Page 13

Chapter Thirteen

Elena

I ’m on the ground before I even know it.

Two of the men have grabbed me and pinned me to the floor. I struggle, looking for Aiden for help, but he’s busy fighting off the other men. One of them kicks the gun out of Aiden’s hand and lands a hit right to his throat, knocking him back. The sound he makes sends shivers down my spine – it’s one of pain. Aiden isn’t invincible, I remind myself.

He doesn’t go down without a fight but there are just too many men and they swarm him.

The gruff-voiced man hits Aiden right in the face. It makes him stumble and that gives the men an advantage. They grab Aiden and force him to the ground next to me.

“Well, that was fun,” the gruff-voiced man says.

“Who are you?” Aiden growls.

“I work for Patrick.”

“I know. But I’ve never met you before.” He bucks and strains against the men holding him but there is just too many for even him to take down.

The two men holding me keep me down as well but at least they don’t try touching me inappropriately.

“I’m Connor. I’m the man that Patrick wanted to replace him after he died. After you left.” He nudges Aiden’s hurt face with his foot, making Aiden wince. “Now, we’ve come to get our revenge. You killed him and you’ll be punished for it.”

“How did you even find us?”

“I had men break off into different directions. They asked around until they found information about people spotted who looked a lot like the two of you. But what gave you away the most was the little job you took. My men were monitoring the sight you use to make a living. It wasn’t hard to find you from that if you know what to look for. They followed you to here.” Connot bends down and grabs Aiden’s hair, jerking his head back, forcing Aiden to let out a grunt. “We could have just killed you at any moment but we wanted to wait for you to return to your girl here. You see, she needs to be punished as well. She played a part in Patrick’s death.”

“She had nothing to do with it,” Aiden snarls.

“She might not have killed him herself but it was clear that the reason you killed Patrick was because he was hurting her and that makes her responsible too.”

“How do you even know this? You weren’t there.”

“You didn’t kill every man who was at Patrick’s house today. You think you’re so smart, Aiden. You’re quick on your feet, I’ll give you that. But you’re just a man and men all have weaknesses and it’s pretty obvious who’s your weakness.” He looks right at me and I flinch. I don’t want to be anyone’s weakness because that means I can be used against Aiden and he can be used against me.

“Leave her alone,” Aiden growls.

“I would if I could. But don’t worry. I don’t have any plans of raping the girl. At least, not yet anyway. It’s you who we want to hurt first. But we’re leaving. Taking you back to Boston.”

“Just take me. Elena had nothing to do with it. Kill me and you’ll have your revenge.”

“Aiden, no,” I whisper.

“Don’t,” he warns me. “Don’t try to save me. It’s my job to save you.” His eyes say so much as we look across the room at each other. We’ve been through so much in such a short amount of time. It’s bonded us.

Connor rolls his eyes. “How sweet. But you’re both coming with us.” He nods and the men holding me lift me up. I try to scream but one of them clams his hand over my mouth. It stinks of sweat and meat. I bite his hand and for a moment he lets me go and I run for the door but the two men grab me again and carry me outside.

“No,” Aiden shouts from the motel room. Surely someone will hear that. Hear us. But when I look around the parking lot, all I see is emptiness. There’s no one else around to help us.

And even if someone did call the police, they would be too late.

The men force me into a car. It doesn’t escape my notice that I’m being kidnapped. Again . Ever since my nineteenth birthday, my entire life has changed. It was a bad omen somehow, like the world just knew my life would never be the same again.

Aiden is brought to another car. He does a good job of struggling and it takes four men to control him enough to get him into the vehicle.

“Aiden!” I scream, pounding on the back window. His eyes catch mine. They tell me everything I need to know: he will fight to save me.

But as the cars drive away from the motel, I can’t help but wonder if I’ll ever see him again.

Connor brings us back to Patrick’s house.

“It’s my house now,” he says with pride as Aiden and I are thrown onto the hard marble floor.

Aiden instantly gets up but three men force him back to his knees. None of the men touch me. They know I’m not a threat.

“You’re amusing,” Connor says. “Thinking you can get out of this.” He leans in close to Aiden’s face. “You can’t.”

“If you don’t kill me right this second, then you’re going to regret it.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Because I’ll find a way out of this situation to kill you. So if you don’t want me doing that, then you need to kill me right now.”

