Heartless Legacy (Heartless Heirs of Canyon Falls #4)

64. Holden

Chapter 64

Holden

I ’m teetering on the edge of exhaustion. I can barely contain the urge to yawn and there’s this heaviness in my limbs that signals my body is ready to give out on me. I drank a cup of coffee with a double shot of expresso. The caffeine should be enough of an energy boost for me to make it through these next few hours.

There’s an area of shelves near the back of the library, far away from the part of the library that gets the most use. The lights are always out and there are a few couches and reading chairs back there. It’s supposed to be a community nook for quietly reading or discussing an assignment. Now, it’s a common hookup spot, used for quietly getting off. We’ve all learned to ignore the pants and gasps of the couples who use it. It’s common to see shoes peeking out from the bottom shelves, a few painted fingernails. Discarded books.

It’s been a while since I’ve been interested enough in seeing who the couples are for me to take a closer look. That was, until a few days ago, when I overheard a conversation between a group of first year prospects.

Eloise should be more careful about where she is and who she’s talking to. But, in this case, I’m glad she was so free with her words. Because what they were discussing was down right diabolical. The plan is a well thought out one, but it won’t yield the results she’s hoping for. I didn’t even have to change it much to fit what Finn and I are going to do.

The restaurant erupts in a series of chimes. It’s pandemonium as prospects hurry off, hoping to get to the starting spot for the challenge, faster.

We pile onto buses outside of the restaurant. We’re heading to the same location, but the challenge for each prospect year is different. Finn and I are on the same bus as Eloise, since she’s the starting point for this stack of dominos.

An hour later, the bus lurches into the driveway in front of the hunting lodge. Eloise makes eye contact with one of her teammates as she walks down the aisle to exit the bus. He quickly gets to his feet, falling into step behind her. The rest of the team, who were on the other buses, meet them in front of the lodge.

The plan calls for them to split into three groups. One group is supposed to grab Thea and tie her to a tree. The second group will complete the challenge, and the third group will do Eloise’s bidding, while she gets to keep her hands clean and reap the benefits of both of her missions going off without a hitch.

Finn and I lower our masks, and change out the lapel pins we’re wearing, before melting in with the crowd of first year prospects. He moves ahead of me, trailing the guys tracking Thea. I’m on Eloise duty. Ordinarily, I can’t stand to be anywhere near her, but tonight, I volunteered.

Everyone’s so caught up in what they’re doing that no one notices me jabbing her with the needle and dragging her unconscious body behind a tree.

I slip my backpack off and pull out a roll of duct tape, slapping the pieces across her mouth to form an X, and shove a pillowcase over her head, before using more tape to secure it around her neck. The duct tape as a binding was Eloise’s idea.

It pisses me off Eloise is always trying to get some random asshole’s pathetic dick inside my girl. It’s like she has a rape fantasy, but wants to use Thea as her proxy. Well, today she gets to experience the fear and worry she so callously inflicted on Thea first hand. When the last of the stragglers pass, I heft her over my shoulder, walking her deeper into the woods surrounding the estate.

I find a location far enough from the cabins that no one will spot her, but easy enough for the guys assigned to attack Thea to find. I tie Eloise to the tree, leaving her face covered. We don’t want them to know she’s not their intended target. The mild sedative I gave her should wear off soon. I want her awake for this, the way Thea would have been.

I’m leaning up against the tree when Finn catches up to me. “All good?”

He nods. “The kidnapping team’s been rerouted.”

“And Thea?”

“Off to complete her challenge.”

We wait for the people from the third wave of this plan to come through. When they do, Finn and I pull our masks back down, and I step away from the tree we’re pretending to guard. “She said leave the hood on. She wants her senses completely muddled.”

The two guys shrug, not caring that there’s a woman tied to the tree that they’ve agreed to rape. No questions asked.

“Lemme get your phones.” Finn says to the guys as they get closer. They hand them over, and Finn tosses me one. I swipe the camera app to record the person tied to the tree, then send the video with the caption.

Unknown

Do you know where your companion is?

Then send a pin drop to our location. One guy chuckles. “I didn’t think this plan would work. But it did. Fuck. Thea LaReaux . I’ve been wanting a piece of that ass since she showed up on campus last year.”

The second guy agrees. “Now we’re gonna be balls deep. Shit, man, I’m going to fuck her ass. Seriously. I bet it’s so tight back there.”

