Chapter 23
ELENA
“It’s just the yard,” Elena reasoned out loud as she slipped through the French doors of the sunroom out into the bright, cold day.
It was something to do. Somewhere to be other than moldering away on one of the too comfortable chairs indoors. She took a steadying breath and let it out on a grateful sigh as her lungs twinged at the chilled air filling them.
The landscaping was as precise and utilitarian as the house itself, but it was something different. Elena wandered the short walk, fingering the dying leaves of a squat Japanese maple as she passed it.
She’d seen the guards through the windows of the sunroom. Knew they’d report her insolence to her warden, but just then Elena didn’t care as she continued to take deep draughts of the clean air. Just a few minutes was all she needed.
Turning a corner, she spotted a seating arrangement tucked inside a high wall on three sides, the fourth left open on a switch back that allowed passage.
Greenery still clung to life on the dark boards hiding her as she stretched out on the massive chaise.
Letting the thin sun beat down on her, she soaked up the warming rays as the wind played with tendrils of her hair.
She didn’t know how long she’d been there before the scuff of a shoe brought her out of her reverie. Elena didn’t bother to open her eyes. A hint of evergreens came to her on the playful breeze, enveloping her in the scent that wasn’t quite right.
“Just a few more minutes. Please,” she said, turning her face away to hide the furrowing of her brow as his shadow fell over her.
“Oh, Elena, you poor thing. What has he done to you?”
Bolting upright, Elena swung around to see Anthony lounging in the seat opposite her as if this was his home and not Leon’s. He graced her with a smile that held a razored edge, too sharp to be pleasant.
“What are you doing,” Elena hissed, looking around the enclosed space as if the monster was bearing down on her even now. “He’ll kill us both if he finds you here.”
“I couldn’t abandon you to him, sweet girl,” Anthony murmured, rising to come to kneel at Elena’s side. He took up her trembling hands, clasping them almost too tight. “I came back as soon as I heard what he’d done to you.”
“When you left me to him, you mean.” Elena tried to tug her hands free, but it was no use. Anthony kept them captive in his crushing grip. “You have no idea what he’s capable of, Anthony. What he’s already done…”
“I would never have left had I known him capable of this, Elena. You must believe me,” Anthony said, so earnest it softened her, stopped her struggles against him.
“There’s nothing to be done about it now. I’m his.”
“I can help.”
“You can’t undo a mating,” Elena scoffed, shaking her head before glancing around once more.
He’d been here too long, and Leon was due back soon.
He’d said he wouldn’t remain gone long after he returned her to the house once the doctors were done confirming the pregnancy was healthy and normal thus far.
“I can get you out of here,” Anthony said, pulling at her hands until Elena was brought close.
Elena jerked back, blinking hard at the implications of his plans. It was insanity. Pure and simple. It made her heart race, breaths coming hard and fast as she stared at Anthony with wide eyes.
“I can’t…”
“Why not? We can leave right now, and you’ll never have to bend to him again, Elena.”
“Where will I go? I… I’m pregnant, Anthony.”
“All will be well,” he purred, stroking the backs of his fingers against her cheek. “I’ll help you as much as I can. I owe you that much, don’t I?”
“But…” Elena shook her head, at a loss for words even as her wildest imaginings began to unfold right before her eyes. Freedom from Leon, from the constraints of the society that kept her his slave. He’d never make her loathe herself again for her instinctual response to his nearness.
“You can be free, Elena. Forever,” Anthony whispered. “But we must leave now.”
Now. Forever. She could scarce believe that she was considering this. Already vibrating with the frantic energy to be rid of this place and all its misery. To find the delectable sweetness of victory on her tongue when she was far away.
She’d find a way to get in touch with Jamie. He’d help her get as far away as possible. To set up a whole new life where she was independent. Never to find herself under another Alpha again until she chose to.
“Are you absolutely certain this will work?” Elena gnawed at her lower lip, gaze flitting to the obscured opening of the enclosed patio once again, as if Leon would come marching through at any moment.
“I have it all planned.” Anthony stood, bringing Elena along with him. His hand smoothed over her back in a gentle touch, guiding her forward. “Just come with me now.”
“But my things…?”
“We’ll have to replace them once we have you settled, Elena. Now come on. We don’t have time for you to be indecisive. My neck is on the line here, too.”
“I’ll come,” she said, giving a single nod as she let Anthony bring her out around the dark boards and into the sunshine once more.
Anthony kept her between the lush bushes and the screen as he led her further into the backyard, his eyes quick to pick out the guards roaming the grounds.
Holding up a hand to bring her to stillness, Anthony waited until the pair of dark clothed men passed before he caught Elena’s hand and raced her towards another line of shrubbery that hid them away.
There she saw a gate propped open, the lock dangling by a cut end.
He’d broken in for this, come to find her, to help her.
Not once had she thought of Anthony Marchetti as a friend, but she saw now she’d done him a great disservice.
He was a good man, deep down. Even if he did still frighten her a bit as he jerked her forward through the opening, propelling her down a soft hill towards the sleek silver sportscar she remembered from the night at the Talbot.
He jerked the door open, waving Elena inside before slamming it as soon as she was seated.
