Absolution (Sacrificial Duet Book 2)

by Riley Ashby

  “You’re going down for this. Not him.”

  But she didn’t hear me. She was out, completely limp. I held the pressure a few more seconds to make sure, then dragged her into my bathroom and tied her to the towel bar in the bathroom. I’d installed the thing myself, drilled right into the studs. She wasn’t getting off of it. Even so, I barricaded the door with my dresser.

  Back in the hallway, I picked up the gun and flipped out the barrel to find the firing pin had been filed down to nothing.

  “FUCK!” I screamed as I threw the revolver down the hallway. Of course Conrad would know I had a gun and would take steps to neutralize it. His tampering had just saved my life, but now I had nothing to defend myself with when I went into the house. I glared at the dent left in the wall in the shape of Anita’s body. “This is your fucking fault.”

  “Meyer?”

  I rolled my eyes at my sister’s weak voice coming through the bathroom door, and went down the hall toward the stairs, scooping up the useless gun as I did. As far as Conrad knew, I had no idea it had been tampered with. I stuck it in the waistband of my pants, and stepped outside.

  It was completely dark outside, and my breath fogged in the air as I exhaled. Through the sparse foliage that usually separated Conrad’s house from mine I could see the lights of his house. He’d have finished eating by now. They’d be in the office. Maybe. It was just as likely they’d be in the bedroom.

  I took one last breath to steel myself before I started walking, and before I knew it, I’d left the refuge of my house and was swallowed up by the darkness.

  *

  Conrad never kept adequate lighting, or cameras, on the outside of his house. He said they gave him headaches, and he didn’t want to pay someone to sit around watching surveillance monitors when what he really wanted was to confront anyone who had the balls to come at him head on. There weren’t guns lying around the house, of course; he could never risk letting me or Eva get our hands on them. But he did have multiple safes, accessible only by a key he kept around his neck. It was the only copy. He lost it, once. After he beat me senseless to confirm I hadn’t stolen it, he had to call a locksmith to drill open every last one of them.

  Even though it may have been difficult to find a weapon in my childhood home, I knew exactly how to get in and out of the building without being noticed. Eva wasn’t the only one who learned to move around unseen. I hadn’t returned to this entrance for years, hoping I would no longer have need of it, but as far as I knew Conrad never found out about it. I had no choice but to hope that was true. I crept past the back patio and around to the chimney stretching from the ground to the roof. Fifty feet to the north was an ancient door, used long ago for staff to load grocery deliveries directly into the pantry. It had been boarded up before I was born, but I discovered it one day hiding behind boxes of wine when Conrad was on a rampage. A slow excavation ensued, done in covertly to ensure I wasn’t found out, and in a few weeks I had a secret passage no one else in the house knew about. Even Eva was ignorant to its existence.

  Ivy and weeds had grown thick around the door in the years since I’d used it, but I yanked away as much as I could and pulled at the door until it opened—which it did with a loud yowl. I winced and ducked inside, listening intently for movement in the kitchen. Nothing. I started to pull it shut again, then thought better of it and simply moved a few stacked boxes of wine to better shield the entrance. No one should be coming in here again tonight, and the draft from outside would go unnoticed. I hoped.

  I waited with my ear against the inside of the pantry door for another few minutes, but there was nothing to indicate another person waited on the other side. I reached for my gun, cursed softly when I remembered it didn’t work, and returned to the boxes of wine to grab a bottle as my weapon, swearing to figure out something more intimidating once I got into the main house. Unlike the door to the outside, the pantry door swung open noiselessly on well-oiled hinges. The kitchen was dark; the only sound was the quietly humming refrigerator. All the knives were kept behind locked cabinet doors. Even the heavy cast-iron pans had been stowed safely where no desperate slave or fed-up child could get their hands on them.

