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I wanted to go myself, but I understood her point and hesitated. I couldn’t protect Briar now, only to put her in future danger. I had to think clearly, but it was increasingly difficult to do with what I knew now.
“Just leave it with me,” Rachel said, and I nodded curtly.
She rose from her place as the phone started to ring again, but I ignored it, flopping back into the chair to bury my head in my hands.
I didn’t even have the means to contact Briar via phone or email, my only connection to her through Rachel or, gods forbid, Barney.
I couldn’t wait to deal with the slimy, ruthless bastard. But first, I needed to ensure that Briar and our baby were safe, even if I could never be with them.
Chapter28
Briar
In and out I drifted, consciousness evading me as time lost all meaning. There were whispers and voices, cups and spoons pressed to my lips before my head was dropped back to the pillow and I fell back into another dream-filled slumber again.
They were always the same, the dreams. Ash in the far end of the prison room, the first one where I’d been taken, the one where Lochlin had been killed.
Ash stood by the door, staring right through me as I extended my hands toward him from the floor.
“Please, help me!” I begged him. “I’m right here. Our baby is right here!”
But no matter how much I screamed or how long I sobbed, my arms aching and numb as I extended myself toward him, he didn’t flinch, as if I wasn’t there, his eyes looking straight through me.
“This is our baby! How can you leave me here like this?”
His face twisted and stained with blood, a cruel, blinding white smile forming over his lips.
“That bastard isn’t mine! It belongs to someone else! You’ll see! You’ll see! You’ll see!”
Inevitably, my eyes would flutter open again, and I would fight to keep my lids apart, but it was an endless exercise in futility. No sooner would I wake than I would fall back asleep, and I had no idea how much time passed before I clued in to the fact that I was being drugged endlessly and constantly.
“The baby!” I managed to rasp one day, those whispers circling my head. “You’ll damage the baby, Father!”
I couldn’t be sure if I spoke the words aloud or if they were only desperate cries in my own head, but it seemed that suddenly, I was able to wake from that terrible nightmare where Ash mocked me.
Pale streaks of sunlight filtered through the shutters of my windows, and for once, I could make out the outlines of shapes on the walls around me.
“F-Father?” I rasped, but my throat was like sandpaper.
I sat up, my head spinning immediately, and I slowed myself, touching my stomach protectively. A gasp of horror fell out of my mouth as I felt the massive bump around my abdomen.
How long had he had me unconscious? The baby had grown since my last memory of her.
Tears filled my eyes, and I again fought to sit up. On my bedside was a glass of water, but I didn’t trust it. For all I knew, taking one sip would send me back down into the spiral of confusion that I’d been in for gods only knew how long. Just like the time I had woken in that cell at Ash’s estate.
Only this time, there would be no one to save me from my captor.
I managed to stumble from the bed to the bathroom, splashing cold water onto my face directly from the faucet before slopping more into my parched throat. When I pulled back, I gasped again at the sight of my gaunt, hollowed face.
How can he treat me like this? I’m his own daughter. I’m carrying his grandchild.
Trembling and distraught, I fumbled my way back to the bed, sinking to the mattress as I fought to even my nerves. Inside me, I felt the baby stir, and I splayed my palms evenly over my stomach.
I had to find a way out, to protect myself and my daughter, but how? I had no resources, no friends in this sheltered life.
I didn’t need to try the bedroom door to know it was locked, but I crawled across the floor anyway and realized my known fears. Slumping against the wall, I pursed my lips and dipped my head back.
How did Mama ever stay as long as she did?
