Afterthought by M J Marlow (red white royal blue .txt) 📖

the trunk and opened it. Emilio was lying inside, his wrists and ankles bound. Her shoulder bag was lying beside him. She heard someone moving nearby and turned too slowly. “You should have stayed with the car, girl,” a man’s cold voice sounded in her ear as his hand clamped over her mouth. “You would have been safer.” She was dragged into the forest and slammed up against as tree hard enough to daze her. By the time she recovered her wits, the man had her arms behind her and her wrists bound on the other side of a tree trunk. He had also done something to her eyes so that she could not see. “You are a very brave little girl,” he said coldly as he ran his fingers over her lips; “but that is not going to stop us. If your father does not do as we ask we will turn you into a plaything for rich men.” His hand moved down to her breast and he dug in his nails making her whimper in protest. “I can get a lot of money hiring out a pretty thing like you.” “My father is going to do what he should,” Evangeline replied coldly. She was not going to let this monster use her to force her father to make a wrong decision or action. “So go ahead and do your worst! I won’t let you use me as a pawn.” “You have no choice, little girl,” the man laughed from a bit further away. “You’re in our hands now and we’ll do what we wish with you.” Evangeline screamed and kept doing so until his hands were around her throat. She felt him lean against her cheek and knew he was going to say something nasty or vicious. They would be just words, and words could not hurt as his hold was. But when he did speak to her he chose exactly the right words that could make her behave. “If you do not stop that, little girl,” he said softly, with threat evident in his tones; “I will call my friends, the shadow men. They will come take you away with them and your father will never see you again.” “No,” Evangeline whimpered in fear. “Please don’t…” “Then you sit there quietly,” the man broke in, his nasty smile widening, “or you’ll be going to the shadow lands for sure.” Evangeline nodded her head and she heard his laughter as he went back to his seat. She was shaking now in fear. She did not stop to wonder how this stranger could know about the shadow men. Her mother and Sylvie used to tell her stories about them when she was younger, and her cousins had taken up those tales to keep her cowed. She was too old to believe such stories, Evangeline knew, but she could not make herself ignore the words. She dozed off and came awake as she heard men talking nearby. Off in the distance she thought she heard a car door closing. “She was right,” the original abductor laughed. “The child was so terrorized by those stories she quit fighting the moment I used them against her. Any word on what we do next?” “Not yet,” a second man replied. There was a pause and Evangeline felt the threat in it. “Pretty girl, isn’t she? Be a shame to damage her.” “That is completely up to her father, isn’t it?” a woman’s voice sounded so close to Evangeline that she jumped. The woman’s nails dug into her chin and Evangeline whimpered as her head was turned from side to side. “My brother’s freedom for her life. Roza can’t possibly be so stupid as to endanger his own child’s life, could he?” “He will do what’s right!” Evangeline snapped at her. “Then he will lose you, child,” the woman said coldly. Her fingers ran along Evangeline’s jaw line and she felt the girl shudder. “You will wind up as my brother’s plaything. He is not gentle with his toys.” They laughed then and the sound sent chills up her spine. Evangeline had to find some way to get free of these people before they made good on this threat. She did not want to be anyone’s ‘plaything’. She heard them move off and began to pull the ropes binding her wrists slowly back and forth against the bark. One of them came over and she felt a straw against her lips. She shook her head and they insisted. She felt someone unbuttoning her blouse and she shuddered. The blouse was lowered to her elbows and her bra pulled down. Three men whistled in appreciation. The man who had arrived with the woman took out a pen and began to draw something on her right breast, incorporating the nipple into the design and then moved down between her breasts. “I am going to take my time with you, little princess,” Edward Landry laughed as she fought them. “Your mark shall be as much of a masterpiece as you are.” He ran his hand along her arms, smiling as he saw the anger in her eyes. She was going to give him a fight! “We’ll start slowly,” Edward said as he ran his fingers over her lips and she bit him. He laughed as he pulled back. “You go ahead and fight all you want, little one. It’s not going to change anything.” “Let me go, you bastard!” Evangeline hissed as his hand moved to her breast again. “No! This is not right!” She tried to struggle free of him but the ropes held her easily. She winced as she felt them burning her skin. “Please don’t do this!” “I have you captive now, Princess,” Edward laughed at her. “Why should I stop?” He lowered his head to her breast and she gasped in pain and shock as he nipped her. “I am merely going to mark you as mine as I do all of my toys.” He bit