Katharina
There was a sound that sounded like a loud pop! and I glanced up to see the glass window of the room shatter. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion—Benji collapsed to the ground and blood trickled out of his forehead.
Margot screamed and reached into her handbag, pulling out a gun. She glared at me. “You cunt,” she spat. “What the fuck did you do? What did you do?” When she was angry, she didn’t look beautiful. Instead, she looked intimidating, scary, the kind of person I’d run away from in a dark alley. Margot’s black eyes were blazing fire and I could tell she was really worked up. Her pretty face seemed drained of blood and her hair was frizzing wildly around her head, making her look like some kind of sexy demon.
Suddenly, Jason was in the room. I blinked, almost unable to believe it was actually him. “Oh my god,” I mumbled. “Jason!”
“I’m here,” Jason barked quickly to me. He tackled Margot and for a moment, it looked like they were embracing. I could see him holding onto her and gripping her arms tightly.
Margot swore and scowled in his grasp. “There’s a bomb in the room,” Margot said with a devilish smirk on her face. “I took care of this before you could even think it through, asshole!”
“Jason!” I screamed, suddenly afraid for his safety. But neither Margot nor Jason turned towards me, and I was left alone on the bed. Sweat was pooling on my back and I was terrified that the bomb was going to explode. “Jason, look out!”
Jason yelped in surprise as Margot swung her arm through the air, aiming for his face. Her hands were balled up in fists and she looked angry enough to murder him. As they tussled and fought, Jason raised his head back and slammed his forehead against hers. An audible crack! sounded in the room and Margot closed her eyes, gracefully sinking to the ground.
For a moment, I thought she was dead. Then she seemed to rise up off the ground. She stared at Jason with a mixture of horror and contempt.
“You’ll never kill me,” Margot hissed. Jason shook his head. “No,” he said, almost sadly. Then he lunged for her. The two of them began to wrestle—it was dirtier this time, Margot kept trying to bite and kick Jason as they struggled on the ground. Jason clipped her sharply on the jaw and I saw her head fly backwards. When she was knocked out, he hauled her over his shoulder and dragged her over to the bed. I watched in horror as he tied her to the bedpost.
“Jason,” I said weakly. “There’s a bomb, Jason.”
Jason shook his head. “Margot wouldn’t bomb a hotel,” he said disdainfully. “She was doing that to make you sweat.”
When I realized he was probably still angry with me, I had to look away. Jason was at my side in an instant, clipping the bonds that held my hands and feet and massaging them roughly to get the blood flowing again. The pain in my hands was intense, but at least I could feel them again. In a matter of seconds, they went from blue to red to purple and I shivered, feeling my whole body shake.
“Come on,” Jason said roughly. He picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, taking me out of the room.
I closed my eyes and let his rough gait lull me to some quiet place of rest and relaxation.
I heard the sirens in the distance before I saw them. When I opened my eyes, I saw police cars and fire trucks swarming the hotel. An alarm was ringing and patrons were pouring out, their eyes wide.
“Is there a fire?” People kept asking. “Is there a fire? What happened?”
“No,” Jason said gruffly. He pulled me onto his lap and stroked my hair. “Margot won’t ever hurt you again,” he said softly.
“I was such an idiot,” I said. The tears started flowing and before I knew it, I was full-on sobbing. “I was such a moron!”
A group of paramedics jogged over, looking serious. One of them pulled me away from Jason and set me up in the back of an ambulance with an IV in my arm and a bottle of water in my hand. He started asking me question after question but when I couldn’t answer, he flashed an annoyed look to one of his coworkers.
“I think she’s fine,” he muttered. “She seems totally okay.”
I didn’t feel okay. I felt despondent, like everything was my fault. If I hadn’t been so stupid, if I hadn’t listened to Margot! I wrung my still-sore hands in my lap and cursed my stupid impulsive personality. If you wouldn’t have snuck out, this wouldn’t have happened, I thought sadly. It’s all your fault. You did this.
