Page 19 of Escape

I ran my finger over the picture as a smile crept over my lips. It felt like I had reached a destination I’d been chasing for years. Maybe, unconsciously, I’d been waiting for a solid reason to leave him and there, in my hands, was the proof.

As I shuffled to the next picture, I expected to see more pictures of my husband and the mystery woman in the act, but what I found unsettled me. It was Jared, half-dressed, looking shaken, flustered and like he was basically running out of the room. I pulled it closer to my face and could just barely make out deep, red marks scratched onto his neck and face.

Alarm bells blared in my brain as I sat back on the desk and studied it, wondering when these pictures were taken. He didn’t have the marks on him now and surely it would have been something I noticed…right? Had I really been so disconnected and good at avoiding him that I didn’t notice the scratch marks on his skin?

There were a few pictures left. A dark, looming feeling hung over me. I almost didn’t want to see them, but I had to. This was obviously part of whatever sick test the masked demon had planned.

Taking a deep breath, I shuffled the stack again. Immediately, I jerked away, the pictures scattering on the floor. My hand flew to my mouth, muffling a horrified cry.

My glare shot to Jared. It took all my strength to keep myself upright and speak through the nausea that washed over me.

“What the fuck did you do?!” I spat.

He continued shaking his head and flailing around as much as the restraints would let him. I bent over and grabbed the latest picture before storming over to him and shoving it in his face.

“You don’t fucking know?!” I smacked it against his forehead. His head snapped back as I rubbed the photo over his damp face. “You have no fucking idea what this is?!”

Tears streamed down his face, mixing with the drool, snot and blood dripping down his chin from straining against the metal gag. I looked at the picture again. The blonde woman lay dead and lifeless on the same bed she was bent over in the previous photo. Her pale skin had harsh, blooming bruises all over her neck, clearly strangled to death.

“You killed her, didn’t you, Jared?” His name tasted rotten on my tongue. Referring to him by name, like he was still human, felt wrong.

He whimpered, shaking his head and mumbling something that sounded like no, please.

I clutched the photo hard in my hands, rage rapidly burning through my body. My skin heated, sweat squeezed from my pores and my heart banged wildly in my chest. Not being able to contain it any longer, I backhanded him across the face with the same hand that clutched the picture.

How many women had he hurt besides me? How many others had he killed besides her?

I walked back over to the desk where the pictures lay spread across the ground. I picked up the last one. It was a snapshot of some kind of report. At the top, her name was listed as Jane Doe and my heart squeezed in pain knowing that somebody’s baby was cold and alone in some morgue and they didn’t even know.

I skimmed over the rest, catching on a line that read: Cause of death - inconclusive. Anyone with fucking eyes could see that she was murdered. I skipped to the end of the form to see what corrupt idiot signed off on it.

Austin Mahon. Of course.

“You have your uncle and daddy cleaning up your messes for you, Jared?”

Chapter 17

Jasmine

When he only answered with more frantic cries, I redirected my focus back to the black lockbox where the satin bag still lay. As I picked it up, a few heavy, hard objects jangled against each other. I felt around before opening it and I knew exactly what one of the objects I held was.

My chest tightened as various metal tools slid out. A hammer, a scalpel and small bolt cutters. The last object thunked heavily on the desk. I sucked in a shaking breath before picking it up.

The gun sat cool and heavy in my hand. Memories of going to the shooting range with my father, trying to live up to the perfection of my brothers, as a kid flashed through my mind while I checked the chamber. I sucked in a breath when I found only one bullet. Not rubber this time.

Save yourself or save your sack-of-shit husband.

I already knew what I was meant to do, but for a split second, the alternative ran through my mind. Maybe there was another way out rather than through. It would be just as easy, if not more, to shove the barrel in my mouth and end this all now.

“Before you make your choice, why don’t you have a little fun?” I jumped at the sound of the intercom, almost dropping the gun. “Make him admit his crimes and let him die an honest man.”

As I kicked the idea around in my head, a sharp thud of metal hitting the floor sounded behind me, followed by Jared’s voice. Unmuffled but still strained. I whipped around, finding his metal gag lying next to him on the floor. I glanced over at the small pile of tools meant to torture the truth out of him.

I couldn’t really do that to someone…could I?

“It’s fake, Jas! Don’t believe it! I would never cheat on you. I would never hurt anyone. You know that. You know me!” He screamed as he thrashed around. “It was that sick fuck that has us locked up here!”

I stared at him blankly, my mouth agape. Was this idiot really calling someone else a sick fuck? I smiled as I realized that, no, I didn’t know him at all. I never really had.