Stay (23 page)

His hands found my chest, and he shoved me backward. I tumbled into Jackson, who tried to catch me. Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion: Nate’s startled expression, helplessly crashing into Jackson’s body, the feeling of my feet leaving the wooden stairs. Then we were falling, and I felt each and every step on the way down.
 

Jackson protectively wrapped his arms around me, keeping me from whacking my head on the cement floor. He suddenly pushed me away and rolled on top of me, shielding me from one of Zane’s blows.

“He attacked me!” Zane screamed. I heard Nate rush down the stairs. “He fucking attacked me!” Jackson hugged me tighter as Zane kicked him. I could feel the force of Zane’s violence as Jackson flinched in pain.
 

“What?” Nate asked, his voice shrill. “Jackson doesn’t fight back. He never has!”

Zane kicked Jackson again. “I’ll make sure he doesn’t do it again,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Get him up,” Nate said. The beating stopped. Nate and Zane grabbed onto Jackson’s arms and tried to lift him up. Jackson released me from his protective embrace, but I clung on.

“It’s okay, Addie,” he panted.

“No!” I cried and pulled him toward me, refusing to let go of his hand. “No, stop!” Nate kicked me in the face, the ball of his foot smashing my nose. Horrible pain shot through me as the fragile bones cracked, and hot blood poured out.
 

“Jackson!” I called and pushed myself up off the floor. Blood dripped down my throat. I reached for him.
 

“Don’t give up,” he said as Nate and Zane dragged him back. “Don’t ever give up.”

“I won’t!” I promised. Zane hooked his arms under Jackson’s and pulled him up the stairs. Jackson suddenly stopped struggling, making Zane stumble and almost lose his balance. Nate punched Jackson in the face. I rushed over, reaching for Jackson.
 

“Stop!” I screamed. Nate turned and slapped me. The added pain to my broken nose was too much. I crumbled to the ground.

Phoebe ran over and put her arm around me, both to offer comfort and to keep me from going after Jackson. I blinked back salty tears and carefully put my hand over my nose, trying to stop the blood. I looked up just in time to see Jackson’s feet disappear. I heard his body clunk against each step and the basement door slam shut.
 

I spit out blood. My body shuddered as a sob bubbled out of my mouth. Phoebe wrapped both arms around my shoulders and pulled me close. The full extent of the pain was starting to register and I began to feel sick.
 

“Jackson…” I began but trailed off, hiccupping another sob.

The back door slammed shut so hard it shook the house. Phoebe ran her hand over my hair. “Shhh,” she soothed but I began to cry even harder. My throat hurt with each ragged breath. Phoebe continued to stroke my hair until I got my breathing under control. I sniffled, inhaling blood. She gently pushed me away and got a towel. She pressed it to my face. I put my hand over hers and leaned forward, letting the blood drip out.

For the second time, a gunshot echoed across the frozen land.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I STARTLED AWAKE. My heart hammered, and sweat dripped down my back. The smell of gunpowder hung in the air, and my ears were still ringing from the shot. I squeezed my eyes shut and took a ragged breath. I threw the quilt from my sweaty body and pressed my hands against the cot.
 

I was in the basement. A gun hadn’t gone off. Not since several hours ago at least. I turned on my side and brought my legs to my chest, pressing against my broken heart.
 

“Addie?” Lily sat up. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah.” I sniffled. “I am.”

Her cot creaked. I listened to her bare feet smack against the basement floor as she walked over. “I miss him too.” She sank down next to me and put her hand on my shoulder. “I took him for granted. Like he was just there, bringing us food and doing our laundry.
 
I never really talked to him. And now he’s gone.”

I didn’t bother to wipe away my tears. I repressed a sob and nodded. Gone. Jackson was gone. He died protecting me. Guilt wrapped around the heartache. I turned my face into my pillow and cried. Lily lay down next to me, her body squished against mine on the tiny cot.

“It’s not your fault,” she soothed.

“No.” I sharply inhaled and sat up. “It’s not my fault.”
 
