Captive

Chapter Thirty Four

The room seemed to be closing in around her as her ears filled with a rush of air, all the noise drowned out by the ringing and hissing sound. Her heart rate accelerated and her eyes widened as if unable to process what she was seeing in front of her. The whole of her body went numb, her hands which had been gripping the tray full of glasses slipping from her fingers. As it crashed to the floor and there was an explosion of glass around her feet she didn't even flinch, her eyes fixed on the sight in front of her as she tried to tell herself it was a dream, a nightmare. Her lips moved silently but not a sound came from her apart from the laboured breaths of pure fear. Automatically her legs took her a step back and she staggered against the table as hands reached across to steady her. Shaking her head she couldn't look away from the grey eyes of the man who had so badly hurt her ten years earlier. His head was tilted to the side, his black hair flopping across his face as he regarded her with a slight smile curving his lips, as if he didn't know he was the root of her every nightmare, the monster under her bed. He reached out a hand as if he would touch her and she recoiled, a small cry of fear escaping her lips which caused a confused expression to fall across his face.

"Why darling what on Earth are you doing here? I had to call your publisher to find an address for you. I went to the house but it was all locked up, empty, though I can't pretend to be disappointed to not see your father." Her mother's cut glass voice seemed to be coming from down a long tunnel, talking at her rather than to her.

"Surely you are not so hard up you need to work in a place like this collecting glasses of all things," Edward chipped in, looking about himself disdainfully. The floor seemed to tip as he then spoke, the person who had caused all of her nightmares for so long, his voice so normal, ridiculously normal when he was nothing but a monster.

"Hope you don't mind but thought I'd tag along. It's so long since I saw you Juliet and I thought it would be nice to catch up as we'll be family again very soon."

"N... no," the word escaped her lips in a strangled whisper which nobody but her heard and she managed to take another step back, just as Bret reached her. He slipped his arm around her waist,conscious of the eyes that were staring at them and then without a word to the three people standing in front of them he turned Juliet away and steered her to the back, just as Owen, Brian and Davey approached him.

"Get them the fuck out of here and make it clear if they set foot in my bar or my house they won't make it out alive," he said through gritted teeth.

"Fuck are they doing here?" Brian growled as he turned to do as Bret had ordered. Gently taking Juliet away from the prying eyes Bret helped her to sit on the chair in the back room behind the bar. She didn't speak, didn't cry, just sat staring, her hand at her heart gasping for breath. Going across to her handbag Bret took out her jar of pills and then grabbed a water bottle too, unfastening it and handing it to her with a couple of pills. She took it from him without a word and swallowed the tablets automatically. The door opened and Davey came through, glancing warily at Bret before he looked down at Juliet, his worry very clearly written across his face.

"Was one of them the bastard that put the scars on her?" he asked and Bret nodded, his mouth drawn in a thin line. "And we're to let them just walk out of here?" For a moment Bret stood,completely still but then he cursed and turned to walk away but as he did Juliet suddenly got to her feet, grabbing his arm desperately and for the first time since she saw her mother walk into the bar with the two men she feared the most a small sob escaped her lips. At the sound of it, Bret knew he couldn't walk away, couldn't go after them because she needed him more. Pulling her into his arms he held her as her body shook with sobs. Davey observed for just a moment and then he stalked away, his eyes narrowed. Bret saw him with the rest of the Hart Foundation briefly before the door closed and saw his boys heading out of the bar. Deciding for now that he didn't need to know what they had planned between them he focused entirely on Juliet. The door opened again and this time Jim came in.