Connor shares a laugh with the other men. “I want to hurt you first. It’s what you get for killing Patrick. Did you know that I was the one who found his dead body? I returned here to find this place in chaos. The other men were out looking for you but I went down to the basement and saw Patrick lying there, dead. You’ve never known that kind of pain.”

“My own dad is dead, asshole,” Aiden snaps.

“From what Patrick told me about you, you and your dad were never close so I wouldn’t use that to try and win sympathy from me.”

“It wasn’t easy to kill Patrick. You have to know that. I didn’t relish in it.”

Connor’s face contorts into something awful and angry as he grabs Aiden’s hair again, yanking his head back. “But you still did it. And for what? This girl.” He lets Aiden go and stands before me. “What’s so special about her? She’s pretty, I’ll give you that. But no woman is worth any of this.”

I stare back without lowering my eyes. I will not show fear. It has controlled me for too much of my life. I won’t let it win now.

“Does she had a magical pussy or something?” Connor’s sleazy grin makes me shudder.

“Don’t talk about her like that,” Aiden warns.

“Ah. So she does have a magical pussy.”

“We’ve never slept together.” I’m not sure why I say it.

Connor’s eyes widen as he turns back to Aiden. “Let me get this straight. You’ve gone to all this trouble to save this girl and you haven’t even fucked her yet? Man, you are whipped.”

Aiden doesn’t dignify it with a response.

“You are going to regret this,” I tell Connor, drawing his attention back to me.

“How so, baby? You and your boy here have no power. You have nothing. So how am I going to regret this? I’ll kill your boyfriend – or whatever he is to you – and then I’ll kill you next. Or maybe I’ll kill you first just to hurt him. How does that sound?”

“Aiden is not my boyfriend. He doesn’t care if I live or die.”

“Somehow, I doubt that. I think he cares very much whether you live or die. It’s why he’s gone to all this trouble. It’s why he killed Patrick in the first place. It’s why he risked the wrath of the Irish mob. All to save you.” He taps my nose making me jerk my head back.

There’s nothing I can say to tell Connor that he’s wrong because, well, he’s not wrong. Aiden does care for me. I know that much. He wouldn’t be trying so hard to save me if he didn’t.

He never would have spared that senator if it weren’t for me. We’ve shared too many moments on this journey for there to be nothing between us.

I can deny it all I want but I deeply care for Aiden. Despite how we met, despite what his brother did, despite all the dangers he has put me in, I care for him, and it might even be more than that.

If I make it out of this alive, I’m not sure how I could ever return to my normal life again.

“Take her out back. Lock her in the cage.”

My body turns to ice. The cage?

Aiden begins to struggle against the men holding him. “Don’t.”

“I just need to get her out of the way for the time being as I torture you. Need to make sure she doesn’t escape.” He nods at the men beside me. “Take her there.”

They place their hands under my arms and drag me across the room.

“Elena!” Aiden calls out. “I will save you. I promise.”

I appreciate the promise but I have a feeling that Aiden won’t be able to save me this time.

The men take me outside to the beautiful lush garden in the backyard. They bypass it and walk me to a shed at the far edges of the yard. When they open the door, I see a large dog cage inside.

“No,” I whisper, my body instantly fighting for survival. I kick and claw at them but they overpower me and shove me into the cage. “No!” They shut the door and lock it.

Then they leave the shed and shut me inside.

Aiden

“You won’t be able to save her,” Connor tells me, smiling like he’s already won. He hasn’t won – not until I’m dead. “Take him down to the basement. I want him to be tortured in the place where he killed Patrick.”

The three men drag me downstairs. I conserve my strength as I’ll need it to fight my wait out. Each of the men have a gun in their waistband. Good.

As the men struggle to get me down the stairs, I whip around and grab one of their guns but Connor has his own gun out and places it to my head much faster than I thought possible. All right then. This man has more speed than I’ve given him credit for.

“Drop the gun, Aiden.”

“You want to torture me. Not kill me.” I land a shot to one of the men. The bullet hits him in the leg, sending him sprawling down the stairs, and landing with a loud thud. He screams as he holds onto his bleeding leg.

Another man grabs the gun from me.

Connor’s smile is tight. “Not funny.”

“It is a little to me.”

“Get Jerry some help,” he says to one of the men.

“But that would leave you and Aiden and Sam alone. You need all the help you can get.”

