AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Brant gave up searching for you once the bloodwork came back and he was satisfied with the results, but clearly, Jordan didn’t. He wanted revenge since you shot him.” Erik went back to the open French doors and reached for his back, going for the gun there. Oddly, the sight didn’t worry me.
“Why the dating show, though? Why is he fixating on women who look like my mom?”
He faced me, resting the weapon against his outer thigh. “Brant started having delusions a few years back. One day he was watching that reality show, and he swore one of the contestants was Claudia. He became obsessed with finding her. I tried to get him help. Brought him down here.” A deep breath later, he added, “He had Jordan kidnap the woman, and by the time I got to them both, Brant had already killed her. She’d refused to give in to his delusions that she was your mother.”
I cupped my mouth, fighting the urge to be sick. Now I knew why Camila had alluded to only five women being saved.
“I should’ve killed Brant then, but he’s always heavily protected. Even from me. I’m not . . . like him. I may be a criminal, but I’d never hurt a woman.” He tore his free hand through his hair, eyes shifting to the door as if he could hear steps that I couldn’t. “Brant tried to go after another woman in broad daylight a few weeks after that incident, mistaking her for Claudia. I realized I had to do something or more women would get hurt.”
“You came up with the idea to use the show?”
Erik nodded. “I needed to control the situation. Control Jordan without him realizing I was. I pitched the idea to him, explaining it’d be the best way to prevent Brant from destroying his business by publicly attacking someone again. So, whenever there was a contestant he favored, I offered them money in exchange for pretending to be Claudia.”
It was hard for me to believe anyone would agree to that, but I supposed if the price was right, some people would struggle to turn down the offer.
“The last thing I expected was for you and your sister to wind up on the show. Jordan was Shannon’s point of contact, and I never got involved in the process until my brother made his choice. I couldn’t stomach it. But if I had, I would’ve recognized you and gotten you away before Jordan ever ID’d you two.”
I considered his words, my body shaking at the heavy weight of them. “I want to believe you. But it’s just—”
“I know,” he said as the doorknob turned. “I wouldn’t believe me either, I suppose.” He turned to the side, hiding the gun clutched in his hand behind his back.
Jordan, along with Brant and one other armed man, filed into the bedroom.
“Claudia?” Brant questioned, stopping in his tracks.
Seeing him again in the flesh had me choking up. Even after eleven years, I could still see him holding my mother’s lifeless body on that garage floor . . . But I didn’t want to follow in her footsteps. I couldn’t just sit here and wait to die. She’d want me to live, and more than ever, I wanted to live. I wanted . . . I want Jack. Damnit, I had to figure out how to change my fate.
“She’s not Claudia,” Erik spoke up, not wasting time, and Brant twisted to look at him, dark brows lifting in shock. “You know that. The doctors told you that you’re dying, and reliving the past is not going to save you from death.”
Dying? No sympathy from me, but Erik had left that part out of his story.
“You can’t keep tricking your brain into believing these women are Claudia. And Claudia never loved you. You need to stop this madness,” Erik pressed, remaining firm near the open balcony doors.
“Stop,” Jordan demanded, drawing his weapon from a side holster as if sensing there was about to be a showdown between the brothers.
Perhaps pistols at dawn? My life was already wild enough the past few days, at this point, I’d expect nothing less.
“She looks just like Claudia.” Brant walked my way and snatched the white dress from the floor. “You’re her. Don’t lie to me.”
Chills wrapped around my limbs, but I did my best to remain tough. To believe my fate was written in the stars, and not in the sand. “We do look alike. Because we share blood,” I spoke up. “I’m her daughter. So, I suggest you walk back a few steps and don’t try and touch me.” I elongated my neck, trying to gain another inch of confidence in facing off with this psycho who killed my mother. “I’m also your niece.”
“You faked the test, didn’t you?” It was Jordan that time, peering at Erik.
From the corner of my eye, Erik lined himself up with me, and I caught a quick nod. “There are some lines even you won’t cross, Jordan. And letting Brant near his niece is one of them.”
Jordan looked at me, then at Brant who continued to stare at me, squinting as if trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
“Too bad I never liked you, Erik, or maybe I’d give a fuck if she lived or died,” Jordan snapped out before turning his attention on my other problem: Brant, who was still looking at me like . . . shit, like he thought I was my mom.
Brant’s dark hair was wet and tousled as if he’d recently showered, and with his free hand, he shoved his thick fingers through his locks and lifted his Travolta-like dimpled chin like a directive before pushing the dress my way. “Claudia.”
Erik maneuvered around me, blocking me from his brother, and I took the chance to place a little more distance between us, practically stumbling out onto the small balcony. “She’s not Claudia,” he grated out.
“What are we going to do?” Brant’s other guard, still hanging back by the door, asked.
Jordan tapped his ear as if someone was talking to him, and then I startled at the sound of gunfire. “We’re under attack.” He lifted his weapon, aiming it my way as he barked out, “Kill them and get the boss out of here.”
Before I had a chance to react, Erik raised his arm and fired just as Jordan shot back. A flashback to my mother jumping in front of me to take the bullet popped into my head as Erik flung himself before me, taking a bullet to the arm. You saved me.
