Eliana
When he walks into the room, I can’t help but gasp. “Ethan?”
“Hi, Ella, did you miss me?” he offers me one of his smirks. I don’t return it.
“You did this? You had me taken?” I lurch toward him, but he manages to grab my hands, keeping me at bay.
“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Let’s not be hasty now. This was all for your own good.”
“What the hell do you mean?” My pulse is racing, and I want nothing more than to smack the cocky look right off his face. Of all the low things a man can do to get ahead, this has to be the most pathetic.
Ethan lets me go, and I fall against another strong chest. The goon from before leads me back to the chair, his hands pushing my shoulders until I’m seated. Ethan pulls up a chair in front of me, settling into it confidently. He wears a dark gray suit with a dark blue shirt, looking like this could be a business meeting.
“Ethan, what do you want from me?” My insides quiver, but I try to sound calm.
“In a couple of minutes, a justice of the peace will be here, and you are going to do the right thing by saying I do. If you don’t, you can say rest in peace to that boyfriend of yours.”
I let out a choked laugh which makes him quirk a brow. He pulls out his phone and shows me a picture of Brax, a man holding a gun to his head as Brax lies exactly where I last saw him, his head in a pool of blood.
“He could be hurt, you can’t just leave him there without any medical help!” so much for staying calm.
“He will get help, the moment you say I do. Until then, the clock is ticking.” he taps his Rolex.
“You’re not going to get away with this. My father will find out, he’ll come looking for you, and then you’re done for.”
His dark eyes focus intently on my face then lets out a laugh. “This is your father’s idea, Eliana.”
I feel my throat constricting. “Liar!” I manage to yell. My father may be a lot of things, but he would never do something so vile as stage a kidnapping to get me to marry someone.
“All you have to do is say I do, and I’ll send someone over there, right now, to have your lover boy looked at.”
When I turn away from him, he sighs and dials a number. “Eliana.”
“Dad?” I turn back at the sound of my father’s voice coming through the speaker.
“Do as he says, Eliana.”
“So it is true? You knew about this?” I choke, tears stinging my eyes. My own father. How could he do something like this? There is a sense of sobriety that overcomes a person when realizing that everything can always get worse.
“You had a choice, and you chose to defy me. Now if you want things to get back to the way they were, you do as Ethan says. Say I do, sign those papers, and everything will be okay.”
I feel myself crumbling. Does my mother know? Does she hate me that much?
A knock at the door has Ethan standing and making his way to open it. “The justice of the peace is here,” he winks at me.
“Father,” the phone trembles in my hand. “This isn’t what I want.”
“It is what’s expected of you.” he replies without any emotion. I throw the phone on the floor.
After that, everything happens so quickly, the armed men entering the room, the loud shots ringing in my ears, the man behind me falling to the ground, dragging me with him, and Ethan’s lifeless eyes staring back at me. I curl up to protect myself, my breathing erratic.
“Eliana? Eliana?” I can hear my father’s voice coming from the cell phone. He’s frantic, and that tells me he has nothing to do with this part. But I am frozen to the spot, unable to reach the phone, unable to say a word as a familiar face comes into view. He picks up the phone, bringing it to his ears.
“Hernandez. It has been a while hasn’t it? We’re going to play a little game of hide and seek. Your daughter is the prize. Get to her in time and she survives, delay and she doesn’t. I have a pretty big price on her head.”
I can’t hear what my father says. I just curl up tighter and pray the man won’t hurt me. Surely he has a heart. I should have known that prayers were in vain, they’ve never helped me before, and they sure as fuck aren’t helping me now. I feel a kick to my back, a sharp pain shooting through my spine which has me letting out a gut-wrenching screech. The second kick is to the back of my head before he drags me up by my arms, his fingers digging painfully into my flesh.
“Why are you doing this?”
