Bolton Conrad hurt me four years ago, but I’ve been hurting myself ever since.
I am pulled back to the present when a wall covered in overgrowth rises up in front of me suddenly. I’m so surprised that I’m breathless and unable to stop quickly enough.
I make impact and bounce back onto my ass with a thump that knocks the wind out of me.
“Please, please, please.”
I’m on my feet and searching through the foliage, my heart sinking rapidly when I pull the leaves back to reveal a wall well over eight feet tall staring down at me.
The top is covered in what looks like electric fencing, and the darn thing stretches as far as my eyes can see.
“Shit.”
“Told you.”
My scream sets off a flock of birds and I jump back, plastering myself to the wall when Wyatt comes ambling into view, his eyes so dark that they look black instead of that captivating blue.
Heart thumping wildly, I look around frantically, hoping desperately that I’ll spot a weapon of some kind around me. Nothing jumps out at me as I cower closer to the wall, and I feel myself tremble and quake when he stops not three feet away and glares.
“Your lip is bleeding,” he snarls.
A swipe of my tongue proves his words are true. I have a tiny split at the corner, nothing huge or painful, but it’s bleeding. And the place on my cheek where I hit the wall is pulsing softly.
“Don’t hurt me.”
“Goddammit! I won’t. I fucking told you that already, Eloise. However, you won’t get away with harming yourself and I warned you about that.”
Why those words cause warmth to unfurl in my traitorous belly is beyond contemplation, and I find it horrifying to even entertain the zing of excited joy over the fact that he cares so much.
“Come.”
I shake my head and ignore his outstretched hand.
That sets him off and he starts cursing so badly, I feel my cheeks heat at the crudeness of his words.
“You come here right now or I’m coming to get you, and, Eloise, I promise you, you won’t like what happens then,” he warns.
“What are you going to do, huh? Beat me? Like I care, asshole. Been there, done that, worn the stitches and the cast already. You lay a finger on me and I’ll hurt you right back.”
I’m yelling as the tears filling my eyes spill over and run down my cheeks. I hate crying, loath showing such weakness, but I can’t help it.
I was so close.
I see his fists clench and those eyes go so molten, they turn from black to a glowing blue that is just plain mesmerising.
“I would never hurt you, never,” he spits, grinding his teeth. “Come here, Ellie. Please. Before the snake hanging off that vine gets any closer to you.”
I’m terrified of snakes and just the mention of one has me shrieking, running, and leaping straight into his arms and crawling up him like a spider monkey.
“Don’t let it touch me, don’t let it touch me!”
The fear—that numbing, undeniable fear—grips me so hard that I’m hyperventilating as I attempt to get all the way inside the man in my need to escape.
My therapist tried to help me with that once, but nothing ever broke me of the hysteria that comes over me at the mention of snakes.
Just looking at one in a book is enough to have me almost catatonic.
“Shh, baby, I have you now. There’s a good girl, princess, just breathe deep and hang on to me. I have you safe and sound.”
He croons to me and starts walking back the way we came, his strong arms and gentle baritone serving to keep me tethered precariously to reality.
I hate the slimy, slithering bastards after what Conrad did to me, and nothing will cure me of it. If I had to choose between starving to death and walking by one snake to get at sustenance, I’m afraid I’d die from starvation.
“Shh, baby, stop now, you’re making yourself sick.”
He has to sedate me to calm me, and I slip off into oblivion wondering what to do or think about this man. He hasn’t hurt me in any way, has fed me, held me while I slept, and told me over and over that he won’t do anything harmful to me.
I want to believe him. I need to because I won’t get another chance to run. If that’s true, I’m at his mercy.
***
Wyatt
I feel like the worst piece of crap to ever walk the face of the earth after that lie and regretted it immediately when poor Ellie tried crawling under my skin to escape.
I know that my baby has a phobia about the critters, but I’d never imagined she could be that terrified that she’d start hyperventilating to the point where I had to knock her out to stop her from going crazy.
Good going, Wyatt. Just great.
The worst part is the way she’d subconsciously thrown herself at me, trusting me to save her from it, as if she believed in me despite knowing she shouldn’t.
Idiot!
I’m so angry at myself right now. I’m pissed and taking my frustration out on a punching bag till my knuckles split and start bleeding. I keep going till the bag is slick with blood and I’m so exhausted and sweaty that I collapse to the floor in a heap.
Fear and revulsion of spiders and snakes is one thing, but Ellie’s reaction was extreme. What I saw three hours ago was something beyond natural fear, and if not for my anger at myself, I would have realized it sooner. I consider all the reasons for her hysteria and come to my feet in a rush, my screaming muscles and pain forgotten as I run for the stairs and hit the office minutes later.
“Yo, bro, what’s up?”
Jared answers this time and I wince. I could talk to Miah without the threat of getting my eardrums blasted. Jared is another animal entirely and already half smitten with Ellie from all the watching he’s done over the months.
He’ll likely go mental when I confess what I did and how my poor baby went so crazy.
“I need you to hack into Dr. Hanley’s files, bro.”
An indrawn breath and then curses reach my ears.
