CHAPTER 7
AVA
Opening my eyes was painful and I groaned as I tried to move my head. Why did that feel so hard to do? My head felt like it was made of lead and my neck ached painfully. My vision seemed to clear, and yet all I could see before me was a concrete wall, the light around me dim.
Panic consumed me as I snapped my head up al of the way, ignoring the pain and looked around me frantically.
The walls surrounding me were all concrete and there were no windows in sight.
The space was small, with only one door off to my right.
My hands were bound together at my wrists and pulled above me as I hung from the ceiling by chains.
My body was shivering violently and when I looked down I realized every scrap of my clothing was gone and I was completely naked.
I started to scream as loud as I could fot help, while also shaking the restraints above me, preying they’d come lose.
My brain was a frazzled mess of panic which I tried hard to think straight through.
What the fuck had happened? I remembered being at the club, then fleeing when I found out about Jack and Mace being with the other sub.
I’d run from the club to escape them, and then nothing.
What had happened to me and who had done this?
It took a while for me to force myself to calm down, stop screaming and struggling so I could just breathe. I needed to try and think clearly. Blind panic wasn’t getting me anywhere. I had to think smart and find a way to get free.
Then I heard it. Heavy fpptsteps approaching the door.
Seconds later there was a rattling of what I guessed was it being unlocked, then it swung open, smashing violently into the wall behind and making me startle in fear, but I forced myself to look past the tall figure silhouetted in the light.
I needed to work out where I was, and from what I could see outside the door, it was some kind of underground space, the wall behind who ever stood in the doorway covered with pipes of varying sizes.
That meant I was likely still in the city.
“Who are you? What the fuck do you want?” I snapped as I turned my focus to the man now stepping closer to me.
He was dressed in black jeans and a black, turtle neck sweater, his hands covered with black leather gloves.
He wore some kind of plastic mask over his face.
The whole thing was black and had holes for his eyes and a slit where his mouth was.
My nest guess was it was some kids Halloween mask that this sick fuck had painted black.
His eyes were focused on me as he got closer, but he didn’t speak a word, and my panic ratcheted up as I resumed my attempts to rip my hands free of the ropes above.
“Money? Is that it?” I gasped as I tried to keep my eyes on him as I also moved frantically to get free. “My brother...he’s rich. H-he’ll pay you what you want. Just…you have to just call him.”
He was right before me now, so close I could smell the hint of aniseed on his breath as he spoke, and the strong scent of disinfectant that seemed to be coming from his body. He shook his head at me as he lifted his hand, showing me for the first time what he held in it. A knife.
“HELP!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, my fear so great I thought I might die of a heart attack before this fucker even got his chance to end me himself, my heart pounding that hard.
I froze and remained perfectly still as he trailed the knife down the side of my face, not daring to move an inch for fear he would turn the blade on my skin, instead of the flat he was now outlining my profile with.
“You’re a sinner,” he whispered as he started into my eyes.
His were dark, the irises so dark brown they almost appeared completely black in the darkness surrounding us.
“You must atone,” he told me, his whispered words raspy and almost broken, as though there was a problem with his throat. “And to do that, you must be punished!”
Before I could even react he lunged back a step and slashed the knife he held, deeply across both of my thighs, deep. The pain was unlike anything I had ever known and I screamed in agony as I felt the warmth of blood running down my legs way too fast.
I ripped myself from the nightmare and slammed my eyes open as I gasped deeply for breath. I used to scream a lot when those nightmares hit at first, but over the years that had stopped, though the nightmares hadn’t.
“Ava?” The deep voice startled me and I forced myself to sit up fast, instinctively reaching with my right hand for the gun I always kept at hand.
I cried out when pain shot through my shoulder nd down my arm, and panicked at my inability to reach out enough for my weapon.
“Easy, sweetheart. Don’t move this arm.” Hands gripped my wrist and tried to move it back to my side, and I struggled against it until my eyes looked up and met a pair I recognized.
“Deacon? What the fuck?” I gasped, breathless from the lingering nightmare and the adrenaline that was flooding me from my panic.
“What’s wrong?” I looked up and found Jack coming closer, followed closely by Mason. I turned to the right and saw Colt’s huge desk, reminding me I lay om the sofa in his office.
