I need to find a way out of here before he or Cole come back. The only problem, I’m in too much pain to move.
Gasping and nearly choking on a whimper, I let the tears fall, and on instinct, I lift a hand to wipe them away. That’s when I realize I’m no longer bound to the bed like I was. There’s no tape over my mouth either, but my skin, it still itches. I cover my mouth when a shriek comes out.
Survival kicks in.
“Okay, Ellie, you can do this. All you need to do is think about those you love and run toward the ocean.” I might be bone dead exhausted and beaten, but I know I can out swim them if they try catching me.
Inhaling a sharp breath when a lick of fire spreads across my butt cheeks, slowly, in the most minuscule of movement, I inch closer on my stomach to the edge of the bed. My butt screams in agony when I roll over coming in contact with the sheets.
“Dear God.” I breathe in deep, only letting it out when dizziness hits. There’s no beginning, no end, no limit to the pain.
I hurt everywhere.
“I hope you bastards do chase me and you drown.”
It feels like I’ve been burnt alive. Not that I’d know what that would feel like, but that’s how I describe it.
I flinch and cry out when I swing my legs over the bed and stand. I don’t want to remember the torment, the torture, the way Shadow yelled that Logan brought this on himself. I want to hide and never be found. But this time there is no corner of my own for me to escape. Because all I picture is Logan and the faces of my family as they watched the wretchedness that bastard did to me.
Feeling powerless in knowing they’ve most likely seen is the worst part of all of this.
Taking a tentative step and then another, I hobble to the bathroom and lock the door, let out a hiss when the cold seat of the toilet meets my bottom. Before relieving myself, I spread my legs, feeling around my groin for signs of rape. There’s no swelling, no tenderness, nothing like the time before.
Relief. It floods my veins. He didn’t rape me, I’m sure of it.
I relieve myself, and as I wipe, I notice a couple of small clots of blood. I hold it together until after I flush.
Then I drop to my knees. I cry, long and hard into my hands, giving way to the enormity of my grief. Emotions swirl as the hot tears streak down my cheeks and through my fingers. Each of them a blazing trail of agony as my shoulders shake, and the sobs wrack through my body.
“Oh, God. I lost my baby, and it was because of Shadow. It’s all because of him.” I rock back and forth, pulling at my hair. “You spineless son of a bitch. You not only stole my innocence; you robbed my child of life. I hate you.”
Placing my hand over my mouth, I let out a stored-up, stomach-turning scream. Sorrow speeds through me, destroying and shredding and slitting.
Out of nowhere, an angry fire builds under my skin, and a deep emptiness fills my heart as the uninvited situation I’ve no idea how to get out of dries my tears in an instant.
“I’m not going to let you drive me insane, Shadow. I won’t let you take me away from the man who showed me what unconditional love is.” I rub my temples to not only release the ache but also to force the wheels to start turning. To think of a way to get the hell out of this hellish nightmare.
After what seems like an hour of my mind racing, I refuse to shed another tear until I’m back in Logan’s arms, and maybe not even then. I’ve been through worse, and I can handle this as long as he doesn’t touch me again. I lift my head and remove my battered body from the floor.
Without hesitating, I limp back into the bedroom and rummage through the dresser drawers until I find a stack of t-shirts. Grabbing the first one, I slip it over my head, my skin itching like crazy. I refuse to scratch it. Taking several deep breaths, I push past the agony, make my way back into the bathroom and begin opening drawers on the vanity. “Come on; there has to be something I can use as a weapon,” I whisper as my cramping fingers scramble through men’s hair products, several toothbrushes, and other items.
A laugh escapes when I open the lid of a black box. I quickly grab the wooden handle of a straight razor, close the lid and drawer and clutch the item to my chest.
Nerves jumping, I click the button to open the blade, and a wave of excitement that I might get the hell out of here slides through me. I turn and bolt for the door only to be met by Shadow and Cole.
“You’re free to leave if you can get past us. I’ll even give you a head start.” Shadow grins, his eyes drifting down to my hand. “I’ll swap you the razor for your dad’s gun.” He holds out his empty hand as if he expects me to comply.
