Chapter 34 Eva
EVA
What did I just do?
What the fuck was I thinking?
I should have stuck to my plan and waited for Jack to return. But when he lay next to me, claiming me, like he still had a right on me, after he broke every shred of my trust, darkness clawed its way out of me. I decided to use him, just like he does, so effortlessly, so cruelly.
Mason rises like an injured lion, the crease on his face, another lie.
“That was quite a stunt you pulled, princess.” A dark smirk lifts his lips as he tucks himself into his pants and fastens his belt. “Got to say, I feel used.”
“Shocking, I know,” I mutter. “Nothing like lying your way into someone’s life after burning it to ashes.”
His grin fades. “You don’t understand, little dove.”
“Let me guess,” I grit out, my chin trembling with uncontrollable fury. “You didn’t know. Then you found out. But decided to lie to me anyway, because I’m yours?” I spit the last words.
He stares at me for a moment, then shrugs, lips pursed. And I almost throw the pistol in his face. Almost. But then I’d be left with nothing.
I went against my every instinct and opened every door to him—mind, body, and soul. And he crushed my faith under the weight of his lies, like I meant nothing.
“So, what’s happening now?” I demand. “Are you going to take me somewhere?”
“Well, I had a coastal holiday planned, but I’m guessing that’s off the table now?” He raises an eyebrow.
“You think?” I snap. “What then? I know your cavalry is coming to take me away. What happens next? Lock me up, torture me to keep me quiet? How exactly do you monsters work?”
Flames flicker in his eyes, his face turning feral. “No one touches what’s mine,” he growls.
“I’m not yours,” I scream the words loud enough to echo in my own head, seep through the very marrow of my bones where he’s engraved himself.
The door flies open, the light flicks on, making me jump.
Kane, Hugo, and James storm in. How did I not hear them?
They see the gun in my hand, pointed at Mason, their pace slowing as they join him.
I circle them, keeping my back to the door.
The one thing Jack always told me to do. Keep a clear line to the exit.
“What do we have here?” Hugo grins, chewing gum. “Etheridge finally showing her colors.”
“Shut up, Pike.” Kane looks directly at me.
“Relax!” Hugo laughs and waves toward me. “The gun isn’t even loaded.”
Mason knocks Hugo in the head, Kane hissing in a whisper. But when a loud metallic click echoes through the air, four heads snap toward me, toward the gun, which, thanks to Hugo, is now loaded.
I have never held one before. Don’t know what I’m doing. Pulling the slide back seemed the right thing to do. So I did. And I know it’s ready to kill, not only because of the red dot that appears on top of the slider but because Mason loses his nonchalance in an instant.
A murderous look darkens his eyes, his whole frame turning to stone. He was amusing me… until now. A pretense to entertain my anger before he does what he really had planned for me, all the while knowing I couldn’t hurt him.
“Give that to me, now,” Mason barks, taking two steps toward me, before James and Kane stop him. “It’s not a fucking toy, Eva. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“No!” I shout, my fingers shaking a little. “If you want it back, then I want the truth. Who did it?”
“Tell her.” Mason gestures at Kane, who throws him a look. “I don’t give a fuck what happens. Tell her. Now!”
Kane lets out a deep sigh, holding his arms up as he takes a careful step toward me.
I take one back and aim at Kane. He is probably a better target anyway.
He is as much a brother to Mason as Daniel is to me.
With him at risk, Mason will stay back, even though he still seems to be twitching to lunge at me.
The only thing holding him back is James’s grip on him.
“Was it you?” I ask. Kane doesn’t answer. “Tell me which one of you killed my parents?”
“That wasn’t us.” Kane shakes his head once.
“Bull,” I spit. “That was your farmhouse. That’s where it happened. It’s not a coincidence.”
“No, it’s not,” Kane confesses. “It was very much intentional. Whoever planned this, planned it to the T. We are being framed for the murder of your parents, Eva. That is the truth.”
I stare at Kane’s face, desperate to believe what he’s saying, but how can it be?
“If that was the case, he would have told me.” I cock my head toward Mason, not trusting my voice to say his name out loud.
“Would you have believed him?”
My lips tremble as my chest rises and falls in a long moment of silence.
“Yes,” I murmur.
Kane raises an eyebrow, his lips curling up on one side. “Even if we told you that the first one was us.”
First one?
My gaze flicks to Mason, who’s staring at the weapon in my hand with the will of God. My eyes meet his, begging with desperation.
“Stop with the fucking riddles, already,” Mason deadpans. “Out with it.”
“Your family wasn’t at my farmhouse by accident,” Kane starts.
“I know, my father was looking for something,” I admit. “What?”
“The location where you were kidnapped as a child,” he replies. “And that… was my father.”
“That’s where you remember Robert from,” Mason adds.
Eh?
