But Aydin spoke first. “You both will stay down here,” he told Will, “and if Micah and Rory know what’s good for them, they’ll fall in line.”
He turned to the guys, ordering them, “Take the women to my room,” he told them and then looked at us. “I’ll be up to see you ladies in a while.”
I tensed.
“Maybe they’d like some exercise tonight,” he said, staring at Will. “I’ll take them to the pool. Party of three.” His voice lowered, but I could still hear the smile in his tone. “Maybe Emmy will play out that little fantasy of hers and put Alex to some good use the way everyone else has.”
I lunged. “Will!”
Micah grabbed me, and I dropped the gun, shooting my palm up to his fucking nose as Alex shot out and caught Rory’s arm, spinning him around and shoving him into the wall.
He headbutted the stone, and I dropped down, picked up my bayonet, rushing to Will.
But Aydin was there, stopping me and taking me in his arms, wrapping them around me like a steel band and holding me hostage.
“Wendy, Wendy,” he taunted. “It’s true, then. One girl is worth twenty boys, it seems. So glad you’re on my team.”
His mouth came down on mine, his scruff and sweat grinding against my lips as he moved over me, stealing my breath.
Will.
I grunted, a sob lodging in my throat as I pressed against his blood-soaked shirt and tried to twist my head away.
Oh, God.
And then…a whisper came in close—calm, hard, and deep. “You’re not Peter,” it said.
I blinked my eyes open in time to see Will standing right behind Aydin, the ropes suddenly gone.
Slipping an arm around Aydin’s neck, Will grabbed his wrist, pulled him off me, and yanking his arm so far back that Aydin cried out, forcing him to the ground. In one quick motion, Will brought down his foot at the joint where Aydin’s arm met his shoulder, and a pop pierced the air, Aydin’s howl echoing throughout the cellar.
I gaped at Will who’d just brought Aydin to his knees in less than two seconds, not even losing breath.
“What the hell?” I muttered.
Alex and I stood there as Will stared down at Aydin’s form, a serrated knife in his hand and the rope around his wrists severed.
Where had he gotten that knife?
He inhaled a deep breath and straightened his back, cutting off the rope bracelets, sheathing the knife, and sticking it back into his pocket.
“Will…” I stepped forward.
He shook his head, telling me to keep quiet as he glared at the man on the brick floor.
Aydin shot up, but Will swung his fist down, landing right on his throat.
I narrowed my eyes, able to do nothing more than stare at him and blink.
Aydin gasped, hunching over and too disabled to speak or even breathe.
Will circled him as Taylor watched, and Micah and Rory stood frozen, clearly not sure what was happening.
“I was in prison,” Will said to Aydin. “A real one. Did you actually think I didn’t have any of this under control?”
Aydin looked up at him, a worry and puzzlement I’d never seen in his eyes now.
“I waited,” Will continued. “I was prepared to be as patient as possible to get you to follow.”
He dropped down, hovering over Aydin as he gripped the back of his head and delivered two punches to his face.
Aydin’s nose spilled with blood, and he reared back and hit Will, throwing him off and crawling away until he could scramble to his feet.
They both faced each other, widening their stances, and Aydin charged Will, throwing his body into his stomach. They crashed back onto the floor, and I lurched forward, but Micah shot out his arm, stopping me.
“I want to see this,” he said.
I darted my worried eyes to Will. His skin flushed and sweat pouring down his back, he rolled, hit, kneed, kicked, and did everything with rage in his eyes.
He wasn’t taking it like he had been since I’d been here.
This was Will.
Bloody and breathing hard, he punched Aydin in the stomach and rose, sending a hard kick to his head.
“It would’ve been perfect,” he growled. “You know that? Teaming up. Being equals, but I didn’t want to win you over with fear. I didn’t want to control you with violence.”
Aydin tried to get his legs under him, but he kept falling back to the ground.
“I wanted to be important to you,” Will told him. “If I were important to you, you’d follow me anywhere.”
Follow him? What was Will talking about? Why did he want Aydin to follow him?
“It would’ve been perfect, because you’re one of us,” Will panted, circling his prey, “but it seems I have no more time to waste on you. It seems I didn’t anticipate you had your own agenda with me.”
Meaning me—and Aydin bringing me here.
He sniffled, wiping the blood off his face.
“Rory.” He jerked his chin to the supply of rope sitting on the table. “Micah, help him.”
They tied up Aydin who was too exhausted and beat, barely kicking and thrashing as they secured him.
Will called us. “Alex,” he said, standing back and watching them. “Emory.”
Alex immediately went to his side, but I stayed rooted.
A fire lit behind his eyes. “I will raise hell and reduce this house to ash if you act like this is a choice for one more second!” he bellowed at me and then pointed to his side. “Now!”
I jumped, tingles throbbing between my legs, and I clenched my teeth, walking over to him.
“All this time?” Aydin breathed out. “All these months and all the fights. All the times you lost, it was on purpose?”
“You don’t have what it takes to be me,” he told Aydin, his deep tone sending chills up my spine.
Oh, my God.
