The beard I remember him having earlier is gone, showing his square jaw and pale, smooth skin. There are lines across his forehead and crinkles in the corners of his eyes. Eyes I will never forget. They are eyes without a soul — Pitch black: no white, just an eternal hole.
“There she is. You are mine, Ellie. Might as well get used to it. You will beg. You’ll beg to be fed, beg to use the bathroom, beg to shower, and the only way you’ll get to choose one of those things is by telling me where my sister is. Otherwise, Cole is going to give you more of that good stuff to make you sleep. Too much of it and you might not wake up again.”
She’s dead, but I’ll never tell him that — the same as I won’t tell him to go ahead and pump me full of whatever it is they are giving me. I’d rather suffer from that than have to look at either one of these men again.
“How would I know where she is? Could she possibly be hooking her claws in another man as your mother did? Maybe she ran as far away from her crazy brother as she could. I don’t know. You seem to have found me easily enough; why is it so hard for you to find her?”
Nostrils flaring, eyes narrowing, he digs his fingers into my skin until I flinch from the pain. It intensifies as he slides his hands up my legs.
Die, I want to because if Shadow does what those full-set demon eyes of his are telling me he wants to do before I can figure a way to get out of here, I surely will. There will be no peace, no calm to my life ever again.
We stare at one another. Shadow is, by far, the most frightening man I’ve seen in my life. He ruined me once; I refuse to withdraw into myself and let him do it again. I will fight him. I will stand on solid ground even though my toes are barely touching.
“Leave us, Cole, leave the drug too. Ellie is going to need it by the time I’ve finished with her.” There’s sureness in his eyes. It tests and goads me to shut my mouth.
“Go to hell. Where are my father’s guns? What else do you have that belongs to me?”
Determination.
It drapes over my entire body.
“Ah, ah, ah, Ellie. I’m the one who asks the questions, not you.”
“Fuck you; those guns are mine.”
“Nine-tenths of the law, remember?” He cocks his head. Mirth and glee and sickness bleed from his eyes.
Let him think he owns me, let him think whatever he wants.
“By the looks of it, you’re a wealthy man, Cole. You’ll lose everything, or else Shadow will kill you once he’s done using you. If you think for one minute he’s going to share me, then you are insane.” A muscle twitches in Cole’s jaw. The air becomes laden with tension.
My determination has turned into desperation.
Without looking at me, Cole sets a syringe on the floor, then pivots to face Shadow.
“You talk to me that way again, and you can take her somewhere else.”
Shadow flinches, it’s the first time I’ve seen him appear to be intimidated by someone. It makes me laugh. I can’t control it. I let it out as I stare at Cole’s back until he’s out of sight.
“Don’t think for one second I don’t see what you’re doing. Cole won’t help you. You try playing me against Cole one more time; I will cut your tongue out, do you understand?”
I don’t understand, not at all, but the longer I remain here, I’m sure I’ll figure it out.
Money. I have a feeling that’s what it boils down to, and I’m the bargaining chip that’s changed Shadow’s entire plan.
“It appears I’m in no position not to do what you say.” I tilt my head back as far as my aching muscles will go and glimpse at the two strands of rope wrapped around a wooden beam, my wrists tied to the ends and splotches of crusty dried blood is scattered down my arms.
“Good girl. Now let’s stay on track. I need answers, and it would do you good to give them to me. Logan came to see me a while back. He told me he had no idea where Whitney was. She should have been with Sadie to pick me up. The last time Sadie saw her was when she dropped her off at his house. Don’t play me; things won’t end well for you if you do. I warned Logan that if she didn’t show, he was going to be sorry. He killed her, didn’t he?”
Logan went to see him, when? It must have been during the time we were apart. Good for Logan. I hope whatever he told Shadow has eaten away at him.
Hurt flashes briefly in Shadow’s eyes before it turns to anger, that’s when I decide that making him angry is what I need to do. It’s an unchecked emotion for Shadow. He doesn’t know how to handle it. I’d much rather piss him off enough to beat or drug me than to have him and Cole gang rape me.
