Heartless Lover by Faith Summers
32
Summer
One hour later we’re walking up the side of an alleyway in downtown.
I have no idea where we’re going and the only assurance I have is Eric’s warm hand covering mine, holding mine.
We were silent on the drive here and we’re silent now, but everything in my head is a mess and so loud I can’t pick my thoughts apart.
When we get down the alley, I see Borya. At least the sight of someone I know soothes me somewhat, although I still have no idea what’s happening.
“It’s not a pretty sight, Boss,” Borya states. “And it smells like piss and shit inside there.”
“She won’t be in there for long,” Eric replies.
I tug on his hand, and he looks at me.
“What’s going on Eric?”
“Justice, Babydoll. Justice.”
The first thing I think is he got Robert, but he said he’d tell me if he did. Is this his way of telling me.
“Did you get Robert?”
“No, the other monster.”
My lips part in horror because there’s only one person that could be.
Ted.
My soul shivers and my legs feel like deadweights, but I move when he pulls on my hand.
We go through a metal door and into a place that looks like a meat locker.
It’s dimly lit and eerie, like somewhere you’d find in a horror film.
We go down a set of stone stairs and then we’re in a basement surrounded by ten men who undoubtedly look like mafia men—a mixture of Russian and Italian.
Eric nods at one of the men and as the man steps aside I see the monster from my nightmares. The monster who started all of this.
Ted.
Ted sits in a chair with his hands and feet bound with tight ropes. Blood covers his white dress shirt, and his face is marred with bruises.
How the hell did Eric get him?
How?
As Ted lifts his head to look at me, I remember the last time we saw each other.
I remember how he threatened to kill me if I didn’t get rid of the baby. He waited for the right moment to strike which was the day Scarlett left to go and live with Dad. I went to a seedy motel and that’s where his goons caught up with me. I barely got away from them when one of them fired a gun—another bullet meant for me. That’s what made me trip down the stairs and fall.
Someone heard them and that’s the only thing that stopped them from pursuing me, but it was too late. I was already bleeding by the time I got to the hospital.
I return my gaze to Eric when the man who is standing by Ted holds out a TV remote to him. Eric releases my hand to go to him and take it.
“Thanks Pakhan,” Eric replies, and I know just from the word Pakhan I was right about the men in the room.
The Pakhan is the Bratva leader.
I don’t get to contemplate anything further because Eric holds out the remote and switches on a TV that comes to life on the wall. The flat screen surface seems odd for a place like this.
That’s irrelevant though because Ted’s face appears on the screen.
It’s a recording of him sitting in his office looking the way he normally does when he addresses the people of New York. There’s one exception though, he has the fear of God in him.
We all stare at the screen watching him as he begins talking.
“Good evening,” he begins and adjusts his collar. “This is the last time I will address the people of New York in my post as your Governor. It’s been an honor to serve this state. Before I leave, I have some confessions to make. I am a fraud and I have set things up in the city to embezzle millions of dollars, mostly to wiring funds to my prostitution and drug ring. I have also been sexually abusing young girls for years. Girls as young as twelve.”
When he pauses, I stop looking at the TV version of him and look at the demise of the man before me. He looks back at me too and I feel retribution.
I’m so glad I lived to see this moment and it was all made possible by the man before me who saved me in so many ways.
“This is the end of the road for me,” TV Ted continues, and I agree. “I will be reimbursing all the money I have taken in whatever ways I can. I will also be resigning from my post as your governor tonight. I apologize for the disappointment I am to you. It was best if I told you what I did.”
The recording cuts and Eric crouches down to him, pressing his lips together in a thin line of displeasure. It’s only then Ted looks at him.
“Ted Nicholson, my name is Eric Markov. I’m the guy who orchestrated this little rendezvous to get you here. We represent Summer Reeves.” When Eric says that something inside me heals, and I feel like the girl I was before Ted came into my life. I feel like the girl who had such big dreams and always believed she could accomplish them.
“The world will see that recording within the hour,” Eric continues. “But you have one last thing left to do, don’t you, Governor Nicholson?”
“Yes,” Ted mutters.
Eric stands up and looks over at me. “Come here, Summer.”
Keeping my gaze trained on Ted, I walk over to them and stop beside Eric.
“Apologize to her now,” Eric shouts and the harshness in his voice makes Ted jump.
“I’m sorry for what I did to you, Summer,” Ted begins but it doesn’t feel like it’s enough. “I’m sorry for what I did to you and your family. It was my fault your mother killed herself. Not yours.”
He looks at me as if he wants me to tell him I accept his fucking apology.
“The only thing that matters here is I heard those words come out of your mouth, but I know you don’t mean them,” I tell him. “I truly hope you go to hell.”
“It wasn’t my intention to—”
I land a punch in his face so hard I hear bone crack. Blood spurts from his nose and I spit on him. I then back away because I know for all the rage I feel that’s all I can do.
Eric touches my arm and steadies me.
“Summer, this is Aiden, my Pakhan,” he says motioning to the man he’d spoken to earlier. “He’s going to take you home. I won’t be too long.”
I’m so shaken I can’t talk. I open my mouth to speak but the words don’t come.
The next few moments go by in slow motion and then I’m escorted away.
I look back at Ted one last time before Aiden and I get to the top of the stairs and see the doom in his face.
The doom is the same I felt since he walked into my life.
When we get through the door, and it clicks shut one gunshot goes off and I know Ted is dead.
Another gunshot echoes when we step through the door, and I think of Scarlett. This was for her too.
I can’t change the past, but now I can truly be free of Ted, my childhood monster.
