The Hellman

Chapter 12

Elain finally arrived home as the sun began to set. She checked her rear-view mirrors before opening her door and stepping out of the car. She had noticed that the streets were much more empty tonight than they usually were, but she didn’t let it bother her. Her mind was focused on Alexander who had uncharacteristically canceled their date three days in a row since the night she had left her phone in his car.

She couldn’t understand why he as behaving differently and she wondered if it was because of her request that they take their relationship further.

As she opened her door, she berated herself for being so weird. She hadn’t planned to but when she had walked into his office, everything about what she had planned went out the window and she felt the sudden urge to take it to the next level.

“Don’t move”

Elaine stopped.

Everything went still, and she felt her world beginning to crumble. It was a man’s voice, she was sure of it but although it was familiar, she couldn’t quite place it.

“Did you think you could hide out here without anyone finding you?”

Elaine’s heart was beating a thousand beats a minute, but she took a deep breath and calmed herself. She didn’t have to be afraid. She didn’t have to be afraid.

“Turn around”

She turned and found herself face to face with Clinton. He looked different now than he had a few days ago. Less refined and more like a killer. It was then that it occurred to her that she knew this man. He was a killer. One of the best and one her captor had hired many times to take out a high-value target. She took a step back and tried to come up with a plan. She couldn’t die; not like this, not after fighting through hell and not after falling for Alexander.

“What do you want Clinton?” she asked, “is that even your real name?”

“Elaine,” he said, “so different from Michelle.”

“How did you find me,” she asked taking another step back

He took a step forward and she wondered what he was waiting for. He usually worked alone so she had an advantage but if he knew where she was, there was a possibility that others knew where she was.

“It was luck” he replied, “I was in town one day and I saw you having lunch with Laura”

Elain patted herself on the back for figuring out long before that something was wrong with him. As she took another step back, she bumped into something and realized that it was the kitchen table. She suddenly felt a surge of relief. She had hidden several knives under the table like her father had taught her.

“Did you tell Julius?” she asked

“No’ he replied, “he wants you alive, I want you dead.”

She grimaced at his crass words, but she knew she had much more to worry about than just that.

“He will kill you if you kill me and you know that.” She said

“He won’t know” he replied, “there are things going on here that you know nothing about.”

She slipped her hand under the table slowly and felt her hand nudge against something sharp.

“I guess that makes two of us,” she said gripping the knife

She pulled It from beneath the table and charged towards him. She had learned as a child that waiting for the attacker to lash out in situations like these almost always lead to death. She didn’t want to wait for him to lash out because she knew his tactics. He would torture his victims, humiliate them before killing them. As she lashed out, he stepped back, and she saw the surprise on his face.

“They told me you were feisty but I didn’t think they were telling the truth,” he said dashing across the room.

Elaine knew that if she let him out of her sight long enough, he would kill her and she didn’t want to die. She rushed after him and struck him as he was about to pull his gun from his belt. She somehow missed the fist he swung at her. It hit her squarely in the jaw and stars burst behind her eyes. He swung at her and she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. When she looked down, she realized he had stabbed her. As she staggered back she saw him advanced towards her and she stuck out her foot and tripped him. He fell to the floor next to her and she pushed past the pain she was feeling in her face and kicked him in his stomach.

“You’re really a feisty one,” he said as he rolled towards her.

She tried to stand but couldn’t find the strength. Clinton or whoever he was, kneeled over her and clutched her throat. She felt her throat being squeezed and suddenly everything went black. Kicking out her feet, she tried to get at him, but he held onto her. Suddenly she remembered something else her father had taught her. Instead of clutching his hands to stop him from choking her to death, she reached up and stuck both her thumbs into his eyes. He screamed out from the pain and realized her. She gasped trying to get enough oxygen to recover from being choked. Her killer, on the other hand, was sprawled on the floor clutching his eyes. She kicked him in the side a few times before crawling away from him. She found a length of rope in the kitchen cabinet and tied him up to a nearby chair. Using duct tape, she taped his lips to stop the screaming and threating, after this, she blindfolded him.

She sat down around the kitchen table for a while inhaling and exhaling to calm herself. Everything was suddenly in focus now. She had been found, and she needed to run. She paced the sitting room trying to figure out what to do. There was blood coming from her stomach and so she attended to the wound before calling Charlie.

