Ellie
I wanted to pretend that I was dead, that he already crushed my spirit with his earlier tortures. The pain poured through my heart, burning deep in my soul, as every breath, every move brought on agony.
Maybe I deserved this, because I told Adrian what was really going on. Tobias was only trying to regain justice and find peace after his wife’s horrific death, to close that painful chapter in his life. Now because of me, he was never going to move forward. Maybe this was just the way it was supposed to be. Andrew was getting away with his crimes and he was untouchable.
Adrian unlocked the container, stepped inside and pulled the door closed behind him. I closed my eyes dreading what was about to happen. I could hear his heavy steps and fear crept into my stomach. There was no point fighting anymore. I knew Adrian would want to end me in a way that got his rocks off. I’d thought that I was tough, but deep down I was petrified of what was coming.
“I know that you’re awake, my little princess. Look at me or you will leave this container in a plastic bag,” he said, leaning against the wall. A shiver of fear passed down my spine. I obeyed him. After all, I had no other choice. When Andrew hurt me, I didn’t hate him. I was sad and disappointed. Now I finally knew how it felt to truly hate someone. Adrian Lurkin was a monster, the devil himself reincarnated.
When I lifted myself up from the floor, pain blinded me for a moment. The smell of blood made me nauseous. I needed to throw up, but I didn’t think I could take the pain in my stomach. He looked at me, and in the shadow his expression was still, calm. He was a man who held power over me. To him I was an insect that he wanted to play with, pull its legs off one by one until he got bored, and then he could stamp on me, squash me until I was dead.
“Please, I can help you. Mack trusts me. You don’t have to do this,” I mumbled. My voice seemed so faint, almost inaudible.
Adrian smiled, but there was absolutely no warmth in that smile, just sick excitement. Absolute repulsion passed through me as I stood there, trying to keep my balance. There was no way that I could fight him in this condition. I tried last night after he stopped kicking me. I reached up and lashed out at him, giving him a deep scratch running down his cheek. For that he shoved me across the landing and I hit the wall, losing consciousness for several seconds.
“No, I have better plan. You made me wait for your pussy, teasing me, making me hard, then leaving me hanging. No one likes a prick tease. I always get what I want and now I’m going to take it.” He brushed his finger over my cheek to my chin, then gripped it hard between his thumb and forefinger keeping my face turned to him. My body was trembling with fear and he smiled that awful icy grin as if my fear pleased him. I felt so naked standing before him, I shook painfully as if I were in freezing cold weather, unable to move. He was going to kill me, but he was planning to rape me first.
My legs trembled as he grabbed my arm and yanked me to his chest. There was blood in my mouth, and my lips quivered open as a silent scream left me from the pain that radiated all over my body. The thought of him touching me made me sick, so I started arching back, attempting to get away, but he only laughed. He ripped my top down the centre and tore it off my body, kissing my neck. I screamed, hitting him, but that didn’t make any difference. Adrian didn’t care that I found him repulsive.
He finally let go of me and I crashed on the floor, crying in agony. My vision was blurry, but then he was on top of me, his erection pressing against my core. I wanted to vomit on him, or rip his throat out with my teeth—do anything that would stop him. My salty tears burned my wounds as they fell down my cheeks. My strength was fading away and there was nothing else left for me to do, other than take my punishment.
He was fighting with the zipper of my jeans, grabbing my arse, panting. I kept telling myself that this whole thing would be over quickly, that the pain would go away soon. I was going to end up like Tobias’s wife. I should have listened to him and stayed away from Adrian.
“I bet you always wanted to feel my cock inside you. Now you will have the opportunity, you cheap white slut. I’m going to rip—”
He stopped talking, freezing on top of me. I didn’t dare to move, hoping that maybe he changed his mind. I was too scared to open my eyes, to see that revolting look of his desire. I wished that I could go back and change everything, warn Tobias that he should have stayed away from me.
“Come on, Pollack, finish your thought, because I really want to put a bullet into your head.”
That voice. No, it was impossible; I must be hallucinating. Tobias wasn’t really here.
I finally opened my eyes.
“Calm down, I wasn’t planning to hurt her. I was only joking.”
Tobias was standing behind Adrian. He had a gun pressed to his head. Tobias looked so calm. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. He shook his head, letting me know that I didn’t need to say anything.