“That’s a violation, Wyatt, and you know it. I was down with watching her and you taking her off the streets because of all the other shit that was going on, but you know how I feel about going too far.”
Yeah, and yesterday I would have agreed wholeheartedly with him, but today…I can’t help her if I don’t know what’s going on.
“Jared…”
“Why? Tell me why you want her confidential files and maybe I’ll do it.”
Shit.
“She tried to run.” I sigh, closing my eyes at the memory.
After a night of excruciating torture touching my Ellie, I’d finally dropped off to sleep and had one of the best nights of rest I’d had in years.
I’d woken in the early hours and escaped to the downstairs gym to stop myself from going too far too fast, only to hear the alarm trip when my watch started beeping.
The guards had notified me of her direction and I’d followed closely behind, stalking her slowly but surely, watching her smile and almost yell her victory right before bouncing off that wall.
I’d felt amused at her daring nature and then just pissed that she hadn’t woken needy and looking for what only I could give her. Unreasonable, yes, but I never said I was a saint or a patient man.
Now I just feel like garbage and it’s driving me nuts.
“Where’s Miah?”
“Tell me what you did, asshole! Miah may take your shit and not ask questions because he’s the youngest, but I smell your stink from a mile away.”
Jesus, save me from this lunatic. I have to tell him now, whether I want the info or not, because knowing this psycho he’ll be on my doorstep and ready to beat me to death if I don’t.
“She ran and came up short at the wall, okay? I…I told her there was a snake behind her, expected her to freak and jump at me…”
Silence follows and I grit my teeth in frustration. I hate it when Jared does this silent shit because I know he’s just waiting for
me to finish instead of jumping in and drawing his own conclusions like Miah usually does.
“She went nuts, Jared, like meltdown, total-terror nuts,” I finish.
My heart aches at just the memory of her face losing all color, and it’s all I can do not to start bawling like a girl. My fault, my fault.
“She okay?”
“No. I had to sedate her to get her to stop screaming. Christ, it broke my heart seeing that shit, Jared.”
He’s quiet, but I hear his teeth grinding on the other end of the line and I can well imagine that if Bolton were alive right now, he’d be the unluckiest son of a bitch on earth.
Miah is nuts, but Jared is a different kettle of fish altogether. He’s an eye-for-an-eye type, like us, but that much worse because he believes in multiplying shit as if intent earns that extra suffering.
“I’ll get it to you soon as I can. May take a few minutes to hack in undetected depending on what they’re running and if it’s in the system. If not, I’ll have to fly down to Philly to get the hard copy.”
“Thanks, bro.”
I can always count on my boys, no matter what. I have army buddies across the states and love those men like family, but no one will ever have my back like these two and I know it.
“You hurt her again in any way and you won’t be giving her those kids you keep talking about.”
“I hear ya, bro. Believe me, I hear ya,” I mutter, running my bloody hand through my hair.
“Good. Love ya, you ass.”
“Love you, too, psycho.”
We ring off with heavy hearts and I replace the phone with a curse, my eyes falling on the liquor cabinet and the sweet oblivion it promises. But my baby needs me more than I need to get shitfaced, so instead of taking what the liquor offers, I head upstairs to shower before bringing Ellie round for that breakfast she never ate.
Chapter Five
Ellie
I wake with a groan and the feeling in my head that reminds me of the flu and a hangover rolled into one. My nose is stuffy, my eyes burn, and my muscles are so tense that they hurt.
Nothing at all like the blissful feeling I woke with earlier this morning, and no guilty smile this time, either.
I’m confused for a second before it all comes rushing back to me. My escape, the elation of victory, running into the wall, Wyatt’s anger…and God help me, that snake.
My skin all but tries to crawl off my bones just thinking about it, so instead I open my eyes and focus on the here and now. I’m back in Wyatt’s comfy bed, safe and sound.
Why I should feel relief when I’m right back where I started is unbelievable, but I do.
“Baby girl.”
My head turns and I just barely stop a smile from forming when I see him kneeling beside the bed, his head bent close to mine.
“Hmm?”
He looks guilty and remorseful and I allow that to wash over me, pushing away the distrust and the urge to run again. I can’t say why seeing him this way should bug me, but it definitely does, enough that I have the insane urge to raise a hand and stroke it over his cheek in comfort.
Imagine, the hostage giving her kidnapper comfort!
That almost makes me giggle, and I feel my mouth twitch at that, as well as recalling the spectacle I made of myself with all that hollering. And the look on his face! Priceless.
He sees my mirth and his mouth drops open as his brow furrows.
“What the hell is so funny?”
“Nothing.”
It comes out as a squeak because I have the insane need to laugh and fear that laughing now will only piss him off. I don’t know how I know that he’d be angry at me making light of my episode; I just know that it’s true.
And doesn’t that just warm my cold dead heart and make me want to sigh and cuddle closer.
“Ellie,” he growls warningly.
“Fine. I just…you should have seen your face!”
That gets me laughing and the guy probably thinks I’m completely off my rocker. I sound hysterical and, quite frankly, I can’t see how I can be so amused right now, either.
