"Hello?" she said, hoping to God it was AJ.
"Hey Mikayla, this is Marcus. Listen, tell AJ I'm feeling better and I'll be flying out to Colorado tomorrow, ok? If you want, I'll fly out with you and Lyric."
"Excuse me?" Mikayla said, feeling a tight knot forming in her throat. "You mean, you're not with him?"
"No. Didn't he tell you? I got the flu a few days ago, and I've been sick in bed. He told me not to worry about it and to just come on when I felt like it."
"Oh God," she moaned. "Marcus, he hasn't called me yet. I just have this horrible feeling..."
"Shit," he said, "Ok, I'm on my way."
"No, let me handle this, ok. I'm sure he's fine."
The call waiting beeped in, and Mikayla answered it.
"Kayla," Lori said. "Honey, I've got some bad news. I think we've found Karina. She's in Colorado."
*************************************
Karina held the knife to AJ's throat, forcing him back onto the bed. She could see the fear in his eyes, and it excited her. She smirked and pushed the tip of the knife just a bit harder into his flesh. AJ didn't even breathe, for fear that the blade would cut him.
"Put your hands over your head and grab the headboard," she said, her voice low and menacing. He did has she said. With her free hand, she handcuffed him to it. Now he was her prisoner. For the little time that he would be alive, that is.
"AJ, you have no idea what you passed up when you decided to go back to Mikayla. We could have been so happy, you know. Just the two of us," Karina said, shaking her head sadly. "But you had to go fuck it up. I would have been so much better for you than her. You know she used to be a whore, right? Yeah, I see the surprised look in your eyes. How the hell do you think she learned all of her tricks? Tricks... I made a funny, didn't I? Anyway, yeah, she was a whore. She took money for having sex with men. That's how she got her first husband. She was only 17 when they met, and he felt sorry for her. He was supposed to be my date, but I got caught up with another appointment, and he took her out instead. Then, after he fucked her, he fell in love with her." Her voice was sharp and harsh when she said the word 'love'. "Can you believe that shit? Well, anyway, Dominick took her back to Florida with him and when she turned 18, he married her. That should have been ME, AJ. I should have been the one married to Dominick. I should have been the one who inherited all that money. She had done this kind of shit to me since we were KIDS. Do you understand what I'm saying? She always takes and takes and takes. She doesn't care who she steps on. She'll do the same to you, too. Or, should I say, she WOULD HAVE done the same to you. I'm going to save you from that fate. I'm finally going to take something from HER. I'm going to hurt her like she's hurt me so many times. She's finally going to get her payback."
**********************************************
Mikayla and Lori sat on the private Lear jet, somewhere over Mississippi. Mikayla was beside herself with fear and grief. She was so afraid of what they would find when they got to the house. The Colorado police had driven to the house and told Mikayla there were no cars in the driveway and it didn't appear that anyone was there. They refused to break down the door, because they would have to get a court order to do so unless Mikayla was there to sign a release.
Lori grasped Mikayla's hand. She was worried, too. She knew what Karina was capable of, and she knew AJ was in grave danger if she was in that house with him. If she ever got her hands on that bitch, she would massacre her.
Their plane landed at the tiny Vail airport three hours later. Mikayla and Lori ran to the waiting car and sped off toward the house. As they drove up the long driveway, Mikayla's heart began to race. There were no lights on, but she could see a faint glow in one of the upstairs windows. It looked like a candle burning. She threw the car into park and jumped out, running toward the house. Lori grabbed her arm to stop her.
"Kayla, wait!" Lori whispered. "This is dangerous. Let me go, ok?"
"Hell no!" Mikayla yelled, shaking her away. She ran up the stairs and used her key to open the door. It was completely dark and quiet inside. Lori entered behind her, using her penlight to illuminate the room. They quietly made their way up to the master bedroom, where they had seen the candle glowing. Mikayla slowly, silently opened the door, afraid of what she would see inside. She saw Karina sitting on the bed, her back to the door, running a knife down AJ's naked stomach. Mikayla held her hand behind her, and Lori knew exactly what she wanted. Lori reached into her coat and pulled her 9mm Beretta out of her shoulder holster, placing it into Mikayla's opened hand.
"AJ, are you enjoying your last few hours of life?" Karina asked, running the cold blade up and down his stomach. She had already made a few tiny scratches on his body, which were beginning to ooze bright red. "You know, I could do this all night. This is entertaining... watching you bleed."
The cold barrel of the Beretta on the back of her neck silenced Karina.
"Shut...the...fuck...up," Mikayla hissed. "Put the knife down, Karina." Karina smiled at AJ, but she put the knife down on the nightstand. "Now, turn around very slowly."
Karina turned around to face Mikayla, a sarcastic smile still firmly placed on her face. Mikayla shook her head.
"Karina, why? I just don't understand why you would do this. Why AJ?"
"Because the first time I tried this, it didn't hurt you. This time, I knew it would," Karina said, her eyes narrowing.
"The first time? What are you talking about? Taking Lyric?"
"No, you idiot. I'm talking about Dominick," Karina said, laughing.
Mikayla looked at her, confused. Slowly, a look of realization came over her face. "You... killed Dominick?"
Karina smiled. "Yep. Shot that fucker right in the face. Had I known you would inherit all the money, I never would have done it. I just wanted to hurt you."
"But... what about the girl... the one who went to jail?"
"Oh, that was easy. I let her shoot up some heroin laced with some shit that knocked her out, then, when she woke up, I told her she shot him," Karina said, laughing at the memory.
Mikayla shook her head. All this time, she had invited Karina into her home. Into her life. She had no idea of the danger she had been in. Or of the danger she had put AJ in. This had to stop. Right now.
"Karina, there's one bad thing about being a nasty bitch like yourself. People don't miss you when you're gone," Mikayla said, regaining her composure. She tossed the gun back to Lori, who grabbed Karina's arm and shoved her out the door. A few seconds later, she heard the front door shut and the car start up. As it pulled down the driveway, Mikayla knew that was the last they would ever hear from Karina.
She ran to AJ and uncuffed him. He sat up, hugging her tightly, tears streaming down his face.
"I thought I was a dead man," he said, shaking his head.
"You won't have to worry anymore. Are you ok?" Mikayla said, rubbing his back as she hugged him.
"God, I've never seen anybody so crazy," he said, shivering. Mikayla pulled the blanket from the foot of the bed up around his shoulders.
"What did she say?" Mikayla asked, worried about her secrets.
"Oh, she just rambled. I couldn't understand much of anything she was talking about," AJ said. He would never let her know exactly what Karina had told him. He'd just keep that to himself. If she wanted him to know, she'd tell him herself. It didn't matter anyway. He loved Mikayla, and nothing was ever going to change that.
Mikayla breathed a deep sigh of relief.
"I love you, baby." he said, smiling. "You're my hero."
Mikayla laughed and ran her hand down the side of his face, then kissed him. They were going to be ok.