“I don’t want a doctor.” I’m shaking my head, my entire body beginning to shudder. “I’m not…” My voice cracks as I try to speak the next words. “Abel…it’s a baby.” I square my shoulders. “And I’m not going to hurt my baby.”
He’s on me so quickly I just have time to let out a scream before his hand squeezes around my throat and he has my back pressed to the wall.
“You need to learn to be fucking grateful, Ivy.” Spittle lands on my face when he says my name. “I could have one of those men beat it out of you, but I’m not doing that, am I?” He cracks his neck, eyes strange, the look inside them unhinged.
I try not to struggle, try to stay perfectly still and breathe.
“Fuck!” He squeezes hard once before he releases me, and I wonder about the rage inside him. The violence. I remain where I am as he walks to the door.
But I can't let this happen. I can’t let him do what he’s planning.
“It’s my baby too. Not just his.”
He spins back so fast, right arm raised, his hand a fist, and all I can do is drop to the floor. Turning away from him, I try to protect my baby before he does what he warned. Before he beats the child out of me.
“And you just spread your legs for that bastard like a whore! Fuck you, Ivy. This isn’t how this was supposed to go, but you just keep fucking things up!”
I jump when he kicks the wall beside me, and I see the effort it takes him to stop. To force in an audible breath. He’s angry, so angry, and out of control.
He mutters a curse as he walks to the door and opens it.
“Abel?” I call out once because I have to know.
He doesn’t stop.
“Was it you? The poison?”
That makes him stop. And I know it’s stupid to ask. I shouldn’t ask it. Not now. But I can't help myself.
I shudder when he turns slowly, face expressionless, eyes dead. And I know the answer. I knew it at the safe house too. As soon as I found that lipstick, I knew.
A moment later, without a word, he’s gone.
I don’t get up when I hear the front door open and close. I don’t get up when the motion detector goes on outside of my window and I hear the engine start, the car whining as he reverses too fast off the driveway. I remain where I am, feeling sick for what is to come. For the mistake I’ve made. For the terrible cost.
3
Santiago
Marco pulls his car up beside mine in the empty parking lot of a strip mall that's long since closed for the night. I stopped here to get my bearings and rack my brain for any other place I might check.
I've been back by the hospital and Eli's room twice. I've checked her old apartment building. Her school. The few people outside of the Society who she spoke to in passing. Her family's house is under watch. They are all under watch. And driving the streets without any particular destination is only serving to exacerbate this insanity looming in the darkest parts of my mind.
Abel hasn't shown his face anywhere, which can only mean he must be with her. And all I can think about are my sister's words. The conversation she overheard.
He said he would sooner rot than let you impregnate Ivy. And if you did, he would cut the baby out of her himself.
My eyes feel raw when I blink and try to shake away that thought. I can't go there. Thinking about it won't do me any good. Not until I find her and fix this once and for all.
"I've got the situation with Hazel handled," Marco informs me. "Two guys are watching her place for the night."
"Good." I nod at him, staring out at the street.
"We have men everywhere," he says. "If she's anywhere on any of these streets, I can promise you we'll find her."
He's trying to put me at ease, I think. But those assurances mean nothing. Abel would know I'd bring down the full power of IVI on him. I have an army at my disposal. He would have planned for that. And in my gut, I know Ivy won't be on these streets. She'll be hidden away somewhere he thinks I can't get to her.
He hasn't responded to any of my texts. Not even the one about his father being alive. It seems my threats to torture Eli can't even draw him out, proving he truly has no loyalty to anyone or anything.
"I think you should go home and get some rest," Marco says carefully. "There's nothing else you can do right now. You need to eat something and close your eyes for a few minutes."