Lost In Mr. Parks (Park #3)

by Lilly James

  I shakily pulled a knife from the block, but I heard the door open behind me, causing me to drop the damn thing.

  “Evey?” Tabby questioned as she stepped over the threshold. “You look peaky.”

  My brain overloaded me with instructions: move, escape, beat her down. But I couldn’t do any of those things, because my body didn’t agree.

  “Tabby, I’m not getting rid of this baby.” Instinct took over, and my first one was to protect my unborn child. “I thought it was for the best, but it’s not. I need to find my phone and get to Wade. Explain I was wrong.” I tried to keep my voice calm, hiding any fear. “Where’s my phone?” I knew I couldn’t find it because she’d probably hidden it while I was sleeping.

  Tabby scoffed. “Now you’re being even weirder. You know you don’t want that baby.”

  “But I do,” I told her, discreetly looking behind her to plan my escape. However, that would have failed, because I was sure Nico wouldn’t have allowed me to. I felt trapped. I was trapped. “And so does Wade. This would kill him. Kill us. I’m not ready to let him go.”

  Tabby tilted her head back and laughed. It was cold and sinister. The way she stopped dead, then glared at me had my decreasing confidence shattering. “You think you’ll have your happily ever after just because you want to keep his baby?” Her voice took my breath away quickly because she wasn’t British anymore. She was American. I felt my heart stop beating. My ears rang, and time stood still. I tried to figure out what the hell was going on, but my conclusions where illogical. They gave me nothing.

  “That’s right.” She glowered. Her face suddenly seemed vacant and nothing like the young, fresh-faced girl I was used to. “I’m not British. Neither am I who you think I am. But—” she stepped into my space, and I took a step back, shocked to my core, “—if you comply, I will make this easier for you.”

  “Tabby?” My mind was begging me to find a route that would lead me to safety, but as I gave the space I was in a quick glance, I knew I was fucked.

  “Tabby?” she mocked me, turning her head to laugh. “Just get in the fucking car, Evey. The sooner you get rid of this fucking baby, the sooner I can gloat to Wade.”

  I felt my eyes spring open. “What?”

  “You heard.” She stepped towards me, so I quickly turned my back, grabbed the black handle of the knife, and held it in front of me.

  “Come any closer, Tabby, and—”

  “You’ll what?” I glanced over Tabby’s shoulder and saw Nico standing in the doorway. His shirt was lifted up revealing a gun in his waistband. My breathing became deeper as I stared at it. “Drop it,” he warned me, and as soon as the knife slipped from my grasp, Tabby’s arm connected with my stomach so hard, I dropped to my knees. I screamed as the pain sliced through me and stars danced in front of my eyes. If that wasn’t enough, Tabby kicked me while I was down. I protected my stomach with my arms as the pain and shock cut through me. Tears fell freely down my cheeks as she snarled.

  “One way or another, Wade is going to lose his precious child, just like I did.”

  I was gasping for breath, but I managed to pull myself up with support from the kitchen counter.

  “Who the fuck are you, and what do you want with me?” I yelled, my shock and pain turned to anger. My hands were still protecting my stomach as she laughed at me. I wanted to kill her. But the way I wanted to protect my baby even more stopped me from lashing out. Even if I did, who was to say Nico wouldn’t pull that trigger on me?

  The deranged look on Tabby’s face was telling me I was already dead. That there was no way I was going to get out of this flat alive. Her smug smirk had me stupidly lunging forwards to slap the bitch, but she read the signals too quickly and got there first. She punched me so hard in the stomach again that it sent me stumbling backwards into a glass vase that was standing tall against the wall. The glass smashed all around me as I fell back onto my arse, and a piercing pain in my stomach knocked the wind out of me.

  Tabby saw I was in agony and fed off it. She grabbed hold of my hair and pulled me up.