Anger burned inside me. “It’s their fault.
They
did it. They killed Jackson. And I swear, if it’s the last thing I do, I will kill them too.”

Lily’s green eyes widened. She sat and bit her bottom lip. “Okay.” She nodded.
 

I closed my puffy eyes, grateful she wasn’t going to tell me I was being irrational with grief. She picked up my quilt from the floor and wrapped it around my shoulders.
 

“You should sleep,” she yawned.

“I can’t sleep. I’ll have nightmares.” I shook my head. “But you can sleep. I’ll be okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Phoebe should be back from work soon,” I added to help convince her. As nice as it was to have her comforting me, I wanted to be alone.

“Okay.” Her eyebrows pushed together and she nodded. “I’m sorry, Addie.”

“Me too.” I flopped back down and pulled the quilt over my head.
 

My throat hurt from the snot that dripped down it. I hated that my nose ran every time I cried. Jackson’s eyes flashed in my mine. My face crumpled. Sobs up bubbled from deep within me. Jackson’s life was full of pain and misery, and it had ended that way.

Had he suffered? Was he left to slowly bleed to death, alone out in the cold? Maybe he died instantly and was in a better place now, though I wasn’t sure if I believed in a better place anymore. It was hard to believe in heaven when I was trapped in hell.

***

“Adeline. Get up.” Zane’s voice was sharp. Each word cracked against me like a whip. I opened my eyes, puffy and swollen from crying myself to sleep. “Adeline.”

My mouth was dry, and my skin stuck together when I parted my lips. I sat up and looked at Zane. He had a black eye, and his bottom lip was split open. The long sleeved, black shirt he was wearing covered the rest of the bruises.
 

“Blue looks good on you.” I stared at his face with no emotion.

Zane’s eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared. He stepped off the stairs, arms out to his sides, and limped. He abruptly stopped as if he forgot he was injured. “Upstairs. Ten minutes. Look decent.” He set his jaw and turned around. I noticed his hands were balled into fists, and his shoulders were stiff. I hoped he was in a world of pain.

I swung my legs over the cot and stretched my back, tight from being in the fetal position for most of the night. My hip hurt from tumbling down the stairs. I groaned and feebly walked to the vanity. Phoebe was stretched out on her cot, fast asleep. Lily had the covers pulled over her eyes, but I got the feeling she was really awake.
 

I turned on the shower and splashed cold water on my face. I knew I looked like a mess. But I didn’t care. Jackson was dead, and I was being forced to work—again. I didn’t give a crap if my eyes were red. My nose was bruised from Nate hitting me and dried blood crusted on my neck, which was red and bruised from the choke chain. I ran my hands over my hair instead of brushing it and put on a black dress and red high heels.

I went up the stairs and pushed on the door. Of course it was locked. I turned around and sat on the top step, waiting. More than ten minutes passed before Zane thrust the door open.
 

“You look horrible.” He grimaced when I stood. “I’m going to have to pay Keith to fuck you.”
 

I bit the inside of my cheek and kept my eyes on Zane’s face, focusing on the bruise around his eye. It was the last trace of Jackson, the evidence of his existence fading away. I took a breath, lifting my heavy heart back into my chest.
 

I kept my face still. I remembered the look on Jackson’s face when he lunged at Zane. He was so angry, so ready to finally end this shitty life. Only it hadn’t ended in the way he had planned.

Zane took a hold of my arm and jerked me forward, both of us limping through the house. He let me go and shoved me forward when we reached the stairs. I went ahead of him, seeing out of the corner of my eye that he needed to grip the railing and hoist himself up each step.

I went into the guest room. The man Zane called Keith was already there. I'd had him as a client several times before, but never knew his name. He was a large man, usually sweaty and reeking of cigarettes.
 

“What happened to you?” he grunted. He wasn’t really asking to get a response. He didn’t really care. It was something said to someone who looked like hell, and I fit the definition of that to a T. He walked to me and picked up a handful of my hair, pulling it away from my battered neck. “Rode hard and put away wet, eh?” He let go of my hair. It fell in my face.

