Page 50 of Ravaged
“It might be a key,” Wil said.
“Not a key,” Derek said.
“A key to a non-traditional lock,” Axe added.
“It doesn’t have any edge that would enter a lock,” Derek said. Ethan stared forward but didn’t join in. Practically refused to. What did he think of it? He was being more quiet than usual.
“Here’s the bad part of this deal, hun,” Derek said. I hated hearing that word on his tongue, as if he knew me. Ethan stiffened; apparently, he didn’t like it either. “Your father owes us a lot of money. And we need what he stole, otherwise someone is going to pay.”
“What did he steal?” I asked.
“The Pink Diamond.”ThePink Diamond? I gasped. Did they really believe that he had stolen the Pink Diamond? And had he actually stolen it? “It’s one of the most expensive diamonds in the world.” Derek didn’t need to tell me. I knew what it was. How could Dad have done something as stupid as stolen a jewel like that? How had he managed it? “Even though we’ve—” Derek paused, looking around, “—dealtwith your father in our own ways,” he tilted his head towards Axe, who lowered his head in acknowledgment, “Your father still hasn’t said anything. He keeps telling us that you’re the key, but you claim not to know anything either.”
It was true, though. “You’re right. I don’t know anything.”
“So here’s what’s going to happen.” Derek rubbed his hands together, amping himself up for what he was about to say. “Using you as bait is the last resort. We don’t want to torture you,” he stopped, then looked around, “At least,Idon’t want to torture you, but that’s the plan. It’s the only way to get it out of your dad.”
My entire body shook in fear. What did he mean by torture? Ethan straightened next to me. Was this the reason why he had been acting strange?
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked.
“Axe is going to take care of you in front of your father.”
Axe was the one who had tossed my father around like a scrap piece of garbage multiple times. All of the men in the room were tall and muscular, but Axe seemed soulless, the kind of person that only spoke to deliver the last words you would hear. He terrified me.
Ethan knew that this was coming, didn’t he?
Perspiration beaded on my skin. I looked at the ground. Was this the end?
Ethan escorted me by the elbow until we all came to a room with concrete floors and plain, stark walls. No one spoke a word, because they knew how screwed up this was. Being fucked publicly was one thing—plenty of club members had exhibitionist and voyeur fantasies at the Dahlia District—but to be tortured in front of my own father? I didn’t have words.
A tall bench was to the side, with metal restraints all the way down the sides, so that I wouldn’t be able to move.
“Undress,” Ethan said, looking down at me, a coldness to his stare. “Now.”
I undressed, once again feeling like the helpless woman they had captured only a few weeks before. Maybe it would be a beating. I could handle that. I could think of it as a rough spanking. I didn’t mind being hurt, as long as my dad was safe.
No. When did I get to be mad at Dad for putting me through this?
Gerard led Dad into the room, a thick chain around his neck. He kept his head down. He couldn’t face what he had done to me.
A bandage was wound around each hand, blood at the tips of his knuckles. Stumps instead of fingers. That must have been how they dealt with Dad before this.
What were they going to do to me?
My throat burned, and I frantically looked at each of them. The brothers. Gerard. My dad. Ethan. I begged them with my eyes,Please, please, please, give me a way out of this. I couldn’t lose a finger. I needed my fingers to play music.
Would he cut off my ear? My tongue? I couldn’t bear the thought.
Ethan took me over to the bench and forced me to bend over it, strapping me into it, all the way down my arms and legs. I could barely lift my chin.
“You don’t have to do this,” I whispered. He ignored me and continued buckling me in. “Please, Ethan,” I cried, a tear running down my cheek. “Don’t let them do this to me.”
“You’re a prisoner,” he said. But he wouldn’t dare meet my gaze.
It was cold in there. Gerard had a knife on Dad’s throat, making it so that he had to look at me. I knew deep down that Dad never would have sold me to Dahlia if he had known that this would happen. He thought he’d be able to get me back somehow. Figured the club was like a pawn shop. Trade me in, deal with a debt, get me later. I had this gut instinct that he didn’t realize how deep the Dahlia District was entrenched in organized crime. With the Adlers. That he didn’t know how many years would pass. How we would both end up here.
“All it takes is a location,” Gerard said in a low voice. “Where is the Pink Diamond?”