I knew it was all my fault. Jason wouldn’t look at me in the car on the way home. He was silent and brooding. Part of me wanted to reach out and touch him, but I knew he probably didn’t want to be bothered. I couldn’t stop crying. The whole past couple of days felt like a nightmare that had come true. Every time I managed to forget about it for a moment, the memories came rushing back, even more painful in the next second.
“Katie,” Jason said in a heavy voice when we pulled into the driveway. “It’s all over now, you know that?” He looked at me with dark eyes that were full of sorrow.
“I know,” I said softly. “I understand.”
That night, we sat around the living room with Kenny. I got the feeling he didn’t have to stay any longer, but he stayed out of solidarity with Jason. We ordered a pizza and sat around watching the news without talking. When they brought up Margot, Jason got a pained look on his face and left the room.
“Kenny, I’m sorry about everything,” I said as soon as we were alone. “I know it wasn’t your fault I snuck out. Please don’t blame yourself.”
Kenny made an odd look and took a long pull of beer. “I know it’s not my fault,” he said. “But that don’t mean I don’t feel bad for you.”
I sighed. “Do you think things will ever go back to normal?”
Kenny shrugged. “I don’t know what normal is,” he said with a sad smile. “Violence is the norm around here. Maybe things will calm down now that Jason figured out who killed Matthias.”
My stomach turned. “She did it because Matthias ruined her life,” I said softly.
Kenny glanced at me. “You ain’t responsible for what your father did,” he said sharply. “And don’t let it change your opinion of him either. Matthias was a good man. The men in the club knew that. Bitch’s mother was probably as crazy as she was.”
I frowned. I didn’t necessarily think that was right, or even fair. I didn’t think Margot was necessarily crazy, just wronged, and I understood why. After all, if it had been me, maybe I would have done the same thing. “I don’t know,” I said softly. “I can’t help but feel differently towards my father now, knowing he caused so much pain and suffering in someone else’s life.”
Kenny shook his head. “Don’t think of that,” he advised. “Just try to move on.”
But I wasn’t satisfied. I went out and sat in the front yard, feeling the heat baking off the asphalt driveway. It was hot and muggy—almost a hundred degrees outside—but it felt like a welcome respite. I shivered again, remembering the chill air of the hotel room. I’d thought I was going to die in that room. Hell, I’d even come close to making peace with it. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to have nightmares.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Margot’s face lurking in my mind. She was a real villain, someone who was so possessed by evil and the desire for revenge that it had ruined her. Now, I wondered if it wasn’t partially my fault. Maybe if I’d made an effort to know my father as a man, and not just a dad, I would have seen what he was up to.
I still didn’t like thinking about what my father had done to Margot’s mother, even though I’d almost perished as a result. Right then and there, I got an idea. I went inside and got Jason’s laptop, ready to do some digging. When I found out where Margot’s mother was buried, I had flowers delivered to the cemetery and picked out a large bouquet as a monument.
“Someone didn’t appreciate you while you were still alive,” I said softly to the online photo of the woman who looked almost exactly like Margot, but with sadder eyes. “And I want to make sure you know how appreciated you are now that you’re dead and gone.”
I felt a little better after I’d made the flower arrangements.
And then there was Troy. When I found out what Jason had done, part of me was horrified. I couldn’t deny it, part of me was a little sad. But the other part of me was relieved. Deep down, I thought Troy was a pretty bad guy. Even though he helped Jason rescue me by telling him where Margot had taken me, I wasn’t sure that he’d done it out of purely good motives. I wasn’t sure Troy had any purely good motives.
When I thought about Troy and Margot working together, I shuddered. It was disgusting to think about, but they’d probably teamed up as soon as Jason and I had gotten married. And I’d been so wrapped up in my own little world that I had no idea.
But now that he was dead, I felt better. I knew I owed my life to Jason, but I wasn’t sure how to thank him. After all, he was busy mourning the death of his first love. I didn’t exactly think he’d have time to talk about where we stood.