Chapter 47
Damon
I nearly kicked in the door when he carried Evan dangling over his shoulder into the bedroom, but I needed the element of surprise. I had to wait for the right opportunity.
When Evan screams, I see fucking red and jump him from behind, sending us both crashing into the wall. We fall out of the room and onto the floor of the dining room in a tangle of limbs.
We wrestle for a few moments before I drive my fist into Jackson’s gut. He shoves me away and jumps up, racing back into the room where he left Evan tied to the bed. I stagger to my feet and follow after him. In the doorway, I freeze at the horror show waiting for me.
Jackson smiles as he sits on the bed, holding Evan against his chest between us. Her hands still tied to the four-poster bed. He holds a knife with the tip pressed against her heart. His hair and eyes are wild.
“I’ve been expecting you.” He smirks like he’s won.
Evan meets my eyes with regret, like she’s already lost. But we’re not lost until we’re dead. And that’s not happening. Not here. Not tonight. Not by this asshole.
I wipe the blood from the side of my mouth and look at it on my hand, buying us time. He didn’t go through all this hassle just to kill his obsession now. He wants Evan too much to kill her.
Me? He could probably kill in a heartbeat if he could get the upper hand. But to do that, he will hurt Evan to make me heel.
“So what, you’re going to kill her?” I hedge that bet.
“No, but you will if you take a step toward us.” Jackson’s voice is cold. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying if I can’t have her, no one can?”
Evan holds perfectly still, but there’s a world of words in her eyes. Things we’ve shared. Things we still need to share. A life not lived yet.
I need to keep her breathing, keep her whole. He won’t take her from me. Even if I have to let her go with him. She’ll still be alive, and that would be enough until I get her back. Because he might have been Evan’s monster, but I’ll be his.
“What do you want?” I ask, tearing my gaze from her to him.
He smirks. “Fucking my girl while you watch could be amusing. I’m sure I could make both of you scream.”
I narrow my eyes, unable to control the rage inside me, but keeping my anger out of my voice. “Not happening.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t have plans for if you decided your whore was worth your time and effort?” Jackson laughs but there’s no joy in it. “If you want her to live, sit in that chair.”
He gestures with his head to the wooden armchair in the corner of the room.
“Slowly,” he says with a sly grin. He turns his eyes to Evan and looks at her with undisguised longing. “I’d hate to make my pretty girl bleed.”
Holding my hands up in surrender, I move to the chair without taking my eyes off Evan. I can’t tell her help is coming. I can’t tell that help to be careful, because he might kill her if he hears them coming. All his focus is on me and Evan. I need to keep it here. I left the door open.
It’s the best I can do. Cam and Hawk aren’t stupid. I didn’t signal the all clear. They won’t come in guns blazing. Mostly because we don’t have guns.
“So what? You’re going to kill me and Evan and run off to live happily ever after in jail?” I sit in the chair almost belligerently, like I haven’t a care in the world. Slouching with my legs spread, leaning back.
“The handcuffs on the end of the bed.” He nods toward them. “Put them on, threaded through the arm of the chair.”
I lean forward to grab them, slowly. If he so much as knicks her skin with that knife, I will make sure he’s in ribbons when this is over. The handcuffs are linked together with about a foot of chain.
“You don’t want to do this, Jackson,” she says as I attach my first wrist and slide the chain under the arm of the chair before attaching the other side.
“Why not? Are you not having fun, pretty girl?” He lifts the knife to her jaw and slides the flat of the blade over her skin without cutting. “Worried your perfect guy won’t want you with a scar on your face? I’ll still want you, pretty girl.”
I hold Evan’s eyes, trying to give her the strength to make it through this. There’s nothing he could do to her that would make me stop loving her. Nothing.
“You know what I don’t get?” Jackson slides the knife back down to her heart. “Why him?”
“What?” Evan is stalling.
Jackson smirks and moves out from behind Evan, taking the knife with him. He stabs the knife into the mattress beside her, and I flinch, jerking on the handcuffs. She gasps in a little breath, but tries to remain calm.
He looks at me with a wicked smile. He wanted to test me, to make sure I was truly bound.
He takes her ankle and tugs her down the bed. He ties her foot to the footboard before going to the other side to bind her other leg. “Why Damon over me?”
She’s lying down, spread eagle, but she’s still clothed and breathing. I don’t like this, but we shouldn’t have to wait for long. The guys will assess the situation and pick the right time to take him out. Preferably when the knife isn’t in Jackson’s hand.
Jackson grabs the knife and sits on the end of the four poster bed between her legs. He studies me like he’s never looked at me a day in his life. Like he truly doesn’t get it.
“We’re practically the same when you break it down.”
I arch an eyebrow, but don’t say anything. Fuck this asshole. We’re not the same.
“Both handsome. Both skilled at hockey. Both have futures in the NHL. Both a little obsessed with you.” Smirking, he leans back on the bed. His hand pressing the mattress near her knee. “But when you take away all of those things, the only thing he has that I don’t is money.”