“One more word and you’re dead,” Tobias growled. He sounded lethal, and I knew that he wanted to finish Lurkin off. His eyes still bored into mine intensely. I inhaled slowly waiting and expecting him to do it. Adrian had done things to me that were unspeakable.
Other people started to float inside the container, surrounding us. I held my breath waiting for the shot. Adrian’s pupils were dilated, eyes begging me to influence Tobias. He could go to hell for all I cared.
“Stanley, don’t be stupid,” said another voice from my left. “This piece of garbage doesn’t deserve the bullet. Handcuff him.”
I had no sympathy for Adrian. Tobias glanced around, but he didn’t lower his gun. My heart skipped a beat, and I sighed heavily, trying to dispel the tension building inside the container.
“You don’t want to end up in prison, my friend, not for my sake. I admit I’d been stupid, thinking that I could trust you—”
“Shut up, shut your fucking mouth!”
“Tobias, please, don’t do this. Let him rot in prison. Ellie needs medical attention. She’s bleeding.”
I couldn’t believe that Claire was there too. Tears welled in my eyes, but I couldn’t give up yet. I had to know if he was going to do it.
“The hell with this,” Tobias snapped and pistol-whipped Adrian with the butt of his gun. Adrian slumped forward on the ground next to me. Then someone shouted, and blackness engulfed me.
I felt myself drifting in the darkness. My head hurt. So much pain. My body was on fire, and my lids were too heavy. I wanted to scream, but I had no voice. My entire existence was consumed by earth-shattering pain.
“Detective Stanley, let us do our job. She’s bleeding.” I heard a voice that I didn’t recognise. I panicked, calling Tobias, but my throat was tight. I couldn’t draw a breath.
“Ellie, I’m here. Don’t talk… please. I’m here now and I will never leave you alone again, I promise,” he was choking words out through short sobs. It was him. I smelled his cologne, the sea breeze, but I needed to sleep so much. I was so tired of all this pain.
“Tobias,” I said, but I couldn’t hear my own voice.
“Ellie, oh God, don’t talk please. You will be okay and I love you. I just want you to know that. You’re brave and perfect and I love you so much. I can’t lose you.”
This was in my head. He wasn’t really saying all this to me. It must be a dream—what a great dream. But then I felt his hand, his big, calloused, warm hand touching mine, his fingers entwining mine. I believed him and I wanted to tell him that I loved him too, but I was lost to the fog, drifting into darkness again.
Tobias
“What’s happening? She’s not moving. Do something!” I shouted at the paramedic who was checking Ellie’s pulse. I was dying inside. This couldn’t be happening. That piece of shit had hurt her. I wished I had pulled the trigger.
“She lost consciousness, Detective Stanley; we need to get her to the hospital as soon as we can. She may have internal bleeding and might need surgery,” the paramedic was saying, but I wasn’t listening anymore.
We were in the ambulance and we’d be at the hospital any moment. I dropped my head and started praying, knowing that God couldn’t punish me like this for the second time.
Minutes turned to hours. They didn’t let me go with her when we arrived at the emergency room. The lead doctor was shouting to get me out of there as several nurses and doctors convened on Ellie. She was taken away and I sat down on the bench. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but I couldn’t sit still. I kept asking the nurse over and over if there was any news.
“How is she?”
It was Claire. I was surprised that she was here but relieved that I didn’t have to go through this alone.
“She’s in surgery. That bastard had beaten her so badly. Fuck! I wish I had shot that bullet into his head. God, why did I hesitate?” I shouted.
“Ssh, Tobias, calm down. She will be fine. She’s a fighter. Pollack has been charged. There was nothing more that you could have done. We have the case.”
“I don’t care about the case. If I lose her, that’s it. I will kill him myself,” I growled, hiding my face in my palms.
Then the door opened up and the doctor came out.
“How is she? Goddamn it, tell me!”
“Stable but still in a high dependency state. Her injuries were numerous. She has a severe concussion, a broken arm, a few broken ribs, a twisted ankle and a cracked cheekbone. We were concerned about a potential hemorrhage on her brain but the bleeding was from a superficial cut. The most serious issue was internal damage. Her liver and kidneys are fine, just bruised, and her spleen is intact. She ruptured a smaller intestine, but we managed to take care of it.”
“Thank God,” I sighed and flopped back on the chair.
