Flawed: (A Psychological Dark Romance) (The Dark Necessities Prequels Book 1)

by Felicity Brandon

  “I’m coming up.”

  He pronounced the verdict like a decree, and in the end, that’s what made her act. Before she had even had time to think it through, Lily pushed the door closed, pressing her full weight against it as she crouched to slip the bottom lock closed. Her heart was pounding out of control as she reached for the top bolt. It was clearly put in place by someone much taller than her, and even on tiptoes, Lily found she could barely reach it. It took every inch she had to grasp the metal, and ease it left into its place.

  And then it was done. She had done it. Ethan was locked into the cellar of the Godforsaken little house he’d brought her to.

  It was only once the deed was complete that the full ramifications of what she had done hit Lily, reinforced rapidly by the sound of Ethan from just beyond the door.

  “Hey!” he shouted, hammering against the wood.

  The sound of what she could only assume was his fist hitting the wood made Lily gasp, and instinctively she skipped backwards.

  “Hey, what have you done? Let me out, Lily!”

  She backed away, retreating toward the exit, but the whole time she couldn’t drag her eyes from that small door, as though she expected him to come bursting through it at any moment. Maybe he could? It didn’t look that strong, after all, and Ethan was strong. He was powerful. A predator. Lily knew that better than anyone.

  “Hey!”

  He was really yelling now, his usual cool and in control tone splintering somewhere between outrage and concern.

  There was no time to lose. She turned, focusing on the front door for the first time. She prayed to God that he hadn’t locked it, or, that if there was a lock, Ethan had been kind enough to leave the key somewhere convenient. Wide green eyes searched the structure for obvious locks and chains, and the whole time Lily could hear him screaming at her, calling her name from the door just a few feet behind her. When no locks came into sight, her hands moved to the handle, which she twisted and yanked with everything she had. Fortunately, the door seemed about as old as the rest of the place, and one tug was all it needed to fly open toward her.

  A rush of cool autumn air swooped past Lily, rushing into the hall behind her, and for one second, she was frozen by it—paralyzed by the realization of what was to come.

  She was leaving.

  She was leaving right now with no coat, no food, no plan and absolutely no clue where she was, and apparently, she was going to leave Ethan locked in the cellar. Of all the ridiculous things she had done, this was high up on the list. Or, perhaps it wasn’t that her actions were crazy—after all, leaving a self-confessed serial killer locked away didn’t sound that stupid—but maybe the wave of self-doubt was more to do with how she was enacting things. This was all so spur of the moment. She’d only woken up a few minutes earlier, and had barely had time to think any of it through. The sound of Ethan’s infuriated voice filled the air around her, making her jump, and Lily’s feet moved, stumbling over the threshold, and out into the open.

  There was no going back—not from this. There was no rationalizing her choices to Ethan. Boy, he was going to be pissed when he got out of there, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew that he’d come looking for her. She should probably have been terrified of that prospect, the man did have quite a portfolio of dead women under his belt, after all, but somehow, Lily couldn’t muster the energy for that now. If he came for her, then he came. She would deal with it. She would have to deal with it.

  Lily was halfway down the leaf-littered drive when the other question popped into her head, and this one made her feet stop dead in their tracks.

  Wait! her mind cautioned. What if Ethan never gets out? What if you’ve just left him down there to die, Lily?

  An image of the small cellar filled her mind. Though she couldn’t remember much detail, because the place had been virtually black when she’d been in there, the smell of the damp was easy to recall. It was dank, and dark and utterly inhospitable, and that’s where she’d left him. That’s where she’d locked him into.

  In a panic, Lily twisted her head back toward the house. The front door was still open, and for a moment, it looked just like any other family home. Normal.

  But Lily knew it wasn’t normal. She wasn’t sure what had transpired in the place, but everything about it smacked of abnormality, and now it was to become Ethan’s tomb. Her heart was heavy at the prospect. She wanted to get away from the man, and go home, but she never intended to cause him any real harm, and she certainly hadn’t meant to put him in mortal danger. If Ethan died, then what did that make her?

  The answer was right there on the tip of her tongue.

  It made her a murderer—just like him.

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Ethan was livid. He didn’t think his heart had ever beaten so fast, nor his blood felt so damn hot in his veins as he pounded on the door, and in that moment, he thought he might actually combust. He was like a caged animal, banging at the wood in front of him, demanding to be set free. Ethan wasn’t the first person to have stood there and banged on this door screaming. There was a woman who’d done it once before him. A woman who had screamed and cried and pleaded for hours on end, but to no avail. His heart contracted at the memory of her pained voice, and the helplessness of the young boy sitting upstairs who had listened to his mother’s sobs washing over him once more. No one had come to help that woman, and at some point, her begging had ceased. He never heard her again after that. In fact, none of them ever had.

  His fist fell from the door to his side. He wasn’t going to scream anymore, he wasn’t going to beg, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to turn into his mother.

  It took a few moments for the fog of that dark anger to clear, but after it had, two things became more evident to him.

  The first was that Lily had done this. She’d been outside the entrance to the cellar, and she’d definitely heard him. She’d replied to him for fuck’s sake, so he knew she’d been there, and it had to have been her. There were no other possible answers. The other thing that was plainly obvious to him as he rested his forehead against the peeling wooden door frame was that his little Lily was no longer in the house. He hadn’t heard her speak for a long time, and there was no sound of movement, either. A short time before, Ethan had thought he’d heard the front door, so he could only conclude the little bitch had let herself out and was now long gone.

