Chapter 27
The sun has set and now the room really is pitch dark. I’m shivering and I don’t know if it’s just from the cold. Maybe it’s from sitting in the unnatural position on the floor, my arms chained up and angled weirdly, my back all twisted to accommodate them. I can hear faint voices coming from somewhere and smell cigarette smoke. I can’t understand what’s being said, but I think one of them belongs to the guy I spoke to while they were abducting me. Life as usual seems to be going on around me.
Not so in my head.
The last of the gin’s buzz from last night is gone. I’m cold, I’m tired, I’m hungry. And I’m scared. I can’t even pretend that’s not true anymore. However hard I try.
I’ve read more books than I can name where women get abducted by monster-type guys and chained up in dark houses. But that’s not meant to be real life. All those books have happy endings, and I was speaking with that in mind while I was mouthing off to Tyler before.
But this is real life.
And stories like that don’t usually have happy endings in real life.
Another voice joins the two outside. This one I do recognize. I hate how my heart flutters happily because of it. And a few moments later, thudding footsteps on the wooden stairs materialize into Tyler standing in the open doorway of the bedroom.
“Still where I left you?” he says. “Good girl.”
He’s grinning at me, but I don’t smile back. I just sit up straighter and glare at him.
He flicks on the overhead and the sudden brightness where there was only black darkness before makes me blink.
“Are you ready to behave now?”
“Stop talking to me like I’m a dog,” I say.
He chuckles, but his eyes are pure unyielding ice as he walks closer.
I know I should be nice to him. Make him see me as a person. That way maybe he won’t kill me. Or maybe he at least won’t torture me before he kills me. That’s the theory and best advice when being abducted, anyway. My aunt Roxie sat us all down when the war started and explained all this. Plus a whole bunch of other things. My dad taught me how and where to hit a man to really hurt him so I can run. I should sweet talk Tyler so he’ll untie me. And then I’ll punch him in the throat and make a run for it.
He reaches into his pocket and I hope it’s to get the key for the padlock securing the chain around my neck. Instead, he pulls a large hunting knife with a serrated edge and a black blade from the sheath on his belt.
“I’ve had just about enough of your lip,” he says. “Where’s the sweet girl who bought me pie, huh? I want her.”
He’s holding the knife barely an inch from my throat. I’m shaking and it’s not only from fear. I hate the fact that I bought him that pie. It makes me so angry that I was nice to him when all he was doing was planning this.
“She’s not here anymore,” I say. “And you’ll never see her again.”
I must be insane for saying that to him. But damn him. He made me believe he could be the one. And now he has me chained up and is threatening me with a knife? He can kill me, but no way I’m gonna show him fear.
He touches the knife to my cheek. The blade is freezing cold, as icy as his eyes, and I shiver harder.
“Careful now,” he says as he slides the tip of the knife down my cheek all the way to the tip of my collar bone. My breaths are coming in little jagged gasps. Not because I’m afraid, but because I don’t want him to cut me accidentally.
Accidentally? What the hell is wrong with me? He means to cut me on purpose!
“You’re not afraid?” he asks, sliding the knife between my breasts.
My chest is heaving from how hard I’m breathing. I feel like I’ve just run a 5K without rest. But still, I shake my head.
The knife slides further down. And my crazy brain wishes it was his calloused fingers instead. Or his lips.
I must’ve bumped my head at some point last night. That’s the only explanation for these insane thoughts.
He suddenly yanks the knife away and now I don’t even have that by way of touch.
“Fine, you wanna act tough,” he says. “We’ll do this another way.”
He takes a phone from his pocket.
“You’re gonna torture me with a phone now?” I ask and maybe the grin that flashes across his face isn’t all malice. It almost looks like the smiles he gave me on our dates. But it vanishes almost as fast as it appeared.
“You could say that,” he says. “We’re gonna video call your daddy.”
“This is all about him, isn’t it?” I ask. “Man, talk about daddy issues.”
Something bright pierces the ice in his eyes. Too bad it’s actually pure rage.
“I didn’t know my dad long enough to have daddy issues,” he says. “And yeah, this is all about your father and the Devils.”
“And the war?”
He inclines his head, his eyes burning into mine, clearly answering yes.
“But you don’t actually see me killing anybody, now do you?” I ask.
“And what, that makes you innocent?”
“As much as anyone can be.”
He’s not innocent either. He’s got me chained up here and who knows how many he’s killed before we got to this point.