Maybe because I have lost my marbles. I must have, because I feel so safe and protected right now that I’m not focused on anything at all but the expression of shock and bewilderment that I remember from earlier.
When my laughter dies he’s still frowning darkly, but I notice that he’s got my hand in his and he seems as bewildered as he is contrite.
“I’m so sorry for scaring you that way, baby. I didn’t—”
“Know that I have a deep abiding fear of snakes? Don’t sweat it, Wyatt, it’s not your fault.”
And it isn’t. He may be my captor, my prison warden, but if there’s one thing I learned at Bolton’s hands, it’s never to blame others for actions that aren’t theirs.
“But—”
“Okay. Let’s forget about that for a minute. I mean, please just drop it, because this stuff you jabbed in me is good but not that good that I won’t freak again,” I interrupt, taking a deep, steadying breath. “We need to seriously talk, and I’m hungry so why don’t you feed me, Mr. Warden. Then you can answer all the questions I have for you.”
He frowns.
“If you ask me why again…”
“You’ll what, huh? Start wailing on me? Somehow I doubt that. No, I’ll ask you anything I want and you’ll tell me what I want to know. That is if you want me to stop trying to run. I can’t function without knowing things. Like you said, I’m used to everything being exactly the same, and no, I didn’t just do that to myself to turn invisible. It’s what I needed to do to get through the day. If I can’t have my routine, I need something solid to keep me steady and you can give me that by talking. Deal?”
Wyatt looks at me oddly before smiling softly and shaking the hand I never bothered to pull from his.
“Deal.”
The walk downstairs to the kitchen is done on shaky legs with a lot of assistance from him, and I take the time to catalogue his body thoroughly.
If he’d been in that calendar I bought in college—the one with the shirtless soldiers who’d volunteered to pose for the calendar to raise money for vets and amputees—I so would have bought more than one.
“Here, baby, you sit while I make us something. You okay with eggs or no?”
“Ha ha, funny man. I said raw eggs in a shake are gross. I like cooked just fine.”
His movements are precise and economical as he goes around mixing eggs, frying bacon, and making toast, all while preparing me a cup of tea to nurse while I wait.
I start to ask questions but he shushes me on the premise that we eat first and talk after.
I oblige and dig into the food, shocked that I’m starving and enjoying my breakfast when I haven’t allowed myself a meal like this in so long. I was never really into big breakfasts, but I admit, the granola was nasty.
“Okay, seeing as you’ve eaten more than half, you can start asking. I promise to answer as much I can, but if I don’t, you move on. No nagging or tantrums.”
“Fine. First, you watched me for months. My question is why, and for how long? And no, I won’t believe some cock-and-bull tale about you seeing me in the diner and having a love-at-first-sight epiphany. That stuff is not real, so make this believable, at least. Please.”
Wyatt, the bastard, smirks at me and shakes his head.
“You’re full of shit, you know that? You’re so closed off and innocent one minute, and then the next you’re busting my chops. Such a contradiction. Lucky for us both, I like it.”
His tone goes all soft and low and he gives me a slow perusal that sets my junk to tingling in a strange way that is both thrilling and discomforting.
“Stop that and spill it!”
“Jesus, you’re ornery. Fine. The first time I saw you I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. No, don’t roll your eyes, baby, it’s true. You’re gorgeous and I got hard just thinking of your lips on my…well, I wanted you. So I had you in
vestigated, and when it all came back I just wanted you more.”
“The broken girl? You a fixer, Wyatt, is that it? You think you can fix me?” I sneer.
Pity? He pities the poor Ellie he saw in some photo?
My anger blasts out of nowhere and I’m yelling by the last word. No one can fix me. No one. What the maniac did to me is irreparable and I know it.
“Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to fix you, Ellie, I just want you to stop pretending you don’t exist, baby. That’s all, because I see you. I see all that light you’re trying to snuff out and I won’t let that happen.”
“What are you planning to do with me?”
That smile of his gets way more suggestive and I roll my eyes sarcastically and purse my lips. He just laughs and shakes his head.
“Baby, I told you. I’m keeping you. I’m going to marry you and put my babies in you. That’s the long and short of it. You can believe me, not believe me, whatever. It won’t make one bit of difference because the end result will be the same. Get that settled in your head and get over whatever hang-ups you have with your past. I’m not here to hurt you or mess with you. I just want you. Forever.”
Stop, just stop that freaking bus and let me off to stretch my legs already! Is this guy serious?
“You are nuts. Who decides they want to marry a stranger?” I yell, coming out of my seat with a screech that makes me cringe. “You took me the night before last and—”
“But I was watching you long before that, Ellie. I already told you that. And I know everything there is to know, so you’re not a stranger to me at all, baby.”
“I just met you! And our start wasn’t exactly normal.”
“Whose fault is that?!”
Now he’s yelling and towering over me. I should be intimidated by his nearness. Instead, I catch his scent and breathe it in, hating myself for wondering what it would be like to have that smell on my skin.
“Stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking, Eloise. I don’t like that look you’re giving me.”
Tough.
I don’t say it out loud, but in my head I feel victoriously defiant.
And then it strikes me—a way to prove…something.
Wyatt (Lane Brothers #1) Page 4