“Fuck you; I want you to die,” I yell. He’ll have to pry it from my cold, clammy dead fingers first. I won’t permit them to back me into a corner that’s not of my choosing. I won’t. I’d rather die first before I show fear ever again. Regardless if it’s trickling down my arms and legs, sending chills everywhere until I swear I hear my bones rattle. I will stand my ground.
“Eventually I will, unlike you, it won’t be today. It’s a shame Cole didn’t get to fuck you before I kill you.” Shadow lifts his hand and points my father’s pistol in my direction. The higher his hand lifts, the angrier I become.
“You make me sick. Do you know that? I never once liked you. Why would I? I mean, look at you. You have nothing; you are nothing. Maybe that’s why your mother decided to leave everything to your sister because she knew you were the biggest mistake she made.” My voice quivers with beckoning tears. If I’m going to die, I’m going out fighting and striking Shadow where it hurts the most.
“Shut up, Ellie, or you’ll force me to kill you before I collect what’s mine.”
“Nothing is yours. Everything belongs to Logan, including me. If you’ve asked Logan for money, it’s gone. All of your money is gone, Shadow. And your sister, she is dead. It won’t matter if you kill me, take me away or whatever your twisted imagination thinks will happen. I will never be yours. I will never beg you. You are a lonely man with this pathetic excuse of a partner as a friend. That is all you will ever be, an inadequate, and weak human who is nothing like Logan Mitchell.” I don’t have a clue what Logan did with the money. I don’t care to know either.
Shadow’s breathing escalates, his smug smirk drops, and with that, I know I’ve pushed him to his limit. If I’d known the truth was all it took, I would have said it a long time ago.
“It angers you to the brink that Logan has everything and you have nothing, doesn’t it, Shadow? He ruined you and took the only things away from your unstable mind you care about. Money, me, and your sister. Funny, I don’t think Whitney cared about you as much as you did her.” I shrug, not caring if she did or not.
“You grew up to be a stupid, stupid woman. Your father was a stupid man, wasn’t he? And now he is dead, just like…” I close my eyes and wait for the bullet to hit me. After holding my breath until I can’t anymore, I open my eyes to a glint of pure malice staring back at me as Shadow’s hand shifts, and before Cole can blink, he shoots him in the neck. “Cole is, or will be in less than a minute.”
I jump, the echo of gunfire ringing in my ears. Cole’s shocked eyes latch onto mine as he brings his hands up to his neck, slumps against the door, blood oozing between his fingers.
“Run, Ellie,” he gurgles and stumbles before falling forward at my feet.
“Try running, and I’ll shoot you. Cole served his purpose. I needed a place to bring you until I got what I wanted. Now let’s go. You’re going to do everything I say. Logan might have got rid of my money, but he has plenty, and once I get it, we are leaving this country. There’s been a change in plans, Ellie. That mouth of yours made me decide to keep you after all. I’ll show you just how pathetic I am by sharing you with every man who will pay me for a night with my whore.”
Out of everything he said, the only thing sticking is the money. I’d rather live the rest of my life chained to Shadow then to let Logan give him a dime.
“He won’t give it t
o you.” I lurch forward, hand flying up to drag the razor down his face. I slash and cut into his dirty flesh.
“Fucking cunt,” he hisses, grabbing hold of my neck and squeezing until the razor falls from my hands and my vision blurs.
“You have nothing, no means to go anywhere. You are desperate, and it reeks on you,” I gasp out. My lungs are expanding to full capacity.
“I have, and I will. I’ve gotten away with so much already.”
I bite my lip, swallowing my disgust when he slams me into the wall, rolls the barrel of the gun down my body, slips it under the shirt and presses it into my entrance. I flinch as he shoves it into me forcefully, but I don’t prize him with begging to stop. Instead, I lock myself away in my mind. I’m disappearing into the dark, never to open my eyes again. Never to see the faces again of those I love.
“Shall I pull the trigger?”
I bite my tongue. Squeeze my eyes shut out of fear that I will not only die by Shadow’s hand but tragically by one of my dad’s handguns.
