40
I try to move but can’t.
My head throbs. Memory crashes over me like a wrecking ball. Aiden walking me to his car and tossing Fallon unceremoniously into the backseat. The second I was inside, he hit my head with the butt of the gun and my vision exploded into darkness.
Slowly, I force my eyes open.
I’m in a cabin. Eden. The bedroom. The tableside light is on, casting the wooden room in an eerie glow. Davis’s coffee mug is still on the nightstand, but the bed is unmade. There’re strange blankets that weren’t here before.
Aiden’s been staying here . All this time. The thought is enough to make me want to puke.
I turn my head to the right and the entire room swims.
Fallon’s tied to a chair beside me. Her chin hangs to her chest. Dried blood streaks her temple. She has a concussion, or worse.
Please be okay. Please be alive.
“Fallon,” I hiss. “Wake up.”
Please wake up.
Silence.
My heart hammers in my chest. We are trapped. He’s going to kill us. Make us suffer. That much is clear.
A shuddery breath tears out of me.
Breathe, Koty.
I fight the rising panic and instead focus on escape. I did it once. I can do it again. First step—get free.
Back and forth, I rotate my wrists. They’re tied behind me, but my legs aren’t. The cheese knife is heavy in the front pocket of my hoodie, a reminder that I still have a weapon up my sleeve.
A low groan.
I look over as Fallon’s eyes flutter open, cross, then focus on me. “And you were worried about me riding bulls,” she murmurs.
I choke on a sob-laugh.
“Koty. What do we do?” She stares at me with the most terrified eyes I’ve ever seen. A sudden surge of protection zips through my heart.
I jerk against the ties, expand my chest, lengthen my arms. “We’re getting out of here.”
“Fucking great idea,” she grunts, following suit. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
I smile. I’ve never in my life been so glad to hear sarcasm from my sister.
That’s when Fallon stiffens. Her eyes widen, and I follow her gaze to Aiden in the doorway. Always so quiet. A lurking ghost.
“Bout time you woke up,” he says to Fallon. “You couldn’t miss the show.”
“Fuck you,” she growls.
Smirking, he drags a chair from the corner of the room to sit in front of me. Gone is the gun. In its place, a butcher knife. My mouth goes dry.
“Always trying to escape, Koty. Even when it’s hopeless. Even when there’s no running. Not from me.” His voice is rational, controlled.
“You’re in control,” I say, still jerking at the ropes. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?” I can’t keep the hate out of my voice.
With one hand, he grabs my hair, jerking my neck sharply.
I cry out. Fallon screams. Aiden leans in, his face an inch from mine.
The scent of cinnamon is overpowering, and I fight the urge to vomit.
I fight the urge to go back to the night he broke my arm.
To relive that life. To be beaten. Broken. I am stronger than that.
Davis will come. He will find me. I will beat Aiden.
“You little fucking bitch,” Aiden growls. “Why do you have to open your fucking mouth?”
“Hey, asshole,” Fallon shouts. “You sociopathic rat-fuck! You little bitch-ass motherfucker!”
I watch the rage simmer on Aiden’s face as my sister hurls her insults. Icy terror grips me when he turns her way. I shake my head at her, wanting her to shut up. Wanting her to remain invisible.
On a sigh, he stands and stalks across the room. He slaps Fallon across the face. Hard. She slumps forward.
“This one never stops talking,” he says in exasperation, jabbing the knife her way. “Pains in my ass, the both of you.”
Tears stream down my cheeks as I stare at my sister.
Lip curling in distaste, he sits across from me. “You’re a chef. You work with knives, right?”
I shiver as he rests the flat edge of the knife on his thigh. The binds dig into my wrists as I frantically work them.
“So it makes sense to use one on you.”
My eyes pop in terror. “Don’t.”
A wicked smile spreads across his face. “You want to know why I waited so long to have our little reunion?”
Nausea constricts in my throat. I feel faint. “No,” I plead.
“I almost gave up, you know. I almost let him have you, but then I saw that you were expecting. I saw how happy you were, and I thought…why not wait until you have almost everything you ever wanted in life and then take it all away?” He leans in and lifts my shirt, baring my belly.
“I told you I’d take everything from you, Dakota. I’ll take this.”
“Please, not my baby,” I weep. I cringe as his clammy palm rubs a circle on my stomach. “Not my son.”
His hand wraps around my jaw. The knife dances in my periphery. “ Our son .”
“He will never be yours,” I rasp.
Aiden shoves my face away and sits back down, trembling with rage. There’s a distant look in his eyes. This blank look of hatred. “You could have come back. We could have been a family. But no. You made me chase you.”
Behind me, one hand slips loose.
“Now, this is where we land, Dakota. I’m going to cut you apart.
Take your baby. And as you bleed out, you can watch me kill your little sister.
” He rests the sharp edge of the knife low against my belly.
I flinch as the blade breaks the skin. Hot stinging pain crests over me as blood trickles down toward my waistline.
I hiss a breath and wait for it.
Pain. Death.
Only a screeching, clattering sound has Aiden freezing.
Fallon.
Her muscular body rocks her chair forward, backward. Its wooden legs skid and skitter across the hardwood floor. One binding has slipped off her wrist, and my sister jerks at the ropes.
She wears her fury like a halo. It’s everywhere. There’s no doubt if my sister gets out of those ropes, she’ll burn the world.
“Stop,” Aiden orders.
But she doesn’t. Over and over again, her body teeter-totters the chair.
And then she opens her mouth and screams. Great howling screams that I’m sure will crack every board in the cabin.
“Fucking fine.” The knife leaves my belly, and Aiden stands. “She dies first.”
“No,” I cry. I twist and wrench my once-broken arm at an impossible angle. It screams at me. “Don’t fucking touch her.”
The last bind snaps.
Aiden pauses halfway to Fallon. “She’ll bleed out before anyone finds you.”
“You don’t know my family. You don’t know him.” I smile. “You’re dead. He will find you and he will kill you.”
Fallon’s eyes flick to me.
“He’s already on his way.” I lower my voice. “In fact…he’s right outside the door.”
Aiden nervously glances over his shoulder.
That millisecond of doubt is enough.
With a vicious scream, Fallon rocks the chair backward, and it smashes into pieces.
The second Fallon pops up, I tear out of the binds and surge forward. I whip out the knife from the pocket of my hoodie.
“Run, Koty!” Fallon screams, charging Aiden. “Go!
He lunges toward her. The knife slices across her ribs. Fallon screams in pain, but still, she flings herself at Aiden.
Aiden rears back to stab her again.
A primal protection overtakes me. I’m not going to die today and neither is my sister.
I spring onto his back, reach around, and stab the cheese knife into his chest.
“Mother. Fucker,” I enunciate, digging it in with the heel of my palm.
“You fucking bitch,” he howls, thrashing violently.
Fallon collapses to the floor.
Knocked off balance, Aiden hits his knees, smacking his head on the corner of the nightstand. The lamp smashes to the ground. The light goes out.
I leap across the floor, adrenaline coursing through my veins. I’ve never moved so fast, pregnant or otherwise. “Come and get me, asshole,” I hiss.
My only thought is to draw him away from Fallon. Get help. Stay alive.
With blood roaring in my ears and Aiden’s ragged screams at my back, I stagger and weave through the cabin. And then I’m outside.
Free.