  “Don’t fuck with me, Evey. Because I had no qualms about hurting you right now. You don’t know what I am capable off. Besides.” She was so close to my face, I felt her breath upon my cheek. The pain searing through my body forbade me to move and push her away. “Wade thinks you’re already dead.” She let go of my hair and threw me back onto the glass. Her eyes rolled over the sight of me cowering in pain. All I kept thinking was, Please let my baby be okay. Please, God. “And he is in complete turmoil over it.” She turned away laughing to look at Nico, who was also laughing. “What a joke. He loved you that much that he feels he can’t live without you. Poor, poor Wade.”

  I closed my eyes tight, willing to try and stand, but the pain cutting into me was overwhelming. “Why are you doing this? I don’t understand.”

  She poked her bottom lip out, mocking me. “Aw. You don’t?” Tabby lifted up her top and reveled a knife wedged in her waistband. I watched in horror as she pulled it out and ran her finger along the blade. I didn’t recognise her. She looked deranged, overwhelmed with hate and fury.

  “Understand this.” She pointed at me with the knife, and I couldn’t look at anything else. “I’ve been drugging you, Evey, just to make you sleep. Making sure you felt too unwell to want to leave. Too unwell to think straight. All those cups of tea weren’t for nothing.”

  My mouth went dry as I stared at her in utter horror, my body falling into shock.

  “I sent a message to Wade from your phone—” she glanced at her watch, “—only twenty minutes ago.” She pressed the point of the knife under her chin as she pretended to think. “I was going to tell him his perfect little family’s secret was out and you hated him more than ever for lying to you this entire time. But—” she grinned, her eyes wide with excitement, “—instead I told him you knew all about it this entire time, and you were set on revenge. He did leave you when he found out you were an alcoholic, didn’t he?” she asked, even though she knew the answer. “So I told him you were on my team. Doing whatever it took to seek revenge.” She fished into her pocket with her other hand and pulled out my phone.

  “What are you doing with that?” I gasped.

  She quickly threatened me with the knife as she knew I was about to pounce on her. “Sit the fuck down.” I did as she said, never taking my eyes from the knife. “As I was saying, just to make it believable, I sent him all the pictures we had together. Our sleepover. Drinks in the club when I bought those champagne bottles with his card. Pictures on the London Eye. The list is endless.” As she swiped through my phone, showing me those very pictures, my hands started to shake.

  “You took those! Not me.”

  “But they’re on your phone.” She grinned. “Oh, but before I continue, let’s go back to that night of the club.” She threw my phone to the floor and crushed it with two stamps of her foot. “I spiked your water that night, but you were being a stubborn bitch and wouldn’t drink the damn thing. You wanna know why I did?”

  My mind fluttered back to the nightclub, and I remembered Tabby being at the bar for some time before she came back with my water. She was persistent about me drinking it, but I refused. I was pissed off that she had ordered me a vodka before that and didn’t feel like another drink. I thanked the heavens I wasn’t thirsty, because who knows what she’d planned.

  “I did it because I had planned for Trevor to kidnap you that night. I paid him a lot of money, but I didn’t need to because he wanted you dead anyway.”

  “Trevor?” I gasped, remembering how he found me in the club. He had come into the toilets where I was hiding and was ready with a bottle of acid to ruin my face. I thought it was because of the almighty cut he had on his face from Parks. But I wasn’t just that. Tabby had paid him to kidnap me?

  “Oh yeah.” She snickered. “You remember him? Your good-for-nothing boyfriend turned up and ruined fucking everything! I had to run off in case he spotted me, and Trevor g
ot killed by one of his fucking henchmen.” Tabby shook her head, scoffing in disbelief. “Worthless piece of shit.”

  My head was spinning with all the things clicking into place. I wanted to beat myself up for not seeing any of this. For being so stupid. At the same time, I was still trying to look for a way out. There had to be a way. I had to get to Parks before he did something stupid. Imagining Parks thinking I had betrayed him out of spite was tearing me apart. And I still had no clue who Tabby was and why she was doing all this.

  “Why?” I asked. My voice was small, breaking up from trying to supress a sob. “Why, Tabby?” I hated her right then.

