Bent Not Broken (A Cedar Creek #1) (37 page)

His face in mine filled with hatred.

Then another blow.

A fist to my temple.

Then nothing.

Nothing but blackness.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Terror

Ivey

I thought I had known what true panic felt like. Thought I had known what it felt like to be consumed by it, to feel like you knew, you just knew, eventually you would drown in it, would stop fighting and hand yourself over to the darkest of dark pits that would swallow you like a black hole.

I had no idea.

I had no idea that the panic I had experienced in my life was nothing. Nothing compared to what this felt like.

This sheer terror I was experiencing now was to the panic I knew, what a hiccup was like to being strangled, to feeling the noose close around your neck, knowing your lungs were going to explode with the effort of trying to suck in air.

It was like feeling the heat when you get too close to the campfire to being burned alive, feeling your skin being torched, hearing it crackling, feeling the excruciating pain of it parting from your flesh and disintegrating and turning to dust before your eyes.

This terror felt exactly like that.

Like I was being strangled, like I was being burned alive.

And I knew.

I knew if I gave into that terror, I would lose everything.

Everything I had worked so hard for to get.

All the little somethings that meant everything to me.

And being part of a something that meant everything, I knew that Cal would lose everything, too.

And so would Tommy.

And there was no way I was gonna let that happen.

No way that I would let someone take my happiness away from me, from Cal, from Tommy.

No fucking way.

So I fought it.

I fought the terror that was threatening to overwhelm me, was threatening to cut off my air, threatening to singe my skin.

And when I won that fight, I took on the devil.

The devil, who I vowed to myself I would send back to the darkest and hottest depths of hell.

Or I would die trying.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Whatever It Took

Cal

Her truck was parked in front of her house. Good. That meant his instincts had been right and she had gone home.

His relief at knowing Ivey would be close enough to touch in just a few seconds turned into a feeling of foreboding when he saw that her front door was wide open.

No, no, no, no, no!

Cal hit the brakes, jumped out of his truck and ran to the door.

His gut twisted and tensed at the sight that met him upon entering the foyer.

A table turned over and on its side on the floor.

The bowl that usually held her keys broken and pieces scattered all over.

Her purse in the middle of the hall, its contents everywhere.

Something that looked like blood splatters covering the hardwood.

No!

He called her name, knowing he wouldn’t get an answer.

No! Goddamn it! No!

In a nano second, he had his phone to his ear. As he waited for an answer, he started searching the house, knowing in his gut that his search would come up empty.

“Cal, I’m half an hour out,” Bane answered on the other end of the line.

“He’s got her. That fucking asshole has got her!” Cal roared into the phone.

“Fuck! Talk to me.”

“I’m in her house. Her car in the driveway. Front door wide open. Hallway a mess, furniture turned over, broken bowl, pieces everywhere. Blood on the floor.” Cal gave it straight to Bane, his voice a growl, his gut tight.

“Call the CCPD, report it in. I’m on my way. I’ll tell my guy to intensify the hack. We’ll find her, Cal.”

“We better find her, Bane. This cannot happen to her again. He has taken enough. She has endured enough. We need to find her before he takes something I cannot fix.” Fear, no, sheer terror for his woman cursed through him.

“I’ll be there in fifteen.” Then he hung up.

Cal did the same, then called the CCPD to report Ivey’s kidnapping.

Ten minutes later, two squad cars filled Ivey’s driveway and cops were going over the scene.

Ivey

I came to in a room that was not my foyer. It wasn’t any room in my house. It looked like an old cabin. One room. A table over by the window, two chairs around it. A small kitchenette. A two-seater sofa. And a bed I was lying on.

I jerked up into a sitting position.

I was alone.

And I wasn’t bound.

I took a few seconds to inventory my body, checking to see if all my limbs were intact, taking a deep breath to see if any ribs were broken.

My head hurt like hell, but nothing I couldn’t deal with. I’ve had worse. Way worse.

I started to slowly get up from the bed when I heard voices and froze solid. There were two male voices.

One voice was Kyle’s.

The other one sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

I didn’t have enough time to remember where I knew that voice from.

The door opened and Kyle walked in.

And behind him… my father.

Oh God! Oh no! Oh God!

This wasn’t happening! No!

“Hey there, sweetheart. Long time no see,” my father sing sang in a taunting voice.

My breath stopped coming, my heart stopped beating.

Everything stopped.

Fourteen years.

It had been fourteen years since I’d heard that voice.

And it still filled me with terror.

Both men stopped in the middle of the room and looked at me.

I stared back at them, too afraid to move, too afraid to do anything.

“Happy family reunion, baby. Don’t you wanna say
hi
to your daddy?” Kyle asked casually.

I said nothing. Just kept staring. The terror was building inside me, was threatening to drown me.

Because I knew.

I knew I would not survive this again.

I knew that this time, I would not just be broken.

I would be destroyed.

Completely and utterly destroyed.

“I see that my daughter still hasn’t learned her manners,” my father sneered.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get to that soon, Harvey.”

I closed my eyes.

I knew what that meant. God, I knew what that meant.

“How? Why?” My voice was trembling so bad it was unrecognizable. Too scared to keep my eyes closed, I opened them to make sure where in the room my tormentors were. They hadn’t moved and were still standing in the middle of the room with anger and violence in their eyes.

