Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 69025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69025 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Paul sighed as though realizing that nothing he said would convince his friend to back off. Mason was a man on a mission.
Brandi backed away from Rodney. There was a maniacal gleam in his eyes. She knew that not only was Rodney not completely there, but he was psychopathic.
“Where were you going, Brandi? You weren’t going to leave without saying goodbye, were you?” He smiled at her as though holding a knife over her was the most natural thing in the world. And maybe it was. For him.
Brandi had known fear in her life, but nothing quite like this. She had always wondered why the women in horror movies stood frozen as the killer advanced on them, and now she knew. Her fear was paralyzing. She was so terrified that she could barely breathe. Brandi was sure that her heartbeat could be heard a mile away.
She could feel the sweat rolling down her face and wondered if this was how her life would end. Who would have thought that when she and Damon had invited Rodney into their lives that things would turn out like this?
When he stepped forward again, she was jolted into mobility once more and took a step back.
“Don’t be scared, Brandi. You know I would never hurt you as long as you behave.” He smiled but his eyes were cold.
She took another step away from him and tried to brazen her way out. “This has gone far enough. Let me go.”
“Why would I do that? I love you.”
She shook her head. “Love isn’t supposed to be like this.”
“You just don’t know any better. I will show you what real love is. I brought you here because it’s my right. You belong to me and your place is with me. I’ve loved you too long and fought too hard to be with you to let you go to that bastard Collins, but it’s okay now. I took care of him and his damn son.” Rodney laughed.
Brandi’s heart literally stopped for a second. Had he killed Mason and Ben? “What did you do?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. She no longer feared for herself but for what he might have done to two innocent people.
“Oh, let’s just say I gave them a break.” He laughed again.
Her fear was replaced by a new emotion.
Rage.
She rushed him, hitting him in the chest with her hands clasped in one big fist.
He pushed her off and Brandi lost her footing. She crashed onto her bottom. She screamed at him. “You psycho! You killed them!”
“I hope so. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out, but I’m sure that after the magnitude of the accident, Collins won’t be bothering us for a long while, if ever. Should he have survived, by the time he’s realized anything, we’ll be out of the country. I have a villa in Guadalajara. You’ll love it there. It’s a paradise and it will be just the two of us.”
“You’re crazy. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I’ve told you before, Brandi, I’m only crazy for you.” He walked to her. She tried to scoot away, but he grabbed her by the handcuffs, yanking her up.
“It was clever of you to get your arms from behind your back. Next time, I’ll just have to make sure you’re more secure. I want to show you something. I’m going to prove to you once and for all that I love you more than anyone ever could.”
She struggled until he placed the blade of the knife against her throat.
“Brandi, you have such pretty skin. I would hate it if you make me cut you, but I will to show you who’s in charge. Come on.”
He tucked her under his arm and practically dragged her out of the room. Rodney led her down a dark hallway and opened the door to another room and shoved her inside.
The room was small but well-lit with candles and incense. In the middle of the room was a structure of some sort. It looked like an altar.
Brandi gasped. The centerpiece was a 18" x 20" photograph of her. It was part of a missing picture of her with Damon and the children, but everyone else had been cut out and the picture had been enlarged.
A cold chill rushed through her as she surveyed the rest of the room. The walls were literally covered in photographs and sketches of her. There were pictures of her sleeping, eating, showering, walking to her car…. Most of them seemed to have been taken when she was off guard, and they all spanned the nine years she’d known Rodney.
She has been wrong. Rodney was not psychopathic; he was completely insane.
There was nothing romantic about this room. It was creepy, and now she was more scared than she had been before. It was obvious that his unhealthy obsession with her was not recent. How had they all been so fooled?