38. Paige

38

PAIGE

Cars whizz by, and I have no idea where we're going. I ache all over, bruised in places I didn't even know existed until today.

I can't stop thinking about Da, wondering if he's okay. Thinking about my childhood.

I'm so tired, oblivion's pulling at me.

Next thing I know, I'm lying in my childhood bed. Da sits next to my bedside, his hand on my knee. He looks up, seeing that I'm awake, and I realize that he's crying.

"Da? What happened?"

"You've been asleep so long, Paige. We didn't know if you would ever wake up. You've been like Sleeping Beauty."

"I don't feel very beautiful." My head pounds as I sit up.

I'm dizzy, too, and the sound of cars whizzing by confuses me. The mansion sits a mile back from the street, so why can I hear traffic?

He chuckles. "You're always beautiful, Paige."

Realization dawns on me as I look at Da. He looks fine, dressed in the same suit he was wearing the night he was...

"Wait…"

Da smiles wider.

As I watch, blood trickles down from the corner of his mouth, and a blooming red bullet hole opens up in his chest.

"Da!" I cry, and I reach out to him.

Now I'm in the restaurant, and I know that I'm dreaming, but I can't quite figure out what happened.

Did I fall asleep at the hospital? Back at the mansion?

Something happened. Something important.

Someone bumps into me hard and…

I open my eyes.

But I can't see. I hurt, though. All over.

Reality hurts, but I remember now.

I snuck out of my house, like I did that time when I was sixteen, and when I got home, Da was sitting in the living room in the dark.

I nearly screamed because Da was hardly ever in the living room.

"Are you going to yell at me?" I looked down at my feet before peeking at him through my eyelashes.

Da shook his head. "Not going to yell, Paige. But it's time for us to have a wee chat."

I swallowed hard, sitting down across from him on the couch. He always sat in that same, stinky recliner when he came in here.

"I'm sorry."

Da looked far away, as if he was thinking and not listening to me.

"Paige, do you know what I do for a living?"

"Aye."

Da smiled. He always did when my accent, however light, came out.

"Then you know that I'm a dangerous man."

"Not to me." I smiled, but Da's smile faded .

"Never to you, no. But that means that other dangerous men are after what I've got. After the people I love."

"They're after me?"

"And if you ever get captured, Paige, do you know what to do?"

"Fight," I said, knowing confidently that was the right answer. Da had taught us as small children to scream, kick, fight if we were ever touched by anyone we didn't know.

"Aye." Da nodded once. "You fight for all you're worth, Paige Burke. And you're worth a lot."

My legs cramping up pull me out of my memory, and I hiss, wanting to scream and cry.

The car is slowing down, and the ground below us sounds different. Maybe a parking space.

I kick at the trunk with all my might, but there's only a useless thudding sound before someone jerks open the trunk lid.

I try to pry my eyes open, and I'm able to get a slight slit to look through.

The skinny guy I punched on the nose looks down at me, and he still has blood on his face.

Though my face hurts like hell, I smirk, unable to help myself, and he backhands me across the face hard, making my teeth snap together so hard I think one of them might have cracked.

"Bitch." He yanks me out by my elbows, and puts me over his shoulder, carrying me across the huge parking lot.

I scream, and Fatso approaches me.

"Shut up, or I'll do it for you."

I try to look at him through the tiny slit in my eyes, and then I spit blood into his face.

He curses in Gaelic, and his fist comes down on my face so hard everything spins.

He rips off his tie, shoving it into my mouth.

My nose's clogged from clotted blood, most likely, and the tie's making me gag, so I'm struggling to get some air into my lungs.

"She's going to die if you leave her gagged," Skinny growls as he carries me into a dark room.

"Who cares?"

"Boss does. Besides, no one around for miles anyway. Let the bitch scream."

Fatso shrugs and yanks the tie out of my mouth, and I gasp for air, sucking in oxygen like I've been drowning.

I squirm on Skinny's shoulder, trying to get him to let me go.

I don't want to stay here, I need to run.

Skinny throws me on the ground, and all the air I had recovered leaves me again.

I lie there on my side for a second, just breathe, my muscles aching from being tied up and stuck in that trunk for god knows how long.

But I have to get out of here. I can't give up.

If only I could breathe. And then I'm alone in the room, the door slamming behind my captors.

I don't know how long I've been lying here when the door creaks open to let Skinny in. He's bringing me food.

I'm suddenly ravenous, and I wonder how many hours I've been here.

It's a ham sandwich, and I look up at him.

I can see a bit better now, though not much. I think the cool in the bedroom is helping with the swelling in my eyes.

"Can you please untie my hands? I'll be good."

He looks down at me suspiciously, but then shrugs. "Can't see how else you're going to eat. I'm not going to bloody feed you. "

He reaches down with a switchblade and cuts the zip ties, and I smile up at him innocently before grabbing on to his ankle and leaning forward to sink my teeth into it, as far as I can.

He screeches, kicking, and as he does, I grab his switch knife, cut the bindings tying my feet together and scramble up and out of the room.

As I step outside, though, my head is yanked back by my hair.

He drags me back, and I thrash kicking, scratching, doing anything and everything I can remember to try and get free again.

He throws me up against the wall, cracking something in my back.

"If you want to play hard, we can, bitch." He throws me to the ground. "Good luck eating in the dark."