“She woke up swinging and moved her arm too fast. She’s okay,” Deak explained calmly, his eyes locking with mine as he told them I was okay, trying to reassure me too.
It came back to me then, how I’d gotten there and why my shoulder was throbbing with a sonofabitch. I’d been stabbed by that asshole who had been laid in wait for me to get out of my car.
“The gun,” I gasped as I looked to Mason.
“What gun?” he asked as he came closer and dropped to his haunches before me. Deak placed my hand back onto the sofa at my side, squeezing my hand reassuringly before he rose to his full height and backed up.
“I had a gun. I was so stupid. I should have given it to you, but I forgot about the fucking thing!” I snapped, still irate with myself for ,y stupidity.
I needed to ease up on the vodka and the pain pills so I could think clearly.
If I couldn’t do that then there was no way I’d find my brother. I was such a fuck up.
“Just take a breath love, and maybe lie back down. You lost a lot of blood, so just take it easy, yeah?” Jack suggested as he appeared above Mason and looked to me with concern. I hated that. I hated people pitying me.
“I’m good,” I told him as I pushed my heavy legs from the sofa and swung around so I sat up. A wave of dizziness washed over me but I ushed through it.
“Jack’s right. You need to rest and drink some water,” Mason added as he grabbed my waist, steadying me unnecessarily.
“I said I’m good,” I growled as I slapped at his hands until he released me. “We need to find the guy who stabbed me. He could know where Colt is, or at least who the fuck is chasing him down.”
“Tell me what happened? What the fuck were you doing parking there anyway? It has no lighting. Talk about making it fucking easy for them,” Mason barked at me.
Yeah, he wasn’t wrong and I knew it hadn’t been my best decision, but no way I was admitting to that. Nor was I explaining that I had figured it was a good spot to hide while I drank enough vodka to see me through the evening before I faced him and Jack.
“That bastard jumped me from behind when I got out of my car. He wanted the gun. We scuffled, but he was fast and he got me good in the shoulder. I went down and he got what he wanted.”
“The gun?” Jack questioned and I nodded.
“What gun?” Mason was clearly getting impatient, and was likely pissed about me shoving away his hands when he tried to help me.
“The perp who broke into my place, he dropped his gun before he ran off like a little girl. I grabbed it and bagged it, hoping we’d get prints off it, but I fucking forgot all about it.”
“You forgot?” Mason repeated skeptically.
“It’s my meds. They’re too strong. I find it hard to ficus sometimes,” I admitted.
“And it’s nothing to do with the bottles of vodka you drink at every opportunity?” Mason asked with raised eyebrows. I glared at him hard. “I found the bottle in your car, baby. It was empty. Are you drunk right now?”
“Fuck you!” I hissed.
“We’re not judging you, Ave. You’ve been through a lot, clearly, and you’re still trying to deal with it. We all get that, but turning to drink isn’t the way to handle it and you know it,” Jack intervened.
“Been through a lot?” I scoffed. “You have no idea, Jack, so keep your fucking opinions to yourself!”
“The doc told us, Ava,” Mason said, his tone much more mellow this time, and when I looked to him with horror, I could see he knew. They all fucking knew. “That’s why you left, right? Some psycho attacked you. That’s why Colt got you away so quickly?”
“The doc had no fucking right!” I raged as I forced myself to get to my feet, pushing myself up with my one and only fully functioning limb. My legs were shaky beneath me, but thankfully yht e pain in my back was minimal.
“We know now, love. Might as well just tell us everything,” Jack said softly. Mson was on his feet and hovering close to me, his hands at is side, clearly poised to catch me if he needed to.
“What? Didn’t the doctor tell you all of my fucking business while he was here?” I snapped. I was so angry. That doctor had betrayed me, and broken some oath I was sure. I had never wanted them to know my greatest shame. Not back then, and certainly not now when I was even less of a person.
“It wasn’t his fault. He thought we knew,” Deacon spoke up.
“Why didn’t you just come to us? Why would you keep this from us and run? We loved you Ava. We would have been by your side,” Mason demanded, and I could feel the mix of anger and hurt in his words.
“Loved me?” I laughed dryly as I stumbled to my right and looked around for my stick. I was going to need it to lean on if I was going to make the escape I was desperate to.