Marriage Reunited

Chapter 19

Lilly woke up with a pounding head and a mouth that tasted like cotton wool. Wherever she was it was pitch black and she couldn't see a damn thing. She tried to move and found her wrists and ankles restrained. It was quite disconcerting not to know where she was or who was in there with her. The last thing she remembered was Alexa's crumpled form and she hoped that she was alright. Her main problem right now was figuring out where the hell she was. She sensed movement in the room but couldn't make out where it was coming from. She moved her head from side to side and strained to see anything, but it made no difference. All she saw was darkness.

"Hello?" she called out. Her voice sounded thin and echoed but there was no reply. At least she wasn't gagged and prevented from calling out for help. That was probably a bad sign though. She'd once seen something that the only time a kidnapper left their victim without a gag was when there was nobody around to hear their cries for help.

Movement sounded again and Alexa strained to hear which direction they were coming from. She screamed when something brushed against her leg. That was when she realised that the movement, she'd heard wasn't from the shuffling of her kidnapper's shoes but from whatever bugs and rodents inhabited wherever she was being held.

"Oh god,' she whispered into the darkness. She'd never been a fan of bugs and rodents at the best of times and especially not when tied up and unable to move or even to see them. She tried to keep the fear at bay, but it was hard when she was aware of being stuck there and the space seemed to be closing in on her.

Time seemed to drag, and she kept drifting in and out of consciousness. She'd expected someone to come and talk to her or something. She wasn't sure what they'd wanted but it couldn't have been just to leave her alone in the dark. What was the point?

Lilly nearly jumped out of her skin when she opened her eyes from one of her unconscious moments to find a man kneeling in front of her with a small light behind him. She screamed and jerked back. He laughed as he straightened up.

"Welcome back princess," he said.

Terror flooded her veins as she realised that this was the man who had taken her. She recognised his voice, and she knew that whatever he was here for wasn't going to be good. She didn't even understand why they'd taken her. Surely, they were drawing more attention to themselves by kidnapping her than they would have done from robbing his house.

"What do you want?" she asked and was embarrassed at the quiver in her voice. She put that down to the fact that she could finally see some of her surroundings and could see the giant rats that were keeping a wary distance and the spiders that were scuttling away from the light.

"Your husband has become a thorn in my side," the man said, and Lilly frowned at that.

"What did he do?" she asked. She didn't understand why anyone would hate Connor enough to do something like this.

"He destroyed something of mine so I'm going to destroy something of his. I want him to suffer for the hell that he's put me through recently," the man said. He'd moved closer as he spoke, and Lilly was able to get her first good look at him.

He looked to be in his early 40's and had a bald head and a strong physique. A jagged scar crossed the length of his left cheek and she wondered how he'd gotten it. His eyes were the scariest part of him. They glinted with glee at the things he was doing but behind that glint she saw nothing but death and destruction. This man had obviously done terrible things in his life, to the point that his soul was forever tainted. That knowledge scared her as she realised that she may not make it out of this alive.

"I don't understand. What did he destroy?" she asked. Maybe if she could understand his reasoning behind kidnapping her then she could talk him round. It seemed like the best chance she had now. At least if all else failed then she would know the reasons why it had come to this.

"Your husband and his friends thought they were clever infiltrating my organisation and taking us down from the inside. Shame they didn't do their homework and realise that we are everywhere, and they can't get rid of us all," he said with a gleeful laugh. Lilly frowned. What the hell was he going on about?

"I don't understand. My husband hasn't tried to infiltrate any organisation," she denied. The only thing her husband dealt with was hotels and she doubted that the man before her was on about them.

"You don't need to protect him. We know all about his history. He may go by different names, but we know about his time in the army and his weakness for damsels in distress," the man said. Lilly's frown deepened. She might not have featured in his life for a few years, but she doubted whether he'd suddenly developed a double life.

"I think you have the wrong person," she told him. She wasn't sure how it had happened, but they'd mistakenly mixed up who they were after.

"Trust me, we don't."

Lilly couldn't believe that he wasn't taking this seriously. She was being held here and was terrified and all because they'd gotten the wrong person. She didn't know who they were after, but it definitely wasn't Connor.

"Trust me, you do," said a voice from the darkness around them and Lilly screamed as there was the sound of a gunshot and then the man in front of her fell. At first, she thought he was simply injured but then she saw his unseeing eyes and realised that he was dead. She screamed again, louder this time. She didn't even know who this new threat was, but she was certain that it couldn't be anyone good.

"Help!!!" she screamed. She knew that it was a long shot but maybe someone would hear her and save her.

"It's okay, Lilly," said the voice and she glanced up to find Connor stood there. She breathed a sigh of relief that turned in to panic when he moved closer, and she realised that this wasn't Connor at all. His features were harder than Connor's and he seemed more ruthless. Unlike the man that she had loved for years this man appeared similar to the one who had held her hostage. Both had eyes that suggested they would kill someone without remorse. The man at her feet was evidence of that fact.

"Who are you?" she demanded. The man before her looked startled as though he hadn't expected her to realise he wasn't Connor. She didn't understand how anyone could be fooled in to thinking that he was. This man was the polar opposite of her husband in every way and now that she had spotted those differences it was hard to even think that he looked similar.

"Not fooled huh?" he asked.

Lilly was about to answer when he bent before her and produced a knife. She stifled a gasp and eyed him warily as he moved the knife closer to her. Just as she thought he was going to use it against her he took hold of her bindings and sliced through them. She stretched her arms out and winced at the pain as she felt the blood flow back into her aching limbs. She watched him warily as he cut the bindings on her leg too before he sat back on his haunches and observed her curiously.

"Who are you?" she demanded again, and he gave her a crooked smile.

"Clean this mess up," he called to someone behind him and then before Lilly had any warning he leaned over, slid his arms around her and lifted her into his arms. She gave a squeak of surprise.

"Are you going to tell me who you are?" she demanded and was aware of his grin as he carried her out into the blinding sunlight.

"I'm Cameron, and you must be my lovely sister-in-law," he said.