The Ransom

Chapter 7

Nash's POV:

Today is one of the worst days ever. Today marks the anniversary of my wife and baby's death. It's been three years now since that bastard took them away from me. I didn't even get any enjoyment out of having his daughter beaten to try to lure him out of hiding. I thought we were so close to getting him this time that I felt like I could taste his blood. I have never wanted to kill someone so badly before in my life but when I thought we were almost there, I was ready to jump on that plane and go to New York so I could slowly rip his throat out with my bare hands! I wanted to be the first one to make him bleed. I wanted to be the one to make him wish he was dead. Show him no mercy like he showed my wife.

The drive back home seemed to take longer than the usual 30 minutes. It always relaxes me when I pull into my driveway. I had this house built the following year after my wife's death. She loved the ocean and wanted to be able to see it, smell it, and hear it every day. We often would come up here to this very spot just so she could paint it. I feel when I'm home that she's still with me.

I get home and just like any other late night, all the lights are off. I would love to come home and see lights on again like they used to be. It gave me a warm feeling to see those lights because that told me Everly was wandering around the house waiting for me to come home. She always told me she couldn't sleep without me so I tried not to do late nights too often.

I pulled into the garage and parked the car and walked into the house. The sounds of silence. That's all I hear anymore. The sound of nothing with the soft glow of the nightlights as I walk through. I go into the kitchen and pull out a glass, and some wine, and sit, drinking it. Maybe today I will just finally drink myself to death.

As I sit there, with almost an empty container of wine I think about Everly like I do every other night when I come home to an empty house. I set the glass down and walk into the lounge and sit down by the piano. She always loved to sit on the sofa nearby and listen to me play. She told me that she could listen to me all night to the sounds and it would give her the most peaceful night's rest.

I let my fingers do their magic and run across the keys. Stroking each one perfectly. I lose all my senses when I play and it clears my head of everything that is going on around me. Sometimes I even feel like she's sitting on that sofa listening to me play. I didn't get very far into the second song before I heard what sounded like something falling over and shattering.

I snap my head in the direction of the sound to see some strange girl standing in my lounge! What the hell is she doing here! Who is she! No one comes to this house without prior arrangements! How did she get in here in the first place!

My first thought when I saw her standing there was how frightened she looked but I didn't care.

"Who the bloody hell are you!" I shouted as I stood up from the bench and started to walk closer to her.

I was more than furious, I was ready to kill her for just standing in my house and now she has the audacity to not answer me!

"You better think about how you answer that question or it could be your last," I tell her as she starts to take a step back.

The closer I got to her the more I could see her features and the smaller she seemed to get. I tend to tower over people anyway with my six-foot-two-inch height but this girl, she's like a foot or more shorter than I am. She's so tiny everywhere that she looks like a child. I can already see that she's been beaten by someone so maybe she used her condition and somehow tricked her way through my security and got in here.

I've had enough of this, I don't have the patience anymore or the 'want to' to deal with children. I reach behind my back and pull out my gun and point it at her, c*****g it at the same time. She yelped when she heard my gun and I could see her eyes fill up with tears and her hands dropped at the sound of it. She wasn't paying any attention to where she was going and ran right into the wall, pinning her between the wall and me.

I was in front of her within a few seconds, taking in the look of her porcelain skin that complemented the redness of her hair and beautiful baby blue eyes. She was very pretty for her age but that still isn't going to save her from breaking into my house.

"I asked you a question. Who the bloody hell are you?" I growled deep in my throat as I held the gun a few inches from her forehead.

"I. um. I..... my name um."

Oh for crying out loud! Now the child can't even speak properly. She doesn't even sound like she's from this country. What did someone do, take her and dump her? She was so distracted with the gun in her face that I had to just yell at her to snap her out of whatever it was she is doing.

"Speak!" I yelled making her jump.

"Brooklynne! Brooklynne McLin!" She screamed as loud as she could.

As soon as I heard her name that night of my wife's murder flooded into my head. That night my world ended and would never be the same again. The last time my wife would ever tell me that she loved me. Never having the chance to feel my little girl or to hold her.

"I should shoot you now just because of who you are!" I yell at her through clenched teeth.

I could feel the anger and rage filling me as I stood in front of that despicable man's daughter. I wanted to shoot her so bad right now, to make him feel how I felt that night when he ripped Everly from my hands. But then, I saw those tears fall down her young perfect skin. Of course, perfect where I didn't have Harrison beat the living crap out of her at.

I couldn't help but think of what Everly would say or do to me if she ever found out that I shot a child. I wouldn't be able to bear the thought of her looking down at me at this very moment, seeing me point a gun at this girl and threatening to kill her. I lowered my gun and put it away. She slowly opened her eyes, showing me those blue orbs, now red and puffy from crying.

"How did you get here?" I asked her in a demanding tone.

"I, ah.....um.....Harrison." She managed to get out.

I took a step back from her, giving her some room to breathe. I didn't realize I had gotten so close to her at that moment.

"Harrison Kingston brought you here?"

"Y-Yes." She replied.

Harrison and I may have grown up with me and been one of my best friends in school but that doesn't mean he can disobey orders! I told him to get rid of her not bring her here!

"Go!" I yelled at her and turned away.

"What do you mean to go? I was told...." I snapped my head towards her, cutting her off from her speech.

