Page 234 of Under Her Skin
‘I’m going home,’ he barked back at her then he was at the elevator, punching the button up to the rooftophelipad.
He strapped himself into the little helicopter, thanking god he’d learned to pilot it a long time ago.. He cussed himself out of buying a house so remote and isolated now – what had he been thinking? Why had he thought to be away from the city, with the police and emergency services, would be safer? Fucking, fucking idiot. He prayed as he propelled the helicopter to its maximumspeed.
Please,let her be okay, let her besafe…
Acough,a sharp noise in the quiet of the house. She started and gave a gasp of terror. Jules sat on the staircase, in his hands, a lethal shard of mirror glass. He turned it over and over; it glinted in the moonlight. She tried to get up but her body held no strength. She managed to pull herself into a sitting position, bracing herself against the wall. She could feel blood trickling down her face, it burned as it rolled into her eyes. Her would-be killer laughed at herstruggles.
He moved suddenly,pulling her down, straddling her body. She cried out as the glass on the floor cut into her body. She could smell sex on him, stale sweat. Rape… Her head spun, pounding with pain, nausea rising up inside her. He showed her the glass shard andlaughed.
‘Who’s the fairest of them all?’ Helaughed.
Her eyes whirled around, panicked, she sought out anything, anything that would help her. Her arms scraped around, feeling, anything to help, the glass slashing herskin.
But he pressed down hard on her, grabbing each hand and kneeling on them, hard, grinding them into the broken glass on the floor. She couldn’t move, couldn’tfight.
He’s going to kill me, she thought, he’s going to kill me and I’ll never see Theo again. Oh God,Theo…
He tore open the bodice of her dress. Her eyes widened in terror as her assailant raised the shard of glass above his head. Time slowed down as she waited for the pain, for the weapon to be driven into her. As she waited to die. From somewhere, somewhere far away, maybe in her imagination, there was the sound of helicopterblades.
And then an explosion of pain as Jules began to stab her to death. Theo… oh god,Theo…
Theo waited,antsy while the chopper blades slowed and stopped. He unbelted and stepped out of the cabin and just listened. The weather had worsened, and all he could hear was the wind in the trees. The house was in darkness. Theo took a deep breath in. Was he overreacting? He had no proof she was in danger, any danger at all. Theo hesitated then walked towards the house and listened again. Nothing. He took a step onto theporch.
Jules lookedup at the sound of the chopper. Damn it, he would have to rush this and he wanted to enjoy every second. Jess had started to struggle was but was obviously still dazed and he easily pushed her down with one hand. Their eyes locked and Jules smiled at her tenderly. This is it. The end ofeverything.
He loved the way her lovely eyes opened wide, in horror, in terror. ‘Goodbye, Jessica…’ and he raised the weapon to killher.
Theo puthis key in the lock… and nothing happened. He tried again. The door wouldn’t open. Had Jess put the deadbolt on? He cupped his hands around his eyes and gazed into the dark hallway. He saw something glittering on the wood floor but couldn’t make out what it was. Then he heard a noise that made his heart freeze, his legs quiver. An anguished cry that was strangled off, a gasp, a noise of someone in agony. God, no,no…
Jules drovethe shard of glass into Jess’ belly, feeling the soft, vulnerable flesh give way under the weapon and Jess cried out in agony and tried to fight back, tearing her fingernails across his face, trying to gouge his eyes out. It just made him angrier, more vicious and, as he stabbed her again and again, he felt her becoming weaker. Dying. Jessica was dying and it was exactly as he had dreamed. She coughed a fountain of blood up and her body went limp. He was about to stab her for the fifth time when he heard the banging on the door. Storm’s voice, panicked,desperate.
‘Jess! Jess, let me in! Jess!’
Jules took one last moment to gaze at Jess, so beautiful, so damaged, so ruined. She was unconsciousness, the pain too much for her, her torn belly spilling blood in a dark pool around her, her thin dress soaking it up. She couldn’t last much longer, she was losing too much blood. She’s bleeding out. Jules smiled, then, as he heard Theo shout again and he tookflight.
Asudden movementcaught his eye. In the hallway. He got closer and saw someone running through the dark house. Jules. He’d know that profile anywhere. His stomach disappeared and he darted to the window. Whoever it was had gone out of the back. Theo sprinted around to the back door and his stomach dropped as he saw it swinging open. The figure he’d seen was nowhere. Theo walked into the kitchen,listening.
‘Jess? Honey, it’s me, it’sTheo.’
The house was silent. Theo walked through the dark kitchen and into the hall. It took him a moment to realize what he was looking at, what he was hearing. Labored breathing. Gasps for air. Painful, rattle gurgles of a throat too full of blood. Blood. Too much blood. A woman’s body, a woman who had been stabbed viciously, brutally, mercilessly, her clothes drenched. Ghastly, unimaginable stab wounds in soft flesh. Theo’s mind could not make the connection between the woman and Jess. It couldn’t be her. There was noway.
Because the broken and bloodied dying girl on the floor looked nothing like the women he loved. In a second, she was in his arms, his hands pressing down on the wounds in her belly, desperate to keep the blood inside her, keep her alive. He pulled his cell phone and called the emergency services, not taking his eyes from her face, amazed he could speak to the operator so calmly. All he could feel was abject terror. Jules had gotten to her. He, Theo, had failed to protect her, had broken his promise to her. She was dying and he didn’t know how to stop it, didn’t know how to do this. He couldn’t take his eyes from the vicious stab wounds in her abdomen. So much hatred. So much violence. This couldn’t be the way they ended, couldn’t be the way she ended. Jules didn’t get to win, he didn’t get towin.
‘Please,Jess, stay with me…breathe, breathe…I love you somuch.’
Jess cameround and wished that she was still unconscious. The pain of her wounds was nothing to the raw terror and hurt in Theo’s voice. She concentrated on the feel of his arms holding her, trying to keep her alive. Jules had done what he’d always promised and she didn’t know how to fight the pain, the blood loss. She stared up into those green eyes, those terrified, desperate green eyes so full of love for her that she tried to smile at him, to reassurehim.
‘Jessie, my Jessie, I’ve gotyou’
His voice was so tender and caring, after the violence of earlier, that she opened hereyes.
‘I love you,’ she whispered, ‘I love you somuch…’
‘I love you, god, I love you,’ Theo was sobbing now, ‘Please hang on, help is coming, help iscoming.’
She felt his arms holding her, tight, safe, comfort. She didn’t know why he was crying. Her brain was hazy. Her eyes whirled, trying to focus on him. Nothing made sense. At the corners of her eyes, little black spots growing larger and larger. No, I want to see his face, his beautiful face… She could hear him talking to her but he was getting further away, so faraway…
‘No, no, sweetheart, stay with me, stay with me, oh God, no, no,please…’