“Fine then. We’ll let him bleed to death.” Connor nudges me down the stairs until I’m in the exact same spot I was in when I killed Patrick.

The man I shot won’t stop crying and groaning.

The other men look uncertain. They obviously want to help their friend but they don’t want to leave me outnumbered. The only reason I haven’t won is because there’s too many of them for me to take on by myself. What I really need is Finn here.

For the first time since I brought Elena on this journey, I feel myself missing my brother. I don’t even know where he is.

I doubt Dante and Erik have captured him. Not Finn. Not when he’s great at eluding people.

If I could just see my brother one more time, I’d be happy. I’d tell him that I’m not sorry I saved Elena’s life but that I do love him and I always will.

Connor drags a chair out from a dark corner. “Sit.”

“You’re going to have to make me.”

“Fine.” He nods at his men and they force me into the chair where they tie my ankles and wrists to it. “Much better.” Then Connor punches me in the face. It fucking hurts if I’m being honest.

I’ve given enough punches in my lifetime to know the power of them and Connor has some fairly powerful hits. He’s pissed. That’s good. Maybe I can use that against him. Extreme anger makes people mess up. I just have to wait for my moment.

That is if I don’t die first.

“Did you honestly think you could get away with killing Patrick Sullivan and not face the consequences?”

“I wasn’t really thinking,” I admit. “I just wanted to save Elena.”

“So you killed Patrick for her? The man who helped raise you?”

I scoff. “He didn’t raise me. I met him when I was twenty. He helped me become a man, sure. But he never raised me. I was raised by my mother and no father.”

“Mmm. And where’s your mother now? She’d be a good one to make you hurt.”

My blood turns to ice. “Leave my mother out of this. She had no part in this.”

“But it would hurt you.”

“You’ll kill me long before you find my mother.” The formidable Fiona Murphy has withstood a lot in her life. My father would beat her constantly and yet, she survived. But even she’s not invincible. I can’t lose both my brother and mom. I would rather die.

Connor shrugs. “You have a good point. I think the girl we have locked up is enough to make you hurt.”

“Let her go.”

“Oh, Aiden. Your demands are pointless. I am not letting Elena go for anything in this world. Not until you’re dead.” He draws a small knife from his boot and strokes it down my face. I jerk back but it does me no good. Connor presses the tip into my cheek and knicks me, drawing blood. I can taste it as the blood reaches my lips.

“Have you ever been tortured?” he asks.

“Many times.” My father locked me up in a cold room for a lot of my life. I know torture. I survived it and I will survive this. I have to because the other alternative is that Elena will be killed right along with me and I have fought too hard to save her just to go out like this.

“Disappointing. I was hoping to be your first.”

“Sorry. My torture cheery has already been popped.”

“You’re funny.” He taps my cheek with the knife. The point of it is so close to my eye that he could easily blind me if he just moved it up an inch.

“Are you going to get this over with or not?” I demand. “Just get on with it.”

“Fine then.” He nods to one of the other men. “Grab the stick.”

The man grabs a small wooden box off a shelf and opens it up to reveal tiny wooden sticks. Connor picks one up. It looks innocent enough but I know what it’s used for and it’s not going to be fun.

He places the stick right under the tip of my nail. “Let’s begin, shall we?” The stick gets wedged deeper under my nail.

To say that it hurts is a fucking understatement. For the first time that night since Connor brought me here, I scream.

Connor only laughs as he drives the stick deeper under my nail. Once I’ve had enough, he pulls it back and tosses it to the side. “Another one.”

I focus on my breathing. I can do this. I can make it out of here.

But my hope is slowly disappearing. I’m tied to a chair with impressive knots. Connor’s men know what they’re doing, which isn’t surprising since Patrick taught me how to tie knots a person could never get out of. I guess he taught the rest of them too. How ironic. My own methods being used against me.

Connor jams a stick into another one of my fingers and it hurts just as fucking bad.

I can make it through this, I keep repeating in my head. But the longer the torture goes on, I know I’m going to die here.

I failed in my mission. I failed Elena.

And that’s what hurts the most of all.

Elena

The cage is so small, I can barely sit upright in it, so it makes me bend over at an awkward angle.

This can’t be the end. Not after everything Aiden and I have been through. If my mother saw me right now, she’d criticize me for not trying hard enough to escape. For being pathetic. She’d probably even get a dig in to my hair. I’m sure it’s a mess right now.

