Page 44 of Ravaged
She widened her eyes and leaned into me. “You are being held captive by a mob boss,” she said in a harsh whisper. “You are chained to his son’s bed. You arenotfine. This isnotokay.”
“If I leave,” I paused, trying to think of the best way to frame this without pissing her off, “If I leave, they’ll kill my dad.”
“And he’s a piece of shit who sold you to save his own ass from his gambling debt. Let him rot.”
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
“You won’t be living, period, if you don’t get the hell out of here.” She pulled out a bobby pin and a paper clip from her bra and tried again, her chin bobbing like a buoy. “This is so screwed.”
“I don’t want to piss Ethan off.”
“You don’t want to piss Ethan off?” she asked, her voice incredulous. She shook her head frantically. “You are going to pissmeoff if you keep spouting off this nonsense. You are being held captive. Do you hear me? Ethan is holding you captive. We need to get you out!”
The door jiggled and both of us sucked in a breath, watching as the knob turned. Iris squeezed my hand.
Ethan stepped through quickly, and Iris jumped off of the bed and raised her hands in fists, ready to defend herself, to defend me. I stood next to her. He lifted his brows at us.
“What are you doing?” he asked. He turned to me. “Is this your friend?”
“Best friend,” I said.
“You made a big mistake abducting her,” Iris said.
His face turned stern. “Not sorry about that.”
“You’re a piece of shit.”
“And you’re trespassing.” He nodded behind him, towards the door. “You better find your way back to your owner.”
“Owner?” Her tone was irritated. “Myowner?”
“He means Dahlia,” I said.
“I know what he means.” She snapped her glare to Ethan. “You must think you own Teagen because you’ve got her chained up in your bedroom like some kind of sex slave. But you don’t. She’s coming with me, whether you like it or not.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Ethan said.
“It is.”
Iris swung back her fist, ready to reel toward Ethan’s face, but I jumped in front of her. Iris was fiercely protective of the servers at the Dahlia District, and especially of me. If she didn’t at least land one punch, she wouldn’t stop until she did.
But ifIlanded a punch, she might let it go. And I would rather Ethan punish me.
My knuckles landed on his cheekbone, a shooting pain ricocheting through my hand. It was harder, much harder, than I expected. He barely flinched, but Iris gasped. She didn’t think I would do that. I didn’t think I would either.
I rubbed my fist with my other hand. Ethan stared down at me. I reached for Iris’s hand. We laced our fingers together. She looked towards the window, and I looked at my feet. This wasn’t what I had expected for tonight, but we didn’t have much of a choice now.
What would my punishment be? Would he take me back to the dog kennel? Leave me in the forest?
Would he kill my father? Iris? Me?
“Are you done?” he asked.
I nodded and looked at Iris. She shook her head, finally coming back to her senses. She pulled me toward the window.
“Don’t fuck with my friend,” she said.
She reached for the window’s latch. “It’s locked,” I said. She ignored me and kept messing with it, trying to push it up. “Iris, it’s locked.”
“I’m not giving up.”
“And I’m not saying to.” She froze in place, then bit her fingers, her shoulders sagging. She was near her breaking point. She was strong; she never let her guard down. It was so unlike her. But it must have hurt to have her best friend missing, and not be able to save her. “But rescuing me isn’t going to happen tonight.”
For a second, her entire body drooped. I thought she was going to give up. But then she grabbed the pocket-knife and Ethan instantly swung a hand across, knocking it out of her hand. He cocked a gun, the barrel pointed at Iris.
“Don’t move a muscle,” he said.
