Carter Reed Part 25

"Promise," she hissed.

Carter took her hand from my arm and transferred her to Theresa again. He moved so he stood between us. "Take her to the safe house. Emma will follow in a few hours."

Amanda's eyes still held mine as Theresa dragged her out. "Promise, Emma. Promise!"

Mike was in the hallway. He reached to close the door, but his eyes flashed me an apology before he did.

I was frozen once they were gone. A new storm had been awakened inside of me. Amanda wanted vengeance, but didn't she understand that I was the one who messed up. I brought Mallory to him.

"Emma."

I looked up. Carter had been watching me. He had an unreadable mask over him again. I s.h.i.+vered as I knew I was in the room with the Cold Killer again. He gestured to Ben. "What do you want?"

I licked my dry lips. "What do you mean?"

"What do you think?" He kicked Ben's feet. "This is your decision. What do you want done?"

"I..."

The memory of walking into my apartment rushed back to me. I was back there, all over again as Dunvan was raping Mallory. She was whimpering, trying to fight, but he only hurt her more. He wouldn't stop. So I had to do it.

I made the decision then. I wasn't sure if I could make it again.

"Carter," I rasped out. "I..."

"What do you think would've happened to Theresa had she talked?"

My eyes snapped to his. A surge of possession rose in me. "That was different. That was you. This is-"

"He's already killed her. He sold you out and then he got out of Dodge. Franco got him hooked. I bet he needed something to take the edge off, he was ramped up from selling you out and everything. Franco gave him something, said it was free and it'd calm him down. Stupid s.h.i.+t. He was hooked after that. When he wakes up, he'll be off his high. You're going to have a different Ben then. He's going to be crying. He's going to be begging for your forgiveness. What are you going to do?"

I flinched from his tone. "Why are you talking to me like this?" He was so harsh.

Carter reached down and dragged Ben further inside. He threw him into the middle of the living room. "Because when he wakes up, he's still going to be the son of a b.i.t.c.h that killed your friend. He came here for a reason. Why do you think he came here?"

"I..." I shook my head. I didn't want to know. I really didn't. "He's sick, Carter."

"Yeah," he laughed. It was an ugly sound. "He is, but he's smart. He's a survivor, Emma. He survived that whole situation with Franco breathing down his back. He prospered, getting money out of the deal. What does that tell you?"

"Stop it."

"No. You need to see the real Ben. He's going to wake up, blubbering like a baby and you can't buy into it. He'll say a lot of pretty words, how he's sorry for what did he do to his woman, but you can't fold. I'm trying to help you see the real Ben here."

I turned away, but he was there. He wrapped his arms around my waist and held me over Ben's body. I tried kicking, but he s.h.i.+fted his hold so I couldn't move anymore.

His voice came from behind my ear. "You need to stop blaming yourself for everything that happens to your friends. You need to know what kind of animal this guy really was. Now look at him. Look at him, Emma."

I refused.

He jerked my head down. Fine. If this is what he wanted, fine. I didn't see anything, just Ben. He was unconscious, but I couldn't shake the image of his wild eyes. He wasn't moving. He was just lying there.

Carter held me tighter. "What do you see, Emma?"

"Nothing. Him."

"Look at him. What do you see?"

What did I see? Nothing.

"Tell me what he's wearing."

"What? He's wearing baggy pants. So what?" I tried wiggling out of his hold again. "Carter, stop this."

"What's in his pants? Look, Emma."

Anger rose in me, but I looked. Then I saw it. There was a bag in his back pocket. "Is that what you're talking about?"

"What's in it?"

"I can't see it."

"Look. Yes, you can."

"Fine!" Then I saw the corner that peeked out of his pocket. "White stuff. You already said he was on drugs."

"Keep looking."

I noticed a bulge in the same pocket and moved to get free. Carter let me go this time and I knelt closer to Ben. I pulled the bag of white powder out. Another knife came with it. His phone was in the other pocket, along with a set of keys. "What does this all mean?"

"Why did he come here?"

"What are you doing?"

"He butchered your friend, Emma. He should've run, but he didn't. He came here. Why? To break the news to your friend? I doubt it. Open his phone. Look at the last number he dialed."

I didn't recognize it. "There's no name saved to it."

"Read it to me." When I did, he said, "That's the same number Graham dialed. My guess, it was his last connection to Franco."

"Franco's dead."

A groan came from Ben and Carter hit him in the head again. No more sounds came again.

"I want to talk to him."

He shook his head. "You're not ready."

"Why are you doing this?"