His hands settled on my hips. Pain seared through me. I must have had a nasty bruise on my side from falling. He turned me around and pushed me over onto the dresser. His fingers slipped under the hem of the dress and pulled it up, wasting no time yanking my underwear to my ankles. He pressed his cold hands to the back of my thighs and dragged them up.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and started counting as I let the air slip out of me. It was going to hurt when Keith entered me. There was nothing I could do to stop the pain. I could only brace for it. Pretend it wasn’t happening. Think of something else. But I couldn’t really escape.

Don’t give up
. Jackson’s face flashed before me. I opened my eyes and stared at my reflection.
 

“I won’t,” I promised.

“What you say, girl?” Keith’s breath was hot on my neck. He tipped his head up and looked at me in the mirror.

“I won’t give up.”
 

I pushed up against the dresser and brought my arm back in a swift movement. My elbow rammed into Keith’s stomach. He pitched forward, losing his grip on my waist. I scuttled out of the way and raced to the door. My fingers closed around the knob. Keith sputtered behind me, zipping up his pants.

I threw the door open and leapt into the hall. My heart sped up. I whipped my head to the side and looked down the hall. There was no one there. I looked to the other side. Still no one. The stairs loomed in front of me. Without a second thought, I ran toward them, grabbed the railing, and flew down the steps.

I skidded to a stop by the front door. My hand shook as I reached for the keypad. The floor above shook as Keith plundered out of the room.
Shit.
He was coming. He would say something. And Zane would—
No
. I didn’t have time to think of the horrible things he would do to me. That he
wouldn’t
do to me. I was escaping.
 

My fingers hovered above the keypad. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes. Here goes nothing. Four beeps echoed throughout the house as I randomly punched in numbers. For a split second, nothing happened. Then an ear-piercing high-pitched alarm blared.
 

Dread flowed through me, weighting my feet. I was too scared to run. Frantic, I pushed in another combination with no avail.
 

Fuck. It was over.

A door slammed from inside the house. “What the hell is going on?” Nate yelled over the horrible screaming alarm.
 

I whirled around. The coat closet was right in front of me. The floorboards vibrated from Nate’s footsteps. I wrapped my fingers around the doorknob and twisted. I opened the door and stepped inside. Keeping the knob turned, I silently closed the door and sank into the full rack of jackets.

I clasped my hands together and held my breath. A line of white light filtered in through the space between the door and the floor. More people ran around the house. The floor shuddered under their frantic footsteps. Someone shouted, but the alarm made their words indiscernible.

I crouched down, using my feet to shove the shoes that were underneath me to the side. I wanted to crack open the door and see what was going on, see if I had a chance to run, but there was no way I’d risk that. I squeezed my eyes shut.
 
This was stupid. What was I thinking? That I could stay hidden in the coat closet forever? It wasn’t like I could sneak out once Nate and Zane went to bed or anything. I knew for sure they wouldn’t rest until they found me.

The alarm cut off. My ears rang from the sudden silence. I put my hands over my mouth and turned my head so my ear was closer to the door.
 

“She’s still in the house,” Zane said. “There’s no way she could have gotten out.”
 

Dark shadows moved in front of the door. My heart skipped a beat and cold fear flowed through me.
 

“This is all your fault.” Nate’s voice was full of venom. “
You
brought her here.
You
will take the fall for this if she gets out.”

Holy shit.
Nate was going to let Zane take all the heat without batting an eye. And I thought he liked Zane.

“She’s still in the house,” Zane repeated, his voice cracking. “She has to be. She doesn’t know the codes.”

“Then fucking find her!” Nate screamed.
 

I hoped he would get mad enough to shoot Zane too. I pulled my arms close to my body to keep my trembling limbs from giving away my location.
 

Just move, please.
 

Someone, presumably Nate, stomped away. I wished my silent pleading had actually worked. I’d beg Nate to stick a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger. Zane turned. The floor creaked under him.
 

No, please no.
I closed my eyes again.
Don’t open the door.
 

“Mother fucker!” Zane hit the closet door. I jumped, sending a leather dress shoe tumbling. Zane had to have heard it.
This is it. It's over. For real, this time.