Restitution (The Edge of Darkness, #3)

by Leigh Rivers

The warm blood of my best friend seeps through my fingers as I keep pressure on the gunshot wound in his chest. His back arches, and he grits his teeth through the pain, pupils still fully blown from the drugs they forced into him. Into us. I can’t fucking see properly, but I can see all the blood and his pale face as he gasps.

If Base dies and I don’t find my sister and Stacey, Bernadette better hide on a different fucking planet, because nothing, and I mean nothing, will stop me from ripping that rotten bitch to shreds.

Regrettably, or not so regrettably, I snapped the neck of the wanker who shot Base and hit someone else repeatedly with a chair until they were dead. Their bodies are in a heap beside me. And for some reason, despite the excess of drugs in my system melting my fucking brain, I’m fine and unharmed.

I slap him across the face, staining his cheek crimson, and he blinks his eyes open. Groggily, his words broken, he mumbles, “Did you… just… fucking slap me?”

“You need to help me find the girls,” I say, whispering, emotional – I can’t think straight. The room is fucking spinning still, and everything is glitching. Is this even real? “Stay with me. Please.” They have Stacey. My sister too. Sold them.

We aren’t together – haven’t been for a while – but Stacey is my girl. Mine.

She laughs. “Is that a threat, Kade?” “It’s a promise. If they’re inducted and leave with whoever fucking bought them, I will fuck you up. You’ll no longer have anything to blackmail me with. You sell them, and I will make sure the last day of your life is a nightmare. Your daughter? I’ll record her screams while I skin her alive and send you her fucking bones. I’ll make you watch Archie suffer, and I’ll leave you for last. If anything fucking happens to those girls, you better hide, you piece of shit.” “So feisty, my dear boy.”

The room is dark and cold – icy air licks at my exposed skin. Compared to the elegance of upstairs, down here looks like one of those Saw movies.

He whistles and laughs again. Glancing over his shoulder to me, frozen in place, he sneers. “She’s tainted with ink though. It’s a disgusting sight. Are you ready for her yet? Should I strip this one too?”

As I pass doors, I can hear crying, screaming, and… moaning. Not the good kind either. Like forced moans – moans that indicate their bodies are betraying them in the middle of screaming for help. Both men and women are begging for help – for their attacker to stop. My stomach twists.

“I suggest you shower. Your new master might not enjoy the sight of someone else’s blood on his pet. Leave your dress by the door.” I turn to look at him. “He’s coming here?”

Voices pause my thoughts, and my hand tightens around the handle of the blade. The door beeps, and two guards walk in, a large presence behind them. In a white, faceless mask, taller than the others, with wide shoulders, my master walks in in only his white shirt, the jacket he previously wore discarded somewhere.

The eyeholes of the mask are mesh, so I can’t see his eyes that well. I know they’re blue. The only detail of my attacker that I know. If he never shows me his face, how can I identify him to report him if I ever get free?

I’m calling that it’s Tobias

Hands grab at my face, forcing me to look up into the eyes of my new master. Tobias Mitchell. My lips part, all my fear washing away as I manage, “To-Tobias?”

I KNEW IT

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You’re okay. You’re safe with me,” he says softly as he strokes my hair, letting me cry into his chest. “I found you, little one.”

Tobias pulls back, his eyes searching my face, refusing to let them drop lower even with the blanket covering me. “Are you hurt?” I shake my head. “You were the one to win my auction?”

A tear slips down my cheek, and he notices, wiping it with his thumb. “I’m going to get you out of here.” “What about Luci⁠—” “Sebastian Prince’s uncle won her auction. They’re going to take her to Moscow and keep her under the radar until Bernadette is dealt with. It was the deal I made with the grandfather to get his help – I told him I’d kill his grandson’s abuser in exchange for him protecting my daughter. There are Russians surrounding this building as we speak.”

“How did you escape?” I ask as I take the dress. “I’m mad at you for that, just so you know.” He scoffs as he turns round, letting me drop the blanket and pull on the dress. “You didn’t come for visitation, and I got bored.”

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

“You are also my priority. I would have always hunted for you to the ends of the fucking earth, little one. I know you didn’t have the best relationship with your father, your brothers are useless pricks, and my son is shackled to a bitch on an insane power trip, but you have me.”

I LOVE HIM

My dad never protected me. He loved me, but as soon as Nora came into the picture, I was a second thought to him. As much as I miss him, as much as I love him, Tobias treats me better. And I never thought I’d say this, and forgive me, Aria Miller, but to be safe and sound in Tobias Mitchell’s hold is a dream I never want to wake up from. I don’t want to let go.

“Don’t hold it in,” Tobias whispers. “If you need to cry, then you fucking cry, little one. Get it all out right here and now.”

Cinnamon. A spiced cologne Kade’s clothes always smelled like.

I was alive when I was around Kade. And now I’m alive because of his father. And all Tobias is doing is hugging me back, his grip on my nape keeping me firmly to his chest. “I’ve got you,” he assures me in his deep tone.

“Tell me you’re okay, because we need to leave as soon as Barry gives us the go-ahead. Can you keep your emotions in check until we get out of here?” “You told me to let it all out.” The slight tilt of his head shows his confusion. “There’s more?” I huff out a laugh and wipe my eyes. “Sometimes I forget you’re an unfeeling idiot.”

LMAOOOOOO

Apparently, I must still have tears running down my numb face, because he raises a brow at me and wipes my cheeks. “Don’t cry any more tears because of them. You’ve got it all out. Dry your eyes and keep your chin up. They don’t deserve your tears.” He gives me a tight smile, which makes his dimple dent in. “No one does.”

