“Please,” she begged silently, only moving her lips.
He shoved his phone into his pocket, and then leaned closer to the glass. “Shut the fuck up. Lucky for you, Landon was already in the neighborhood. But until he gets here to deal with you, it’s just you and me. So shut your mouth and behave. Because you don’t want to piss me off any more than you already have. Believe me.” Then he turned back around and they both waited silently.
Tires squealed just down the ramp, and Mitch pushed off the car. In one movement, his body turned from slumped sadness to ready for war. Beyond him, she saw a car tearing up the ramp and skid to a stop a few feet away. Her scream cut-off when she saw Landon poke his head out of the opened window.
“We need to move!” he yelled. “I think they followed me in!”
“Who?” Mitch yelled back. “The Clinic bastards?”
“No, the girl scouts are coming after us to buy their cookies.” The sarcastic tone of his voice only enhanced its volume. “Of course it’s The Clinic. But we’ll get them another day. In a better place to fight. Now, we need to move.”
Mitch opened the car door, gave her a warning glance, and tore at the binding on her wrists. He freed it from the steering wheel, but not from her. Then he dragged her out of his car and into the back seat of Landon’s.
Landon floored it before Mitch had even closed his door. Eden kept her head down, gripping the headrest in front of her as they flew through the garage.
“Where are they?” Mitch asked.
“There were two guys on foot at the entrance, but they ran when they saw me. I’m assuming they were going for their cars.”
“I’ve always wanted to be in a car chase,” Mitch said flatly.
“It isn’t as fun as you’d think. Especially if they have weapons.” The tires squealed around each corner. Eden felt like her stomach was going to fly out of her throat.
Before she could tell them which exit Fields had told her to take, Mitch said, “Go out on 3rd street. More pedestrians for them to maneuver around.”
“They’d be stupid not to cover it,” Landon said. When they reached the bottom level, the car slowed down. “This isn’t right. It’s too damned quiet.”
Eden lifted her head and looked out the window. A few cars were parked, none of them the black SUV that had brought her here. “The head of security let me go. I think he pulled everyone back.”
Mitch’s head whipped around to look at her, his eyes narrowed. “And why would he do that?”
“He thinks that if he let me go, I’d be more likely to help them.”
He laughed. “Help them? They’re either completely insane or they know you a hell of a lot better than I do.”
“They didn’t let me go—he did. His daughter is one of us.”
“One of us?” Mitch spat. “Well, isn’t that just…perfect. And he’s working for them. What a spectacular daddy he must be.”
“The Clinic is trying to stop her transformations.”
“Do you think I’m going to believe a single lie that comes out of your mouth?” His words were seething, creeping over her like lava, burning her to ash. “There is no ‘us’.”
“Stop it,” Landon said. “Can we please focus on what’s happening now? We can worry about everything else later.”
“Glad to,” Mitch grumbled.
She bit her tongue before she said anything else. This wasn’t about having the last word. It was about so much more. And while time wasn’t on her side, she needed to be patient. Let him assimilate, calm down a little, before she tried explaining everything to him.
Out of all the scenarios she’d imagined, being held captive in the backseat of a car by the man she loved wasn’t one of them. Eden knew how much Mitch hated Chastity. Maybe because of who she was, or maybe because of what she was—a reminder of the monster that lived inside of him. The one he would never forgive himself for, even though it wasn’t his fault. He’d only accepted her because she was part of Eden. A part of her that he could see, identify, and avoid. With a single glance at her eyes.
Outside the garage were lots of pedestrians and a few cars, but they left basically unnoticed, unharrassed. She didn’t know what game Fields or his men were playing, but it didn’t matter. Her goal was the same. She needed a chance to explain. To convince Mitch that he needed the serum and to go back to The Clinic. And for that, she needed time.
She listened to the men bicker about which street to take. But when Mitch grabbed the wheel and yanked it to the right, she couldn’t stop herself from saying something. “We can’t go back to your house. They know where you live. We need to go somewhere else to hide and talk about things.”
