Page 25

I shook my throbbing head and whispered, “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

A vein bulged on his forehead. “Promise,” he mouthed.

Even if I could escape, I’d never leave him. I thrust my chin left to right.

The muscles in his chest and arms pumped up for a fight. “Promise. Me.” His moving lips were mute, but I felt the venom of his demand in my gut.

The squeak of sneakers on concrete pierced the silence. Footsteps approached. Hands curled into my bound arms, lifting me.

Joel tried to get up, eyes wild. Then I was bent over Steve’s shoulder, watching his back and legs move over the concrete. I arched to look at Joel, captured his gaze, and mouthed, “I promise.”

He closed his eyes and sagged against the wall.

Steve bent, and my back hit cement. A smile slithered across his face and kicked up my pulse. “Hey Pop, ‘bout ready?”

“All set.” Eugene strutted over to me, hiking his trousers over his gut. “Oh, Evie girl. Steve and I’s been real lonely, like. Seeing how you’re the last woman left, it’s your job to help us out with that.”

A hot acid burn made its way to the back of my throat. “What? Eugene, no. Don’t you fucking do this. I’ll fucking—”

Steve shoved a rag in my mouth. I bit his finger and tried to head butt him. He sat on me and tied a gag around my head. That done, he raised the AA-12 and aimed it at Joel.

Eugene knelt next to me, fisting a large hunting knife. I bit down on the rag and dug my nails into my palms, but the heave of my chest betrayed me.

“Now you’re gonna hold real still for me while I cut away your clothes.”

“Or else,” Steve said, “I’ll introduce Joel to this shotgun you fancy so much.”

Piece by piece was cut away. Eugene kept his eyes on the knife, careful not to nick me despite my squirming and moaning. Finally, the last scrap of clothing was removed, and I lay bare on the cold floor.

Eugene collected the rope hanging from the pulleys. Used it to replace the ties on my wrist. Then he yanked hard on another rope and slid me into place. I hung from a pulley system designed to lift me up and down. I twisted my arms and pulled as hard as I could against the binds. There was no give.

I thought about my life leading to that moment, about my father. When he pulled the trigger on himself, was he sorry he never hugged me? Never told me he loved me? If he were there, would he have given me those comforts knowing I so desperately needed it?

“Pop, let me do the honors, huh?”

“Go ahead, boy.”

Steve tossed him the AA-12 and squatted before me. His eyes seared every inch of my skin. “Fucking beautiful. I’ve been watching you, you know. When you and Joel thought you were stealing away those private moments. When you thought you were bathing under his eyes only.” He wet his lips and pulled a blade from his boot. “But I’ve longed to see you close up. Like this.”

He traced the inside of my thigh with the blunt edge of the blade. I tried to stifle the brutal shaking in my muscles and failed. He cut away the ties at my knees and ankles.

I kicked out a leg. He was expecting it and dodged. “Now, now. There’s only one reason we’re keeping Joel alive.”

Eugene stepped over to Joel and kicked him in the side. I writhed against the rope, my face boiling.

Steve squeezed my chin. “So you’ll be cooperatin’ from here on out, ‘kay?”

My teeth gnawed the gag when his cold hand gripped my waist, burned my skin. The moment he cupped my bared sex, it occurred to me that I’d half-fooled myself into thinking they wouldn’t go through with it. But, oh God, it was happening. Panic ripped through me, ramping my pulse and catapulting my stomach to my throat. I jammed my eyes shut.

Time passed like the stages of grief. I kept my eyes closed, pretending it wasn’t happening. Then the nauseating pain became difficult to ignore. It fueled a hatred so deep, my bones thrummed with it.

When I opened my eyes, I sought out those of the men hurting me. Neither would meet my glare. That was when I looked to Joel. If I could wash away one memory from my life to date, it would be the suffering in his eyes while I was raped in front of him.

After that, I hid behind closed lids, certain Joel and I would die. I didn’t want to watch it happen. The realization crushed my heart in a suffocating ache.

When I eventually dragged my eyes open again, daylight’s glow no longer outlined the basement’s exterior door. By then, my body sagged, numb in most places. A dull throb in others. I knew the tissues between my legs were ripped from the dry penetration, the sandpaper scraping of meat on meat. At least, until blood and semen wet me there.