Page 57 of Dangerous Deviance
“What were you talking about?”
“We weren’t talking, we were fucking.”
Derek scoffed. “Before that, at breakfast. When the headache started.”
I thought about it. Everything had been mundane. We had been talking about the other woman, the one with Axe, if she had been a message from an enemy. Then Ellie had shifted.
“Maybe she remembered something,” Derek offered.
“I’ll go talk to her,” I said. “You two, see if that woman knows anything.” They both nodded.
I drove back to the penthouse, weaving in and out of traffic. It would have been practical to have them meet me at my place, but I didn’t want them near her. Axe had an instinct when it came to these things, and there was no way I was going to let her anywhere near him or Derek until we had a plan.
In the bedroom, Ellie’s shoulders hung down, her body limp, wrists dangling. She didn’t look up when I entered, though by the twitch of her chin, I knew that she heard me.
“Did you get your memories back?” I asked. “Is that what happened?”
“Dr. Bates,” she said. Then her words became quicker. “Dr. Bates. He trained me. Promised I would get to see my sister. But then I had those visions where she’s dead and I’m here and I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do.” Her breathing neared hyperventilation. “She’s not dead,” Ellie cried, a tear slipping down her face. “She can’t be. It was a trick. Everything I went through, it can’t be for nothing. She’s still alive. She’s not dead.”
My heart rate increased, thudding in my chest. “What happened?” I asked, my voice low. I clenched my fists. I had a feeling I didn’t want to know the answers.
“They tortured me,” she cried. “Ruined me.” Hanging against the wall, I couldn’t see them, but I knew what she was talking about: the scars on her labia and on her back. The bumpy skin. The black lines. Then I thought of her headaches; were those linked to her past too? “Dr. Bates showed me proof that you had killed her. Her body cut up in the woods. Told me that I had to stop you before you did it again.” She shook her head. “But it’s not true, is it?” she stammered. “Julie’s not dead. She can’t be. She can’t—”
“Ellie, listen,” I said. “Breathe with me.”
For the first time since she had attacked, she locked eyes with me, and we took deep breaths together, our chests heaving in and out, her body shaking in between each attempt. Once she had stilled, I took a step closer. “I want you to listen to me very carefully. I have never seen your sister before, nor has anyone in my family.” I waited, making sure that she absorbed that information. “We want to help you find her, and find out who killed her.”
“She’s not dead.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “If your memories aren’t—”
“She’s not dead!” Ellie yelled, her cheeks red, her bloodshot eyes glaring at me, daring me to say it again. “She’s not dead,” she repeated, her voice quiet. “Those were just visions. Nightmares. I’m mixing things up.”
Staring into her blue eyes, I could see the pain etched inside of her. Whoever had done this—this Dr. Bates—he hadn’t only marked her body. There was so much inside of Ellie that was torn, that was broken. That I didn’t know or understand.
I rubbed a thumb across her cheek, trying to be gentle. “Someone put you in the woods to hunt us. But they don’t own you.”
Her eyelids fluttered, then tightened in anger. “Because you do,” she said, “Can we really compare cages?” Her words drifted off. She was nearing sleep.
Pain in the back of my throat congealed. I shouldn’t have felt guilt; Ellie had been in the woods, on our property, and by being gifted to me, she had been given a second chance at life. If it weren’t my birthday, Axe would have killed her instantly.
But if she had been put in our woods against her will, what did that mean? What did that make me?
“You’re an Adler,” she said, her voice tired. “That’s what you do. Conquer. Annihilate. Rule.”
I clenched my good fist, then wiggled the fingers of my bandaged hand. I wanted to ram my fists into the wall until my hands were a bloody pulp. But what good would it do, besides releasing my anger?
But then it struck me.Adler.
“Stay here,” I said. And this time, she didn’t have a comeback about how she was already stuck. “I’ll keep an eye on the surveillance.”
At the family house, I found Axe and Derek still in the study, discussing Midnight Miles.
“Workroom. Now,” I said.
Derek raised a brow, but they both followed me. We went through the woods to the side of the house. We came to Axe’s workroom, surrounded by trees and camouflaged by vines and dirt to make it look like an overturned rock that had been reclaimed by the earth. It was soundproofed, so you never knew what to expect when you went in. Inside, the woman was sitting on her bed inside of a cage, still naked, though a pile of clothes was to the side of her bed. Her short hair messy, her eyes red and filmy from exhaustion.
“The trigger is our last name,” I said in a low voice to my brothers. “Watch. Say it to her. Tell her who we are.”
