Page 28

Willow

J ames had been gone for four days, and with each passing day, myworry grew.

We were on a deadline. The end of the set time he’d beengiven by his father was looming, and instead of taking every opportunity to put a baby in me, James had disappeared to god only knew where.

Since he’d told me about the ultimatum at his mom’s wake,thatwasall I could think about, and my fear of what would happen if we didn’t succeed in getting me pregnant built to epic proportions.

So much sothatI was barely sleeping.

On day five when James still hadn’t returned home, I dragged mytired ass out to the garden with a blanket and my notepad and pen, hoping to lose myself in writing a story to ease the anxiety dominating my every waking thought.

Finding my secluded spot, I tried to start writing, but with the warmsun beating down on me, my eyelids grew heavy. Ditching my pen and paper, I stretched out on the blanket and rested my head on my arms before closing my eyes and willing sleep to come,evenif it was only for a few minutes.

I didn’t know how much time had passed when my eyes flutteredopen, but the sun was no longer high in the sky, and long afternoon shadows spread across the grounds from the surrounding trees.

Slowly, I sat up, blinking the sleep out of my eyes, and finally feeling alittle less jaded. When a dark shadow fell over me, I spun around, expecting to see James, but my excitement quickly turned to fear when someone I didn’t expect to see loomed over me.

“Hello, Willow. You know, you should be more careful of where youfall asleep. You never know when danger is lurking,”Elijah said ominously, an amused smirk on his face.

I jumped to my feet, my panicked gaze searching the groundsaround us, but since finding this spot, I’d never seen any of James’ staff walking through this part, and I knew now would be no different.

“Aren’t you going to say hello back?”Elijah said, taking a stepforward. Nervously, I took a step back.“What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?”

I swallowed.“J…James wouldn’t want me to talk to you,”I stuttered,trepidation gripping me hard.

“Ah, that’s right. You do everything James tells you, don’t you?”hesneered, the amusement glinting in his eyes fading, only to be replaced with something far more menacing.“Such a good little girl. Tell me, don’t you ever get bored of doing everything he tells you to do?”

He took another step forward, and I took another one back, my barefeet stepping off the blanket and pressing into the grass.“Wh…what are you doing here? James is away.”

He smirked.“Oh, I know. I’m not here to see James. I’m here to seeyou.”

Anxiety knotted in my stomach, and I couldn’t help but flinch whenhe reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.“I want to know why you lied.”

The knot pulled tighter.“Lied about what?”I replied, doing my best toplay dumb.

But it wasn’t good enough.

“Lied about the baby. You’re notreallypregnant, are you?”

“Yes, I am,”I protested, but it was a feeble attempt.

He closed the gap between us again, only now, a sense offoreboding had me frozen on the spot. Elijah towered over me, glaring down with daggers in his eyes.“No, you’re not. And want to know how I knowthat?”I couldn’t speak. Couldn’t bring myself toevenshake my head.“I knowthatbecause ever since you came to this house, Edith has been putting birth control pills into your meals.”

An accomplished smirk took over his face as my jaw dropped to thefloor, his eyes lighting up with malice.“You have no idea how miserable she was working for James. All it took was the offer of a few million dollars, enough for her to live the rest of her life with people serving her, instead of her having to serve my asshole cousin, and she was more than happy to do what I wanted.”He paused and looked at his watch.“She left a few minutes ago, her plane to Australia leaves in less than thirty minutes. By the time James discovers what she’s done, she’ll be long gone.”

A reply lodged in my throat, and all I was capable of doing was tostare back at Elijah in complete disbelief, my mind reeling with his confession as Edith’s face flashed in my head. She’d always been cold toward me, but the way she spoke to mewas the same way she spoke to James. I’d always assumed it was her mannerism, it never occurred to methatshe hated working for him.

“Let me fill in the blanks for you, sweetheart. You look a littleconfused,”he said, his tone mocking.“James has something I want, and the only thing stopping me from getting it…”He took another step forward, closing the last remaining space between us.“Is you.”

All hint of amusement fell from his face, and the terror poundingthrough my body seeped right into the marrow of my bones.“If you had his child, the only thing I’ve ever wanted would disappear right in front of me. And I couldn’t allowthatto happen, so I took necessary precautions to make sure you couldn’t get pregnant.”

My head spun, and I swayed when it occurredto methatElijah was telling me this without concernthatI would tell James when he returned home.

Which could only mean one thing.

I wasn’t going to live past this day.

As if Elijah had witnessed the penny drop, an enormous smiletugged at his lips.“Don’t worry, Willow. I’m not going to kill you. But by the time Kevin Welch is done with you, you’ll wish you were dead.”

An evil laugh escaped his lips when my face contorted into sheerhorror.

“D…Director…Welch?”My throat felt like I’d swallowed the sharpestof knife blades as I forced the words out, and a tremor started in the tips of my toes, working its way up my body until every inch of me was shaking.

“Yes, your old director was so sad he didn’t get to claim your virginpussy,”Elijah replied, the wicked glee in his eyes betraying the softness of his tone. He reached for me again, only this time, he stroked a finger down my cheek, leaving a wake of burning fire behind.“He waited a long time, andthenmy cousin showed up andjust…claimed you. Lucky for me, Welch still wants you,eventhough you’re damaged goods.”His eyes dropped, raking salaciously over my body as his tongue darted out to lick his bottom lip.“But you know, maybe I’ll have a little bit of fun with you before I hand you over to Welch.”

