Two of the men pulled the frame apart, then all four walked inside.
That sense of foreboding continued to creep through Nico as they walked through the house.
We’re almost there, baby. Don’t do anything stupid.
Autumn walked past Elijah. The concrete flooring did not stop in the hallway. It was everywhere, and in the center of the large room was a worktable much like Fox had used on those other women. The way Elijah positioned the table, Reagan sat in an upright position, her legs tied down and her arms behind her back. The image on the cell phone showed Reagan’s eyes were closed. Now, they were both black and blue.
Autumn swallowed hard and kept her emotions in check as she stared at her friend. Again, Reagan had a look of indifference pasted on her face.
Autumn turned to Elijah. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her. I was supposed to take her place, remember?”
“I never said I wouldn’t have fun while I waited for you, did I?” Elijah’s droll tone reached her from where he sat against one wall. One knee rose with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn’t smile at her, but she felt his eyes—
Her brows furrowed as she stared at him. His left eyelid drooped down. You could see the whites of his eyeball, it was as if it were barely hanging inside its socket.
“How—”
“This?” He smirked, pointing at his face, “A hunting accident when I was young.” He stepped around the table and stood closer to Autumn. “It’s interesting what a little camera manipulation, sunglasses, and lighting can do for you.” He moved back to Reagan; his head cocked. Elijah reached out and touched Reagan’s cheek. The woman flinched. She tried to hide it, but Autumn saw the miniscule movement as she tried to move her head away from him.
Elijah snickered as he took his hand from her. “She is feisty. A pity I won’t be doing more with her.” He turned to Autumn and leered. “But I think I’ll have even more fun making you suffer.”
You won’t be touching anyone, you sick bastard.
Autumn nodded towards his eye, ignoring his threat. “You never came to the Taylor home like that.”
Elijah blinked at her, crossed his arms, and leaned against the table. He rolled his sleeves up his arms as if he were afraid to dirty them. “My parents hid me. And they sent someone to homeschool me. When they couldn’t keep me a prisoner, they gave me dark sunglasses to hide the new defect.”
It was Autumn’s turn to blink back. “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not surprised you didn’t know the entire story. Dear old Mom and Dad tried to hide the disfigured monster from the world.” His lips tilted up on one side. “I’d told Mom about Dad’s fascination with eyes and how we would take them from the animals we killed on our little hunting trips.” A couple of strands of hair fell in his eyes. It made him look even more sinister with that eyeball nearly hanging out of his skull.
“I can imagine she wasn’t too thrilled about that.”
“She said I was a sinner. A deviant like my father.”
Like Father, like son.
“She committed suicide shortly after that?”
He appeared icy and stone sober. There was no emotion in his green eyes as if the conversation didn’t affect him. “She had nothing left to live for. The devil tainted me.” He smirked again. “Or so it appeared.” He moved toward Autumn again, “And you are responsible for all of it.”
“I can’t take credit for your father’s death. Nor your mother’s.”
“You took my father from me before you shot him in the head,” he growled. He reached out and grabbed her by the neck. He wasn’t choking her, but his grip was like that of a bird with sharp talons. “If David Taylor never adopted you, we would never be in this predicament.” He raised an eyebrow. “And your cousin would never have been jealous of the attention that was given to you.”
Autumn put her hand over his cold, icy one. “She’s going to prison for her part in all this. She won’t get away with murder. I’ll make sure of that.” She squeezed the words through her vocal cords as best as she could.
“You really think so? Won’t the Big Three get to her before she gets there?” He tossed Autumn against the wall with surprising strength she didn’t see coming.
Her back hit the cement and knocked the breath out of her before she fell to the ground. Autumn gasped, coughed as she rubbed her throat, then looked back up at Elijah. “What did you do, Elijah?”
He squatted before her, so they were at an equal eye level. “It just takes a phone call to the right person, Autumn.”
“You—”
She didn’t complete her thought as she heard a faint sound. She didn’t know if it was outside or inside the house. This place seemed to be built from the ground up, as she was at least three floors underground.
“I what?” Elijah asked with a raised eyebrow over his good eye. “How could I approach them? They want me dead, right?” He smirked with a roll of his eyes, “They don’t know what I look like, do they?” He pointed at his drooping eye. “They never saw this.”
