Chapter 29: Eve

I walked numbly down the trail and towards the dock, arms wrapped around my chest as the chill in the air took hold. I felt like I wasn’t me, like my body belonged to someone else, and I was just borrowing it. My legs moved, carrying me toward the water, but I couldn’t feel it. Couldn’t face it. Above me, thunder clapped, and tiny droplets of water sprinkled down, threatening a storm. I continued on, not realizing that I was shivering even as I continued to walk past the dock and directly into the water, where the waves crashed against the shoreline.
The sickening chill of the icy water hit my body, and I gasped, but my mind couldn’t catch up. I didn’t care. I wasn’t even me. I was a shell of a person I didn’t even recognize.
Images of that night flashed in my mind again, coming back to me in full force like a runaway freight train. I could feel Grant’s body press against mine in the dark, smothering me. I caught the unsubtle scents of his cologne as it choked me, adding to the pressure, the terror. I heard him whisper, murmuring in my ear as though he didn’t smell like booze and sweat and cheap cologne. As if he actually thought I could have possibly wanted it.
Frigid water hit my face, freezing my skin. I didn’t notice. I couldn’t think. Could barely breathe. I continued into the water as it drenched my legs, arms, and chest, numbing my body and my soul.
“Eve!”
The voice sounded far away, a lifetime away, and I barely deciphered it over the ringing in my ears and the chattering of my own teeth. Over and over, the moment played in my head. Even with the sting of the bitter cold, it didn’t dull the memory.
Pain.
Anguish.
Terror.
It had happened. And it had happened to me.
“Evelina,” the voice said again. Behind me, someone flung their arms around my midsection, pulling me back, treading water, fighting the current. I was too cold and numb to fight them, so I fell limp, wishing I could die, wondering if it was my turn. “Christ,” the voice said in my ear. “What are you doing?”
I couldn’t respond. Didn’t want to. It took me a few moments to realize it was Beau’s arms around me, pulling me to shore, out of the bitter cold of the water. He released me into the rocky shore, falling to his knees beside me, spitting water. Above us, thunder rattled the black sky.
“What are you thinking?” he shouted, but the ringing in my ears was still too prominent, and his voice sounded thick and garbled. He crawled to my side and took my face between his hands, shaking me. “What were you thinking, Eve?”
I sat up and pulled my legs against my chest to take a deep breath, feeling the chill in the air freeze my lungs with every breath I took. Frigid ocean waves lapped against the shoreline, feet away from us. The breeze that came off the water was stunningly cold, and in a matter of moments, I was shaking as the ice slithered into my body and soul.
“I’d rather die than belong to any of you,” I whispered between shuddering trembles. My speech sounded slurred. I wasn’t even sure I said what I’d meant to say. My brain was a muddled mess of confusion as Beau stared at me, shaking his head.
“Fuck, Eveline,” he said, pulling my trembling body into his. “What were you thinking?” he demanded again. “You could have died out here.”
“Yeah,” I said with a small, cocky smile. At least, I hoped that’s what I was doing. “That was the point.” So many emotions hit me at once that I almost couldn’t breathe as Beau scooped me up in his arms, holding me close to his chest.
“I’m taking you to medical,” he said, and I shook my head, teeth chattering.
“D—don’t. I don’t want to go to medical. Please.”
“Then I’ll take you back to my room,” he insisted. For a moment, I wanted to argue further with him, but my energy was drained. I could barely find it in me to make my lungs work. I had no fight left, and it was all I could do not to fall unconscious in Beau’s arms as he carried me back up the hill and towards Blackwood. “Rest,” he whispered in my ear, and I closed my eyes as darkness overcame me.

I woke sometime later, tucked into a warm comforter in a dimly lit room. Forcing my eyes open, I found Beau by my side. On my other side was Keane.
“Good to see you, sweet girl,” Keane said gently, reaching a hand out to touch my cheek with the back of his finger. “How are you feeling?”
“Like shit, I imagine,” Teague’s voice said from across the room. I struggled to sit up, and both Keane and Beau sat forward to help me. My arms were still trembling, but the feeling seemed to have returned to my toes.
“What happened?” I murmured. Beau sighed softly and shook his head.
“I found you down by the water,” he said. “You’d just walked right in. It was like you were sleepwalking or something.”
Vaguely I remembered the chill of the water, the way my lungs had constricted with the cold.
“Carter,” I said. “D—Dr. Carter. He told me why I’m here. I remember now.”
“What did he say to you?” Keane demanded. “What did he say to make you react that way, Evelina?”
I swallowed the painful lump in my throat as the scene, once again, came flooding back to me. I opened my mouth to speak and then closed it again as my body began to shake.
“Tell us, baby,” Teague insisted, hopping up from the chair he’d been sitting in on the other side of the room. He crossed the floor and sat down in front of me, intense blue eyes darting over my face with concern. “Tell us what Carter told you. Let us help you. Let us be there for you.”
Grant. His smell. His smirk. The pain.
“It was him,” I whispered, and the three boys leaned in closer to me, their eyes searching my face as I spoke.
“It’s okay, baby,” Beau whispered, brushing hair off my face. “We’re here for you.”
“Tell us,” said Keane. “We need to know, Eve.”
“It was Grant,” I whispered. “It was my step-brother. He did it. He—he raped me.”
A moment of tense, rapt silence fell over the room. It was heavy and stifling, and as the words left my mouth, I shuttered. My breath caught in my throat as I tried to suck in air, but to no avail, and before I knew it, I was hyperventilating, shaking with fear and unbridled anxiety.
“Oh, baby.” Keane pulled me in and held me against his chest, broad arms tightening around me like a vise, but I didn’t fight him. Instead, I buried my face in his chest and wept as he stroked my hair, murmuring in my ear. “You’re safe now,” he crooned, resting his lips against my temple. “We won’t let anything hurt you, kitten.”
I felt weak, even weaker than before, and my body trembled in Keane’s arms. In front of me, Teague leaned forward and rested his lips on my forehead, and Beau took my hand from the other side of me.
“I’m not innocent,” I whispered as all three men held onto me. “I—I stabbed him.”
“And killed him, I hope,” growled Teague. I shook my head.
“He survived. He’s alive.”
“Where?” demanded Keane.
“I don’t know where he is. All I remember is that night. The night he hurt me.”
Another tense silence settled over the room, and the memory I had of my session with Carter slowly began to come back to me in shattered, sharp pieces.
“That’s not all,” I whispered, burying my head in Keane’s chest. I almost couldn’t speak the next words out loud. I didn’t want to. “Dr. Carter told me something today. It’s Grant. He’s being admitted. Here. At Blackwood.”
“Your step-brother?” Beau confirmed, and I nodded.
“Her fucking rapist,” added Teague, and I flinched as Keane’s arms tightened around me.
“Don’t worry, kitten,” he whispered, brushing a strand of hair back as tears leaked from my eyes. “Let him come. We need something to kill.”