“Maybe I killed her. Maybe she ran off and said, ‘fuck you.’ I’d imagine you were a burden to her. That’s all you’ve ever been, Shadow. A burden to everyone. Someone we’ve all had to watch out for because you think you are one step ahead when you’ve always been behind. Maybe she finally realized that when light shines all around her, she isn’t able to see her Shadow. That’s all you’ve ever been to anyone is their shadow. A follower.” Those words fly out of my mouth in a rush.
There’s no warning before he stands and the hard backhand to my face causes my vision to blur, and a headache instantly sets behind my eyes. My head flings to the side, and I swear I hear the bones in my neck creak.
“You expect me to believe you killed her? Who knows though right, it has been ten long years? People change. Not you though, Ellie. You weren’t supposed to change. Except you did, didn’t you? I suppose I need to not only punish you for sleeping with my enemy but to remind you that you can’t fool me. You’re scared. If you cooperate, then you won’t be hurt for spreading these long legs for Logan.”
I’m scared, alright, down to my core.
“You don’t scare me, Shadow. Not anymore. If you think you’ll get me to change for you, then you are more delusional than I thought. I will never be afraid of you again. I will never beg. Never do as you ask. You can hurt and take and give your best shot to break me; it will never work because in my mind, you don’t exist. In my heart, there isn’t a speck of room for you. Not when Logan takes up all the space.”
Shadow stands up, the muscles in his jaw twitching as if he might snap at any minute, and the anger plastering over his face frightens the hell out of me.
Dread licks my stomach as he wraps an arm around me and hoists me up several inches and the next thing I know, he’s using his foot to hook around a step-stool for him to stand on, giving him enough height to untie my arms. They fall like dead weight at my sides.
“No!” I scream, thrashing in his arms. Pain so unreal hitting my extremities it feels as if someone has poked me with the tip of a knife all over my body as the numbness begins to wear off. I keep fighting against Shadow’s hold. I slam my head forward, trying to make contact with his face, but it’s no use when he slightly pivots, and I fly through the air, landing on my stomach on top of the bed. I try scrambling away, but my limbs are too weak to do anything but shake.
The air is knocked out of me when Shadow drops on top of me, pressing my frame into the mattress, crushing my lungs beneath his weight.
“No isn’t a word I use in my vocabulary. Not when it comes to you. How could I say no when my sister struck a deal with the warden when we found out where you were? How could I say no when I knew I was getting out soon and had already lied to Logan’s contact about when I was getting out? How could I say no to have what I’ve always wanted? I didn’t. But do you know when I did say no? When I yelled it so loud in my mind that I wanted to kill anyone who looked my way? It was when Logan sat across from me and let me know you spread your legs for him. That was the last time the word no will be associated with you, Ellie.”
“Get off of me,” I scream, my throat burning from lack of moisture.
“I plan on getting off. First, you’re going to listen to what I have to say. You’re going to stay in this room and climb the walls wondering when I’m going to come for you. Mourn the loss of your child. You’ll worry about Logan, Renita, an
d Norah. The whole goddamn lot of them while you lay here in physical and mental pain. I’d say I’m sorry about you losing your baby; I’m not. You’ll never be a mother now, and that was something you always wanted to be.”
I wince, not because he doesn’t care. Not because Whitney must have told him when we were younger how I wanted to be a mother someday. I’m wincing and crying on the inside because Shadow is going to use my miscarriage against me. The one thing that can make me weak.
“Logan will find me, and he will kill you. His family will help him, and they will slaughter you like a pig.”
“He’ll come when I summon him to. Until then, I’m having some fun with you. When he does show up, you’re going to watch him die. Tell me where Whitney is. Tell me where my money is. Does one of his brothers have it? Is it in a bank? How about that cute little niece of his? If you don’t, I’ll have no choice but to erase Logan’s smell off your body and replace it with mine. I will mark your tits, your mouth, and I will fill you with my cum. I wasn’t planning on videoing what I want to do to you yet. That mouth of yours has left me no choice. I wonder what Logan will think when he sees me fucking you. After all, sharing is caring, and you took up with one who’d shared his body daily. I bet if I send it to Logan, you’ll beg.”
