Unraveled (Love in Salem, book 2) (28 page)

Had Atayla been right all along?  The thought made him curse himself.  He hadn’t wanted to believe that Brittney was responsible, but had given the police her information anyway.  If only he had given Atayla’s suspicions credence he could have protected her better.

The police hadn’t devilled too deep in her affairs either.  They too had thought her incapable of such grievous offenses.  Jealousy, sure.  Immaturity, absolutely.  But not criminal.

Well, he wouldn’t be making that mistake again.  If the bitch ever got within a hundred yards of anyone he cared about again he would ensure she regretted it.  That was if Atayla came out of this unharmed.  If she didn’t, well, he would make sure that Brittney spent the rest of her life behind bars.

Aidan pulled up to the station just in time to see Brittney escorted inside.  He took a minute to collect himself before opening his door and marching up the steps.  He scanned the area after entering the building searching out Lt. Halliday.

Once he located him, he walked in that direction. 

“Well?  Where is she?”

“In interrogation.  You can’t be with us when we question her, but you can sit in the observation room and listen in.  That’s the best I can do for you.  You cannot have any contact with her before, during, or after interrogation.  Is that clear?”

“Yes.”  He bit off, willing to do whatever was necessary to be a part of finding Atayla.

Halliday showed him into the observation room.  The room was cold and sterile.  The atmosphere was oppressive.  It was easy to see why it would be intimidating enough to make people talk.  He couldn’t wait to get out of there, and he wasn’t even on the receiving end of things.

There were chairs lined up in front of a big window that looked into the room next door.  He took a seat at
Halliday’s urging and was told remain in that room.  Looking through the window he could see Brittney sitting behind a table fidgeting with her fingers.  She looked pale and nervous as she waited in there alone. 

Aidan crossed his arms over his chest and watched as Halliday and his partner entered the room and took their time getting seated and arranged their notes in front of them.  His patience was about to wear out when Halliday finally began to speak.

“Tell me how you know Randall Wellington.”

Brittney blinked.  “Who?”  Her expression was of confused innocence.

Unfortunately for her, they knew she was full of shit.

“Randall Wellington.  Don’t play stupid little girl.  We know you two are acquainted.”  He pulled out a sheet of paper and tapped his finger on it.  “According to your cell phone records, the two of you have been talking at least once a day for the last few months.  Sometimes as much as five times a day.  You don’t speak that regularly to someone you don’t know, now do you?”

Brittney’s eyes moved back and forth between the two men, obviously weighing her chances of coming out of this unscathed.  When her shoulders slumped in defeat, Aidan felt a sense of anticipation at how fast she crumbled under pressure.

Brittney sighed and began fidgeting with her fingers again.  “Randall is my cousin.  A very distant cousin.”

When she didn’t say anymore, Lt. Halliday prompted her to continue.

“Start from the beginning and tell me everything you know about Randall’s plans.”

“Randal had a fight with his girlfriend, and she moved out.  When he learned she moved in with one of her friends here in Salem, he called me and asked me to keep an eye on her.  I was supposed to inform him immediately if she started dating anyone.”

She shrugged as if she didn’t understand why he wanted her to do that. 

“Randall is weird.  Always has been, so I didn’t pay him much heed.  I mean, if the girl doesn’t want to be with him anymore why should he care whether or not she dated anyone?  A couple years went by, but I never heard from him again.”

“What changed things?”  This from Larson.

Rage flashed through her expression before she could temper it.

“She took what was mine!  I had him first!  I’m better than she is, prettier, wealthier, and still he chose
her
over me.  I knew all I had to do to get her out of my way was tell Randall.  Then I would have Aidan all to myself again.  I knew he would forget about her once she wasn’t around anymore.”

“So all of this was about your injured pride?”  Halliday asked in disbelief.

“It’s not like I broke any laws.”  She brushed her hair behind her shoulder.  “Randall won’t hurt her.  He loves her.  All he wants is the chance to reconcile.  He was just giving her time to cool off and figure out that she still loves him too.”

“A couple years is quite a long time to ‘cool off’ don’t you think?  You knew Randall wasn’t stable, and you knew what would happen when you told him about her relationship with Mr. Aiello so that makes you an accomplice.”

Larson spoke up.  “You better pray that he doesn’t harm her, because if he does you will be an accomplice to that as well.  Where are they?  Where was he taking her?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know?  I didn’t care where he was going to take her.  All I wanted was for her to go away!”

“You do realize what it will mean if you are convicted of these crimes, right?  We are talking years behind bars.  If he kills her it will be life.  If you want any chance of leniency you need to tell us where to find her.”

She stared at both men as she took in all that information.  Finally, she shrugged and sat back in her chair.

“He didn’t tell me where he was going, but I can guess.  There is a desert home just outside of Vegas.  It sits on several acres of land that my family owns.  It’s a vacation home we all use when we want to get away.”  She smiled.  “I took Aidan there for a weekend getaway last fall.”

Halliday threw a pen and notepad at her.  “I want an address, now.”

Brittney grabbed the pad and jotted down the address and pushed it back toward Halliday.

“Can I leave now?”

Halliday smiled coldly.  “Sure.  I’ll an officer give you an escort here shortly.”

Aidan burst out of the observation room just as Lt. Halliday and Larson enter the hall.

“You just going to let her go?”  He roared at the two men.

