Chapter 14 Harper #2
While she’s looking down at me in horror, I make my move.
I grab the wrist holding the scalpel and thrust it up.
Her eyes are wide and blink down at me. The hand holding the scalpel lets go as she falls over to the side onto her back next to me, the scalpel sticking out of her neck as blood flows into a pool on the floor beneath her.
She looks up at me, and I grin down at her.
“Who means nothing now?” I ask her, tilting my head to the side.
Vin gets to us first, and Ivy looks relieved for a moment.
“Are you okay?” he asks, crouching down in front of me.
Ivy’s soul crumbles when he doesn’t even acknowledge her where she’s lying on the ground beside him.
“What is wrong with you?! She could have taken your eye out. You’re a fucking mess.” He glares down at Ivy. Her eyes widen. “If she wasn’t already practically dead, I would shoot her. I won’t take away your first kill, though.”
I watch as Ivy goes completely limp. The life drains from her eyes, and I find that I’m happy to watch her die after coming to the realization that she would never have what she believed she was owed. If I wasn’t tied to this damn chair, I would kick her lifeless corpse.
I huff, pulling at my restraints. “She’s not my first.” I’m not sure why I admit that. Maybe it’s the multiple hits I took to the head or the adrenaline that’s just now leaving my body in mass exodus.
He gapes at me. “What?!”
I point at the dead guy lying on the ground. “Do you want me to believe that’s the first person Nic’s ever murdered? Let’s not be naive now. You kidnapped me and threatened to put me in a barrel of acid. Wouldn’t you think someone normal would get a little squeamish about that?”
His mouth hangs open. I narrow my eyes and gesture to my tied legs and other arm.
“Anyone planning to help me out of this?”
Nic rushes to me. He pats his pockets, then looks to Vin. “Do you have a knife?”
I nod my head backward. “There’s a whole tr—” Vin reaches over and yanks the scalpel out of Ivy’s neck and hands it to Nic. “I guess that works too.”
Nic carefully cuts the rope. It would have been a lot easier for him with a bigger knife, but beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.
“What the fuck did she do to you?” Vin asks as I lift my shirt to check the bruises forming on my stomach.
I look up at him and frown. “She beat the shit out of me. I did antagonize her to the point she couldn’t think straight. Figured it would be better than her using those.” I point at the tray of torture tools.
Vin curses, cupping my cheek. I wince from the bruise that’s probably going to show up there in the next few minutes.
“Tell me everything that happened.”
So, I do. Once Nic gets me untied, he picks me up and carries me out to the car.
They both get into the back seat, and Vin’s driver pulls away from the creepy warehouse I was being kept in.
I tell them everything that happened on the drive back to the hospital.
Vin looks beyond pissed, and I can’t fault him for that.
When he looks directly at me, his eyes soften.
“You were smart. I don’t think you were wrong either. She would have just killed you quicker if you tried to downplay our connection. I hate that you got hurt so badly, but I am glad you’re still alive.”
I grin up at him. “Me too. I’ve just realized that I’ve got something worth fighting for.”
Now he’s the one blushing. I smile at him, then look up at Nic still holding me in his lap.
“I knew you guys would come for me. I just had to make sure I stayed alive long enough to see you guys again.”
My eyes droop, and I feel unconsciousness trying to drag me down.
My shoulder is shaken, and I whimper. My eyes peek open to find Vin looking down at me with worry lines etched across his face.
“Don’t fall asleep. You need to stay awake until we get to the hospital.”
I frown. “I’m so tired, though.”
Vin’s brows pinch together. “I know, baby, but you have to stay awake for us. Tell us about the first person you killed.”
I give him a small, tired smile. “My dad. He was a mean drunk, and my mom refused to leave him. He would beat the shit out of both of us. One night it got so bad. He’d been so drunk he shoved my mom into the mirror in their bedroom.
I heard the crash from my room. My mom was crying, and I ran in there.
I was tired of hearing her pleading for him to stop.
Inside the room, I found him hitting her while she cowered in a pool of broken glass on the floor.
I ran to my mom, even put myself between them.
He just backhanded me out of the way. I was scared he was going to kill her, then I would be stuck with just him.
I didn’t really think beyond wanting him to stop.
Next thing I know, he’s lying on the floor in the fetal position while I stabbed him with a broken shard of glass.
I was only twelve. My mom was never the same after that. ”
Vin’s fingers run through my hair. “You were so brave to step in to help your mom like that.”
A tear tracks down my cheek. “She hates me for it. Everything was my fault after that, and now she’s too fucking broken that she can’t even exist outside of a mental hospital.”
Nic’s head leans against the top of mine. “Just because your mother was weak doesn’t mean that you are.”
I find that comforting. I crowd closer to Nic to absorb some more of his warmth. My eyes find Vin’s again, and I realize something horrible and then feel awful for just now thinking about it. I hadn’t considered the consequences for what I did.
“Ava. I just killed her mom. She’s going to be devastated!”
Vin’s lips roll in, and it looks like he wants to disagree with me, but we both know that it’s true.
“She’ll be sad, but I’m sure she will understand, especially after she sees you.
Ava is a smart girl. I’m sure she won’t be upset at you about it.
She also understands how things work in our line of business.
She knows how her mother is and that she was being given more than one second chance for her benefit. ”
I frown at that. I never got the impression that Ivy was a bad parent to Ava.
Sure, she was an awful person, but that doesn’t mean that Ava won’t mourn the memory of a mother who truly loved her.
Thankfully, I don’t have to think about it any longer as the car stops in front of the emergency room doors.
Nic gets out, still carrying me, though this time he’s practically running through the doors.
“She needs help! I need a doctor!”
Dr. Martin comes running with a few nurses.
One of them pushes a gurney that Nic carefully lays me on.
He starts rattling off tests and scans that I need to make sure there’s no internal bleeding or lasting head trauma.
Though head trauma would explain these new feelings I’ve developed for my two kidnappers.
If I force myself to be honest, I would have to admit that I had been developing these feelings since the moment I met them.
Somehow, they just slipped through my defenses. I was always taught to never trust a man, but I found myself trusting these men with my life. I trusted that they would come for me, and they did. My chest aches as I’m rolled away from them. From the men I’ve fallen in love with.