The Forbidden Secret (Forbidden #2)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Evelina Bianchi

The way into the house would be the same way I snuck out for years. It was a coincidental gap in my father’s guard rotations that made the path almost too easy. Jaimie looked suspicious of the ease, though if I hadn’t used this exact path hundreds of times before, I would have been just as wary.

An easy stroll across the side of the tennis court, a beeline through the shrubs, and straight toward my second-story bedroom window where a tree branch hung low enough to the ground to get proper leverage. Against Jaimie’s warnings, I went first, demonstrating the best way to swing toward the windowsill and push open the always-unlocked window.

When Jaimie effortlessly followed me inside, she gaped down at me. “It’s that easy to break into your father’s house?” she whispered.

“I took the time to grease the windows and memorize the guard routes, so it was easy for me,” I replied with a shrug. “I had to sneak out somehow.”

“You continue to surprise me,” she muttered. “Can I convince you to stay in here while I get Zeke out?”

“Not a chance.”

“Figured as much.” Jaimie handed me a knife and then pulled out one of the four guns attached to her. “Stay behind me, and stay quiet. They can’t know we’re coming.”

My heart pounded with adrenaline as I followed Jaimie’s order. She had already pulled up the blueprints of the house, and we swiftly went through guard placement and the best way to reach the garage. She knew as much as I did, and I followed her through the house, seamlessly avoiding the handful of guards that stood at their usual posts.

It was exactly as I had remembered it.

He didn’t seem to prepare himself at all for the potential of an attack. Allowing him to believe me stupid for so many years had paid off.

As we rounded the hallway toward the attached garage, where I knew we’d find Zeke, I saw two guards outside the door and hesitated. This wasn’t right.

Jaimie didn’t hesitate, though. She stretched her hand out for the knife I was holding.

She then showed me exactly how easy she had gone on me during our self-defense lesson.

She moved like the wind. There was no hesitation or additional thought behind her moves as she took on the two large men, disarmed them, and somehow managed to take the upper hand. They each gave it their all, trying to stop the strange woman from her clear mission to take them out. But neither of them could.

Somehow, in the process of obliterating the two men, Jaimie also managed to keep the fight quiet.

She plunged a knife up through the chest of one of the men and eased him to the floor while dodging a blow from the other.

Once it was one-on-one, there was no hope for the other man, and I could see it in his eyes as he turned toward the garage as if to use his dying breath to warn the people inside.

He didn’t have the chance.

When they were both on the ground, Jaimie turned back to me, and I shook my head slowly. She tilted her head as if to ask, “what’s wrong?”

“Those aren’t my father’s men,” I explained. “I don’t know who they are, but I’ve never seen them before. He could have hired new men, but he never lets new men into the house. He only uses his most trusted ones.”

Jaimie looked between me and the door. “You’re sure he’s inside?”

I nodded. “It was the garage. I know it was.”

Our hushed tones gave me a sense of anxiety. We needed to get in and out quickly and without notice, or we would be trapped here. This was such a big risk that we couldn’t afford to make the wrong choice.

“We’re already here, and we won’t get another opportunity—especially not after taking out the guards. They will boost security, and we won’t get inside again. We better follow through, or he’ll be lost.”

I nodded. “Let’s go,” I replied, though something felt too wrong.

Whatever I was sensing wasn’t good. Whatever was happening inside that room had my stomach roiling. For the first time, as we strolled forward, I wondered if Zeke would still be alive as my father had promised. Or would I walk into the room and find him dead and decaying?

I nearly tripped over one of the guard’s arms as Jaimie grabbed the handle of the door and shoved it open.

It wasn’t my father waiting on the other side of the door.

Six armed guards raised their rifles immediately, pointing them at our chests as we stood in the doorway. Zeke sat in a chair, head hanging before him. But even from here, I could see his shoulders rising and falling.

Despite the guns pointed at us, I felt a sense of undeniable relief.

But when my eyes drifted to the final person in the room—the one standing behind Zeke—something in my stomach sank.

