NICHOLAS ASHER TAKES a step closer to us and she takes another back, stepping out of the kitchen. His eyes go to mine and then back to her.
“No,” she whispers. “I saw you … you were dead.”
“Ellington,” he says her name and another whimper comes out of her trembling lips.
She wraps her arms around her waist. “I found you.” He runs a hand through his hair at her words. “I held your body.” She takes another step back, eyes on the floor, unable to look at him. “You’re dead. Have been for years.”
His jaw sharpens and he looks to me. I glare at him. I don’t know the story as to how he’s alive and standing here in the kitchen either. I just know what Ryat had overheard while he was on his assignment and that if the rumor was true, Tyson knew where he was—Carnage.
The Spade brothers dropped him off two days ago, but I’ve spent all of my time with Elli. She finally stopped vomiting around midnight last night and was able to get some rest. I woke alone in bed to her screaming.
“Let’s sit down, okay?” I turn to look at her. “There’s a lot we need to talk about.” I’m not just meaning her father coming back from the grave.
A tear runs down her cheek, but she nods. I take her hand and grab my gun off the counter with my free one. Making our way to the living room, she and I sit down on the couch. Her father takes the seat across from us.
I don’t miss the way she pushes herself closer to me. Her bare leg touching mine. I grab the blanket off the back and place it over us since she’s in a T-shirt of mine and I’m only wearing boxers.
“Elli—”
“Nicholas.” The way she says his name is so cold, detached. She’s putting up all her walls, confused and hurt. She feels she’s been lied to all these years. I get it. I didn’t expect this to be easy. Not after everything she’s been through.
His jaw sharpens at the use of his name. “It’s weird you not calling me Daddy. Guess you’re not twelve anymore.”
A sob escapes her lips, and she places her hand over her mouth, eyes dropping to her lap.
He looks at me, brow arched.
“One thing at a time,” I growl. “How the fuck are you alive?” I demand, wrapping my arm round her shoulders and pulling her into my side. My free hand holds my gun resting on top of the blanket. I understand he’s her father, but I’m also aware he’s been MIA for nine years. I don’t know if that’s by choice or something he planned.
He runs a hand through his hair. “You don’t die at Carnage unless the Spade brothers are done with you,” he states.
“How did you survive hanging yourself?” Elli asks, her voice soft and eyes still downcast, looking at her shaking hands on her lap. “You were … cold,” she adds softly.
“Jesus, Elli. Do you really think I tried to kill myself?” he barks out.
She lifts her eyes to look at him through her lashes. “I was the one who found you. I lay there on the floor with your dead body for over an hour. You. Were. Dead.”
He shakes his head. “I was set up.”
“How were you set up for suicide?” I wonder. I mean, it’s not impossible. Look what Holland tried to do to Elli, but the Nicholas situation is a little different. No drugs were involved. Not that I know of anyway.
He leans forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “Someone did die that day, but it wasn’t me. It was Nathaniel.”
I frown, Elli remains silent.
“Nathaniel was my twin brother.”
I sit up straighter. “You don’t have a twin brother.” I would know that. Our families grew up together and I would have remembered that.
“I did.” He nods. “My father had an affair on his Lady and got my mother pregnant. My father took me, let our mother keep my brother. When I was of age, I went into initiation. Wanting to be a Lord. I had found my brother and reached out, but he didn’t want anything to do with it.” He shrugs. “My father wanted nothing to do with him. He was shunned by my father and my mother who raised me. But he was in my life. A lot, actually. He was always needing money, bailed out of situations that he couldn’t afford to do himself. Of course, not many knew he existed. But he was killed to make it look like I committed suicide. And I was handed over to Carnage.”
Silence falls over the room and I feel Elli’s body shaking as she leans into my side.
“What about you?” His eyes go to his daughter. “Why and how long have you been doing drugs?”
She stiffens, but her head stays down. She’s not going to answer him. Admitting what has happened to her is too much for her to explain to her father.
“Why don’t you go start a bath.” I lean in and kiss her temple. Nick’s up for sharing but I know she sure as fuck is not. He may be her father but right now he’s a stranger to her. “I’ll be there to join you in a minute.”
She slowly gets to her feet and starts to walk toward the hallway. Her father stands and she runs out of the living room. I hear the bedroom door slam shut seconds later.
“What the fuck is going on with her?” he barks at me.
I expected it to go this way, honestly. I figured she’d be more confused than excited. But in the long run, she’ll come around. “Your death ruined her life,” I say simply.
He groans. “Mine hasn’t been sunshine since I died.”
I stare at him as he looks over at the hallway she ran down, the gun heavy in my hand. He needs to know what’s going on because once again, things are going to change. I’m going to give him one chance. He’ll either help me or get in my way. Might as well find out right now which one it’s going to be.
“Your wife remarried,” I begin with and he snorts. “To James, a year after you died. He spent the first three years of his marriage grooming your daughter.” His body stiffens. “He then took her virginity at sixteen. And continued to rape her until I killed him two years ago. He made her call him Daddy, so forgive her for not calling you that.”
He turns, giving me his back, running his hands through his hair. He curses under his breath. Turning back to face me, I add, “We recently found out—at your wife’s third wedding reception—that she was aware James was fucking Elli. But when Elli said she was being raped, your wife said she was willingly throwing herself at her husband.”
