Chapter 51 Kashton
FIFTY-ONE
KASHTON
She just got her assignment. I can tell by the way her entire body stiffens while she clutches her cell.
One text has changed her night.
I exit the motel room, needing to grab my bag from the car. I came prepared to drag her back to Carnage. Now I’ll use it for a different reason. When I walk back into the room, she’s sitting on the bench lacing up her boots. I can see her hands shaking trying to thread it.
“I got a text,” she informs me.
I drop my bag onto the bed, and she looks over her shoulder before her eyes snap back to mine. Walking over to her, I squat and start lacing them for her. “Me too.” I actually received two. But who’s counting? I look up at her as I tie the laces and start on the next one.
She sighs, running her free hand through her messy ponytail nervously. “What now?”
“I do what I have to do,” I answer, and she swallows, knowing what I mean by that. I’m not letting her go, and if the Lords think otherwise, then they can go fuck themselves. When I finish lacing the other, I stand and take her hands, forcing her to her feet. “I’m sorry.”
Biting her bottom lip, she averts her eyes to my T-shirt. “None of this is your fault.”
She thinks I mean her past, but I’m referring to her future. “I’m going to make you hate me.”
Her eyes meet mine, and she gives me a sad smile. “I could never hate you, Kashton. I was just…frustrated.”
She’s referring to what I’ve done to her the past week. The therapist, having her restrained and sedated. She has to know that I can do much worse to her than that. “I’m going to break you, Eve,” I admit. “You understand that, right? What the Lords want me to do to you?”
Slowly, she nods.
Bill and Sin told me this would happen, and I told them she could take it. After everything I know now, I’m not so sure she can, but there’s no stopping it.
Her pretty green eyes scan the room, unable to meet mine. “I trust you, Kashton,” she whispers.
“I love you.” Leaning forward, I gently kiss her forehead. Pulling away, I walk over to her purse and remove her car keys. Putting them in my pocket, I pick up her cell that was next to her on the bench. “I’ll give you a sixty-second head start.”
She tilts her head to the side in confusion.
“Run.”
She rushes out the door, and I remove my pack of cigarettes and Zippo and sit on the end of the bed.
I use her phone to dial up a number, lighting a cigarette while I wait for him to answer.
“Hello?” comes a familiar voice.
“It’s Kash,” I state since he won’t recognize this number. “Got a minute?”
“One sec,” he whispers, and I take a drag, letting the nicotine fill my lungs. Usually, it calms me. Right now, it’s not doing shit. “What’s going on, man?”
“You at Carnage?”
“Yeah. Saint and Haidyn are pissed at you. You removed your tracker.”
Yep. Ripped that bitch out the moment I left my brothers after Eve hung up on me.
We were at Dollhouse looking for Evan. Bill thought he might be there.
Saint wasn’t talking and Haidyn was voicing his opinion on how Eve can’t be left alone.
I didn’t remove my tracker because I’m hiding.
It’s because I don’t want to lead Haidyn to Eve.
He’s got this big-brother-needs-to-protect-her complex now.
As much as I am grateful for that, she doesn’t need him.
She needs me. Especially now that I got her assignment.
Haidyn would never allow me to do what I’m about to do to her.
“What do you need?” Sin asks at my silence.
“I received Eve’s assignment for her initiation. I’m going to send you a list of things and an address.”
“When do you need it by?”
“An hour,” I say, swiping to her messaging app to type out the things in a text before pressing Send, shooting it his way. “Sent.” Then I delete it so she can’t go back to read it later.
After a second, he hisses. “Goddammit.” He just read my message. Then he clears his throat. “I’ll meet you there.”
“This stays between us.” I feel the need to say it out loud. Maybe for my own sanity because what I’m about to do is insane. I don’t want to hurt her, but in order to keep her, I’ll do whatever the Lords want.
“Of course.”
He hangs up and I take one last drag before I stand and check my watch.
Times up, angel.
EVERETT
I’m running, knowing he’s behind me. He took my keys, so my car was out of the question. He wants me on foot, adrenaline pumping and exhausted. Less work for him to do if I’m too worn out to struggle.