Shadow has succeeded in scaring the shit out of me.
Agony.
Heart-wrenching. Impossible to live with pain courses through me.
“You want more?” Shadow shouts, slicing through my haze.
My entire body starts to seize. All I want to do is die. I grind down hard on my teeth, my legs give out, and I crumble to the floor.
I breathe in and out as best as I can, my fingers digging into the carpet to try to get away from him. It’s no use. I’m exhausted and weak.
Shadow drops to his knees, flips me over and climbs on top of me. He presses his jean-clad erection into the crack of my ass.
I buck trying to get him off me, screaming for help until my lungs burn.
“Scream all you want; there’s no one around for miles to help you.”
Panic, it hits me like a tidal wave, unleashing the promise to drown me.
I’m going to die.
“I love you, Logan.”
If those are the last words that leave my lips, then I’m okay with dying.
Chapter 8
Logan
I blink hard, staring at the black screen, trying to shove aside whether or not, what I’d seen earlier was the last time I’d ever see Ellie alive. I can’t remove the look on her face from my mind. It was full of heart-wrenching agony. It did more than kill me to see her suffering the way she was.
It gutted me.
My mind, my body, and my soul.
Destroyed.
In a blink of an eye.
Christ, I’m all kinds of torn up on the inside and out. I can hear and feel my heart beating in my ears. The painful discomfort in my shoulder intensifies; blurry lines coat my vision, and I’m sweating like a stuck pig.
It’s then that my guts overcome with the fear that mists my body with a haze. My legs feel weighted as I push out of my chair, dart up the stairs straight for the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Bracing my hands on the counter, I hang my head to catch my breath.
I can feel the blood drain from my face. It’s rushing through me at a rapid speed, demanding every organ to pound a furious blow to my heart.
I begin pacing back and forth. Tears start forming in my eyes while revenge blisters in the blackest depths of my brain.
I’m slowly going mad. I need to unleash fucking hell. I need answers. I need to save the other half of my soul.
The wave of nausea that hits me out of nowhere is so intense that I hardly make it to the toilet before I empty my stomach. It bursts from my throat — hot scalding acid stinging and burning as it purges out of me.
Violently.
“She’s not going to be able to take much more before she breaks. I want your blood on my hands, Shadow, I want to finish what I started and seek Ellie’s revenge. I will find you, and you will wish like a motherfucker you were still safe behind bars.”
Ice hits my veins when I turn on the faucet and splash cold water over my face. Grabbing my toothbrush, ignoring the fact that Ellie’s is next to mine, I apply a dab of toothpaste, scrub my teeth, and pull my shit together.
After drying off my face, I push up the sleeve of my shirt, pull the bandage off my wound and stare at the pink inflamed skin staring back at me. All I can visualize as I glare is every time Shadow whipped Ellie. Every scream that tore from her mouth, every cry it drove a stake through my heart, but the one thing it didn’t do is make her beg to stop as Shadow wanted.
“Hang on just a bit longer, Ellie. You’re the pillar of strength I need to hold me up and not let the weight of worry crush me. The answers to where you are coming.” Hope, that’s all I have left to cling to.
Tugging the sleeve back down, I open the door, jog down the steps, and my eyes shoot in Rocco’s direction as he hands me a glass filled with a couple fingers of what he better have hidden from Seth. I swallow the bourbon in one gulp, letting it burn its way down my throat.
“I hope you didn’t disappear to call someone for money. I’d kick your ass if you did.” Shaking his head, he continues. “I didn’t catch all of the video, don’t care to either. Stuff like that will make people do crazy shit, Logan, the kind that’ll fuck them up for life. Giving Shadow money and the club, it isn’t the answer, man.”
I’d forgotten about the money. Ellie wouldn’t want me giving him a red cent. Wasn’t like Shadow would exchange it for her. Not after the hell we just bore witness to.
“I might be losing my goddamn mind; it doesn’t mean I’m crazy. I’m at a loss, Rocco. If this guy Gabe doesn’t give us some answers.” I grind my teeth, throat going tight wishing like a motherfucker that luck would rain down and make it as easy as a kidnapping for ransom.
