Sinful Hearts: Chapter 37

“I’ve prepared your breakfast. Just the way you like it, my love.”

To describe what I’m feeling as “creeped out” is like referring to a hundred-year-storm as “a spot of bad weather”.

I’m not “creeped out” to be tied to a chair at the kitchen table of the dingy little house, across from my terrified sister, while Hugo Johansen sets two plates of poached eggs down in front of us.

I’m absolutely fucking .

“Oh-oh-oh, mustn’t forget!” he chuckles to himself, turning to grab two grimy glasses with orange juice in them, setting them down in front of Nora and I as well. “Fresh-squeezed, just the way you like it, sweetheart.”

My stomach turns as I eye the man I once worked with. The man who hounded me for fucking after our three whole dates, before I filed a restraining order against him.

The man I thought I’d left in my past forever once I moved us to New York.

.

of my past has ever stayed there. None of it has remained in England. First it was Leo who followed me across the Atlantic. And now, it’s Hugo who’s back to shake my life apart.

As if it’s not already shattered into enough charred, wrecked pieces.

When the bomb blew up The Banshee on the night of the soft opening, I was at Hades’ place getting ready. My phone started going crazy with texts and social media notifications about it, and when I couldn’t reach Hades, I bolted out the door in a blind panic.

…Right into Leo.

Leo, with a gun, a bloody knife, and the slain bodies of three men behind him in the open sliding door of a van with “Athenian Dry-Cleaning” stenciled on the side of it.

Leo, who demanded I get in his car.

Leo, who then crumpled to the ground as the brick broke in half over his head, revealing the other nightmare from my past standing behind him, smiling chillingly at me.

Hugo.

I shiver as my mind replays the manic hours that followed: the sight of Hugo dragging an unconscious Leo to his car. My freakout when I saw my sister bound and gagged in his back seat which was only silenced by Hugo digging the barrel of a gun into my side.

My sobbing pleas for him not to hurt her as I let him shove me into the passenger seat. Leo’s horrible groans from the trunk as Hugo drove us north out of the city, following the Hudson up into the Catskills.

The groans finally going silent right before we pulled up to this little house, which has been our prison ever since.

I swallow, my gaze stabbing out the kitchen window to the brownish lawn outside with the fresh little mound of dirt in the far corner.

Leo’s final, inglorious resting place.

I’m not sure if the irony that one of my demons was slain by the other has sunk all the way in yet.

Hugo turns away, and my eyes instantly snap to Nora’s across the table.

“

,” I mouth to her.

Her face is pale as a ghost’s, and her eyes are wide and full of terror. But she nods back at me.

“Don’t you want your breakfast, my love?” Hugo purrs in a voice that feels like cold slime being poured down my neck. He turns, smiling this creepy, way-too-focused smile on me. His pupils are dilated, and when my gaze slips past him, I see the answer to my unspoken question: a little hand mirror streaked with white powered lines and a rolled-up dollar bill sitting next to the stove.

“I—”

“I made it just for you.

the way I know you love it.”

I glance down at the egg in front of me. I’ve had poached eggs maybe twice in my entire life.

“Don’t you remember?” He smiles a sloppy, cocaine-fueled grin at me. “It was our second date. We were at La Tua Pasta, that little Italian place next to Borough Market.”

I have idea what he’s talking about. But I can see the mania in his eyes, and it’s not just from the coke.

There’s a reason this man stalked me, and that reason isn’t necessarily “me”. He’s insane. And between that and the drugs—not to mention the fact that he’s just kept Nora and I locked in a goddamn windowless basement with a bucket for a toilet for five days—I am very, very afraid of him and what he’s capable of doing right now.

Not for myself. But for Nora.

“Oh, of course!” I smile. “Yes, I remember now. Mmm, poached eggs, thank you!”

He grins widely. “You’re so welcome, sweetheart.” He lifts his brow. “Well? Why haven’t you touched it?”

“My…” I swallow. “Hugo, my hands are tied.”

He glances down to my wrists, which are in fact bound to the arms of the chair, just as Nora’s are to hers.

“Silly me,” he sighs, chuckling to himself. “I’ve been so worked up about making this utterly perfect for you, I wasn’t even thinking. Forgive me?”

.

“Of course,” I smile broadly at him.

Hugo walks closer, and I shiver as he uses a pocketknife to slice off the rope. But only on one of my wrists.