“She can’t be disturbed just yet. You can see her in a few hours after she has left the recovery room. She will be on the HDU ward and she will stay there for a while,” the doctor added.
My Ellie was alive. It was the most amazing news I’d heard. She was saved and I loved her.
“Tobias, listen to me. Hodges is still out there, but I managed to find out that he owes a few of million to the Russians. We can still get him, but I need you to help me.”
I didn’t want to listen to her. I couldn’t leave Ellie. This whole thing had gone too far. I promised myself that Hodges would fucking pay for what he did, but there was no way I was going to chase anyone now.
“Not now, Claire. I’m done. I have to stay here. Hodges can go fuck himself for all I care.”
Ellie
Eight weeks later
“Ellie, you don’t have to do this. Tobias will rip me to shreds when he finds out that I put you in danger,” Claire said.
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, darling.” I chuckled. Claire and I both knew how he would have reacted if we had presented this idea to him.
Andrew was still out there, living off drug money, enjoying the high life. Maybe Tobias could forget about it, but I certainly couldn’t. There were rumours that he hadn’t been seen since Adrian got sent down. He left my father’s office that same afternoon, never to return again. I hadn’t been sleeping very well in the past few days constantly thinking about him getting away with everything, and how not one of us got any closure.
“Ellie, please. I don’t want to believe—”
“I asked you to do one thing for me, one thing, Claire, so you can’t bail on me now. Everything is going to be fine. Just trust me,” I said.
We were in the changing room in the club, when I was just about to dance for the final time. I went through a long and painful recovery. Tobias was beside me when I opened my eyes in the hospital eight weeks ago not remembering much at all. I couldn’t move, staring straight at his face. He looked shattered, like he hadn’t slept for days. He had large bags under his eyes, messy hair, and scruffy beard. His clothes were all greased up.
“Ellie, darling, please say something,” he kept repeating, looking at me with utter disbelief. I was disorientated, but slowly everything came back to me. Adrian, the apartment, him on top of me in that dark container. All of a sudden I couldn’t breathe, feeling suffocated by the memories.
Then it hit me what Tobias said to me just before I passed out. Those three words meant nothing. He was moving to Ireland, away from me.
“I thought that you would be gone. I thought that I would wake up and you wouldn’t be here,” I told him, feeling numb and sleepy.
“I wouldn’t leave you. I promised. I will never leave you,” he said, kissing my palms. I couldn’t believe he was saying this, that he was beside me.
“I saw the transfer letter, Tobias. I know that you were supposed to leave when this whole shit show was over,” I said.
He sighed heavily and moved closer. “Nosey Ellie…my place is here with you. I got scared, so I stupidly wrote my resignation. I love you, baby, and I died a thousand deaths in the past few days, thinking that I almost lost you.”
I wanted to open my mouth, but my jaw was still sore. A comforting warmth spread through my body faster than a lightning strike, igniting the fire in my belly.
“I love you too, Tobias, probably since the moment I saw you.”
“What are you smiling at? This is serious.” Claire pulled me back to the real world, shaking me.
Since that day in the hospital I’d had problems getting on with normal life. The investigation had been completed, but the case hadn’t been fully tried at court. True, they held Lurkin, whose real name was Pollack, on remand for attempted murder, but Andrew had gotten away. He vanished when he found out that Adrian was arrested. He left my father’s office and hadn’t been back since. He always was a coward, and I couldn’t believe that Tobias didn’t want to pursue this further.
It took me weeks to convince Tobias to look at the files again. He barely left my side. Claire visited me after my operation, apologising. I was an idiot turning up at that apartment, thinking that I could find something on my own.
“Nothing, I’m just concentrating,” I assured her, knowing that this was our only chance. We had been working on this plan for days and I felt like a traitor thinking that I had to exclude Tobias, but these days he treated me like I was made of glass. “They are here, and Kim will lead them straight in.”
“God, what am I doing?”Claire said. “Tobias will never forgive me if something happened to—”
“It will be fine and I won’t be in any danger. Andrew’s a coward. Come on, let’s go.”
Claire walked me to the door, going over our plan for the tenth time. I was a nervous wreck, my heart pounding, when I thought about seeing Andrew again, after all this time.
