The Game

  “Monika says you’re my mother. Is it true?”

  With tears streaming down her face, almost blinding her, Tara nodded.

  “Yes. Oh, yes, Anna, my darling.”

  She came towards Anna then, opening her arms to her. As she did, Anna took a step back. This was too much. More than she could cope with. Her whole world had just been turned on its axis.

  Holding up her hands to stop her coming any close,r she asked, “Is it true that my father told you I was dead?”

  Tara nodded through her tears.

  “Yes, darling. I only found out about you a few months ago. I’ve been trying to get to you ever since.”

  Anna shook her head. “But it doesn’t make sense! Why would Dad want to keep you away from me?”

  She saw Tara look behind her, then and lock eyes with Monika, who had followed her into the room.

  “I’ve told her that her father is not a good man,” Monika said.

  Tara nodded once. “He’s not, Anna. Your father has done many, many terrible things. Things you should never know about at your age.”

  Anna was getting hysterical now, her anger mingling with her confusion and doubt.

  “I don’t believe you! You’re lying!” Turning, she pushed past Monika standing in the doorway and ran out of the room. She had to find her father!

  Reaching the top of the stairs, she stopped in her tracks. She could hear raised voices from below and, looking over the banister, saw her father and a man and a woman she had never seen before. They were arguing and as she watched, the man pulled back his right arm and punched her father in the face. The crack as his fist broke his nose sounded like a gunshot and her father cried out in pain as he staggered back.

  “Get off him!” she shouted at the top of her voice, running down the stairs. “Dad? Dad, are you okay?” she cried as she ran to him.

  “Get off me!” He pushed her away as she tried to pull his hands away from his face.

  “Anna?” Kyle said, staring at the girl who had appeared as if from nowhere.

  She turned to look at the man who had just spoken her name. “Why did you do that? Who are you?”

  Before she heard a response to this question, an arm snaked round her neck and she was grabbed from behind. In shock, she grabbed at it and tried to pull it away, but it wouldn’t budge.

  ***

  “We’ve got to go after her!” Tara cried as Anna ran out of the room. Monika grabbed her arm as she ran past her, pulling her up short. “Wait!”

  “I’ve waited too long. I’ve got to go to her, make her see!”

  “I know you have, but she’s scared. She’s got no idea what’s going on. And she’s going to go running straight to Sergei. Tara, I don’t have to tell you what he’s capable of. You need to be really careful.”

  Tara placed her hand on Monika’s, which still rested on her arm. “I know, but I’m not scared of him anymore. My baby knows the truth now. It’s out there and he can’t hide it from her anymore.”

  Tara turned to the leave the room and then paused. Turning back to look at Monika, she asked, “Are you the one who’s been looking after her all these years?”

  Monika just nodded, tears in her eyes. “Yes. She’s my baby, too.”

  Tara reached for her then, hugging Monika tightly. “Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.” Knowing she had no time to lose, she quickly pulled away and left the room.

  ***

  She heard the voices before she got to the top of the stairs. She could clearly make out Anna’s and Sergei’s, but a third voice made her heart still. It couldn’t be!

  “Kyle? Oh, Kyle!”

  Rushing forward, she look down. It was! Without a thought she ran down the stairs and straight into Kyle’s arms.

  She’d barely feel his arms tighten around her, though, before she heard Anna cry out. Whipping around, what she saw horrified her. With his arm around her neck, Sergei was holding Anna tight against him. She was on her tiptoes and it was clear that she was struggling to breathe.

  Shocked, she tried to keep her voice calm. “Let her go, Sergei.”

  “Dad! Stop it!” Her daughter’s plea cut straight through her and to her heart.

  “Sergei! You’re scaring her!” Tara pleaded with him.

  “I told you I would make you pay. One way or another,” he hissed, not releasing his grip.

  “For God’s sake! She’s your daughter!”

  Sergei smiled. “Yes, she is. But it’s obvious she means a lot more to you than she has ever meant to me.”