“Dig in, please,” he beams.

Even after five days of nothing but water, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a couple bananas here and there, I have zero appetite. But again, this man is insane. As would I be not to do what he says.

So I smile as I start in on the bland poached egg, making a big show of nodding and chewing eagerly.

“Good?”

“

good,” I gush.

Hugo grins, turning and lowering his face to the lines of cocaine on the mirror.

“Hugo?” I venture.

He turns, renewed mania in his eyes as he sniffs loudly and wipes his nose.

“Yes, my love?”

I shudder again at the term of endearment.

“What is this? I mean…all of this? Us being here?”

His eyes lock with mine.

“Can’t you guess? This is our fresh start, my love.”

“

.”

It tumbles out of me, and I can’t stop it. Every time he calls me “love” I want to throw up.

Because I don’t know if the man I love is alive or dead. I don’t know if his family is, either. And I’ve spent five days in a black hole doing everything I can not to think about that, but every time Hugo says that word, I get closer to exploding.

“Don’t what ”

“

,” I choke, cringing in my chair.

Hugo frowns. Fear stabs through me. Then he nods slowly.

“Yes, I know, Elsa,” he sighs. “I know. I was in love with you, and it frightened you away. And I’m still in love with you to this day, which is why it hurts so much that you cheated on me.”

I go still, my face paling as my eyes snap to his.

“What?”

“You were , my love.”

“Hugo, I don’t know what you’re—”

Nora and I both scream as he whirls violently and punches the flimsy wall next to the stove, sending his fist through it in a cloud of plaster dust.

“You were weak!” he snarls, turning back on me. “And you took another man.”

I shake my head. “No, Hugo—”

“I found his on your panties when I broke into your apartment, .”

I almost choke, my eyes flaring as the words hit me like a slap in the face.

It wasn’t Leo that broke in that time we went to stay with Hades. It was Hugo.

“Hugo—”

He spins again, dipping down to snort another line of coke. When he whips his gaze back to me, it’s glassy. I flinch when he suddenly rushes to my side, a horrified expression on his face as he crouches down to my eye level.

“Dear God,” he chokes. “Did he…” he swallows. “Did he , my love?”

I want to vomit.

“It’s all right, you can tell me, Elsa. Just tell me, and I will forgive you. I know it would be hard for any man to resist you.”

My stomach turns.

I could say yes. I could just say it, and end this. Or at least temper his mania and his anger.

I can’t.

“No,” I choke out, shaking my head. “No, he didn’t…”

The worry in his eyes dissipates.

“…because I love him, Hugo.”

He stares at me, eyes unblinking and the color draining from his face.

“

,” he whispers.

“Hugo… Sometimes you feel things for someone, and they don’t feel the same way back—”

“

”

I gasp as he screams in my face, lurching to his feet and backing away.

“Elsa…”

“I love him,” I choke. “Hugo, there’s someone out there for you, I know there is!

! Just… Just let us go.”

Hugo starts to cry. My gaze slips from him to my sister.

I will let her come to harm.

She will die here.

“Please, ”

“NO!” he roars. “No, I can’t! I won’t! My love,” he hisses, “I refuse to believe that you don’t—”

“Okay!”

My gaze snaps back to Nora again, so pale, so terrified.

.

“Okay!”

I swallow, turning back to Hugo.

And .

“I, I… You got me.”

It takes everything I have—all my energy, all of my theatrical skills honed in the courtroom—to force the huge sappy grin to my face. I almost can’t do it.

So instead of Hugo, I imagine it’s Hades who’s standing in front of me. I don’t even know if he’s alive or dead, but is who I pretend I’m looking at when I look up into Hugo’s demented, frenzied eyes.

“I… I was wrong.”

He frowns. “What?”

“I’ve been so scared of my own feelings. So afraid of what they meant, and that they were too strong.”

His lips curl into a smile. “What are you saying?” he breathes.

“I’m saying… You’re my person. I….”

I swallow back poison and bile.

“I’ve always wanted you. Madly, to a truly crazy degree. I was just always so afraid of how big that felt inside.”

Hugo looks like he’s going to burst into tears again.

“

,” he chokes. “That’s…poetry. It’s how I feel, too!”

“It was meant to be,” I whisper. “

were meant to be. It’s why and how you found me again. To show me what true love is.”