“I’m done talking to you,” Mitch said.
Landon turned his head and shook it unhappily. “The house is safe. Thanks to an exorbitant amount of Turner’s money”—he slugged Mitch on the shoulder—“it’s rigged with one of the best security systems known to man.”
Mitch shrugged. “Hey, what good is having money if you can’t spend it on cool toys that will keep the riff-raff from fucking with you? Especially the ones that want you dead?”
Eden leaned forward. “They don’t—”
“I said I was done talking to you!” His voice filled the car with a menace far deeper than his love might ever go.
“Not helping, man,” Landon warned.
Mitch closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Besides,” he said at half the volume, “there’s something you need at my house.”
“What?”
“A cage.”
CHAPTER XII
“Lock her up until Eden comes back,” Mitch said, getting out of the car without looking at either of them. He heard Landon get out and tell Chastity to stay put. Fuck, the things he’d said…The things she’d heard him say…His admissions had been instantaneous, without forethought or hind-thought or any other fucking kind of thought.
Sure, he’d lashed out at her, but the anger was focused on himself. At least she had an excuse—she couldn’t help trying to get what she wanted. Mitch only had his stupidity and all his pent-up emotional shit to blame. Maybe he could just pretend he’d been drunk, blame it on the booze.
“Wait!” Landon called. “I need to check the perimeter of the house, make sure no guests arrived while we were out.”
“I’ll do it. You take care of her. Make sure she stays put.” Her hands were still bound, but since when would anything so pedestrian stop her?
“Yeah, that’d work except for one thing—I have a gun.”
“Then give it to me.”
“Like hell. You with a gun? I don’t think so. Not to mention it’s mine and, if you go off the deep-end and start shooting neighborhood dogs, I’m the one who gets in trouble.”
“I promise to only shoot assholes. Which means…you’d better get out of my way quickly.”
Landon stared at him, his face red. Or maybe it was just that red was all Mitch could see. “Damn it, Turner. You need to calm down. Think rationally. Or both of you are going into your cages.”
Mitch took a deep breath. He didn’t want to beg, didn’t want to be the man he’d been in the garage when he’d first seen her. Stepping closer to the cop so she wouldn’t hear him, he said, “I can’t. I can’t…be with her. I don’t trust myself with her. Please”—his voice broke—“don’t ask me to be close to her right now.”
Landon’s eye twitched, and then he glanced back at the car where Chastity sat, her head lowered. He reached for his weapon. “I swear to you, Turner. If you do anything stupid…”
“I’m trying, man. I’m trying so fucking hard not to.”
Landon unclipped the gun from his holster and slowly handed it to Mitch. “If anyone were inside already, the interior alarm system would be howling. But double-check the windows and doors and the backyard, just in case they figured out a way to deactivate it. It shouldn’t be possible, but you never know.”
Mitch nodded. “Check.”
“Then go throu
gh the house—behind doors, around corners. Everywhere.”
“Check.”
“Damn it.” He shook his head. “Be careful.”
Mitch saw Chastity moving in the car. “You too. She’s not exactly happy to be here.”
“I think I can take care of it.”
At least one of them could. As Landon turned to go back to the car, Mitch called, “But be nice when you put her in the cage. Because if you touch one hair on her pretty little head…”
Landon looked at him like he was an idiot. “What? You gonna sic Hyde on me?”
“No way. I’m going to beg that bastard for all my worth not to kill you.” He shrugged. “So that I can do it myself.”
“Yeah, well… You don’t have to worry—cages aren’t my thing. All I want from her is to find out what she knows about The Clinic. Nada else. Got it?”
“Got it.” Trouble was, what she knew about The Clinic was way down on the list of things that Mitch wanted from her.
