Chapter 47
Forty-Seven
Emory
Soft sobs drifted through my subconscious, my head rolling away from the sounds on instinct.
They echoed loudly in the space, making my head spin.
My body was wracked by a violent shiver that ripped a guttural moan from my dry throat.
I tried to swallow but I realized there was something in my mouth.
Adrenaline surged in my body, and I finally opened my eyes, adjusting to the dimly light room.
Brick wall. A lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. A humid dampness in the air that made it hard to breathe through my nose and around whatever was shoved in mouth.
I looked for the source of the cries to find a body crumpled against the wall several feet away. I studied the shape of the woman, eyes scanning the blue nightgown that was torn and dirty, the messy brown hair that had once been in a braid but was now falling across her face.
Mother.
She shifted her ankles, revealing the chain attached to her foot, the other end bolted to the floor.
I finally moved my head, my heart leaping out of my chest at the sight of Adrian and Javier sitting cross-legged back-to-back in front of me. Adrian was watching the door, Javier studying me.
The urge to cry was there, but no tears came as I stared at what was once the most familiar face, more familiar than my own. Brown eyes. Thick black brows, angular jaw that was clean-shaven. Black hair that was gelled back, except for a small piece that hung down over his left eye.
I released a sharp breath through my nose.
“Hi, güerita.”
The name broke something in my chest and a soft whine left my throat.
Adrian turned his head, looking over his shoulder at me. “Good. You’re alive.”
Am I? Is this a hallucination?
I flicked my gaze back to Mother, but she was still curled into herself, either ignoring us all or…they weren’t really here.
His gaze flicked down to my hands, drifting over the exposed skin of my arms.
“Doesn’t look like you put up much of a fight, güera. I thought I taught you better than that.”
Indignation soared through my veins, but he tsked.
“Ahh, ahh, ahh. You promised you were going to fight like hell.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve given up already?” Adrian drawled lazily, pulling something from the pocket of his slacks— a piece of gum. He unwrapped it and shoved it into his mouth, chewing loudly before throwing the wrapper at Mother. It bounced off her head, but again, she ignored it.
This isn’t real, I decided.
“You gonna do something about that gag in your mouth or just let us talk your ear off? I know you’re dying to cuss me out right now,” Javi said with a smug smirk.
I drew in another breath through my nose trying to avoid gagging.
I looked down at myself, realizing I was lying on my side, a similar chain wrapped around my own ankle.
The coldness from before wasn’t because the room was cold, rather that I was lying in a puddle of water—no, urine.
I shifted my face against the concrete, using my tongue to push the rag out of my mouth.
I gagged as the air got stuck in the back of my throat.
“Well, go on,” Javi said, fanning a hand out in front of us. “Cuss me out. I know you want to,” he goaded.
I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice was too hoarse, nothing but a wheezing whistle came out.
Javi sighed as if this was all a boring inconvenience. “You should ask her if she knows how long you’ve been in here.”
Her eyes flicked to Mother, and I followed his gaze.
“Mmm,” I couldn’t get past the first sound, my jaw stiff and my mouth so dry it felt like I’d never be able to move my tongue again.
I settled for repeating the one sound. It took several tries before she finally lifted her head, revealing her blotchy face and a busted lip.
She stared at me with tear-filled eyes, a bitter frown on her face.
“You took him from me,” she spat, her voice hoarse. “You took my son, you demon.”
I blinked slowly, her words not registering. She scoffed with disgust, shaking her head.
“They killed him, but they spared you. You filthy swine.”
Theo. He’s dead?
My throat burned with the urge to cry once again, but no tears came.
“Oh, come on, Shiloh. Don’t tell me you actually cared about the man?” Javier scoffed.
I sent him an angry glare. He didn’t get to judge me after everything he’d done.
“Shouldn’t you be more concerned with more important details? Like who this ‘they’ is that killed him? And why are you both still here alive?”
Javi and Adrian shared a look before looking back at me.
“He has a point,” Javi said with a head nod.
I licked my lips, like it didn’t burn like sandpaper, and it might magically bring some moisture to my mouth. I swallowed roughly, trying to get my vocal cords to work.
“Wh-who?” I finally managed to whisper.
“The devil, I’m sure,” she muttered, adjusting her feet, the chain scraping the concrete.
“I only know that Kit knew who they were. He wasn’t surprised when they dragged us out of bed at gun point.