I had never seen the man who purchased me. I had only ever heard his name and learned about how horrible he was. But somehow, I knew deep in my gut that this was the man. This was the one who had turned my life upside down.

I knew.

Zeke raised his head, his eyes piqued from a lack of sleep. But the moment he met my eyes, a mix of devastation and terror filled every inch of his face.

“This is unexpected,” Clide Newton said with a wicked smirk. “Your father was very excited to get his hands on you first. He won’t be pleased.”

“I don’t give a fuck what my father wants.”

He looked excited. “You have fire in you. You’ll be so much fun, Ms. Evelina. Maybe I’ll keep you for myself for a while.” None of the guards moved as their guns remained trained on us. “I didn’t expect to see you again, Jaimie.”

I looked between them, and her lips were drawn in a thin line.

“That was the goal,” she replied, holding her gun upright.

“We’re in a predicament,” Clide said, clicking his tongue. “I can’t let any of you leave this room alive—save for you, little Evelina.”

If I was the only one he wasn’t going to risk killing…

I stepped forward and placed my body in front of Jaimie’s, using myself as a human shield. But I couldn’t do that for Zeke, too. Not from across the garage. It had felt so unnecessarily large my entire life, especially since my father never parked vehicles in it. But with so many people holding weapons in here, the space now felt cramped.

I didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t know how we could possibly get out of this situation.

“I’m not going with you unless you let them go,” I told him.

“You don’t have much of a choice.”

I looked over my shoulder, seeing only one possibility for escape—one narrow possibility that was likely too good to be true. We were only one step from the garage door, and if Jaimie found an advantage somewhere else in the house, maybe we’d stand a chance.

If we stayed here, we would die.

“Go,” I mouthed. She gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

I tried to relay my thoughts through eye movements, glancing toward the door and nodding once. Then, I looked back at Clide.

“You seem to think you have the upper hand here,” I said, showing more bravado than I felt.

Jaimie seemed to connect the dots and realize the same thing as I had. She passed me back the knife as I heard her shoes scuff, and then I felt her presence behind me vanish.

Clide looked entirely unaffected as he released a suffering sigh. He snapped at four of the men. Four. “Go and find her. Dead or alive.”

I saw the way she effortlessly took out two men at once, and as they stormed past me, I prayed she could handle this, too.

Because now, I only had three men to contend with, and none of them wanted to kill me.

They stood between Zeke and me, and though I never would have considered myself a killer, I knew I would do what needed to be done for the sake of Zeke’s life.

“While they handle her—”

I didn’t give him a chance to prepare himself as I lunged.

I held the hilt of Jaimie’s knife tightly as I went for the first guard. I thrust my arm hard toward his throat, partially expecting the man to deflect. But he didn’t. The blade went straight through his neck, lodging in something hard and sending reverberations down my entire arm. He gasped, making a wet noise as he reached for his throat, and I turned to the other man.

I took one step before Clide shouted. “Stop, or he fucking dies.”

I had never frozen in place so quickly.

His guard took the opportunity to wrap an arm around both of my arms and hug me to his chest. I didn’t even dare to thrash as I met Zeke’s eyes. I could see the resolve and love there. I could see so many things that reminded me why I was here. I was here to get him out, and the position we found ourselves in was an opportunity.

I was in a room with Clide Newton, holding a knife, and I could make a difference here.

I could end all of this if I played my cards right.

But how?

“If anything happens to him, I will never follow you willingly. I will run and fight. I have nothing else to lose, and I don’t care if you kill me. Do you really want to waste all that money on someone who won’t cooperate?”

He looked between me and then the empty doorway.

It seemed that he was just now recalling that he sent most of his guards to hunt a woman who was, for all intents and purposes, a predator herself.

He realized that once she took out his guards, he would be defenseless.

His expression soured. “Fine, we’ll leave him if you give yourself up and drop the fucking knife.”

I nodded slowly, hesitating before I dropped the knife. He could live. He would be there for Beatrice as she deserved, and she would be cared for and safe. She would finally have someone in her corner, even if it wasn’t me. Zeke would finally have a relationship that meant something.

And the price was me.

