Double Crossed

[Destiny]

"I hate myself Helen, not you. Hate myself for losing the one person I cared for and not even understanding why. And yet to a point you're right. I became like you, hard, strong, like a blade of a warrior tempered steel so useful in cutting your enemy to pieces."

"But like a tempered blade I broke when bent the wrong way."

Helen was listening to everything he had to say, his words pounded into her brain as she listened and felt each word of his voice like a slap to her soul. She wasn't exactly thrilled with what she had become, a corporate whore willing to do or say anything that would get her higher up and on top of that ladder of success. How many men had she gone through to get where she was now, tied to the bed with a man who hated her enough to get this kind of revenge? Or was it something else something deeper? Something that neither of them understood even now that would constantly bring them back into each others lives.

And now it was soon to be over...

When the bed shook and she was no longer leaning awkwardly toward Steven her eyes finally opened and she looked toward the man who was the Master of her fate right then. As he walked over to the dresser and grabbed the knife once more, she knew genuine fear. The knife glinted in his hands as the candlelights flickered along the shaft of the blade. When he brought it up and over his head and drove it deeply into the wood she gritted her teeth and whimpered.

HE was going to kill her, she knew it now. She felt it in all her muscles as she watched him fight within himself to not perhaps kill her or to show her he was still in love with her. his next words proved he still hated her though.....

"Your "X" secretary gave me enough dirt on you to bury you. I paid her off so she'll be gone when you return. She and her child are safe from you now and will stay that way. Unless you want that dirt to end up on the desks of several of the company attorneys that will roast you for dinner?"

"I don't need to sneak around behind you anymore Helen and in one small detail I'm quite different than you."

Helen laid where she was, her eyes the only thing moving as I dressed and spoke to her, blood was beginning to seep back into her arms once more the pain of them being asleep ripping through her mind but she watched as Stephen slowly redressed as if he were getting ready for work. As he spoke of the horrible things he would do to her she closed her eyes once more tears sliding along the temples of her face and into her hair as she continued to listen to him.

"You did it to me in the name of survival, money...power, I returned the favor in the name of revenge...and lost love."

She heard him leave the room and felt the knife land on the bed beside her. She didn't flinch or move she was still waiting for her muscles to relive once more, with them being asleep the pain of the blood rushing back into her arms was maddening at best. But his words Had hurt as well and were as degrading as they could have been, yes Stephen was indeed not the man he once was. This man was harder, even though he hadn't killed her or done anything else to her he was still a much harder man. His voice from the other room filtered into her pain wracked brain as she slowly began to move.

"Call a taxi for me in the penthouse suites"..........."And the company limo for Miss Devereaux, we're finished with our business as far as I'm concerned"

Helen's lips parted and she called out,"Stephen please... " She cried out in pain as she finally moved all her limbs and the prickles began,"Stephen please don't leave we need to talk." She pleaded with him from the bedroom hoping he would hear her cries.

 

[BLACK BART]

Stephen

The veiw from the penthouse was incredible. The river that flowed, the mist that hung in the air over it, the hustle and bustle of the world outside now an amusing stream of glittering lights and colors as I watched it.

Talk? I had made my point as far as I was prepared to push it. The woman I had sat with at that coffee table was now guarnteed her safety and that of her child. How my heart had went out to her pain and the feeling of helplessness and anguish she had gone through.

I found myself at the doorway and looking in at Helen as she sat slowly and tried to massage her freed limbs, not remembering the steps taken to get here, not knowing when the decision was made in my mind to return.

"Do you understand why I did what I have, Helen?" I asked quietly, focusing on her eyes as she lifted her head in response to my voice. "It wasn't for me...not entirely, I could have walked away from you and gradually my heart would have tried to heal. But when I heard what you were doing to the woman you knew only as your secretary...how you were using her and enjoying it, I knew there had to be something I could do to stop you. End it before you did something that one day you would regret as well as those lives you destroyed."

No anger...no malice...My heart was empty now of the emotions that drove me and made me able to treat the one woman I had loved as I did.

"You have no right Helen. There is no justification to try and use. No way to expurge yourself of the guilt for the wrongs and pain you've done. You created me and in return I will destroy you, stopping you from becoming any greater of a monster and maybe one day becoming the woman we all knew."

And I loved...But I would never admit that to her again, she would never give me the chance, for how could she when I was telling her I was destroying her dreams?

"Your resignation is on the corporates desk. The last document you signed so eagerly as you left the offices is the same one they'll read in a few hours. You'll be a rich woman once your final check comes and they buy you out. Fight me in this and I'll do just what I promised...You're finished Helen...wether you want to be...or not."