Page 6

My heart raced, and the blood pounded so loud in my ears I could hardly even hear the faint lapping of the water anymore. I knew things weren't good at the shop, but I never thought this was going on. Now it made sense why Dad said he could talk to The Willows. My chest ached, knowing he had been desperate enough to do this but kept it a secret from me.

Worse was the fact that Preston felt some kind of ownership over me now.

My chest burned. Enough was enough. “Preston, get the fuck out of my way!” I screamed, shoving his chest with as much strength as I could muster.

Preston stumbled backward, and I made a run for the door, but he caught me by the throat, slamming me back against the wall. The pressure around my neck was so tight that I thought it might snap in two.

Preston leaned his face toward mine, his breath hot against my cheek. The stench of booze hit me in the face, and I thrashed my arms, wailing against his body, but he only squeezed tighter.

The light caught every line in his face, casting shadows that only accentuated the sinister sneer of his mouth. “You think you’re better than me, huh? That’s what it is.” He slammed me again against the wall. “You think you're too good for me? You’d be lucky to be with someone like me, you stupid whore,” he spat.

I’d never seen him this drunk, this violent. I tried to scream, but his grip was too tight around my neck, choking the words from my throat.

I brought my knee up, aiming for his groin, but instead it landed squarely against his side. It felt like I had kicked a stone wall, and his arms remained locked in place against me, despite the blow.

Preston grunted, his face snarling back at me. “You stupid little bitch,” he sneered, slamming my head against the brick wall. “I tried to do this nicely, Evie. I really did.”

The edges of my vision began to darken, and white spots danced across my eyes.

As my head cracked against the wall, pain shot through my body, and I felt myself slinking down the wall, a lukewarm liquid dribbling down my neck.

Blood.

I stared up at his towering frame, silhouetted by the glow of the light behind him. My vision blurred, and the world around me spun. Preston was saying words, but I couldn’t hear anything through the ringing in my ears.

He laughed through ragged breaths, his eyes wide and wild, staring down at me. “No more games. You need to learn some fucking respect!”

Preston reached down to grab me, and I saw my chance. Mustering up the remaining strength within me, I bit down hard on his forearm. The taste of metal flooded my mouth as he stifled a scream. His grip loosened, but only for a moment.

“I’ll fucking kill you, stupid bitch!” he spat, eyes blazing back at me, red and bloodshot.

Preston’s arm reared back, and his fist collided with the side of my face.

After that, I fought the slowly creeping darkness as my legs flailed and kicked, searching for anything to leverage momentum off of, but my body was a ton of bricks, unable to move.

The world disappeared around me, and all that remained was the pain radiating throughout my body, the taste of blood in my mouth, and the animalistic glare of Preston’s bottomless eyes.

Everything faded as I sank deeper and deeper into the darkest depths of myself.

Iwoke to a soothing rocking motion and the sound of slapping waves. The familiar feeling was comforting, but as the pain in my body rushed back to life, that feeling gave way to my reality. As my eyes snapped open to pure darkness, my brain caught up to what had happened: Preston in the alley, his drunken rage, and the crack to my skull against the brick wall.

The sound of waves slapping around me grew even louder.

Am I on a boat?

Panic flooded over me, and I tried to scream, but it was quickly drowned out, muffled by some kind of gag in my mouth.

Everything was dark, and when I tried moving, I felt the bite of zip ties cutting into my wrists and ankles as I squirmed. Craning my head up as much as I could, I peeked through the tiny gap in the ceiling, assuming it was the deck. Tiny bits of moonlight peeked through the cracks, and I caught a glimpse of the night sky and the distant glow of the Seattle skyline.

We had to be very far out into Elliott Bay, and the realization that nobody would hear me out here twisted my stomach into knots. Before I could think of a plan, the hatch of the boat was thrown open with Preston’s face staring menacingly down at me.

“Well, look at that, the princess is finally awake,” he cackled to himself.

I sent daggers at him as my teeth gnashed down hard on the gag. The hatred I felt for him was more than anything I’d ever felt in my life. I cursed through the gag, but it was nothing more than a stifled mess of noise.

“Up you go,” he grunted, lifting me up by my arms and tossing me onto the deck. I hit the floor of the yacht with a resounding thud. My body lay limp, too tired to struggle. The zip ties around my wrist and legs burned worse as the remnants of salty water licked at my skin.

Preston ripped the gag from my mouth, and for a moment, I thought about screaming. But as my gaze darted around, I saw only the faint glow of the city lights cutting through the darkness. It was pointless. The hopelessness set in, and my stomach sank, my breath quickening. Nobody was coming to help.