Warning: there are some gory and graphic descriptions in the very beginning of this chapter read as much as you'd like
Chapter 19
A N N A B E L L E
"Choose one for what?" I ask.
"How you want to die of course." Caleb said
"And why are you letting us choose?" Cat asked.
"It would only be far since you guys figured out the plan I had to get the boys to join me."
"So you’re going to make us choose our death but with the items you used to kill one or more of the guys' family members?" I asked.
"You guys are smart have I told you that?" Caleb said sarcastically.
"Why do you want everyone the boys know dead?" Cat asked.
"You’re getting in the way of my plan." Caleb said.
"Your plan to take over the government?" Cat asked.
"Exactly." Caleb faked smiled which made me roll my eyes.
"Or is it just because we killed your daughter?" Annabelle asked.
"She was going to die anyway."
Cat and I looked at each other probably thinking the same thing; what the actual hell is wrong with him?
"You don't think I knew you guys were there? I heard the gun shots fire, I heard Harry in the stairs, and most of all I have security camera's covering every inch of that wine cellar. She was just going to get in the way of the plan too. Better to have you kill her then to have to tell people her own father shot her. And the less blood I have on my hands."
"How did you even know we figured out what you did to the guys' families?" Cat asked.
"Microphones in the car." He replied simply, "Anyway enough with the questions. How would you like to die?"
He waited for us to answer then pointed to each item explaining how the death would be in gory descriptions.
"We have a box of matches were you can burn alive right here, right now. You'll only feel the burning heat for thritiy seconds or so until you go numb and turn to ashes. Just like Harry's parents did. You can just imagine what it feels like." He said holding up the box of matches.
He set that down and picked up the car keys, rotation them around his finger while explaining. "Or we have the keys to my Range Rover. You'll only have 5,600 pounds compressed against you. Every bone in your body will break, just like how Zayn's sister died. That wouldn't be my first choice if I were you."
He set the keys back on the table picking up the gun, "Or you could get shot; simple and easy and less painless then the other ones. It wouldn’t be much fun for me though. But you'll die like Niall's father did. Just two shots in the chest destroy your vital organs, you'll go into shock, and then your brain will shut down."
He puts the gun down and goes the electric chair. "Now this on the other hand, is probably the most painful one. It's quite gory really. You’re strapped everywhere in this chair. This is pulled over your head of course," he said tapping the metal scalped-shaped dome, "You are then blindfolded so you have no idea when the lever is pulled. When the lever is pulled a jolt of five-hundred to two-thousand volts is given. That lasts for thirty seconds. I'll wait a few seconds for you to cool down, and if you are still breathing I'll do it again and again until you’re not breathing anymore. You'll most likely grip the chair arms and struggle to get out of the chair which can cause you to fracture or break your bones. Your tissues will also swell. Smoke and steam will rise from your body and you'll smell the smell of burning flesh. Your skin will turn bright red and blister; which I get the most enjoyment out of this. It was fun electrocuting Louis' best friend." He said.
"You disgusting asshole." I say.
"I've heard worse," He says, "So who’s going to go first?"
Cat and I look at each other. Cat opened her mouth to speak but I stopped her, "I'll go first."
"Annabelle no, you're her because of me. I'll go first."
"No, I'm not letting you do that."
"I'm going to choose who goes first if you guys don't decide."
"I'm going. But I just say goodbye to Cat first?" I ask.
"I guess since this is you last few minutes." Caleb said.
I walk over to Cat and hug her. "When I grab the gun you run straight for the car and get the hell out of here. I'll hold him off as fast as I can. Call the boys and get help." I whisper to her during the hug.
She pulled away looking at me confused, but I just pulled her back in for a hug "Thank you Cat for being there for me when I needed you. You're my unrelated sister. And if I don't make it out here alive I want you to know that I love you and I need you to tell the boys I love them to and thank them for me for giving me a home and a family." I whisper to her.
I feel her nod and I pull away. I walk over to the table and look at my options.
"Which one will it be?" Caleb asks.
C A T
I watch as Annabelle goes up to the table which holds possibly her death and I can't do anything about it. Annabelle scans the table and firsts picks up the keys that are next to the gun.
"The keys? Thought you would choose differently."
I then think of scenarios. The first one that pops into my head is that the gun is unloaded and if it is then Annabelle's plan is pointless because we would both be dead.
"Why would you say that?" Annabelle asks.