It’s dark out, and I’m having a hard time seeing where I’m going.
It’s slowing me down. The moment I ran out of the motel, I darted for the woods behind it.
The fucker will have to carry me kicking and screaming back to his car.
I ditched my leather jacket, but at least I didn’t wear heels tonight.
It wasn’t about looking sexy for the job.
It was about comfort. I wasn’t going to play with my food.
I was supposed to be in and out. No hiccups. Boy, was I wrong.
My leg isn’t completely healed, but it was doing better. It’s on fire now, and I keep feeling it to make sure I haven’t ripped my stitches open and am bleeding.
The text was one word—Dollhouse.
Last I heard, it’s no longer in operation. Not since Isabella was locked up in Carnage.
Why there?
What do they want him to do?
“I’m going to break you, Eve.”
He was so confident, and I have no doubt he’ll do whatever he has to do. He’s already proven that to me. But can I do the same?
I don’t want to let him down.
“You can do it,” I tell myself. He believes in me. I just have to believe in myself. This proves that he still wants me, right? I have to try for him. For us.
I come to a stop; my legs are Jell-O, and my heart is racing. I can’t breathe. Falling onto my ass, I push my back into the tree and cover my mouth with my hand. Who knows how close he is.
I’m not sure why we’re even playing this game. Why did he allow me to run? Is this another one of his fucked-up versions of hide-and-seek? We haven’t played it other than that one time.
He said he got a text too. Maybe his was different than mine? More instructions?
Or maybe he just wants me turned on. Kashton knows the chase excites me. Fuck, I’m wet right now—and my underwear isn’t just soaked from his cum leaking out of my pussy.
But I’m not going to make it easy on him. If he wants me, he’ll have to work for it.
I get to my shaking legs, bend over with my hands on my knees, and try to calm my breathing before I take off again. I can keep this up all night.
The sound of twigs breaking has me standing up and flipping my loosened ponytail out of my face.
It comes again on my right, and I turn to look to see if he’s there, but nothing.
I turn and step forward to run in the opposite direction when I hit something hard.
I yelp in surprise and look up into a set of familiar eyes.
Even in the dark night, they glow a light blue.
“Caught you, angel,” Kashton says.
I expect him to be smirking or laughing like the usual game we play, but he’s not this time. Instead, his pretty eyes are void of any playfulness.
I swallow nervously. My fear is rising by the second.
I’m terrified. Not of Kashton, but the possibility that he won’t love me after this.
What if he tosses me to the side, and I’m all alone and broken?
What if this does me in, steals what little sanity I’m hanging on to, and throws me over the edge?
How many times can I go crazy before he no longer cares?
How far can I go before I can’t return to me?
It took years to feel alive again. I may never be able to get back to this.
“I changed my mind,” I rush out. How long will they keep me there? Another year? I won’t survive again.
“It’s too late for that, Eve.”
“No.” I shake my head, taking a step back. “We don’t need the Lords to control what we do.”
He says nothing.
“We can be together, Kash. It’s what we’ve been doing.” Fuck the Lords and their bullshit rules. “We don’t need their permission,” I snap.
“It’ll all be over soon,” he promises. It’s the first time I don’t believe him.
“I’m scared,” I admit, wrapping my arms around myself. I don’t like to be vulnerable, but I can’t lie to him like he is to me.
“That’s the point.” He reaches into the pocket of his hoodie. “They want me to put you through hell. And I’m going to make sure I deliver.”
A shiver runs down my spine at his confession. “I won’t go back there.” Tears sting my eyes.
Last time I was forced. No one would go willingly. They’d have to be insane.
“Sometimes you have to hurt the one you love. It’s for your own good, angel. You’ll see.”
I spin around to run, but his hand slaps over my mouth from behind and yanks me back to the front of his body. I try to scream, but it’s useless. I feel a poke in my neck and my eyes get heavy, my hands falling to my sides.
Please…no.
When my knees give out, he picks me up, and my eyes fall closed as he carries me back toward the motel.