Elena smothered a startled gasp, uncertain of the frenetic energy coming off of him in heady waves.
She took a deep breath to steady her nerves as he climbed into the car, and she became enveloped in the biting scent of evergreens.
Odd how she never noticed how similar their scents were. Anthony lacked the woodsy, smoky undertones, but one could mistake him and Leon for the same person if they didn’t know any better.
“Hang on,” Anthony said as he started the engine, wheels squealing before they caught and held onto the asphalt, sending them lurching into motion.
“What is this place, Anthony,” Elena whispered, clinging to his arm as they traversed over a pile of debris that threatened to topple her.
The massive, empty warehouse looked as if it’d been abandoned for decades, the weathered corrugated steel rusted straight through leaving it gap toothed and eerie as he guided her through the dark space with nothing but a weak flashlight to part the darkness.
“It’s just temporary, I told you that already,” he snapped, making no effort to keep his voice to the hushed tones Elena felt the place warranted.
“What could possibly be here to help me?”
“It’s a safe place to hide you for now. I promise, all will be well.”
“Anthony, I don’t like it here.” Elena dared to tug on his arm, bringing him to a stop as she looked around at the encroaching shadows. “I… I don’t know about this.”
“You said you wanted out, Elena,” Anthony snarled, grabbing her arm hard and lifting her up to tiptoe as he dragged her after him. “I’m not losing my head just because you’re afraid of a little dirt on your pretty little shoes.”
“That’s not what I said. You’re hurting me!”
“About damned time.”
Elena choked on a gasp as her head swung around to see the owner of this new voice. It was bitter cold, the depths of an icy winter, and its owner smelled of one, too. Though she couldn’t see him in the shifting darkness, Elena knew whose voice that was.
“Mr. Ivanov,” she stammered out, digging in her heels though Anthony continued to drag her the rest of the way into a small space that suddenly became engulfed in brilliant light as a single, bare bulb came to life.
“What is this,” Pyotr Ivanov demanded with a sneer, nostrils flaring as he scented the air. “She’s pregnant, you fool!”
“A small hiccup in the plan, I’ll grant you, but not something so large it can’t be dealt with.” Anthony rolled his shoulders, sending Elena flying towards the opposite wall where she landed hard with a solid thud against the raw wood.
“Do you have any idea what happens to an Omega when you take their child,” Ivanov snarled, cuffing Elena on the side of the head when she attempted to lurch towards the opening serving as a door.
Sent reeling, she collapsed to the filthy floor where a sob grated through her throat.
Something thick and wet trickled down her temple to stain her cheek before slapping wetly against her chest. She’d trusted him, and he’d brought her straight to the evilness that had tried to kill her before.
No, not kill her. Pyotr Ivanov had wanted something from her, and still did, if this chaotic scene was anything to go by.
Things slowly began to click into place, far too late to be of any help to her now.
The car chase. The sudden appearance of Anthony at the hotel, his story of assisting her an excuse for the blood and bruises he’d been sporting. Further still to how dizzy and sick she’d felt after her dinner with Anthony. The scent of evergreens during that awful night.
“It was you,” Elena choked out, curling her legs under her as she wrapped her arms tight around her middle to protect her unborn child from the seething evil surrounding her.
“You should never have run from me,” Pyotr growled, fisting Elena’s hair to wrench her head back. Forcing her to meet his furious blue gaze before he shoved her away with his lip curled in disgust. “She is of no use to me this way.”
Elena couldn’t believe she’d ever thought this man noble in his own way. Rough and handsome. He was a devil in disguise, an evil she’d never understand. He’d wanted to hurt her in ways she couldn’t imagine, and she’d smiled at him. Had looked forward to being his mate!
“You said you wanted her, no matter what. Well, no matter the fact she’s mated and pregnant is the way I see it. You owe me, Ivanov.”
“I will pay you the money we agreed upon,” Pyotr said, seething with a rage that suffocated Elena in the scent of ash and smoke. “But I have no use for her. She is yours to deal with.”
“What the hell do you expect me to do with my brother’s leavings?”
“I do not care.”
“Just take me back,” Elena pleaded, keeping her head bowed as she tried to make herself even smaller where she sat between them. “I swear, I won’t breathe a word of any of this, just please take me back.”
She knew what horrors Anthony had already visited upon her. Couldn’t fathom what he’d do to her now that she had no purpose to the man paying him.
Why had this ever happened to her? She was no one special, nothing important. Tears gathered along her lashes before they fell to stain her cheeks.
“Oh, that isn’t an option, little one,” Pyotr said on a vicious growl.
Gathering up her hair at her nape, he dragged Elena back into his shadow, sprawling her over the floor as he crouched over her.
Giving her a considering look, the frigid blue of his gaze swept over her.
“Perhaps I do have a use for her after all.”
“Whatever, I don’t care what you do with her. Just see to it you get me my money.”
“Da, I shall.”
Elena shook her head within the tight grip of Pyotr’s cruel fist, a sob grinding through her throat as she tried to crawl away from him. Brought back against the hard planks of his thighs, she cried out, nails digging through the refuse littering the floor for some purchase to drag herself away.
All to no avail.