“No. Don’t. Just stay here…with me?”
I fall down onto my butt, thankful she wants to see me. That’s unlike her. She’s always telling me to go. To be careful and that I shouldn’t be down here. “Okay.”
“I…I want to tell you how proud of you I am, Kashton.”
I frown. “But I haven’t done anything.”
“You’ve done everything. You’ve fed me and offered to keep me warm,” she whispers, making no attempt to pick up the brownie. “But sometimes you have to hurt the one you love.”
I don’t like that. “You’ve never hurt me.” She loves me, right? She’s never told me before, but I know she does.
“I will. It’s life…inevitable.”
The sound of a door slamming has me jumping up. I blink rapidly, wiping drool off my chin. I had fallen asleep.
Has an hour already passed by?
A crying Ellington rushes past me and out the front door. I look around aimlessly, trying to get my bearings, then grab a box of Kleenex off a round table to my right before I rush after her.
“Elli?” I call out, running up next to her. She can’t move very fast with her pregnancy. I take her elbow like earlier and help her down the steps before putting her in the passenger seat of the SUV.
Once I fall into the driver’s seat, I hand her the box, and she starts blowing her nose, sobbing uncontrollably.
“What can I do?” I ask nervously. Shit. Easton is going to kill me. “Need me to call Sin?”
She shakes her head, wiping her eyes. “He…won’t answer.”
Right. Fuck. He’s on an assignment. “Need me?—”
“Just…let’s just go.” She hiccups. “Please.”
“Are you hungry?” I ask. I know women get emotional when they’re hungry. Especially pregnant women. Don’t they have insane cravings?
She nods and speaks softly. “I could eat.”
Okay, we’re getting somewhere. “What would you like?” I never venture this far out, so I don’t know what’s around here, but I’ll drive another hour out of my way if I need to in order to get her what she wants.
Blowing her nose again, she takes a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Ice cream,” she answers.
Ice cream it is.
NINETEEN
EVERETT
Sixteen years old
I’m dragged into a room and shoved onto a metal chair that’s bolted to the floor. I rub my hands up and down my arms, trying to warm myself up, but they’re grabbed and brought behind my back. The sound of the zip tie fills the room as the hard nylon cuts into my skin.
I wish they’d at least give me a jacket. I hate it down here. It’s always freezing.
“Hello, Eve.” The woman enters with a smile, and I groan. Not this bitch again. I’m going to bite her for real next time she touches me. “How are you feeling today?”
I look away, refusing to answer, and a hand fists my hair, forcing my face down onto the table. Smashing my cheek into the steel. “You speak when you’re spoken to,” the man orders.
“Yes, sir,” I growl through gritted teeth. I’m so tired of them thinking they can control everything I do.
He lets go of me and I sit up, wishing I could push the hair from my face but settling for trying to blow it out of my way instead. “I’m feeling good.” I tell her what she wants to hear.
