by L. E. Bross
“Where the hell were you?” he barks out.
I wince and grab my side. “Your fucking asshole of a friend jumped me. He stole my necklace and I want it back. Belle gave it to me. It’s mine.”
His jaw hardens as he looks toward the hall where I emerged, but doesn’t move. I reach out and lay my hand on his arm, drawing his attention back to me.
“Can I at least call her? I haven’t talked to her in days, and if there’s a chance I might not see her again, at least let me hear her voice one last time. You can stand right here and listen, but you know I’d never put her in danger. I won’t say anything about this, I swear.”
His gaze bores into my even one. He can read me and I want him to see the truth. Finally, he blinks and reaches into his pocket.
“I’m right here. If I even think you’re telling her shit she shouldn’t know, you’ve put her life in danger too. Speak carefully.”
“I promise.” I take the phone with shaky hands and move a few steps away. I dial and hope that she picks up an unknown number.
“Hello?” Her hesitant voice brings tears to my eyes.
“Hey, Tink, it’s me.”
“Ever? Oh my god, where are you? Are you okay? My necklace went off…”
“Shh, it’s okay. I’m fine, just a misunderstanding.” I glance at Nate who is watching me, taking in every word. I need to be very careful because Belle needs to stay far away from all this. “I meant to call you yesterday, but I got caught up. Guess what? I got a new job!”
There’s a long silence on the line, then, “So you’re really okay?”
“I am. I used a coffee machine for the first time. Made the worst espresso in the world.” My voice breaks when I force a laugh and I clear my throat. I hate lying to her.
“You sound weird,” she says. “Where are you? Why are you calling from a blocked number?”
“I dropped my phone in the toilet a few days ago so I have a new one. It isn’t set up yet. And I’m shopping. Needed some new clothes now that I’m a working girl.”
There’s a beat of hesitation. “I called the guys on your old phone. It was working fine. Why did they act like something was wrong?”
My stomach clenches, and I bend over a little, blowing out a breath. Fuck. They can’t come looking for me. “Oh good, Baz thought he might be able to fix it. He must want to surprise me. We had a stupid fight, but everything’s fine now. I was acting a little crazy. You know how I get.”
Another burst of fake laughter comes from my tight throat.
“Are you in trouble?” she asks in a whisper.
I swallow against the lump. Nate takes a step closer to me, but I don’t look at him. “Tink, I swear everything is fine. I saw a cute jacket that reminded me of you and realized I hadn’t called in a few days and wanted to hear your voice. See how you’re doing.”
My throat tightens and I hold the phone away from my mouth as my breathing grows ragged. Tears burn my eyes. This might be the last time I hear her voice. I need her to know how much I love her.
“I love you, Belle. You know that right?” I croak out.
“Why are you saying it like that? Ever, where are you really?”
“Oh crap, I’m at the register. I’ll call you soon, okay? You be good. I’m so happy that your dreams came true, Tink.”
“Ever…”
I end the call and a sob bursts free. Nate steps up and takes my phone. When he slides his arm around me, I don’t have the willpower to pull away. He brushes a few strands of hair off my forehead, then presses his lips there.
“See, when you’re good I can be nice, babe. I used to be real nice, remember?”
His lips trail down my cheek and I try to disentangle from his embrace when he tries to kiss me on the lips.
A growl rumbles in his chest and he cups the back of my neck, squeezing hard in warning.
“I let you use the fucking phone. The least you can do is show a little appreciation.”
“I’m sorry. Thank you. It meant the world to me to talk to Belle.”
He drags me around so that I’m facing him, our chests pressed together. His chest heaves against mine and I can see the anger brewing like a storm in his eyes. The dread I’d grown familiar with for so long, and forgotten for a time, comes back in a rush.
He leans forward until I can feel his hot breath on my lips. This close, I can see the cruel glimmer, like millions of shards of broken glass in his eyes.
“Then fucking show me.”
A sob bursts out of my throat and he licks his lips, like he can taste my fear. His eyes grow darker and I can feel his erection digging into my stomach.
I shake my head, but he tightens his grip, pinning me in place.
“You’re going to show me just how thankful you are, or I’m going to lock you back in that room and leave you there to die. Slowly.” He runs his nose up my neck, poises at the shell of my ear. “Painfully. It’ll take days to starve to death.”
Tears stream down my cheeks.
“This isn’t you,” I whisper, tasting salt on my tongue.
A deep chuckle rumbles between us, because we both know that’s a lie. This is him, it’s always been him. I’ve just spent too much time worried about Belle to care about my own safety.
He tries to kiss me again and I twist my head away. Fingers dig into the side of my neck and I know there will be bruises later. Before, I would have let him have his way. I would have taken the easy route.
Now? Nate took money from Peter to make me disappear. I’m not getting out of this alive, but I can choose not to betray the boys I love before it happens. I grit my teeth and glare up at him.
“I’d rather die than touch you ever again.”
“Why do you make me do this to you? You just made it a fuckton harder on yourself, babe.”
