She’s not going anywhere. That’s the one thing I’m certain of.
I didn’t force her to accept any of this. She did that on her own and it’s too late to steal it away from me again.
She accepted and someone threatening her into taking a bribe won’t change those facts, even if it’s from my father. Even if he corrupted my sweet angel into doing something he never should have wanted, let alone coerced her to do.
Evie’s mine. She stays.
The rest of it, dealing with my father, figuring out her past, we’ll sort out together.
I reach into my jacket pocket, for the shot I organised when I saw her struggle to swallow last time. By the time she works outthere’s something in my hand, the plunger has sent the sedative deep into her muscle.
And I hold her in place, a hand over her mouth to stop the scream until her legs sag underneath her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
EVIE
One moment,I’m floating on a warm blue wave of bliss, the next a spike of fear thrusts straight through me, jolting me upright, startling me fully awake.
I’m on a bed. In a strange room. My mind tries but can’t get a handle on how or why or when I got here. I don’t remember falling asleep at all.
After a few seconds, I swing my legs over the edge of the bed.
There’s a grogginess that makes it hard to think, hard to remember, hard to process the influx of information slamming into me through my eyes, my ears, my skin. A pulse throbs in my upper arm and by the time I rub it, I understand what caused it.
He injected me. He drugged me.
The horrible knowledge descends like a black cloak over my consciousness, making my knees buckle until they nearly spill me back onto the bed.
The view alone tells me I’m in Maddox’s house and my blood pressure spikes, worried who else might be here.
Another glance and I think this must be Addie’s room. I stare at the clothes I’m wearing, none of them mine.
I have the horrible sense they’re Addie’s clothes. When I touch my throat, the leather choker is back in place.
“Maddox?”
My voice is weak enough to cause a new flurry of alarm. Why do I sound so scared?
I steady myself with one hand against the headboard while I take a longer perusal at myself. There aren’t bloodstains. No pieces of me are hanging off at strange angles. There’s been nothing inside me while I was out. I can’t taste anything weird or wonderful in my mouth.
Nothing to be frightened about.
I take a few tentative steps, finding my balance and then trying a few more. The door to hallway is ajar but I turn towards the other one. This room is set out like a backwards replica of Maddox’s, so I know this will lead to a bathroom.
When I try to turn the knob, it sticks. Someone’s locked it from the inside.
“Maddox?”
There’s no answer and I tap it with my knuckles, being insanely gentle considering I want the person inside to know I’m out here. I’m alive. “Maddox, are you in there?”
A whimper is just within the level of my hearing. My pulse thumps so loudly it’s hard to hear past the beat in my ears.
“Can you open the door?”
There’s no answer. I press my palm flat against the wood, trying to imagine what’s happening on the other side.
When I scan the room again, searching for anything that might help, I see a shattered vase on the opposite side of the bed. There are large chunks of broken blue glass, the ombre artwork going from pastel to the dark navy of the night sky.
