Page 56 of Behind the Shadows
“What are you doing to her?” I yelled as I broke free from my uncle and ran toward her.
“You know what to do, Kip. You know,” my mother ordered from behind me. She dug her fingers into my biceps as she pulled me toward the girl. “We’re out of time. Do it.”
Black dots clouded my vision as I tried to resist the drive inside me. I gritted my teeth against the pain inside my chest.The girl’s screams were devoured by even more. I struggled to breathe against the crushing weight on my chest and then …
When I came to, my hands were covered in blood and the redheaded girl was lying on the floor. I stumbled toward her, shaking so hard my legs could barely carry me. The chaos had calmed down, but the body count had risen.
“Kip!” Holland screamed.
My head jerked to the side, and my neck popped with the sudden movement, nearly knocking my chair backward.
“Kip? Look at me. Don’t you dare fucking die and leave me chained up like this.”
She couldn’t hide the fear in her voice. Holland should be afraid. Very afraid.
I rubbed my neck, realizing I’d had another blackout, but how had she known? I’d been able to hide them from Death and Dope, but not her.
“What happened? You were gone all of a sudden, and your eyes rolled back in your head. You were shaking. Are you epileptic?”
I ignored all her questions.
Maybe it was the flashback.
Maybe it was the rage.
It didn’t matter.
All I needed now was the answer.
23
HOLLAND
The irony of the situation hadn’t escaped me. I was this man’s prisoner, chained and naked, but I wasn’t scared of him anymore. Once I’d removed his mask and seen it was Kip, a switch had flipped in my brain. He’d fucked me with his cross, touched me, claimed me, and protected me. I refused to die in this hellhole. But there was something about him. Something dark that I was drawn to even in my predicament. However, what I’d just seen scared the shit out of me. When he’d started to convulse, I’d wanted to take care of him. There was no denying it. I was as fucked up as they came. I was attracted to Kip on an emotional and physical level. It was as if I knew him, but that didn’t make a damn bit of sense.
The other thing that became clear when I’d thought he was going to die was that I could tell him the truth. If I had any hope of escaping, I had to let him think I trusted him. Oddly enough, I did. I had a feeling if he knew more about Draco, Kip would finish him off like he had Cooper. It was simply a matter of how I framed the story. Kip had already proven he wanted to protect me on some level even when he was furious with me. That partI still didn’t understand, but my guess is that I would find out soon.
I cleared my throat. “I’m alive because …” I looked at the ceiling, trying to talk past the lump in my throat. “There was a guy that loved fucking sisters. He asked for Ally and me any time he was in town. Normally, Draco would drug us with pills, but they stopped checking our mouths to see if we’d swallowed them after a while. Ally and I spit them out and hid them in our pillowcases instead so we could be clearheaded enough to plan an escape. But the night before we were supposed to meet the client again, Draco’s brother, Dominic, visited us in our cell and drugged us … with a needle in our neck. We weren’t strong enough to fight him off, and the drugs hit hard and fast.” I glanced at Kip, his jaw so tight the muscle jumped. Was he angry at me or Draco?
“Ally didn’t wake up the next day,” I said, my voice cracking with grief. “He’d overdosed her.” I ground my teeth, fighting the tears that threatened to spill down my cheeks. I wiped my eyes and blew out a heavy sigh. Then I slowly looked at Kip. My stare was cold, hard. “Before we were delivered to clients, we were fed an extra sandwich. I suppose it was to keep up our energy or something, I’m not sure. Maybe it was more psychological torture. When his brother returned with a tray of food, he brought a glass of orange juice. We were never allowed anything other than plastic cups and spoons. Nothing sharp. Ever.”
My nostrils flared with the memory. “Before he realized he’d fucked up, I grabbed the glass and threw it against the wall. It shattered all over the floor, and I snatched up the biggest piece that had landed near my feet. He lunged at me, and I tripped him. When he fell on the floor face down, I climbed on his back, jerked his head up by his hair, and slit his fucking throat. I’ll never forget the blood that poured out of his jugular. The son of a bitch was helpless and dead within a few minutes. I grabbed thecell keys, unlocked the other girl’s cages, and ran for my fucking life.” Our gazes were locked on each other, the silence in the room was music to my ears.
A corner of his mouth twitched, and I realized he was fighting off a smile.
“He’s not after me because I ran,” I whispered. “He’s after me because I killed his brother.”
The words hung in the air between us, sharp and brutal. I expected him to call me a liar. A murderer. But instead … I wasn’t sure if I’d pushed him too far—or if I’d just won him over for good.
“You slit Draco’s brother’s throat to survive. No wonder he wants you back—no wonder he’d pay through the teeth to drag you home.” His jaw clenched. “Fuck no. Over my dead body.”
All the psychology textbooks in the world couldn’t explain what I felt when he looked at me like that—like I was his, like I always had been.
“Why? Why do you give a shit? I’m chained to a wall and your prisoner,” I said. “What makes you any different than he is?”
“Because I hunt men like him. I kill men like him who hurt women and children. Even a monster has lines.”
I wanted to know more, craved more of who Kip was. What made him into the man and monster I’d seen. I suspected he wouldn’t share with me yet. Time would only tell, and from the looks of it, I had plenty.