Since my dad died, I haven’t had anyone in my life who cared about me. Yes, I have Inessa but I know she’s dealing with her own issues. Her father is gambling away most of their money. Even though she was always kind to me, I could tell her mind was lost on her own issues and I never blamed her for that.

I’ve never had anyone truly be there for me other than my dad. Ivan Romanov fought hard to save me but he failed. The last thing my father felt was fear.

I feel fear now. It’s been a steady presence in my life for a while now.

The door opens and one of the men comes back inside. “Hey, baby. Comfortable?” He snickers like he’s so funny when he’s really just an asshole. I was never allowed to curse as my mother thought it was un-lady-like but my mother isn’t here, is she?

I don’t give the man the satisfaction of seeing me beg. If I can do at least one thing, it’s to not give them what they want.

“I have a gift for you.” He takes his penis out and flaps it right in front of my face. I shrink and avert my eyes. “Come on, baby. Watch.” And right before me, he jerks off.

It’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.

He groans when he finishes as his semen leaves his body. It hits the cage but fortunately, not me.

“Like that?” he asks. When I don’t say anything, he scoffs and mutters, “Whatever,” as he leaves the shed.

I have to get out of here before it’s too late.

The shed is filled with power tools from electric screwdrivers to chainsaws. A rake is in the corner. It’s just a normal shed they stuck me in.

My eyes land on a non-electric screwdriver resting on a table near me. If I could just reach out and grab it…

I strain against the bars of the cage as I put my arm at an awkward angle and reach up to grab the screwdriver. My fingers just barely reach.

Come on, I tell myself. Come one. My fingers strain and strain and strain…

… until the screwdriver finally tips off the table and falls into my hand.

I don’t let myself celebrate. I have to get out of here first.

I try undoing the lock on the cage with the screwdriver but I can’t unlock it. I jiggle it around for a few minutes but nothing happens. I have no idea what I’m doing. I need the key to get out of here.

That’s when an idea hits me.

“Hey!” I call out, hiding the screwdriver behind me. “Hey!”

The man who jerked off comes back inside. “What?”

“I changed my mind. I liked what… I saw.” I try to keep myself from blushing as I say the words. Confidence is what I need right now.

The man smirks. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. And I was thinking you could…” I need to say it. I need to be brave. “I was thinking you could give me a kiss.”

“You want a kiss, baby? Sure. I’ll give you a kiss.”

I notice the keys dangling off his waistband. I have to time this just right.

The man gets on his knees and presses his face to the bar. I lean towards him.

And jam the screwdriver right into his eye. As he screams and falls backward, I manage to grab the key and unlock the cage.

“You little bitch,” he growls, reaching for my leg. I stumble and slam into one of the counters. But that’s perfect because it allows me to grab the electric screwdriver and jam it into the man’s throat. I gasp as his blood splatters onto my face.

He lets out a gurgle before he dies. Holy…

I just killed a man.

The door opens and the other man who put me into the cage walks into the room. He stops short when he sees what has happened.

Before he can reach for his gun, I grab the rake off the wall and rush at him, slamming the hard spikes right into his body. He grunts once before he slumps to the floor as his blood gushes from his wounds.

I just killed two men. What has overcome me? Adrenaline and fear and courage. I’m not willing to die here and Aiden needs help. He’s been the one saving me for days now. It’s time I return the favor.

But I can’t take on men with guns. All I have is the electric screwdriver.

Except…

I turn to the men I just killed. They both have guns. I’ve never used one before as my father thought it wasn’t right for a girl to know how to defend herself. Some Bratva daughters are taught how to use it in case of emergency. I really wish I hadn’t been so sheltered before now.

With no other choice, I grab both of their guns and leave the shed. Someone might have heard what happened so I have to be fast.

Sprinting through the garden, I reach the house and tiptoe inside. I clutch one of the guns while the other one is in my waistband.

There aren’t any men in sight. This house is huge but I have a feeling I know where Connor took Aiden. The basement.

Taking a deep breath, I open the basement door. I won’t have many chances for this. I just need to shoot those men and save Aiden. I cannot hesitate. I cannot be afraid.

If my father saw me now, I hope he would be proud. My mother would only be horrified at the state I am in: blood on my face and hands and my hair a mess. I’m not even sure she would recognize me.

I walk as quietly as I can down the stairs, ready to save Aiden.