I felt the snap of my rib as soon as his elbow hit into my side at full force. I gasped in pain and my body convulsed under the pressure raising me from the mattress momentarily. My back hit the mattress as warm tears flooded my cheeks. Waves of intense pain rolled through me and finally crashed as my breath came back.
“Don’t fucking mention him again,” Jeremy hissed. He ripped my discarded shirt clean apart and shoved a piece of the material in my mouth, taking my ability to draw attention to myself and making my chance of rescue fade quickly away.
The pain, the lack of oxygen, and the fear taking over my body brought on a darkness that I craved; before I could struggle any longer I slipped into oblivion with Jeremy and Chris lingering devastatingly close.
The world around me felt like it was crushing every single bone in my body. My apartment was in a frenzy of chatter and anxious energy. Desperation lingered in the air. Police officers, my parents, Eden’s parents, Ashlyn, and Josh paced the floor as time slipped away from us. I couldn’t even comprehend what was happening; my fists were clenched at my sides, and my head thumped with a tension headache; I swear I heard every single click of the clock on the wall. Every single fucked-up second that he had her.
“I need to get out of here. I need to find her.” I paced toward the door as I finally cracked.
“Ky wait!” my father’s tired voice sounded from the couch. We had been sitting around for hours waiting for something, anything to happen, and I was absolutely done. “What good is it going to do if you leave? Where do you think you will go?”
“That fucking asshole has my girl,” I roared in to the tension filled room.
“Son, he has my girl too,” Mike Rivers said in a low voice, his brow pinched as he looked back at me.
Mike and Anna Rivers had arrived alongside the police officers two hours ago. The first thing I noticed about Mike was how tall and broad he was. His face was covered in a dark beard, and he shared the same deep blue eyes as Eden. He was a threatening looking man, but the moment he shook my hand with a firm grip and looked me square in the eyes I saw that his world had also disappeared. Anna Rivers jumped into my arms as soon as her husband was pulled away Douglas. Anna’s arms circled my waist, and she didn’t say a word to me. She just cried into my chest, dampening my shirt with tears for her missing daughter. It shocked me at first, but I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and held her tightly against my chest offering all the support that I could find.
I had never met these people before. What a fucked up way of meeting them for the first time. They had arrived back in the United States the day before and didn’t get the opportunity to see their daughter and now she was missing.
“What the hell am I meant to do?” I groaned into the air. Anger seethed within me, and my hands rubbed furiously over my face as I stormed through my apartment toward my room. Our room.
The moment I stepped foot through the doors, I froze as the intense smell of her perfume smothered me, clouding me with the sweet citrus scent that drove me crazy. My emotions bubbled within my tight chest and my eyes glistened as the reality of what happened stabbed at my barely beating heart. I collapsed on the edge of the bed and my face fell into my hands as a painful sob escaped from my chest.
Knowing that Jeremy had her and knowing what he was capable of was tearing me apart. Hearing her petrified voice when she called was replaying over and over in my head like a constant reminder that she wasn’t safe, that I had failed her again. I had promised I would always protect her.
All I wanted was a moment of peace, but how could I possibly find peace when a war was waging inside my head, my heart, and the world around me. Eden was my world, and my world was now being threatened in a way I didn’t even want to comprehend.
I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, huddled over, my emotions seeping out of every pore of my body. My mind sorted through memory after memory I had of her. We had overcome so much. Fuck, I had asked her to move in with me just last night. I had already given my heart to her, and now I was ready to give my home, my life, and my future. I was ready to sit in the palm of her hands for eternity. She was stronger now, more resilient. She was trusting, and she was finally mine. But now Jeremy motherfucking Davis had her. He had taken her away from my protection, away from the safety that I had been desperate to provide her. He was making me live my worst nightmare all over again. I couldn’t save her once, and now here I was, in the exact same position.
My head shot up from my hands as succession of soft knocks hit the closed bedroom door.
“Son, can I come in?” Mike’s worried voice cracked through the thick wood.
“Sure,” I replied.
He walked in, closing the door behind him. I had no clue what to say. I didn’t know what he knew about me. Fuck, I didn’t even know if Eden had mentioned me before. As far as I knew, I was just as much a stranger to him as he was to me.
He took a seat on the bed beside me, and we fell into a thick silence.
“You saved her.” He finally spoke so softly that I almost missed it.
I nearly choked on my own breath at his clearly delusional words.
“If I had saved her, she wouldn’t be missing,” I stated matter-of-fact.
“Do you know that she would call me and her mother every couple of days? Did you also know that she would text her mother every other day? It was all you Ky. Every single message we received, every single time we heard her sweet voice, we noticed a change, and it was all because of you. You made my daughter come alive again. I thought I had lost her four years ago, but now she has finally come back to us and it’s largely because of you.”
“Did she tell you who I was?” I shifted my gaze to him, my eyes narrowing. “That I was best friends with the asshole who has got her again. That I was the one who wanted her all those years ago but didn’t have the balls to do a damn thing about it and then he came in and tore her away from all of us? I am that guy.”
“She has told me enough.” He shifted beside me, nervousness falling off him.
“You should hate me.”
“Why would I hate the guy who has opened up his house for the police to work out of? Why would I hate the guy who has opened his home to me and my wife when you have never met us before? Why would I hate the guy who has finally brought a smile to my daughter’s face?” He stood from the bed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Ky, I would be a fucking asshole if I hated you.”
My lips twitched as his use of profanity. I didn’t think to watch my language around him.
Fuck, I didn’t know how to act around a girl’s father before and I sure as shit didn’t know how to act around my girl’s father.
My heavy eyes flittered open as daybreak cracked through the heavy blinds. Every movement I attempted to make, I was paralyzed as pain shot through my body. My ribs screamed at me and my face throbbed, making me aware that bruising was a certainty. I took a risk and gazed around the room. Chris’s large frame was curled in the chair by the window as he slept. His arms folded over his chest, and a permanent frown was etched on his face. I shifted my gaze to the left and found Jeremy’s sleeping form beside me, his hand resting heavily on my hip.
I hated him. I despised every breath he was allowed to take. I wished for his death, and I didn’t feel any remorse when I prayed for the heavy hand of karma to fuck him over. I just hoped it was sooner rather than later. I knew my time was quickly running out and the realization that he would take whatever he wanted from me at any time caused a dreadful shiver of fear to run down my spine.