They came in the middle of the night. Took us all, except…
” she hiccupped, covering her mouth. “Except Theo. They made me watch. Made me watch my baby,” she paused, a heaving sob muffled by her hand, “my baby. They shot him, like he…like he was a rabid dog!”
She wailed, her cries reaching a pitch that made my ears hurt.
I suddenly gagged, foamy bile spilling onto the concrete in front of my face. I tried to move away from it, but my limbs were filled with lead, and I grimaced as the warm, sour liquid crawled across the concrete, seeping beneath my cheek, around my ear and into my hair.
I knew where we were. I knew who had taken us. I just couldn’t fathom why they were keeping me alive.
Because Los Siete never let a traitor live.
◆◆◆
With nothing but the sound of Mother sobbing and the oppressive humidity that did nothing to bring me warmth lying on the hard as ice concrete, the seconds crawled. Time had stopped. Days, months, years, it could have been any of them passing by.
I was so thirsty I’d considered trying to lick the moisture off the brick wall beside me. If I could only get my body to move. I considered maybe my limbs had been detached from body as I couldn’t even get a finger off the ground.
“Why haven’t they killed us yet,” I rasped, speaking to Adrian and Javi.
Javi tilted his head in thought before finally speaking. “I don’t know.”
I closed my eyes. “Why are you here if you’re not going to be helpful?”
“Why would I help you?” Mother asked. I’d forgotten she couldn’t see Javi and Adrian.
I didn’t waste my energy to respond. I eyed the chain around my ankle. If only I could get the energy to move enough, I might be able to use the chain to choke myself into oblivion.
Javi read my mind. “Too short. Wouldn’t be long enough to wrap around your neck.”
Whatever kernel of will I had left to live shriveled into something nearly imperceptible.
“Think, Shiloh. Someone must know you’re missing by now. Right?”
I startled at his angry, insistent voice, opening my eyes to find him hunched over, inches from my face.
Enoch.
A swallowed back the gag that followed the horrible fear that somehow they’d gotten to him too.
“Think! How long were you at the house after they took you from your apartment?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get my brain to work, to calculate.
“A-a week?” I whispered with doubt. The emotion swelled in my chest, an urge to cry that wouldn’t happen because I had no tears to produce. I was too dehydrated.
“Okay. Okay,” Javi said nodding, pulling back to sit back down.
“It was Friday, your friends would have assumed something was wrong when you didn’t show up for book club meeting.
And Enoch would have known that evening when you didn’t show up for tv night with Jae and him. Would Enoch have called the police?”
Fuck. “I don’t know,” I mumbled. “I don’t know.”
I tried to conjure Enoch in my mind, but I couldn’t get his face right. Was his dimple on his right check?
Fuck. How could I not remember that?
“He’s not coming.” Something settled over me as I repeated the statement. “He’s not coming.”
A numbness. A resignation. An acceptance.
Javi slapped his hand against the concrete, but I didn’t react.
“Don’t you fucking be a weak puta now, you little shit.”
I ignored his harsh command.
He was just a figment of my imagination. Soon I’d be dead for real. Soon I’d be gone forever. I only hoped the end came quickly.
“Open your eyes! Now, dammit!” He shouted, the sound echoing in this small space.
How much longer was I going to have to endure? At least seven days without food now. Without the IV for hydration, how many more days could I last before my body shut down completely?
“God doesn’t want you to die yet!”
The statement rattled around my brain. Knowing that I had been blessed with Enoch’s love, even for just a little while, gave me a sense of peace. It was worth it. It was worth the privilege of getting to love him, my only regret was that I didn’t tell him so.
“You’re going to tell that to his face,” Javi said, slapping the concrete in front of my face. I swore I could feel his breath as he screamed at me. “You’re going to survive this shit. I’ll fucking sew your eyeballs open if I have to. Open your eyes, Shiloh! Don’t you dare fucking die!”
I squeezed my eyes tighter.
“Please, just humor him. He’s giving me a migraine,” Adrian pouted.
I peel one of my eyes open, staring at the smile that transformed Javier’s face.
“Brat,” he muttered.
I stared past him, the sound of scratching filling the silent room. I turned my eyes as far as I could to find mother.
Her hands twitched and she adjusted her position, giving me a better view of the hair pin in her hand that she’d pried apart and was jamming into the metal latched to her ankle.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, the sound loud despite being no more than a whisper.