Khan (Bowen Boys, #2)(47)
He’d also raped her repeatedly with several different objects, the last being a knife. Caitlynne hadn’t told them this part, but Monica had seen it in her mind. Had the woman not had her throat slit, she would have hemorrhaged to death from the wounds to her vagina. Tony’s rage had escalated. And it was directed at her.
The lady at the dry cleaners was very nice. She’d asked about the necklace, and Monica had told her it was a wedding gift from her new husband. When the lady had remembered seeing her in the paper, she asked to have it signed. Monica waited at the counter for her to get it when she glanced out the window.
The sedan that had been following her was still there, but a man was walking away from it. She could see the window down on the car and thought that he’d been talking to them. The guards were very nice, and she didn’t doubt they had plenty of friends around. She knew that these two men were from this area. By the time she had signed the newspaper article and collected her now clean dress, she went out the door and smiled at the car. She was in her own car when she felt something touch the back of her head. She heard Tony’s laughter seconds before he spoke.
“You have been a very naughty girl, Monica. I have been looking for you for days and days. We had plans, you and I, and now you’ve messed them up.” She glanced at the other car to try and get their attention. “Oh they won’t be able to help you. I had to make sure that when I took you, I’d have you all for myself. They both died for you…because of you.”
“Please don’t do this. I just got married and I want to spend the rest of my life with…”
The pain exploded in her head. When he hit her, she slammed her head forward on the steering wheel. Blood poured from the wound as stars danced in front of her eyes.
“I want you to do just what I say and I won’t have to kill anyone else because of you. You’re going to drive correctly and do just what I tell you. If you don’t, I’ll shoot everyone we come across until you listen to me.” She nodded and felt the gun press harder into her head. “Turn out of this parking lot and toward Stadium Street. Make a left there.”
She drove for twenty-five minutes, knowing that if she did anything wrong or even looked at someone wrong, he would kill them. Terrified more than she’d ever been, she knew something was different about Tony. He was…she supposed the word would be confident, and seemed to have something completely worked out in his mind. She had a feeling that it was her being dead, and she wondered how she was going to get out of this.
Reaching out with her mind, she captured the mind of someone. She told him about the men at the dry cleaners. Since she was driving, she couldn’t hold onto any one person for very long so she told six people the same thing.
“Dead men at Washington State Dry Cleaners. Have Monica.” Over and over she would tell them and hoped that at least one of them would relay the information. When he had her pull up behind what she knew was his car, she turned off the engine to her car and knew that this was it. When he had her get into the passenger seat of his car, she dropped the necklace on the seat beside her and got out. There was no way she was letting him touch it.
She told six more people where to find her car. “Milner Street. Stolen car. Call police.” Monica didn’t know if that would really get her car stolen or someone would report it. She hoped someone would find it.
Monica expected him to shoot her as soon as they got in the car together. But he held the gun on her as he drove. When he started to sing to the music, she looked around for an opportunity to jump from the car. Then he reached over and grabbed her hand with his armed hand.
“You try anything and I will find a grade school, run this car into it, then shoot every child I see. You know that I’ll do it too. I’m a man with a plan.”
She nodded, terrified he’d do just that. She didn’t want any more deaths because of her. He told her good girl and continued driving.
By the time they were pulling into the parking garage, she was nearly doubled over sick with terror. He held the gun to her as he took his suitcase out of the back seat and motioned for her to precede him. When they entered the hotel, she couldn’t make her mind touch anyone else’s. She was going to die was all that kept going through her mind. She was going to die one day after saying, “I do.”
When he opened the door with his card, she walked into the room. She saw the suitcase go tumbling before pain exploded in her head again. This time, it took her to her knees. Before she could move away, a second blast of pain took her. As she was tumbling to the floor, she reached for anyone and touched the mind of Tony. Christ, he was going to make her suffer.
Chapter Seventeen
Khan was sitting at the table talking to his mom and dad when Caitlynne and his brothers came in. He knew immediately that something had happened. When he stood up, his mother leaned into him. He held her. Caitlynne told him to sit.
“I’d rather stand. I don’t know what you have to tell me, but if I’m standing, I can fall to the chair. If I’m already there, I’ll hit the floor.” He was babbling. He knew it, and so did everyone else. “Please tell me she’s still alive.”
“As far as we know. There’s no reason to believe he’s killed her.” He finally sat. “Someone called the…six people called the police about dead men at the Washington State Dry Cleaners. They were the men assigned to follow Monica. Both men were shot at close range by the same gun that killed two other people over the past two weeks. The callers had no idea why they called because, as they told the dispatcher, they didn’t have any dry cleaning, but they had to call. Also, they were to tell us that someone had Monica.”