Larson laughed.  “All he said was he was going to provide her with an escort.  He didn’t say
where
she would be escorted.  She can have her phone call right before she is locked up in jail.  I gave her the opportunity to seek counsel before I left her in there alone.  Guess she should have taken me up on the offer, huh?”

“You know where this property is located?”

“Yes.  The place is hard to find.  I can take you there.”

Halliday shook his head.  “You’re not going anywhere near there.  It will be dangerous enough as it is.  We don’t need to be worrying about you doing something stupid while we are trying to do our job.  You are going to stay here and wait.  I personally will call you when we have her safely in custody.”

Aidan seethed.  “I need to be there for her!  You can’t expect me to just sit back and do nothing!”

“I
do
expect that.  Listen here, Mr. Aiello, you will put her life in danger by being there.  How would you feel knowing you cost her her life because you were too stubborn to stay out of it?”

Unhappily, Aidan backed off.  “She will be taken to a hospital, right?  Afterward?  I need to at least be there for that.  I can show you where the house is then go back to Vegas city limits and wait for you to call and tell me which hospital she will be taken to.”

“Can I trust you not to do anything stupid?”

“When it comes to her I will do whatever I have to.  I promise I won’t put her in jeopardy.”

Halliday nodded.  “Okay then.  You lead us there then get the hell away.  It could take minutes, or it could take hours, but you sit still until you hear from me.  Got it?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Chapter Twenty-seven

Atayla eyes fluttered open with a groan.  Her head hurt so bad it felt like razors had been shoved into her brain.  What the hell was wrong with her?  She tried to cover her eyes with her hand, but something prevented her arm from moving.  She tried to move her other arm, but to no avail.  They were secured over her head.

She lifted her head, surveyed her surroundings, and began to panic.  Yanking at whatever was binding her arms, she tried to remember what had happened to her and why she was tied up in a bed in an unfamiliar room.

All she could remember was going to make a statement with Aidan then going to work.  She remembered being sick, and Bill telling her to go home.  She hadn’t even had the energy to argue with him over missing work.  After that everything was blank.

Heart hammering in her chest, she searched the dark depths of her mind.  She prayed that someone knew something was wrong, that she was missing, and had begun the search for her.

Atayla listened to the sounds around her, but everything was quiet.  No sounds of traffic, no murmur of people talking.  Nothing.  Utter and complete silence.

She took note of her surroundings again.  The room was fully furnished in a southwestern theme.  No personal items or pictures that she could see.  But there was a phone on the console table. 

Her heart rate tripled.  If she could get free from her bindings she could call for help.  Atayla began to struggle in earnest now.  Help was so close, all she had to do was get loose.  Life couldn’t be so unfair that freedom be just a fingertip away, and no way to reach it.

“It’s about time you woke.  I was beginning to worry that I may have hurt you when I had to incapacitate you.”

That voice. 
Randall
.  All at once everything came flooding back.  Leaving the office.  The struggle.  Bill lying behind the dumpster. 
Oh, God, Bill!

“Did you kill him?”  She managed to croak out.

“Your friend?”  He laughed.  “No.  Just knocked him out is all.  I’m sure he will have quite a headache for a few days, but he will be alright.”

“Why?”

His expression turned cold and calculating.  He didn’t even pretend not to know what she was asking.

“I told you what would happen if you started dating someone new.  I love you.  You belong to me.  I won’t sit back and allow you give some other man what is rightfully mine!”

“Yours?  I haven’t been yours in years.  You’re insane!”

Randall stomped over to her and slapped her across the face.

“You have always been mine!  Since I found you on the street like the homeless, needy, little indigent you were.  I took you in, gave you everything you ever wanted, and in doing so made you mine to do with as I pleased.  You were so fortunate that I helped you, yet so ungrateful of my efforts.  Then you left and never looked back.  Did you really think that I would just let you go?”

Atayla licked the blood off of her lip.  Her cheek and mouth stung, and she knew she was only going to make things worse, but she couldn’t hold her tongue.

“I’m not your property.”  She said as calmly as possible.  “I am a human being.  I make decisions for myself regarding my life and my actions.  You lost the chance to claim me when you beat me and raped me that day in your living room.  Did you really think I would allow it to continue?”

“Raped you?  I didn’t
rape
you.  You are my lover.  It is my right to take what is mine!”

“You
took
what I wasn’t willing to give.  That, you idiot, is rape!”

“Bitch!”  He lunged towards her, enraged that she dared to speak to him that way.  He didn’t know how to handle this mouthy and aggressive Atayla.  She was supposed to meek and submissive.

He grabbed her shirt and ripped it open.  “You better prepare yourself because I am about to
take
what’s mine over and over and over until I have had my fill.”  He snarled.

Atayla jerked her knee up and slammed it into his groin.  What?  Did he think she would just lie there docilely while he savaged her?  How arrogant that he didn’t feel the need to bind her legs as well.

Randall howled in pain as he rolled off the bed onto the floor.  She could hear him cursing her, and she pulled frantically at the bindings.  It wasn’t long before he loomed over her again.

He grabbed her jaw and forced her look at him.  His grip was punishing, and she knew she would have bruises.

“You’re going to pay for that.  I won’t tolerate your insolence any longer.  I’m going to give you some time to come to terms with your situation, but when I return you better be prepared for me because I won’t give you any more chances.”

He released her chin with a flick of his wrist, staining her neck at the sudden movement of her head.

She cried out in pain as he suddenly punched her in the face.