Page 24 of Atonement

The bat moved from my stomach to my chest, pushing me to my back.

“I told you not to test me, boy. Every day for thirty years. Yet you come in here and try to play me? Try to beat me at my own fucking game?” He brought the bat back as if to swing again, but I dug deep inside myself and shot back far enough that I could clamber to my feet without Conrad pushing me back down.

“Conrad. Just let her go. That’s all I’m asking.” All I had left was a Hail Mary. I’d tried to be strong, stand up to him, but every time he was one step ahead of me. “I’ll stay here, I’ll burn my house to the ground, I’ll live in that tiny room and do whatever you say until I die.” That was what he wanted all along, right? Why Alexander drew up that ridiculous proposal. Conrad just needed a way to get me to stick around, and now he had the perfect leverage. But if I was going to die in this opulent tomb, I had to make sure Maddie was free. “Just unlock her.”

I backed up another step only to run into Joshua, who didn’t hold me in place but also made no move to hold me. He didn’t need to. There wasn’t room for me to get around him, and he was unmovable.

“Why would I do that, when I can have you both?”

Another blow from the bat, this time to my side. I dropped my arm to protect myself, gritting my teeth against the pain in my humerus. I couldn’t withstand more dislocated ribs, not when they were still healing from my last brutal beating. I hadn’t been able to defend myself that time; I hadn’t thought I was allowed to. But if I didn’t get Maddie and myself out of this situation, it would have permanent repercussions for both of us. Still, I felt like there was a steel plate in my skull blocking off my sense of survival, my will to protect myself and my woman against the very obvious threat in front of me. I gritted my teeth, fighting against my own mind as much as I resisted the man attacking me with a baseball bat.

Conrad pulled the bat back for another swing.

“STOP!”

I cringed at Maddie’s voice, the one word we were never supposed to say. Even Conrad turned to look at her for a second, then did a double take. I followed his gaze as he spoke.

“What the fuck—”

“Let him go.”

Maddie was free of the collar, blood running down her neck and over her collarbones from the shallow cuts it left while she was fighting against it. She held a steak knife in her hand, and though her entire being trembled with fear, the look in her eyes as she stared down my father was one of pure hatred and disgust.

It was going to get her killed.

“Maddie, it’s okay. Just go.” I needed her to run, needed her to get as far away from here as she could before Joshua came to his senses. He could grab her before she took two steps if he moved. Hell, Conrad was close enough that he could catch up to her even easier. But still she stood there, waiting for me.

“I’m not leaving you!” Even as she spoke, she jumped and began to back toward the door, and a quick glance over my shoulder confirmed Joshua had begun to walk around the table, slowly, as if trying to sneak up on a frightened animal. “Let Meyer go.”

“You set that knife down and take your seat, and I’ll leave you enough skin on the bottom of your feet for you to be able to walk again tomorrow.” Conrad swung the bat toward her, keeping one hand around the back of my neck to hold me in place. “But if you try to run out, you’ll get to experience every punishment your mother endured over four years in the course of one night.”

No.No, she wouldn’t survive.

“Meyer,” she whispered, and I realized she was asking me.What do I do?

“Just go.” With a sudden burst of strength I jerked away from my father and leaped toward Joshua as I screamed, “Madeline, RUN!”

With one last look at me, she turned and bolted out the door.

Meyer

“Get her,” Conrad snapped at Joshua as Madeline disappeared through the door to the dining room.

“But Mey—”

“I’ll deal with him!” he roared, pushing the bat harder against my neck. “Bring her back here or you can start digging your own grave!”

Joshua turned and left without another word or final glance at me. I pushed against Conrad, trying to give myself some space to breathe, but he turned his attention back to me quickly enough.

“How did she get out?” He hissed the words, spittle flying in my face through clenched teeth. I shoved harder against his chest, and he finally stepped back far enough that I could breathe without his breath on my skin, but not so far away that he could put me back in the same compromising position in a second.

“I don’t know,” I gasped, rubbing at my windpipe. “You must not have latched it correctly.”

“Of course I fucking latched it correctly.” One hand closed around the back of my neck and steered me toward the door. “Did you give her a paperclip or something while you were alone together?”

“I swear, I didn’t.” But why didn’t I think of that? Whoever was responsible for getting her out, I owed them a debt. What staff was here besides Joshua? Had she managed to fashion a key herself, slipped something off his desk when she was in there the other day? “She’s gone now, Conrad. She won’t come back.”

“Oh, she will.” We were in the foyer now, the front door gaping open. I peered into the night but nothing was visible—no figure running off into the dark, no hulking Joshua dragging her back by her hair. It was cold outside. She didn’t have shoes. How far could she get before she had to hide? Before cold claimed her limbs and she was forced to crawl back here or risk death? God, I didn’t want her to be cold again. I shouldn’t have told her to run. But what else could I do?

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