Uncovering You 10: The Finale Read online

  Table of Contents

  Uncovering You

  Uncovering You 10: The Finale

  Book Description

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  The End

  Epilogue

  The Actual End

  Uncovering You is Over... What Comes Next?

  Copyright

  Uncovering You 10:

  The Finale

  by Scarlett Edwards

  2015

  EDWARDS PUBLISHING

  Book Description:

  They say love conquers all. I know that vengeance destroys.

  Jeremy put the gun in my hand and told me to shoot. I let him live.

  Now, the repercussions of that choice are staring me straight in the face. Rose, Hugh, and Charles, all deep underground, all shackled with collars.

  Dear God, what have I done?

  Reader Warning:

  Uncovering You 10: The Finale contains scenes of intense emotional and physical abuse. Readers with sensitivity to such subjects are advised to proceed with caution.

  Author’s Note:

  This book is told from both Lilly and Jeremy’s perspective.

  Passages from Lilly’s perspective are preceded by the header:

  Likewise, Jeremy’s passages are begun with:

  Enjoy The Finale!

  Scarlett

  April 2015

  Chapter One

  I stare at the three screens, completely aghast. There’s Charles. And Rose. And Hugh.

  “You have to let them go!” I plead.

  Jeremy looks at me. He smiles. “I don’t have to do anything. Yet you hold unparalleled influence over me. Would you like them released?”

  “Yes!” I exclaim. “A thousand times, yes!”

  “Knowing now who they are? Knowing what they’re guilty of?”

  “Charles isn’t guilty of anything!”

  “Charles was an unfortunate casualty. You saw how he attacked my father at dinner. That sort of behavior cannot be tolerated.”

  “Then fire him! Cast him out! But please, for the love of God, Jeremy. Don’t use the collar. Nobody deserves that. Nobody can survive that!”

  He looks at me. “You did,” he says quietly.

  I shake my head. I’m trembling. Fear, revulsion, and utter helplessness create a vile concoction that consumes my insides.

  “Not without scars,” I say. “Not without emotional damage. You said it. You told me. It’s abuse, Jeremy, it’s almost torture! And, and what you just did—shocking them, for no reason at all—Jeremy, that is torture! You have to let them go. Please. Please! I beg of you!”

  His chest rises and falls on a deep exhale. “You know why I put them there, don’t you?” he asks.

  “No!” I say. “No, Jeremy. I have no idea. But if you let them go, I won’t even ask. Let them go, and we can forget this. We can…”

  “No.” Jeremy interrupts me mid-sentence. “No, Lilly, we won’t be forgetting anything. You and I…we’re not going to lie to ourselves anymore. We won’t delude each other. So, you ask me to let them go? I’ll do it. But you claimed you want to understand me? This is the first step. You cannot shy away from unpleasantness. I will let them go… after I tell you why they’re there in the first place.”

  “Is that a promise?” I ask. I’ll indulge him by listening to his reasons, but I have to know that afterwards he’ll do as he says. “Do you swear you’ll let all three of them go? Do I have your word, Jeremy?”

  “Yes,” he tells me, without hesitation, and with utmost conviction. “You do, Lilly. My life is yours now. Just as you asked.”

  “I didn’t,” I start, then cut myself off and shake my head. “Just tell me why, and get those vile collars off their necks!”

  He raises both hands and steps away from me. “I cannot from here,” he says. “We will have to fly to them. But don’t you worry, Lilly. They’re safe. The collars can only be switched on from this computer.”

  “’Safe,’” I mutter, under my breath. I can almost laugh. “How long have they been there, Jeremy? Who’s been feeding them?”

  “Ah,” he says. “That might be another technicality you take issue with.”

  I don’t need him to say anymore. “You let them starve?” Fuelled by frustration, my shout comes out louder than I intended.

  “You make it sound so awful,” he muses. “The truth is, the human body is extremely resilient. Even in times of extreme stress. They’ll survive, and emerge more or less the same as before.”

  Just like me? I think. I hold my tongue.

  Instead, I step between Jeremy and the computer. It makes me feel more secure, somehow, knowing that I’m in his way. Even though he can easily force through me, I don’t think he will. Not because it’d be unlike him, but because of the condition he let himself fall into after breaking my arm. Abstaining from further violence was part of his remorse. Maybe, as time passes, he’ll be more prone to doing it again…but he wouldn’t now. Not this soon.

  “Tell me then,” I say. “Tell me, and we can go to them and let them go. Why are they there?”

  “My father? Well, he did many things to me that would warrant his position there. Rose? It could be argued that she did, too.

  “But that is not the reason why, Lilly. The truth is simply that I could not have knowledge of events that transpired at dinner Friday night get out. Not until I knew where I stood with you. Not until I offered you…the gun.”

