Chapter 35
EVE
The incessant throbbing in my head woke me first, accompanied by the faint taste of blood in my mouth.
Consciousness came in painful increments, and it took me a long time to open my eyes, which I immediately slammed shut again as a bright light brought with it the sensation of my head being squeezed in a vise.
Ouch. What the fuck happened to me?
Swallowing roughly, another shot of agony hit me and I tasted more blood. Had I bitten my tongue after passing out? How did I pass out? Did I fall and hit my head?
Another minute later, enough of my senses were back online that I realized I was sitting up. Not just sitting, but bound to a hard surface, unable to move my arms or legs.
Forcing my smarting, streaming eyes open, I was assaulted with a bright, artificial light. It had to be a spotlight, and I couldn’t see much beyond my own legs in front of me, keeping me ironically in the dark.
When I couldn’t move any of my limbs again, a dull ache burning in my wrist, panic raced through my veins, which made the thudding in my head worse, until I almost passed out.
Vomit surged up and burned my throat, but only a bit of bile emerged when I coughed.
I wondered if I was about to die by choking on my own damn vomit.
What a fucked-up way to go…I’d rather be shot again.
Though neither were particularly appealing.
Forcing myself to calm, taking a few deep breaths, I tried to sort through my scattered mind, well aware that at minimum I might have a mild concussion to deal with. What did I remember last? Sunday dinner with the boys, sleeping between Andrew and Haze, and getting woken—
Nausea burned in my gut once more as I pieced together as much as I could, remembering that Connor had disappeared into the night, and I’d run back to Bluebell House to get taken by Elijah and crew.
Tears burned as hotly as my bile-scorched throat and jarred wrist. I squeezed my eyes shut again, needing to pull myself together. I had no idea if this was to do with my dad or with the Sullivans. Either way, I was in a scary situation with no immediate skills to get myself out of it.
I had no idea how long I hung against my restraints, head throbbing, and a sense of doom pressing in on me.
By the time footsteps sounded, I was dozing—or passing out from the head trauma.
The fear I should have felt at the appearance of my kidnapper wasn’t present in my near-catatonic state, and I wondered if I was slowly dying from a brain bleed.
Refusing to give them the satisfaction of killing me without having to look into my eyes, I forced myself to focus, lifting my head and meeting the weaselly face, yellow teeth proudly on display once more.
“Elijah,” I spat hoarsely, sucking in an angry breath through my nose. “You’re one slimy fucker. The guys are going to kill you when they find me.”
Yes, I was the eternal optimist. While I would be fighting for my own freedom, I also knew that they were hunting me down too.
The Crusade leader stood on the edge of the spotlight, and I noticed what looked like a recording device on a stand beside him. I hadn’t seen that before now. But then again, I hadn’t exactly been cataloguing my surroundings.
“Finally awake, princess,” he drawled, faking a sad face. “Might have hit you a bit harder than was necessary, but I had to make sure we got you out of there before one of your protectors could intervene.”
Narrowing my eyes on him, I rasped. “Why did you take me? Connor isn’t in charge yet, and Vinnie doesn’t care about me. He’s never going to extend more territory to get me back.”
Please say this is a gang war thing. Please.
Elijah’s smile sent a shiver down my spine.
That dread which had been hanging over me since I awoke now settled lower in my stomach.
“Stupid girl,” he muttered. “You’re worth a much bigger payday than anything Vinnie Sullivan can offer us.
We’ve been trying to take you since your bounty went wide.
Until tonight, we couldn’t touch you on school grounds, and your damn bodyguards were with you every other time you’ve left. ”
“We thought the Oscars were a shot, since you only had Keller and he was occupied, but your father interfered there. There was also the dress fitting, but lo and behold, we got overstaged by a fucking protest group. I won’t bother listing the other times we’ve been close and thwarted, since it no longer matters. ”
I choked on tears as the hope that this was part of a rival criminal organization to Connor and Ethan was dashed.
Nope, this was to do with the whole shooting and bullshit with my dad.
Even worse, the only reason he would be telling me all of this was the knowledge that I wasn’t going to survive here.
It didn’t surprise me, since Harold’s intent had been to kill me both times he got hold of me, and if Elijah had the same boss, he would have the same orders.
“Why—” I coughed and had to take a few deep breaths to get the pain under control again. “Why am I still alive, then?”
There was nothing left for me to lose at this point, and I needed to understand it all. I needed to understand why I was about to die here today, tied to a chair.
Elijah’s smile was so filled with smug satisfaction.
