After a long hiatus, I'm back with a brand new chapter! So please enjoy. I hope it was worth the wait.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
It hurt Sark to lay there on that cold floor and listen to Chloe crying. He wanted nothing more than to hold her and tell her everything would be okay. But he couldn't. It would blow his whole plan to pieces if he opened his eyes. Chloe would know he was okay and she wouldn't be able to play her part. That was essential. Chloe had to do her part.
He felt her being pulled away from him, but he couldn't hold onto her. It was hard to suppress a grunt as a hard kick was delivered to his stomach.
"Oh this is going to be fun." A voice laughed harshly above Sark.
"It sure is." Sark said sitting up quickly and grabbing the gun from his assailant's hand. The sound of gunfire split the basement and Chloe's screams echoed in Sark's head.
Chloe felt nauseous, physically nauseous. Her father! This son-of-a-bitch was her father. No, she wouldn't believe it. It was not true. This man was not her flesh and blood, he just couldn't be. Could he?
She wanted to throw up, but she forced down the bile that was rising in her throat. She wouldn't not give him the satisfaction.
"You're lying." She said through clenched teeth. "You're lying you bastard." He laughed a scathing laugh that sent chills down Chloe's spine.
"I assure you Savannah," he said with an evil grin, "I am not lying."
"My mother..." she started.
"You're "mother" was the one who lied." He interrupted, "In fact she wasn't even your mother the lying bitch. Whatever story she told you was completely false." He sat down on the edge of the desk and surveyed her. "You see my dear the woman who claimed to be your mother was in fact a maid of mine. My wife, your real mother died while giving you birth. I saw that as my chance to make some easy, and much needed money. I contacted the Covenant. I knew they could help me. They had found you a good home. The people were loaded and ready to pay a fortune for you."
Chloe bit back a gasp.
"No." she breathed.
"Yes my dear." The man said, inspecting his yellowed nails as if he didn't have a care in the world, "I sold you on the black market. But, that stupid maid had grown attached to you and decided to save you from your "evil father." She stole you and ran off to the States with this disk." He waved the disk in the air like a flag, "I believe she was going to contact the authorities and give it to them. Well you know the Covenant couldn't have that. They went after her, forcing the both of you into hiding." He paused and looked at Chloe with his calculating eyes, trying to decipher her reaction. But she wouldn't give him one. She made her face stony and emotionless, like what she had often seen Sark do. The man cleared his throat and continued. "They came close to catching the both of you many times, but that damn woman kept eluding them. For awhile at least."
Chloe remembered clearly the day her mother had fallen down dead on the sidewalk as they had run from the men that often times chased them. She remembered screaming, trying to hold onto her mother and drag her along. But the weight had been too much for her, and she knew that she had had to run. Her mother wouldn't have wanted her to give up so easily; she would have wanted her to keep going. And that's what Chloe had done. She'd run and run until she had reached the orphanage, where she'd spent many years until Sydney and Vaughn adopted her.
Silent tears ran down her face, but Chloe didn't feel them. It all made sense now, even though she didn't want it to. It made complete sense. She sat there, in the filthy chair, unfeeling, unseeing, just being. Biting her lower lip until she could taste blood on her tongue, Chloe sat there rocking back and forth. Everything, her whole world, was crashing down around her. Her whole life had been lies. Lord knew she didn't want to believe this man, but she did, god she believed every word he was saying, and it hurt like hell.
Where had he taken her Sark wondered as he moved stealthily through the dingy halls. The house was a maze of ugly gray wall after ugly gray wall. There was no way of telling if he was going the right way or not. Hell he didn't even know which way they had gone to begin with. The gun in his hand was the only thing that Sark could feel. He held it out in front of him, ready to shoot at a moment's notice. But it seemed as if nobody was there, like the house was deserted. But was it really empty? He didn't know, and that's why he had to be on his guard until he and Chloe were safely out of there.
There was the sound of running to his left. Quickly, Sark ducked inside an open doorway and waited with baited breath for the person to pass him by. He heard sobbing, and chanced a look out of the door. Chloe was on her knees in front of him, her shoulders shaking roughly, and her face buried in her hands. Sark grabbed her arm and pulled her into the room with him.