After verifying that neither man nor beast was in the house or the yard, Mitch signaled to Landon. From a distance, he watched the cop take Chastity out of the car and walk her up to the house, surprised she wasn’t putting up more of a fight. She knew they were going to cage her. Why wasn’t she trying to get away?
“What did The Clinic do to you?” he whispered as she walked through the door.
§ § §
The way Eden saw it, she had more problems than snow in the Alps. But only two of them might cause an avalanche—controlling herself and convincing Mitch there was only one way for him to control himself.
Great.
Walking up the steps to Mitch’s house brought Eden a sense of safety. Even though the last time she’d been inside, she’d almost been killed by two different people—Jolie and Hyde, if one could call Hyde a person. But before the beginning of her newest nightmare, these walls had been the scaffolding of her happiness, holding her together and making her think something beautiful was being built. With Mitch.
It was more of a home to her than any other house she’d been in. What she’d experienced here was the beginning of everything—her development as a woman and as something other than a victim. With Mitch’s help, she’d found strength and peace, joy and love.
But that was then. And now? Now she was a different woman and, if the condition of the house was any indication, Mitch was a different man.
To say the place was a mess would be like calling the Statue of Liberty ‘a tarnished lady’. Trash littered every visible surface making them practically invisible. Formerly expensive and pristine furniture looked like it had been found in a dump, gone through a meat-grinder, and then left out in the rain for a few days.
Had Mitch done this to his own home, or had Hyde done it? She didn’t ask. Partly because she wasn’t yet sure she was ready to know, and partly because she’d never be ready to know.
If his house was in ruins, what were the chances his mind was any different? He’d obviously been fighting—as soon as there’d been enough light to see him properly, she could tell. Just as incredible-looking as she remembered, his beauty still able to weaken her knees, stop her breath. But more like a man who’d seen war, fought and killed with his bare hands, and was now reliving the terror every day. In only two weeks. All of this had happened in only two weeks.
Realization rocked her backwards a step. While she’d been asleep, her mind and body had fought, but she’d woken up stronger, better in a lot of ways. She wasn’t the same fragile girl she’d been. And aside from making Eden crave Mitch like a bitch in the heat of hell, Chastity had helped. Without taking too much in return. And the knock-your-boots-off-and-fuck feeling was gone. Like it had never existed.
But while she’d been healing, Mitch had been through hell. Would it have been any different if she’d been there? To take care of him. Keep his nightmares at bay. And now that she was back—a new and somewhat-improved version of herself—would he give her a chance to try?
With her hands still bound by Mitch’s belt, Eden walked at Landon’s side obediently. He kept glancing at her, his eyes traveling down her body. She’d never thought he’d been particularly attracted to her, and was frankly confused by his attention.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
He quickly looked straight ahead and scratched his reddening cheek. “Sorry. You just seem…different.”
“I am different. But I’m not dangerous. And I’m not Chastity.” Except below the waist on occasion. Eventually, she would have to deal with that. But right now, she needed to make sure they felt secure, that she wasn’t a threat, so she could get them to listen. Each stair brought her closer, knowing what she was headed for—the long walk to incarceration. And this time, they weren’t locking Chastity in until Eden came back. Nor was Eden choosing to go there for her own safety.
Tonight, she wouldn’t transform, her eyes wouldn’t change, she wouldn’t wake up a different person. How was she going to explain that?
Landon stopped in front of the door to Mitch’s bedroom. Why wasn’t he taking her to Hyde’s room? To Hyde’s cage? Maybe he wasn’t going to lock her up after all. She trotted up to him as he opened the door, sighing in relief. But her sigh turned to a quick inhale when she saw the cage.
There, across the room from the bed, blocking the closet, was a cage. It was smaller than Hyde’s, the metal brighter, like the wrapping paper had just been ripped off. Her very own cage. The one Mitch had ordered for her a few weeks ago. Before she’d been forced out of his life—first by him and then by The Clinic. Would there ever be a time when she wouldn’t be trapped?