“Why are you calling me?” Charlie asked

“When I got home there was an assassin in my house,” she said

Charlie was silent,

“What happened, did he get away?” Charlie asked,

“No, he tried to kill me, but I disarmed him and tied him up. What should I do?” she asked

It had been a long time since ahs had ever felt so much fear. She was always able to protect herself in desperate times but laying there on the ground with a man choking her to death almost broke her. She wasn’t prepared for it and she had just begun getting used to be safe. She wasn’t safe anymore and it was scary.

“You need to kill him,” Charlie said

Eline’s eyes flew open. She had been in a lot of combat training with her father, but she had never killed anyone she had never seen any real action so the thought of killing a man in cold blood didn’t sit so well with her.

“Can’t I just ditch the house?” she asked, “do I really have to kill him.”

“Elaine, there is someone who knows where you are,” Charlie said frantically, “that means you are in danger. You need to handle the situation.”

Elain was nervous and afraid. She didn’t think Charlie had any idea what she was going through as she looked over at the killer who was slumped over on the ground where she had tied him up. He was unconscious and bleeding from his eyes and his side, but he was still alive.

“I can’t kill a man,” she said, “why can’t you come here, I need you”

“I can’t come now” she replied, “I can be there in a few hours to move you but I need you to be ready. Part of that means you need to kill that man.”

Elaine began pacing the kitchen. She didn’t want to do it and she knew there must be a better way to get things done that wouldn’t involve her killing a man.

“Why don’t I call Alexander?” she asked

Alexander had been surprisingly good to her and she appreciated him for that. She wanted to tell him everything and she knew he would protect her. Charlie had insisted that they keep things away from him but at this moment, she wanted so badly to call him. She had come to depend on him heavily and the more she thought about it, the more she needed it.

“I told you already that we can not involve the Hellmans” Charlie said adamantly, “they wouldn’t like the fact that you’ve been lying to them and this could backfire.”

Elaine bit her lips. If she left now they would know she was lying to them. She couldn’t come back here and if Clifton knew who she was and where she was, there was a possibility that there were more people who knew where he was.

“I’ll be ready when you get here,” she said to Charlie, “but if someone is going to kill this man, it has to be you. I won’t kill him.”

She hung up before Charlie could reply and went around the house to collect her things. She found the guns she had been hiding for months and secured them to herself and then packed her bag. She changed into her gear and then went back to the sitting room where the prisoner was tied up. He was conscious now and she could hear him mumbling. Walking over to him she undid his blindfold and removed his duct tape. She unstrapped one of her guns and placed it on the table beside her so he knew she was a threat.

“Why are you here?” she asked, “if Julius sent you then why would you try to kill me.”

He was silent and so she waited. There was no reason to rush him. Even if he didn’t talk to her, she would be gone soon, and he would be dead.

“You have no idea what’s really going on here do you?” he asked,

“I left over a year ago.” He replied, “I know you’re a killer so why didn’t you search for me and kill me? Why set up this ruse with Laura?”

“I needed to know how much you knew,” he said, “about yourself, your parents, Julius, your life.”

“I know everything,” she said

“You don’t” he replied, “I was counting on that.”

“How do you even know what I know,” she asked, “you only met me that once.”

“If you knew anything little girl,” he said, “you would have killed me the very first day you saw me.”

She remembered seeing him in the restaurant and feeling that she had known him. She remembered him from the documents she used to read when Julius had allowed her into his offices but there wasn’t much more than she knew about him other than the fact that he was a killer.

“I could kill you now,” she said reaching for her gun.

“Why do you think you’re here?” he asked

“This is the only place I could find.” She replied

“Not this house,” he said, “in California. Why do you think you’ve found safety with a family like Hellman?”

“I came here when I had nowhere else to go.” She replied, “if you know something then you should say it.”

He was silent but as he looked up at her, she knew that something horrible was happening in her life.

“You were dead the minute you were born,” he said

She was suddenly overcome with fear at his words and the look in his eyes told her that he wasn’t lying.

She stood and taped his mouth shut again and blindfolded him. He was never going to tell her anything and she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. There was a sudden knock on the door and she stood still in the middle of the room. Something was horribly wrong.