Page 60 of Alex

Alex half listened as the two bull-shitted with each other, his hands itching to get there and get started. He thought about all the nights he had spent with Evelyn—making love to her, holding her while they filled in the blanks from the last fifteen years, her giggle when he found a ticklish spot and how that had turned into making love until they were both exhausted.

Watching her paint, her head tilting from one side to the next as she tried to find the perfect angle or colour. Her stealing a slice of bacon straight out of the pan and dipping it in syrup while he laughed at her impatience. The images were seared into his brain, tiny moments of beauty that he wanted more of. He wanted to spend a lifetime making small moments. Watching her get round with their child, teaching him or her to paint or fight, or God forbid, cook.

He needed that future with her more than he needed to breathe. The pain was so intense that he had to block it and bury it deep where it couldn’t cloud his thinking. He wouldn’t pretend she was just another mission because he couldn’t. She was fucking everything and if he had to kill every person on that island to save her that was precisely what he would do.

* * *

Her throat waslike a sand dune in the desert sun. Her mouth felt swollen as she tried to swallow with very little saliva. Her body hurt to the point her mind was shutting it out, shutting down her pain receptors. Osiris had returned an hour after the first beating and seemed angry—colder somehow than before he’d left.

He had nodded at Irish who had moved forward and with an almost apologetic look slammed his fist into her face. The pain exploded in her cheek as white dots danced in her vision. It hurt like a bitch, but she sensed he was holding back. The next one was to her ribs and belly making her cough as she struggled to catch her breath.

“Are you going to cooperate, Evelyn?” Osiris asked calmly.

“Fuck you,” she hissed and spat the blood from her mouth at his feet.

“Very well.”

She could sense the anger vibrating off him because she wouldn’t do as she was told. He turned and stepped towards the door as a second man walked in. This one was smaller, almost skinny and shorter than the others. But he scared her more than Irish did. Irish had life in his eyes, this man did not. He moved towards her, the suit he wore almost hanging off him like a young boy playing dress up and he wasn’t far short of that age group either.

“This is Nick. He is very fond of blades and he’s going to help me persuade you to be more respectful.” Osiris stepped back as did Irish after a brief hesitation.

Evelyn sucked in her breath and tried not to let her racing heart send her into a tailspin of panic.

The blade was long and thin—a wickedly sharp looking butcher’s filleting knife if she wasn’t mistaken. She kept her eyes on it as it moved towards her neck going deadly still, knowing the slightest wrong move and her jugular would be opened and cover the walls in her blood. The knife moved towards the neckline of her shirt as she kept her eyes on Nick, his soulless black eyes glinting like a snake.

She felt the fabric part as it was cut like a hot knife through butter until she was exposed from her chest to her bellybutton. The first cut made her wince as the sharp blade opened her skin just under the curve of her right breast. The trickle of blood felt warm on her chilled skin as it slid down her tummy into the waistband of her leggings. The next was a centimetre down and as it continued Evelyn fought to block out the stinging pain.

Determined not to show them any tears her mind instead went to Alex—Alex who would be fucking furious when he saw her skin was cut and her face and ribs were bloodied and bruised. Alex who cooked honey panna cotta for her just because he knew it was her favourite or left little notes around the flat for her to find. The man who would sit for hours and watch her paint. The man who made love to her like she was the most precious woman in the world and then fucked her hard and rough because he seemed to know what she needed before even she did. Who allowed her to be soft and feminine while still seeing her as strong and independent, never making her be anything other than who she was.

The man she loved more than anything, the man who had owned her heart since she was six. She knew he would find her, she knew he would kill them for touching her, so she endured and blocked the pain not allowing them to see her hurt or her fear.

She watched dimly as Nick walked away, finished for the moment with carving her body up. Osiris followed him out, disgust written on his face. Irish paused for a second before moving back to her. She watched him through one eye as the other began to close with swelling. He reached for her chest and she couldn’t fight the flinch. She could take the pain but the thought of another man putting his hand on her was too much.

He didn’t touch her though, rather he pulled the two sides of the shirt together, covering her as he tied them in a knot.

“Why are you doing this?” She couldn’t understand why Irish was acting so strange.

“It’s my job,” he said and walked away but as she waited, she didn’t hear the clank of the lock slide shut. Not that she was able to do anything about it. Weak from the beatings and now blood loss, she could hardly unhook herself and get free, especially suffering from dehydration as she was.

Evelyn stayed like that for what seemed like hours, her mind wandering back over her life and what she wanted out of it in the future. She was tired of being Siren. Seducing men to get them to spill their secrets was not the job for a woman in her thirties. She wanted a family and to paint and burn meals for her incredibly handsome and sexy husband who would sweep her off her feet and tell her she was the most beautiful creature alive even with bed hair and morning breath. She grew hot and sweat began to drip down her face and neck over the next few hours and she thought that perhaps she had gotten an infection from one of the cuts. Her head felt heavy on her neck as she fought to stay conscious.

Loud noises were coming from above her and she wondered if perhaps it was the fourth of July. She’d always loved fireworks as a girl. Her father would always let her have some at her birthday party. God, she missed her father. She had always been a daddy’s girl and it had been so long since she had been held by him.

The noise got closer and she heard shouting and screaming followed by boots running. Suddenly the door slammed open and Alex was there. His hands on her, his voice as he whispered to her, reassuring and gentle as he lifted her down and into his arms. She turned and the pain was immense, but it didn’t matter to her because he was here, and she was safe now. Evelyn let everything else go, the pain, the fear, all of it as she allowed blissful unconsciousness to overtake her. Alex had her now and that was all that mattered.