“He hasn’t touched me.” Margaret looked nothing but annoyed at that, but I only felt relief. She was still a child, for fuck’s sake. “Where is Father?”
Oh, I wanted to. I really did. To explain to her what Violet had done, how fucked up and twisted she’d behaved as she ended his life. How dreadful his final moments were. “He died in the car crash,” I said instead, unable to be cruel.
Mother grunted an admonishing noise, which made me wonder how much she knew. Had they found his body? His head? Did they figure out what kind of creature they were dealing with in my beautiful woman?
I opened my mouth to give them all a piece of my mind when the next person was forced into the room with a loud bang of the door crashing open. The girls jumped, a small shriek falling from Amy’s lips.
Uncle Connor had a lot more fight than Amy or Margaret, and the two guards who grappled with him had to beat him on the back of the head to get him to submit. His head lolled forward as they tied him to the high-back chair opposite Amy. Out for the count, and beaten bloody by the looks of his exposed skin. He was bruised and slashed, with scabs and crusted blood all over him. Treated about as well as me, then.
What the fuck was going on?
At almost a full roll call, I let my heart hope. Even if she was in this state, even if they had her like this, if Violet showed me her pretty face, it would give me hope. If she didn’t come, if they didn’t bring her… Surely, with all of us here, she would be next. It would serve the fuckers well to keep her away, because together, we were bolstered, unstoppable.
“Connor.” I tried to get my uncle awake, but he wouldn’t even fucking move. “For fuck’s sake, Connor.” I wanted to ask him if he’d heard from Violet, if he’d seen her. I just needed to see her; anything of her would work. A sign, a signal. But Connor failed to react, the only sign of life the fact he was snorting unsteady breaths from his nostrils.
But I didn’t have to worry. The guard I’d observed her with the most when watching her on the CCTV with Christian carried her in. Holy fuck. My heart stuttered. She was slumped, broken like a puppet, her limbs splayed and crooked like she had no control of them. Or she was too weak. I dug my fingernails into the wood of the chair to stop myself from screaming.
Violet didn’t walk, she didn’t make a sound, and when she was positioned onto the chair, she collapsed like Connor. Opposite me, her eyes were blank, dead, unseeing, her expression slack, vacant. The guard laughed and slapped her cheek. Too fucking rough. With a flick of my gaze to his face, I memorized the man I would kill.
“Wake up, sweetheart,” he teased. “You’re seeing real faces now.”
What the fuck did that mean? I opened my mouth to demand he tell me when smacked her so hard her head reeled back and the chair tipped. She choked for a second before bringing her face up, rolling her neck, and gulping again and again, like she couldn’t get a grasp of her breathing. I battled against my bindings, the need to reach for her fierce. Painful.
“Fucking stop it!” I shouted, my chair slamming on the floor as I tried to get free of it.
“Look, he’s not rotting, he doesn’t stink of disease and insides,” the guard spoke again, holding her chin and making her stare at me as I fought. Her eyes were so wild, unseeing, with whirling irises. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Violet,” I muttered her name, urging her to be okay. What the fuck had happened to her? I’d been beaten up, teased and abused without mercy, but Violet. My poor sweet Violet looked gone. Non-existent, like her mind had flickered away.
Amaryllis didn’t look much better at my side, but my eyes were only for Violet, for how desperately I wanted to get her to safety, back to life and laughter and orgasms andlove. Fuck, I’d failed. I always fucking failed.
We were right back here, worse off than ever. There was no damn hope for anything now. I fought against the rage, the sense of hopelessness, and tried to get Violet’s attention, to get her to show me she was okay somewhere. Somewhere in that mind she resided, not damaged, not ruined for good. If our eyes could just lock, if she would focus on me…
“Violet,” I repeated her name, more demanding this time, but nothing. The guard dropped her chin and her face slumped forward, scoffing and straightening up.
“Gabe,” Rafael said from the door as he strolled in, like he was coming home from a long day at work in some high-flying office, rolling up his sleeves and stretching his neck. “Come here.”
The energy in the room grew heavier, darker. Whatever this was all for was imminent. My fingernails bled as I carved them into the wooden armrest.
Gabe, the guard who’d been toying with Violet, sauntered off to go simper at his boss, and I watched them chat. It was all so bizarre, so casual. My anger towards Rafael was insurmountable, indescribable. In the split-second I watched him, I imagined every evil death for him. Every single fucking one. My hatred made me hot, made me burn.
With Violet slumped forward, I tried to grab Connor’s attention. He was next to Vi, so maybe he could nudge her with his foot or something. Anything to get a reaction. But when I looked at him, his eyes were so firm on Amaryllis, so desperate, it was like he was going to explode. Wild red-rimmed eyes, beard scraggly and mouth resolute.
He was in no better a situation than me. No leverage, no energy, no fuel for our bodies apart from the drive to escape, to help our loved ones get out. He and Amy must have bonded in the time he’d kept her with him, because I’d never seen him look at anything with as much care as he did her.
My body grew heavy with helplessness, but I fought it as best I could. This couldn’t be our end. Not now. Not yet. Not until I had given Violet the happiest, longest life possible. She deserved the fucking earth, not this hell.
I ignored Rafael as he came and stood behind Margaret, stroking his fingers through her hair. It made me want to throw up as he took in the scene he’d set up, each of us, the remaining Lewis’s, restrained at his dining table. And Margaret, she didn’t simper like I expected; she recoiled a tiny bit, her smile faltering, her eyes going to Mother like she wanted to question if this was right.
Mother chugged the rest of her wine and slammed the glass down.
“We’re here today for a little family dinner,” Rafael said, commanding the room. Tension rippled through all of us, even those semi-conscious. Amy whimpered, Connor bristled and Violet’s shoulders heaved like she was holding in a sob, her eyes still glazed over.
“Unfortunately,” Rafe continued, “only the Lewis family could be in attendance. None of my clan were… available. I believe we have all of you though, no? All those still alive, anyway. Such a shame the patriarch didn’t make it out of that crash…” His eyes flickered to Violet. “Though from what I hear, we have another little vicious killer in our midst and don’t need cars to do our dirty work for us.”
“Fuck you,” I spat, finding my voice.
Rafael laughed. “I’ll save that for your sister,” he growled at me, his hand sliding forward into Margaret’s hair again, gripping and tugging so her neck was on show. He hadn’t touched her; I had to remember that. Maybe even he wasn’t that sick. “But which sister will it be?” he teased. “My father’s church has always revered women, noted them for their supreme powers and abilities and eaten them up from the outside in.” He leaned down and licked Margaret’s ear, his teeth darting out to bite. She cried this time, real fear showing itself as tears poured down her reddening face. At long last, she was afraid.