His nostrils flared as he pierced me with his eyes. "Are you kidding me? All you do is blame yourself for your friend's death. I get it. You just found out today, but I'm not going to let you keep blaming yourself. That'll screw with your head. I want you to mourn your friend, but you have to have the facts straight. You need to start doing it in a healthy way and your head's not clear, not when it comes to your roommate. I'm trying to help you with this guy. He's sc.u.m, but he was sc.u.m that your roommate brought in. You had no say over him. She brought him in. She stayed with him. She chose to go to him. Not you. I want you to be clear - you couldn't have stopped her from going to this guy. You can't blame yourself for that."

"And making me take inventory on Ben is going to help that?"

He lifted his hands. "It's a start. You need to really look at him for who he is. You never did. I heard you interact with him before. You thought he was annoying and stupid. You laughed at him. You never took him serious. You did what most girls do, you only see the surface. Every person gives you an image of what they want you to see. This a.s.shole looked pathetic to you, maybe lovesick?"

Everything was swirling inside of me. I was confused by what he was saying, but I only wanted to yell at Ben. He took her from me. He shouldn't have taken her from me. "Make him pay, Emma. Promise!" Amanda's shout came back to me and I shook my head. She was right. I was tired of Carter's lesson.

I started forward for him, but Carter hauled me back. His hand stayed on my arm. "What were you going to do?"

"I..." I had no idea.

He sighed in frustration, raking a hand through his hair. His shoulders bunched as he lifted his arm and the sleeve of his s.h.i.+rt slid down. His bicep doubled in size before his arm went back down. For some reason, I couldn't look away from his arm. His muscle folded back into place, but every part of him was sculpted to perfection.

"Are you checking me out?" His tone held a trace of amus.e.m.e.nt.

"What? No." But I was. My cheeks warmed and I hung my head. How could I do that? At this time, at this place?

He chuckled, "Don't beat yourself up. You're stalling. I'd stall too." He sighed as he hooked a foot underneath Ben's stomach. He flipped him over. One of his arms. .h.i.t the couch and stayed there. It couldn't slide back down from its awkward angle. Then Carter gestured to him and stepped back again. "Okay. Look at him again. Tell me what you see."

I had no idea. Nothing. He had on a nice s.h.i.+rt. There was cash in his front pocket. His jeans didn't look as baggy from the front and there were no stains. Even his shoes seemed new. Wait. His shoes were new. He was clean-kept. He had money. He had a working phone. He had drugs. My mouth dropped open.

"Getting it now?"

"He was high. I thought-"

"You thought what?" He was calm.

"I thought he was desperate and sad. Maybe he didn't know what he had done when he..." I couldn't say it. I should, but I couldn't. It was too soon.

"He gutted your roommate. He murdered her and he's not desperate, Emma." Carter grabbed the phone, pulled out the money, and picked up the knife. "He's got keys. That tells me he's got somewhere to go. He's got money, so he's not here to score quick cash. He's got drugs. That means he's got his next hit already with him. And he's got a second knife. My guess is that this is his favorite one. He used Amanda's knife on you, and he came with a gun. Where'd he get the gun?"

I shook my head. "It might be the one I used on Dunvan."

"Nope," Carter negated that. "My men took care of that one. This was his. He came here with a gun of his own, Emma. Put it all together. What are you getting?"

I shrugged. I was so tired, so d.a.m.n tired of it all. I felt myself growing numb again and shutting down. He murdered Mallory. The son of a b.i.t.c.h killed my friend and took away her baby. We could've, at least, had the baby. I wouldn't have cared if it was from Dunvan. It would've been half Mallory. She was a good person. The child would've been a good person too.

I wiped a tear away and sat on the other couch.

Carter sighed. His tone softened, "I'm sorry if I'm hurting you, but I'm helping you too right now. I'm trying to get you ready because he's going to wake up soon. Right now you're thinking that he didn't know what he did and he's going to use that on you. He's going to beg and plead. He's going to cry. He's going to use every trick he can think, but that's not the truth. None of it is. He knew what he was doing, Emma. He killed her and he bragged about it. You heard him. aWe saw his handiwork?' He wasn't here to kill Amanda. He could've done that right away. He was waiting for you. He knew what he was doing. Look past his surface and get a feel for him inside. What do you feel? Use all of it. Add it all up in your mind."

I shook my head. I couldn't. He was pus.h.i.+ng me too hard. "Why are you doing this to me?" I started to turn away.

