Page 76 of Crimson Love

I grab the cell to get a better look as Lennon whimpers beside me. It’s pain and distress.

My thumb hovers over the image of her. She’s mid-run, looking back over her shoulder with her hair flying behind her. She’s barely dressed, only wearing a string bikini top and a pair of shorts so small, they barely cover her ass. She’s skinnier, and that’s saying something since there’s not much to her now.

But not just skinny.

Skin and bones.

She’s also beaten to a bloody fucking pulp.

When I look up at the woman who looks like a different person than the one on the screen, silent tears stream down her face. My arm wrapped around her shoulders constricts.

“Go ahead,” Andrei demands. I look up and his stare on me is toxic. “You think you hold all the cards, but you don’t. If you’re willing to bet all on her, you might as well know what you’re dealing with.”

Andrei isn’t wrong. I need to know what they have over her so we can move forward. The fact that no one has moved in with handcuffs is telling. The agents either don’t have enough to arrest him, or they don’t have the phone numbers they need to move forward. And who the hell am I kidding? Reed Shaw showing up threw a wrench into an operational plan that rested solely on getting Andrei to talk.

Which has not happened.

I look down and press play on the screen. There’s no audio, but the time and date are displayed at the bottom of the screen.

It’s dark, and the lights are low in the posh yacht. My stomach turns knowing this is where she was held captive for years. She might be barely dressed, but she’s covered in blood. Her own face is cut and battered, but when I see the body on the floor, unconscious in a pool of his own crimson liquid, I don’t need the backstory to know what happened.

Lennon pulls herself to her bare feet on the screen and drops the knife she used as a weapon. They’re on the stern of the boat in open air. The man in a heap on the deck is lifeless. Lennon looks around before she stumbles to the back and opens a low door that leads to steps toward the water.

I’m not sure how she does it. The lifeless man doesn’t look big, but he’s damn well bigger than her. She drags him across the floor, struggling. I’m in awe. And not of her physical strength, but of her sheer determination to survive.

It takes everything she’s got, but she does it. His body slides off the back of the boat where the camera doesn’t pan, but I know what happened. There’s a splash when the body hits the ocean.

The video switches to a different surveillance camera. Lennon doesn’t waste any time and runs through an office. Behind a hinged piece of art is a safe. Her hands tremble, and it takes two tries, but she does it.

The door pops open.

Even she can’t believe it. She digs through the safe and pulls out handfuls of money. Cash stacked and banded, she throws it into a small bag and keeps digging until she finds what she’s looking for.

The objects that have created more drama than the murder.

She pulls it out and holds the bag in her hands like she can’t believe it.

She stuffs them into a small duffle, slams the safe shut, and returns the picture to where it was. When she makes her final escape, she does it with a limp. And right before the video of Lennon saving herself ends—the one that shows the exact events that she described in detail to me—the video pans in close up right before she escapes from the surveillance cameras. That’s where the video ends, on a close up of her face that shows desperation and fear. I drop the cell down in front of me and turn to Lennon. Silent tears stream down her face after just watching the horror she lived through.

I put my fingers to her chin and angle her face to mine, but she speaks first.

“I’m sorry,” she says on a whisper. “I’m sorry you had to see that. See me like that.”

I shake my head and lower my mouth to hers. I thought the need to wrap her up and protect her before was strong. After seeing that video, I want to lay waste to the world for her.

I drag my thumb over her bottom lip. Her red lipstick smudges but I don’t care. “I’m proud of you, baby. So fucking proud of you.”

Andrei clears his throat. “Not to interrupt your little love fest, but now you know. I’m willing to forget all of this if you hand over the jewels. I’m even throwing you a bone with information about Audrey. This is your only chance to take me up on the offer, or else.”

Lennon doesn’t let go of me but turns to him. “Or else what? You’ll kidnap me? Hold me for years? Try to kill me by running us off the road like you did last night?”

Andrei hikes a brow. “That’s almost humorous. Did you not pay attention during our time together? Running someone off the road is amateur. You know I prefer a slower and more methodical approach.”

Reed huffs one laugh. “A vehicle ... what a ridiculous expense when there are more fun ways to do business.”

I don’t have time to process that. Lennon juts to her feet. Before I know what she’s doing, she grabs her crystal stem of wine and hurls its contents across the table.

Our private room erupts when Reed bellows, “What the fuck?!”