Lost in Me (Lost Duet #1)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Shawn

Ethan and the others have Jesse on his stomach with hands behind his back. I slowly make my way over to the side of the bed. My heart sinks as she doesn’t open her eyes. Even if she wanted to, I know she couldn’t. Her eyes are swollen shut. I gently undo the chains from Emory’s ankles and wrists. She is passed out, partly because of the blood loss and partly because of the beating she just survived. I fear what would have happened if we didn’t come through the door.

She is covered in blood from the cuts. I slowly look up and down her body and see the little cuts everywhere. The knife is on the bed, covered in her blood. I gently take her into my arms, her head resting against my chest as I turn and look at Jesse. His eyes are deadlocked on Emory as I turn and walk out of the room and up the stairs. His screams fill the entire house as I make my way up the stairs and down the narrow hallway to the broken-down door.

I take a step out of the door. I see about ten of my guys standing by my car with their guns out. They have been watching the woods. I didn’t think Jesse would have men with him. His pride is too fucking high for that.

He actually believed he would get away with this and that I wouldn’t find her. That I wouldn’t make him pay. His pride and ego are what will get him killed. He is already dead.

I take a deep breath as I make my way to my car. My guy opens the back door of the car. I lean in and gently place her across the back of the car. Another one of my guys opens the other door. I watch him closely as he puts his hands under her shoulders and gently pulls her across the back seat of the car. She is completely naked. The blood has slowed down, but the wounds are open and exposed.

I take a deep breath as I remove my jacket and lay it on top of her. Her eyes are closed. Her swollen black-and-blue eyes. Her lips are cut, bleeding, and her entire face has cuts and bruises from him beating her. Her breathing is slowed. Too fucking slow. We need to get her to the hospital, but first, I have to deal with Jesse.

“I need you to take her to the hospital,” I state through gritted teeth.

“What?” my guy asks in a confused and surprised voice. He is not the only one that is surprised I don’t want to fucking leave her again, but she needs help, and I am not leaving until the job is done with Jesse.

I take a deep breath as I allow the tears to roll down my face. “Please, she is dying. Take her to the hospital. I will be there soon,” I whisper, trying to hide my fear, but I know my guy can hear it.

“Shawn,” he whispers, trying to plead with me, but nothing he says will change my mind. She needs help, and I need to stay here.

“Oliver, you need to take her now before I lose her and my unborn child,” I plead through gritted teeth. I don’t want to leave her, but I must keep my promise. I have to kill Jesse. I fucking have to.

“Okay, I will take her to the hospital. But hurry, okay?” Oliver states.

I nod. “I will,” I state with as much confidence as I can in this moment, which is not much. Everything is fucking uncertain. There are many things I don’t know. Everything is fucking out of control, but I know the one thing I can control is how Jesse dies.

I slowly stand up and look at her one more time, and then I close the door and take several steps back. Oliver gets into the driver’s seat along with another one of my men. He starts the car and pushes on the gas. I watch them disappear into the night. I fucking pray he gets her there in time.

I slowly roll up my sleeves and turn around, making my way back up the stairs and into the house that is now filled with Jesse’s screams. I make my way back down the narrow hallway, passing the picture of him and Emory. I turn and go down the stairs.

I can hear Jesse crying and screaming. I can hear Ethan and the others beating the shit out of him, just like I knew they would.

I slowly make my way into the room. Jesse is on the floor, curled up in a ball, as my men continue to beat him. I slowly make my way over to the bed. I reach down and grab the knife he was using to cut my future wife, the knife he was using to try and get her to submit.

And from what I could tell, she never gave in to him, and that is why he decided to try and kill her. She wouldn’t give him herself. So he was going to make sure I wouldn’t have her either. I look down at the bloody bed. The thoughts flooding in of what he has done to her on this fucking bed. What he has done to her in this fucking room.

We saw all the locks on the doors. I saw the chains connected to the bed, making sure she couldn’t move much. He really fucking thought of everything, or at least he thought he thought of everything. He underestimated me. He underestimated our love for each other, and now it will cost him his life.

“Put him on the bed,” I state, taking a small step back, making sure they have room to put the chains on his wrists and ankles.

“Make sure they are tight,” I state softly as I continue to look at the bloodstains still wet on the bed.

