14

14

STACEY

Icringe as another splatter of Chris’s blood nearly hits my shoes.

“Stop fucking hitting me.”

Chris spits on the ground, his face stained red, his nose crooked. He’s strapped to a chair in the middle of the basement, and his eyes follow Tobias as he flexes the fingers on both hands, slowly walking around him. Stalking his prey like a starved animal.

“Tell me again why you think you own her.”

I gulp as Chris looks at me before replying, “Um, duh. Have you seen her?”

Even as a captive, he needs to be a sarcastic knob.

“Yes.” Another punch, and his head snaps to the side, a tooth rolling across the dirty floor. “Now, let’s try this again. You think you own her. Give me a valid reason why.”

Kyle is sitting beside me, his knees bouncing, head down. He’d tried to talk us out of this, but when Tobias told him he would tie him to a chair too, Kyle baulked and gave in. They were staying in a hotel, trying to figure out a way to rescue me, not knowing I’d already been saved.

He knows why we’re doing this, but he’s insistent that Chris is sick and should be sectioned, not tortured by none other than Tobias Mitchell. That’ll never happen though.

Tobias offered Jason a clean hit, but he’s been sitting with Kade ever since they arrived. Ewan is aware of the situation between Kade and Jason, so he’s waiting patiently for the chance to beat Chris to a pulp too.

My head snaps over to Ewan as he stands, fed up. “Why did you involve my son?” he asks, rage in his eyes. “Why?”

Chris grins. “Does it matter? It worked.”

Tobias kicks him hard in the chest, knocking the chair back. A gust of air pushes from his mouth, and he grits his teeth. We’re more than happy to let Kade’s dad mess around with him – Chris is terrified of Tobias. I can still see the look on his face when the bag was taken off his head and he spotted the older Mitchell.

His arms and fingers, tied behind his back, are crushed between the ground and chair. His shoulder pops out as Ewan slams his boot on him. “Fuck!”

Barry huffs and pulls the chair up before going back to his corner.

Chris moves his head from side to side, cracking his neck, then glares. “Do you really need to keep hitting me? What are you getting out of being violent?”

“Joy,” Tobias replies, crossing his arms. “I like watching you bleed. I’ll enjoy it a whole lot more when I kill you.”

Chris pales and looks over at me desperately. “Are you letting this happen?” His eyes find Kyle. “And you? You’re my fucking brother.”

“I’m out,” is all Kyle says, leaving as Tobias pulls a gun from his waistband and points it at Chris.

He cocks it. “What information did you have on Bernadette Sawyer that she wanted?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tobias forces the muzzle of the gun into his cheek, pressing hard. “The USB you made Stacey give to her as a trade. What was on it?”

When Chris stays silent, Barry steps forward. “You broke into her system?”

“Maybe.”

“How?” Tobias pushes. “How did you break in?”

“Because, unlike you, you fucking psycho, I have a brain.”

The insult doesn’t faze Tobias. “Are you still in her system?”

“Yes.” He raises a brow. “Why? You want to trade information?” He grins. “I must admit, I wouldn’t mind giving you some codes if it meant seeing Luciella and getting between her legs again.”

My eyes widen. Again?

For the first time in forever, Tobias has no immediate response. His anger slips just enough to reveal his shock. Then: “What did you just say?”

“Your daughter moans like a fucking angel.”

Tobias smacks the side of his head with the gun.

Chris screws his eyes shut, a trickle of blood trailing down his neck from the gash on his head. “That wasn’t very nice. I was good to her, I promise. Just like I was good to Stacey. You know what my sister feels like, don’t you? Have you been inside her? Warm. Soft. Fucking used. Luciella was the same.”

Tobias goes to step forward, but Ewan gets there first.

He grabs him by the throat, cutting off his air supply. “Stop fucking talking about my daughter like that, you piece of shit!”

Barry tries to pry him off Chris and fails. They need him alive for a little longer – information about the Sawyers at this point could change everything.

Then we can kill him.

Ewan releases him when his eyes begin to bulge, and he gasps before chuckling at Tobias. “I thought she was your daughter? Man, you are all a bunch of inbred fucks. But you didn’t answer my question, big guy. Are you or are you not fucking Stacey?”

Aria is upstairs cleaning the kitchen, or she’d be as mortified as I am right now.

Tobias glances at me. “This is what you’ve had to deal with all these years? He’s annoying.”

“Yep.”

“I knew it,” Chris says, blood trickling from his mouth, his teeth red. He licks them. “You’ve been fucking my sister.”

Tobias grimaces. “Don’t call her your sister.”

“You didn’t deny it.”

Tobias leans in, gripping the arms of the chair. “What if I have been? What the fuck are you going to do about it?”

I want to tell Tobias to shut up, that baiting him won’t help, but the rage in his eyes makes it all worth it.

“I’ll kill you if you have. She’s mine.”

“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” Tobias says. “Are you done? Your voice is going through me.”

Chris scowls. “I will kill you.”

Kade’s father chuckles and flexes his fingers, fisting his hand again. “You can certainly try.” He looks at Barry. “Have you gone through his phone?”

“Yeah. He created a program that automatically wipes the phone. He broke his laptop when the guys got there, but he’ll have backup files somewhere.” Then Kade’s assistant looks at Chris. “We’re trying to take them down, just like you were planning. Where can we get those files?”

When Ewan and Tobias start punching him again, I decide to take my leave. I walk upstairs to the kitchen and find Aria erratically scrubbing her hands. I walk over, and she pauses when she sees me. “Oh, sweetheart. Are you okay?”

She’s trying to scrub blood from her hand. Her eyes are wet, and she looks on the verge of a breakdown. “Are you okay?” I ask instead.

“I want to go home,” she says, her lip wobbling. “I want Tobias to be well, for Kade to get better, and for my daughter to be with me. I want to go home.”

Her ex comes up from the basement, red stains on his hands and clothes. “He’s asleep.”

No, he’s knocked out.

“Are you crying?” Tobias asks Aria. She tries to hide her face, but he’s already approaching her and taking it in his hands. “I’ll make it right. I promise I will.”

She forces a smile but ultimately falls apart in his arms, hugging into his chest.