Oh, sure now she wants to speak up. I turned around quickly and got real close to her this time. So close that I had my hand on the wall above her and I leaned into her. Close enough that I could smell her scent mixed with her fear of me.

"I don't care what you were told. I don't want to see you, I don't want to hear you. I find you touch anything in this house and your hands will be cut off!" I almost growled at her in a deep low tone.

She slid out under my arm and took off running towards the stairs. I walked back into the lounge and pulled out my phone. I don't care what time it is right now, Harrison's ass is getting over here right now!

"Harrison you prick!" I yell into the phone.

"Ah, I see you've had a chance to meet Brooklynne." He chuckled on the other side of the phone.

What the hell was that all about!

"You need to get your ass over to this house now before you get a bullet through your head!" I yelled at him again, feeling my blood pressure rise the angrier I got.

"Calm down Nash. I will be there in a few." I hung up and tossed my phone on the bar counter.

I walked around it and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and opened it up and started drinking from the bottle. What the bloody hell was he thinking about bringing her here! I don't want her here. I am not a babysitter.

I had probably drunk half of it or more by the time Harrison showed up and let himself into the house.

"I think I need thumb removal you can't make in," I half grumbled as he walked into the room.

"Oh, Nash. You know you can't live without me in your life." He says as he shakes the crap out of my head with his hand, making my head hurt even more.

As he walked past and I swing my arm to punch him in the face. Except, instead I miss completely and fall to the floor.

"Hahaha, you're drunk Nash. This isn't the time to be talking to you about this."

He walks over and picks me up off of the floor.

"You need to stop drinking that s**t. You're going to kill yourself one of these days." He says once I am on my feet and stumble over to one of the chairs.

"Why here Harrison? You were ordered to rid of her!" I yelled at him.

"I'm not her father and really not her babysitter," I grumbled again while he just stood there with his arms crossed.

"I saw something in her, she reminds me of my little girl. I couldn't just get rid of her like that knowing that no one wanted her." He told me lowering his head.

'What's that got with bringing here!"

"It doesn't." He responded, really starting to irritate me now.

"Take her back! Get rid her! I don't care how you do it, where you take her just get her the bloody hell out of my house and away from me!" I shouted at him a little more clearly than I have been recently.

"My heads is killing, please Harrison just gets rid of her," I said lowering my voice as I closed my eyes to try to relieve the stress that is building up in my head.

I don't understand why he would bring her here. He knows what her father did. I just don't get it!

"Do I have to kill her myself!" I shouted when he didn't respond back to me and put my hand to my head in pain.

"Nash stop it!" He yelled at me.

It's a good thing he's my childhood best friend because anyone else in the group would have gotten a bullet to the brain by now for talking back to me like this, drunk or not.

"You need to look at yourself in the mirror, man! It's been three years now. You need to move on."

I wanted to get up and go after him and beat the living s**t out of him but I just couldn't. Now that I'm sitting I just can't get up. All my energy has left my body and my head falls back against the back of the chair.

"Harrison, what nonsense are saying you?" I slurred but I didn't care anymore about how I sounded.

"I'm saying Nash, I think she will be good for you. Get you out of whatever this is." He chuckled as he waved his hands around at me.

"Harrison, you i***t! She's a child!" I yell at him, feeling soberer now, and standing up on my feet and taking a few steps towards him.

I wanted to hit him so bad. Hit that smirk off of his face. I was so close to just pulling my gun back out and finding her and getting rid of her myself!

"I'm not a child! I'm 17 and will be 18 in less than a month if you must know."

"That nail-scratching voice is in my head again!" I yelled putting my finger in my ear trying to dig it out.

"Yet, he says I'm the child. Look at him!"

I turned to see that brat standing in the doorway pointing her hand at me. Accusing me of being the child in this room. Then you have Harrison over here just laughing his ass off at me. I swung and this time I didn't miss. My fist connected with his face and knocked him into the bar.

"Nash! You prick!" He yells as he wipes the blood off of his face.

"Adult, you say?" I turn and ask her, taking a few steps towards her.

"You're not even tall enough to drive!"

She folds her arms over her chest and she glares up at me.

"Have you even hit puberty yet? Look at you! Nothing there to look at!" I degraded her.

I didn't even care about the fact that my words were causing tears to form in her gorgeous eyes. She needs to grow up. She needs to get the hell out of here and go back where she came from!

"What the hell is your problem, you....you, oversized gigantic shithead!" She shouted at me.

I clenched my fists together fighting my urge to hit her. I swore since I was a teen I would never hit a girl or woman but she is making this really hard for me to do!

"Nash! Now that's enough!" Harrison yelled at me.

Snapping me out of my violent thoughts, I turned to Harrison, rage in my eyes and I'm sure all my veins are popping out of my body. This has gone on long enough. I am the leader here, I'm the one that says what happens and what doesn't happen. I'm the one that no one disobeys!

"Harrison! If you don't get her out of my sight in the next ten seconds I swear to the Heavens that I will pull my gun out and shoot her in the head!" I shouted and placed my hand on my gun that I had in the back of my pants and started to pull it out.

"Brooke, you might want to run!" Harrison yelled.

I didn't even give her ten seconds, I just raised my hand and pointed and pulled the trigger.