  “Why?” she spat. “Oh I forgot…Wade and his precious family didn’t tell you one hell of a fucking secret they were keeping, did they?”

  I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to work out what the hell she was talking about. Then it hit me. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Everything froze in time, except my heart. It slammed against my chest, then stopped altogether. My cheeks went cold as the blood rushed from them. I was immobilized. Everything was numb apart from my mind. It was racing with thoughts, realization, and shock.

  “You’re Harriet’s daughter?” Fuck, Tabby looked just like her, and then it clicked in my brain. Abagail looked just like Tabby too. Shit.

  Tabby clapped her hands at me patronizingly. “Oh, the drugs have worn off and you’re finally catching up.” She tilted her head at me. “You’re forgetting a couple of things. I am her ‘secret’ daughter. The outcast. The black sheep. The daughter who no one wanted.”

  How could I feel sorry for her right then? I couldn’t and didn’t. But I had to play it safe. “I know how that feels, Tabby.”

  “No, you fucking don’t.” She kicked me in my ribs, and I yelped, making her laugh. “You don’t know what it feels like to give birth to a daughter and have her ripped away from you just because people think you’re crazy.” Her hands flew around as she yelled, the knife swinging around with them. “Just because their secret may have been exposed.” She pointed the tip of the knife to her chest. “I lived with my father until he died of a drug overdose. I was pregnant and all I wanted was for my mother to help me, but no, I was put in a fucking mental hospital instead. I had no contact with anyone just in case I would blab! But you know what?” She winked. “I am the best manipulator there is. I hatched a plan for years. Had my doctor fall in love with me and granted me release. I was out weeks before anyone told the Parks family.” She spat.

  “Why Wade?” I cried. “Why aren’t you trying to punish your mother?”

  “Because Wade was the fucking mastermind to all this,” she screamed so loud, veins popped in her neck. “He started building up an empire and thought he owned the fucking world. Thought he had a right to tell my mother what to do just to protect his name. He forced my mother to get rid of me. Forced me into a nut house.”

  I shook my head, refusing to believe Parks would treat Tabby like that. “You’re wrong. He wouldn’t. It was Clinton.”

  “Yes, it was,” she agreed with a sardonic look on her face. “But Harriet listened to Wade more. Wade’s word is better than anyone’s in that family because he is the one who took them straight to the top. Jasmine wanted to give me a chance, but Wade sided with that heartless monster called Clinton, and Harriet did as she was told.”

  I shook my head refusing to believe her. “He wouldn’t do that. He told me he did everything he could to help.”

  She scoffed. “And why was that? So you didn’t think of him a monster, just like his father? A man he aspires to be nothing like.” Tabby gritted her teeth. “He is everything like him.”

  With all my might, I pushed the pain I was in to the back of my mind and shakily got to my feet. “You don’t know anything. Wade and Jasmine were put through hell too. Clinton is the one to blame. Not Wade.”

  “Oh don’t worry.” She smiled. “I will have my revenge on Clinton. And my precious mother.” She spat. “And one day, I will have my baby Abigail back.”

  “It was you who—” I gasped as I realized. “You asked Travie about me? You stole my keys out of my bag and got into my parents’ flat? You’re the one who sold the story about me? You’re the one who’s been stalking me?” The fact that I had been too stupid to see what was right under my nose made me sick to my stomach.

  Tabby snarled. “But all that was for fuck all, trying to split you up and humiliating Wade, because your precious Wade always found a way of fucking up my plans.”

  I gulped. “You tried to get into the apartment when we were away. You told the man on reception you were a cleaner.”

  A proud laugh fell from her lips. “Oh yeah, that was me. I distracted the guy so Nico could get to the garage. Then the bitch who was looking after my daughter wouldn’t let me in.” She held two fingers a millimetre apart. “I was this close away to getting her back. Do you know how it feels to lose a baby?” She glanced down at my hand, which I had placed on my stomach protectively. “You will soon. Wade thinks he’s lost you both. How sad for him.” She grinned. “My plans may have been fucked up to this point, but you being pregnant is my time to ruin his life.”

