I struggle with all my might, screaming my lungs out until my throat is raw as he drags me to the car. He swings open the back door and shoves me inside, slamming it behind me. I fight with the handle, but the safety lock is on, and I can’t get out.
He’s already in the driver’s side, staring back over his shoulder at me.
“What did you do with Serafin?” I ask as he starts to back down the driveway and peels out onto the road.
He turns up the radio, and one of Onyxs’ hard rock ballads blares through the speakers. It’s fitting that one asshole loves that other asshole’s music so much.
Out the window, I see Serafin’s Jaguar, smashed into a tree. There’s smoke coming out of the engine, and the car looks like a wrinkled piece of tinfoil. My heart sinks down into my stomach, and I start to wail.
“This is all my fault,” I cry.
“Well, at least you learned your lesson, sweetie,” Bartek says, shooting me a wink.
All of a sudden, I feel a thump coming from the back of the car. You can’t really hear it over the loud music, but I can feel it. In that instant I know it. And in that instant, I pray that Bartek forgot the latch on my trunk was broken, and would sometimes just pop open on its own when you got over 20 kilos per hour.
Maybe I’m losing my mind.
Maybe I’m hallucinating.
Police cars and ambulances whip by us in a fury to get to the accident scene, while Bartek flips them off and laughs maniacally. The only thing I have going for me is the hope that my ex husband didn’t just want to kill Serafin, he wanted to torture him first.
26
Serafin:
When I pulled out of the driveway, I had no idea where I was going. All I knew was that I needed some air, some space, some time to sort out how the fuck I was going to fix the mess going on under my roof.
I didn’t even know what hit me when Bartek jumped over the backseat of the car and steered my Jaguar right into a tree. I think I blacked out as soon as the airbags deployed.
I woke up in the darkest tightest place I’ve ever been in, and I couldn’t help but think for a minute I’d been buried alive. As I felt the tires move underneath me, I realized that dumb fucker threw me in a trunk. I had no idea how long I’d been out for or how far he’d taken me, but when I heard Mia’s screams, I realized I was home.
I should’ve taken care of this asshole when I had the chance, but I was trying to turn over a new leaf. I played it cool and fair. I pulled all the strings I had to to get the rights to her paintings back. It might’ve been petty of me to stop by the police station and pull a couple favors so he lost his job, but I wanted him to know how bad it felt to lose everything. I could’ve taken his life quite easily, but taking his livelihood and any possible power he had over Mia in the future was so much more delicious. I wanted him to live the hell on earth that I’d been living the last twelve years. I wanted him to live to see her happy and thriving.
I should’ve known better than to let him out of my sight.
I feel my way all around the inside of the trunk as soon as I hear the music start to play. It drowns out her muffled sobs, but every time she cries out, I pound a little harder. There’s gotta be an escape latch somewhere, but fuck if I know where it is. I’m usually the one doing the trunk stuffing, not being the stuff-ee.
My body aches from the car accident, and I’m covered in dry sticky stuff. I don’t know where the source of the bleeding is coming from, or if it’s stopped, but I do know I need to get the hell out of here and get her as far away from him as possible before things get worse.
As the car accelerates faster, to my shock, the trunk just flies open on its own. I grab on as tight as I can so as not to go flying as Bartek slams on the brakes. As soon as I hear the sound of his door slam, I’m ready to attack.
“Don’t move!” he shouts, just like a police officer would. “I’ll fucking kill her, man. Don’t fucking move.”
“You already killed her once, you piece of shit,” I mutter, jumping out of the trunk of the car and putting my fists up. “You killed her every time you made her feel small. You killed her every time you made her feel afraid. You killed her every time you laid your hands on her.”
He is swaying back and forth, like the liquor he chugged earlier all caught up with him at once, and I realize he looks like complete shit. His eyes are black and blue, his body is all scraped up, and he has bruises all over every inch of skin that’s exposed. I chuckle and feel myself warm with pride, knowing Mia did all that.
“What the fuck, Bartek? I thought we had an agreement!” I say with a laugh, inching closer to him. The man is tall, but that’s about all he has going for him. “I even got you a job as a security guard at the local mall. You just couldn’t stay away, could ya?”
The car door slams again and Mia comes charging at him from behind, knocking him down in the middle of the road. She reaches into the waistband of his pants and grabs a pistol pointing it at him as he lays there on the ground on his stomach.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I should’ve never put you in this position.”
She digs her combat boot into the small of his back and blows a kiss at me. “Honestly, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now. Was this a surprise engagement present?”
“You’re not right, woman.” I shake my head and laugh. “He could’ve killed us both.”
“I’m glad you’re okay, Serafin. I don’t know how I could possibly live another day of my life without you. So many people tried to take you away from me, it would’ve absolutely killed me if he was the one who actually did it.”
I walk over and plant a kiss on her lips. Bartek stirs beneath her foot, but I just kick him in the face.
It isn’t long before we’re joined by a bunch of police cars. She explains every sordid detail of the attack to the officers, dating back to a time long before her and I crossed paths again. I don’t mind standing there with my arm around her, only chiming in to fill in the details about what actually happened tonight when he attacked me in my car.
This is her story to tell.
I was only here to make sure she got the happy ending she wanted.
Fabian picks us up, and I crawl in the backseat with her. She rests her head on my lap and I feel like everything is right in the world again. All it takes is her touch to remind me the meaning of life, to bring me back to my true purpose. She’s my heart, my soul, my reason to breathe.
“No more running off without telling me what you’re up to?” she asks, batting her eyelashes at me.
“No more keeping me in the dark, either, mouse,” I say, pressing my lips to hers.
“You two fucking deserve each other,” Fabian laughs as he turns down the driveway to the house. “It’s not every day two stubborn, crazy, con artists end up together.”
“It took almost a whole lifetime,” Mia says, smiling up at me. “I don’t think I would’ve had it any other way, though.”
I’m happy to put our twisted path behind us in the rearview mirror. The only thing that matters going forward is this woman I’ve always held in my heart. I pick her up and carry her into our house, slamming the door behind me.