Home > What Sinners Love(3)

What Sinners Love(3)
Author: Eva Ashwood

Despite my efforts to control my breathing, I’m still drawing in air in short, chopping gasps. My lungs are burning. My wrists are burning. I can tell that the skin is raw, open in some spots from where I’ve struggled against the ropes. I try to move my legs and realize that they’re bound too, but the ropes tying my ankles to the chair legs feel a little looser than the ones around my wrists.

Good. Maybe I can use that to my advantage.

I shift in my chair, focusing.

Even if I do manage to escape, then what?

Alan has apparently been watching me, keeping tabs on me, probably via his fucking son. Even if I get out of this place, there’ll be a target on my back. I’ll never be safe, not for the rest of my fucking life.

My head spins, bile rising in my throat. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out the fear. If I let myself think too hard about all that other shit, the other noise, I’m going to lose it. I’m going to get myself killed by making a stupid mistake before Alan can even touch me.

I just need to make it out of here. When I get out, I won’t be alone.

The others must have lived through last night. They have to be okay. And they won’t let me face this by myself.

“Stop it.”

I glance up, broken from my thoughts. Reagan is frowning at me in the dim light, her lips pursed in irritation. I glare at her, still twisting my wrists against the binds. As I do, I realize that when I scrape the ropes on my wrists against each other, the friction seems to loosen them a little.

Not much. But maybe it’ll be enough.

“I said stop it,” Reagan repeats, her gaze zeroing in on my movements.

Fuck. I don’t think she’s realized that my actions are strategic now, not just desperate, fruitless struggles. But she will if she looks too closely at what I’m doing. I need to distract her.

“Why did you do this?” I demand. If I can get her to talk, maybe she won’t notice that the ropes are getting looser. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you do any of this?”

“What do you remember, Sabrina?” Reagan asks, instead of answering my questions. Her eyes narrow a little, and I think she’s trying to infuse her voice with the same quiet confidence Alan’s had earlier, although she’s not all that successful.

My wrists burn as I try to loop a finger beneath the ropes unsuccessfully.

“I know I was held prisoner,” I say. “Kept down here when I was a kid. Just like you were.”

She scoffs. “That’s not how it is, and you know it.” Her voice softens a little as she adds, “Alan isn’t like that. He isn’t evil.”

I want to scream at her, to tell her she’s fucking insane, but I let the comment slide. She’s seriously messed up, obviously suffering from some kind of Stockholm Syndrome or something, but I doubt I’ll make any headway with her by arguing with her about Alan.

She already tried to kill me twice just to get on his good side. I can’t really see her switching allegiances and choosing me over him.

“Maybe he isn’t evil, but he isn’t happy with you,” I say, shrugging casually as I glance up and catch her gaze.

Her lips press together. “You don’t understand how things are between us.”

“Don’t I?” I cock an eyebrow, still moving my hands subtly behind the chair’s back. “I was here when he told you he was pissed—pretty hard to misinterpret that.” I shake my head. “Can’t you see, Reagan? If you’re trying to win his approval, this didn’t work. It made things worse.”

She flinches, looking at me with wide eyes.

Holy fuck, she really is devoted to this guy.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. She doesn’t see it, does she? What a monster Alan is. All she wants is his approval. His love.

“I wanted to help him,” she murmurs. “I am helping him.”

“Are you?” I press. “Just look what happened. You ruined everything. You heard him. Now he has a bigger mess to clean up, and it’s all your fault.”

Her eyes flash with hurt. “You don’t know anything about him or me, Sabrina,” she says, taking a step closer to my chair. “You’re just jealous. I know you are.”

“Yeah, right.” I snort. “Why would I be jealous of someone who’s been manipulated by an older man? Used by him like a fucking pawn?”

I think about the Sinners—about how each of them proved they’re truly on my side. About how the anger and distrust between us changed and grew into something real and solid. Something that feels a whole hell of a lot like…

My heart constricts in my chest, and I wrench my thoughts away from the men. I can’t think about that right now, can’t consider how deep my feelings for them go.

When I get out of this fucking place, then I’ll think about it. But not now.

“Alan needs me,” Reagan says emphatically, pulling my attention back to her. “He needs my help. Ever since you showed back up in town, I know he’s been worried. He’s too good of a man to do what needs to be done sometimes, and that’s why I had to step in. His wife never truly understood him, but I do. He respects me and wants me… and I’m his favorite.”

My stomach rolls. Jesus fucking Christ. He must’ve been spoon-feeding her lies since the beginning, since we were little girls. I know she has a fighting streak in her, I know she’s strong—she got the better of me in the woods, something not many people could manage to do. But Alan makes her weak. Why does she keep letting him use her?

But as a shy smile spreads across her lips, I realize why she keeps doing it. Why she wants his approval so damn much.

“Oh my god. You love him, don’t you?” I ask quietly.

Her gaze falters, her jaw clenching. She takes another step toward me, glaring as she bends to bring her eyes level with mine. Her face is only a few inches away, and the light that burns in her irises makes me queasy.

“It’s none of your fucking business,” she hisses. “You never understood. You could never—”

I don’t think. I just act. As Reagan leans in, I make a split second choice that could get me in a lot more shit if it doesn’t work. I swing my head forward and I headbutt her as hard as fucking possible. My skull screams with pain as our foreheads collide. Reagan stumbles backward with a choked cry, and I overbalance in my chair, pitching to the floor with a heavy thud.

The wooden frame of the chair cracks loudly, and my body pulses in agony as my cheek hits the cement, but something new pounds through my veins alongside the pain—adrenaline. I know I’ve only got seconds to work with, seconds to escape.

I thrash violently, taking advantage of the cracks in the wood. The wooden frame breaks apart even more, and I wrench my arms as hard as I can. The ropes are loosened without the chair to hold to, but they’re still a tangle of knots around my wrists and legs as I try to shove them off.

Escape, escape, escape.

The word pounds in my skull like a heartbeat as I finally manage to free one arm, then a leg. Reagan's moan of pain turns to a scream of fury as she launches herself toward me. The ropes slacken just in time as I push myself up off the ground and absorb the blow of her body against my shoulder.

She’s insane. Whatever the hell happened to her in this room, and in the years since she got out, it’s driven her crazy.

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)