He grins widely. “Fate, my love.”

I nod. “Yes, exactly. Fate.”

My eyes slip to Nora. Then back to him.

“I want to…to be with you, Hugo.”

He beams. “You do?”

I nod vigorously. “Yes.

.”

I swallow the bile down again, beckoning him closer. I shudder when his hands slide up my arms.

“What is it, my love?” he murmurs into my ear.

“I…I you. I want a real man, like you.”

He groans. “God, Elsa. I’ve waited so long to hear that from your lips.”

But Hugo, I….” I lock eyes with him, then flick them to Nora and back again. “Not with my sister in the house, you know?”

He grins.

“Can we have some privacy? So that you can show me what real pleasure is?”

He stares at me, his eyes bulging, his breath coming faster.

The seconds tick by.

“Hugo?”

His smile suddenly drops. Hard.

His brow furrows, and he slowly starts to shake his head.

“Hugo—”

“

,” he snarls, turning to pace the small kitchen. “No, no, no, no, ! I remember now why you were always such a good lawyer, Elsa!” he snaps.

“Wait, Hugo—”

“Because you’re such. A. Good. Fucking.

!”

Nora screams, and I cry out as his palm smacks me across the face, stunning me. But when he turns his attention to my sister, it’s my own roar that explodes through the kitchen.

“You stay the FUCK away from her!!”

He ignores me, stalking closer to her, leering down into her face.

“Has your purity been sullied, my dear?”

.

Nora pales.

“STAY AWAY FROM HER!” I scream again.

Hugo snarls, spinning to glare at me before marching over to the kitchen cabinets. He yanks one open, and I blanch when he pulls out a snub-nosed revolver. He waves it at me, sneering before he moves back to Nora’s side.

“Answer me, sweetness.”

My sister’s face goes white.

“W-what?”

“Has anyone taken your chastity yet?”

I gag.

“

—”

He whirls, levelling the gun at me before turning his monstrous gaze back to her.

“Answer me, Nora.”

She starts to cry.

“

,” she sobs, shaking as tears trace down her cheeks.

“You’re a virgin?”

Another sob rips from her throat as she nods miserably.

“

.”

He turns back to me, smiling thoughtfully.

“She looks so much like you, Elsa.”

I scream, trying to lurch from my chair even though one wrist is still tied to it. I fumble for my fork, then jolt as Hugo fires a shot into the ceiling.

“SIT.

.”

He turns back to Nora, ignoring my screams and her shaky sobs as he cups her cheek.

“Don’t cry, my little one. God has saved your innocence all for me. For today.”

His back is to me, I don’t know for how much longer, but it’s all I’ve got to work with. I grab the fork from the table, turning it and madly raking and scraping at the old, frayed rope tying my other wrist to the chair. My skin rips and bleeds, but the rope gives way.

Hugo starts to turn at the sound of my chair falling backward, but I’m already on him, stabbing down into his shoulder with the prongs of the fork.

“You !”

I scream, stabbing over and over before suddenly he backhands me again hard.

But I’m not done, and I am going down without a fight. I scream again, lunging at him and stabbing wildly with the fork. Over and over, I only manage to hit his free hand and the one holding his gun as he stumbles back trying to block my blows. Finally, I get one thrust past his hands, right into his face.

Hugo as the fork rakes over his eyes, bloodying one of them. He sobs, falling backwards and writhing on the floor as he clutches his face.

I don’t have much time.

I use my fingers and the fork together to rip and shred the ropes from Nora’s wrists before yanking her from the chair and out of the kitchen door. It’s foggy and gray outside, and the ground is wet as it heads down a slope towards a set of train tracks. The opposite way, the slope leads up to a patch of woods.

Nora gasps as I grab her face, my eyes locked on hers.

“You need to !” I blurt, turning and shoving her up the slope in the direction of the trees.

She twists, whipping around to shake her head at me.

“No! Elsa—!”

“

!”

I shove her and shove her again, looking deep into her eyes.

“PLEASE. RUN.”

She looks at me once more, mute. Then she’s off, zigzagging up the slope and disappearing into the woods.

I cry out when something slams against my head from behind, turning my vision blurry as I drop to my hands and knees. I groan, seeing stars, finally able to stand.

…Only to come face to face with Hugo and his gun. Vicious fury twists his face—one eye focused lethally on me, the other a horrific, bloody mess.

