The Monster in the Manor: Chapter 26

Rupert

I drag myself out of bed in the early afternoon, groggy and grumpy. My mouth tastes like it’s full of dirt.

The events of last night returns to me, and I groan into the pillow. My bed doesn’t smell of Peony, and it fills me with just as much fury as regret. I wish I’d never become this horrible creature. I could meet her stupid aunt, show myself at dinner, and then I would have her back in my arms again.

I lie there, stewing in my misery, wishing all my choices had been different. Will Peony leave me? Has this all been some wonderful dream that will vanish when I wake up?

I jolt at the sound of someone rapping forcefully on my door. Dragging myself out of bed and slipping on a pair of trousers, I make my way down the hall to open it.

On the other side is Kellen, and his brows are drawn, his cheeks flushed like he’s run here.

“What now?” I grouch, hoping this isn’t about the dinner again. I don’t need him to guilt me even more for not meeting his new boyfriend.

“It’s Ms. Austin.” He bites his lip. “She went shopping this morning and never came back.”

Instantly, a flame inside me bursts to life. Peony is in danger. The moment Kellen tells me, I know this fact before I know my own name.

The monster inside me roars to life, teeth bared, ready to charge off into the woods to find her.

“Her mobile?” I ask, ducking back inside to grab a shirt. “Did you call her?”

“Ten times. No answer.”

“Fuck.” The flame inside me billows higher, turning into a raging inferno. Peony is in trouble. My Peony. I’m overwhelmed with one need and one need only: to find her.

After I’m dressed, I storm past Kellen and down the stairs. It’s mid-afternoon now, and I find a strange man standing in the entryway. I come to an abrupt stop. I didn’t expect someone in the house, and now he’s seen me. 

Damn it.

The man, who appears to be in his early forties and has a somewhat generous waist, gives me an uncertain wave.

“Are you Rupert?” he asks as I come the rest of the way down. “I’m Ignacio.”

Great, Kellen’s boyfriend. But there’s no helping it now—I’m out in the open. I have a much more important mission, though, and I don’t have time for this.

“Kellen!” I bellow. “Where did she go shopping?”

“I don’t know. It’s a specialty grocery store, but she never told me the name.”

“Damn it.” I clench my hands into fists. “You have no idea?”

Regretfully, Kellen shakes his head. I slam my fist into the balustrade going up the stairs, making the wood crack. 

“Fuck!” The beast is clawing at my edges, trying to break free.

“Kellen,” Ignacio pipes up. “Remember when we were, um, in the car the other day? And you bumped the roof with your head when…?”

I glance at my butler, whose face is bright red. “Yes, I do.”

“You hit that button that was the car’s tracking device. You could call them and see if they can give you the car’s location.”

“Do it,” I snap. “Call them, Kellen.”

After conversing for a moment to recall the name of the tracking service, Kellen looks up the number and dials. Quickly he gives his name and other identifying information, and then we wait. My heart is beating wildly in my chest, my imagination conjuring up all sorts of terrible scenarios. Did she get in a car accident? Is Peony at the GP now, breathing her last breaths, and I’m not there with her?

“Yes!” Kellen says into the mobile. “What’s the address?” Ignacio pulls out his own device and starts typing as Kellen repeats the street name and number.

“Penn Rock?” I ask. “That’s a long way away.” Fuck. It’ll be thirty minutes before I can even get there, and who knows what could happen to Peony in the meantime.

Without hesitating, I head to the carport and grab my keys. I have no choice but to go out there into the world, find her and bring her home safely. At any cost.

“Mr. Edgewood!” Kellen calls, following me. “I can drive to—”

“I’m going.” I throw open the door to the garage. “Come with me or not.”

“I’m coming,” Kellen says firmly. Then he looks at his boyfriend.

“As if I would miss this,” Ignacio says, piling into the back of my 4x4. “A rescue mission for a damsel in distress? Once in a lifetime.”

When the doors are closed, I nearly drive through the carport door waiting for it to open. Then we’re on the road, and I’m gunning it through the woods, the car bouncing as we go. Kellen and Ignacio grab onto the handles, neither of them saying a word about my driving.

I’m going to get to Peony before anything bad happens to her. I have to.

---

Peony

The trip to Tennysville isn’t that long, and I feel like a fucking idiot. I should never have gone to Penn Rock, a town so close to where Andy lives. I was arrogant and overconfident, thinking there was no way I would run into him at the upscale grocery store.

“Wondering how I finally caught you?” Andy asks. He runs one hand through his disheveled, greasy hair, making it stand up even straighter. “After you left in the middle of the night without a word, you callous bitch?”

I don’t even try to speak with the duct tape over my face.

“That’s what you are. After I took care of you for years, you vanished. You stole my car!”

I did do that, I guess. He must not have reported it missing, though, if the cops never stopped me.

“It was Mandy,” he goes on, “who told me where she saw you.” He knows me well enough to guess what I’d ask if I could.

I don’t say anything behind the duct tape—mostly because I can’t—but I’m thinking murderous thoughts. I wish I’d told Mandy why I really left. Maybe then she’d have kept her mouth shut.

“Nice car you were driving.” Andy casts me a sidelong glance. “Who’s the new sugar daddy? That’s what she said—you got some nice new gig with a rich guy.”