She had to get out of there. Each moment she spent in that room with him, Chloe felt like she was suffocating. He reached out to touch her, but Chloe pushed his hand away roughly. She couldn't stand to be locked in there anymore. She stood up quickly and rushed out of the room. Her mind was running in a million different directions, emotions flooded every pore of her being. She couldn't think straight, could barely make her body do as she wanted. She didn't hear him coming after her, nor did she register the impact of her knees to the hard floor. But the strong grip of a rough hand, that registered. Chloe opened her mouth to scream as she was yanked to her feet and pulled into a dark room, but a hand clamped over her mouth and she swallowed the scream. Looking up into the face of her capture, Chloe's eyes widened.
Sark! No it couldn't be, he was dead. She had heard the gunfire herself.
But you didn't see them kill him, a little voice in the back of her mind reminded her. Chloe's fingers flew over his face, taking in his features. It really was him! She would have known the feel of his skin anywhere. Fresh tears sprang to her eyes as she embraced him tightly.
"Shh." He whispered in her ear, his breath tickling her cheek, "it's going to be okay."
"I was so scared Julian." She whispered back, her voice muffled by his shoulder; "I was so scared that you were dead."
He held her there, and Chloe drank in his warmth. But she knew, deep down, that they couldn't stay like that forever. Sooner or later somebody would find them, and they had to be ready to run. Pulling herself together, for the moment at least, Chloe drew away from Sark and furiously rubbed the tears from her eyes. Footsteps sounded down the hallway, and Sark pushed Chloe further into the room as he readied the gun. He placed a finger over his lips, as if Chloe didn't know to be silent. She nodded slowly.
"I know you're here Savannah." Came the taunting voice of her father. A door banged open somewhere down the hall. "Come out come out wherever you are." Another door slammed open. This one closer. "I'm growing tired of this Savannah, and you don't want to see me when I'm mad." The footsteps stopped. Chloe was certain that her father could hear her rapidly beating heart. She tried to keep her breathing silent, but it was a struggle to bring in air. She moved closer to Sark and wrapped her hands around his free hand. He looked down at her and she was shocked by his emotionless eyes. The last time he had looked at her that way was when she was still his prisoner. Why had he reverted back to that? He looked from her to the pitch-blackness of the room's farthest corner. Chloe knew what he wanted her to do, but she wouldn't do it. They were in this together whether he wanted it that way or not.
She shook her head roughly and tightened her hold on his hand. Scowling, Sark turned back towards the door.
If Chloe was going to be safe, Sark had to make her move away from him. She was keeping him from doing what he had to do. Couldn't she see that? But when he tried to make her move away from him, and from the door and potential danger, she wouldn't. The stubbornness that he loved was back with a vengeance. There were no more tears, no more crying. Just a strong willed woman who wasn't going to back down from whatever fight was about to happen. When Sark realized that she wasn't going to budge, he turned back to the open door and came face to face with the man that had taken Chloe from him.
"Boo." The man said, laughing mirthlessly. "Looks like I found you." Startled, Sark tried to pull the trigger, but the man knocked it out of his hands with the force of an elephant. For one so small and stout, he had incredible strength. Sark dove for the gun, but the other man reached it first and held it trained on Sark. Staring down the barrel of the gun, Sark wasn't aware of Chloe moving behind him and, apparently, neither was the man.
"Bitch!" the man cursed as Chloe slammed her foot into his back. He fell forward toward Sark, but quickly caught his balance. But in that brief moment, Sark had been able to wrench the gun from his hands. The man lunged at him, Sark sidestepped and moved into the hall. He turned and lunged at Sark again. This time Sark was not able to move so swiftly, and was pinned against the wall. He dropped the gun and kicked it across the floor towards Chloe.
"No!" the man screamed as Chloe picked it up and aimed it at him.
I thought that'd be a nice place to leave off. Lol. I just love torturing you all. It's so much fun. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and will review. And thank you for being so patient while I was going through my writer's block.
PS. Thanks everybody for the birthday wishes. I had an awesome sweet sixteen. Just a little get together with my family and my two best amigas Allison and Jessica. The bestest friends ever!
PPS. Sorry the chapter was short.
allyispy: I love when people tell me they love my stories. Thank you very much.
Abby: Always nice to have new reviewers and I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
neptunestar, Alias-Addict-4-Life, intriKate, Reesie06, freakygirl, cg's-gal-72689, Zeriae, and csk8-20: Thank you all for reviewing. What y'all think means so much to me. Please keep it up.