Page 64 of Absolution
“Your mama and daddy left this morning for the ranch in Montana. They’re not coming back unless you sort out the mess you made. I’m going to make sure you fall in line.”
I bare my teeth at him in primal defiance. “You will never touch me again. I’ll kill you before I let you hurt me.”
He scoffs. “I’m not going to lay a hand on you. I never hurt you, Abby.”
My fists boom against the door, and I launch myself at him as though I can tear him apart.
“You violated me!” I shriek. “I was a child. Your own niece. You’re a sick piece of shit, Uncle Jeffrey, and now everyone knows it. You will never harm another child. I won’t let you.”
“Damn you!” he thunders. “You’re trying to ruin me, but I will not permit it. You’ll take back what you said.”
“Never,” I seethe. “You should be the one rotting in a cell. If I ever manage to get the evidence I need to put you away for the rest of your life, I will. If you think you’re suffering now, just wait until I make you pay for kidnapping me and locking me up in here.”
“You’ll sit in the dark and think about what you’ve done,” he says with twisted, paternal disapproval. “I’ll come back when you’re more agreeable.”
The grate slams closed, cutting off my only source of light. Darkness presses in on me with crushing weight.
I scream out my rage and terror, punching the door again and again.
But all I manage is to split my knuckles against the unyielding metal. The stinging pain doesn’t stop me. I’m reduced to my most feral self, ruled by survival instincts. I can’t stop fighting. I can’t stop trying to escape.
The icy fingers of my ghostly cellmate clutch at my hair, scoring frigid lines down the back of my neck. I shudder and scream as I throw all of my weight against the door to no avail.
“Abigail!” Dane’s voice is muffled by the heavy door, but I instantly recognize my dark god.
“I’m in here!”
He came for me. He promised he always would.
I’m grateful for the tracker he put in me all those weeks ago. No one will ever be able to take me from him.
“I found a key,” he calls back. “I’m getting you out.”
The aged key scrapes in the lock, and then fresh oxygen floods the cell along with blessed light. I throw myself intoDane’s waiting arms. He wraps me up in a fierce embrace, cradling the back of my head to press my face close to his chest. He’s breathing hard, as though he ran all the way from Charleston to get to me.
“I’ve got you,” he promises. “You’re okay. You’re safe.”
“I want to leave,” I say in a rush, grabbing his hand so that I can drag him toward the exit. “I can’t stand to be in this house for another minute.”
He doesn’t budge. All of his powerful muscles practically vibrate with some unseen strain.
“Who put you in there?” he growls.
“Uncle Jeffrey. He wanted to convince me to tell the press that I made everything up.”
“Did he touch you?” The question is barely intelligible.
“No. He just tried to scare me.” I can’t suppress a shudder. “He knows I don’t like it down here.”
It’s a massive understatement, but I don’t want to waste time going over that particular trauma inflicted by my sadistic older cousins. I just want to go home with Dane.
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” I tug on Dane’s hand. “Please. I need to leave.”
I want to crawl out of my own skin. Every passing second in this nightmarish house makes me itch, as though the toxicity of my past is a palpable irritant on my flesh.
“All right, little dove,” he says, voice smoothing to the gentler cadence that soothes me. “We’re going home.”
