“And I got fired because of you,” Neil interjects.
“So here’s how this is going to work, beautiful,” Frank says, grazing his cold, thin finger across my cheek. “Neil here is going to blackmail your rich boyfriend into giving him his life back, and I’m going to use you as a bargaining chip. That messy business with my friends can be left in the past. All I want is the Silencer’s loyalty, and he can have you. I’d be invincible with him on my side. But I need something from you too, pretty girl, to ensure he knows who holds the leash. Since you’re my favorite…I’ve decided I’m going to give you a chance to make this easy. I’m only going to ask you one time, Ellie. What’s his name?”
I gulp again. Frank stares at me while I very clearly consider my answer. Tears prick in my eyes. I shake as I answer him, trying to keep my face blank. “I don’t know who he is.”
He laughs. “You know what, Ellie? I’m not even mad.” He runs his hands up my bare thighs. “If you don’t want to tell me yourself, we’re going to enjoy fucking it out of you.”
“Wait! Please!” I shout as his fingers graze my shorts, and he stills. “Please don’t.”
“Reconsidering?” Neil asks, rubbing my shoulders as if trying to get me to relax.
Frank’s hands trail slowly up my shorts, giving me more than enough time to tell them what they want, but I know him, and I know that if he intends to rape me, he’s going to do it. It doesn’t matter if I tell him the name or not.
I screech loudly when Frank grabs me by the neck and forces me to the floor onto my stomach, my chest aching and sore from the accident. Neil holds me down by pressing a gun to my temple. Tears stream down my face as I writhe and scream as Frank pulls down my shorts and underwear and forces my hips up.
“I should have done this a long time ago, Ellie,” he mutters, before pressing himself into me.
My body shuts down. I don’t think I can force my limbs to move even if I had any fight left in me. I cry softly against the cold tile floor and stare out the large window, trying to distract myself by counting the windows on the building across the street.
I get to thirty-seven when Frank grunts loudly and empties himself inside of me.
And then Neil gets a turn. He sighs in pleasure and chuckles to himself. “I see why Reeves kept you around,” he whispers into my ear as he thrusts into me.
I go back to counting windows.
When I run out of windows, I count my tears instead.
CHAPTER 22
THE SILENCER
It’s been over an hour since Elena left.
I can’t blame her. I’d leave me too. I’ve never been worthy of love, and this proves it.
I didn’t even have the strength to follow her, because I knew that no matter where she was going, there would be nothing I could do or say to get her to come back. Not anymore.
When we were in Mykonos, away from this cursed city, I’d never seen her so free of burdens, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t let Meridian City and the filth of my past pollute our happiness.
I think she could have loved me if I could controlhim.
But I can’t. He’s the stronger one. The inmate runs the asylum and all I can do is sit and watch him destroy my life.
I’ve smoked two packs of cigarettes in the hour she’s been gone. I tried calling her, but she wouldn’t answer. What does it matter anyways? I don’t even know what I would do if she answered.
Beg for forgiveness that I don’t deserve?
I take a swig of whiskey, and another drag of the stick between my teeth. There’s a knock on my bedroom door. I don’t answer it. It goes quiet again, and then another knock comes. And then another, and then another, until they’re practically pounding on my door. I stomp to it, unlock it, and swing it open, throwing my whiskey glass at the floor to shatter it in the space between us.
It’s Gavin.
I seethe. “What the fuck do you want?”
The look on Gavin’s face is unamused. Like how someone would look at a pathetic wet rat of a man drowning his sorrows at a bar. “One of your cars went missing. The black McLaren.”
I shrug my shoulders. “So?”
“Ms. Young was seen leaving in it an hour ago.”