  Growing up afraid of my own shadow, I’d learned to navigate the house in the dark without ever worrying about so much as stubbing my toe. On days where Conrad saw fit to send me to bed without dinner for some imagined slight, I’d sneak downstairs to try and steal some food from the pantry only to find it locked.

  “Don’t worry,” Eva would whisper as she placed her hand on my shoulder, startling me out of my half-starved daze. “I was on my way down here myself.” Then she’d produce a bobby pin and pop open the lock. Once I gained more control over my fingers, she taught me to do the same.

  I crept through the house without another noise, initially heading for the room where I suspected Maddie had been kept when she was brought here. The room Eva and I lived in for the first year of her captivity. Pulling open the door, I braced myself for Conrad to come rushing at me from within, but there was no one in the room. I stepped inside briefly, picking up the worn yellow baby blanket sitting on the thin cot. I picked it up and rubbed the soft fabric between my fingers. It didn’t raise any memories for me; in fact, it looked much newer than any blanket I would have had as a child. I dropped it back on the cot and left the room, shutting the door silently behind me.

  She wasn’t here, which meant I would have to go back to Conrad’s rooms. That was the only other place she would be. My heart heavy, I made my way back to the first floor and the back stairwell.

  The door was unlocked—he likely didn’t think anyone would be sneaking up here anytime soon. He probably sent away all the staff for at least a week.

  The lights at the top of the stairs were already on, but there was no sign of life except for a strange sound emanating from the bedroom. I raised the wine bottle, preparing to swing, and started down the hallway. It sounded like crying. But I couldn’t hear Conrad. If he wasn’t in the bedroom, where was he? I had to get Eva someplace safe before I could confront Conrad. There would be no leaving him alive, not after I ran off with both Madeline and her mother. He’d spend every last dollar he had to hunt us down, and we’d all pay when he found us. Because he would, eventually, no matter how hard we tried to hide.

  The door cracked open and I froze in place, cocking my arm back to swing in case the wrong person stumbled through the door, but nothing could have compared me to the sight of Eva, nearly naked except for a torn robe, once a light shade of pink but now as red as the dawn.

  “Meyer,” she whispered, blood running down her neck and chest. “Help.”

  Meyer

  I had to leap forward to catch her as she stumbled, gasping, into my arms.

  “Mom, what happened?”

  “I…” She swallowed to still her trembling voice. Her eyes couldn’t seem to land on any one spot, shifting around the entire hall. “I got a knife.” Her eyes finally focused on her hand, and I looked down to see a short paring knife clutched in her bloody palm. She was clutching it so hard her fingers were white, even through the blood covering her skin.

  “Let it go,” I whispered, placing my hand over hers and trying to pry her fingers loose. “It’s okay now. You can let it go.”

  With some more coaxing, I finally tore free her fingers from the handle of the knife. It fell to the carpeted floor with a light thud. Without the burden of the weapon, she inhaled deeply.

  “Oh God. Meyer, I don’t know if he’s dead.”

  With the amount of blood on her, I doubted very much that he was up and walking around. “Let’s get you some clean clothes.”

  “I can’t go back in there.”

  “That’s okay. I’ll get you something of mine. Come with me.”

  We walked down the staircase back to the main house, Eva leaning on my arm the entire time for support. I felt like a fraud, supporting her when I was about to shit myself with how afraid I was. What would I find when I went bac
k to Conrad’s rooms? How was I going to dispose of his body without anyone finding out? Was Joshua gone, or would he show up suddenly and surprise me? A million questions ran through my mind at the speed of light, and I couldn’t do anything to slow them down. I shut off my brain and forced myself to get a grip. I could deal with those eventualities in a minute. Right now, Eva needed me.

  She moved slowly, but somehow we made it back upstairs to my old bedroom. I dug up some more clothes from my high school days, holding them out to her like an offering.

  “Use my bathroom,” I said. “Get cleaned up. I’ll make you some food.”

  She stared at the floor. “We have to call the police.”