He starts across the room, dragging me by the back of my collar like a puppy. At the mouth of the hallway that leads to my cell, reality sets in and I start to fight. He stops and presses my back to the wall, holding me in place by my neck. I dig at his fingers, but he won’t budge.
“I could have taken you with me, could have taken care of you…” He makes a tsking sound. “But you’re too ungrateful, Ever. You’re not good enough to be with me. Not good enough for anyone. Those guys? They’re better off without you.”
I cringe and drop my gaze.
“Oh, did I touch a nerve?” He forces my chin up. “You already know that, don’t you? It’s why you were so quick to come with me—because their lives are worth more than yours. Because you don’t fucking matter, Ever, and they do.”
I hate that his words are the same ones I’ve been saying to myself for weeks. I’ve wondered too often if I’m holding them all back. If they’d be better off without me.
But Nate is right about one thing: I was too selfish to let them go.
Now it’s too late. My chest aches at the thought of never seeing them again. Despite what I told Nate, I really don’t want to die.
I might not know what I want to do with my life, with my future, but I do know that I want one. Desperately now.
“Why don’t you just leave me here? I’m not even sure where ’here’ is. By the time I figure out how to get anywhere, you’ll be long gone. I’ll stay off the radar. Peter will never know.”
Nate throws back his head, laughing. “Why the fuck would I do that?”
I grit my teeth as best I can with his fingers squeezing against my jaw. “Because for one second of your life, you can choose to be a decent human being, Nate.”
“God, it’s like you don’t know me at all. There’s nothing good about me.” He slides his free finger down along my scar and doesn’t stop until it rests on my lip. “I’ve done some bad shit, and you know what? I’m not sorry. And you know what else? When I walk out of here, I won’t give you a second thought. Not a single one.”
He taps my bottom lip like he’s not holding me against the wall by my neck.
“Then just fucking shoot me,”
I grit out. “Get it over with.”
His cruel smile returns.
“That would be too easy. I want you to suffer. You walked out on me, Ever. You disappeared. After everything I did for you, gave you, you just fucking left. You belonged to me and I didn’t tell say you could go. This time I leave you, and when I walk away, I’ll be a hell of a lot richer. So I guess I have you to thank you for that, at least.”
I drag my nails over his wrists and draw blood but he barely cringes.
“You won’t get away with it. Peter will turn on you; it’s what he does. He makes promises and never comes through. He’ll never give you the money.”
Nate gets in my face as I start to wheeze.
“Do you really think I’m that fucking stupid? I’ve already got the money, tucked away someplace safe, and I had you here while we packed up all our shit. It’s gone now. The guys are gone. The only people here are you and me, babe, but I’ve got no reason to stay. Not now.”
I drag my feet, scratch him everywhere I can touch, but it doesn’t stop him from yanking open the door to my room and shoving me inside so hard I fall to my knees.
“You’ll have plenty of time to think about all the bad choices you’ve made. And the last thought you’ll have right before you die? It’ll be of me. See you on the other side, babe.”
He slams the door shut and I hear the heavy-duty lock slide into place right before I throw my head back and scream.
Chapter Ten
X
Baz sits in the passenger seat this time. He’s got Ever’s phone and knows where to direct Ry, who is driving like a bat out of hell. Not that I blame him. I won’t be able to breathe right until Ever is in my arms.
I know they feel the same way.
The last twenty-four hours have been the worst of my life.
Thank fuck we’re almost there.
“Where the fuck are we?” Ry growls when Baz tells him to take a right.
It’s some kind of warehouse district outside the city, but it looks like no one has used it in a while. Metal gates close off the parking lots we pass.
“There. That’s the address that I pulled from the locket’s location.”
Ry slows to a stop in front of a gate that closes off a huge building. Baz jumps out pulls it open. This one isn’t chained shut and there are tire tracks in the dirt.
“How are we doing this?” I ask as Ry puts the car in gear. “We can’t go storming into a building that might have a bunch of gangsters inside.”
“The fuck we can’t. Ever is here. We go in and we bring her out.”
“Park over there.” Baz points to a small metal outbuilding without doors. “We look around first. Once we see her, I’m calling the cops.”
“The hell you are.” Ry slams the brakes on and is out the door, running toward the building before either of us can stop him.
“Fucking hell, Ry. You’re going to get shot.” Baz jumps out and takes off after him.
I fight with the seatbelt and by the time I get out of the car, Ry and Baz are gone and the door is wide open. I run as fast as I fucking can, praying like hell I don’t hear gunshots.
If we all get out of this alive, it’ll be a fucking miracle.
“Ever,” I hear Ry bellow and I sprint the last few feet to the door.
My skin feels alive as I race down the hallway, sure that at any moment a rain of bullets will hit me. I come out into a huge room and skid to a halt, just in time to see the back of Baz’s head as he disappears down yet another hallway.
There are footprints everywhere in the dirt.
This place is a fucking maze.
“Fucking hell,” I mutter, taking off after them.
Ry is running into this blind and he’s going to get himself killed. So far we’ve gotten lucky, but there could be two dozen guys with guns waiting around any corner.
By the time I catch up with Baz, Ry is coming back toward us.