“

.”

I choke as he grabs my throat, hauling me up and slamming me hard against the outside wall of the tiny cottage.

“But first…”

Fear and adrenaline stab through me like twin knives as Hugo starts to undo his belt.

“

,” he snarls, “I’ll take what I’ve dreamed of. Not quite My knee jerks up, hard, slamming into his balls.

I don’t pause to see how much damage I’ve done. I just turn, and I fucking .

When I hear the roar of Hugo’s wrath behind me, I can’t help it. It’s like an automatic response.

I look back.

.

He’s running like a maniac after me, one eye gushing blood down his face. His good one is locked onto me.

But he’s coming for .

Not Nora.

Right now, he wants revenge, not her.

I bolt down the hill towards the commuter rail tracks. On the other side of them, there’s an even steeper hill that plunges down toward a road that runs parallel with a river I’m just now realizing is the Hudson.

I’m almost at the rails. If I can just get to the road—

I scream when something slams into me from behind, shoving me down to my hands and knees, skinning both. Adrenaline explodes through my veins, and I try to stagger to my feet.

Hugo’s fist crashes into my face. The taste of copper floods my mouth as I go toppling backwards, crying out as the back of my head slams against the ground. Lights and black spots swim through my stunned vision.

A dark shape looms over me.

I scream, choking as Hugo grabs me by the hair and yanks me up. He pulls me sobbing and screaming to the tracks, holding me down, my heels kicking against the rail closest to us.

It starts to vibrate.

“Fourteen past the hour, Elsa,” Hugo growls, his good eye piercing right through me. “Like fucking clockwork.”

The rattling sound of the rails grows louder, and the vibrations against my heels become harder. My eyes swivel to the side, and whatever color is left in my face drains right away.

.

Down the tracks, maybe a mile away, a commuter train is barreling straight at us.

“

—”

“You could have had me,” he hisses, his eye twitching. “I would have given you the world. We were soul mates, Elsa.”

“

,” I spit.

He smiles cruelly. “Then your sister will become my new obsession.”

The grin on his face curls demonically as he leans close.

“And I bet she tastes even. Fucking.

.”

My lips curl, and my teeth flash.

“You are going to find out.”

The thundering sound of the train roars closer. The pebbles over the rail struts begin to bounce and jump.

He’s never putting his disgusting hands on my sister.

Not. Ever.

My eyes drop to Hugo’s belt. It’s buckled again from when he was trying to yank it off before, but it’s loose.

“And when you’re dead,” Hugo grins wolfishly, his arms tensing as if readying to throw me into the path of the train. “I will on your baby sister’s screams. But you won’t be able to hear them. Because you, my dear Elsa…well, you’ll be dead.”

My hand juts out, slipping through the loose belt around his waist until the crook of my elbow is tight against it. Hugo’s eyes go wide.

“

.”

I throw myself backward across the tracks, Hugo slamming down on top of me.

His eyes bulge as the deafening scream of a train whistle rips over us; once, twice, over and over, as the very metal of the rails underneath us begins to shake like the world itself is breaking apart.

Hugo’s screaming and roaring, trying to break free. But I lock my legs around his waist, and my eyes stab into his.

“You will touch my sister!”

“LET GO OF ME!”

The screech of the approaching metal wheels on metal rails is deafening.

“

!”

I close my eyes.

I think of Nora.

Then I think of Hades.

I jolt as the train slams into me.

Except, I’m not underneath it. I’m rolling sideways off the tracks, a firm body holding me, powerful arms gripping me tight as I roll to a stop.

…And look up into piercing, ice-blue eyes.

.

The train whistle rips through the air. The sound of wrenching metal splits my ears. My head whips to the side just as Hugo lurches to his feet, feverish mania in his eyes.

“SHE’S MI—”

I scream, unable to look away as the Metro North commuter train turns Hugo into a crimson mist.

Hades covers my face with his arm, turning me aside and holding me tight as I cling to him.

“

,” he chokes into my ear, kissing my face as I sob against him. “You’re okay.”

“

”

“—is in my car. She’s , Elsa.”

We lock eyes as the train roars past us, speeding away down the tracks.

Silence descends over us.

“It’s over,” he murmurs quietly, both of us breathing heavily as our eyes lock. “It’s over, and I love—”

I crush my lips to his, kissing him madly as the tears stream down my face.

“…

”