Maybe Jaimie had been on to something with the self-sacrificing bullshit. But I saw no alternative. If he killed Zeke, I would be in the same position.

I took a deep breath as I stepped toward him. “If you don’t—”

He was fast as he rushed forward and grabbed my arm. His grip was bruising as he raised a hand and slapped me across the face. My ears rang with the force of the blow, loud enough that I couldn’t make out the words that Zeke shouted from where he had been tied in the center of the room.

“You have no bargaining power here,” he snarled down at me, the cool facade of this powerful man giving way to a rage that I had caused with all my time of running. “Especially after you forced me to use so many resources to find you.”

He dragged me backward toward the garage door, and I stumbled along with him, barely able to keep my feet under myself as his guard pulled me along, too.

“I’ll fucking kill you, bastard,” Zeke shouted. “If you take her, you are signing your own fucking death warrant.”

I spared only one small glance back at him. He frantically fought the bindings, cursing and doing everything in his power to get free. We both knew the odds. Once I was gone, there would be no returning. If Clide Newton finally got me, I would be hidden so deeply that nobody would stand a chance of hearing from me again.

Maybe once we got out of this room and away from Zeke, I could do something…

“You’ll kill me?” Clide asked, pausing for just a moment as he looked at Zeke.

I didn’t expect the hit.

I dropped as his fist collided with my face, and then a booted foot kicked me in the stomach hard enough that air flew from my lungs. I coughed as Clide laughed.

“I can do whatever I want to this bitch.”

I sobbed through the throbbing in my face and stomach, and even as he jerked my arm to pull me upright, I couldn’t bring myself to stand. Not without a shooting pain that sent me cowering.

“No, you can’t,” Jaimie said.

The guard raised his gun, and I didn’t give myself a moment to consider. Not even one. I hurled my body into him, forcing myself to ignore the pain of his body colliding with mine as I broke from Clide’s grip and sent the guard off balance.

I stayed on top of him, refusing to allow him access to the gun that clattered to the ground. I kicked it away with one last burst of resilience before the guard shoved me off him and into the wall.

I closed my eyes as pain ripped through me. All of my decisions and choices came to an apex as I heard Jaimie fighting behind me, grunting and moving swiftly enough that I knew she would stand a chance. I didn’t want to move, but Clide was still armed, and she had already exerted herself too much by taking down half a dozen other men.

I forced myself to turn onto my back and look over at where Jaimie fought.

I glanced past her at Zeke. He stood no chance of getting free, even as he thrashed relentlessly. Even as he looked at where I lay on the ground, shouting for me to hold on. I didn’t know why he was acting like I was dying. I imagined I had a broken rib, maybe two. I knew my face would bruise.

But as I coughed and splatters of blood came from my lips, I knew it was far more serious than that, and somehow Zeke had sensed it.

Jaimie cried out and hunched over in time for Clide to send a powerful punch into her gut. The guard had fallen, a blade through his heart. But Jaimie was losing steam. She didn’t seem capable of continuing, though she still tried. I opened my mouth to say something, but there was nothing I could do. I could hardly move, let alone help.

My eyes drifted around the room, looking for anything that would allow me to make a last stand.

The guard’s gun sat a few inches from my fingertips.

I ground my teeth as I dragged myself forward and grabbed the cool metal.

Clide reached for his own gun as Jaimie fought to stand up. He aimed it and pulled back the hammer.

I wouldn’t let this happen.

I couldn’t let it happen.

I lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.

The shot echoed through the whole house, no doubt alerting all the guards outside, but I didn’t care as I watched Clide Newton clutch his chest and look at me. He lifted his gun again, rage in his eyes.

I fired again, and this time, he fell backward.

“We need to go,” Jaimie chanted as she limped toward Zeke and quickly untied the knots.

He didn’t have the ropes fully off his wrists before rushing to me and lifting me into his arms. He buried his face into my hair and took a long breath. “You’re going to be okay,” he promised.

However, with every step, I felt myself fading. I buried my face against his chest to stifle the scream as they brought me out of the garage and headed for the window where we had snuck inside.

We didn’t make it there before I lost consciousness.