I don’t even try to answer. Why is he bothering to ask me questions when he’s got me gagged?

“That money is mine, you know,” he says, taking a left turn abruptly. “You owe me.”

Of course he would think that, when he’s the one who convinced me to leave my job, when he’s the one who wanted me to depend on him so he could dangle it in front of me and use it to control me.

We trundle down a road I’ve never been on before, into the woods. I thought for sure that Andy would take me back to the old single-wide. That would make the most sense, as he can’t very well whisk me off to the welding shop where he works—or worked, before I left. Who knows what he’s been doing in the meantime?

But now we’re headed into the undeveloped forest that backs up against the trailer park. Where is he taking me?

I had thought that perhaps Kellen could find me if Andy took me back to my old house. It’s still my registered address, in case they reported me missing, and there was a chance the cops might show up after a day or two.

Not if he’s taking me into the middle of nowhere, though. My heart sinks as the tree cover closes in around us, blocking out the sun. There’s no way anyone will find me out here.

After a time, the truck slows and Andy pulls off to the side of the road, going down an even smaller path. Up ahead, a tiny building sits nestled in the woods, barely more than a utility shack.

Fuck. What is he going to do with me? How is he going to punish me for leaving?

I knew Andy had an ugly side, a very ugly side. Now, though, I think I’ve underestimated exactly how far he’s willing to go to get revenge.

He brings the truck to a stop in front of the shack. My skin feels cold, my blood like ice. If he murdered me out here, Rupert would never know what happened to me.

I wanted to talk to Dad again. I wanted to get back into restaurant work. I wanted the chance to live a new life, to live for myself, and here I am at the same place I started, or worse.

Potentially much, much worse.

Andy hops out of the driver’s seat and then opens the passenger side door, grabbing me and yanking me out. I fight with my legs—as my hands are still taped together—but I’m no match for him. I forgot what a big guy he is, and he’s certainly stronger than I am.

I’m so fucked.

He throws me over his shoulder like I’m little more than a burlap sack, the bite of his shoulder in my diaphragm knocking the wind out of me. He strolls to the shack and throws open the door, then carries me into the darkness. He flips a switch, turning on a single bare lightbulb hanging from a wire overhead.

The shack is filthy. There’s an ancient piece of machinery in the corner, which this place must have been built to house in the first place. It clearly doesn’t work anymore. There’s a metal tube against the wall, and that’s where Andy drops me on the floor. He pulls a pair of handcuffs from his jacket pocket and locks me into them behind the pipe, even though I’m already bound up with tape.

“There we go,” Andy says, standing back as if to admire his work. “Right where you belong.”

I glare at him, wishing I could speak, but it might be for the best that I can’t or else he might kill me even quicker. I can’t die yet. I still haven’t told Rupert that I love him.

I’m holding onto hope, because if I don’t… I have nothing.

---

Rupert

Kellen guides me to the grocery store using his satnav. When I screech into the lot, the car is still parked on the far end. It’s untouched, and not ten feet away stands an abandoned trolley full of groceries in Kellen’s reusable bags.

Peony. She was here, and she must have been dragged off against her will to leave something like this behind.

“Damn it!” I get out of the car without even thinking of who might be around to see me. My vision has gone red, my thoughts consumed by what might have befallen her. I look all around the car park for any clue, and I spot some security cameras attached to the building.

Shit. They’ve seen me. Here I am, standing in broad daylight where any camera could capture me. What then? Will my face be all over the news?

Wait. If the cameras are watching me, then…

“Kellen,” I snap. “Management. We need to get access to that footage.” I point at the camera.

“I think the police would have to come with a warrant,” Kellen says, hesitant.

I’m not waiting around for police to intervene, not while Peony’s in immediate danger. If the culprit is who I think it is—her demon of an ex-boyfriend—he could be capable of anything. An image of Peony, dead on the ground, invades my mind. My vision tunnels. I have to stop that from happening.

I straighten my back, knowing what I must do now. I’ve kept my existence a secret for more than a decade, and I’m about to throw my anonymity out the window.

But it will be worth it if it means I can find Peony.

“Then I’ll be the fucking warrant,” I say.

I stride past Kellen and Ignacio, toward the entrance to the store. Kellen runs up beside me.

“What are you doing?” he hisses. “They’ll see you.”

I lift my head resolutely. “I’m counting on it.”

It’s like dominoes that have been waiting to fall for years finally start toppling. A woman walking in the door of the store sees me, freezes, and then screams. I stride past her, the doors opening for me automatically, and head to one of the cash registers. More people have noticed me, and some are shouting while others simply stare. The cashier, thankfully, is one of the second kind.

“Can I, um, help you, um…” He looks me over from head to toe, his eyes getting even bigger. “…sir?”

“Management,” I bark out. “I need management.”

The customer waiting to be checked out is too busy recording me with her mobile camera to be much perturbed by the cashier leaving. He sprints away before ducking into a hall, and I follow with Kellen and Ignacio in tow. Up ahead, the cashier raps on a door.

“Steve! There’s something here you have to see!”

The door opens, and an older man emerges with deep frown lines.

“What do you want? I’m in the middle of—”

He stops cold when he sees me, his mouth falling open.

“I need to see your CCTV,” I say in my deepest, most threatening voice. “Now.”