  A horrible thought occurs to me. “If I had pulled the trigger,” I gasp, “and you died… what would have happened to them?”

  Jeremy settles his gaze onto me. “What do you think?” he asks softly.

  I swallow. “They would have… starved.”

  “But you would be free,” he whispers. “There would be no loose ends. Do you understand now, Lilly? I put them in that trap…

  “For you.”

  Chapter Two

  Jeremy calls Simon. Fifteen minutes later, we’re in a helicopter, being flown away from the city. Another half hour finds us over vast swaths of forest. Uninhabited land. I see a clearing up ahead where we touch down.
>
  Simon, it seems, is multi-talented. And holds a lot more of Jeremy’s confidence than I first suspected. Could he have helped Jeremy with my abduction, with the transportation of Rose, Charles, and Hugh? Almost undoubtedly.

  I decide not to ask.

  He doesn’t follow us off the chopper. Instead, he leaves the blades spinning and takes off again as soon as we’re a safe distance away.

  I look around and see nothing but trees and valleys. “What is this place?” I ask, after the roar of the helicopter’s engine has faded enough for us to speak.

  “Undeveloped land that I own,” Jeremy says. “A secret resort, of sorts.”

  Well, the nature is nice. I think. I say, “Let’s free your prisoners.”

  Jeremy winces. “I wish you wouldn’t call them that.”

  “That’s what they are, aren’t they?” I ask. “Or is ‘hostages’ more like it? We’re not mincing words anymore, remember?”

  Jeremy looks me up and down. “We’ll see,” he says, and then he takes my hand.

  On instinct, I immediately yank it free. “Not until I see Charles and Rose and Hugh safe,” I tell him stubbornly.

  He spreads his hands. “As you say.”

  I follow Jeremy into the woods. There’s no sign of a path. Less than thirty yards in, I feel like, if he left me alone, I’d get hopelessly lost.

  Jeremy is surefooted. He does not hesitate once as he leads me through the foliage. Some indeterminable amount of time later, I see sunlight shining, up ahead, onto yet another clearing.

  We emerge. My breath is suddenly taken away.

  There is a huge, rectangular sort of house constructed entirely of glass and steel. It looks perfect, flawless, newly built. There are young saplings around the edge of the clearing. Other than that, there no evidence of any disruption—the type that comes from building something like this in such a remote location.

  “So?” Jeremy asks. It’s the first word he’s said to me in a while. “What do you think?”

  “I think you ruined something beautiful for me,” I say. “Knowing who you’re keeping in the basement.”

  Jeremy, for some reason, gives me a little smile. “Don’t be so quick to judge.”

  Before I can ask why, he’s striding away, toward the front doors. I have to run to catch up.

  “First thing we do when we get inside,” I tell him, “is let them go. Right?”

  Jeremy sighs. “They’re not dogs to be released from kennels,” he tells me with a touch of impatience. “It has to be done delicately, Lilly. How do you think they’re going to react to seeing me again?”

  “Not my problem,” I tell him. “You made your own decision. Now it’s time for you to face the consequences. You have a promise to keep to me, remember?”

  “I never forget.”

  He opens the door. Cool air greets me as I enter.

  The glass door closes and locks itself with a beep.

  “Now where?” I ask Jeremy. “Which way to the basement?”

  “Now,” he says, pausing in the middle of the floor and taking out his cell phone. “I have to make a phone call.”

  I stop cold, disliking surprises, especially from Jeremy Stonehart—especially now. Trepidation starts its slow pound through me.

  He brings the phone to his ear. “Hello? We’re here. You can come down.”

  The pounding becomes a quickening pulse, racing in time with my heartbeat.

  “Jeremy?” I say, taking one step toward him. “Who did you call…”

  The words are stolen from my mouth as a procession of three people starts down the stairs.

  My jaw drops. I’m speechless.

  I stare.

  Rose is front and center. To her side is Charles. To the other is Hugh.

  She beams at me as she descends the stairs. The two men don’t look particularly happy to be near each other. But they’re there! The three of them are there—not in strait jackets, not with collars around their necks, but in clean, presentable clothes! Hugh’s in a dinner jacket. Charles is wearing a white dress shirt. And Rose is wearing a simple black sheath dress.

  All three have some lingering injuries from the fight: A nose splint for Rose, a black eye for Hugh. Scratch marks for Charles.

  Jeremy turns back to me and winks, offering a crooked, schoolboy smile. “Surprise,” he says.

  “Your CGI program,” I breathe. “You fucking bastard, you tricked me!”

  He laughs. A rich, full laugh, filled with confidence, filled with ease.

  I don’t know if I should be pissed or not. I mean, I think I should. But seeing Rose, Charles, and even Hugh, here together, unbound and free, with no evidence of abuse at Jeremy’s hands, fills me with such gratifying relief that I…can’t. I can’t be mad at Jeremy.