“He has the answers, Logan. Trust me, he does. I’ve interrogated too many people in my life not to notice a liar when I see one. I sensed it a couple of minutes ago when Gabe connected and told me the little prick is giving him a hard time, which you know only fuels Gabe’s anger. Gabe will torture the hell out of him to get what we need. You know it as well as I do.”
Low whimpering sounds come through the speakers of the laptop, and the view in front of me brings a smirk to my lips.
Blood drips from the fingers of the man strapped to a chair, I focus on each droplet as it plops to the floor, and the urge to kill the gangly motherfucker myself taps into my skull.
Yeah, the good ole’ warden knows who Shadow’s accomplice is. His problem? He has no idea the things Gabe will do to get him to answer.
“I’m almost jealous Gabe gets to go at this crooked fucker.” Tapping my fingers, I wait for Gabe to make a move as I eye the warden.
My body shakes, and my stomach churns as I hear a door slam and feet shuffling down the hallway of the house.
Shit.
“Are you women crazy? I told you there was shit happening in here we didn’t want you to see.” Rocco groans, running a hand over his face. His words harsh for my liking. I get it though, no matter how he tries to get me to remain calm, he’s as worked up and worried as the rest of us.
Norah’s eyes widen as she walks into the living room, her brows shooting up as she pauses in front of Rocco and places her hands on her hips. Renita pushing Sandy in her wheelchair stops behind her.
“I’m crazy enough to kick you in the junk if you tell me what I can and can’t do. For your information, we’re going outside. Sitting around is driving us insane.”
I chuckle, and even though there’s no humor behind it, I sure as shit agree with what Norah said. My brain has already dipped into the pot of insanity. Could feel it wanting to pull me under like quicksand.
I wince as a stab of pain lances from my shoulder to my wrist when I reach to click the volume down on the laptop — my move causing Renita to shift her eyes in my direction.
I lift my brows. An indication Rocco is right. Hell would have to freeze before I’d ever let these women see that video of Ellie. It would ruin them possibly worse than it did me.
“I’m here to tell you that
what I have sure the fuck isn’t junk. Even if it was, you couldn’t handle it, princess. What’s going on in here isn’t something you should be seeing or hearing.”
I damn near laugh when Norah places her hands on the table and gets within an inch of Rocco’s face.
“Fuck you, you, you insensitive prick. If you think we can’t handle it, then you’d be wrong. We aren’t the type of women to scatter when the going gets rough. Give me a gun and put Shadow in front of me and I’ll prove it.”
No, they aren’t, but when she rights herself and her mouth trembles, drowning in the same quicksand as the rest of us, it’s a sign Norah is losing hope.
“Your friend is a piece of work, Logan. He needs a woman to put him in his place.”
Apart from the tension surrounding us like a dark cloak with daggers ready to drop, she has no idea how valid her words are. I haven’t seen a woman get a rise out of Rocco since tragedy struck him.
“That he is,” I mumble, turn the screen just as I catch a fist connect with flesh out of the corner of my eye. Have to say watching Gabe in action pumps my adrenaline.
These ladies need to get out of here.
“Norah, stop,” Renita says, her eyes latching onto mine. “Are you going to tell us what’s going on? Has Shadow called? Gabe? Anything?” Renita swipes at the tears that start falling down her face and sucks in a draining breath. Her eyes are darting back and forth from me to the laptop.
“We have nothing yet. Hopefully soon. Gabe has the warden.”
Grief. It shakes the floor underneath our feet.
“Please promise you’ll come and get us if you find out anything, we can’t lose her, not like this.”
“Norah, don’t you dare think that way. Don’t you fucking dare, Ellie, she’s going to make it, I know she is.” Renita’s tone comes out tattered.
Worn to shreds and brimming with guilt.
Renita starts to sob into her hands, and tears drip between her fingers. Her breathing becomes ragged. Thank fuck Seth is next to her, he catches her before she hits the floor.
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