“You hired a man to rape me and do all those despicable things. I trusted you, Catalina. Why would you do that to me?”
“Because you wouldn’t leave them!” Her eyes are wide and demonic. “You needed to be cleaned of those men!”
“Do you know what Victor did to me during those five days he held me captive?”
“But I took care of you after that. I made everything better for you and made sure you healed.”
“I never healed, Catalina. One never heals from something like that.”
“Yes, you did! I helped you. That’s why I gave you relief to sleep your trauma off, and I took care of you while you slept. I loved you, Eden. You hired me to be your mother, and when I saw your ad, I knew you’d call me to be your mother. I came running.”
Have I been living with a psychopath for fourteen years?
“Were you responsible for Storm’s kidnapping and lacing Callum’s tobacco?”
“I never harmed the dog. It was supposed to be a warning to keep you at Terra Sands, but instead, you left. Lacing that junkie’s tobacco was easy. It was supposed to break up the band.”
“And arrange for my trailer to be bombed?” She nods her head in reply. “That could have killed me!”
A wave of panic washes over me, my breaths coming in short, shallow gasps as I struggle to maintain my composure.
“Did you have your husband killed so you can live with me in LA?”
“He would never have understood that I had a daughter before we married.”
My mouth hangs agape. I lived with a murdering psychopath for half my life.
My eyes remain fixed on the gun pointed at me. There isn’t a soul around I can scream to for help.
“Put the gun down, Catalina. You don’t want to do this,” my voice barely audible over the pounding of my own heart.
“Yes, I do. I gave you life, so I have the right to take it away. If I can’t have you in this life, no one will.”
My eyes blaze with frenzied intensity, and I know with a sickening certainty that I am in the presence of someone truly dangerous.
“Catalina, let's talk about this. You’re not in the right frame of mind to make this decision.”
“You were supposed to die yesterday. I gave that bastard the last of my money, and he failed. So now I need to do this myself. But I can’t live this life without you, so I will join you in the underworld, and we will be together like we were always meant to be.”
I grasp the reality of my situation with a chilling certainty I am face to face with a woman on the brink of madness. A woman whose obsession has now turned deadly.
As she continues to talk random jibberish, I carefully slip my hand into my pocket and pull out a device. One that I swear will never leave me again if I live past this. Slowly, I press the small item in my hand.
Chapter 49
The GPS tells meI’m only six minutes away from the diner, and I grip the handlebars and feel the vibrations of the machine beneath me. Riding this machine is a sensation of freedom and excitement where the journey becomes more than just reaching a destination.
It’s also a connection I share with Eden. She mentioned recently that she wants to start riding again and that’s something I’m also eager to do with her. I can’t wait to start racing in the rugged terrain of the desert when we all move to Terra Sands.
It’s Eden’s birthday in a couple of weeks, and I’m getting her a motorbike. It’s something I know she’ll love to do with me. Back in the day, we rode just before dawn, hiding from the paps and ensuring she kept her pop princess image clean. But that was then, and this is now. No one gives a fuck. At least not us.
Of course, I’m moving to America permanently, so I’ll need to start using terminologies such as motorcycle.Those gits in the bike shop had a right laugh when I used motorbike, then shut the fuck up when I mentioned all the upgrades I wanted, and some geezer recognized who I was.
As the drummer of a band, I’m usually the last person people will recognize. Eden and Jagger were always the first two band members people used to scream at if they caught them in public. These days, however, there’s not so much screaming. But I think last night’s concert put us back on the music map.
Despite being the least recognized member of the band, my heavy East London accent is a massive giveaway and pretty unusual for LA,so people here always take an extra second to rake their minds to try and figure out if I’m someone famous.
I round the corner and head into the diner's parking lot, but I don’t see Eden. Fine, I’ll wait. She’s probably on her way.