Again, he was familiar, but unknown. It didn’t even register at that moment. What alarmed me was the open wound on his forehead, a wide gash of open flesh that was beginning to well up with bright red blood.
“You’ve been hit,” I said. “Come with us. Come on, let’s go!”
“No, I must stay here,” he said, and carefully prodded the wound with the tip of his fingers. “Get out of here, you have to leave now!”
“They’re going to kill you, you can’t stay here,” I pleaded, trying to convince him to escape with us.
“They don’t dare touch me,” he said and pushed me away. He looked at Ryker over my shoulder and said, “Take her! Get her out of here!”
I clung to the man though, my fingers woven through the finely woven fabric of his suit jacket lapels. “No! You have to tell me who you are!”
Desperation had a hold of my mind, and I felt like I was holding the final piece of the puzzle. Only this man could show me how it fit. Only his response could drop it into place and complete the entire picture.
He took my shoulders, looked into my eyes, and knitted his brows together. Ryker pulled at me, but I was transfixed by the man’s gaze.
“I am your father, Everly. I’ve put everything in place for you to come into your power and your family legacy. It’s waiting for you. Stop being a victim. You need to learn how to defend yourself,” he said, his eyes pleading with me to hear his words. I could see some of myself in him when he was this intense. I could see how passionate I must look when I cared about something deeply. “Now please, you have to go!”
Shock froze my body and mind and I couldn’t begin to unravel the first step in how I should react to his revelation.
Ryker pulled me again and my fingers loosened on the man - my father’s - suit. I fell back into Ryker’s arms, my eyes never leaving my father’s face, as Ryker lifted me into the helicopter.
I craned my neck from my seat when Ryker folded me at the waist and strapped me in. I was numb from shock, but I watched him out the window until the darkness engulfed him and he became a speck on the prison yard ground.
The last thing I saw was him surrounded by guards, swarming him like ants on a corpse, and I feared for his safety as our roles were reversed.
I was free of the prison, and he was left behind.
My father. The man who had abandoned me, the man I hated, and the man who had set me free.
Would I ever see him again?
CHAPTER12
“Where are you taking us?”Archer asked the pilot, breaking the silence in the helicopter. I was sitting on a wide bench next to Penny, her head was in my lap and she was sleeping. I was extremely protective of her, and didn’t want anyone else holding her like this. It wasn’t like I didn’t trust them, I just felt like it was my duty. My honor to care for my friend after everything we’d been through.
We’d been flying for about fifteen minutes at that point and they were growing restless. Penny was still burning up, but we’d found some linen cloths with bottled water inside the helicopter and I’d been gently cleaning her face and getting her to drink.
The helicopter was fancy. I didn’t even know they made them like this, when somebody said helicopter I thought about utility, not luxury. But this one was all buttery soft leather seating with enough room to lounge if we were in the mindset. If we weren’t fleeing for our lives from a prison where they intended to torture us into submission.
“I said, where are we going?” Ryker demanded, louder this time.
The pilot lifted the headphone off his ear and said, “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”
“Fuck!” Ryker exclaimed in frustration and slammed his fist into his other hand. He stalked back to where we were all sitting and flopped into a seat across from me. He was chewing the skin on his thumb, a habit I’d come to recognize as his anxiety showing. I wanted to help him, to let him put his head on my lap where Penny had hers so I could offer him some comfort, but Penny needed me more, so I simply smiled over at him and caught his eye.
“Thank you for keeping me safe back there,” I said. “I don’t think we would have survived without you with us.”
“How did they get you, anyhow?” Archer asked. “I hadn’t seen you in a while. I didn’t even know you were there until we saw—”
My head snapped up, and I looked straight at him. “Saw what?”
“You know,” Valen said. “We were in the room with you when they made you do that.”
“You didn’t know they were going to make us do it?” I asked. I had jumped to conclusions and thought they showed up just to watch. They didn’t know, apparently. They hadn’t planned, they’d stumbled onto us unexpectedly.
“No,” Archer said. “We were there with a group from Dirty Kingdom. You’re the only reason we went in the first place. We hoped we’d see you or find out if that’s where they were holding you, but not like that.”
“No, not like that,” Valen said.