Page 41 of Ravaged
He shook his head. “I’m serious. I almost died trying to get that diamond. I’m not going to lie about it now.”
So he stole it as a bargaining chip. He knew his daughter’s life wasn’t enough anymore, and so he had to steal something more. Something bigger. The man had balls, or he was too stupid to realize what was good for him. If we didn’t kill him, Midnight Miles Corporation would.
I motioned at Wil. “Call the Dahlia District,” I said. He got on his phone, ready to take care of networking matters. I exchanged eye contact with Axe, and he grabbed Oliver by the neck again and shoved him forward. “Perhaps you’ll do better in a cage,” I said, thinking of the dog kennel in the basement. “Maybe then you’ll understand the pain your daughter has gone through.”
“Please. Please—” he cried.
Axe said in a low voice, “I have a better idea.”
We exited through the kitchen to the backyard, to the edge of the woods. Instead of going directly straight, like Teagen had when she tried to escape, we went diagonally. At a thick grove of trees, I pulled back the layer of ivy, revealing a door. A small structure camouflaged to look like the rest of the woods. Axe’s workroom.
Inside, various torture devices were displayed—flat tables that tilted with shackles on each end, standing cages, a metal box that looked like it would completely surround a person’s head, and various weapons hanging from the wall. I moved to the side, and Axe put Oliver in the standing cage. There were large enough holes that various instruments could get to him inside of it. But there wasn’t much room for him to maneuver.
“Spend some time in here,” I said. “Think about what you’ve done. What you’re about to do.” I tilted my head. “Because if you fuck over your daughter any more than you already have, I will kill you myself. Personally.”
“Ethan—” he shouted as I walked away. “Your name is Ethan, right?” I turned my head slightly but didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking at his face. “You think you can save her from this life, but listen to me, Ethan, man to man. All you can do is save yourself.”
The whizzing sound of an instrument started. I glanced over to one of the tables. Axe had a protective shield over his eyes, a small saw whirring in his hand. There was a chance that Axe was a sadist, that he enjoyed the pain of others. And yet there was a chance that he wasn’t, that he was detached, that he did this purely as a job. But I knew that while he would leave Oliver intact for now, he would make sure Oliver knew not to fuck with the Adlers. We weren’t going to play nicely anymore.
The harsh scream of a grown man filled my ears as I opened the door and exited into the woods. As soon as I closed the door behind me, the sounds of the insects and birds enveloped me. The woods around these parts weren’t silent when it came to the Adlers. We had grown here for generations. Even nature knew the carnage to expect from us.
In the house, I found Wil in the kitchen, eating another piece of bread.
“Dahlia will be here with the harp tomorrow,” he said.
“And Clara’s harp?”
He took me to the attic and helped me bring it down—it was enormous and heavy, and took both of us carefully easing it down the pull-down stairs, so as not to damage it. Once we were down, I carried it to my bedroom by the basement. Before I went in, I reached into my pocket. I looked at the golden harp necklace in my hand, the dusty chain, years of wear evident in the scrapes and dents in the metal. I hadn’t known Teagen for long, but I knew she wore it the first time I saw her at the Dahlia District, and again when I abducted her. She wasn’t used to being without it.
Was it the harp from the Dahlia District, or was it this? This necklace, this little charm that she constantly wore? What was the key to what Oliver was talking about?
I secured the necklace to the bottom of the harp, then opened the door and brought both in. Next, the adjustable bench. I set it at the foot of the bed. There wasn’t much room, but I couldn’t change that part.
“I’m going,” I said, knowing that I had to meet Gerard and Derek soon. “If you leave this room, you will regret it.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but I closed the door behind me before she could. I leaned against the wall. What the hell was I doing? Getting her the harp. Threatening her piece of shit father. Threateningher, when I knew I didn’t want to lay a hand on her. Not unless the pain involved pleasure too.
The gentle strums sounded through the door. A weight lifted off of my chest.
Why wasn’t she running?
Perhaps it was about serving me. A loyalty that made her want to obey. A fear that made it so that she surrendered to each of my commands, because she knew I could kill her.
I didn’t know what I was doing anymore, not when it came to her. But I knew what I wanted. To make her happy. To simultaneously rip it all away from her. She was the first woman to make me question what I wanted, and yet I knew I had to destroy her.