“I don’t care about money,” she says softly.
Jackson chuckles and slides the blade of the hunting knife between his fingers. “Don’t you?”
“No, I don’t.” She stares up at the ceiling. There’s tension in her arms and legs like she wants to move them. Needs to get away, but can’t.
“Don’t lie, pretty girl. It doesn’t suit you.” He grabs her leg and slices the knife down her jeans, splitting them open from the knee down.
She hisses and a small streak of blood appears on her calf.
That’s one.
“Careful,” he says and glances at me. “I don’t want to hurt you, Evan.”
I doubt that. He wants to hurt both of us, and he knows hurting her will hurt me.
“See, I could take away his looks.” He studies me and leans over to drag the knife along her other pant leg from the knee to her ankle. This time the blade doesn’t touch her skin. “I bet if I fuck you in front of him, he won’t want you anymore. But I will.”
I grind my teeth together. I can’t give him anything. He can’t know how this is tearing me up inside.
“But he’d still have hockey and the money.” Jackson smirks at me before turning to kneel over her on the bed. He grabs the neck of her hoodie and holds it up. “Don’t move, pretty girl. I don’t want to cut your breasts before I get a chance to play with them.”
He slides the blade down the front of the sweatshirt, cutting it in half. She turns her head to the side, and I can see her chest rising and falling rapidly. There are red marks on her neck from his hands.
That’s two.
“I can see why they want you.” He traces the tip of the blade along her bra. “What do you want, Damon?”
“Her,” I say it so she can hear it. So she knows no matter what happens in this room, she’s mine, and I will always be hers.
“Interesting.” He turns to face me, sitting on the end of the bed again. His dark eyes narrow on mine. “Would you choose her over hockey?”
“In a heartbeat.”
She gasps.
“Prove it.” Jackson smiles and stands from the bed. “Cut your Achilles tendons and I’ll let her go. She can choose whether she wants to be with you or me.”
“Give me the knife.”
“Damon, no!” she cries out. “We don’t settle.”
“It would never be settling with you, Evan.” I meet Jackson’s eyes and hold my hand open for the knife, waiting.
He smirks and reaches into his pocket for a pocketknife. He comes a little closer and tosses it on my lap where I can reach it. “It might take a little bit to really saw into those tendons, but I’ll find it entertaining. Try not to bleed to death.”
“You’ll let her go.” I open the blade and glare at him.
“After I get a taste.” He smirks, focused on me. “After all, it’s only fair if she has to choose that she has all the information.”
Evan moves behind him, capturing my attention. Her head is turned toward the door, and she nods. Cam bursts in and grabs Jackson around the shoulders, hauling him backwards. Jackson stabs the knife back toward Cam.
“Cam!” Evan cries out and tugs at her bindings.
With a grunt of pain, Cam shoves Jackson out the door.
When Cam grabs the handle of the blade in his outer thigh, Evan yells, “Don’t pull that out!”
The sound of fists smacking into flesh comes from the other room. Cam checks the other room, probably to make sure Hawk doesn’t need help. I use the tip of the knife to jimmy open the handcuffs. As soon as I have a wrist free, I go to Evan’s hands to cut the rope tying her to the headboard.
Cam sinks into the chair, holding the leg with a knife sticking in it out straight. “Fuck, that’s weird.”
“Are you okay?” I release her ankles.
“I will be.” She takes the knife from me and strides out the door.
“Fuck,” Cam says.
Cam and my eyes meet before I hurry after her. Jackson lies on the floor of the dining room, wheezing breaths. Hawk hovers over him with bloodied fists.
“The cops are on their way,” Cam yells from the other room. “Don’t murder him.”
Evan pauses for a second with the knife in her hand, clearly torn, but then she sinks down on the floor beside Jackson. “I’ll never choose you.”
She slices down through his shirt. He hisses when she cuts him in the process. But it doesn’t faze her as she peels his shirt open. Without a word, she carves his chest with the knife. He cries out after the first few cuts, but she doesn’t stop until she’s written all the way across his chest.
When she stands, her hand trembles, and I take the knife from her, setting it on the table. She turns into my arms and puts her head against my chest with a sob. I close my arms around her as she trembles against me.
Hawk puts his hand on her back. We both look at the words on Jackson’s chest. It’s written backwards, but it says NOT YOURS. Hawk takes his phone out and takes a picture of it.
Guess I don’t need to pay him back for hurting my girl.
“Remind me not to piss you off, Annie.” Hawk strips off his hoodie and helps her shed the tattered one and put on his, but her arms and her head return to my chest, and I honestly don’t want to let her go.
Ever.
“Check on Cam,” I say to Hawk as we hear movement outside the house. He disappears into the room as the first cops come into the house.
“Freeze.”
Evan looks at the cop, not releasing me. “The guy on the ground kidnapped me. My guys saved me. Cam needs medical attention.”
Her voice is strong, but she trembles against me. She digs her fingers into my sides.
I run my thumb over the track of her tear and she looks up at me. “I’m ready to go home now.”