

Basement. Now.

“Ivy!” I yell.

I hear her respond. “Here!”

But where? Why the fuck can’t I find her?

“Think, Nolan. Think, think, think.”

Boots crash down the stairs and Pax comes rushing into the basement, gun drawn, pointing it at every open door and every dark corner before he stops and looks at me. “Where? Who the hell is messing with us?”

“I can hear her.” We stop and listen, but there’s no more calling from Ivy. “Fuck!” I grab my hair and shake my head. I know what that silence means. “I’ve checked every fucking room. It’s like she’s stuck inside the walls or—wait. I know where she is. The safe room.”

“What safe room?”

“The house was built with a panic room, Pax. It’s on the far side of the media room.”

I take off running, Pax following me, and enter the media room. The movie is still playing without sound. Some slasher movie. A bigger-than-life girl is screaming her silent scream as we walk past and I open a door that appears to lead to a mechanical room. But when we step around the giant furnace, there’s another door.

“What’s the code?” Pax demands. “We need the fucking code, Nolan.”

I know the code. I know the code. I know the code.

I know I know the code. It’s been the same since I was a little kid and we first bought this house.

You are a target, Nolan.

My father’s words in my head.

I make you a target. So if anything ever happens, you run in here and you lock yourself inside
.

“What’s the fucking code?” Pax yells.

A scream comes from inside. Clear as fucking day because it’s on the little speaker near the keypad used for two-way communication.

A broken, crackling voice comes out of the speaker next. “The code was changed tonight, Mr. Romantic. You don’t know the code.”

I take the butt of my gun and smash the cameras. One above the door, one behind me, one to the left.

Pax catches on quickly and finds more, each one is smashed.

I pull him close to me and whisper, “There’s a master code. And I do know it. No one else on this fucking planet knows it, because I was the one who set it. So whoever this is, they got a code from one of two people. Claudette or my father.”

“Your bitch of a sister is behind this, I know it. I’m gonna fucking kill her when I get inside there.”

“She’s not here, Pax. She sent someone else to do this. And we can make plans for that later. Right now we’ve only got one chance to save Ivy. We bust in and kill whoever it is on the other side of that door.”

Chapter Forty-Six - Ivy

The next thing I know an alarm is screaming. I cover my ears as Richard gets off me, throwing the knife down on the floor as he reaches for a gun.

My fingers are instantly back on the rope around my ankle, but another blow to the head knocks me over, right off the bed, so most of me is on the floor, but my one ankle is still tied to the damn post.

And then… shouting. Voices yelling. Nolan, and someone else, and Richard. Guns are going off, and a bullet hits the concrete wall just off to my left.

I sit up as best as I can and reach for my ankle as the men yell threats and shoot at each other.

There’s a loud thumping of feet above my head somewhere. People are here. Many, many people. A whole army of people from the sound of it.

“Ivy!” Nolan yells. “Get down!”

But I’m so close. I’m so close. Just one more knot and—I’m free!

Richard is suddenly next to me, pulling me up by my hair again. I grab his balls and pull so hard, I get a sick, sick feeling in my stomach. His gun goes off and a sharp pain shoots through my body.

I scream, but he falls, and I fall, and then I ignore the pain and scoot under the bed. I crawl for my life as a warm pool of blood puddles underneath me.