Chapter Two

I am glad to be back here, and to have the chance to get know Ella all over again. I just wish that it was under better circumstances.

Mark couldn't deny that being around Ella brought back all the wonderful memories that he had of the two of them outside of town in the woods with only a sky of glittering stars and a full moon to be their light as they lied in each other's arms in the bed of his old truck with a country love song playing on his small portable radio he had at the time. He had missed being able to be like he was with her, and wished that he had taken her with him like he wanted to.

There would be plenty of time to pursue the newly presented chance he had at winning her heart back once he got her away from the crime scene. His main focus was getting out of there as quickly as he could, and get her out of the line of fire.

Ducking under the yellow police tape, Mark walked inside the house, and found the scene before him to be like something that one would only see in a horror film. His eyes danced over the blood that was on the floor where her parents had been shot to where things had been tossed around or torn apart from one another.

"Unbelievable…"He muttered underneath his breath. He couldn't believe the damage that was done so quickly at the very residence where he had picked Ella up for countless dates. "This should have never happened."

"You got that damn right, Callaway!"

The sudden sound of someone speaking towards him with frustration dripping from their voice caught him by surprise. Mark pulled his eyes away from the direction of where they were, and focused on the annoyed face of William Brighton, the police chief. He could tell from the way that he looked that he was not in a mood to really talk at the moment.

Mark took the time to walk around the area where the bodies were removed to avoid trampling over the evidence, and causing the crime scene to be compromised. He walked over to the far side of the room with his focus on his superior.

"Glad to see that you got here as fast as you could, Chief." Mark said, calm and firmly. His voice attempted to show a strong side despite the scene shaking him right to the very core of his being. "Any idea as to who is behind this?"

"As of right now…We are still lost on the whole subject as to who did this to Ella's parents." William replied. He released a soft sigh from the confines of his mouth at the same time one of his hands started to rub his head a bit due to seeing the gruesome sight before his eyes. "I have never seen such a gruesome sight in all of my years of serving in the police force, Callaway."

"This is what I was not wanting to be my first case when I came back to Lexington. My last thought would be to be working a murder investigation where the victims were the parents of my ex-girlfriend."

"How is Ella holding up?"

"She….She is doing her best to hold her head up right now even though I can tell she is very hurt, and needs someone to lean her head on right now."

"Good thing that you are here to help her out with that."

Yeah…I just wish that I could offer her more than just a shoulder to cry on. I want her to be with me like we were before I left for Los Angeles, and broke her heart. She means everything to me, and seeing her in the pain that she is in right now breaks my heart.

Mark turned his eyes away from the police chief, and focused in the direction of where a small trail of blood went into the family room. He follow the blood on the floor while keeping himself from stepping in it, and ruining the evidence by getting it onto the bottom of his shoes. His body stepped over the threshold of another room where the door had been almost ripped right off the hinges. Moving into the area, Mark focused his attention in the direction of a large bare wall.

Wrote across the beige painted wall, the very message that Ella had told him about was scrolled out before his own eyes in the blood of her mother and father. The sight spoke volumes of the depravity that the killer had went to in order to get his message across to the other officers and himself.

This might just be the work of the Blood Artist. He would lash out at people, and then use their blood to paint cryptic art on the walls. However…He normally doesn't write out messages. Something seems a little off-

A soft, feminine gasp caught him by surprise. Mark turned, and found Ella to be standing on the other side of the doorway with her hands covering the lower part of her face while her eyes were widened in horror at what she was looking at.

"Ella…" Mark moved quickly to where she stood on outside of the room, and turned her away from the cryptic message on the wall. His arms held her against his body with her face against the fabric of his shirt. He pained from feeling her shivering and shaking like she was while her mouth made shuddered, saddened noises against his top. "You shouldn't have come in here, darling."

"I know I shouldn't' have." Ella replied to him even though her voice was coming out muffled against his top. "But…I couldn't stay outside anymore. The people started to ask me questions, and I couldn't stand to be out there with them hounding me like they were."

