23. Elyse
CHAPTER 23
ELYSE
I ’m so nervous I think I might throw up. There’s all this energy inside of me, and I don’t know what to do with it. I’ve spent the last hour pacing the study under Sebastian's watchful eye. I know why he’s watching me so cautiously. He’s afraid I’ll run. And I won’t lie—the idea is appealing to me right now.
I can't believe I agreed to this: a showdown with my father in what is now my home. Some part of me fears this place will be tainted the second he walks through the door, but the other part recognizes…this is a full-circle moment, filled with inevitability. He brought me here, planning to sell me, to discard me. Sebastian saved me, in the most twisted way imaginable.
And now I get to save myself and baptize this place… my home …anew. Banish every creeping memory of that time, and make it mine for the future I’m going to share with Sebastian.
"If you keep pacing you're going to wear yourself out," Sebastian scolds.
I shoot him a glare. "You aren't here, remember."
He gives me a lazy grin and reaches for my sweater on my next pass. I easily skirt out of reach, but it makes me smile and I guess that was his goal.
Slowly he coils himself back in the chair behind the desk, slumped down and looking very at home. Not like a businessman, but a bad boy waiting for his bad girl. Something I will never be.
I try not to think about that too hard. Not when neither of us are willing to give each other up. The thought settles me a little bit. He loves me as I am despite my enjoyment of following rules and walking on the right side of the hallway.
I check the clock on the mantle of the fireplace. Five minutes past midnight. He's late.
When I face Sebastian he shakes his head gently. "It doesn't mean anything, Little Prey. He might just be running late."
"What if he finds the open gate suspicious? I mean, when we texted him I did say I'd leave it open, and that security was light right now but he’s suspicious of everything. Do you think he suspects it’s a trap?"
Sebastian shoves the chair back and stands, a fluid movement leading to the short, sharp motions of him straightening his shirt cuffs. "No. He thinks we’re dumb, and he underestimates us, which is the worst thing you can do when facing your enemies. Never underestimate the enemy. If I had to guess, I’d say he’s excited to get the money, bring you home, and stick it to me that he won. We're going to show him how very wrong he's been about you, us, and this entire situation."
A knot of fear forms in my throat, but I do my best to swallow around it. I can do this. With his support, and Drew’s and Lee’s and Aries…with all of them behind me I know nothing bad will happen to me. I know they will protect me.
The doorbell rings, and it echoes through the house. I’m a nervous wreck. What if I fail? What if this doesn’t work? I keep pacing, wringing my hands and straining to hear the housekeeper, Carey, open the door. She agreed to stay, open the door, and then make a quick exit through the kitchen, where Lee will ensure she gets off the grounds safely. Not having a servant in Sebastian's home would only draw speculation, and we want to make sure he’s unaware of what is about to take place.
The housekeeper's voice is soft, and their greetings to one another carry into the small space off the main entrance. I’m frozen with fear and worry. Failing is not an option. Today I break free of the shackles my father spent years keeping me chained with. Today the prey becomes the predator.
“You’ve got this.” Sebastian whispers to me as he steps into the closet at the corner of the study. He pulls the door nearly closed, keeping it cracked an inch.
You can do this, Elyse. You’re strong. You’re in control.
My father’s approaching footfalls make me shiver. Memories swirl in my mind, and I have to force myself to stay focused on the study door so I don’t fall inside them. The door to study opens, and my father saunters inside.
No going back now.
The first thing I notice is that he’s in civilian clothes. Probably not a good idea to kidnap a person while in uniform. Though that’s never stopped him from beating me before. I take in his presence. His jeans hug his rounding belly, cutting across his button-down shirt, which is a little too tight. He’s wearing a sports coat hanging open, his hands pressed inside his pockets. "There you are, Ely. Wasn’t the plan to meet at the door so we could make a quick escape?” His gaze scans the office.
I swallow hard, trying to coax a response free of my suddenly super dry mouth. "That was the plan, but then I realized I can't carry the cash. It's too heavy." I wave to the bag we stuffed with a pillow and some weights sitting on the floor.
His gaze gravitates towards it, his eyes lighting up. "I'll take it; no problem."
“Of course. Did you bring the police report?” I move to the side when I ask the question, as Sebastian instructed.
“Here.” With a sneer, my father tosses a flash drive on the desk and steps closer to the bag, essentially trapping himself. As soon as he’s in place, Sebastian slips out of the closet.
His steel voice cuts through the air. "You might want to wait a moment, Sheriff."
My heart clenches inside my chest, and my father freezes in his tracks, his feet planted wide on the floor.
Sebastian is holding his gun on him, and he jerks it slightly so my father will remove his hands from his coat pockets. Surprisingly, he does so, slowly.
He pins me with a disgusted look. "What the hell is this? The plan was for you to be alone."
