With a sadistic smile, Ricci removed the knife. “I’ll give you two a chance to say goodbye. I need to get Kade back in here.”
“Ev-evie–” Aaron tried to say before coughing.
“Aaron, please stay with me. It’s going to be okay… I am so, so sorry!” I sobbed as I fought my restraints.
“Stop… apologizing,” he croaked out between coughs as more blood pooled on the cement floor. “Evie… it’s going to be… okay. Know I will always love…” He began to choke on his own blood. “you...” Aaron got the last word out before his body went completely slack, and I knew he was gone.
I screamed in agony. “Aaron! No! God! Please, no!” Unable to stomach the gruesome sight in front of me, I threw up, emptying my stomach onto the floor, the contents resting beside what would later become a bloodstain.
I wasn't sure how long Ricci made me wait for his return. I tried my damndest not to glance over at Aaron’s body. If I did, I knew I would relive the horror over and over again.
“Well, Evelyn dearest, did I miss the big finale?” Ricci clapped his hands and gave me a cruel smile when he finally entered.
Kade followed in tow with an emotionless expression.
“If you’re going to kill me, just fucking kill me now!”
“Oh, that would be too easy, Evelyn. I have big plans for you. Since I know your team is to blame for some of my shipments being derailed, I think it's only fitting you get me the money I am owed.”
“Wh-what do you mean?” My bottom lip began to quiver.
“We are going to auction you off, of course. A fine young ass like yourself...” He sucked in his lips between his teeth. “Will get Daddy lots of money.”
“You’re not my father!”
“So you’ve mentioned...” Ricci muttered.
Kade remained silent. I looked at him with pleading eyes. “Kade… Please…”
Kade responded with a disgusted expression. “Don’t, Evelyn. You’ve made your bed, now you will lie in it.”
Ricci walked over to me and pinched my chin between two of his meaty fingers. “Kade, get her fixed up. We need her presentable for the auction.” He glanced over his shoulder and tilted his head toward Aaron’s body. “And dispose of that trash.”
Ricci began to unhook me from the fence. A grunt escaped me as I fell into Ricci’s chest, having no ability to hold myself up. The spicy scent of his cologne overstimulated my senses.
“Was everything all set at the gym?” Ricci asked Kade.
“Yeah, crazy what a leaking gas pipe can do,” Kade responded sarcastically.
“Ha! That a boy! Grab Loverboy, I have this one.”
The next thing I knew I was shoved into the back of a blacked-out van with my wrists and ankles bound, and Aaron’s lifeless body beside me. They’d tossed him into the van with as much carelessness as throwing trash on the beach.
I closed my eyes and tried to calm my racing heart. But before I could open them, I felt the familiar pinch in my neck, sending me back into darkness.
FORTY
EVELYN
I was jostled awake when we hit several potholes in a row, making my head bounce off the floor of the van.
Holding my head while groaning, I slowly sat up, surprised that I wasn’t restrained, and rested my head on the metal frame. A sticky substance felt like it was all over me. My vision began to focus and the gruesome scene before me came into focus.
A piercing scream escaped me and echoed off the metal frame of the van. The memory of how I ended up in the van overwhelmed me. Aaron lay in an unnatural position next to me. His eyes were closed as blood oozed out of the side of his mouth. Glancing down at myself, I saw that I was covered in the blood that was pooled on the van’s floor. A sob of agony left me as I began to move Aaron’s body to a more natural position. His clothes were saturated, making the cloth cling to his body. I rested my forehead on his unmoving chest as I let my grief consume me.
“Fuck, Arrow. I am so… fucking… sorry,” I cried into his chest.
I needed to wake up from this fucked-up nightmare. Mythoughts went back to when I first met Aaron. I needed some reprieve from this agonizing moment.