I really wish people would take the hint that someone who has lost someone they loved with all of their heart and soul does not want to talk about what happened. It is obvious that Ella is hurting, and anyone who is not smart enough to realize that she doesn't want to talk about it needs to have some sense knocked into them with a good old fashioned ass kicking.

He wanted to lash out at the people that were hounding his former girlfriend. Mark hated that she was being harassed by the neighborhood for more information in her saddened state when she needed to be consoled, and not hounded by them or reporters.

A soft sigh left from his mouth as he stood like he was with her like she was in his arms. His hands moved up and down her back in an attempt to calm her nerves while he spoke to her with only a wish to ease her of all of the problems troubling her.

"I am sorry for what the people were doing out there to you, Ella. Some people are totally idiots when it comes to rational senses. They only want to know what they want to know, and they don't care on the way they get the information."

"I had a feeling that was going to end up happening anyways." Ella spoke to him a little more clearly after she straightened herself up a little bit more in his embrace and looked up in the direction of his handsome face. "It was bound to happen either just now or when the story broke in the news later on tonight or in the following morning."

"It was my wish to get you out of here before their senseless harassment started though."

"It is not your fault, Mark. Those people out there are just stupid and are looking for anything they can get juicy information on to gossip about on Facebook, Twitter, or on any of the social networking sights that they use nowadays."

"It does not change that I need to get you of here while they are doing this. If they are already bothering you to the point where you are coming into this place to avoid them, then it is time to-"

His attention shifted from her to the faint sound of something moving around upstairs. Mark could tell that it sounded much like someone rushing around, and tossing some things down.

"Stay here, Ella."

He was brief with his words to her. His arms slipped away from her body in one fluid motion. Mark wasted little time in hurrying out of there through the living room. He cast a glance in the direction of the police chief, and focused on him from where he was at the doorway to the house.

"Brighton," Mark asked, "is someone upstairs right now?" He spoke with a tone of desperate firmness towards his direction. The need to know the answer was very noticeable in his voice to him. "Did you send any of your men upstairs to investigate the upstairs of the house?"

"No, Mark." William Brighton replied. He spoke with an intense amount of curiosity burning deep within it as he kept his focus primarily on him. "I have not told any of my men to go upstairs."

"That is what I thought." Mark reached behind his back, and retrieved the handle of his black pistol that he tucked away to keep on the ready in case he needed it. He made sure that the weapon was ready to be shot if the needed rose up for it to be. "I am heading upstairs to investigate. If Ella comes in this direction, do your best to keep her from coming up the stairs for as long as you can."

"You got it, Callaway."

Pulling his eyes away from his superior, Mark slowly started up the stairs of the two story, colonial inspired home that Ella and her parents had called home since the day she had been born at the Lexington Hospital. His movements were slow, and fluid up the stairs, the pace of a predator hunting for its prey.

If the person who committed this crime is upstairs and waiting for Ella to make her presence known…they are in for a real shock.

His anger for the individual, who had killed her parents, as well as the idea of them still being there and waiting for her to come up the stairs, rose to the surface. He wanted to rip out the throat of the person who could still be there and hiding.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Mark slowly moved over to the closed door of Mr. and Mrs. Adams' bedroom. He moved to a side of the room, and placed his free hand on the door knob. Mark twisted the handle without making much noise, and slowly started to press against it.

Opening the door, his eyes found the room to be undisturbed, and no sight of anyone being in there that shouldn't be there.

He moved away from the opened door towards the bathroom that was between Ella's old room she used to stay in and her parents' bedroom. His free hand reached out, and moved around the door handle before he silently opened it up enough to peer inside in order to investigate the area properly.

Before he could get the door opened enough, the sound of glass breaking in Ella's room stopped all further investigation on the bathroom.

"You are not getting away that easily." Mark muttered. He moved quickly to the door to Ella's room with fiery hatred in his voice. "I am going to enjoy taking you down in the way I plan to do so."

He grabbed onto the handle, and gave a tug on it. Mark discovered the door to the room to be locked from the inside. He took a few steps back from the door with him letting out heated breaths. One of his legs lifted off the ground, and drove the bottom of his foot against the door with enough force that it caused it to nearly slam into the wall behind it. He moved inside the room with the gun drawn, and focused on the surroundings.

