It had been hard saying goodbye to DJ but he’d been so excited about spending the week with grandpa Dale, grandma Ann and his cousins, she refused to get emotional and make him feel guilty for leaving her. But she felt it would be safe for him and she needed to look at what was in the flash drive without distraction. She looked down at Damien, who was asleep next to her. His body exposed to the waist where the comforter covered his manly bits that she’d grown obsessed with. The moment DJ was out of the house, he’d attacked her, not even caring that his cousin and her sister were still in the vicinity. At least he’d had the presence of mind to wait until they were in their room to strip her of her clothes.
There was something different with how he made love to her. He’d fought to be gentle, but the fear she felt coming off him in waves made that a losing battle and with her encouragement, he’d taken her a little too savagely. But she couldn’t complain, her body still tingled from the after effect. But it did raise the question as to why he was so scared. Anger should have been at the forefront for him after her confrontation with Tom not fear. Which begged the question what was he so afraid of?
She powered up DJ’s laptop and plugged in the drive. A picture of her popped up or was it Ellie?
“Ellsa Natasha Jabari,” she read out the caption below it. The names did sound familiar. Natasha… Tasha? “I thought my last name was Smith?”
After an hour of reading what was on the drive, Tasha felt her body begin to shake violently.
“This can’t be true! None of this is true!”
“Babe, what is it?” She heard Damien’s voice and as hard as she tried to look away from the bloody images on the screen she couldn’t move. The trance was broken when the laptop was slapped shut and it clattered to the floor when it was shoved off the bed. Damien drew her onto his lap. He rocked her, rubbing her back.
“Babe, you’re so cold,” his voice trembled, so did his hands as he drew the comforter up and around her. But she still felt cold, right to the core of her being.
“Please tell me it’s not true. That I didn’t do that?” God she felt sick to her stomach. As hard as she tried to get them out of her mind, the images were like a slide show in her head, the next more gruesome than the last. Did she really do that and to men she’d called friends once upon a time? And Ellie and Dale… Dear God! No wonder the man hated her.
Bile rose in her throat and she fought out of Damien’s arms and rushed into the bathroom. She’d barely made it to the toilet bowl when her lunch came rushing out. She felt something cold at the back of her neck, her hair held up and away.
“Oh babe… I’m going to kill whoever gave you that!” the last part was said with such venom, it frightened her, turning her stomach even more.
All those nightmares started to make sense. The names made sense, their faces became clearer, but her as a murderer? She still couldn’t associate herself with that mad woman. It couldn’t be her.
“I didn’t do that! I wouldn’t willingly hurt people,” she said vehemently, her voice echoing in the toilet bowl, “That wasn’t me!”
She felt Damien crouch behind her, “No babe. That wasn’t you.”
“I thought Mike was my friend? Why would he betray me like that? Why would he paralyze me through my son just to make me their genie pig?”
“No kind of explanation can excuse what he did. I don’t want him anywhere near DJ ever again!”
She pulled away from him and fought to stand up on her shaky legs, “I need a shower, I need…” to crawl into a hole and die, “to be alone.”
She didn’t dare look at Damien because she wouldn’t be able to stand the pain on his face. She stood there until she heard the door close and felt the loneliness encompass her. Slowly she stripped off his t-shirt and stepped into the shower. She turned both faucets on and sank to the floor, hugging her knees to her chest.
She was a murderer, and if what that file on the career she’d apparently chosen for herself said was true, she was too dangerous to be left alive. She felt the scar along her head that she’d always thought was a result of a car accident, gingerly with the tips of her fingers like she was too afraid it was real. That right under there, there was a chip that tormented her nights under there.
Vladimir the madman behind it all. It was clear no one was safe until he had her. And if his obsession ceased to exist, would her family finally be safe? Would DJ be safe?
****
“Which one of your friends did this?” Damien barged into Dale and Ellie’s room with murderous intent.
Dale quickly sat up, moving forward to block Damien from seeing any more of Ellie than he already had.
“What are you talking about?” he demanded.
“Tasha knows she’s Ellsa and everything that comes with the name. Someone sent her pictures Dale, fucking pictures!” he gnashed out.
“Turn around,” he ordered calmly and Damien spun giving them his back. A few second later, Ellie bumped into him as she run out of the room. Obviously to go to Tasha because why would she ever be afraid of him with her husband around even if he wanted to wring her neck for bringing in her friends on a family matter.
Damien turned to face his cousin. He was in sweat pants and shrugging a t-shirt on. He came to him holding another tee, “Would you like a tee?”
Damien was taken aback by how calm he was about it all, “Would I—would I like a tee?” he grabbed it out of Dale’s hand, “No, what I would like is to put my fucking fist in someone’s fucking face! Whoever sent her those things destroyed her!”
Dale held his hands up, “Losing your temper isn’t going to help. She needs you calm and rational. The only thing left to do is explain everything and try and get her to understand that none of it was her fault.”
“She already knows every single detail—wait, none of it was her fault? Are you sure of what you are saying?”
Dale rubbed the back of his neck, “The only reason I caught those bullets that day was because I wanted to protect Ellie, instead I made myself a moving catcher. Kevin and Richard went through the surveillance again. She shot wide and I got shot because I stepped in the way. Ellie was never in danger.”
He scratched the top of his head with a sigh. “Ellie always said her sister would never hurt her no matter what. That something wasn’t right with the whole situation. I always resented her dedication to her sister even after Ellsa was put away, always looking for some sort of explanation for her going nuts. Well, it seemed like she was right all along. And now that she’s found out someone was controlling her like a remote controlled action figure…” he shook his head, “I would need my family to help me hold it all together or I would fucking lose it!”
Damien couldn’t even enjoy the relief of Dale’s change of heart, knowing his lover’s heart was going twenty rounds in the guilt ring. He only hoped that they would be able to help her realize that even though she might have been the gun, she was not the shooter.
****