I can hear Ethan and the others picking Jesse off the floor. They quickly make their way across the room and place him on the bed. He tries to fight them as they chain him to the bed.

I look down at his chest and see Emory’s name tattooed there, making my blood boil for a whole new fucking reason. The only thing he is wearing is black sweatpants. His eyes lock with mine as I take a step forward, gently touching the blade with my fingertips.

“I read about this place in her file. Read about what you did to her that sent you to prison,” I state calmly as my blood begins to boil, more thoughts flood into my mind. Her file gave me a clear picture of what Jesse put her through and what he was willing to do to keep her.

I have read a lot of files, but hers brought me to my knees in my office, and that is when I started watching her, making sure she was okay. That is when the hot and cold really started between her and me. She knew I read her file. Everyone fucking knew I read her file.

And most women would be pissed and freak out, but she didn’t. She didn’t confront me. She just allowed me to read and learn about her. It helped me understand her a lot better. It allowed me to understand why she was the way she was.

“Fuck you!” Jesse screams as he starts to struggle against the chains causing them to get tighter and tighter. He keeps his eyes locked on me as I take another step toward the bed.

“I see no shame or guilt in your eyes for what you have done,” I state. It wasn’t a question but a very blunt statement.

I am not surprised I don’t see emotions like that in his eyes, because honestly, I don’t think he feels those emotions.

“I love her. It is none of your fucking business how I show her!” he screams with confidence. Confidence that makes my stomach turn into fucking knots. It amazes me that he fucking believes the shit that comes out of his mouth. Even now, when he knows he will die by my hands, he doesn’t fucking change. He will stick to his lies until the moment he dies, which, lucky for him, will be very soon. I allow a small chuckle to leave my lips as I continue to look into his eyes.

“She was never yours, and she will never be yours,” I state with just as much confidence. She is mine. She belongs to me just like I am hers, and I belong to her. We complete each other in a way he will never understand, in a way a lot of people don’t understand, but I don’t fucking care.

I don’t fucking care that people think our love is wrong or that it is forbidden. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is we want each other and we love each other. Everything else and everyone else can fuck off.

Jesse takes a deep breath allowing my words to swallow him whole. “Soon, death will claim her and your child, and they will both be mine forever, you motherfucker. You did this. All you had to do was walk away, but you didn’t, and now you will suffer a life without her, and I will have her in the afterlife. Guess I have still won,” he says with a smile. A smile that won’t last very long.

I look down at the knife in my hand and feel the sharpness against my fingertip, imagining what my Angel felt each time Jesse cut her skin. Each time, she screamed for me to help her, but I wasn’t here. I should have fucking been here.

I look back at Jesse. He won’t say it, but I can see his fear. It is radiating off him just like I know it was radiating off my future wife. “Let’s see if you can take the pain you gave,” I state, allowing a small smile to form across my lips.

“You will never fucking break me. You fucking prick,” Jesse snaps back. He actually thinks he can fool me, but he can’t. I see right through his fucking bullshit. He will break. They always break eventually, and looking at him now, I can tell he won’t last that long.

“We will see, won’t we?” I state in a low, dark voice.

“See what?” he asks.

I allow for the smile to grow across my face as I tilt my head to the side. “If you scream like a little bitch,” I answer.

I see the rage building in his eyes. His breathing becomes more unstable. This prick won’t last long at all. He thinks he is in control. He thinks he can talk his way out of this. I am done fucking talking.

“You know she screamed for you. She screamed for you as I pushed my fingers into her pussy and took what was already mine. She screamed for you, but you weren’t here, Shawn. You weren’t here to stop me,” he states with his own smile thinking he will get into my head.

But it won’t work. I am done playing his fucking mind games. It is time he fucking plays my game.

“I am now,” I state softly as I close the rest of the distance between us. I lift my hand with the knife and gently place it against his chest. I begin to press down, watching the blood slowly start to leave his soon-to-be-open wound.

It has been so fucking long since I have killed someone, but this is a promise I must follow through with. I can be a better man tomorrow. Tonight, right now, in this moment, my Angel doesn’t need a better man. She needs the old me. The old me is the one who will make sure this gets done. The old me will make sure he feels every little fucking thing we do to him.