The room looked like a war zone. All of Ella's photographs that she had won awards for in high school were ripped from the walls, and lied in tatters on the floor among all of the paintings that she had done during her high school career, her bed clothes, and a topped shelf . On the other side of the room, a set of white curtains swayed side to side in a light breeze blowing inside the room from the broken opening in the window that had been smashed from the inside.

"Damn it." He lowered his voice to a heated whisper. His frustration with having lost the person that had been hiding in there lingered just below the surface of his body. He had been so close, but still so far away from the person who had been hiding out in the safety of Ella's old bedroom. "He might have gotten away this time…but I will get him."

Mark tucked his gun back behind his back in the spot where it had been hidden from sight beforehand. His eyes darted around the floor at the mess that the person had created in such a short amount of time. He knew that Ella would be highly upset at the sight of her paintings she worked so hard on being in the floor with the tattered remains of her photographs.

Ella loved the arts with all of her heart and soul. That was what the initial attraction was for him to be drawn to her besides her curvy frame, and her addicting laugh. He admired how she passionate she was about all forms of art, and wanted to enhance her ability at each different form. His mind recalled images of her working on her paintings for long hours before she would eventually pass out with him in her room without her parents knowing, and of her dancing before a crowded assembly of students to showcase her international dancing prowess.

A soft chuckle escaped from his mouth while his mind lingered on the visions, wanting to soak them in. He wanted so much to see that lively smile that was nestled under all the sadness for the loss of her parents and the anger she still had towards him breaking up with her. It didn't need to be said, but he could tell that she was highly pissed with him for what he had done to her.

Kneeling down on the floor of her room among the tossed items, Mark begun to put some articles of her clothing on top of the bed to keep them from getting anymore dirty than they already were. He eased some of the torn photographs onto the bed as well, trying to keep them all together. His eyes fell upon a particular piece of canvas paper that was hidden underneath the front of the bed. Mark reached under, and pulled out the object to look upon it.

Nestled within his hands, a sketch of Mark and Ella nestled in the back of his pick-up truck, looking to each other with love in their eyes as their foreheads were touching, was clear as day on the piece of parchment paper that she used frequently to draw her sketches out before she turned them into her paintings.

I…I never knew that she drew this of us. This is of the last time that we were together out in the boonies and away from the lights and noises of the city. We had just had dinner at a little diner, and I took her out into a field to just watch the shooting stars overhead. I asked her what she wanted more than anything, and…

It dawned on him exactly why she was hurt and angry with him for walking back into her life like he had after he had left hers so abruptly. Ella's wish that she wanted to come true more than anything else was for her to always be with him, and to have his love and protection until the day that they died with each other when their hair is silvery gray and wrinkles are upon their faces.

How could I be so blind as to not see this? She was wanting me to always stay with her…and I was so focused on myself that I couldn't see it.

The sketch fell from his hands once his grip on it had loosened on it. Mark brought his hands up, and ran them over his face, gently. His frustration turned onto himself. He had left a good thing behind to chase after his goal of becoming an upstanding detective in his profession.

Dropping his hands down by his sides, a look of determination washed over his piercing stare as a new goal formed inside his mind. Regardless of what happens with the capture of the person who had murdered her parents, Mark was not going to let Ella slip out of his hands for a second time. There was no way that he was going to lose her now that he had the opportunity to right the wrong that he made to her.

Ma mrkoved to his feet, and turned his gaze towards around to face the direction that her bed was facing in. His eyes widened in dismay upon discovering the large mirror on Ella's old dresser to have a message written in red paint upon it. He moved closer towards it, and focused upon it.

Upon the glass that reflected his own image, a message in red read: You will never have Ella, Detective Callaway. I will personally see to your demise, and make sure that you never get want you want by any means necessary.

Okay…This person is going too far now. Now they are threatening not only my happiness, but also threatening to do something to Ella to make sure that I don't have a chance to get back with her after having reunited with her just briefly.

A rage unlike anything else burned deep inside of him upon discovering the warning that was left on the mirror for him to find, stating that this person would do all that they could to keep him from getting what he wants, and that included Ella. He couldn't ignore how the discovery made him burn with enough heat to burn out the sun.

