Page 30 of Ravaged
CHAPTER 9
Teagen
The final note floated through the air. My hands throbbed from those long-neglected calluses, but I welcomed the familiar tension, because it was a part of me. I smiled to myself, letting my gaze wander over the room. An older man with dark hair and eyes, weathered skin, holding the woman’s thigh. I knew Gerard Adler, only because he had come to the Dahlia District a few times to do business with Dahlia, so I assumed it was his wife next to him. The two of the Adler sons sitting on the next sofa. The third one missing. Dad on a solo chair to the other side of the wife, with bleary eyes and a red mouth. Ethan leaned against the wall behind him.
Dad locked eyes with me, giving me that look. My stomach dropped, nausea instantly filling me. My throat ran dry. The slight twitch of his brows made me freeze. He was planning something. Something awful.
Go, his eyes pleaded,Run away.
“That was lovely,” the wife said. “I’m impressed, young lady. I miss it every day, but I’ve never played as wonderfully as you do.” Dad grabbed the fork off of the plate between the two of them and held it in his hands. None of them seemed to notice. “Do you think she could give me lessons?” she asked, turning to her husband.
He smiled, clasping her hand in his. “I don’t see why not.”
They both turned to me. “Darling?” the woman asked.
I tried to stay steady, not letting anyone notice my jarred attention at Dad holding the fork.
“Of course,” I said. As if I had a choice.
She squealed happily to her husband, then turned back to me. “I’m excited,” she said. “It’s been years since I’ve played. Thank you.”
I listened, muttering out pleasantries, pretending like nothing was wrong, like I wasn’t a prisoner, but my eyes crossed over to Ethan. His arms were folded over his chest. His eyes darkened as they met mine. Heat washed over my body. The way he held me in that gaze made me nervous. Made me ache. A man who liked music, but indulged in violence more. Why did I want him?
Dad raised his hand high above him, then rammed the fork into his thigh in a loud splat. Howled a scream that gave me chills, his eyes bulging from his head.
Ethan rushed towards him, and Gerard whacked a fist into Dad’s face. The two brothers were at his side, but with unbelievable force, Dad ripped the fork out of his thigh, then stabbed it back again. The wife shouted and scurried away.
And I ran.
I didn’t know where I was going, but I ran.I had to. The first door I found led to the backyard, flat against the woods. I took it, running into the unknown. As long as it wasn’t in that house.
The overcast sky hung over the trees. Barefoot, I ran through the grass, the flaps of the bathrobe swinging in the wind. In the woods, I slowed to a steady pace, moving as quickly as I could while trying to be reasonable with my feet. Thick vines of ivy covered the ground. My feet disappeared underneath the leaves, into the cool, moist earth. The sunbeams that managed to get past the clouds had to fight for space between the branches, which meant that it was darker here. Darker in the woods.
Would they kill Dad? Would they save him?
I kept moving forward, in a single direction, away from the house. Dad had stabbed himself to distract them, for me. So that I could escape. One of the first sacrificial acts he had done in years. Was he unable to pay the Adlers back? Was that why he was trying to give me a chance to escape?
A twig crunched behind me. I hid behind a thick tree, the bark digging through the cloth robe. Ethan scanned the trees, looking for me.
“Teagen,” he called out. “Where are you, Teagen?”
Was it better, or worse, that it wasn’t the others, buthim?
I stayed still, holding my breath. Ethan might have spanked me, humiliated me, fucked me like he hated me, but he had still cared for me. There was something there, something inside of him that I knew was more than the hard shell he held onto. He knew exactly what I was—a prisoner, a debt to the family—and yet he still gave me more.
But he was still a criminal. He was willing to abduct a woman, simply due to a financial debt that her father couldn’t afford.
“I’m not going to kill you, Teagen,” he said, his voice deep and coarse. “I just want to ask you some questions.”
A spider’s web was strung between two branches above me, a spindled insect waiting on the edge of it. That would be me soon if I didn’t figure out how the hell to hide. I tucked some hair behind my ear. Pieces of twigs and leaves stuck to the fabric of the robe. My calves itched, brushing against the branches. What could I do? Could I try to walk in a U-shape and hope that I eventually landed in someone else’s backyard, and cross my fingers that the neighbor would be willing to help me? If the Adlers had the neighbors under their thumb at all, it would be hopeless. They wouldn’t help me; they’d return me straight to that dog kennel.
My father was the only one who could have helped me, and right now, he probably couldn’t move.
“Your father mentioned Midnight Miles,” Ethan said, his voice drawing near. I had to start moving. Fast. “What do you know about Midnight Miles?”
Midnight Miles? Maybe one of the club members at the Dahlia District had mentioned the name once, but at that moment, the name didn’t ring a bell. I doubted that was the answer he wanted. It’s not like he would let me go if I told him that anyway.
“I’m not going to kill you, Teagen.”