Oh, no, you don't!

I rush at him, but he kicks me in the face. I'm pretty sure it loosens a tooth.

Crying out, I keep fighting.

I have to get out of here. I have to escape. I just need to fight hard enough.

So, I use what Kael taught me and sweep my leg underneath his, and he stumbles in the dark, holding out his hands for purchase.

Scrambling to my feet, I rush for the door, but he grabs me around the throat, throwing me back down.

I catch my breath for only a brief second, but then he makes it to the door, and my chance at escape is over.

For now.

He slams the door shut, and I start to sob, wiggling around on the floor to try and find the sandwich.

Finally, I do.

It's excruciating trying to open my mouth enough to eat or even to chew, but I need to eat. Need to keep up my strength. Need to take every advantage in my power so that, when time comes, I can escape.

I have to take breaks between bites and sobs to try and breathe properly.

My whole face is swollen, and I bet I barely look like myself.

I'm not going to give up, even as hope starts to flee from me. I'm going to get the hell out of here if it's the last thing I do. I can't hope that someone will find me, that once again someone else comes to my rescue. I need to take matters into my own hands.

The door opens again, and I tackle at Fatso, but all he does is hold me down and tie me to a chair, grunting as I kick and yell.

"Now think about what you've done."

I growl at him, and he chuckles as he leaves the room, leaving me in the dark again.

At least sitting upright helps with my breathing a bit. It also helps with the cramps in my thighs and upper arms. They've been killing me.

I'm able to stretch a bit this way, even though my back aches something fierce. I feel like maybe I broke something back there.

I have no way of telling how long I sit there in the dark. All I can think about is all the things I've done wrong.

Sneaking out when I was a teenager, worrying Da by being gone for three days with Sophie once. The way he'd hugged me so tightly when Gray found me and dragged me home, the way he'd cried.

Being a jerk to Gray when we were kids because I screamed at him about us being motherless. He'd smacked me on the butt pretty hard, told me to never call us that. He'd said that Ma was always with us.

Never telling Kael that I love him. So much that it hurts.

Never having the chance to make him fall in love with me.

Not standing up to my brothers, insisting that they bring him back to the family. Fighting for my happy ending.

I've been waiting my whole life to find the right guy. I've been through so much, and now, I know what my happy ending is. Or better yet, who.

Kael. He's my everything.

And I may never see him again.

Don't think like that, Paige . They'll have to move you eventually. Murphy knows everyone's looking for you. Find a weakness. Find a moment.

I'm not going to give up. I'm going to fight, and even if I die trying, I'll know I did everything I could.

I look toward the door, all but willing it to open, and then, it does.

Fatso stands there with Skinny, and I want to yell, but I'm exhausted, and it wouldn't do me any good.

I was hoping it would just be Skinny. I've gotten the drop on him a few times now.

But with both of them....

Don't lose hope. Don't. Fight. Da says to fight.

I look up at them.

"Murphy send two of you because one of you couldn't handle a little girl?" I taunt.

Fatso clenches his fists. "I'm going to gag her again."

They cut my zip ties, all of them, and when my muscles release, I cry out, unable to help it. They've been so tensed tied to this chair .

Fatso laughs. "Serves you right for being a bitch."

Skinny stands me up.

I take the last bit of my strength, thinking of Da, thinking of Declan and Gray and Lara.

Thinking of Kael.

As I push him hard, he stumbles backward into Fatso, who gets pushed against the wall.

I sprint in between the two men and the door, and I manage to get out of their grasp.

Running as fast as I can through the warehouse, I dodge crates, my muscles aching, my vision doubling as I keep running.

They're yelling at me as they run, but I can't hear anything else over the rush of blood in my ears.

The double doors are wide open, and I run through them, high stepping to try and run faster, but Skinny is right on my tail.

As I make it to their car, I climb inside reaching for the door, but Skinny grabs my arm and drags me backward.

Screaming as loud as I can, I dig my nails into the leather seats, ripping them and one of my nails down to the quick.

I kick and kick and finally Skinny yelps when I hit him in the cheekbone.

Panting, I am finally able to get inside and shut the door of the car behind me, looking around for the keys.

As the door locks and unlocks without me touching, I know I'm screwed. I groan loudly as I lock the doors over and over as he tries to unlock them with the keys.

Why didn't I let Gray teach me how to hotwire?

I'm not going to get away this way, so I scramble over the gearshift, opening the passenger side door just as Fatso grins at me through the glass .

Screaming, I change gears, flipping over into the backseat and hurting my neck.

"Jesus Christ, she's squirrelly." Fatso sounds almost like he admires it, and I scream again as he opens the back door and grabs me, tugging me out of the car.

He throws me over his shoulder, and I scream and kick until Skinny grabs me by the ponytail, dragging my head up so that I'll look at him.

"If you don't stop kicking, I'll hogtie you and give you something to cry about."

My throat feels full, and I don't realize I'm crying until the tears stream down my chin to my neck.

Limp, I let them take me back in the room. I lie listlessly on the ground after they tie me up, and Fatso looks down at me.

"I think we broke her."

I don't look at him, just burying my face in the cool floor and sobbing.

"About fucking time," Skinny pipes up, and then the door shuts, and I'm in pitch-black again.

Let them think they broke me. Burkes don't break.

I hope.