  “Let’s deal with that in a second. I don’t particularly care what happens to his body.”

  She nodded and went into the bathroom. I waited until I heard the water turn on in the shower, then sprinted from the room.

  A quick look up and down the hallway showed no one had followed us here. Where was Joshua? I started to raise my wine bottle weapon again, then realized I had dropped it when I saw Eva. Shit. I should have picked up the knife. Seeing my mother covered in blood and nearly catatonic had shocked away my sense of self-preservation. I hadn’t even bothered to make sure Conrad was really dead before turning my back and leading her away.

  No one could have lost that much blood and still survived.

  I moved slowly down the hall, preparing for someone to lunge at me from one of the other rooms or come rushing from the other direction, but the house was as deathly silent as it had been when I entered. Back in the stairway to Conrad’s rooms, I waited once more, but again, there was nothing.

  “Stay down, you son of a bitch,” I muttered. I was curious as to how she got the knife, but ultimately it was irrelevant. I doubted she’d stabbed him deep enough to kill him, but at least she’d drawn enough blood that he’d lost consciousness. All that was needed was for me to get back up there and finish the job.

  The light in the hallway had turned off while we were gone, and waved my hand in front of the sensor to light it up again.

  The knife was gone.

  I spun around just as a ragged form lunged and sent me falling to the side, down the stairway. I grabbed onto Conrad as we tumbled over the worn wood, every bump sending pain shooting through my bruised body. When we hit the ground at the bottom, I shoved him away and scrambled to get to my feet. At first my legs wouldn’t comply, and I began to panic, thinking I would die here on the floor with a broken neck, unable to do anything to defend myself. He’d track down Maddie and bring her back here, then keep both her and Eva as his prizes until he got tired and put a bullet in each of their heads. Eventually the world stopped spinning around me, and I was able to get my legs underneath me, and I faced my father head on.

  “You shouldn’t have come back, boy,” he growled. He was still bleeding, but the place he held on his chest was too far above where his heart was. Eva had missed. She had to have been panicked, hysterical, not properly aiming. She injured him enough to put him out of commission briefly, but he was certainly up and moving now. He threw the bloody paring knife to the side as he stalked toward me. “I was willing to let you go. Both of you. But you’re dead now.”

  “Stop right there!” I pulled the gun out of my waist band and pointed it at him. He stopped, but the smile growing across his face was as menacing as ever. He resumed walking toward me, slower than before.

  “You think you have the balls to shoot me?”

  “I know I do,” I growled. In reality, I was almost glad he’d rendered the gun ineffective. When push came to shove, I still wasn’t sure I had the fortitude to pull the trigger on my own father, even though I’d come here with the intent to kill him. I had to figure it out, somehow, because he was almost within striking distance.

  “Actually, I doubt that very much.”

  He walked past the point of the gun and stopped next to it, staring at me as he panted through his pain.

  “Go on then. Do it.”

  I reared back my arm and swung.

  The barrel of the gun caught him across the face, and he staggered to the floor again as he cursed me. His hand moved from his chest to his nose, now gushing red blood to match that coming from just above his heart.

  “You’re a goddamn menace!” He screamed as I fell on him again, pinning him down with my hips and raising the gun to swing again. Even unable to fire, it was the best weapon I had with the knife halfway across the kitchen.

  “And you’re the devil!” I brought the gun down on his skull this time, leaving a deep red mark.

  He coughed, but never let up. “I gave you everything you could ever ask for! All the money in the world!”

  “What I wanted was a parent!” I swung a third time, but fell back as he gathered his last bit of strength and pushed me off him. Just like that, our positions were reversed, with him on top trying to wrestle the gun from me. I closed my eyes and thrashed as his blood dripped onto my face, not wanting any part of him to contaminate me. And then he suddenly let go, and I was pinned to the ground by the same force that had taken me down the night before. Electricity running through my bones pinned me in place better than any shackles. And it wasn’t just five seconds this time, it was ten, and even when it was over I could barely breathe. Conrad stood slowly, leaning heavily on the counter to catch his balance.

