The Heir She Loved (Shadows of Sin #4)

13 Olivia

July 5th, 2022

I inhaled sharply, cold water flooding over me, causing my body to jerk and shiver violently.

I shook my head, going to quickly wipe the water from my face only to freeze when I found them pinned down, my fingers filled with pins and needles.

I blinked, flexing my fingers, trying to focus, to think, my mind working far too slowly.

My instinct reaction was ‘Everett’, but it couldn’t have been him. I had been taken. The next thought that hit me shook me right to my core; they had no idea where I was.

Bu they would. I had to believe that. I had to hold onto that thought. Everett would come, and these people, the Delepski’s, they would regret ever having touched me at all.

So, before I did anything else, I closed my eyes and released a slow breath, trying to calm my heart, to calm my mind. I couldn’t let my panic control this situation. I had already messed up once not paying enough attention to that conversation with Everett days ago. I wouldn’t make another one.

After a few seconds, I finally lifted my head, my eyes opening, quickly taking in the surroundings before they landed on the woman standing in front of me.

I cataloged everything I saw while watching her carefully. Small dark room, no bigger than my bathroom, walls made of earth, damp, ceiling made of cracking concrete, a single flickering yellow bulb hanging from a black wire in the center of the ceiling. One wooden door, rusty hinges. Easy to kick in once he got here, and while she wouldn’t be the first person who died when they showed up, I would make sure she got the worst side of him.

I sat back in the chair, praying I came across as cold and unforgiving as I had to Everett that very first day he had taken me.

“It’s pathetic because I can see you crumbling. A woman who looked me in the eye while her thigh was on fire, waiting for me to flinch first.”

So that’s what I would do. I would make her flinch first. It was all I had aside from my Claim.

She lifted her chin, her red hair braided back, her light green eyes reflecting the yellow light with a challenging fire. “Not a single question?”

I remained quiet. I wouldn’t give her an inch, not one. I’d be good. I would stay silent, bide my time, and I would show Everett, show myself, how strong I really was.

I would not crumble.

This game Everett liked so much was now mine. My chessboard, my pieces, my game to win.

She dropped her hands to her side and frowned. “That’s irritating.”

She inhaled deeply. “Well, daddy always says to give them a little hope, so you should know that we left Baily at the park. She should be back with her precious little mother soon enough.”

Relief flooded through me, but I didn’t allow her to see the hope, irritation, or guilt that followed.

Baily was safe, that was good, but I hated that I felt irritated that all it took was them getting their hands on me to get her back. I shouldn’t have felt that way. Did that make me a bad mom? That feeling?

No, it didn’t matter now. She was safe, and I was relieved she was safe. She was so young, there was plenty of time for her to work through this if it was something she even remembered getting older. She would be okay. She was alive.

The woman sighed and slowly made her way around the room. “Since you’re fucking him, I assume you know who we are.”

A Delepski. They wanted to use me to hurt him, to hurt his family. Our family.

But they had already hurt mine. Destroyed it. Lucy was my family. Mine. And she took her from me, not only that, but I was Everett’s, and I had rules to follow. So, I didn’t care what they wanted, what they thought I could give them, I would much sooner die than give them anything. A sentence, a word, a single fucking letter. They would get nothing from me. Nothing at all.

She walked up behind me. I could feel her presence like I had felt Steven’s. Cold and unforgiving, ready to hurt me if I even dared breathe in his presence.

I stared at the wall across from me, shivering from the cold air, my clothes soaked. I had no shoes, my thigh strap was gone, which meant they had seen the still healing tattoo as well. The ‘E’ that branded me as someone else’s.

I prayed that whatever they did, it wouldn’t cause any lasting damage. That, at the very least, my tattoo would still look okay if I even survived this at all.

I heard something scrape against the floor as she picked it up. “Well, first things first. You won’t be needing this anymore.”

I worked my jaw, feeling the tears burn the back of my throat as she shoved my hair over my shoulder, the collar moving ever so slightly.

Joke’s on her, there was no way she could get it off. I had tried. For days and days, I had tried, but nothing cut thro—

A snap met my ears, and the collar loosened.

My eyes widened, burning with tears as she pulled it from my neck.

It was just a symbol. It could be replaced.

It was just a symbol, I chanted in my head.

It could be replaced.

She walked back in front of me, a pair of snips in one hand, my collar in the other, a smile stretching across her face. “Daddy dearest will be in to join you soon,”

she hummed before she finally headed for the door, spinning the collar in one hand while the snips remained gripped in the other.

Snips? I had never considered snips!

I watched after her until I heard a lock slide into place on the other side. I felt unbelievably naked without anything around my neck. Like I was missing a vital piece of who I was now, but I couldn’t think about it.

I sniffed, forcing the tears to stay back, shaking my head, trying to focus.

I had to focus, find anything to tell Everett and Evelyn when one of them called. Because they would call, I knew they would. I looked around the room again, trying to keep the tears back, trying to focus. No cameras, no microphones, unless they had something in the light bulb or something hiding in the cracks on the walls. There was nothing at all to worry about.

Thank God there was that.

I pushed my toes into the dirt. Hard and compact. Some sort of basement or cellar. I was definitely underground. Below a house, maybe.

I inhaled deeply. It smelled of mold and mildew, and the water she had dumped on me wasn’t soaking into the ground, or if it was, it was doing it very slowly. Too slow.

I swallowed, another shiver falling through me. The silence in this place was deafening. I couldn’t hear anything. Not one thing. Not the wind or any cars or the rustle of trees, there was nothing.