I bite back my retort. Even though that’s not my girl tied to the tree, I still want to bash their fucking faces in for even thinking about her. For thinking they’re even worthy of touching her. Eloise groans as she comes to. Her head lolls back and forth. Right on time. She’s saying something, but whatever it is, is trapped behind the tape and pillow case.

The first guy says, “Let’s get her down and just tie her arms to the tree.”

The other agrees. “Good plan, man.”

I watch as they untie Eloise, only to refasten the ropes around her wrists and tie it to the tree. It’s a rush job, but I guess it’ll work for what they’re doing.

“Look at those tits.” The second one says, palming them. I have no desire to look, but through the viewfinder of the phone, I see they’ve torn the top of Eloise’s dress and have the bottom of it pushed up around her hips. “I’m gonna fuck this cunt. If I like it, I’ll ask to make you my whore for next year.”

His buddy laughs. “Don’t you mean companion?”

“That’s what they call them, but we all know they’re whores, assigned to make our lives easier until we get married. On-call pussy doesn’t get any easier than that.”

They both laugh, ignoring Eloise’s muffled screams and sobs. “Let’s get the pictures first, like she told us, then we can have some fun.”

They look over, giving me a thumbs up. I guess that’s the sign they’re ready. I tap Finn on the shoulder, signaling it’s time to go. I drop the phone I’m holding, and he does the same, then we melt into the shadows.

“Who the fuck are you and what the fuck are you doing to my companion?” Pax bellows.

The second guy already has his dick out, stroking it, while the first guy is just now reaching for his. He says, “This isn’t your companion, Pax. Not anymore.”

“The fuck it’s not.”

The first guy stands taller, looking indignant. “How do you think Eloise will feel knowing you’re still calling Thea your companion?”

I shake my head as Finn and I slip between the trees back towards the lodge, leaving Pax alone to unravel that shit.

Pax

Why the fuck would they think I’d mistake Eloise for Thea? I wonder, looking down at the pillowcase wrapped around a slender neck. Is it Thea? No. It can’t be. The message said do you know where your companion is , and pin dropped this location. The locator service on Eloise’s phone shows she never left the property, and this is the dress she was wearing when we got the summons at dinner tonight.

I step towards the two guys. “I don’t know what fucking game you’re playing, but that’s not Thea.”

“Yes, it is. The plan-” The other guy nudges him to shut him up.

“What fucking plan?” The girl on the ground screams and kicks her feet. I squat down, unwrapping the tape from around the neck of the pillowcase, and rip the fabric off her head. Both guys look completely shell-shocked to see Eloise.

My molars grind together as I yank the tape off her mouth. “I’m gonna ask you one more time. What plan?”

Eloise’s cries, no longer muffled, drown the hemming and hawing the guys are doing. She clings to my suit jacket, burying her face in my chest. “Ple- please, get me out of here.” She pleads, as the two clowns take off running for the woods, holding onto their pants.

It feels like my brain isn’t working. Like I can’t comprehend what’s right in front of me. This plan they were executing clearly involved tying Eloise to a tree -and judging from the state of her dress and their half done zippers- they weren’t about to engage in any cheerful conversation. Who the hell would be stupid enough to do this, knowing Eloise is my companion?

The answer is obvious. There are only two people who wouldn’t give a shit about her being under my protection. But why would they use Thea’s name as the bait? Were they trying to draw out the guys who were there on Mayhem Night?

Eloise whimpers, “Pax. I want to go home.”

We’re supposed to be completing a challenge, but I can’t fault her for not wanting to continue. Not after what she’s been through. “We should call the cops and an ambulance. You need to give your statement and get checked out.”

“No!”

“Eloise.” I say, gently, “What I just walked up on, we can’t cover this up. They had their masks on, so we’ll need DNA evidence to convict them.”

She drops her head to my chest. “They didn’t do anything. Nothing happened.”

“Your dress is torn. You were bound and gagged. They both had their dicks out. Something happened.”

She shakes her head and says, “No, I would know if it did.”

Would she? How did they even get her into this position without drawing attention? “Were you conscious the whole time? How did they get you away from your team and tied to a tree?”

“I-” Her eyes widen. “I don’t know. I don’t remember. I was walking and then I woke up with the bag over my head and them saying how…”

I nod, speaking softly. “That’s why we need to call the cops.”

“They’re already gone.”

“There are cameras everywhere on the property. Probably DNA around here and on your body. That’s why-”

“No cops, Pax!” She pushes away from me and climbs to her feet. “I don’t want to talk about this or think about this anymore. I just wanna go home.”

