Psycho (The Line Walkers #2)

28. Chapter 28 – Olivia

Chapter 28 – Olivia

G od, it was fucking cold. My teeth chattered; the jarring noise echoing off the brick walls around me. I didn’t have many details about where I was, or even what type of room I was in, thanks to the pitch blackness surrounding me. But I knew it was fucking cold.

I sat on the floor, leaning against the wall that I thought was farthest from the door I had been thrown through, but the same familiar cold seeped through my clothes and into my bones. Flashbacks of the last time Damon Kirst had me in captivity assaulted me nonstop since he threw me in the room and locked the door behind him.

When Damon had picked me up off the ground and dragged me to a waiting van, I fought him with everything I had. One arm was useless, the sickening grind of my dislocated shoulder echoing in my ears every time I moved it, along with the sting of other, hopefully minor injuries. He easily overpowered me, and the screech of tires was the last thing I heard as he sped away. The only slight relief I had from the mental and physical torment of pain rushing through my mind and body was when my baby would move or kick like normal, reassuring me that it was still with me.

The crash had been so violent that when I felt the baby move for the first time after, I silently cried in relief.

I screamed for Peyton so loud as they dragged me away, my vocal cords ached and burned with each breath, and the only noise that would still come out sounded like a dying cat.

I had no idea if my sister was alive. All I knew was she had been covered with blood, pinned and trapped in the car when I was dragged away from her as we both screamed each other’s names.

The longer that time passed in the blinding darkness, the more I worried I’d never see her again. I would accept any punishment Damon, or his rich associates planned for me if her death was my fault. I’d deserve it.

She didn’t deserve to get wrapped up in my shit like that. I should have just stayed home like a good girl; like Maddox had wanted me to.

Maddox.

God, even thinking about him made my chest ache and eyes burn with tears I couldn’t hold back.

If Damon won this whole thing, Maddox’s soul wouldn’t survive the fallout. In his revenge, he would shatter Hell’s crust and be lost forever.

A loud, jarring noise from somewhere else in the building made every nerve in my body convulse like I was being electrocuted by fear alone. Minutes later, the door opposite of me opened and a blinding light mixed with the blinding darkness, burning my eyes as shadows crossed through the opening.

I cowered away. Again. I didn’t care; I was woman enough to admit that I feared what was to come. Damon’s cruel voice echoed from behind my scrunched eyelids across the room. “I know she ain’t much to look at, but she’s smart as fuck.”

“Hmm.” Another voice hummed from the other side of the room, and I dared to crack my eyelids open enough to catch the spark of a lighter as the second man lit a cigarette. I forced myself to sit up taller as the other man sucked on the cigarette, illuminating the outline of a chiseled jawline and dark eyebrows, but nothing else thanks to the poor lighting. “A lot of trouble you’ve caused.”

His accent was British, and a chill ran down my spine when I figured out who he was.

The Duke.

Damon’s money man.

The man that Maddox and Dane had been hunting for months along with his snively counterpart.

“Wasn’t exactly my choice to be troublesome.” I stated, hoping that maybe the man would show some of the decency he apparently showed the women from the Velvet Cage when he visited. I shifted on the floor, wrapping my good arm further around myself and my belly as they both stood over me.

“You’re pregnant?” The Duke asked, taking another long drag off his cigarette, billowing smoke out around him.

I tried but failed to keep my eyes from flicking over to the monster standing to his right before answering. “Another thing that wasn’t exactly my choice.”

My eyes finally adjusted to the two different amounts of light in the room, and I could make out some more of his features as he stood there smoking.

The first thing that I noticed, aside from his marble cut jawline, was how tall he was. Like God himself would have had to look up at the man because of how tall he was. The next was the expensive cut of his suit, even if the smell of the cigarette told me they weren’t some cheap American brand that my grandmother used to smoke at family dinners.

The longer I dared to stare at him, the more I felt he was staring at me through the darkness while Damon paced and kicked the toe of his shoe into the concrete like he was bored.

“Are you hurt?” The Duke asked after a while and I subconsciously rubbed my hand down my jeans again, over the stains of Peyton’s blood, making me shiver in regret.

“My sister’s.” I whispered, forcing my eyes back up to him, still hoping and praying he was merciful. “My shoulder is dislocated.”

The man looked over in Damon’s direction and then back at me. “Did you call a doctor?”

Damon scoffed and flicked his wrist at me dismissively, “She’s fine.”

The Duke flicked his cigarette directly at Damon’s face and leaned off the wall, “She needs her arm in working order if she’s going to use her particular skills to fix your enormous mistakes.”

Brushing the ashes off his cheap suit jacket, Damon looked over at me and I shrunk back into the concrete again, shivering.

“Get her into a proper room.” The Duke said, walking toward the door, “And if there isn’t a doctor here to treat her arm before I light my next cigarette, I’ll break your arm to match hers.” With that, he walked out of the room and disappeared around the corner, leaving Damon and I alone in the room and I would have preferred to be left alone in darkness and pain than face the man who could help me, but would probably hurt me instead for the fun of it.

“Don’t go anywhere.” He mocked, walking out and slamming the solid steel door shut behind him and locking it.

And once again. I was left with darkness and pain.

But a small smidge of hope dared to bloom in the same shadows from my short interaction with the Duke. Maybe I’d be able to talk myself out of the whole thing if he could be persuaded.

After all, Maddox and Dane were far better to have as allies instead of enemies at the end of the day.