I shrug, still unable to speak around the lump in my throat.
"What is this? What do you want?" My father demands, turning his attention to Sebastian.
Sebastian comes around the other side of the desk to stand at my side. "It's not what I want. It's what she wants." He tips his head my way.
I gulp again and wrap my arms around my middle. We discussed this in detail. And yet, faced with the realness of the moment, I don't know if I can follow through.
Sebastian's right hand skims down my spine, warmed from the fire. "You've got this."
My father rolls his eyes, relaxing slightly. "Yeah, Ely, you've got this. Just like you've been able to succeed every other time you tried to get away from me. Pathetic. That’s what you are."
He doesn’t think I have the courage to walk away from him. His arrogance does something inside me…solidifies my hesitancy, silences my fears. I might have failed at escaping him in the past, but today I’m rewriting my future. When I reply, my voice is firm.
"You aren't walking out of here with me. Not now, not ever. That part of my life is over. But, you can still walk away. You can take this money, and leave here…all I want is an apology. An acknowledgement of all you've done."
He narrows his eyes and plants his hands on his hips. "Or what? Your boyfriend—sorry, your husband —is going to shoot me? I’m the fucking sheriff, or have you forgotten that?”
“How could we ever forget, with how many times you remind us?”
“Then I'll have to assume you’re stupid, because there is no way in hell you’re going to shoot me and get away with it.”
Sebastian grins and nods. "That’s what you may think. Unfortunately for you, I happen to know a guy who can make a body disappear like it never existed."
My father’s gaze turns to slits. "You wouldn't dare."
Sebastian takes one small step forward, pointing the gun higher. "You should really be talking to her, not me. If I had it my way, I would have shot you the second you stepped foot on my property. A man like you doesn’t deserve the honor of being her father.”
“That’s rich coming from the man who accepted her as payment to settle a debt.” My father counters.
The last thing I need is him and Sebastian getting into a full blown argument. Before Sebastian can respond, I grab his sleeve and give it a tug, then I press myself against his side and stand a little taller. "This isn’t about what Sebastian did. This is about you and me. Do you really think you don’t owe me an apology? For putting me through all the shit you have? For hurting me? Violating my trust? Threatening me? Abusing me? Selling me to your friends to be used and abused? I might have been able to let all those things go if you hadn’t let Yanov hurt me, if you had at least tried to stop him, but you didn’t. You encouraged the abuse, and you let him do whatever he wanted even when I begged you not to.”
My dad...my fucking dad shrugs. He shrugs. "To me, you should be grateful I made sure he didn’t rape you until you were old enough.”
I blink, my heartbeat skyrocketing with his words. "...until I was old enough?" My hurt, my fear, my shame. It all tumbles down the cliff, morphing into something darker, something terrible and sinister.
Moving closer, I snap my teeth at him. "I don’t know why I’m surprised you would say such a fucking thing, but I swear I’ve heard it all now. Until I was old enough to be raped? How old, exactly, does one need to be for rape to be acceptable?”
As usual, my father has no response. He simply stares at both of us like we’re inconveniencing him. I notice then that I’m shaking, this dark anger brewing in my chest, spreading outward into my limbs. "Admit what you did. Admit you sold me to an old man to be used and abused. Admit that you gave me to your friend. That you beat me when I didn't comply. Admit it all, and you can walk away. Because you certainly don’t deserve my mercy, otherwise, since right now I want to shoot you myself."
He chuckles, and the sound turns to an outright guffaw. "That’s hilarious. Ely, you couldn't shoot me if I handed you the gun myself.”
My insides go flat and dull. Is this all he thinks of me? How worthless he sees me? Something breaks open inside me, oozing, wrecking everything good, everything holding out hope that one day he might see me and love me. It was a silly little girl’s dream after everything I've been through, and yet, a tiny part of me had still held onto it. Now, it's burned away in the fire of the rage coursing through me.
I shift on my heel and snatch the gun from Sebastian's hand. He jolts but drops his arm. At least he doesn't think I won't go through with it.
"You're a piece of shit, you know that?" I aim the gun at him.
He only sighs and rolls his eyes. "If you're going to shoot me, get it over with. Otherwise I’m leaving. I don't have time to play games, Ely. And since you didn't hold up your end of the deal, I'll be back tomorrow to take your husband into custody."
I realize then his threats don't faze me, not like they used to. He'd raise his hand like he might hit me, and I'd fall at his feet begging for mercy.
Not anymore. I'm not that girl anymore.
"You come near him and I'll kill you myself.” I double my grip the gun and pull the hammer back like Sebastian showed me, then I flick off the safety. "Maybe I'll kill you now and save Sebastian the early morning wake up call."
My father laughs this time. "Sure, Ely. Sure. I’ll believe it the day I see it. You don’t have the balls to pull the trigger."