“There’s no one here,” he growls. “How the fuck does this keep happening?”
Baz pulls Ever’s phone out of his pocket.
“The necklace is here. That blinking dot? That’s the tracker.”
Ry throws up his hands. “Where, Baz? Where the fuck is she?”
His voice breaks and he turns away, shoulders rising and falling as he fights the same helplessness consuming me. Every minute that passes feeds the dread.
We keep getting so damned close, then she slips through our fingers. It’s like the universe is playing a twisted game of hide-and-seek with us.
“Can you zero in on it? Get us closer to where she might be?”
“No.”
Ry swears. The devastation on his face punches me right in the chest. I rub the spot over my heart.
“You can’t give up, man.”
“She’s so fucking close. That necklace led us here, so where the fuck is she?”
Baz moves into a pool of light and plays with the phone.
“Okay, if I can get within twenty-five feet or so, this might work.” He turns and walks back out to the main room. “I’m going to ping it. It’s fucking rudimentary and the sound won’t be loud, but maybe the ceilings will amplify it.”
We all stand at the edge of the space and I hold my breath when Baz taps the screen. Nothing happens. He moves ten steps closer to the middle of the room. Nothing.
When he hits dead center, he turns to the left and starts to walk again, tapping the screen every few feet.
“Needle in a fucking haystack,” Riot grits out.
“Dude, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while,” I tell him.
He stops and glares at me and I shrug.
“Well, they do.”
“How many fucking blind squirrels have you seen? None, because they either get run over or eaten by predators they can’t fucking see.”
“Stop talking and just listen,” Baz grinds out.
He’s making his way around the edge of the room now. When he gets to the other side, near yet another hallway, I freeze.
Wide-eyed, I look at Ry.
“Was that…”
“Fuck.” He sprints across the room to where Baz is standing still. Every time he taps the screen, a faint ding sounds from somewhere.
“It’s echoing—I can’t pinpoint it.”
“It’s got to be within twenty feet though, right?” He scans the room, then cups his hands around his mouth. “Ever!”
His voice ricochets off the walls and bounces around before fading back out.
We stop moving, stop breathing, and listen.
The only sound is the faint ding as Baz keeps tapping the screen.
Ry and X scour every nook and cranny within twenty feet of Baz, but come up with nothing.
“We’ve looked everywhere.” He drives his fingers through his hair and pushes out a harsh breath. “Would it pick up a signal if she was under us?”
“Doubtful. That’s solid concrete.”
I scan around us once more and my gaze snags on something I didn’t notice before.
“What about above?”
They follow my gaze to a metal balcony, half-hidden by a wall. Ry heads back toward the hall then looks left.
“Stairs,” he shouts, then he’s gone.
“He has a death wish,” I mutter before hurrying to catch up.
At the top of the stairs I pause. Ry is kneeling in front of something. Or someone. To his right is a pool of blood. My stomach clenches so hard that I gag. No. A roar starts in my ears and keeps getting louder. I reach out and grab the railing because the whole fucking room is starting to tilt.
“Ry?” I croak out.
Baz is behind me, and I hear a strangled inhale.
Ry looks over his shoulder slowly, then holds up his hand. Ever’s necklace dangles from his fingers. An animalistic moan crawls up my throat, but Ry shakes his head.
“It’s not her.” His voice shakes as he pushes to his feet.
I allow my gaze to drop and see that the body is
a man. There’s a hole in the center of his forehead, and a trail of blood has dried along his cheek.
Ry takes a step and stumbles, then sinks to his knees.
“I thought it was her,” he says, his voice filled with anguish. “When I got to the top, for a split second, I thought it was our girl.”
His shoulders start to shake and he drops his head, clutching the necklace against his chest. My knees give out and I sink down onto the top step, breathing erratically.
Fuck.
Fuck!
“We’re back to square one, except now we know what her ex is capable of.”
“We need to call the police,” Baz says.
When I glance up at him, his face looks pale and a little green. Not that I blame him. There’s a dead guy covered in blood a few feet away. That shit isn’t easy to process.
“How the hell do we explain why we’re at an abandoned warehouse, where we just found a dead body?” Ry asks, his voice devoid of emotion.
He’s shutting down right in front of me.
“I think we need to go to the police about everything. They can put out an alert, have people looking for her. We can’t be everywhere at once, especially if he took her with him. We have no idea where she could be now.”
“He’s right, Ry. There’s nothing else we can do now. We need help finding her.”
He looks up. “What if they can’t find her? What if she’s already…” He motions to the body on the floor.
“She’s not.” I jump to my feet and glare down at him. “I’m not about to give up, so fuck you, Ry, if you do.”
I turn and stomp down the metal stairs so hard that they shake and clang. I’m so pissed off that I want to hit something.
We can’t give up, not when Ever could be out there waiting for us to come and save her. Not when she needs us.
We let her down again, but this is going to be the last time.
We’re going to find her and no one will ever touch her again.
Chapter Eleven
Ever
Total darkness fucks with your head.
Nate took the light bulb out, knowing that I’m afraid of the dark.