  A fresh bolt of fury pulsed through his body, but this time the anger was directed at himself. How could Ethan have been so fucking stupid? He was the one who’d come down here—he’d left himself vulnerable by trying to find that damn heater for Lily! To make matters worse, he’d left the front door unlocked, and he’d even removed the damn ropes from her wrists. Fuck, he’d practically gifted her the chance to flee, because in his heart, he’d never anticipated this—he never thought she would actually go. There had been no vision to reveal this ending.

  Kicking the bottom of the door, Ethan cursed himself again, knowing that it wouldn’t help, but somehow, unable to stop himself. He had no chance of breaking the door down from the hinges, his father had seen to that. It might only be a small structure, but Ethan knew it was bolted twice from the outside, and he knew how solid those locks were. He remembered the day his father had screwed them into place. But he also knew something else. The only opportunity he had for getting out of this cellar was through that door. It was the only way out, and unless he could get past it, the small brick basement behind him was going to become his final resting place.

  Turning, he hurtled back down the steps and surveyed the space around him. At least he had power now, and that meant he could see. His father had always had a veritable collection of tools down in the cellar. Apparently, they were for fixing things that had broken, though something about that idea made him laugh. The only things that were ever broken in this house were the relationships, unless you counted the violence his dad had inflicted on his mother. Yet, the tools remained, and were still kept
here after his father’s departure.

  Ethan pushed the bleakness of the memories away. He had to concentrate on what was important, and first and foremost, that meant getting out of this cellar. If he could achieve that, no—when he achieved that—he would turn his attention to Lily. Closing his eyes, Ethan considered tuning into her thoughts again, to try and ascertain where she was, but he stopped himself. There would be time for that, but that time wasn’t now. He had been reckless and sloppy allowing all of this to transpire. He should have been more sensible and he should never have trusted his little Lily, but Ethan knew one thing for sure—he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

  A search of the metal racks revealed an array of old tools. They were all covered in decades of dust, but that didn’t matter. He had no doubt they’d still work, and anyway, all Ethan needed was something large and heavy to help him get out of there. He knew the hinges of the door were well reinforced, but that didn’t mean the entirety of the door was. It was only made of wood, after all, and considerably thinner wood than the average door, too. A large implement swung at full force should be able to make it through there after a while, and with enough swings, he reckoned he could create a hole large enough for him to climb though. He skimmed his fingers over the row of cold metal implements, dropping to his knees to consider the next layer of tools. Something had to be practical enough to help him out of here, but all he could see at first were lines of screwdrivers and pliers, interspersed with one of his father’s favorites, duct tape. Ethan picked up a roll of the black tape, scrutinizing it for a moment before his gaze landed on the back of the rack. It was then that he spotted it, caught in a dozen cobwebs right at the very back of the metal racking—his dad’s sledgehammer.

  His heart picked up its pace as Ethan recognized the large, weighty hammer. He recalled how afraid he used to be when he’d seen it in his father’s hands, but as he dragged the heavy implement in a screeching path toward him, Ethan couldn’t be any happier to see it. This was his way out. This hammer and a shitload of strength and will.

  Ethan had the strength and willpower. He was going to survive, and as he flung the sledgehammer over his shoulder and stalked to the staircase, he wondered if the same could be said for Lily. If she was capable of turning on him like this—of locking him in the cellar and what, leaving him to die—then anything was possible. Lily would need a complete re-education.

  The thought spurred him on in some primal way, and as he reached the doorway, he lifted the hammer and swung it with all his might. The metal connected with the wood, denting the surface closest to him with a God almighty crash. Exhaling at the effort, Ethan stooped to inspect the area of collision. He was through one section of the wood, and he reckoned one or two more swings in the same place would see the hammer destroy it altogether. He screeched as he sent the thing hurtling toward the door again and again, the sound somehow goading him all the more. The noise of splintering wood was like music to Ethan’s ears, and as he gazed at the damage, he could make out a small hole into the hallway. Another effort expanded that hole by an inch, and this time Ethan could definitely make out the tired paint in the hall.

  Based on what he could see, the light outside was fading fast, and that thought made anxiety knot in his stomach. Lily didn’t know where the hell she was, and she was on foot, and soon to be wandering in the darkness. Ethan wasn’t the only predator out there, and the thought of some other maniac picking her up and hurting her made him want to use the sledgehammer in new, and more inventive ways. He had to get out of this basement, and it had to be soon. Before Lily landed herself in any more trouble.

  The large metal head of the sledgehammer connected with the door again, decimating another small section of the wood. There was now about three inches of space ripped open in the door. Not enough for Ethan to get though yet, but enough to give him hope. He was going to get out, and once he had, he was going to take the car and find Lily. He knew he’d track her down—there was no doubt about that. Ethan had access to the inside of Lily’s mind, an intuitive connection that would never be broken. She couldn’t hide from him even if she wanted to, and deep down, he didn’t believe that was the case. She was confused, angry, maybe even still smarting from his belt, but that wasn’t going to be a good enough excuse.

  Ethan was coming to get her, and woe betide the little flower when he finally got his hands on her.

  Little Lily was going to rue the day she ever turned on Ethan Reilly.

  The End.

  Thank you for reading this Felicity Brandon e-book.

  Devour the beginning of The Dark Necessities in Molly and Connor’s dark romance, the Amazon bestseller, Taken (Book One in The Dark Necessities trilogy).

  Molly and Connor’s irresistible attraction continues in the scintillating

  Tamed (Book Two in The Dark Necessities trilogy), and concludes in the hotly anticipated, Entwined (Book Three in The Dark Necessities trilogy).

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