It was as if I were completely alone down here. Absolutely and utterly alone.

I closed my eyes, focusing, trying to find at least one sound in this deafening silence to focus on, but there was nothing.

The panic started growing in the pit of my stomach, my breathing picking up no matter how hard I tried to swallow it down. I couldn’t be alone. I wouldn’t survive being al—

A ringing sounded in my ears, soft and beautiful and very much real.

My heart skipped a beat, my face collapsing in relief as I tilted my head to one side, lifting my shoulder until I was able to press it to my ear.

The call connected. “Everett?”

I whispered, staring at that door unblinkingly.

“Hello, pup,”

he hummed, the sound music to my ears. It was a little crackly, as if I were talking to him through a tin can and string, but it was real. He was real.

My eyes filled, the world blurring around me, a sob catching in my throat. I pressed my lips together and shook my head. He sounded so calm and collected, unphased, and why wouldn’t he be? He knew he would find me, I just had to help him a little. I had to do my part so he could do his.

I inhaled sharply and cleared my throat. “Okay, okay, um…I’m in a small damp room, hardpacked dirt all around me, concrete ceiling, one light, old, really old. It’s small, can’t be more than six feet by six feet, tall ceiling though. Maybe ten or 12 feet tall. Wooden door, rusty hinges, smells of mold and mildew, the water isn’t sinking into the soil, I don’t think, and I can’t hear anything. Not a single thing. Oh, but the wall, it looks like it was chipped away at, um…I don’t know, by maybe a pickaxe. It’s hard to tell, they have me in the center of the room, and there are small rocks embedded into it. Gravel, sharp pieces, not like river-rock, but like the rocks you would find digging too deep in the woods. I think I’m under a house or some sort of building.”

He was quiet for three seconds too long.

“Everett,”

I whispered, my voice shaking. “Everett, please. Please don’t—”

“You’re doing good, baby,”

he said in response. “Take this,”

he told someone else. “You said water? What have they done to you?”

I inhaled sharply, tears slipping down my cheeks. Shit, I wasn’t doing a very good job at holding it together. “They killed Lucy,”

I whimpered, shaking my head. “I tried to stop her, but they had already drugged me. They killed my dog, Everett, they killed my dog. I don’t know what I’m going to do without her, they killed my dog.”

The sobs cracked through me no matter how hard I tried to hold it back, it was painful, but not as painful as my shattering heart.

“Lucy’s in surgery, Olivia,”

he said, causing my eyes to widen and my heart to stutter.

I stared unblinkingly at that door, the tears falling down my face. Did he just…“What?”

I asked, every ounce of my attention now focused on his words.

“I found her alive,”

he told me. “It’s touch and go, but she was still fighting hard. You have to tell me what they’ve done to you.”

“Oh my God,”

I breathed out, relief crashing through me in waves. “Are you sure?”

I asked, my voice cracking. “You’re sure she’s alive?”

“I rode with her to our vet’s place. They put her under to keep her from tearing off his arm while he stopped the bleeding. She tore that piece of shit, Wade, to shreds too. What have they done to you?”

I nodded, unable to stop the tears. She was alive. I still had my puppy. “She never really liked him,”

I said, my voice thick with tears. “Um…”

I cleared my throat, trying to focus on what he was asking. “Nothing, nothing—it’s just water. They woke me up. The woman, she cut my collar off. I’m tied to a chair. She said ‘daddy dearest’ will come visit me soon.”

“Liv,”

I heard Evelyn say, her voice like honey under sunlight. “Baby girl, it’s going to start getting hard now.”

I flexed my hands, wincing at the prickles in the tips of my fingers. “It’s okay,”

I tried to tell her.

“They’re going to do everything they can to get information from you—”

“I can take it,”

I said, my eyes lifting back to the door. “I won’t give them anything, I promise.”

“Olivia, I need you to listen to me,”

she said carefully. “These people, this family, they are from Russia. Everything you have written about, everything Steven has done to you, it is not the same. It’s not the same. The Delepski’s are pussies compared to normal Russians, but I promise you, it is not like anything you’ve delt with. On top of that, you are going to have to do some pretty hard things while you wait for us. We need information too. We need descriptions, we need slip ups, we need everything, but you, baby, you cannot let your mind crack. You have to stay strong.”

Russian torture methods. I had looked that up a few times for fresh ideas.

Suffocation.

Water boarding.

Electrocution.

Real terror filled me, my chest hollowing out as my stomach twisted. “You guys are coming for me, right?”

I asked softly.

“Everett gave you his word,”

I heard another male say. Malachi. “You are a part of The Family now, Olivia, we will find you, no amount of money, no amount of manpower, will be too much. We will find you.”

I inhaled sharply and nodded, settling further into my seat. I could do this. I would do it. I would last as long as I needed to for them to find me. I would give it everything I had. “Everett?”

“I gave you my word,”

he said evenly, his voice reminding me of smoke over a graveyard.

I swallowed, wondering how far I could be pushed before I shattered completely. I prayed they would find me before I got to that point. “Please, lie to me. I need you to lie to me.”

He was quiet for several heartbeats before he spoke again. “You are spineless. You are weak. You will not survive this.”

He paused, tears slipping down my face. “I hate you. More than life itself.”

I inhaled deeply, trying to stop the crying. I wouldn’t cry after this. Not one more tear, I couldn’t. “Don’t leave me here. Please.”

“I’m coming for you, Olivia, whatever the cost.”