Tobias hadn’t wanted to talk about it, but four weeks after that conversation in the hospital, I made a phone call to Nathan. He wasn’t particularly interested in listening to what I had to say, considering that I cost him his job. My newspaper article insinuated that the club had been bought with drug money, and two weeks later the new owner had made the decision to shut it down.
I was looking forward seeing Andrew behind bars. Nathan hung up the phone once I gave him the overview of what I was planning. Then, a week later he called back. Apparently he was running a new strip club, but not affiliated with drugs and prostitution. He agreed to arrange something, as he still had contact with Andrew.
Nathan revealed that Adrian had promised cash bonuses to the staff but had never delivered on it. By the end of our chat I found out that one of the detectives implied that Nathan knew about everything that was going on in Coral but chose to keep quiet. He was going to go down, unless he was willing to help the department to lure Andrew out of hiding. Later on it turned out that Claire had been the detective that brought the charges against him. She probably knew that I wouldn’t let it go, so she decided to offer Nathan a deal.
I suggested Nathan send a special invitation to Andrew. A private erotic dance from his favourite girl was supposed to encourage him to explore the new club. My ex was a party animal, and I knew that sooner or later he would come out of hiding, looking for an enticing performance with something extra.
Nathan was willing to help, in exchange for some more publicity in the future. He wanted to make a living and the club was turning a profit. I didn’t say anything to Tobias, fearing that he might talk me out of it. He was staying in Edinburgh, and we were finally happy.
I put my mask on and waited a few minutes. My heart kicked me right in my chest, when I realised that Andrew had showed up. I was expecting him to be abroad, hiding in his large fancy mansion. It looked like he couldn’t stay away from Coral, probably assuming that no one would look for him in Edinburgh. He flashed me a confident smile and complimented my sexy outfit. He was wearing my favourite suit.
The music started playing instantly and once he sat down I started moving my body, swaying my hips from left to right. Nathan had told me that Andrew asked for a lap dance. I just had to pretend that I was all right with it. Andrew brushed his fingers over his chin, shifting on the comfortable sofa, and unbuttoning his jacket.
“Gorgeous, you’re amazing. I would love to see your face, babe,” he said when I was in front of him, bending my knees, presenting my ass to him.
I took a few steps forward, bent all the way down and turned around ripping my mask off dramatically.
Andrew’s face fell and he was on his feet within a second, looking astonished.
“Ellie? What the fuck are you doing here? What is this?”
“A lap dance. I thought that’s what you wanted?” I asked, running my hand down my hip.
“Your father sent you, right?”
“No, no one sent me. I just wanted to let you know that I don’t hold any grudge against you anymore, that we are okay.”
“Please, don’t be pathetic. I’m not going to apologise. We had a good time. I never promised you anything,” he added, dropping on the sofa, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I’m not expecting an apology, but I have a surprise for you,” I said. He raised his left eyebrow.
“Hmm, that sounds interesting.” He chuckled. “The last dance?”
“Something like that, but first I need to get something. A surprise. Just stay here for a moment. I’ll be right back,” I said and slid through the door, my heart pounding in my chest. Outside, I came face-to-face with two large Russian men. They looked impatient, eyeing me with their hardened dark eyes.
“He’s in there, alone,” I muttered and began walking away as fast as I could, not looking back. Andrew was in deep shit with the Russian Mafia, and Claire managed to find out that they were looking for him. Apparently they invested heavily in the stock that Lurkin had arranged to be brought from Spain.
While Tobias had been busy nursing me, Claire carried on working. The Russians wanted their money back, and Claire found out that Andrew had lost everything when police seized Lurkin’s truck. All his assets were assigned to his ex-wife and he was left with nothing except his flat, which the police seized as it was bought from the profits of drugs. Asset forfeiture they called it.
I figured out that I would get more satisfaction if I delivered Andrew straight to the Russians. Claire managed to leak that he was going to be in the club. One of the hostesses made a deal with us. She was supposed to bring the Russians to the performance room. I didn’t even want to imagine Andrew’s face when, instead of getting a lap dance, he had to explain himself to these very angry-looking men.
Claire was on her feet when I stepped back into the dressing room.
“All sorted. They are with him now. I guess he didn’t see that coming. I think we should call Tobias now.”
“You’re right, but I’m not making that phone call. He will be furious.”
I rolled my eyes and dialled Tobias’s number. This was going to be a long conversation and I had to brace myself, because I knew that he was going to be pissed.