I remember I have a gun loaded in the car if Annabelle can distract him long enough I can get the gun from the car.
"Well I thought you would’ve chosen the gun, if you would like to change you decision now let me know so I can load the gun up with bullets."
Just like that Annabelle’s plan backfired. "Actually I'll take the gun." Annabelle says.
"That’s what I thought." He says.
Caleb reaches in his pocket and pulls out four bullets.
Please drop them, please drop them.
As if God sent me an angle, a bullet falls to the ground and the other bullets dropped too. "Shit." Caleb cusses and reaches down to pick them up.
I quietly but quickly go to the car and take the gun from the door holder. I look over the window and Caleb is trying to find the fourth bullet. I turn the hand gun off safety and it is now ready to be fired. I quickly walk back over to where I was standing before and put the gun behind my back so it's unnoticeable from Caleb view.
When Caleb has all of the bullets back in his hands he loads the four bullets into the gun. "Alright Annabelle, so I don't hurt your friend when I shot, I'd like you to come here where I’m standing and I'll be where your standing."
Annabelle nodded and traded places with Caleb. I was now facing the back of Caleb. I have a clear aim to shoot him. I raise my gun where it's aiming at his shoulder. If I'm going to kill I'm going to torture him for everyone that he has hurt. He is going to suffer.
I pull the trigger and it goes into his shoulder. Caleb drops his gun and grabs his shoulder.
"You bitch." He grunts through his teeth when he turns around facing me.
"Cat, let’s go now." Annabelle says running towards the car.
"What the hell are you talking about? I'm going to kill him."
"No you’re not, get in the car and drive or we aren't going to make it out of here." Annabelle said.
I turn to Caleb who is now on the floor still holding his shoulder. "Fine."
Before I get in the car I shoot the arm that’s holding his shoulder I shot previously. He groans in pain.
"Cat gets in here and drive!" Annabelle yells at me from inside of the car. I climb in the car putting the gun back in the door and drive the hell out of there. Annabelle and I don't say anything the whole ride because as far as I know there are still microphones in there.
I drive back to the station and get out of the car. I head inside with Annabelle yelling after me.
"Cat what the hell are you doing, we need to get back to Harry."
I stop walking and turn to her, "I'm quitting."
She looks at me oddly, "But you said before you didn’t want to get fired and here you are saying you're going to quit."
"I don't want to work at place I'm not safe at anymore." I said walking into the station. I walk into Ms. Hilton's office not bothering knocking.
"Excuse you Detective Miller but when that door is shut you knock."
"There’s no more Detective Miller anymore. I quit." I say.
"You quit? Why?" She asked.
"I'm not enjoying working here anymore." I state.
"Well, I'm sorry to hear that. It was a pleaser working with you Cat. I hope to see you again soon. Please turn your badge and gun in."
I take my badge from my belt and my gun setting it on her desk. "Goodbye Ms. Hilton. Thank you for everything." I smile slightly before leaving her office. While I exit her office all eyes are on me. I realized I left her door opened when I told her I was leaving.
I don't say anything to them I just wave and start to walk towards the door. "Wait, Cat." Mark stopped me.
I turn around facing him, "Yeah?"
"I'm sorry for what I said when you we're asking about tracking phones. I didn’t mean any of it."
"Sure you did but it’s okay," I smile reassuring him, "Work on the twin case for me please?"
He nodded and I continued walking out the door. Annabelle is leaning against the car. I unlock it and she gets in and I do the same.
"Cat you didn't have to do that." Annabelle said.
"Yes I did. It's not safe for me there. Especially with Alex knowing where Jake and I work and we almost go killed, it's not safe for me." I explain.
She nods and we drive back to the warehouse. When we get in, Annabelle punches the code on the door to get in since Harry and the others still haven’t given me it. They boys are all gathered in the living room playing cards. When they heard the door opened they turned their faces towards Annabelle and I.
I don't say anything to them I just walk to my room. The boys call after me asking what's wrong, what happened, why we're back so soon but I just ignore them. When I reach my room I slam the door and lock it.
I don't know how I feel at the moment. I have these mixed emotions and feelings building up inside of me. I can't decide whether or not I feel sad, mad, relieved or even scared. I'm still trying to grasp the fact that Caleb almost killed both Annabelle and I. I think back to the riddle he sent the boys. To bathe a Cat takes brute force, perseverance, courage of conviction - and a Cat. The last ingredient is usually the hardest to come by.
