Losing Eva (The Eva Series Book 2) (6 page)

She took warm cloths and cleaned the woman up, careful not to reopen her wound. It wasn’t as bad as it looked once she got the crusted blood off. It could use a stitch or two, but that was it.

She cleaned up the dirt from the pretty woman’s face and admired how smooth and perfect her skin was. Lily wished she had been as pretty. All of her life, Lily knew just how plain she was. Not ugly, not hideous, just plain. Plain gray eyes, plain dishwater blonde hair, plain build. Nothing spectacular, nothing special, just plain. When she changed the woman into some of her own more sensible clothes, she saw that everything the woman wore was fine and expensive. Even her underwear.

Lily admired the woman’s clothes. She had money to buy clothes like that, but nowhere to wear them, and nobody to wear them for, so she didn’t. She just wore sensible clothes to fit her sensible, unremarkable life.

Lily could hear the shower running upstairs for what seemed like an hour. Petey must feel very dirty, she thought to herself. It was strange to hear the shower running when she wasn’t in it.

Finally, he came out, and was fresh and clean smelling like the Irish Spring soap in her shower. She liked it. He was surprised when he saw her and the woman. Lily had done a good job cleaning her up, and the woman lay peacefully on her couch.

“How is she?” he asked, his voice in a low whisper.

“She’s doing well. She only needed one stich, and she didn’t even flinch when I did it. I used a very small needle.” Lily lifted up the woman’s hair in the back of her head and showed him. The cut was barely visible now, and Petey breathed a sigh of relief.

“Is she going to be okay?” he was afraid of the answer.

“I don’t know. We will have to see when she wakes up. What happened to her?” Lily was full of curiosity. She was disappointed that her beloved cousin had taken this track in life, but intrigued with him, just as she had always been. He had been the only one in the family not to shun her, for reasons that she didn’t understand.

They left the woman sleeping on the couch and went into the kitchen.

Petey told her everything. He could always tell her everything. Ever since they were children, they had been close, until the families had divided over reasons that neither of them were completely clear about. But Petey refused to abandon her as the rest of her family had done.

She always admired him and thought how handsome and sweet he was.
I don’t understand why nobody has ever snatched him up,
she found herself thinking often, and feeling slightly incestuous in her thoughts.

She listened as she poured him a drink and made him something to eat. She was happy to have some company for once. After he had eaten and was full, she told him to go upstairs to rest.

“What about her?” he said pointing to the couch. The woman was still in a deep sleep, though she cried out every now and then.

“I’ll stay up with her. You can rest,” Lily said graciously. She was happy to have a mission, to have a task.

Petey looked at Lily with gratitude. “Thank you,” He said lumbering up the stairs. He was exhausted and needed to think of his next move. He didn’t like thinking. He just wanted to do what he was told. Now he was stuck having to think about what to do.
I never should’ve taken that woman with me. I shoulda just left her there! Somebody would have found her! Now what the hell am I going to do with her?

Lily stayed up all night, watching the woman sleep. As the sun was coming up, the woman slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She looked across the room and saw a weary looking woman in her forties, sitting in an old recliner across from her. Lily’s eyes were closed as she leaned her head back, and the woman thought that she had a kind face. She looked up to the ceiling and tried to sit up, but the blinding pain in the back of her head told her to lie back down. The woman could tell that she was in an old house; it smelled old anyway.

She realized suddenly that the woman in the recliner was staring at her. “Hi, I’m Lily.”

“Hello. I’m…I’m…” the woman on the couch was at a loss. Her mouth became dry and she felt herself panic. “I’m…” she couldn’t remember. Her mind was a blank.

Lily looked at her evenly, and the woman couldn’t read her. For a split second, Lily looked… grateful, but then she looked concerned. “It’s okay. Don’t push yourself. It’s common in this type of situation to not remember.”

“Situation?” the woman thought hard. “What kind of situation?”

“I mean, you just had a bad gash on your head. It would be a normal side effect to not remember.” Lily’s voice was comforting, and the woman felt a little better. Something about Lily made her feel safe.