  But I sure as hell can pretend to be.

  I huff past him, intending to go straight to Rose. Now that I know who she is, what she did, and her place in all this, I definitely need to talk to her. But he catches my unbroken arm and holds tight.

  “Wait,” he says. “I have to explain myself. Certain things I told you at the mansion still hold true. I could not have information of events at dinner coming out. So I ushered Rose, Charles, and Hugh here. Look around you before you judge. They’ve had access to everything that you see. I just could not permit them to leave before settling things with you.

  “Rose,” he nods at her as she and Hugh and Charles come up beside us, “has taken on the role of peacekeeper. Charles—” Jeremy looks at him, “—has offered a sincere written apology to Hugh for his conduct that night. And Hugh? Well, he understands his place in the world, in relation to you, a whole lot better now.”

  “If I may speak…?” Hugh begins.

  Jeremy does not even glance his way. “No, father,” he says, “you may not.”

  A flicker of rage crosses Hugh’s face. Then it’s replaced by a meek, placid mask.

  “The video simulation,” Jeremy continues, “accomplished three things. First, it proved to me your continued capacity for compassion, Lilly. You knew what Hugh had done in his life. I told you what Rose did to me when I was young. She and I have moved past that, long ago—” he looks at Rose, who gives a tight nod, “—but your knowledge of that is fresh. Still, you begged me to let her go.”

  Rose’s eyebrows go up. “You did that?” she asks, looking at me.

  I glance at my feet, a little uncomfortable. I shrug. “You did it for me, once,”

  “Second,” Jeremy continues, “It confirms to me your utter distaste for the collars. And it made me satisfied with the decision I made while you were out.”

  “What decision?” I ask.

  “To destroy the collars. You showed me, Lilly, that such a device has no place in the world. No,” he corrects himself. He looks at me in full earnestness. “Not ‘the’ world. Our world. Yours and mine.”

  My heart flutters.

  “Lastly,” Jeremy says, “and perhaps of most importance to me: It was a test. The final one, I think, that I will subject you to. I wanted to know if you would stay loyal to me in light of all the new developments. I wanted to know what you would do, how you would treat me, after you saw me guilty of something so absolutely reprehensible. Showing you our three friends locked away in three tiny cells, bound in strait jackets, collars around their necks? Well, Lilly, I do not think I could have offered you anything worse. And you did not begin to hate me for it. At least,” he says with a smirk, “not any more than you already do.”

  “You’re maniacal. You know that?” I ask weakly. And yet, for some reason, I cannot help but smile—just a little bit.

  Jeremy laughs. “I do,” he says. “Only now, you’ve proven yourself willing to stick by me. Forever.”

  Chapter Three

  “I don’t understand,” I tell Rose, half an hour later. She and I are alone in the gardens behind the house. “Why didn’t Jeremy tell you he’d integrated his father into his company? He led you to believe Hugh was dead—for how ma
ny years now?”

  “More than fifteen,” Rose sighs. “I have no idea why he kept me in the dark.” She casts a quick, nervous look at me. “Figuratively.”

  “What did he tell you happened?”

  “That there was an accident,” Rose says, “on a fishing boat, in the middle of the Atlantic. He told me it happened just months after Stonehart Industries swallowed the company I was working for. Just months after he turned me into… who I am now,” she finished, plucking at her skirt.

  “The things you did to Jeremy were awful.”

  Rose looks away. “You don’t have to tell me,” she says softly.

  “How could you?”

  She forces a laugh. “I don’t know. I’ve changed since then. I’m not without my guilt. I thought I’ve gotten past it. I thought that he did.” She glances at me, and touches my cheek. “The damage I caused him as a boy has manifested itself in the way he treated you. And, seeing this…” her hand moves down to gently touch my cast, “well, all the guilt comes back. I’m sorry, Miss Ryder.”

  “Lilly,” I tell her softly. “Rose. Please. Don’t revert back to that. You know you can call me Lilly.”

  “You have a big heart,” she says. “Even if you try to fight it, you still do. You have… integrity, Lilly.” She smiles without meeting my eyes. “That’s what separates you from me.”

  “Integrity?”

  “Yes. Now that you know my past—and I know yours—you can see the type of woman I was: Power-hungry. Crass. Yet, determined. For twenty years, I worked to position myself as I wanted. Then, in the blink of an eye, Mr. Stonehart swept it all away.”

  She looks at me now, a little tentatively. “You see now why I can’t—why I don’t—call him Jeremy, don’t you? Jeremy was the boy he’d been. Jeremy was who I… raped. Stonehart is the man. Jeremy disappeared from my life, and from his father’s, before returning transformed. She clears her throat, “Our past connects us in an inextricable way. But it does not define our relationship now. Much like the way I see things with you.”