Before I could comprehend his words, he suddenly launchedhimself at me, grabbing my arms and spinning me around so my back was to him. He wrapped his strong arms around me, capturing my hands against my breasts, and holding me tightly against his chest. My eyes widened in alarm when he pressed his hard cock against my ass, and bile churned in my stomach.

He chuckled.“Thatwould be the best, ‘fuck you,’ to my cousin,wouldn’t it, Willow? Maybe I’ll film myself fucking you, making you cry as I pound my cock into your little cunt.”

A sob escaped me, but when his warm tongue traced the skin of mycheek, a little voice in my head screamed.

Run!

Without thinking, I lowered my face and sunk my teeth into one ofhis hands, biting down hard enough for a metallic tang to fill my mouth.

“Ah!”he cried out, releasing me.“You fucking little bitch!”

But before I could get out of harm’s way, he grabbed my arm againand spun me around. I didn’t have time to brace before his fist collided with my face.

Dark spots danced in my vision as pain tore through me. More bloodfilled my mouth, only this time it was from the split lip I’djustearned. In less than a second, Elijah was on me again, and despite my attempt to wriggle out of his grasp, he was too strong. He wrestled me down to the ground, spittle flying from his snarlingmouth as he cursed venomously. With one hand wrapped around my throat, squeezing the life out of me, he managed to unbuckle his pants and pulled his erect cock out.

Despite my head now pounding from the blow he’d delivered, andmy lungs burning fiercely from not getting any air,thatvoice still screamed at me to get away.

When his grip loosened on my throat, and his focus turned to tryingto yank my legs apart, I managed to reach a hand in between us where I grabbed his balls, and with as much strength as I could muster, I squeezed as hard as I could.

“Fuck!”he howled, throwing his head back and completely releasingmy throat.

But I didn’t let go. Instead, I squeezed harder, digging my nails intothe sensitive skin. His pained howls echoed into the afternoon sky, and when he managed to rip my fingers from him, he rolled off me, cupping his groin as breathless pants came from him.

I shot to my feet, my heart racing wildly as adrenaline pumpedthrough me, spurring me on. I sprinted to the paththatwould take me back to the house, knowingthatif I made it inside, there were a number of places I could hide from Elijah.

“Willow!”he bellowed furiously from somewhere behind me.

Heavy footsteps followed. Foolishly, I looked over my shoulder to see where he was, panic gripping me when he emerged from the hedgesthathid my little sanctuary and burst into a jog.

Terrified, and not looking where I was going, my foot caught on asmall rock, and I tripped, my knees hitting the gravel path and tearing the skin. Blood trickled down both legs as I got to my feet and pushed myself to keep going.

A choked gasp escaped me when the footsteps behind me grewlouder, but as I turned the corner, I slammed straight into a hard body. Strong arms whipped out to steady me, and I looked up into the eyes of a monster I once feared but was now so damn relieved to see.

“Mouse? What’s going on?”James said, his worried gaze taking inthe blood oozing from the cut on my lip.

“Elijah.”

It was the only word I could get out, but itseemedenough of anexplanation. A scowl formed on James’ face as he tugged my arm, pulling me behind him, and whipping a gun out from underneath his jacketjustas Elijah rounded the corner.

Elijah froze at seeing James pointing his gun at him, butthenanamused grin spread over his face.“Welcome home, cousin. I wasn’t expecting you home today.”

“My schedule is none of your fucking business. What are you doinghere?”James growled, the menacing tone to his words had a tremor shuddering down my spineeventhough it wasn’t aimed at me.

“Thought I’d come and keep your wife company while you wereaway,”he said, winking at me as I peered around James’ arm.“Why don’t you lower your gun, you and I both know you can’t shoot me.”

“Can’t shoot you for hurting my wife?”James replied, cocking thegun.“Yeah, actually I think I can.”

Elijah’s grin grew wider.“Really? The last time I checked, Legion’srules statedthatone member can’t kill another, or they themselves will be terminated.”

My brows furrowed in confusion. What the hell was Legion?

A chuckle left James, but it was humorless.“The rules do statethat.I’m glad you confirmed your awareness of them. Sadly for you, you broke the rules first.”

The gunshot echoing into the air made me jump out of my skin, and Iclutched James’ arm, relieved when he didn’t shrug me off. His other hand still pointed the gun at Elijah who had collapsed on the floor with blood pouring from a wound in his leg.

“What the fuck, James!”Elijah cried, clutching his leg as if he couldstem the bleeding.“You fucking idiot! You know what you’vejustdone, right? You’re dead! Legion won’t stand for this!”

Ignoring my gasp at hearing Elijah tell James he was going to die,James gently pulled his arm out of my grasp and took several strides toward Elijah, the gun trained on him the entire time.

“I’ve waited a long time to do this, cousin, and you’vejustgiven methe excuse I needed,”James said, cocking the gun again.“You hurt Willow. Or I should say Charlotte Somersby, daughter to Helen and Daniel Somersby, both who were members of Legion.”

Elijah’s eyes widened, and in an instant, his pained cries stopped. Fora tense few seconds, neither James nor Elijah spoke, the two of them locked in a fierce staring competition.

Andthenthe silence was broken by another gunshot ringing out.

Only this time, Elijah didn’t cry out in pain. The bullet hole in themiddle of his head prevented him from making any more noise.