The woman heard footsteps, and she looked up to see a large man coming toward her. Her big brown eyes grew wide in horror. She didn’t know why, but she was suddenly very afraid.

ELLIE STARED DOWN
at Jonas. His green eyes that seduced her time and time again, staring up at her were wide in disbelief. Blood was oozing out of the side of his mouth, and he was clutching his chest where the bullet went in and exploded.

Ellie’s hands were shaking, and she was sweating uncontrollably. She wasn’t sure if she could kill the man she had once loved so desperately. But right then, she felt nothing as she aimed the gun at him and pulled the trigger.

Even as the bullet ripped into him and she heard his blood-curdling scream, she felt nothing. Nothing but relief. Nothing but freedom. She had felt like a caged animal for so long that she knew this was her only escape from Jonas’ prison. She had been
his
ever since she was a young girl, and now she was twenty-five, and now the only thing she needed was to find the baby she had abandoned so callously.

Jonas was on the ground writhing in pain. His long lean body stretched out, blood running down the marble tile of the beautiful foyer that he had chosen just for her.

“El…El, how could you?” his voice was barely above a whisper, and she leaned in to hear him, no longer afraid of him as she was before.

“I hate you. I hate you! You’ve ruined me, and I don’t love you anymore!” Ellie snarled at him, her pupils were huge, turning her eyes nearly black as she glared at him with a complete absence of love. “I’ve dreamt of this moment, and now that it’s here, I don’t feel bad for you. This is what you deserve.”

Ellie had given shooting him a lot of thought, but she wasn’t sure if she could really do it. She had never even shot a gun at a real person before, but she knew that if she aimed it at him she had better be able to do it, or she would never have another chance.

Jonas was in shock.

When he walked in the door, the last thing he expected to see was his Ellie pointing a gun at him. Today was supposed to be a special day. He was going to ask Ellie to be his wife at dinner that night. Business was good and he knew that he needed to change. Ellie had stood by his side for years now, and he was finally ready to make the commitment. He had never wanted to get married before, but it was starting to look like a good idea now. He was done with the other women. Even though he often used them to punish her for misbehaving, he was starting to regret it, something he had never done before.

He figured that must mean something.

“What the…” Jonas hadn’t finished his sentence when he heard the crack of the gun and saw the smoke. He felt the bullet tear into his chest, fast and sharp, and he fell to his knees as the blood started pouring out. “Ellie, Ellie.”

She had been the only woman he had ever loved, except for his mother. His mother who taught him that he should never stay in one place too long, or love only one person. Jonas had watched a string of men come in and out of her life—some stayed for a month or two, none of them ever paying much attention to him. When he met Ellie, Jonas knew that she was special, and he fell for her right away. He was careful to keep her in line, though.

Now he didn’t want to just keep her in line, he just wanted to marry her. He wanted to have a real life with her, a legitimate life with her. He was in disbelief now as he lay on the ground, his lifeblood flowing out of him, his body growing weaker.

Her face was inches from his, and the venom of her words spewed hatred.
I can’t believe this is my Ellie. My Ellie who I’ve loved more than anyone else in my life.

“You’ve hit me, you’ve drugged me, and you stole my innocence and my life. Because of you, my parents left me. But most of all, you stole my baby. How could you ever think that I would ever forgive you for making me abandon my baby?” Ellie was fighting back tears as she spit the words at him. “I loved you, but you betrayed me with your selfishness, and I let you. If you would have just let me go, I wouldn’t have to do this.”

“Ellie, Ellie,” Jonas was getting weaker. His body was turning cold, his mind was racing, and his thoughts were becoming mush.
Do I tell her that I killed her parents? I’m dead already, so what does it matter now? She already hates me. She already….
The pain of her hatred made the physical pain from the gunshot seem insignificant. “Ellie, Ellie, listen to me...”

“You have nothing to say that I want to hear. I am going to be free from you once and for all.” Ellie shook her head back and forth trying to block out the sound of his voice. Jonas thought that Ellie was just as pretty now as she was the first time that he saw her.

