Page 14 of Love Me in the Dark

My heart is thumping, and my palms are slick with sweat. I’m shaking so hard I have to clench my teeth to keep them from chattering.

All this time, I haven’t heard anything from Elijah. I haven’t seen him, and all of the bedroom doors besides mine are shut. Where is he? If I could just get a look at him, something to confirm he’s here and not somewhere else doing errands meant to keep him out of the house, I might be able to get through this without feeling like I’m going to die.

Did he mean it when he said I could trust him? That he’s going to protect me?

All I can do is hope the answer is yes.

Otherwise, my nightmare is just beginning.

8

ELIJAH

“What are we doing?”

I hold a finger to my lips at the sound of my brother’s question, then look over my shoulder. They’re still inside, too busy worrying about Leona to notice we left the house. That’s not going to be the case forever. “Remember, you have to be quiet. You can’t say anything.”

I open the back door to the car and put him inside. “Now, stay down, and don’t say a word.”

“You already said that,” he whispers, rolling his eyes.

“And you just spoke, didn’t you?” He only rolls his eyes again as I tuck our bags in with him. He still thinks this is some kind of game, and he can keep thinking that. I’ll explain everything to him eventually. He won’t understand right away, but he’ll eventually get it. I need to believe he will.

Once he’s out of sight, I go back into the house. Rebecca and Dad are still upstairs, so I go to the kitchen and grab bottled water from the fridge and snacks from the pantry, shoving them into an old shopping bag. I don’t know how long we’re going to have to be on the road before we can stop, and I can’t let Tristan go hungry.

I’ve planned this for so long, but there’s no being ready for something like this. Not really. Even though I know we have everything we need, at least until we can stop to rest when it seems like we got away, my heart’s pounding out of my chest. This is it. I won’t get a second chance.

“They’ll be here in twenty minutes.” Rebecca’s voice is close to the top of the stairs, so I duck into the coat closet before she starts coming down. “Do not touch her, Henry. I mean it.”

“I won’t,” Dad grumbles. I know him too well to believe he isn’t resentful that she can see through him. She knows him, too. That’s always been his biggest problem. She saw through him from the second she set eyes on him. She knew she’d found a useful idiot willing to do whatever she wanted if it meant feeding his addiction.

“We need her unharmed and pure. Remember that.” She pauses at the foot of the stairs—I can see her with the door cracked open. “If you disappoint me, you are going to be disappointed. Every dollar I don’t get for her gets taken out of your liquor budget. Understood?” I almost wish I could see the humiliation on his face.

I can’t breathe until she’s outside, and even then, there’s the chance of Tristan popping up in the car and getting her attention. But when a minute passes without any shouting from outside, I take the chance of opening the door and stepping back out into the living room.

Dad’s voice floats down the stairs right on cue. “What are you so worried about?”

Of course, he couldn’t help but go right to her the second Rebecca was gone. I take the stairs two at a time, my blood boiling, my rage enough to make my head pound. All his fault, this is all his fault, and I wouldn’t have to do any of this if it wasn’t for him.

“You’d better get used to men like me. You’re going to be meeting a lot of them soon.”

By the time I’m in the room, he’s standing over her, rubbing himself through his pants while she cowers in fear and disgust with her wrists bound to the bedframe. It’s a shame we couldn’t get to know each other better before you left. I wouldn’t mind getting a taste of that fresh, juicy pussy.”

That’s it. That’s what finally breaks me. After all this time, and all the time before it. Living with his addiction, always coming last to it. Putting up with him selling my stuff so he could afford a bottle of cheap vodka. The fact that we had to come here in the first place.

All of it rushes up from deep inside me like lava about to burst from a volcano. I cross the room so quickly that he doesn’t have time to react before I pull him away from the bed and throw him against the wall behind it.

Before he can say a word, I do what I’ve wanted to do for years. In all the time I’ve imagined punching him in the face, I never came close to the satisfaction that rushes over me when I make contact.

It’s not enough. Again and again, I pay him back for everything. Every insult, every failure, every disappointment. And knowing he’s done this to so many girls, all so he can have what he wants.

“Elijah!” Leona’s weeping by the time I come to, and I’m almost surprised to find my father sliding down the wall in an unconscious, bloody heap.

Only now do I notice what she’s wearing. The sight of it turns my stomach. I quickly untie her wrists. “Quick, put this on.” Her old dress is lying across the foot of the bed like it’s waiting for the next girl to wear it. She pulls it on over what she’s wearing, and I take her by the hand, running down the hall and down the stairs.

Before we can leave, though, I hold her back to make sure there’s nobody nearby who’ll see us. “Okay,” I whisper once it looks like the coast is clear. “We’re going straight out to the car, and you’re going to get in the back and stay low. Tristan’s already there. Don’t say a word, don’t lift your head for anything until I say it’s safe.” She nods, her eyes wide and her face ghostly white.

Here goes nothing.