Retribution

Chapter 13 - My Saviour

"Well, isn't this cute?" Adam said, stepping sideways across the drive.

Jake sidestepped with him, never faltering in his ice-cold glare. "There is many a thing I could call this. Cute is about the furthest word possible from any of them."

Adam continued inching towards the edge of the driveway. "I'm going to tell you how this goes, Pretty Boy. You're going to let me go," he said, relieving the pressure on my neck for just a second as he flicked the blade in Jake's direction. "Tonight, I am moving back into my family home—with my fiancée and my son. You are going to toddle on back to Hollywood and find someone else, who quite frankly will be ten times hotter than Lou Lou here anyway. You carry on with your happy life and we carry on with ours. Simple."

I cringed when he used my father's pet name for me—Lou Lou. No one but Dad had ever called me it. However, since his untimely demise shortly after Harvey's birth, Adam had taken on the role of using it whenever he was taunting me or trying to really upset me.

Still wearing his poker face, Jake stared back at him and shook his head. "That's a nice little plan you have there. Unfortunately, I have a few issues with it. Firstly, I'm not going to let you go. Secondly, I'm really not feeling the vibe here that Louisa wants you back in the house, so as a concerned citizen, I have a duty to help her. Thirdly, I'm not going back to Hollywood anytime soon, and to be brutally honest, natural beauty is far more appealing to me than plastic and silicone. So, sadly, for you, it's really not that simple."

Adam leaned over my shoulder. His hot breath lingered over me, the stench making me want to vomit. Being this close to him again made me hate myself even more for spending a year with him, let alone ten.

Tears streamed from my eyes, blurring my world and the fine details of Jake's handsome face. A deep chuckle erupted behind me. His whole body shook, causing the tip of the knife to scratch against the taut skin of my throat.

"I like your tenacity," Adam said. "Maybe in another life we could actually get along. Heck, I'd even bet that we'd make one hell of a team."

"I seriously doubt that. Put the knife down."

We were moving like crabs across the road. Out of the corner of my eye, I could make out a light blue car in my neighbour's driveway. Their house was a converted barn, having once housed the several horses who farmed the land surrounding our farmhouse. They were retired and travelled a lot, coming back every few months for a handful of weeks before jetting off on more adventures. This only heightened my sense of isolation.

Adam pressed the knife further into my neck. I yelped, straining away from it as much as I could. "I can put the knife down her throat. How does that work for you?"

A muscle twitched along Jake's jawline. As if someone had pulled a curtain closed, his features clouded over with a quiet fury. "It doesn't work for me at all. Let her go and we'll pretend this never happened."

Adam turned us ninety degrees left, now walking us backwards across the road. A chilly spring breeze tunnelled down the narrow road, covering me in shivers. The crunch of gravel beneath my feet told me we were now on the neighbour's driveway. Overhanging trees fell into my eyeline, their shade only driving the nippy Easter air further into me.

Panic coursed over Jake's face. He ran forwards. Alarm bells rung in my head. My mind raced with just what Adam could be planning.

"Na ah," Adam said.

A piercing stab broke through my soft skin. I screamed from fright and pain. A warm trickle oozing down my neck told me of my life now draining from me. I closed my eyes, trying to stifle the racking sobs begging to burst free.

Harvey. Harvey! I can't let him be with Adam. I can't!

I caught Jake's eyes and held my hands up in a stop sign. "Please, Jake. No."

Laughing behind me, Adam planted a disgusting kiss on my cheek. "See, Pretty Boy? She's loyal to me, through and through."

Vomit swamped up my throat. I'd have rather been kissed by a rabid wolf. The sharp weight pressing into my neck lessened. The familiar clunk of a car door opening gave me hope I might just escape with my life—this time.

"I'll see you later, Lou Lou. I'll get the bed nice and warm." He kissed my cheek again, making me recoil away from him as much as I could. "Might have to get the handcuffs out so we can reacquaint." He dropped his voice to a whisper and bit my ear lobe. "Can't wait, baby."

Before I could think anything, a hefty shove in my back sent me sprawling forwards. As was just my luck, we were still on the little bridge that was part of the neighbour's driveway. A small dyke lined the whole road on their side, leading all the way down to the riverbank that was roughly half a mile further down. Being barely a car length long and wide, and hardly ever used, no fencing had ever been considered.

I couldn't catch my balance in time and stumbling over my shaky feet meant I only had one place to go—over the edge of the bridge and into the mushy algae covering the bottom of the ditch. Falling face first into the dirty water, I was pleased to find it wasn't more than a foot deep. The bitter cold temperature of it made me gasp, literally stealing all the air from my lungs, but also making me inhale the dirty water.

In the fog of my mind somewhere, the noise of a wheel-spinning car echoed around me. Pieces of gravel pelted me and my slimy bed. Dazed, I lifted my head and looked around me.

"Louisa!"

I stumbled to my feet, nearly falling as everything moved seconds after me. Jake jumped straight in, covering his designer clothes in the stinking algae.

"Your clothes," I said, my voice all but a whisper.

He wiped the clinging wet hair back from my face and cupped my cheeks. "I can get more clothes," he said. "I can't get another you."

Then, he wrapped his arms around me and carried me to safety.