He turns his back on me and starts through the door, but the barrel of a gun cuts through the frame, and I spot Aries holding the handgun up to my father's forehead. He's all coiled rage and muscle, and for a second I think he’ll shoot him first and ask questions later, but he doesn’t.
My father holds his hands up, raising them slowly, keeping his eyes locked on Aries. "Okay, big guy, I'm not leaving yet."
Aries steps to get around my father, and Drew steps into place beside him.
“Listen to her, or we kill you. It’s really that simple,” he says.
“Don’t do this. I promise you, you’ll all pay the price.” My father’s menacing voice makes me shiver.
“Back up!” Aries orders, and to my complete shock my father listens. Forcing my father deeper into the room, Drew and Aries continue forward, followed by Lee, who is dragging someone behind him. There’s a black pillowcase covering the person’s face, so I don’t know who they are yet. Lee discards the person in a heap at Sebastian’s feet—a woman given the heels on her feet and the bright red dress she’s wearing.
"Special delivery." Lee smiles and then tugs the pillow case off her head.
The puzzle pieces in my mind come together before the fabric disappears. Tanya
Sebastian recoils, his back hitting the wall near the fireplace. "Tanya?"
She rolls over and shifts so her legs are beside her in her long red sheath dress. Daggers shoot from her eyes. She’s pissed off, but that’s the comic relief in this tragedy.
The people who hurt us the most never expect us to get revenge. They never see us coming, because they beat us down to a point of weakness that they never would have expected us to fight back from. But that’s where they went wrong. That’s their fatal flaw.
They underestimated us, and now they’ll pay.
Lee undoes the gag at the back of her head. “You’re welcome.”
“What the fuck is going on? Why did you sic your hounds on me?"
Sebastian’s gaze swings towards my father, who took advantage of the distraction to slowly inch his way closer and closer to me.
I back up into Sebastian's side. "Stop moving, or I will fucking shoot you."
"You don't even know how to use that thing. Why don’t you give the gun to one of the big boys and run off so the men can talk.”
Once again he's patronizing me, and I'm done. He's never cared about me. He's only ever seen me as a means to an end, and if he learns one thing before he dies, it’ll be that I wasn’t weak.
Crossing the space between us, I press the muzzle to his forehead.
Lee and Drew chuckle and split off from behind him to opposite sides of the room.
"Your cruelty ends here. Apologize. Admit your mistakes.”
My father shifts, and clasps his hands over his belly. "My mistakes? The only mistake I ever had was keeping you after your mother’s death. I should’ve left you to die, but I didn’t. And for what? You’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass since then.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way.” I try to hide the emotion from my voice and raise my right arm to show him the circle patterns just below my elbow joint. "Part of me wishes you would’ve left me to die then, too, because maybe then I wouldn’t have endured all the pain and suffering I did. Remember this?” I point to my arm. “These scars are from the time you let one of your friends burn me with cigarettes because he paid you fifty bucks." I lift my shirt and show him the smooth, long gash on my belly. "This was the time you wanted to see if you had sharpened your knife well enough and needed a test subject.” I drop the fabric and wrap both hands around the gun again. A rush of tears escapes my eyes, and trails down my cheeks.
The man in front of me doesn’t even blink. He doesn’t show a single emotion outside of irritation. I shake my head. "You don't feel anything do you? Not one bit of remorse?"
His cold, flat eyes meet mine. "If you’re expecting me to apologize, I won’t. I'm not sorry. You could have left anytime you wanted."
"Oh yes, anytime I wanted to.” I scream the words into his face. “Because that’s worked out so fucking well for me, huh?”
He tips his chin up, his face reflecting nothing but arrogance. "Like I’ve always told you, Ely. Your suffering is your own fault. Now I’m done here. Either fucking shoot me, or watch me walk out the door. I bet you don't even know how to..."
Every hit, bruise, scar, and terrible word flung my way trickles down to this one single moment. I don’t think about the guilt that will come from killing another person. I don’t think about the sadness of losing the man who was supposed to be my father, my protector. I don’t think, at all. All I see in front of me is a man standing between me and happiness. A future I deserve to have without fear of him destroying.
Exhaling slowly, I squeeze the trigger. I don’t flinch, nor do I blink. It happens in a second. Death. The bullet flies from the gun, and his brain splatters across the brocade curtain behind him.
It's a horrific thing to witness, but somehow I feel nothing. I’m numb. And I guess maybe the reasoning for that lies in the fact that my love for my father died a long time ago. In my mind, the man he was supposed to have been was already dead.
Physically he was always here, but in every other way, my dream of a father died a long time ago. I mourned that loss then, and I won’t grieve it any longer. His body crashes to the floor, and the ringing in my ears intensifies. I slowly bring the gun back down to my side. I spent my whole life running, but I won’t run anymore. Not after today.