I was a girl in love. A girl who had hopes and dreams of an incredible life. Then slowly but surely, he destroyed every ounce of that girl until there was nothing left but a submissive, frightened toy he’d shackled on his arm in public and mistreated in private .
The things he did.
The things I was forced to do.
The stuff of nightmares.
I shivered in my seat, and sweat misted my hairline. Something felt off…wrong. It was all too easy. Aiden knew I was in town, but he hadn’t found me yet. I clenched my teeth as fear, thick and heavy, twisted around my heart and squeezed painfully. Goosebumps rose on my arms, and my stomach sank as we approached my father’s house. Through the window of the car, I could see that the door to my father’s home was propped wide open and hanging oddly at an angle.
The limo slowed almost to a stop when I flung myself out of it at a dead run toward the house.
“Faith! No!” Joel roared from close behind, but I didn’t stop running, my feet hitting the pavement in thunderous claps as I raced to the open door and came to a halt inside.
It had been ransacked. Everything tossed around as though a tornado had come through and ripped even the family photos from the walls. The couches were shredded, the stuffing dotting the floor and other surfaces like little white tufts of clouds scattered throughout.
“Dad! Eden!” I screeched as I stared in horror at the shattered TV in pieces on the ground. The coffee table was split down the center, broken in half, jagged wooden shards pointing out like sharp swords daring anyone to walk past.
“Faith!” Joel yelled, entering from behind.
I didn’t pay him any mind as I dashed into the kitchen. The floors were covered with broken plates, glasses, plastic cups, and bowls. The silverware drawer had been dumped like all the other cabinets. The utensils littered the space like knights from medieval times, in silver-plated armor, having fallen over a war-torn battlefield.
“Dad! Eden!” I shrieked like a banshee as I left the kitchen and raced down the hallway to Eden’s bedroom. Shockingly, her room was messy but not ransacked. More like someone had pulled clothing out of the dressers in a hurry.
I shoved past Joel who was close behind and talking heatedly into his phone.
“Who the fuck was watching the Marino house!” he growled into the device.
I entered my dad’s room, which was a complete disaster. The mirror over the dresser had been smashed, long spikes of cut glass still clinging to the wooden frame, the rest in bits and pieces lying all over the floor. The mattress was hanging off the side of the bed, wedged against the window.
“Dad,” I croaked, as my heart pounded a million miles an hour.
In my panicked haze, my vision started to get blurry and waver in and out. Terror filled my veins. I reached out and braced myself against the wall, barely staying upright when I noticed a bloody hand-shaped smear against the door across the room where the bathroom was. It was as if someone had slammed up against the door and fallen down, the blood leaving red streaks against the white wood.
That’s when Joel entered the room and grabbed hold of me, keeping me upright. His timing couldn’t have been better as I was on the cusp of losing my ability to stand as everything I’d just seen came flooding into a horrifying reality.
“Breathe, Faith. In through the nose, out through the mouth.” He mimicked what he wanted me to do, and I copied him on autopilot. “That’s good.”
“Joel,” I gasped as tears filled my eyes and fell over my cheeks.
“It’s going to be okay,” he swore.
“There’s blood on the door.” I gulped. Stars blinked in my peripheral vision as trepidation pulsed like hot lava through my veins.
Joel glanced over his shoulder and nodded curtly. “Stay here. I’ll check it out. My men are on their way as are the police. ”
“Where’s Dad? Eden?” I choked out while this morning’s breakfast churned in my gut, threatening to leave my system at any moment.
“We’ll find them.” His words were resolute and held no bullshit.
God, please don’t let them be dead. It’s all my fault. If I’d just given myself up to him, none of this would have happened.
Bone-splitting dread filled me to bursting as I watched Joel maneuver through the mess and around the tipped-over nightstands and broken lamps and picture frames. The sound of broken glass was unusually loud crunching under the soles of his expensive shoes.
I should have never come back to Vegas. I should have never believed I could find a way out from under Aiden’s control.