He shook his head as he focused on the writing on the mirror that reflected and displayed his pissed off expression on his chiseled features. His eyes caught sight of Ella's body coming into sight of the mirror to a side before he spun around to discover that it was not just his imagination but that she was really there with him.

"What are you doing up here, Ella?" Mark asked, curious to know how she got up there with so many officers around. "I instructed-"

"This is my home, Mark." Ella replied, firmly She was not shy about standing her ground in his face despite possessing strong feelings of attraction for him. "The officers downstairs do not control where I go in this place."

"Did you throw your weight around again?"

"If you call me putting the rookies in their place by reminding them that it would only take one pissed off girlfriend to turn them from a man into a woman with just a flick of the wrist pushing my weight around…then yes, I did throw my weight around as I usually do with pricks like them."

"You really need to be a little nicer to the officers downstairs, Ella. I mean…You are going to be surrounded with them until we find the person who broke into your family's home, and murdered your parents like they did."

Mark couldn't help, but admire the fact that she was still as fiery as she always had been around him. The way she could tear a man down with just a simple phrase was a big turn on for him. There was something about her being brazen and bold with people in the police field that excited him, and couldn't keep a faint smirk from dancing across his face.

He walked over to where she stood at the foot of her bed, and turned his full attention away from the mirror towards her. His eyes focused on her angelic face as hard as he could in a desperate attempt to keep his eyes from traveling down her body to soak in the rest of her gorgeous body. Mark yearned to pull her back into his arms, and seal her into a passionate kiss with him to show her how much she truly excited him. However, he knew that if he moved too fast with his former girlfriend she would more than likely take off for the hills.

Holding his stare on her face, Mark released a soft breath from the confines of his strong lips before he could speak up to her. "Ella…It would be best right now if I got us both out of here as quickly as possible."

"What is going on, Mark? What is the message on the mirror talking about?"

"Ella…whoever murdered your parents…is going to make sure that they take you away from me, and keep me from getting what I want beside bringing them to justice for their actions."

"Mark…I don't know who the hell this person is, or why in the world they would go to this length of destroying my old bedroom, and leaving a warning on my dresser's mirror."

"I know you don't know who this is, Ella. You are not the type of person that would keep suspicious company."

"What does this have to do with you though? You did say that this person's message was focused on making sure that you didn't get what you want most of all. Why would this person be wanting to go after you to such lengths to remove me from you?"

I know you are smarter than that, Ella, and you know very well the reason why this person would intervene between the two of us, and take you from me.

Deep down, Mark struggled to keep his distance from her, but found that diminishing from him. He focused on her beautiful eyes as his body moved a little closer to her own. One of his hands lifted up, and gently brushed several strands of her hair from her face with his fingers dancing across her cheek in the process.

"You know very well the answer to that question, Ella." He spoke in a much deeper, sensual tone to her, revealing his inner feelings and emotions for her and only her. "Besides tracking down this person, and arresting them for what they have done to your family and yourself…I am taking my place as your boyfriend once again."

"E-Excuse me?" Ella asked; shocked by the response he had given to her. "What did you just call yourself to me?"

"You heard me the first time, Ella." With his body close to hers, Mark moved one of his hands down her arm to where her hand was, and slid his fingers between hers, gently. "No one is going to take my place as your boyfriend. I am back…and I am not going to let someone move in without a fight."

"I believe you are failing to realize that we are not together anymore, Mark. Remember? You broke up with me, not the other way around."

"We might not be together right now…but that doesn't mean that it won't happen."

"Mark-"

Before he could let her finish her sentence to him, Mark found himself becoming overwhelmed with a need to hold her in his arms. He pulled her against his body, and wrapped his strong arms around her curvy frame, pulling her into his embrace with a need to feel her against himself. His head rested against the top of her head as he spoke to her with his mouth pressed against the top of her silky hair.

"Please…Just…Let me hold you like I used to for a while, Ella. I need this right now with all that is going on. Just let me stay like this with you for a while before we go down before the officers, public, and camera people waiting outside."