Page 80 of Tainted Love
My mouth drops open, and I stare at him, dumbfounded. “Are you serious? Why would I hate you? You said what you thought you had to. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”
I reach up to cup his cheek, but he flinches away. “Itismy fault. If I didn’t antagonise Madeline that night, if I gave her what she wanted from the start … Jas would still be alive.”
“You don’t know that.” I shake my head. “From the sounds of it, Madeline is unhinged, and if she didn’t hurt Jas that night, she would have hurt her after you left. Either way,you couldn’t have saved her. What I still don’t understand is why Madeline would take Benny’s daughter. How would that hurt you?”
Elias shrugs. “Who knows how her fucked up mind works, but something went down between the two of them the night before. Benny never told me what. We all kept to ourselves after what happened to Jas, and then Oli and I went home to Mum the following week, and I never spoke to him again. Until Sunday, anyway.”
“What happened Sunday?”
He hesitates before he lets out a deep breath. “I started getting DMs from an account on Friday night after the show at the Forum. It was followed by some deliveries to the house and a threat.”
My brow furrows in confusion. “Against Benny’s daughter?”
“Against you.”
“Wait, what?” A shiver of fear hits me. “What do you mean you got a threat against me? Why didn’t you tell me?”
He palms the back of his neck. “I was hoping it was nothing.”
“Yet here we are, running around in the middle of the night in bushland, searching for the three-year-old daughter of a guy you haven’t seen in six years, who may or may not have been taken by a psychopath who stabbed your last girlfriend and is making similar threats against me.”
Elias hangs his head. “That about sums it up.”
I jump at the sound of twigs snapping, and birds taking flight into the night. Elias grabs me and pulls my body behind his. My heart races as I shrink into him, hating how weak I feel. We were so stupid and reckless coming out here with no idea how we would get Benny’s daughter back. We should have gone to the police.
After cowering for what feels like forever, the muscles inElias’s back finally loosen and he turns to face me. “Maybe this was a bad idea,” he admits, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear. “Why don’t you go back to the car? I’ll see if I can find Benny and we’ll go to the police like we should have done years ago. Madeline can’t keep getting away with this, it’s not right. Jas needs justice.”
I shake my head, ignoring the keys he’s holding out for me. “We’re not splitting up. Haven’t you watched horror movies? It’s a sure-fire way of getting ourselves killed.”
Someone moves in my peripheral vision, but just as I’m about to call out a warning to Elias, his eyes go wide.
He stares at someone behind me and murmurs, “It’s you.”
I watch on in horror as Benny swings a branch, and it connects with Elias’s temple. I cry out as he falls to the ground, but it is cut short when someone grabs me from behind. Their arm firmly locks around my neck and cuts off my airways.
Despite the terror flooding my body, the self-defence classes Dad made me take instinctively kick in, and I stomp down on my attacker’s foot as I aim my elbow for their solar plexus. Surprise hits me when a female voice cries out.
Whoever she is, she’s strong, and her grip around my throat only tightens and she manages to hook her arm through my elbow, pulling it up behind my back until I’m crying in pain.
“Why?” I choke out.
Benny bends down to check on Elias. I can see he hasn’t moved, and he has a stream of blood dripping down the side of his face.
“Stay away from him!”
I struggle against whoever is holding me, but it’s futile. Black spots swarm my vision. Right before I pass out, I hear a familiar voice say, “Well, isn’t this cute. He might not havefought for your life, but you’d give up yours for him, little sister.”
Cool lips press against my temple and then everything goes black.
Chapter 45
Elias
I GROAN AS I slowly pry my eyes open through the pain assaulting my skull, and black dots dancing in my vision. What the fuck happened? The last thing I remember is …
“Bea?” I call out, my mouth feeling like it’s full of cotton wool. I’m lying in the dirt facing the old miner’s cottage at the back of the Ferguson’s property. My hands are restrained behind my back. I struggle to free them. Whoever tied them has been thorough and the more I struggle, the tighter they become.
Fuck. Where is she? Why isn’t she answering me? I clear my throat and try again. “Bea? Tell me you’re okay, Duchess. Please, god, just let me know you’re okay?”