He’d faked it. He’d faked everything. He was working the house for some reason, slowly turning everyone on his side, and he’d put up with months of this shit because he wanted Aydin’s loyalty, but he didn’t want it through force.
Micah and Rory finished and came over, standing with us as everyone stared at Aydin on the floor.
Will loomed front and center like an oak rising, and I swore I had to tip my head back to look up at him at my side.
“You can come with us,” Will told him. “I don’t want Dinescu, but I’ll take you.”
Alex stood on Will’s other side, a flash of pain in her eyes as she looked at Aydin.
But Aydin just laughed bitterly. “Kill me,” he said.
Will stood there another moment, absorbing his answer as the thunder cracked again, and I started to back away, everyone slowly following.
The boys turned and darted up the stairs as I watched Alex drag her feet, the distance between her and Aydin like nothing as the heat of their look grew.
“You wanted me,” she told him, backing away from him.
He nodded, his hands bound to some rusty piping as he sat on the floor. “Now I just want to win.”
She shook her head. “You’ve already lost.”
“Not yet,” he retorted. “I do know where you’re going, love.”
The hair on my arms stood on end, and she hesitated a few moments as his words hung in the air, but then…we both spun around, darted up the stairs, and slammed the door behind us.
“Alex…”
“Don’t,” she said, and I could hear the tears in her throat. “I already forgot his name.”
We raced upstairs, a thick stench hitting me as we pushed through the door.
I inhaled. “What the hell is that?”
Hearing commotion, we ran back toward the foyer, instantly halting as flames engulfed the drapes on the windows, rising to the ceiling and spreading onto the walls.
“Oh, Jesus!” Alex cried.
I looked for Will, spotting him rushing out from the kitchen with a fire extinguisher.
The heat baked my face,
and I stumbled back as he tried to put out the flames.
Those damn candles must’ve been lit when they knocked them over.
“Will!” I cried.
We had to get out of here. It consumed the foyer, and I tipped my head back as I coughed through the burn in my throat, seeing the flames stretching so much higher than we could reach. There was no stopping this.
“Will!” I called again, but he sprayed the door, extinguishing the fire around the frame.
Alex shot past me, up the stairs.
“What are you doing?” I yelled after her, seeing flames flicker on the edges of the steps.
“My satellite phone!” she yelled. “It’s in the secret passageway! We need it!”
“Alex, no!” Will bellowed.
I shot off to go after her, but then I heard a crash against the front door, and I stopped.
Alex stopped halfway up the stairs, and I turned around to see Will standing still.
Another crash wracked the walls as smoke engulfed the entire room, and I blinked my eyes against the sting, trying to see who was coming through the door.
They had to have security nearby. There was a fire alarm going off somewhere, I’d bet.
Another pound, and then…the door flew open, the smoke gushing out the door, and I spotted black arms and legs coming into the room through the clouds.
“Will!” someone shouted.
I squatted down on the floor, pulling Will with me, so we could breathe, but also…
“Is that security?” I asked him, trying to see through the smoke.
“I don’t think so.”
I’d be glad if it was, but also, they might just transfer us all to another Blackchurch, too.
I wanted my weapon.
“Will!” another voice—this one also male—called. “Where are you?”
Why were they just calling for him and not the others?
“Will Grayson!” a woman shouted next, coughing.
My ear pricked, something familiar about that one, and Will sucked in a breath next to me.
“Oh, my God,” he whispered.
He shot to his feet, pulling me up by the arm. “Here!” he shouted.
Alex came running down the stairs as figures dressed in black moved through the smoke, and I saw three tall men with paracord draped over their chest and carrying duffle bags.
“What the hell did we bring paracord for?” Kai Mori said, looking to Michael Crist. “Thought you told us we were going to have to scale the walls and shit.”
Michael just smiled and grabbed Will by the neck, pulling him into a hug.
Will tensed like he was shocked, but after a moment he exhaled. “Came for me after all, huh?
“Always,” another voice said.
I looked as Damon stepped through the smoke, laughing as he dipped down, pressing his forehead to his best friend’s.
A woman came up, her blonde ponytail draped over her shoulder, the top of her head covered in a black ski cap.
Erika Fane?
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” she said and then looked over my shoulder, calling, “Alex!”
Alex rushed forward, brushing past me and crashing into Rika’s arms. “You made it,” she breathed out in a laugh.
Erika nodded. “Worried?”
Alex chuckled. “No. Course not.”
Everyone started to rush out the door, but Alex and I hesitated, looking back through the smoke, toward the back of the house.
“Wait,” she shouted. “There’s more back there!”
Everyone rushed back in the house, but the fire had drifted down the hall, splintering off toward the kitchen and then right, toward the pool.
We rushed up to the flames.
“Emmy!” Will yelled.
“Emory Scott?” I heard Damon say. “Alex, you didn’t tell us she was here.”
But no one had time to explain.
I peered through the fire, trying to see a way past, but I couldn’t find a path. We couldn’t leave them there to burn.
Alex and I tried, stepping left and right and trying to get through, but strong arms pulled me back.
“Take her,” Will ordered.
The next thing I knew I was being swept into someone’s arms and over his shoulder, and I screamed, trying to thrash my way free.
I could walk.