He was proud of himself, and I’d never seen anyone so obviously pat themselves on the back for a job well done.
“Well, Evelyn Cromwell, there’s another player in this game who’s been entirely impossible to track down, and worth a whole lot more money than you.
But we knew the one thing to bring him out of hiding. ”
With that, he stepped aside and gestured to the camera. “Smile pretty for Daddy,” he murmured, and I narrowed my gaze, until I realized he wasn’t talking about himself.
The daddy in this case, once again, was Abraham.
“I’m the bait,” I said, wrinkling my brow. “I don’t think that’s going to work. He’s been steadfastly ignoring me for years, even through shootings and attacks. Don’t ask me why he showed up at the Oscars. That had to forward his own objectives as well. It wasn’t for me.”
There was no doubt in my tone. I’d written off my absentee father years ago, and nothing that had happened recently changed my opinion on that. Not a fucking thing.
Elijah shrugged, the picture of smug satisfaction. “We’ll see, princess.”
I had no idea what he thought was about to happen, but if he wanted to record me sitting in a chair, I was determined not to show any discomfort. I wouldn’t be the one to bring anyone else to wherever we were, not if I could help it.
When Elijah’s fucked-up smile grew, I knew the plan wasn’t to film me calmly in this chair.
A spark zapped across my spine, and I would have jumped, but there was no give in whatever bound me.
I hadn’t been able to see what tied me to the chair, with my arms firmly by my side, and my legs in front of me, feet planted on the floor.
All I could see was that I wore the same clothes I’d left the house in, and that there was dirt on my gray sweats.
Another spark hit me, this one lasting a few seconds, and a yelp escaped me. “What the fuck?” I breathed, my heart racing in an unnatural way. “What are you doing to me?”
His low laughter was an eerie soundtrack in the background of my torture, which was exactly what was happening, as another jolt of what had to be electricity hit me.
This one was much more forceful than the others.
Every muscle in my body contracted as my nerve endings screamed.
I screamed too, so loudly that my ears rang when the current eased, and I was once again huffing and puffing in my torture chair.
“Please,” I rasped, my voice gone in my dry throat. “No more.”
This was too much on top of the head injury. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay conscious. Only, I knew it was a terrible idea to pass out here, so vulnerable, even if an escape from the pain would be a welcome relief.
Elijah tsked as he took in my bedraggled state. “We’ve barely gotten started, Evelyn. That was just a little love jolt. I wanted to warm you up before we really settled in.”
My pained whimper was a sound I’d never made before, and the anticipation of the next zap of current was almost a torture in and of itself. “Why do you want Abraham here?” I asked him, needing more information and hoping he’d monologue a little longer and delay the next round of torture.
Another jolt hit me, stronger, and I felt a burning sensation near the middle of my back, which made me think that was where the contact point for the electricity was. This current went on for what felt like an eternity, until my lungs were frozen, and my muscles screamed in a contracted position.
By the time I was released, my jaw and teeth ached from where I’d been gritting them, unable to unlock my jaw enough to even scream this time.
Sobs escaped as I slumped forward, and footsteps echoed across the concrete floor as Elijah crossed to me.
“We want Abraham to face up to his crime,” he murmured, hands rough on my chin as he lifted my face.
He grimaced at what was no doubt drool and snot all over me, but he didn’t let me go.
If anything, his hold tightened until it should be painful, but I was still shuddering from the aftershocks of electricity to even register it.
“He made a mistake years ago,” the fucker said, still so calm and conversational. “He killed the wrong person's daughter, and they want to settle the score. The sins of the father and all that crap.”
In my fuzzy-headed, pain-filled state, I couldn’t figure out if this was about Andrew still or was there another sin out there that Abraham had committed and I was paying for.
“I’m just as much a victim of his,” I slurred, my head slamming forward with a jerk of my neck when he released me. “It’s his sin, not mine.”
“Agreed,” Elijah said. “But he’s good at hiding, and if he doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be. But this video is now all over the dark web, with his name blaring. It will catch his attention. He’s going to come for his sweet daughter, and then he’ll face the consequences of his actions.”
When he returned to the camera, I braced myself, letting my shattered mind seep into a place of numb darkness.
Soon, the next jolts of electricity burned through me, the current familiar in its painful intensity.
I had no idea what it looked like from the outside, but inside it felt like I was being burned and shaken at the same time.
The beat of my heart stuttered, and darkness edged in on the other side of my vision, until I was now ready to welcome unconsciousness.
Or death.
Whatever made the pain stop.