  Stupidly, I chose my chance to try and save myself. “Nico, phone the police. She’s going to try and kill us both. She only used you for her plan. Don’t you see?”

  Tabby laughed, walking towards Nico to try and talk him round, but he took a step back. With them both distracted, I darted for the open door. I knew there were a set of stairs outside the building that led to an upstairs flat, so my first reaction was to climb them and ask for help.

  “You bitch,” Tabby yelled behind me. I tried to hurry but she was fast and caught up to me in seconds. “Where do you think you’re going?” She spun me around by my wrist and slammed me against the railing on the metal stairs. The sharp blade of the knife against my throat froze my whole being. I couldn’t die this way. I wouldn’t.

  “Get the fuck off me, you crazy bitch.” I tried to fight her, bravely knocking the knife away from my throat when she got distracted by police sirens coming towards us. But she was too quick for me. She yanked me back by my hair and breathed down my neck. “I’ll show you fucking crazy. Wade will wish he never fucked with me.”

  Tabby pushed me forwards so forcefully, I went tumbling down the stairs. My body automatically coiled, and my hands tried to grasp at anything. All I remember was getting to the bottom and whacking my head so violently I blacked out.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Wade

  I remain by my beautiful woman’s side as she lies in a hospital bed. I feel helpless and lost as I crave to look into her eyes, eyes that have captured my heart. But all I see are two black eyes and a swollen face. Under all that, though, I can still see my princess. She has been unconscious for four days, and those four days have felt like four years. Every time I place my hand over hers and squeeze, I ache for her to squeeze back. But she never does. She keeps falling in and out of consciousness but never recognises anything around her when she is awake. The doctor tells me it’s normal and to take it as a good sign. But I refuse to accept anything as a good sign until I see her awake. Until I see her well.

  If Tabitha had taken away the one thing that was more precious to me than life itself, then I swear to God I would have fucking killed her. She had put Evelyn through hell. I am the reason that monster Tabitha befriended Evelyn and manipulated her until she found the right time to pounce, which seemed to be when she found out Evelyn was pregnant with my baby. An eye for an eye. A life for a life. But her child is still healthy, still breathing, still living a life my child never had a chance to see.

  How the fuck I’d missed something so threatening and so close to my love would forever eat me alive. I was too focused on work, too focused on protecting Evelyn from myself and my past that I was blind to what was going on around me. I fucked up. I fired all of my security team in a rage. After having every single one out looking for Tabitha, they all failed to realize she was sitting right u
nder their fucking noses with the woman I told them to protect. She’d clawed her way to my Evelyn and fooled every one of us. I should have been there to protect her. It was my job, and I failed.

  I rub my hands over my face in anger and feel the days’ worth of stubble. I can’t manage to think of anything else. I can’t eat. Sleep. Talk. And I don’t want to.

  “Wade, you should try to get some rest.” Cheryl places her hand on my shoulder as she says the same thing my mother, Jasmine, and Steph have been telling me every time they visit. It was wasted words. Nothing in this world would take me away from Evelyn’s side. Not even my body telling me I needed to recharge. I was on autopilot.

  I just shake my head firmly, unable to produce words. Cheryl gives me that look of sympathy and sadness. But I can’t look back at her for long because she bursts into uncontrollable tears every time I do. I adore her for loving Evelyn the way she does. Evelyn deserves love and nothing less.

  “I’ll let you have some space.” Cheryl kisses the top of my head like I am a child and leaves the room, presumably to wait with Steph. I was rarely left by myself the last couple of days. I want to demand time alone with Evelyn, but how can I deny her aunt and Steph the time with her too?

  Not a moment goes by that I don’t beg her to wake up. Not a second passes without me wanting to kiss her lips. Her skin. Her hand.

  As I look over at her injured, peaceful face, the doctor’s words come flooding back. “Evelyn has sustained a minor head injury. The injury seems to have been obtained from a knock to the head with such force…”