“I don’t understand what we did”
Andie’s eye searched the rugged features of his face. Surely they had to be familiar
to her? But as he stood there, hands causally tucked into the pockets of his
jeans, he could be anyone she’d passed on the street.
Andie
brought her eyes to meet his dark vengeful stare she. “Maybe I can rectify it
for you”
“It’s
not your mistake to rectify. Your parents tried. They offered money, lots of
money to spare their lives but this has nothing to do with Max and Catherine.”
A
gasp broken from Andie’s dry lips “But you killed them”
“Their
death was nothing more than sadistic revenge.”
Andie’s
hand smothered the horrified screech that escaped from her lips. Her parent’s
death was meaningless. Tears filled her eyes. This man was sick. Pure evil fed his
veins.
“You’re
all just pawns in this.” He cackled “Didn’t you think it was strange that you won
a brand new car?”
A chill ran down Andie’s spine. No one would
believe her when she said the car crash was no accident. It was a coincidence
they said! But there hadn’t been enough left of the car to determine an actual
cause.
“Hadn’t
expected it to happen at eighty miles an hour on the corner of the valley...”
His thrilled tone trailed away. His excited eyes momentarily
distracted by the same memory that chilled Andie to the core. He smiled. “…I
hadn’t aimed to hit two birds with the one stone either.” His eyes filled with
amusement as he looked at her again “… poor Zachary and Cassia.”
That
accident had been meant for her! But Cassia had fallen down the stairs and
Andie’s older brother was driving her to the hospital. Everyone told her she
was crazy! But Andie knew it was no accident. Her parents’ murderer had come
after her and instead he’d killed her brother and cousin. They said she was
paranoid.
She’d
lived for two years behind the six foot walls. She’d guarded the house that her
great grandfather had built. There was fingerprint identification on all doors.
She’d memorised the electronic pass codes to open each and every reinforced
glass window. She had CCTV which covered every inch of her land. She never left
the grounds without her security team. She was terrified. She was next. And they
told her she was crazy!
“Call
for him” He instructed and Andie frowned. “Call for Sebastian” Why did he want her
head of security? “Call him!”
Andie
lifted her chin defiantly. There were cameras down here too. Someone must have seen
her walked through the door. If he was going to kill her why would she distract
the only people who could save her from their rescue operation? “No.”
His
sadistic guffaw rattled along the cave-like room. “Have you ever heard of a
video loop, Andie? These cameras and those in the hallway have been playing the
same thing for three days. No one knows you’re here.”
A
spec of light brightened in the corridor that led out to the gardens it was
gone within seconds. Her heart rate peaked. Someone else had entered the
basement. If her team didn’t know she was here then he wasn’t alone. Of course,
no one could mastermind the cull of one of the wealthiest families in the city single
handed and get away with it.
“Tell
me why you picked us and I’ll call Seb.”
“You’re
in no place to negotiate with me.”
“Because
you’re going to kill me..?” Andie laughed as a shadow moved behind her parents’
murderer. “I don’t doubt that you will.” His expression faltered “but this time
you want Sebastian to see you do it.”
Andie
tried to maintain focus on the maker of her nightmares as Seb crept from the
shadows. Her heart stuttered for the briefest of moments. Sebastian was his accomplice?
But he’d been with her family since her Uncle George and Aunt Jacqueline’s
murders. Then he lifted a gun, not his
usual and preferred gun, towards the back of the intruder’s head
“So
it seems I am in a position to negotiate with you after all.”
“Touché,
Miss Montgomery” He nodded “But it would be much more fun if Sebastian told you
the truth, don’t you think?” The villainous cackle echoed around the cavern
again. It chilled Andie to her core. Her head of Security was in on this after all?
“Jack,
you don’t have to do this.” Seb spoke like a negotiator at a bank siege.
“Don’t
tell me you’ve gone all doe eyed for this one too?” Sebastian’s eyes met and
held Andie’s. “What is it with you and the Montgomery ladies Seb?” Andie
gasped. “That’s every single one of them.”
“Jack,
give it up. The police are on their way.”
“Aren’t
you missing something?” Jack twirled a familiar black hand gun in his latex
covered fingers “You might want to note the latex clad fingers holding said
missing item of yours. So drop the gun or I’ll do to you what you did to me.”
Andie
looked at Sebastian again. “You were there?”
Why
didn’t she know? She trusted Seb, she respected him, and despite his past
failures she had faith that when the day came he’d save her life. She felt more
for him than she would ever admit because he was hired to protect her life and
she wouldn’t complicate that for him and he was involved there that night? He
knew who the murderer was? Sebastian was involved all along?
“We
were on the biggest protection case of our careers and you bottled out when it
mattered the most. You stayed with the girl and left me to handle the attack
alone.”
“We
weren’t partners, you were hired to protect Jacqueline and I was hired to
protect Cassia.”
“How
many times did I cover for you and Jackie though Sean? You framed me because I
knew about the affair and then you used me to get to Max and protect his family.”
“Seb…?”
Andie’s eyes flickered between the two men holding guns. Distorted family
history pouring from their lips and none of it Andie knew. She was eight years
old when this happened. “What’s going
on?”
“Oh
Princess Andie of Montgomery Enterprises you really should have checked out Seb’s
background before you fell for him.” Seb gasped. His eye held Andie’s for a
second. “He has a history of falling for the ladies he protects.”
