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“NO!”
Her scream cut through the air.
His hand was free now, and she knew exactly what he was going to do next. He’d reach for the gag and pull it away from his mouth, and then he’d make her do whatever he wanted.
Still, she didn’t give in. Even though deep down she thought all hope was lost, she scrambled to her feet and threw herself at him. He still had one hand tied to the metal hook in the ceiling, but, just as she’d thought he would, instead of trying to untie that hand using the one he’d freed, his fingers went straight to the gag at his mouth.
His words were his weapon.
She caught his freed arm, dragging it away from his face, but he shook her off. She was injured, and even with him half tied up, he was stronger than she was. Everything hurt. Her face throbbed, and the back of her head pulsed with pain. She was tired, so tired, and she just wanted all of this to be over.
His fingers hooked the gag and he yanked it from his mouth. “Stop it, Olivia. For fuck’s sake. Just stop.”
It was done. Micheal was free. Now she’d die, too.
Liv dropped to her knees, giving in to great, painful sobs. She put her hands over her face and cried until the salty tears mixed with the blood, and the combination dripped through her fingers and onto her jean-covered thighs.
“What are you going to make me do?” she cried.
He stared at her with those deep brown eyes—eyes she’d once convinced herself she’d cared for. “Make you do? I can’t make you do anything.”
His hand was working the knots that bound his other wrist to the metal hook now. He’d be free soon. Not that it mattered. It was all over.
“I know what you can do,” she said, lifting her eyes to his, forcing herself to be brave even though she knew she wouldn’t have much longer to live. “I know you hurt those women.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, Liv? I haven’t hurt anyone.”
“Okay, maybe you didn’t physically hurt them, but you made them hurt themselves.”
Confusion clouded his features. “How the hell did I do that?”
She staggered back to her feet. “Don’t lie to me! I don’t know how you do it, but you’re able to make people do things. You tell them to do it, and it puts the thought into their head. You’ve done it with me plenty of times, and you did it to the others as well.”
“I seriously have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.”
She shook her head and pointed her finger at him. “This! This is what you do. You twist people’s way of thinking. I don’t know how you do it, but you do. That’s how you got Holly Newie to kill herself.”
The confusion didn’t leave his face. “Who the fuck is Holly Newie?”
“The blonde woman I caught you fighting with that day near Hyde Park. The one who went missing and then killed herself. Don’t make out like you didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“I didn’t!” he protested.
“And then Tammy? You were the last person to speak to her. You’d fought with her about me, and then she showed up dead.”
“It was a drug overdose, Liv.”
“No!” She jabbed her finger at him again. “That’s just what you wanted everyone to think. You told her to O.D., I know you did. It was your way of getting her out of your life.”
“You’re insane. Yes, I argued with Tammy, but only because I thought she was a total bitch towards you. There’s no possible way I could have got her to overdose. Tammy was a party girl. She was doing class A drugs every weekend. It was only a matter of time.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t believe you. How do you explain Ellen going missing as well, then? I know she found out something about you. She was going to speak to you, and I begged her not to because I knew how dangerous you are. Then she just goes missing! You think that’s a coincidence?”
“No, I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” he said coolly.
She jumped on the admission. “So, you’re saying you did do something to them all! Where’s Ellen? What did you tell her to do? Is she going to kill herself, too?”
“Shut up, Olivia.”
Her mouth snapped closed at his tone.
“It isn’t a coincidence,” he continued, “because you’re also the person who links all these women together.”
“What the hell are you talking about? They’re my friends.”
He shook his head. “You’re wrong. Ellen might have been, but not the others. You didn’t even know the blonde woman, but you were immediately suspicious and jealous about me talking to her, and deep down you hated Tammy.”
She shook her head again. “You’re lying. You hurt Ellen, or you’ve told her to go somewhere and kill herself, just like you did the others!”
“You’re the one who’s done this, Olivia. It’s more likely that you’re the one who killed that blonde woman you saw me speaking to, and you probably killed Tammy. I don’t know where Ellen is because I bet you’re the one who took her. God only knows what you did to her. You’ve probably killed her, too.”
Tears streamed down her face. “No, no, no, no ...” It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be true. Yet she’d been missing chunks of time. Was that when it had happened? Had she killed Tammy, blaming the other woman for trying to take Michael away from her? Had she killed Ellen, too? “No, you’re trying to put thoughts in my head again. You’re trying to make me believe things that aren’t true. That’s what you do. You make people do bad things!”
“You’re insane. Do you actually believe that? I’m not the bad one here, Olivia. That’s you. You’ve kept me here, tortured me to get information from me, when all this time, the only one with that information is you. I don’t know where Ellen is, but I think you do. I bet you’re the one who took her, and it wouldn’t surprise me if she’s dead, too!”
“No! She was coming to find you. You’re the link here. You’re the one who made them hurt themselves. Just like you made me hurt myself, too.”
“You crazy bitch. Ellen came to me. She found out something about me, and warned me off of you. The poor woman didn’t want to see you get hurt, which is laughable in itself, considering you were the one doing the hurting this whole time anyway.”
“What do you mean, she didn’t want me to get hurt? Had she figured out what you’re able to do?”
“No! Stop it with that bullshit. I can’t do anything. That is all in your head. Ellen came to talk to me because she found out I was married.”
She stared at him. “Married?”
“Yeah, I have a wife and a three-year-old son, too. That’s why I never let you come back to my house, and why I wasn’t around some weekends. They’re probably worried sick right now, wondering what’s happened to me. I might have been away for ‘work’ on occasions, but I’ve almost always answered my phone. I expect they’ve called the police by now to report me missing. They’ll be out looking for me.”
She shook her head, frantic. “No, there’s more to it than that. You’re able to do something. You can make people do what you want them to do. You make people hurt themselves. They do something to upset you, and you tell them to go kill themselves!”
“Like I did with you, you mean?”
“Exactly!” She rolled up her sleeves to show him her bandaged wrists.
“Olivia, you hurt yourself because you wanted to. Because you know you’re fucked up in the head and you were hurting people. Yeah, I said it, but I didn’t make you do it.”
“Yes, you did. It’s some kind of dangerous mind control. Or hypnotism. Or something.”
“You’re so far off the mark, this would be funny if you weren’t so fucking dangerous. What were you really taking those tablets for—what were they? Anti-psychotics. Don’t tell me they were for a bit of anxiety. It was worse than that, wasn’t it? That guy in the street that day, the one who called you Sarah, he actually did know you, didn’t he?”
She clutched her hands to her ears, not wanting to hear him say another word. “Stop it, stop it.”
“Sarah? Is that your real name? Sarah.”
She battered at her head with her hands. “Stop it,” she shrieked, “stop it!”
“I’m innocent. You’ve been torturing an innocent man all this time.”
“You’re not innocent. You were married and sleeping with me!”
“Maybe, but you’re the one who is dangerous. You’re the only one who knows where Ellen is, or what happened to the other women.”
“That’s not true.” But was it? Her mind flickered, trying to rearrange her reality. No, she didn’t want to know. Didn’t want to remember.
“What did you do to, Ellen, Sarah?” Michael said, using her real name. “What did you do to your best friend?”