her left breast until he drew blood and then licked the wounds. He felt her shudder in horror and he was delighted. “You are so wonderfully responsive. I am going to enjoy owning you.” He took his tattoo tools out of their box and Evangeline bit her lip to keep from screaming as he began to poke the drawing he had made on her right breast. He was really going to mark her, she realized. She could feel the blood flowing from the punctures and she felt sick. He was smiling as he made the first section of the tattoo. He put the tools back in his pocket and took out a packet of something. Once he cleaned the punctures, with an antiseptic that stung and burned, he poured the contents of the packet over the wounds. Evangeline felt fire surging through her breast as he blew on the powder. When it had cooled, he put a bandage over the area. “I am going to come back for you, Princess,” Edward whispered as he ran his tongue along her jaw line and up her cheek. “Again and again.” He clamped his hand on her throat as he continued taunting her. “You won’t know when,” he said as he pulled her closer and she cried out in pain as the ropes bit deeper into her skin. “But you will know I will always come for you,” he laughed as he tightened his grip and saw her struggling for air. “And by the time I am through marking you, my pretty toy, you will obey me willingly.” He looked over at his men. “You know where to take her. I have to get back to my cell.” He kissed her roughly and Evangeline whimpered in protest. “I will dream of how it will be when I come for you, little one.” Evangeline heard his laughter growing distant as he left. There was the sound of a car door opening and closing and then it drove off. The drug she’d been given began to take effect and she slipped down in the darkness, wondering what the man had meant. Were they going to let her go once this hearing was over? She had a feeling that all depended on whether her father did as they wanted or not. Stefano cursed as he read the note that had been pinned to Emilio’s shirt when he had been found two hours earlier. He had sent his men out immediately along with Andrew Sterling and his men. But waiting was not his strong suit. He got to his feet to look out the window of the study in the hospital. What was he going to do? If he did nothing that bastard would walk free. But if he did what he knew he should, his beautiful child would be harmed. The man should stay in jail. But, as Emilio had said, the man had followers and they had gotten to his child. He looked at Alexander and saw the concern in the man’s eyes. “What would you do, Alexander?” Stefano asked the man bluntly once he had told him the situation. “I know Evangeline would tell me not to let the bastard walk, but I don’t think I could live with myself if they harmed her.” “You have no guarantee that they haven’t already harmed her, Stefano,” Alexander told him. “If this were one of your daughters?” “Neither of my daughters would be as fearless as our little Evangeline,” Alexander told him bluntly. “I can imagine she is not giving the bastard a moment of satisfaction. If he expects her to scream and beg him to stop, he chose the wrong Sterling to take hostage.” He saw the look on Stefano’s face. “Your men and Andrew’s are out there looking for her. They’ll get her home soon.” Stefano nodded and saw a car approaching. Emilio got out and strode into the study, frowning darkly. That look was one Stefano knew. It meant something was going wrong with the search. Emilio nodded thanks as Judith handed him a cup of coffee and he took a sip before he looked at his employer. They could all see he did not want to tell them what they had found. “We found their tracks and followed them to a clearing in the forest north of the accident sight,” Emilio stated. “We found signs that they were there. They had tied the child to a tree to keep her secured. The ropes had blood on them from where she was trying to free herself.” “They’ve moved on, haven’t they?” Stefano hissed. “We were too slow.” “I think the accident caused them to change their plans somewhat,” Emilio replied. “Our men are checking out the local houses and farms. Constable Sterling and his men are heading to a mental hospital in the vicinity.” “Mental hospital?” Alexander was confused. “Why would they take her to a mental hospital?” “Landry’s sister is a psychiatrist, Alexander,” Stefano told the worried man. “If she has done any research at all on my daughter, she will know Evangeline’s weaknesses and how to use them against her.” “Eva doesn’t have any…” Alexander went white. “Oh God!” he continued. “You have got to find her fast! If the woman knows about that, Eva will be helpless to stop her from hurting her.” “About what?” Stefano snapped. He saw Alexander hang his head and knew it was something the man did not want to share with him. “Out with it! If my daughter is harmed because of this secret you seem averse to share then your family is going to regret it.” “It was something our old Nanny started with us,” Alexander told him. “She used to tell us stories about the ‘shadow men’. She said they came for fussy children. My brothers and I weren’t kept in check by her telling us that they would take us away and make us like them for long. But