Why do these guys always think they have the right to do whatever they want? I feel like a traitor to my family thinking that, but seriously, someone’s gonna have to take a step back or this war will never end. Too bad that it probably won’t happen in my lifetime, which despite my crazy fearlessness right now, doesn’t look like it will last much longer.
“You’re not here for a philosophy discussion,” he says.
“Right,” I scoff. “I’m just here to die.”
He pierces me with his gaze. “So you do know what’s going on. Now tell Daddy that. And maybe try to shed a tear.”
He dials and it rings only once before dad’s voice answers the call in a cracked hello. He’s holding the screen away from me so I can’t see Ice’s face.
“Say goodbye to your daughter, Ice,” Joker tells him before turning the screen in my direction. I’ve never seen my dad this tired. Or his eyes that hard and tortured.
“Eden,” Dad says, and that simple word holds volumes, holds years of conversations.
“I’m sorry, Dad,” I say, and tears are rising for the first time since this happened. “I trusted the wrong guy. His name is Tyler, they call him Joker and we’re in some old, abandoned town in the desert. There’s a house on a hill?—”
The knife is suddenly at my throat again as Tyler snatches the phone away from my face.
“We’re in a house she’s never leaving,” he says as he slides down on the floor next to me, so both of us, the knife, and the chain I’m bound with are visible on the phone’s camera.
“You little piece of shit!” my dad snarls. “You hurt her and I’ll tear you apart.”
“Oh, I’ll hurt her,” Tyler says and licks my cheek. I hate how unbearably good it feels. “I’ll hurt her and make her beg for more. And then each of my brothers will do the same.”
He kisses me then, full on the lips. And it’s as sweet, as good, as mind-numbing as the first time it happened… back when I still believed we were destined for each other. Tingles are dancing all over my skin, warming me up, and the warmth is quickly eating up the last of my fear. Why does he have to be such a good kisser? I hate my stupid brain and my stupid body for reacting this way. I hate that my father has to watch.
I try to push him away, but my hands are too tightly bound. I try to turn my head, but it won’t go.
“You’re dead, Joker!” Ice yells. “You and everyone you love.”
Tyler stops kissing me and jerks away. I instinctively follow with my lips before I remember what’s actually happening. For the few moments while his lips were on mine, I clean forgot where I am and why I’m here. To die. At the hands of the man I thought I could love forever.
“You really don’t know who I am, do you, Ice?” Tyler asks.
“You’re a dead man. That’s all I need to know.”
Tyler laughs harshly. “Remember Satan’s Spawn MC?”
Ice’s face freezes for a moment.
“They’re all dead men too!”
“I know,” Tyler said. “My father was Seven, I’m sure you remember him. And I’m the kid in the backseat who had to watch you butcher him and my mother.”
My father’s breath hitches in his throat. I can tell he remembers that very clearly and I can tell it’s something he regrets.
“It’s my turn now,” Tyler says. “I’ll make you watch as I kill your precious daughter.”
“No!” Ice yells. I’ve never heard such desperation in his voice. “Take me. I’m the one you want. Eden had nothing to do with any of that.”
“She’s your spawn. She doesn’t get to live because she should never have been born.”
“She’s innocent!”
Tyler just laughs harshly again, but I can tell he’s faking it. I can kind of hear the pain underneath it all. The pain that led to me being here and my father begging for my life.
“Let her go and I’ll come to you,” Ice says.
Tyler shakes his head. “No deal. Your time will come.”
Then he ends the call and turns off the phone.
After all that, the silence in the room is heavy and thick, making it hard to breathe. He’s looking at the far wall, his eyes unfocused so I’m sure he’s not actually seeing it.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I hear myself say.
He snaps his head in my direction, his eyes blazing with that rageful, killing light again.
“And you actually mean that.”
“I do.” It wasn’t a question, but I answered it anyway. “No child should have to see a thing like that.”
He scoffs and stands up, the knife hanging loosely by his side.
“You won’t be saying these kinds of things once all this is done. And I promise that you won’t mean them,” he says and strides to the door. “Sweet dreams. Enjoy them while they last.”
And with that he plunges me back into darkness and locks me in this room. I don’t know what to believe anymore. My heart is telling me one thing about him, my head another and none of it is making any sense.
A part of me wishes he’d just go ahead and do all he’s threatened to do to me, so I could finally know. And I know no sane person would think that. But here I am. My body screaming for his touch, my heart aching for his loss and my brain not putting a stop to any of that as it should. I’m not just weird, I’m insane.