If his plan is ruining everything that I love, to catch me, it's working. I can only imagine the amount of time I have until he goes after the people I love. Knowing what he did to the boy’s family's to get him to work with them; I can only imagine he'll do the same to the boys, Annabelle, and even my family back home.
But this could be what he wants; me to get paranoid that he's going to keep doing something bad and I surrender and just go to him. I would sacrifice my life for all of the people I care about if it had come to that.
H A R R Y
I tuned to Annabelle when I heard Cat slam her door. "What the hell happened?" I asked concerned.
"Alright we all need to talk." Annabelle said.
"No shit Annabelle." Niall said. I glared at Niall before telling them what happened at the crime scene. After I finished explaining what happened. The boys fell silent. Then Harry spoke.
"She's not safe here anymore."
"Either are we." I state.
"No, I mean she's not safe with us anymore."
I didn't say anything because he was right. Caleb is after Cat because Harry cares about her. Caleb wants everyone Harry cares about dead.
"What do we do then?" Zayn asked.
"We do what we did with Lauren." Louis said probably realizing where Harry was going with this conversation.
"We fly her back home?" Liam asked.
Harry nodded slowly, probably still figuring out if it was the best choice for her.
"The only thing I'm worried about is her family." Harry said.
"Her family? What are you talking about?" Niall asked. The boys and all looked at Harry confused but I know what he's talking about.
"She has major family problems. That’s why she's here in Boston. She ran away." I said.
Harry nodded, "And I don't think she wants to go back either."
"Well Harry are you going to think about her safety or her feelings about her family?" Zayn asked.
Zayn made a point. Safety is more important than whatever problems are going on.
"Her safety. I promised I wouldn't let anything happen to her and I'm obviously not doing a very good job at keeping that promise." Harry said.
Harry has only made a promise to his sister; he promised her he would change. He told me a year ago if he ever made a promise to someone else, that someone else was someone special to him. And if he broke the promise he made with the other person he would break the promise he made to his sister.
"You really care about her don't you?" I blurted out. I immediately regretted it when he glared at me.
"Sorry." I muttered. Harry looked down, I saw his cheeks turn a light pink; the lightest pink that you could barely even see it was there. I am right. He cares for her.
I smile to myself. He says he really only cares about himself. But that's not true at all. He cares so much for his sister, the boys, me, and now Cat.
"What are you going to do Harry?" Liam asked.
Harry looked down at his palms before talking, "I'm going to drive her back to Texas."
Harry looked as if that was the last thing he wants to do. His jaw clenched but he wasn't sad. It was almost like he was sad; like he didn't want to take her back home. He wanted her here.
F L A S H B A C K
The boys and I all stared at Liam's computer.
"Her?" Louis asked raising his eyebrows. "She's going to get us out of this shit?"
"Louis, she's the best detective in Boston." Liam said.
"And you know this how?" Niall asked.
"She replaced me. And let me tell you, I had the best position in that whole station." Liam explained, "And she doesn't even have her collage agree yet she still has my position. She's good."
"How are we going to get her to help us exactly?" I asked.
"I have a plan." Harry said.
"Care to explain you plan?" I faced him.
"Simple. We take three dead bodies and take them to Drew. He can do surgery on them to make them look like Chrissy, Kylie and Lauren. Liam you send a call or email to the station saying you found the dead bodies and you specifically want Cat Miller on this case. Say that you know she can solve this case better than anyone else can. When we set up the crime scene, Annabelle, your going to be the scared witness that saw her sister and her two best friends killed. And I leave a note somewhere and hopefully she will find it. If she doesn't and some other bastard finds it, Liam and Niall show no mercy to them. When Cat finds the note we take her here and reason with her until she works with us." Harry explains.
"What if this plan doesn't work?" I ask.
"Trust me it'll work." Harry said.
"Cocky much?" I asked.
"No, smart." He complemented himself.
"More like smart ass." I said.
I think about how much of an arrogant dick he was. And now as I watch him now I realized how much he has changed since Cat has been here. The only time I've seen him act like this was when he was trying to talk to his sister on the phone. But on the other line all I could hear was screaming from Gemma telling him don't call again or leave me alone. The look on his face when she hung up was disappointment only in himself.
And then I think about Cat. I don't know much about her past all I know was when we first took her she was a bitch. Now I can see how much she cares for us. She's risking her life to help us. Only that's too much of a risk for her to take. She’s like a sister I never had.
"When are you going to take her?" I asked.
"Tonight." He said.