Are they actually saying these words, or am I losing my mind? Because I remember my childhood very well, and I was never kidnapped. Unless you count the time Mason kidnapped me to the Berkeley Lodge…
No. No. No!
And just like that, I have the answer to the question that has been nagging me all this time. Now I remember where I saw Robert Berkeley. Snakes coil in my stomach as I consider the possibilities.
“When was this?” I demand, my breath stuttering.
“Interesting question from a victim of abduction.” Kane’s mouth curves. He drops his arms and places his hands in his pockets. As if I’m no longer a threat. “My farm was where you were taken,” Kane says with a knowing look. “Yet, you only remember it as the place your parents died. I wonder why…”
“So?” Mason barks. “She was seven.”
“Not everyone has a goldfish memory like you, prat,” Kane throws at Mason, then locks my gaze, as he tears down every ounce of my defense, the weapon in my hand no use against it.
“In fact, I think she’s remembering a little too much.
See, it made sense when Mason told me you recognized my father.
I started paying careful attention to you.
But I know a thing or two about childhood trauma, and as fucked-up as your brain is, I’m not convinced you fit the bill, princess. ”
My breath hitches as Kane unravels me with his eyes, turning every page, filling the gaps. But I can’t let him know.
“The fuck is he talking about?” Hugo groans, half-bored.
“I don’t think it was her who was kidnapped,” Kane concludes, and I force a lump down my throat.
“We know it was.” Mason’s brows furrow. “You said so yourself, Elton paid her ransom.”
“He took twelve days,” Kane drawls. “Twelve fucking days. You know how long that is for a seven-year-old? At first, I thought the ancient patriarch didn’t care as much about her as much as her brother. Yet, when I told them she was with you that night, Elton had her airlifted within three hours.”
He holds up three fingers, which may as well be six, as my vision doubles.
I see Kane’s mouth move, but I can’t hear him anymore. The ringing in my ears floods my brain. And just like that, the walls of my mind begin to crumble, the metal in my hands growing heavier and heavier, as the world starts to slip away.
“Eva!” Mason’s voice commands me out of my trance.
My shoulders jerk, arm shakes, finger twitches.
Bang
A sharp, piercing sound splits the space between us, and the room chills, freezing time.
Kane drops to the floor, clutching his arm, pouring red.
“Fuck,” I shriek.
My hand quakes rapidly as something else snaps in my head, like a dam breaking inside my mind. Memories flood back in waves, every locked-away horror crashing into me all at once.
But I don’t even have a moment to absorb it because, in a microsecond, all hell breaks loose.
James and Hugo draw their weapons and aim them square at my chest. Or they would be if Mason hadn’t covered the distance in an instant and planted himself between us, hiding me entirely from them, not caring about the gun still shaking in my hand, pressed flat against his back.
Is he crazy? Did he not just see what I did? I don’t even know how to unload it.
“Shhh,” Mason whispers as fractured cries spill from my lips, while I cling to his back. “It will all be fine, little dove.”
How?
“Put those fucking down,” Mason barks at James and Hugo.
“She shot Kane, you moron,” Hugo yells. “Her brother has been gunning for us. She must be in on it, too. Open your eyes, will you?”
“It was an accident,” Mason snaps. “Now, put them down before I rip your arms out.”
“Take hers first,” James says, coolly, the only sensible voice in the room. “Then get her out of here. You can still catch the plane to Sicily.”
Sicily?
Fuck. I’m clinging to the man who won’t let me go. Worse, he’ll take me somewhere I will be at his mercy.
No. I can’t leave. Not now when I finally remember.
I have one choice. Only one course of action. And there is no time to think.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper against Mason’s neck.
Then, I spin around and make a run for it, clutching the gun in one hand and my phone in the other.
“Eva!” Mason shouts, following me as I fly down the stairs.
His footsteps close the distance behind me as I run past the bar.
But when he sees I’m headed for the front door, he breaks into a sprint, leaving me no time for shoes or jacket.
My bare feet crunch against the gravel, stones like shards of glass, but I don’t let that slow me down as I throw myself into the only car I know has keys in it.
As they always are. With one click of a button, I drag the seat forward and turn the engine over.
Mason storms out the front door. I floor the accelerator, and the car shoots forward, just in time to miss his hand on the door.
He slaps the back of James’s car as I take off into the dirt road, spraying mud on all sides.
Only when I’m a few yards away do I dare to look in the rearview mirror.
I watch him shrink with every second, just like my heart in my ribs. Nothing beats in my chest anymore. Everything worth anything inside me still belongs to him.
And I leave it behind for safekeeping.
Because I still need to find out who killed my parents. The one who sat and planned our demise. Railed us down the road like our lives were meaningless. And then if that wasn’t enough, came back and shot my father, while he held my hand and vowed me to silence.
The burden my mind has been begging to shed all this time.
And all it took was another gunshot to remember the one that broke my mind.