  The look on Anna’s face at these words, coming from her own father, broke Tara’s heart.

  “What are you going to do? Kill her? Then what?” Tara tried to reason with him. “You just walk away?”

  “I think I’m past just walking away, at this point, anyway. If I’m going down, I’m going to make you suffer before I do.”

  “No one’s taking you down, Sergei. Let her go and we all get to walk away.” She didn’t believe what she was saying herself, but she needed Sergei to believe it.

  “You must think I’m stupid. The only reason she’s around is to take over from me. If there’s nothing left to take over, there’s no reason to keep her alive.”

  At this, he tightened his hold around Anna’s neck even more and Tara could see that she was starting to fade in and out of consciousness.

  Kyle took a step forward, ready to launch himself at Sergei, but before he could move, Sergei reached behind his back and took something out of the waistband of his trousers. There was no mistaking the muzzle of a gun and they all stood still, frozen to the spot.

  “Don’t any of you even think about moving.”

  They could see that he was getting agitated as he started to wave the gun around. “This is all your doing, Tara. You see that, don’t you?”

  He’d relaxed his arm a bit and Anna was now taking deep breaths and looking at Tara, pleading with her eyes.

  “If you hadn’t run off, none of this would have happened. You’ve only got yourself to blame for whatever happens next.”

  He took the gun and placed it against Anna’s head.

  “Dad!” she screamed.

  “It’s okay. You won’t suffer.” He started to pull his finger back on the trigger.

  It was more than she could bear and Tara almost fell to her knees, her legs buckling beneath her.

  “Sergei, no!”

  Suddenly, the arm that was curled around Anna’s neck let her go and she rushed towards Tara. Thinking that Sergei had seen sense at last, Tara opened her arms to her daughter and, for the first time in fourteen years, held her tight in her arms. “Oh, God, thank you!”

  The gunshot took them all by surprise, making Tara scream. They’d been so focused on Anna that they hadn’t been paying attention to Sergei, who was now lying on the floor, bleeding heavily. On her knees next to him, Monika was clutching at her neck, blood pouring from between her fingers, a puzzled look on her face.

  ***

  When Tara ran out of the room to find Anna, Monika had followed her and had seen the events unfold from the top of the stairs, out of sight of the others.

  From the day that she had been placed in her arms as a tiny baby and she had been given the job of looking after her, that is exactly what Monika had done. She loved her with all her heart and thought of her as her own daughter. She’d put up with so much from Sergei over the years because she could never have borne to be separated from her.

  But now, seeing what he was doing to her, she felt like a mother bear and her instinct was to run down the stairs and rip out his throat with her bare hands.

  Entering Anna’s room, she closed the door softly behind her. Moving quickly, she pulled Anna’s dresser and positioned it under the window. Kicking off her shoes, she climbed on top of it and pushed the bedroom window open as far as it would go. With a bit of squeezing, she would be able to get through. Putting her feet outside first, there was just enough room for her to wriggle throug
h the gap. When her hips and legs were on the outside, she turned herself around so that she was on her stomach, holding on to the window frame. The drop down to the flat roof below was only about six feet and, taking a deep breath, she let herself drop.

  From there it was another short jump down to the grass of the back garden. Noiselessly, she crept towards the French doors that led into Sergei’s private living room, empty now. Relief flooded through her as she tried the handle and the door opened.

  Now what? With a quick glance round the room she spotted what she was looking for. On a side table, ready for the players, Joey had set up drinks, including a couple of lemons and a knife to cut them with.

  Picking up the knife, she held it tightly in her hand as she opened the door.

  Nobody noticed her as she crept, barefoot, up behind Sergei.

  She watched as he pulled the gun from where it had been nestled in the waistband of his trousers at his back, and placed it against Anna’s head.

  Moving at a speed she’d never known she possessed, she slid forward, and without a moment’s hesitation thrust the knife into him as far as it would go.