“And don’t put her down,” Will growled. “She likes to not cooperate.”
Motherfucker!
“Lev!” someone called.
And then I heard someone say David and murmurs mentioning Aydin and Misha.
Where were we going?
We left the house, rain splattering my body as the foyer grew smaller and smaller in my vision and more of the house came into view.
The fire reached the upstairs windows, an orange glow filling the rooms behind the curtains, and I stared as far into the foyer as I could the farther away we got, hoping for Aydin to make it.
Waiting to see a glimpse of him.
I didn’t want him to die.
“Give her to me,” Micah growled.
I was pulled off someone’s shoulder and into Micah’s arms, looking over and seeing that Michael was the one who had been carrying me.
I snarled at him.
“I got her,” Micah told him.
Michael nodded and ran ahead, and as soon as he was gone, Micah dropped me to my feet, holding my hand as we ran with everyone else. I looked over my shoulder, stumbling.
The greenhouse was separated from the main house. Not that I cared about the snakes, but that was a rotten way for any living being to go. They should be safe, though.
We ran through the woods, and I barely noticed the cold as the thunder roared over us and the rain spilled heavier.
“Where are we?” Will asked them.
“You’ll never guess,” Damon told him.
“How long will it take to get home,” Will prodded.
And everyone just laughed, whatever that meant.
We raced through the trees, and I gasped for breath as my legs turned to rubber under me.
“Micah,” I pleaded for him to slow.
But he just pulled me along, and then I saw it, through the trees in the distance.
I squinted, trying to blink away the blur that was always there. I needed my glasses. Shit.
Was that a… A train?
We scurried over the rocks and leaves, past the tree line to a train spanning to my left and right on tracks as far as I could see.
Did Aydin know this was here? They all must’ve known. We hadn’t run that long—maybe ten minutes?
Maybe he thought it was abandoned.
Everyone ran to a car in the middle, and I looked at the beautiful black steam engine, old but well restored. Curtains hung on the inside of the windows, and the engine chugged a steady rhythm.
“Go!” Erika shouted. “Go now!”
Everyone climbed into the car, and I looked behind me one more time for any sign of Aydin or Taylor.
I do know where you’re going, he’d said.
I didn’t even have to act like I didn’t know, either.
Back to Thunder Bay.
“Close the doors!” Michael shouted and hung out the door, waving, probably to the conductor.
We all piled in, some dark-haired woman grabbing Will’s wrist and cutting off his bracelet with a bolt cutter. She planted a quick kiss on his cheek, and then moved to Micah and Rory, severed theirs from their wrists and tossing them all out the window.
The train moved under us, and I swayed, but before I could even look around or figure out who the other women were, someone grabbed my arm and whipped me around.
“You hesitated,” Will growled, black streaks covering his body from the fire. “In the cellar… You hesitated! Again! And you were going back for him when you never came back for me. Ever!”
I flinched, remembering minutes ago when he’d told me to come to him.
He saw it as me taking Aydin’s side.
> I saw it as me standing on my own. “Will…”
“After everything you’ve done to us, you hesitated!” he yelled, his face twisted in anger.
Everyone surrounded us, standing silently, and I felt the heat of their eyes like I was a mouse and they were snakes circling me.
“What are you talking about?” Damon asked him. “What do you mean ‘to us’? What did she do?”
I stared at Will, shaking my head slowly, begging him. Not here. Please, not here. Not now.
He straightened and drifted backward a couple of steps, finally having me trapped exactly where I deserved and savoring this moment.
“She’s the reason we all went to jail seven years ago,” he told them.
Emory
Seven Years Ago
-A few months after the attack on Martin Scott-
“Hey,” Thea called out, entering our room.
I looked up from my desk, seeing her whip off her Mia Wallace wig and toss it on our futon couch with the adrenaline needle she’d made me plaster to her chest earlier tonight. Her boyfriend was supposed to complete her Pulp Fiction theme by going as Vincent Vega, but they got in a fight an hour before, and I let her go to the party alone.
Like a jerk.
“Hey,” I said, smiling at her makeup smeared everywhere. “Have fun?”
Judging from the lipstick across her cheek, Vincent must’ve found her and they made up.
But she just shrugged. “Eh, I don’t remember.”
I snorted as she skipped over to me, the beer on her breath hitting my nose. “But I thought of you.” She held out a small jack-o’-lantern, already carved with a toothless happy face. “I stole it from in front of a frat house on my way home.”
I laughed, taking it. “Thank you.”
Man, I lucked out with roommates.
I shook my head, setting the pumpkin on my desk. After I’d graduated last spring, I convinced Martin to use my college fund to put Grand-Mère in the nicest home money could buy because I didn’t need it. With a scholarship thanks to my stunning designs around Thunder Bay, showcasing how you can make a ruin still functional while keeping its character, I didn’t need my college fund. What I didn’t cover with the scholarship, I got in loans. Screw it.
I had wanted to handle her myself, but he had power of attorney over her care, and that wasn’t changing. He agreed when I outlined the perks of having the house to himself finally, plus the respect and admiration of people thinking he paid for her first-class care out of his modest, civil servant salary.
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