“You’re a monster.”
“That I am. One that’s going to teach Logan Mitchell that what he thought was his, wasn’t.”
Chapter 6
Logan
Palming my head, I let the agonizing pain in my shoulder course through me. It takes all the energy I have to keep my eyes open. The only thoughts that rip through my brain are about Ellie. Where is she? Has Shadow hurt her? Is she holding it together or falling apart? Is she cramping? Bleeding? Grieving? Will she come back to us as the woman we know or will she be lost?
In the meantime, I sit around like some sorry ass staring into space, trying to control my temper.
I want to shed blood, rip hearts out of chests and annihilate the fuck out of Shadow and whoever the fuck is helping him.
Hours upon hours, I’ve sat around wanting to be out there looking for her while pangs of regret chip away, especially after watching the security footage of them kidnapping her. Drugging her, watching her go limp in Shadow’s arms and then the bastard threw her in the trunk of a car like she was garbage. Don’t think I can stomach watching it again.
I could have killed Shadow many times. But, back then, I wanted to make him pay. I wanted him to suffer when he found out about the money and me and Ellie. I wanted him to beg me to end his life, and now Ellie is caught up in my revenge because the ruthless mind of Shadow would have killed me when he had the chance if he didn’t want me to suffer.
Shadow would have never found her if I had listened to Lane when he told me to leave her be. I was too caught up in the way she made me feel to stay away. Too desperate to ignore the pull of having someone good in my life.
Hatred shreds through my blood, giving me an unrelenting approach, allowing the stone-cold fury to run free when I need to think more like a criminal instead of the other way around.
It floods my system.
It soaks my skin in revenge.
It won’t be contained, controlled, or unchecked until I kill Shadow.
Outmaneuver. Outsmart. Outwit.
Ellie.
Her name roars into a steaming boil in my head, a steady reminder that I have a purpose in life, that I’m no longer in this fucked up world alone.
I’ve lost more than I care to as a result of the devious and psychotic mind of Shadow, not about to again.
I want Ellie back, and I’m going to help find her whether anyone likes it or not.
My entire body is coming alive the longer I sit here. My gaze is going back and forth between the laptop in front of me as we wait for Gabe to connect with hopefully a name to who is helping Shadow and a phone that I know is going to ring with destroying news that’s going to bend my mind.
I’ve had the damn thing in my possession ever since my brothers told me what’s been going on. It’s not easy sitting around waiting with a lump the size of a boulder in my throat for the phone to ring, and wishing that when it does, Shadow asks if I’ll meet him somewhere.
Come to find out; Shadow has been out for a week. A whole goddamn week and I’d bet my life he’s followed Ellie and me around the entire time. Sick fuck that he is.
“Have faith, Logan. You and Shadow did a lot of talking back in the day. You sure you didn’t miss a place he might have mentioned?”
Breaking from my thoughts, I glance at Seth. Andrew is the owner of the construction company that remodeled the house and Cassie is his wife. He’s also the one who happened to stumble upon the ring that’s now in my pocket. During our many visits, I told him about Ellie and Shadow and what he did. Just left out the details about me, my lifestyle, every illegal thing I’ve done.
“They didn’t live here back then. Besides, the fewer people who know about this, the better.” Andrew is a legit guy, and even though we’ve become friends, that doesn’t mean I trust he wouldn’t go to the police. Not that I wouldn’t go to them if it guaranteed Ellie’s safety, I would. But after what she went through before, I’ve no idea who I can trust.
Corruption. It’s a fucked-up way to live.
It’s everywhere.
I’ve questioned my mind over and over again since seeing Shadow in prison if someone was helping him. At the time, we had no idea it was Sadie. She’s just another reminder of how badly I’ve fucked up.