  “Now,” he gasped. “Let’s go.”

  I don’t know where he found the strength to grab my arm and drag me through the house. Every ten steps or so, which took awhile because of how weak he was, he’d stop and zap me again. Every time I tried to scream my pain and frustration, but nothing in my body cooperated. I should have been strong enough to beat an old man who had been stabbed in the chest multiple times. But no matter what I did, no matter how far ahead I tried to plan, even when I managed to catch him by surprise, he still got the upper hand.

  “Here,” he gasped, finally letting me lie for good. He tried to Tase me again, but couldn’t bend over properly. I heard him shuffle away, then the beep of his cell phone as he dialed a number and began speaking softly. How long before I could move my limbs again? My brain was already struggling to remember exactly what had just happened over the past couple of minutes. Bodies weren’t made to withstand this much electricity. The ceiling above me shifted in and out of focus, but Conrad’s face was clear as he bent over me.

  “You shouldn’t have come back,” he said again. “We had a deal.”

  I struggled to speak, but no sound moved past my lips. He smirked.

  “But I don’t care. Because I’m going to have so much fun with the three of you. Letting you be together just long enough to give you hope, then tearing you apart. Hurting you in front of each other. Did you know that was my favorite thing to do to Eva, even more than raping her?” His breath stank in my face, hot copper mixed with alcohol and sweat. “I loved to see her face when I slapped or kicked your little body across the floor because she didn’t heed my instructions. It was always the key to her obedience.”

  My foot twitched, but Conrad didn’t notice. I worked on moving the other one.

  “I was so angry I didn’t get to sample the younger one. But now I’ll have her for the rest of my life. Sometimes in front of you, just to see you cry.” He pushed once hand over my face, smearing his blood across my cheeks. “You think you’re broken now, Meyer?” His face was too close to mine, spittle flying with every word he spoke. “I will tear you apart. Brick. By. Brick.”

  I breathed as deeply as I could, coiling every ounce of strength I had gathered into my next movements. “I’m not broken.” With all the force I could muster, I drove my knee upward and hit Conrad right in the space between his legs. His face contorted and turned red even before he began to scream, but he didn’t fall. Standing up straight, he reached for his Taser once more. I rolled and scrambled, but most of my muscles were still mud, and I couldn’t get any distance from him. At the sound of the Taser clicking, I looked over my s
houlder at his furious face…

  And then he flew sideways, the side of his skull caving in like a broken eggshell, and he fell to the ground with a wet slap. In his place, with the baseball bat he’d used to break my arm over her shoulder and panting as if she’d just run a marathon, was Madeline.

  Maddie

  For a few seconds we were frozen, simply staring at each other and at Conrad’s twitching form on the ground. There was a large dent on one side of his face, where his temple used to be, brains and blood leaking through the split skull.

  All Meyer could say was, “What the fuck?”

  I dropped the bat to the floor. Nothing felt quite real. “I played softball in high school.”

  “How could I fucking forget?”

  He started to sit up and I snapped out of my reverie, rushing forward to help him with my arms around his chest.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” He winced as his biceps flexed, and lifted one hand to the burn marks on his chest. I grasped him harder and pulled him the rest of the way.

  “I called a taxi.”

  “I left you tied to a fucking bed, Maddie. How did you pay for it?”

  “There was a giant wad of cash in that bag.” Both of us started at the sound of Joshua’s voice. Meyer shifted to push me behind him as Joshua strode into the room, gun at the ready. “You were meant to keep going, Meyer.”

  “I fucking know that,” he growled. “What’s done is done. I’ll take the girls and go.” Despite his obvious weakness, he fought me as we both tried to put ourselves between Joshua and the other. I didn’t think Joshua would shoot me if it really came to that. Meyer, I wasn’t so sure.