“How? You mean how did I find you? That was almost too easy, baby. You own a business. That’s an easy enough trail to follow. Moving half-way across the country is not obstacle enough. Should have changed your name if you didn’t want me to find you. Or did you mean how come daddy joined us? Well, baby, your daddy isn’t too happy with you either. Looks like his only daughter abandoned him, took the money that he had a right to by spending two decades with your weak bitch of a mother and disappeared. He was only too glad I happened to knock on his door. He is very eager to teach you a lesson or two.” He moved a few steps towards me. I tensed. “And why? Do you really not know? Are you that stupid?” His voice was low and hateful as he continued. “You had me sent to prison. I rotted in that place for eight years because of you. For eight years I had to watch my back, pay off lowlifes to keep my head above water. Eight years of my life gone. Eight fucking years. And for what? For showing my cheating bitch of a girlfriend who was boss and killing her bastard spawn. I should have killed you. Every night, lying in bed in that stinking place, I regretted not having killed you with my bare hands. Now I’ve got a chance to rectify my mistake.” His eyes were full of hatred. And all that hatred was directed at me.

He was going to kill me with his bare hands. I was going to die today. I could see my death in his eyes. My heart sped up in panic and I started shaking my head in denial.

No! No! No! This couldn’t be happening!

“Stop yapping and get to it,” my father growled.

“Not yet. First I need to teach your daughter a different lesson. See, Harvey, she doesn't seem to understand that she is mine. I own her. I own everything about her. She’s been shagging it up with some single dad asshole from town. Has given him that sweet pussy of hers that belongs to me. Though, from the looks and sounds of it, that pussy is not just sweet, but wild. Been looking forward to reclaiming what’s mine and finding out just how wild that pussy is. One last time before I choke the life out of her.”

That terror I told you about? That terror that drowns out everything else? That feels like you’re being burnt alive? Strangled?

That terror was now consuming me, taking up every inch, every pore of my body.

I wouldn’t just be destroyed.

I would be dead.

Even if they left my body alive, I would be dead.

I started shaking uncontrollably.

My father snickered. “She’s all yours. Let me know when you’re done so I can get my turn.” Then he turned and left the cabin, closing the door behind him.

“Now, baby. I hope you’re not gonna make this easy. I’ve waited too long for this to be easy. Let me enjoy it, draw it out,” he said as he advanced on me. I was standing in front of the bed, but started moving around it when he advanced on me. My back to the wall, my front facing him, we circled each other.

I couldn’t let him touch me.

I had to fight him.

Fight for my life.

Fight him with everything I had and get out of here.

I couldn’t let him touch me.

I had to do whatever it took to keep his hands off of me.

But I had no idea how.

He was coming closer now, close enough to touch me.

But he didn’t touch me. He leered at me, running his eyes over every inch of my body.

I shivered in disgust.

Kyle noticed and chuckled.

I shivered again.

He inched closer. Then closer still. Until our bodies were less than an inch apart.

One of his hands lifted to touch my hair, but I snapped my head back before it made contact.

Kyle chuckled again.

Then he pounced and the fight for my life began.

Cal

Cal was pacing outside Ivey’s house.

His hands were in his hair, tucking, twisting in frustration.

The cops were inside, hunting for clues, coming up empty.

Bane was with him, asking him questions, probing, telling him to think. His deep hack into Parker had returned nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Parker had played it smart, had kept his head down, his nose clean.

They had nothing to go on.

“Think, Cal. Anything. Anything that seemed suspicious, off. There’s gotta be something.”

Think! Goddamn it! Think!

He stopped.

It could be nothing. It could be everything.

Gina. That fucking bitch had threatened Ivey that day at the bank. Since then, she’d been watching her a few times, giving her nasty looks, talking trash about her in town, going so far as to spend hours in her bookstore, making Ivey feel uncomfortable.

“Gina,” Cal ground out.

“Gina?” Bane asked disbelievingly. “Skanky Gina, who’s hung up on you?”

“Yeah. She’s been watching Ivey, talking trash, being her bitchy self, threatening her. Fuck! You think she’s got something to do with this?”

“Let’s find out,” Bane said before he shouted, “Rick!”

Then they both headed towards Detective Rick Summers, who was standing across the driveway, talking to the Sergeant. Cal and Bane knew Rick. They had all been friends in high school. After attending the police academy and being stationed in Denver for a while he had come back to Cedar Creek a few years ago. He was a great guy. Good cop. He was also Gina’s brother.

Rick turned his head to look at Bane and Cal as they jogged towards him. He was on alert now.

“You think of something?” He asked as they got close.

“Where is your sister?” Cal asked through clenched teeth. Rick’s eyebrows went up in question.

“My sister? What does she have to do with this?” Cal leaned into Rick’s space, his control hanging on by a threat. They didn’t have time for fucking chitchat. Bane’s hand on his arm told him to cool it.

“Cal told me she’s threatened Ivey, giving her nasty looks, running her mouth, accosting her in the bookstore since she’s known they were together. You hear anything?”

Rick ran his hands through his hair, seemingly frustrated.

“Shit! Yeah, heard her talk trash about Ivey, but I shut that shit down. Told her she needed to fucking get over it. She lost it, got bitchy as usual when things don’t go her way. But haven’t heard anything since. She hasn’t been around much. Got a new boyfriend. That’s why I thought she had let it go.”