He got up off his knees and crawled over me. My eyes glazed over as I pictured Rabbit in my mind. I pictured his silver eyes. I pictured his tattoos and his jet-black hair. But most of all, I pictured the kiss he had given me today, by the water. Soft and gentle, and so very loving.
I pictured loving my Rabbit.
Fingers tiptoed up my legs until they reached my stomach. Uncle John’s fingertips traced my scar. He blew out a breath. “I remember this.” I heard the triumphant smile in his voice. “We had so much more fun after this cut was made, didn’t we, Ellis?” His head dipped and he kissed my stomach. Vomit clogged my throat. I swallowed it back down. “You were always my favorite, Ellis. Out of all that I schooled, you were my favorite.” He sighed. “But then you faded on me, lost your spark. It was a sad time, Ellis, when you left me, when the light in your eyes dimmed to nothing.” He ran a fingertip over my eyebrow. I wanted to fight him off, but my body was paralyzed. My body never could fight off Uncle John.
Uncle John owned me. He always had. He’d won me years ago in a game of poker.
“I hated leaving you, Ellis. But now here you are, back again, back with that spark in your eye.” His hand drifted to the inside of my thigh.
My heart slammed into an erratic beat. It called for him to leave me alone. But the call was not answered. The call wasn’t strong enough. So I closed my eyes and tried to block out the sounds. Tried to block out the feel of his hand slipping between my legs.
I blocked it all out.
I welcomed the return of the blackness.
Back in my room of doors.
Back to being all alone.
Chapter 15
Rabbit
“Fuck!” I shouted as I looked through one of the windows. Two men lay dead at my feet, throats slit and stomachs slashed. Dolly had disappeared through a door upstairs.
She had disappeared from sight.
And then she’d fucking screamed.
I raked my hands through my hair as I paced back and forth. There were guards inside. Guards the fucker hadn’t had before.
The news. The TV news had shown our pictures. Revealed the names of the victims. Now they both knew we were coming for them.
Clearly, if these new guards were anything to go by.
I raced back to my car. Opening the trunk, I searched through all the shit I had in there. The shit I had bought last night while Dolly slept in the back seat.
I found the AK-47 and took it in hand. I slammed the trunk shut, and then froze. I glared at the house. And then my heart fucking sank.
What if she was gone?
What if that fucker had killed her?
She’d run off.
Disappeared, before I could get to her.
Pain split my chest and stole all my fucking breath. I fought to breathe through the thought of losing Dolly. Of not having her by my side. Killing. Understanding.
Having her beneath me.
Hands shaking, I reached for my cell. I pressed the only number I had logged.
“Dapper Dan!” Chapel said.
“He has her!” I hissed and felt my heart start to crumble. I couldn’t fucking breathe at the thought of her in there, bleeding . . . dead. Not Dolly. She was the only person I couldn’t have dead.
“Breathe.” Another voice came on the line. Henry.
“He has her! In his fucking house!” My legs weakened, and I leaned against the side of the car. “She ran off. I couldn’t get to her before the door shut and he locked her inside.” I swallowed, startled when I felt a teardrop fall from my eye.
My jaw clenched. “He has her . . .”
“Then get her.” I froze as Hyde’s familiar gruff voice came through the speaker. “Man the fuck up and go get your girl.” My hands tightened around my cane and the AK-47.
“She screamed . . . what if . . . what if he killed her?” I almost choked on the words.
“Then you kill them all. Whoever is left inside that house, you end them. You take them all out. And if you go too, then at least you won’t be away from your Dolly for long.”
“He also might not have killed her, Dapper Dan,” Chapel’s calming voice said. “He might simply have her in captivity.” He paused. “And she will be waiting for her White Rabbit to rescue her.”
I lowered my head and took a deep breath at his words. When I lifted my head, I stared straight ahead and let my anger toward this fucker infuse my veins.
“Gotta go,” I shouted into the phone and dropped it into the car.
I had the house in my sight. Fixing my crooked cravat, I palmed my cane and held my AK-47 in firing position. I walked at first, and then I pounded over the lawn, sheer determination pushing me forward as I burst through the front door. I unsheathed my cane and held the blade tightly. One guard came at me, then a second, then a third. I cut them all down. Shots were fired, but I took the shooters out before they could hit me.