If we weren’t positive she was involved before, we are with the items scattered all around us. Sadie’s father found pictures of Ellie strewn all over her house, men’s clothes. Shadow’s release papers. His old ID. Lane brought all of it with him. We’ve looked through it, and there’s not a sign anywhere of who else is helping or where they’ve gone. Until we hear from Gabe, we have nothing to go on.
“Maybe we should ask Renita and Norah if they remember anyone again.”
“They’d be in here telling us if they remembered anyone, Seth. Shadow had one place in mind when we’d come here. That was seeing Ellie. The only place I know she loves is the pier. Shadow wouldn’t take her there; it’s too obvious. There isn’t anywhere around there he’d go unnoticed.” Renita nor Norah can remember anyone coming over to visit Shadow, which surprises the hell out of me, especially with how sharp Renita is and how she kept her eye on things.
Then again, after Lane and Seth filled me in, and I cleaned myself up and made my way downstairs, Renita wasn’t her usual self. Long gone is the woman who threatened me. In her place is one scared to death of losing someone she’d lay her life down for. Can’t say I blame her, none of us are the same.
My thoughts drift to what Lane said about a lot happening. Lives have shifted, hearts are breaking all over again, and the living room in the house has turned into a secretive investigative headquarters. When Lane said he was taking care of it, he wasn’t fucking around. In less than twenty-four hours, my brother has collected an army. There are dozens of Lazaro’s men scouring this city. He even has Sadie’s father using his power to try to identify the man in the ski mask by some face recognition program just from the man’s eyes.
Sitting forward, I scan every picture, every little detail — hundreds of photos. A half dozen notes scribbled with Ellie’s daily routine along with several copies of her birth certificate. Shadow was waiting for the right time to snatch her, and I led him to her.
It doesn’t matter what Seth says; this is my fault. I’m nothing but a permanent stain full of blame.
God, I miss her. I want her back.
Where you’d take her? You set me up, Shadow. You knew I’d find this bullshit. You want me to pay; I’m paying, motherfucker.
“He’s planning on taking her out of the country or else he left this to throw me off.” I shake my head and wave Ellie’s birth certificate in the air before placing it back down.
Burning rage hisses through my body, sho
uting a demand in the form of violence. It’s like a volcanic eruption; the molten rock is dripping off me and onto the floor as more powerlessness slips inside.
I can’t think straight anymore.
“Shadow isn’t going to leave without finding out what happened to his sister. Think about it. You told him she was missing. It’ll drive a man like him crazier than he is if he doesn’t find out. And, where the hell would he get the money? I have friends, but I sure as shit wouldn’t give them money,” Lane says, placing a bottle of water and a pill in front of me. “You take it, or you’ll be no good once we find Ellie.”
My anger expands. Lane has a point. Still, this is Shadow we are talking about. He’s a manipulator.
“You answer me with a statement like that and expect me to take a pill that will knock me out when Ellie is out there with a man who has raped her once and won’t hesitate to do it again.”
I want to punch him in the face again. Preferably his mouth.
“And do you think if we found out anything, especially where she is that Seth, Rocco or me won’t kill Shadow and anyone else that stands in our way? Take a look around you, Logan. We have this.”
“What if he’s already hurt her? What if…” I pause, every cell in my body freezing up. I start to shake.
Unnerved.
“Shit, you can’t think like that, Logan. I get it, you know I do. That pill will knock you out. You won’t think. You won’t dream, nothing my friend. Take it; I promise I’ll shake you until you are awake and alert if we find out anything. You won’t be any good to Ellie if you are worn down.”
I hear the truth, see it loud and clear as Rocco edges forward and looks me in the eye. I feel the blast of protectiveness that flares up in the air. My best friend and brothers were coming through when I can’t, and Gabe is about to torture a little prick who has to have answers.
I pick up a picture of Ellie and Norah walking out of the coffee shop. Both with smiles so full it’s blinding.
Just one look at her takes away a little of what’s slowly killing me.
Untwist Page 6