His phone rings, cutting me off. Tobias silences it as he says, “You can yell at me later. I did what I had to do for my family, and you” – he flicks my nose – “you are part of it.” Smiling, I hug myself. I’ve not been part of a real family in years. It feels good.

It takes Kade’s father all of two seconds to snatch his gun from his jacket and put a bullet in one of their heads. The abruptness of the bang has me wincing and backing away just as the other guard knocks Tobias’s gun from his hand and proceeds to punch him across the face.

With the size of the man’s hand, I would be on the ground and screaming with a broken jaw. Tobias just laughs and headbutts him, then grabs him by the nape with a deadly grip while he’s dizzied from the broken nose. I watch in horror as Tobias drags the man towards the rack of blades and starts smashing his face into them so fast, blood splatters everywhere, cutting himself in the process.

“We need to go. When we see someone, act scared. I need to hold you like I plan to fuck you in every position possible without your consent.” “Jesus, Tobias.”

We round another corner, and my back hits the wall before I can even let out a gasp. Tobias plasters himself against my front and lowers his head to the hollow of my throat. “Sorry,” he whispers, a soft breath through the hole at the mouth of the mask. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he breathes repeatedly as he grabs my thigh and pulls it up to his side, playing the part. “Forgive me.”

“Maybe next time,” he says, then grabs a fistful of my hair and drags me into the next corridor. I elbow him when we’re out of view. “You did not need to pull my hair.” “I like pulling hair.” I roll my eyes. “Of course you do.”

He scoffs. “Do not delude yourself into thinking that was even slightly enjoyable. I’d rather be throwing Aria around, preferably while she’s wearing⁠—”

“I don’t think Aria will forgive me for this one, if I’m honest. I’ve probably lost her. She’ll hate me like the rest of the world.” He sighs again and pinches his nose. “But I had no other option; you didn’t show up for visitation. I had to escape.”

With something close to a disbelieving laugh, I stare at Kade’s dad, at the tiredness in his eyes from constantly fighting with himself.

“The world really has no idea who you are. You are a little bit nutty, but you care a lot about your family. You taught yourself to love – in your own way, yes – but that alone goes against everyone’s opinion of you. You aren’t heartless, Tobias. Who cares what the world thinks?” He g...

I pick it up and give it to him, and he slides it into his pocket. “Where are we taking her?” “She’s the bait. Or blackmail. One child in exchange for the other. That’s if they don’t all perish when this place burns down.”

I accidentally forget to hold a branch, and it slaps Tobias in the face. I cringe and glance over my shoulder, mouthing an oops. He looks like he wants to stab me.

I curl into Kade’s embrace and freeze all over, like ice-cold water has doused my naked body when I realise the chest has no tattoos. The hand resting on my hip belongs to someone who isn’t my boyfriend. And when I lift my eyes to see the person’s face, my stomach curdles. It’s Jason. Kade’s big brother. I’m in my boyfriend’s brother’s bed. With no clothes on.

My ribs are still cracked. From Chris finding the ultrasound picture in my room and throwing me around in utter rage, kicking me repeatedly in the stomach until my baby girl died.

An hour later, the wind whips my hair around as I stand at the Erskine Bridge. I stare into the mist, the drop beneath me deadly but effective. All I need to do is step forward, and it all goes away. Chris can’t get me, because I’ll be dead. You’re fucking dead to me. I’m dead to me too. I’m not scared. It’ll make it all stop. I won’t be scared to go home. I can be with my baby girl.

The wind is heavier, and I should be cold in just my T-shirt, but I don’t feel anything. I don’t feel anything at all. I don’t want to jump because Kade left me. I want to do it because I want to die.

My voice betrays me as it croaks, my face cramping, “But it hurts.” Inside and outside. I have plasters all over my chest and thighs. The bruising is only getting worse, and inside me is ripped to shreds. He raises his hands as he inches forward, until he’s right beside me, on the opposite side of the railing.

“I lost my baby girl, and now I’ve lost him.”

My trigger finger has a permanent indent. I never really noticed it until now. Strange to think that will always be there.

If Stacey ever lets me hold her hand again, will she feel all the death I’ve caused?

I’ll never feel her lips on mine again. Feel her fingers interlacing with my own while we hide our linked hands under the blanket. Kiss her during a game of dares. Laugh with her while she belts out songs from The Greatest Showman.

I close my eyes and lie down once more in my cell and try to picture my bedroom back home, instead of this shithole. I try to pretend there’s a dip in the mattress at my feet, where my dogs Milo and Hopper are asleep, an arm slung over my waist, with a leg between mine, my fingers buried in thick hair.

My girl. Even when faced with the worst kind of horror, she fucking fought. I didn’t think it was possible to love her more than I already do, but I do.

Archie had ordered that I be tied to a chair, then his fucking asshole guards made me watch the recording of Stacey being raped. Every second of it was replayed and replayed. Me and four of their guys watched her be abused over and over while Archie made comments that resulted in me biting his ear off.

Screaming!!!!!

I’d burn him first but keep him alive enough to feel every agonising second. I’d carve the name of every victim who’s fallen by my hands into his skin – the ones I remember anyway. I’d cut his eyeballs out, snap each finger then pull up each nail. I’d drill into each thigh and nail him to a chair. So many scenarios have played out in my head. It’s a little concerning how detailed each one is.