  For a moment, she thought she’d missed or that the knife hadn’t gone in as nothing happened. But then, without a word, she saw his arm drop and Anna run into Tara’s arms.

  His mouth open in shock, he turned slowly to face her, his hand feeling for the wound at his back.

  Her strength deserted her then as she watched, as if in slow motion, as he raised the gun and shot her before collapsing to the floor. She felt the bullet hit her in the neck, blood spurting immediately, and she dropped to her knees.

  She expected to feel pain, but there wasn’t any. Instead, she was filled with a warm glow as she looked over at Anna, held tight in her mother’s arms. It was over, at last. He wouldn’t be able to hurt them anymore and she had done the one thing she had always sworn to do. Protect the child she considered her own.

  ***

  Anna let out a piercing scream and rushed forward, reaching Monika’s side just as she fell to the floor.

  “Call for help!” she cried, as she placed both her hands over the gushing wound trying to stop the blood. It barely made a difference and the blood kept coming, seeping through her fingers and soaking her hands. “Don’t leave me! You can’t! Oh, God, please!” she sobbed.

  Tara watched helplessly as Monika lay there, dying. Dropping to her knees, she knelt beside her, gripping her hand in her own.

  “Come on, stay with us!” she told her, frantically looking at Kyle and Kat for help. Kyle had already taken his shirt off and, gently removing Anna’s hands from the wound, he now pressed it against Monika’s neck.

  She was losing blood fast and, looking in her eyes, Tara could see that she knew she wasn’t going to make it.

  “Call an ambulance!”

  “Already on it,” Kat said, holding her cell to her ear.

  “No!” Monika cried out. “No ambulance!” Tara could see that she was trying to say more but was getting weaker by the second. She leaned in close, her ear almost touching Monika’s lips so that she could hear.

  “Go,” Monika said softly. It was barely more than a whisper. “Go, take your daughter and go. Be free.”

  Tara could barely speak, the sobs taking all her breath.

  “Thank you,” she whispered back, gripping Monika’s hand and looking deep into her eyes. “Thank you.”

  Monika didn’t hear the second thank you. She was gone, her body limp.

  ***

  Kyle had known immediately that Monika’s wound would be fatal, and it had only taken minutes from when she’d been hit to when she’d bled out.

  Kat had terminated her call when she’d seen it was too late for Monika and they both now stood, watching silently as Tara and Anna held each other, crying uncontrollably, on the floor next to her body. As he watched them, their hearts breaking, Kyle wished he’d been able to kill Sergei himself.

  A movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Sergei hadn’t moved since he’d fallen so Kyle had assumed Monika had killed him, but it looked like he’d just passed out.

  Walking over to him now where he lay, Kyle looked down at him.

  “Help me.” Sergei looked up at Kyle and pleaded. “Get help.”

  Kneeling down next to him, Kyle grabbed him and turned him on to his side so that he could look at his wound, ignoring his pained cries. Lifting his jacket and pulling his shirt out of his pants, he found it. A puncture wound just where his kidney would be.

  Looking around, he spotted the knife Monika had used on the floor close to where she had fallen. The blade was about six inches long and had blood all the way up to the hilt, clearly having gone all the way in. Lying him back down and turning away without a word, he went over to Anna, still cradled in Tara’s arms.

  Hunkering down so that he was at eye level, he took one of her bloodied hands in his own.

  “Anna, sweetheart, I know this is incredibly hard but we have to make a decision.” He didn’t know how she would respond, so he just came out with it. “Your dad has a nasty injury but, with treatment, it’s possible that he will make it. Without treatment there is no doubt that he won’t.”

  Taking a deep breath, he said. “We have two choices. We stay with your dad and call for help or we go. Now.” Kyle didn’t want to explain that if they stayed, they would be in all sorts of trouble. She had been through so much and she needed to make the decision that was right for her.

  She lifted her tear-streaked face to his and looked him straight in the eye. “Let’s go,” she said, starting to get to her feet.

