Page 81 of Tainted Love
“Eli!”
Bea’s sob cuts through me like a knife.
“Are you o—” Her question is muffled, as if someone has covered her mouth. But I now know she is somewhere behind me.
I try to twist around, desperate to see if she’s okay, but I’m blinded by a flashlight shining directly in my eyes. A bootconnects with my ribs, and I grunt in pain. I’ve barely caught my breath when I’m kicked again in the same spot, and I curse as I hear a crunch before a blinding pain sears through me. I curl inward, trying to protect myself from any further onslaught.
A rough hand grabs the back of my neck and pulls me to my feet. I stumble, blinking away the bright spots left from the flashlight. When my vision finally clears, I wish the nightmare in front of me was just that—a fucking nightmare.
Madeline is across from me. But she is bound and gagged, seated in almost exactly in the same place she was that night six years ago. Blood and tears streak down her face. Nick lies next to her, pale and lifeless, his face is covered in bruises and the back of his skull has been caved in.
Bile rises in the back of my throat and I wretch. There’s no way he is still alive with those injuries.
I force myself to look away, and that’s when I find her.
My heart literally stops beating.
Jas.
She’s alive.
Not only is she alive, and wearing the same black tulle dress I thought I saw her wearing at the fundraiser tonight, but her arm is wrapped around Bea’s throat. Her other hand covers Bea’s mouth.
Fuck.
“How?” I choke out.
“Surprise!” Benny chuckles in my ear. I struggle against his grip, but my ribs burn, and I give up before I pass out again from the pain.
“Wait,” I grunt out. “Where’s your daughter?”
Jas smirks. “Ourdaughter is at home with her babysitter. All tucked up cosy in her bed.”
Anger and hurt war inside me. They had a child together?
Benny played me, making me think he’d lost his daughter because of what we went through, but not just that…
“You faked your daughter’s abduction to get me out here? That’s messed up, man.”
“It wasn’t too hard for you to think I was a washed-up loser like my old man, was it?” he hisses in my ear. “You had no idea that pathetic lifestyle belongs to my brother because you didn’t bother to try and get in touch with me until your precious stepsister was threatened.”
I grimace because that’s exactly what I thought when I saw the house at the address he gave me. He certainly had me fooled. At the reminder of the very real threat to Bea, my eyes trail over her body. I check her for any injuries, but apart from the fear in her eyes, she doesn’t appear to be hurt.
‘Are you okay?’I mouth.
She gives a small shake of her head, and my chest tightens. Jas laughs, and it’s a sinister sound which rivals the dark spitefulness of the Madeline from our childhood, not the broken girl now tied up across from me.
“It appears you have a type, huh, Genie?” Jas removes her hand from Bea’s mouth and reaches into her pocket. My blood runs cold when I catch the glint of a knife—Sam’s knife. Bea whimpers as Jas runs the back of the blade along her cheek. “You love to keep things in the family.”
“What?” My brow furrows in confusion. Is she referring to me and Bea being stepsiblings? “How are you here?” I ask again, unable to take my eyes off the ghost from my past. “I watched you die.”
“You mean after you took my virginity and laughed about how I was just a game? A challenge?” Jas sneers. “Isn’t that what you said? I meant nothing to you.”
I shake my head, sucking in a sharp breath as my skull throbs from the movement. “Are you serious? I said that stuffto stop Madeline from going after you. You meanteverythingto me. I was absolutely gutted when I thought I lost you.”
She makes a dismissive sound. “Is that why you left Benny to bury me alone out here and to chase after Madeline?”
Our foster sister shakes her head, garbled sounds coming from behind her gag.