He caught my arm and pulled me back. "Because you need to know everything and have all the facts in your head. I won't let you walk out of this apartment with regrets. Those will eat you up inside and I love you too much to watch you go through that. You're going to make a decision on what to do with him and you're going to own it. You have to know everything first."

I shook my head. I didn't want to do this.

He pulled me over to Ben's things. His voice was hard now, cold again. "Look at his s.h.i.+t. He broke in. He tied up the owner of the place. He has drugs. He has a gun. He has a knife. He has a phone. He's wearing good clothes. He's got keys to go somewhere. A person has an agenda when they go somewhere. They have a reason for everything they do. He's not looking for an immediate score. His last phone call was to Franco's guy. He was waiting for you. What was he doing? When he wakes up, it'll still be his goal. When you figure out the agenda, you figure out the person."

It was too much. Too many things were being stirred inside of me.

Carter broke. He said in a soft voice, "He already sold you out once and he was awarded for it. What do you think he was here to do? Again?"

My eyes got big and my heart paused. He was going to do it again. Carter was laying the groundwork. He wanted me to figure it out for myself. He was right, Ben would've convinced me. He would've cried and begged. I would've felt bad for him. h.e.l.l, Amanda and I always felt bad for him. We made fun of him, but we thought he was pathetic for how much he loved Mallory and pined for her.

Carter was right. I would've bought it.

"He's setting up long-term. He was here to grab you for Franco, or kill you himself." Carter went over and kicked at his feet. "My guess is that he was going to grab you, then call Franco and ask what he wanted him to do. He probably doesn't know that Franco's dead, no one does unless they're in the family."

"What would've Franco said?"

He shrugged as he kicked his feet again. "Franco would've had him bring you in, then he would've killed the guy. Your friend would've thought he was being so smart, that he had all it all figured out. He was going to get a big reward this time, bigger than just telling him who the trigger had been."

"It sounds so easy to him, killing me like that." I shuddered. My voice trembled, "Did he kill her that easy too?"

Carter had bent down and was untying Ben's shoes when he stopped and looked up. He stared at me for a minute before he replied, "This guy sounds like a normal controlling and abusive a.s.shole. He probably had a lot of fury built up over the years. He watched her with other guys?"

I nodded.

"Okay." He nodded to himself, like he had come to a decision. "You're not going to like hearing this, but this is what I think happened. The guy wanted your friend and he finally got her. And he got her all to himself. I'm sure he put on a whole show, how he didn't want you to go, but then, in truth, he liked that you were gone. He had her to himself. But once he did, I don't think it went how he thought it was going to be. Life spent in hiding ages a person. It was wearing on him. Franco got him hooked on drugs so he was getting high, he had a bunch of cash, and your friend started looking different to him. He started thinking about what he could do on his own. He started feeling more and more trapped by her. If it hadn't been for her, he could be living life grand. He knew I was with you. Someone told him at one point so he was hiding from me too. He blamed that on her too, since you were her roommate."

With each word, I felt more and more sick. My stomach had climbed into my throat by his last words. "Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because I'm painting you a picture so you understand that when he got high, he got angry, they probably got into a fight, and he killed her. He probably didn't even care that much anymore. She was a burden to him by then."

"How do you know this?"

"Because this is what I do. I figure people out. I figure out their agendas. And your buddy here, he's not some mastermind. He only thinks he was." He had Ben's shoes off and ripped off his s.h.i.+rt next. His pants were last before he stood up. "Are you ready?"

"Why did you undress him?"

Carter flashed me a hard grin. "You don't want to know that answer. Alright, here we go." He started shaking Ben again, kicking more at his feet. At first there was no response, but after a few more vigorous slaps on the face, he started to wake up. He sputtered and threw himself backwards. When he came up against the couch, he scrambled to his feet.

Carter pushed him back to the floor. "You stay there. Okay?"

Trembling, Ben nodded. His face looked drained of all his blood. And then he turned to me. His eyes widened, remorse filled them, and his lip started to quiver.

I looked away, sickened to the point where I was revolted now. Carter was right.

"Emm-Emmm-Emma," he stuttered out. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Oh my G.o.d. Oh my G.o.d. Oh my f.u.c.king G.o.d. I-what did I do? Mallory," he choked on her name. "What did I do to her? What did I do, baby? What did I do to you? Oh my G.o.d."

I couldn't hear it. I didn't want to. Without thinking, still hearing Amanda's shout in my head, I picked up his gun and swiftly turned in the same movement. I shot him. The sound went off, but I never heard it. His body slumped back down and his mouth stopped moving.

He was dead.

I had avenged Mallory.

Then I turned and left. I never looked back.