“You want to hear this…” His voice was barely audible and she leaned in close. “I love you. I’ve always loved you and I’m sorry.”

She shook her head, the hatred starting to dissipate as the adrenaline started to fade. The reality of what she had done was starting to hit her as she saw the life flowing out of Jonas.

“Come closer,” he was barely breathing, “I… had… your... parents killed.”

Ellie watched his head roll over to the side, his dull green eyes opened, staring into nothingness, and she screamed as she heard the sirens coming for her.

BRYNN COULDN’T BELIEVE
that she was seeing Rose. It didn’t make any sense. She looked down at her belly and was relieved to see that it was still swollen, full of her growing baby. She was still wearing her nightgown, her long flowing white nightgown that made her feel so pretty and feminine.

And now, out of nowhere, there was Rose coming toward her, almost floating.

Where am I?
She thought, confused. She had never been in a place like this before, and it was nothing that she recognized. It was like a place in a dream where there were no ceilings, floors, or walls. There was just space, and Brynn felt like she was dreaming.

You’re nowhere.
Rose answered her wordlessly, and Brynn was surprised that Rose could read her thoughts.
Don’t think about where you are. You are here with me, and that’s all you need to know.

Brynn had a thought.
Am I dead? Are my baby and I both dead?

No!
Rose’s voice in Brynn’s head seemed to laugh a musical, pretty laugh that Brynn had never heard before.
You aren’t dead. I’m just looking out for you for the time being. Your body is going through a great ordeal right now. Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.

Brynn felt better, relieved. She put her hand on her belly and rubbed it gently as though to tell her baby that it was going to be okay.
Are you okay, Momma? I’m sorry for abandoning you before you died.

Oh, baby girl, don’t worry about that. I was fine. Jane was wonderful to me.
Rose was always forgiving, and Brynn wasn’t surprised that she forgave her so easily.

But Momma, I left you when you needed me the most. And I’m so sorry for what I did to you. I didn’t know how sick you were.
Brynn was so ashamed. She had been living with the guilt for abandoning Rose for over a year. Rose had loved her too much, and Brynn was suffocating under the weight of her neediness. And when Adam left her, Brynn couldn’t deal with Rose any longer. She was fighting her own battles, and she couldn’t deal with Rose’s anymore.
If I had known…

I know, baby girl. I know.
Brynn felt Rose’s forgiveness flowing through her, like a tingling feeling from the inside out. Rose was different here. She made sense and was motherly; unlike how she was all of Brynn’s life. Brynn wished Rose had been this way while she was alive.

I wish that I had been different, too. I know that I needed you too much. I know that I wasn’t much of a mother to you. But I couldn’t be that person to you. I didn’t know how. And by the time I figured it out, it was far too late.

Brynn was ashamed of herself. How could she let Rose know her thoughts? She had to be more careful.
I know that it wasn’t your fault, Momma. I know now that you did protect me from him. You did try to keep him from hurting me.

I didn’t do everything that I could have, Brynn. You know that. I should have left. That was the only sure way to protect you.
Brynn felt Rose’s sadness, and it made her want to cry.

Oh, Momma, why weren’t you like this when you were alive with me? Why now? Why are you so different now?
Brynn’s heart was filled with longing for a life that she could’ve lived with this Rose.

I was afraid. But I’m not afraid any longer. I was a coward, and I failed at my most important and only job. And I’m sorry. But you’ll be different. You’ll be a much better mother than I ever was.

Will I? How will I?
Brynn was curious how this Rose could know.

Suddenly it got blindingly bright, and Rose disappeared with a flash. Brynn felt as though she were flying at a high rate of speed, controlled and even.

She realized that she wasn’t afraid anymore.

She was finally ready to be a mother.

THE SOUNDS OF THE SIRENS
were distant, but audible. She knew that the sirens were coming, because someone had heard the gun shot. She knew that they would be coming for her, looking for her.