“Andie
don’t listen to his bullshit” Seb warned her. “I was twenty-two. Just finished
my three years service and the army wasn’t for me. George hired me as a glorified
baby sitter because I’m fast on my feet and know how to shoot a gun. My instructions
were to pick up, run, and fire only if Cassia’s life depended on it. I promise
you Andie I wasn’t having an affair with your aunt. She’s twenty years older than
me and its instant dismissal. Jack knows this.” Seb looked at Jack “It’s why
George fired him.”
Jack
smiled at Andie in a way that told her Sebastian was telling the truth. “Yes I
was very fond of Jacqueline, though she wasn’t that fond of me. But Seb used my
gun to shoot George and when she dialled 999 he shot her too.”
“You’re
crazy.” Andie shook her head. Seb wasn’t a cold blooded killer.
“Seb
had a fling for your mother too and he provided lots of comfort to Cassia after
your parents died, Andie. He must have thought all his birthdays had come at
once when you decided that your bodyguard would have to sleep in your suite with
you, it’s only natural that a relationship would develop in such close
proximity.”
What?
How did he know all this? Creases pulled along Andie’s forehead. They’d never
been intimate, never kissed. They’d come close once. But he was ever
professional. She hated that she doubted him now. But how else would this mad
man know if he didn’t have an informant on the inside and didn’t they go way
back? “Is this true?”
“Of
course it is, all of the evidence is in the safe in his office.”
“You’ve
set me up.” Sebastian gasped.
“So
he’s going to shoot himself, Andie. Then he’s going to shoot you. Then I’m
going live a very happy life knowing that the police will find this document-”
he held up a plastic wrapped folded piece of paper “-which says you hired me to
sniff out the rat in you security team and I’ll be exonerated. I’m sorry but
you’re just a pawn in all this too.”
A
deafening explosion erupted in the basement. The noise ricocheted off the walls.
A second explosion caught up with the echoes and sounded like rapid gunfire in
wartime. Time slipped into slow motion. Andie’s pupils widened. She watched as Jack’s
body fell dropped to the ground and a bullet sliced the air towards her.
Her
breath caught in her throat. Her head screamed at her to move. She couldn’t.
Her feet were frozen in fear.
A
sharp burn ripped into Andie shoulder and her heart felt like it was about to
burst. The searing pain exploded inside. Andie grabbed at the wound. Her
fingers began clawed at the agony, begged for relief as the cotton absorbing
the clammy dampness against her hand. She was going to die.
A
stream of white light filtered down from above. It caught the speckles of dust
glittering under the beam. Her vision was swallowed by the brightness. Was that
it? Was her time up? Is that ‘the light’?
Andie’s
legs weakened. Her entire body went limp and dropped to the hard floor awash
with a cold sensation. Her eye lids lowered as her vision blurred. Her breath
shortened. Her chest tightened and her mind started to mist.
“Police!”
Someone
was calling her name. They were telling her she had to hold on. She had to stay
with him. She needed to stay with Sebastian. She needed to protect Seb. The
voice was coming from inside the light. “Andie! Andie its Detective Lambert.
Speak to me!”
“No...”
Andie muttered on the edge of darkness “Not Sebastian.”
“I
knew he was coming for you.”
Sebastian whispered into the damp
autumn afternoon. He shouldn’t be here. The Executor of the Montgomery Estate
would not appreciate trespassers but once the news had hit the media last week he
had to come.
He
stared at the newly engraved headstone. Her life was the hardest loss to bear. Promises
he’d made in her hours of grief, pledges he made in her time of need, and
broken them all.
He’d
known, Jack had bragged how he’d fool George's psychiatrist with his covert ops
training to get the security gig with George Montgomery. But no one would
believe a kid when he said Jack wasn’t stable. Or when he’d said
Jack would be back.
And
despite Andie’s last words Seb had been a suspect for months. They wouldn’t let
him see her. But this... her death, it was his fault. “I should have been better prepared.”
Seb sighed and placed the wildflowers on the newly disturbed ground. “Your whole
family died because I failed to protect you. All of you.”
“They
died because of some nutcase and his vendetta.”
Seb
gasped at the sound of her voice. He spun around, tumbled to his knees as he looked up. It couldn’t be! She looked the same. She
spoke the same. She stood in that same regal ‘I’m always right and you’re always
wrong’ prissy stance that wound him up because she was wrong nine out of ten
times. “Andie?”
“Not
anymore.” She corrected him.
The
air gushed from his lungs as Sebastian leaped to his feet. He wrapped his arms
around her. “You’re real.” He muttered when his arms didn’t go through her apparition.
“You’re really real.”
“You
sound disappointed” She muttered and then laughed at his scowl “He survived his
bullet” She whispered “its better that he thinks I didn’t survive mine.”
Sebastian
nodded. But what happened now? Was he expected to go on with his life knowing she was getting on with hers without him? That their almost kiss earlier in the year hadn't meant as much to her as it had to him? Or maybe it had and the circumstances had torn them apart? He couldn't live like this. The 'what ifs' alone would drive him crazy.
He followed her eyes as
Andie looked over her shoulder. “Lambert trusts you." She whispered at his eyes found the detective leaning against the hood of an unmarked car "I trust you.” She turned
back to him with a smile that made his pulse race. “It would be one hell of a first date, don’t you think?” Was she asking him to give up everything and go with her? “Once in a lifetime offer, Sebastian, are you in?”
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