For just the briefest moment, I’m suspicious about why she’s so adamant about not calling the cops, but then immediately feel guilty for that suspicion. She’s allowed to deal with this any way she wants. I’m just glad I got here before things went any further.

I bang on Holden’s door, hard enough to make the pictures hanging on the walls in the hallway rattle. Finn opens it, face devoid of all emotion. “What?”

“What the fuck did you do?”

“I do a lot of shit, Pax. Can you be a little more specific?”

“Don’t play games with me, Finn. I found Eloise.”

“Found her? Don’t you mean stole her?”

“I mean, I found her bound and gagged, tied to a tree with two prospects hovering over her.”

He smiles at me good-naturedly. “Sounds kinky. You finally got her to try some new shit? Good job. You’re clearly a better man for her than I was. I couldn’t even get a hand job in the car.”

Finn’s fucking with me. I know he’s intentionally pushing my buttons, but I can’t seem to disengage from the conversation. “How fucking psychotic are you, to tie my companion up and arrange for her to be raped and tortured?”

The smirk slips. “How fucking psychotic is your companion to arrange to have another woman raped and tortured for the second time in a year?” He opens the door wider. “How fucking idiotic are you to come here accusing me? Taking her side. Again.”

Taking a threatening step towards me, he asks, “How fucking whipped are you that you believe her fake ass tears, instead of investigating what happened on your own?” His knife is out, but right now it’s still encased in its housing. “She wasn’t in any danger, Pax. Who do you think sent you the pin drop of her location? Why was Tweedledee and Tweedledum still there cracking jokes about what they were planning to do, instead of putting their mediocre dicks inside of her?”

“What?” I rasp out the question even though I heard what he said. He’s admitting that he set this up. He’s the one who planned this.

“I might hate Eloise, and wish a thousand fire ants would crawl up her useless cunt and eat her from the inside out, but I would never sit by and let anyone rape her.”

“You don’t know that nothing happened before you got there, Finn!”

Holden appears in the doorway, his expression matches Finn’s. “ I know, nothing happened, because I’m the one who tied her to the tree.”

I stare in horror at Holden. I don’t even know either of these guys standing in front of me. “Why? What did she do to you?”

“To me?” He laughs like I’m the one who disgusts him. “Nothing.”

“Fine. Then tell me why you lured those guys there, pretending she was Thea.”

Holden says, “You’re still so caught up in your head that you can’t see. Your ears are so closed, you can’t hear. Finn offered you a clue. He told you that you’re asking the wrong questions. But I guess you’re just happy to bask in your ignorance, like always.”

Finn’s got that murderous glint in his eyes. I want to punch him, but I take a moment to think of what he said. What words he used. Somewhere in his little rant was a clue. “It wasn’t a throwaway comment about their plan. They swore it wasn’t Eloise tied to the tree, and they ran the minute I took off the pillowcase. That was supposed to be Thea.”

He taps my cheek with his knife. “Gold star. Now go back over every other question you asked and everything else you did tonight, and tell me, would you be at someone else’s door demanding answers and justice for Thea?” His head tilts to the side. “Cause I can assure you, if it had been her, no one would have gotten there in time to save her. No one would have seen a thing. Just like they didn’t see shit on Mayhem Night, even though we know someone was there recording everything.”

I shake my head, still not wanting to believe this. Not because I think it’s impossible, but because this shouldn’t have happened. Not in the middle of a challenge. “The two of you can’t just go around-”

Finn cuts me off. “Yes, the fuck we can! We can and we will . For everything Eloise has done or tries to do to Thea, I will make sure she gets a taste of her own medicine.”

Holden tosses a thumb drive at me. “Here’s a little something to give you context about tonight.” He says before going back inside.

Finn follows him. Before closing the door, he says, “This chasm between us. Us being on opposite sides of everything. It doesn’t have to be this way, Pax. All you have to do is pick the right side.”

“Yours and Holden’s.”

He looks at me as if the idea is the stupidest thing in the world. “The right side is any side that doesn’t include you blindly supporting Eloise, or anyone else that puts Thea in danger.”

The door slams in my face and I’m left standing in the hallway, trying to work out how things keep getting more and more fucked up between us.

I head to the garage with one thing on my mind. Speed. There’s a note sitting on the driver’s seat of my car. The door was locked, the alarm set, and yet someone was in my car. Thea? I frown at the note, which is the same as the text message I’ve been getting for the last few weeks.

38195

Reality is an illusion. That keeps us in chains. How far will you go? What are you willing to risk? For freedom and truth