Page 150 of Of Flesh & Bone

"Back to Maryland?"

Eve's parents are back in Maryland.Maybe Nathan is too.That's where Eve was found in that car all those years ago, halfway across the country.I suspect the distance is why her dad was never able to find her.The sudden appearance of a child that no one was looking for didn't make the national news.

I drop the crutches and limp toward her.For every step I take closer, she takes a step back until her body is against the wall, and she has nowhere else to go.I crowd her body with my own and let out a wicked chuckle."What makes you think I'll let you leave me?"

I glare back at her, keeping her focus on my face.Her tone is flat when she says, "You've seen me in action.What makes you think you could stop me?"She tilts her head to the side and flashes me a menacing smile."It's better for everyone this way.You'll eventually see that, but I don't have time to explain it t-" her words are cut short when I tighten the zip tie around her wrists."Wha-" she starts to speak again when I push her face down onto the bed.Quickly, I bend down while she's still busy trying to free her hands and I tighten one zip tie at her ankles and another at her knees."What the hell are you doing?"She doesn't sound so unaffected now.She sounds sufficiently pissed off at the moment.

Keep provoking her.It's working.

She twists her hands and attempts to pull them apart, so I explain to her that "These zip ties are rated for 500 pounds of pressure, so all you're going to accomplish by struggling is leaving red marks on this perfect skin and pissing me off in the process."

She's breathing heavily through her nostrils, allowing me to feel her fury."What the hell are you doing with zip ties, Adam?Where did you even get these?"

"I'm in Cotton's SUV.He likes to camp and do a bunch of outdoorsy shit.He's got all kinds of stuff in the cargo area.These have come in handy more than once.Remember Paul?He didn't care for them either, but it's time to go home and I'm not going without you."

"Oh yeah?How do you plan to get me there, gimp?"

There she is.That's my girl.All I have to do is provide a little provocation and she'll provide the fight.I bend down, being sure to put the bulk of my weight on my good leg and I grab her by the hips, tossing her over my shoulder like I have done so many times before.She's cussing me as though she's a death row inmate and I'm leading her to the chair the entire time as I carry her out of the room.

"You mother fucker!Just wait until I get out of these things.I'll cut your tongue out and feed it to my dog."

"Our dog."

"Fuck you!!"

Once I get her situated on my shoulder, I slap her ass hard, and she squeals even though I know she expected it.Limping out of the room, I see Vaughn and Eli standing in the same spots they were in before I left the room.Eli unsuccessfully attempts to hide his smirk, but Vaughn's eyes go wide, and she takes a step toward me, readying herself for battle before Eli snakes an arm out, snatching her by the waist and pulling her back into him.He leans down, whispering something into her ear and Vaughn's eyes lock with mine.She studies me for a long moment.I'm not sure what he said, and I don't know what she saw when she looked at me, but her eyes soften, and she sighs heavily before opening the front door to let me out.

"I'm going to set you on fucking fire, asshole!"

Eli's laugh follows me out the door.

Eve is doing her best to fight me the whole way as we descend the steps.She's no longer yelling, but she is quietly threatening me low enough that she won't draw attention to herself if anyone is outside.I roughly toss her into the passenger seat only making sure that I don't hit her head on the roof of the car."If you attempt to open this door after I've shut it, I'll make sure that everyone in this complex watches me bend you over my knee and spank your ass until you learn to behave."

If looks could kill, I'd be lying next to Paul with worms crawling through my eye sockets.I kiss her on the tip of the nose just to solidify the point that I can.No words are spoken on the drive home.

The police cleared the scene fairly quickly, and Cotton arranged for a crime scene cleanup crew to come out this morning, so I'm hoping that our home is back to normal before we get there.

We pull up in the driveway and everything appears to be as it was pre-sociopath break-in.Eve busted out the streetlight, so that will need to be replaced but she had only turned off the main breaker in the house to turn out all the lights and leave the surround sound operational.She's a fucking malignant genius.

I pull her from the car, throwing her over my shoulder just like before and, just like before, I slap her hard on the ass."Hey, what the hell?I didn't even do anything."

"I told you before, love.This is my ass.I'll do whatever I want with it whenever I want to do it.I like to spank it, so that's what I did."

"Fucking unbelievable."She mumbles to herself.She could kick and scream to her heart's content now that we're home and no one would be the wiser, but she doesn't.She's pliant and I'm not sure if this is a good sign or not.I pull out my keys and unlock the front door, carrying Eve through the foyer and into the open living space.Everything is clean and things are sorted the way they should be.The scents of alcohol and bleach are mixing in the air in a most unpleasant way.I keep walking through the house to the stairs leading to our bedroom.

The stairs are a bitch to climb with a body thrown over my shoulder, but I don't want her to see me struggle, so I do my best to hide the limp.Once I reach the bed, I make no attempt to be gentle when I throw her onto it.She grunts when she hits the mattress and bounces, but she says nothing.I go to our dresser and retrieve the canvas that I haven't yet hung.Bringing it over to the bed, I point at it."Do you see this?"Eve looks over at the painting using only her eyes and then looks up at me, never turning her head.She doesn't respond so I go on."That's MY heart.You have it.If you leave, you take it with you.Is that really what you want?"My voice breaks with those last words, and I don't try to hide the pain I feel.

Her eyes brim with tears and I know that I'm getting through, but she still doesn't respond.I shake my head almost imperceptibly."I love you, Eve.I love you and I'll NEVER let you go.You are mine.You belong to me, and I belong to you.If you leave, I will follow you.There's no other way for us to be but together."I feel the tears hit my cheeks and I'm momentarily stunned.I don't cry.I wasn't sure that I even could.I can.I can cry for her.I cry for us.

The tears that were filling her beautiful green eyes begin to spill out now in a rush.She doesn't try to hold them back.She just lets them flow."I'm fucked up.I'm so irrevocably fucked up.You have no idea the things I've done.The things I'm still capable of doing.What I would have done to Ada that night.I was going to kill your little sister.Don't you understand?I'm dangerous.I'm dangerous to everyone.I'm a killer.I have to go away to protect all of you.There's no other way.I can't be fixed."Her voice is weak and crackly.

This.This is what has kept her from me.She thinks that SHE is the one who doesn't deserve me.She thinks she doesn't deserve any of us.

I sit down beside her and pull her into my lap."I don't want to fix you, Eve.I just want to love all the broken pieces of you and meld them with my own.We're only whole together.I need you."

That was it.Those were the words that she needed to hear.She buries her face into my chest and sobs.She lets herself feel all the things she has hidden even from herself.She lets herself feel all the things that she had once forgotten.

We stay like this for several minutes or maybe hours as I hold her, and she cries in the safety of my arms as she heals herself piece by piece.I have no misguided notions that Eve is suddenly over the trauma of her past.I know that these wounds took years to create, and I know that it will take years to recover from them, but we've healed us.Whatever broke in us when her father came into our lives and her memory returned, we've at least bridged the gap between us that was created that day.We can spend the rest of our lives fortifying that bridge and healing our wounds together.

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