“Wow,” she said numbly. “Fast delivery. How much extra did he pay for that?” Why hadn’t Mitch had it set up in Hyde’s room? Was it so that he could be closer to her while he slept? Or so they wouldn’t have to face each other through two sets of steel bars?
“I’m sorry it’s such a mess. I should’ve cleaned up a bit.”
“Huh?” She broke her stare and looked to where Landon was frantically scooping stuff off the floor. “You sleep here?” Her eyes darted to the bed that she had shared with Mitch.
“Yeah,” he mumbled.
“But this is Mitch’s room.”
“I know. After you disappeared, he…” He shrugged. The shrug of a man who can’t say what he’s thinking. Perhaps because it would expose someone else’s secret.
“He didn’t want to be in the same room as my cage.” As me.
“Something like that. But I’ll sleep down the hall, so you can have some privacy until we figure this out.”
“Wow,” she repeated, unable to focus on anything other than the cage.
“I’ll just pick up my stuff.”
“Seriously, Landon? You think I give a shit about your socks? You’re about to put me into a cage. If anything, dirty laundry all over the floor will make it more home-y.”
His face flushed, and he let the clothes he’d bundled in his arms tumble onto the bed. “Yeah. Well, it’s not forever. Just until I have a chance to talk to him and figure some stuff out. Get him to calm down.”
“Well, then. The faster that happens, the happier I’ll be. So let’s—” She steeled herself and walked towards the cage. She stopped at the doorway, thankful her hands were still bound so she wouldn’t show her weakness by grasping the bars and refusing to go in.
I can do this. It was just another cage. She’d spent her life inside of cages, situations and bindings she couldn’t escape. She’d spent her life being someone not real, someone she was trapped inside of, apart from who she really was.
Who she really was now. But this woman could handle it. This woman could find a way out.
“It’s just temporary. Until I talk to him.” Landon’s hands were on each of her arms, directing her, pressing her forward. But he wasn’t forcing her inside, as if his humanity was at war with his duty. As misdirected as it was. He was her ally, even if he wasn’t aware of it. She felt his kindness through
his touch. And it gave her the courage she needed to step forward, to walk out of his grasp, into the waiting prison cell.
Thankfully, he didn’t slam the door. Instead the metal striking metal seemed subdued, as if this was happening to someone else. Someone far away from who she was.
It’s impossible for anyone to be unbiased in their own life, especially when a chick-fight is constantly going on in their heads. But the steel clang of Eden’s newest prison cell gave her a moment of clarity.
Whatever happened, however much of her was still unknown, she was stronger. And she needed that strength to help Mitch get through this. In a crisis, you use every frigging resource you have. Not accepting that Chastity was part of her would only give her another problem. You don’t need any other problems right now. Pick your battles. Now Mitch. Chastity later. Hopefully, when she finally had time to figure it out, she wouldn’t be humping someone’s leg.
“You’ll be fine, Eden.”
When she heard him say her name, her real name, she whipped around, hopeful. “You believe me?”
His eyebrows came together in confusion. “I’m not sure what to believe, who you really are. I saw your eyes in my car, before they took you. But I also saw you fight them—not like Eden would, like Chastity would’ve. So I don’t know what to believe. Or who that makes you.”
She remembered. One minute she’d been looking through pages and pages of Carter’s deceit, and the next her eyes had changed. Was that the moment? The moment both sides of her had come together to form a complete person. A completely different person.
“Did you tell him about it? Did you tell Mitch about my eyes?”
He nodded. “He’s a stubborn guy, though.”
“I know—I’ve met him.”
“I didn’t really know him…before they took you. Not well, anyway. But I know there must have been some good in him. Otherwise you wouldn’t have fallen for him. He’s still a pain-in-the-ass, but he isn’t the same pain-in-the-ass you used to know. His eyes haven’t changed, but every day…” His gaze dropped, and he backed away. “He’s not the same,” he said, as if that explained it.