“Motherfucker!” He grabs a glass off of the coffee table and throws it across the room. It hits the far wall and shatters to a million pieces.
I can only imagine how he feels. I’m sure you don’t get to let out your frustration at Carnage. He’ll be a walking time bomb now. Nine years of pent-up aggression. That’s what I need. Someone who won’t think twice about making others bleed. I need help if I’m going to take down who I think is involved. And of course, she needs her father. She may not feel that way right this second, but she will.
I head toward the hallway, knowing that Elli is waiting on me, but he stops me.
“What did you offer the Spade brothers in exchange for me?” he asks.
I look at him over my shoulder. “Whatever they wanted.”
“Easton…” he growls.
“Get some rest, Nick. We’ll try again later. We’ve only got a week for her to come around.”
ELLINGTON
I SIT IN the tub, hot water up to my chest, my eyes staring straight ahead, but I don’t see anything.
My father is alive. Has been for all these years. No. I don’t believe it. How did no one not know? He was dead. In my arms.
“Daddy?” I cry, my arms wrapped around his neck as we lie side by side on the cold floor. The rope still wrapped around it.
“Elli, he’s dead.” Hands tug at my arm.
“Noooo.” I sob, hanging on to him tighter.
“Elli, sweetheart, you’ve got to let go of him.” I hear Mrs. Sinnett say softly.
Hands grab at me again and this time I’m yanked from him. I scream, my hands reaching out, trying to grab a hold of him, but I’m too far away. “DADDY!” I sob as warm arms wrap around me, pulling me into a soft body. I turn and bury my face into her. She picks me up and I let her carry me out of the house as if I’m an infant who can’t walk on her own.
I blink and see Sin sitting in front of me in the tub, the water now turned off. His legs on either side of mine. His hands on my bent knees. His eyes follow the tear that runs down my face and I realize I’m crying. “How did you know?”
“Another Lord overheard something. He came to me, and I had Tyson make a call.”
He doesn’t want me to know who told him. Maybe it’s for the best. I sniff. “What did you do?” If my father has been gone for almost nine years, it cost Sin something in order to get him back. I know how the Lords work.
“Don’t worry about that,” he says, his hands running up and down my thighs. “He’s here now.”
My eyes drop to the water, and I feel fresh tears stinging my eyes. Lifting them back to meet his, I ask, “Why are you here, Sin?”
He sighs, his chest rising and falling, and my eyes drop to the Lords’ crest branded onto it. It makes me think of the one he gave me on my thigh. Has he given one to Amelia yet? If not, will he once she becomes his wife? “Because there’s nowhere else I want to be.”
My eyes meet his again and he reaches out, rubbing his thumb through the tears on my cheeks. “Amelia—”
“Don’t worry about her,” he interrupts me, once again avoiding my question.
I pull back and move my legs to the side, knocking his hands off of them.
“Elli,” he sighs.
I stand, making the water splash around, and get out of the tub, hearing him get out as well. I dry off and make my way to the bedroom, yanking the covers back and crawling into bed. “Go home, Sin,” I say, watching him exit the bathroom. Rolling over, I turn away from him.
He yanks the covers back and lies down next to me. “I am home, Elli.” He wraps his arm around me from behind.
I turn in his arms and shove my hand into his bare chest. “This isn’t our home, Sin. Leave.”
He shoves me onto my back and straddles my hips. I reach up and slap his face, but it’s weak. I’m not one hundred percent myself yet after the party. The room has stopped spinning and I no longer have a bad taste in my mouth since I brushed my teeth, but my head isn’t one hundred percent. Like a throbbing sensation right behind my eyes. Not bad enough to hurt, but enough to irritate me.
Grabbing both of my wrists, he pins them down on either side of my head. I try to lift my hips but he’s sitting on them. I growl.
“Get angry, little demon. It’ll just make this that much sweeter.”
“S-in,” I cry out, frustrated, and turned on. I need him to take me to that place where my mind doesn’t work. Where I don’t have to wonder why my father is alive and in my house or why I got fucked up at a party. Or why Sin’s here with me and not with Amelia. “Please leave.”
Letting go of my wrists, he grips my throat, forcing me to arch my neck. He lowers his lips to mine, whispering, “Beg me to leave while I fuck your cunt, Elli.”
I whimper before he takes my breath away completely. My pussy clenches while my hands claw at his back and my nails dig into his skin, making him hiss in a breath. My heels dig into the sheets, pushing up, but he’s still on top of me. I can’t get any traction or leverage to get him off of me. The worst part? I don’t want him to. This is what I wanted. For him to drag me out of the party and fuck me. To want me. To need me like I need him.
It’s that toxic trait that I need to be owned. Put in my place. Hurt me, fuck me, make me come. I’ll never learn but I want him to think I can. That I’m somewhat able to be saved. Even though we both know, deep down, I’m too broken to change now. Sin may be the devil, but I’m the sinner. Doing the same thing over and over, knowing that I can’t be saved.
He runs his tongue along my parted lips before murmuring, “I don’t know what you were trying to accomplish by going to that party, but I’m going to punish you for it.”
I arch my neck more, trying to breathe, and it just gives him better access to it. He repositions his hand, still restricting my air, and I see dots dance across my vision. My hands that are digging into his back drop to my sides and my eyes start to fall closed.