  Kyle and Tara exchanged a look.

  “Are you sure, honey?” Tara asked.

  Kyle needed her to understand what she was saying. “We don’t know how long it will be until someone finds him. Joey has only just left so he won’t be back for hours, and that will be too late for him.”

  “I’m sure. Get me away from this monster. Please.”

  “It will be my pleasure,” Kyle told her and, without a backward glance, they all walked out of the house, ignoring Sergei’s pleas for help.

  Fifty-Five

  They’d driven straight back to London, and after a quick detour to a gas station to get cleaned up, they’d headed straight for the airport.

  “You’re going to have to pay for the tickets this time, Kat.” Kyle said with a wry smile as they walked over to the ticket desk. They’d left Tara and Anna sitting in one of the many coffee shops while they went to try and arrange flights home.

  She just smiled, and asked, “What do you think will happen now?”

  Keeping his voice low so that they weren’t overheard, Kyle whispered, “With any luck, he’s already dead. If not, he soon will be.”

  “Do you think they’ll come looking for Anna?”

  “I think they’ll be in touch, but I think Tara’s letter should stop them from asking too many questions.” He’d gotten Tara to write a letter before they left, agreeing to have Anna come live with her in the U.S. and she’d dated it the month before.

  “When they do contact us to let us know of Sergei’s sad demise, we’ll make sure to be appropriately shocked.”

  They were in luck, and they managed to get four seats on the next available flight back to L.A., scheduled to leave in under three hours. Handing over their passports, thankfully Anna still had hers from her trip and Tara’s was still in her purse, they collected their tickets. They were going home.

  ***

  As he sat now and looked at Tara and Anna sitting across the aisle, Anna fast asleep with her head on Tara’s shoulder, Kyle knew they’d done the right thing. He was not proud of leaving a man to die but he knew that it was not something that would haunt him. He could have killed him, put him out of his misery, but he didn’t want Anna to live with her father’s killer. She was young and while she may not think so now, one day she might grow to hate him for it. No, it was better this way.

  They’d been th
rough so much and he would spend the rest of his life making sure that these women realized just how much they were loved and he knew now, without a doubt, that if Lori and his son were looking down on him, they would be pleased he had found happiness again.

  ***

  Tara held her daughter tight as she rested her chin on the top of her head, gazing out of airplane window. She didn’t think she would ever let her go. Despite everything she had gone through since being sold to Sergei, it had all been worth it to get to this perfect moment.

  She knew that it would take time for them to get to know each other and to process everything that had happened, but they had all the time in the world. She also knew that whatever problems they faced, they would face them as a family.

  Turning her head, she looked across the aisle at Kyle and caught his eye. The intensity of the love burning there brought a lump to her throat. How had she ever doubted him? He had traveled the world to save her, had risked his life for her. Despite everything, she was the luckiest woman alive.

  THE END

  ***

  To Kill For is out now! Here is a sneak preview!

  TO KILL FOR

  One

  What was she supposed to say? Every person in the room had their eyes glued to her, smiles on their faces. As Jamie glanced around at them all, she spotted her mom and dad. Dad had his arm around her mom’s waist, and both were beaming proudly as they looked at her, dressed in their finery. The invitations had been very clear. This was a black tie event and the guests were dressed up to the nines for this, her twenty-first birthday party.

  As one of the wealthiest families in Brecon Point, entertaining was something they regularly did. For tonight’s festivities, they’d taken over Faraday’s Tennis Club, a place where you didn’t usually get in unless you had a bank account in the seven figures. But tonight, just about everybody had been invited and social differences had been set aside. Now, they were all standing around, looking at her.

  As she peered down at the young man bent on one knee in front of her, Jamie was hit by a sudden wave of panic. She loved him. Well, she thought she did but she was only twenty-one, far too young to get married. But what was she supposed to say? If she said no, her parents would be devastated, not to mention completely embarrassed in front of all their guests.