Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I had to be dragged on to the boat, kicking and screaming. Yet, Liam held on despite the knife in his back.
The man with the long gun followed behind as I was forced onto the boat. He untied the boat, then climbed in and started the engine. He pulled out into the river while Liam brought us both down onto a seat. I struggled in his grasp but his hold was tight. Words came out of his mouth, but I didn’t bother to listen. Emery was out there. He was in the water. He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be dead.
I wailed. I begged. I fought. But neither of them budged. The boat picked up speed, flying now across the dark water. I felt the wind and spray on my face, I felt the cold seeping into my very being, until I was numb. Not even Liam could warm me. I hated his touch even now. I hated him.
I grew tired of fighting and just sat crying in his lap, bent forward, trying to separate from him. The roar of the engine rang in my ears as the boat bobbed up and down.
“Almost there,” the man at the helm called over his shoulder.
Liam tightened his hold. I could feel him panting, then grunting in pain. I turned my head toward him and we locked eyes. His face was pale, his eyes bright with what I could only guess was anger.
“Please,” I whispered. “He’s out there. Just go out and get him. Y-you can take him to prison. Lock him up forever just turn the boat around. Please, Liam, go back for him.”
He didn’t say a word. I knew he was hurt badly and, as awful as it was, I didn’t care about that either. I just wanted them to go back and find Emery.
“I’ll do anything,” I continued, thinking somehow he might change his mind.
His mouth was set in a hard line, his jaw clenched as if he gritted his teeth. “Would you never see him or speak to him again?”
I stared at him, shocked. Speechless.
“We aren’t going back,” he said firmly.
I closed my eyes and let the tears stream down my face. I choked down my sobs the rest of the way.
Eventually, the boat slowed. From the window, I could see flashing lights. The man at the wheel pulled into a dock, into what looked like a small marina. Others came running to tie the boat down.
Liam went to lift himself while still keeping a hold of me but staggered, wincing from pain. I took that moment to free myself from him. Before I could make it off the boat, he caught my arm.
Together, we stepped onto the dock and I was surrounded by officers on each side. Their faces blurred. I couldn’t find my voice though I wanted to scream again. I wanted to pull away and run across the dock, to the river.
I tugged, and Liam’s grip only tightened.
Right off the dock were several cop cars and an ambulance. Liam refused to be seen by the EMTs until he had me in the back of a car with the doors locked.
I hit my fist against the glass, but no one looked my way. Liam was taken into the ambulance and fear suddenly gripped me.
I was so alone. Locked in a car, strangers all around me. Emery was out there, and I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t do anything and there was no more time.
I smacked my hand on the glass till it hurt. I kicked at it and at the cage barrier that kept me in the back seat. Nothing. Eyes were on me, dozens of them. People talking, running from one vehicle to the next, talking on their radios and their phones. But no one came to open the door.
I didn’t know how long I sat there but it felt like forever. I cried until I couldn’t anymore, knowing it was too late but still desperate to get out. I lay curled on the seat, shaking from fury, from trauma, and from the awful cold.
The car door opened, and I raised my head to see a male officer holding an umbrella over a woman in a dark coat.
“Hi, Eve, how are you feeling?” she asked.
Like I wanted to die. I didn’t say it out loud, just stared at her.
“I’ll just need to do a quick examination, is that okay?” She took out a pen light and some small device. “Can you sit up for me?”
I did slowly. I let her examine me, using her light to check me. She asked me questions and I kept my answers short. She checked my blood pressure and heart rate, then smiled as if nothing was wrong. Like I wasn’t having a mental breakdown right in front of her.
“You’ve been through a lot. But you're safe now, okay?” she said softly. I hated that. “We're going to get you out of here.”
“No,” I cut in. “Just let me out. I need to get to the river. I need to—”
“We need to get you to a hospital so we can do better examinations. Some tests and—”
“He’s drowning!” I shouted.
“I know you're upset.”
Oh, fuck this. I shoved her out of the way and tried to get past her. As if on cue, a group of cops were surrounding me and shoving me back into the car. I fought them. I might have even bitten one. And the next thing I knew, someone was shouting at another to restrain me. I was pushed down into the seat and felt them handcuffing me.
They left me again and I just laid there listening to the rain on the car roof. Thinking of Emery.
Emery.
A burly officer with a thick beard entered into the driver's side followed by his partner into the passenger. They started to pull away, and I sat up, watching the marina grow smaller. Watching the river disappear.
Cars followed behind. The ambulance Liam was in, however, didn’t. It turned down a different road going the opposite way.
A lump lodged in my throat. “Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“The hospital,” the driver said.
“No, you're going the wrong way. The ambulance went the other way.”
“You’re going somewhere different,” he replied.
I tensed. “Where?”
“A hospital for unique…circumstances.”
For one crazy moment, I thought he was going to say St. Agnes. A small, hysterical laugh already started rushing from my lips.
The driver gave me a concerned look in the mirror. “They call it Severfalls.”
Severfalls. I knew that name.
We drove inland, into thickly forested areas. We entered a drive that weaved up a small hill and he parked in front of a building that was old like St. Agnes, only less pretty somehow. But from the back, I could see a more modern addition attached. Like the Martel building down in the city.
But it wasn’t so much the building that caught my attention as it was the people standing in front of it.
One I recognized as Uncle Wes’s partner, Mr. Foley. The other was Tyler Kennedy, the man I had met at the banquet.
I stared at them from the window. The officers took me out and brought me to them, and I didn’t even know what to say.
“Eve, so glad you're okay.” Tyler smiled. “You remember me?”
I remembered. It was hard to believe it had only been a few days.
“This is one of my family's facilities,” he stated, seeing my look of confusion. I remembered the conversation we had at the banquet. “Mr. Foley is here in lieu of your uncle since he couldn’t be here in his current state. I wanted to be here to escort you too, so you know you're somewhere safe.”
I licked the rainwater from my lips, my throat dry. “Why am I here? Why didn’t I just go to Detroit Mercy with Liam?”
“Your uncle requested it,” Mr. Foley said. “He wanted you to have the best care if—no, when I should say—you were to be found.”
Tyler’s smile widened; his suit immaculate even in the rain. He stepped down to me, covering me with his umbrella.
He leaned his face closer to me. “You will get the best care here, Eve, I promise.”
This was all happening so fast. I was still stuck on that dock watching Emery fall, watching him go under the water. This couldn’t be happening.
“I-I need to go back. I need to find him…I…I…” I was going to lose it again. I was never going to stop breaking. Like the waves. Over and over.
I didn’t know whether I slipped or I started to fall from exhaustion, but Tyler caught me.
“Let us make sure you're okay first, Eve. Come on. It’s warm inside, and you're freezing. We don’t want you going into shock.” He looked up at the officer behind me. “Uncuff her, she’s not a prisoner.”
They did as he ordered and my hands fell to my sides. I didn’t try to run again. Where could I go? The only car was the cop car. I didn’t even know my location.
And even if I could get back to the river. By now…
He’s gone.
The thought was there, loud and clear. I shivered violently, and Tyler took that as a sign to lead me up the steps to the building.
I shuttered my thoughts with each step. I closed myself off as my will broke. Piece by piece.
As they opened the doors and brought me inside, the Eve I knew didn’t follow. She got swept away along with her Emery in dark water.