I tighten my grip on the knife as I start to slice down the middle of his chest, putting more pressure as I make my way down, watching more and more blood pour out of the wound. Hunting knives are perfect for cutting flesh. It was an idea Ethan came up with on the jet, a perfect fucking idea. I continue to slice down to his stomach.

I look up at Ethan, nod, and watch him and the rest of my men take out their knives. They all come to the bed and lean down, placing their knives on a part of Jesse’s body, and we all begin to cut through his flesh.

It only takes a few moments before he starts to scream and struggle against the chains. The chains that refuse to let him go. The chains that will make him stay in place as we each carve his flesh, making him feel fucking everything he has ever made Emory feel. I know I can’t take back what he has done to her, but I can make sure he will never do it again.

I look down at my hand. The knife is now down by his dick. I forgot how easy it is to cut into a man’s flesh, but it is all coming back to me now. The high that comes along with holding someone’s life in your hand. I look down at my hands. They are covered in his blood, and I slowly move, making sure to keep my knife against his dick as I position myself at his feet.

“Now you know what she felt,” I whisper to him as I cut into his dick. His body starts to shake and his screams get louder as I reach down with my free hand keeping his dick in place as I watch the blade cut through. I can feel his blood on my chest, arms, and face.

He will never be able to do this to anyone ever again. No one will remember him. No one will care that he is gone. He will be nothing but a fucking nightmare that won’t even exist. He will fade. His name will fade.

I stand up, releasing his limp dick, not a fan of holding someone’s fucking dick in my hands, but it was worth it. It was worth watching the blood pour out. The blood loss alone will fucking kill him, but that is too easy.

I look up his body at the carvings my men have made. I look up at Jesse. His eyes are wide, and he is staring at Ethan as Ethan grabs his tongue and cuts through it with his knife.

Guns would have been cleaner, but I didn’t want clean. I wanted pain and suffering, and the knife is the perfect way to do it. You fucking feel everything with a knife. There is no escaping it.

It only takes moments for Ethan’s hunting knife to cut through Jesse’s tongue. The tongue is a strong muscle, but it is no match for Ethan and his rage. He doesn’t love Emory like I do, but she is a part of his family now, and I know Ethan would make anyone suffer for doing harm to a person he sees as family.

We all take a step back as Jesse continues to bleed out. His screams are no longer loud as he tries to breathe through the blood filling his throat.

I slowly make my way around the bed and stop at his side. He turns his tired head and locks eyes with me as I lean in and place my blade against his throat. “Just remember who she loves,” I whisper as I slice across his throat. I back away, watching the light from his eyes start to dim, the cold darkness of death starting to take him.

I feel a hand rest on my shoulder. I turn and look at Ethan. His breathing is steady and even. His face is covered in blood.

“Brother, you need to go,” Ethan states, making my heart race. I can’t, not until this is done, I promised. I fucking promised her.

“What? No. I can’t. I promised,” I state in a low, shaky voice I don’t recognize.

Ethan takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. Both our hearts are racing from what we just did. “Shawn, listen to me. He is dying. He will be dead in a few minutes. You have kept your promise to her, brother. Emory needs you,” he says, begging me to listen to him.

I take a deep breath as his words sink in. I turn and look down at Jesse. He is no longer moving. He is covered in blood. Ethan is right. Any minute now, he will be dead.

“Okay,” I whisper, dropping the knife to the ground.

“We will stay here and deal with the body. You need to get to the hospital,” Ethan states.

“Okay,” I whisper again.

“Oliver texted me that they are looking over Emory right now. You need to go,” Ethan states softly, dropping his hand from my shoulder.

I quickly turn around and head out the door, up the stairs, and down the narrow hallway. After this is done, I am burning this fucking house to the ground.

I run out the front door to my car, which is already turned on. The door is open. My men take a step back and nod at me as I quickly make my way to the door. I slide in and slam the door, putting the car in “drive.” I push down on the gas and start to make my way down the dirt road leading into the woods.

I feel my heart racing more. I speed down the dirt road and turn onto the main road, heading back toward the town we drove through not that long ago.

Please, Angel, hang on. I’m coming. I promise I am coming. My own words are repeating inside my head as I push down on the gas, hoping and praying that when I get to the hospital, I am not too late.