Nightfall (Devil's Night #4) - Penelope Douglas Page 0,176

of them force-walking Will and following Aydin as Alex and I trailed. I grabbed the gun on my way, sweat coating my body as I watched Alex swipe a candlestick. We were both armed now, a trickle of blood gliding down my blade, and Taylor’s finger on the floor somewhere.

Why had Aydin done that? Taylor was his lapdog.

“Aydin, please,” I begged.

Where was he taking them?

He opened the door to the cellar, descended the stairs with the boys, and we chased, jogging down the stone steps to see them throwing Will on the ground as Aydin tied up Taylor’s wrists and slung them over a hook above his head. Blood poured down his arm, and he breathed hard, his face twisted in pain.

Next, he moved to Will, but shot a glance to us. “Hold them!” he ordered Micah and Rory.

“No!” We raised our weapons, and they stopped in front of us, the confrontation at a stand-still as Aydin squatted next to Will.

He laid there, blood dripping off the corner of his mouth, his eyes cast down, and making no move to fight more.

What the fuck is wrong with you?

Alex was right. Will could take these guys. My God. This hurt more than the pain in my gut. I couldn’t watch.

“I like you,” Aydin told him, unknotting some rope. “I didn’t think I would. Life has a weird sense of humor, you know? I watched you with her at parties. I’d see you with her at restaurants. Then, lo and behold, you show up here, our new inmate.”

Her. Alex.

I straightened, a thought taking form in my head. It was strange that out of all the people in the world, they wound up in the same place. Two men who both knew Alex.

One who clearly resented the other for it.

“Remember when you asked me if I could get things other than alcohol and cigarettes?” he questioned Will.

And I gulped. No. He had Will brought here. Either for revenge or to take him away from Alex.

Oh, my God.

But then suddenly Aydin turned and jerked his chin, gesturing to me, instead.

What?

My heart dropped into my stomach, and Will gritted through his teeth, “You son of a bitch.”

I stepped forward, dropping my weapon. “Me?” I said, but I already knew the answer. “You brought me here?”

All the enemies and all the people who had something against me if they knew my secret, and it turned out to be someone I’d never met?

He didn’t sentence Will to Blackchurch. He smuggled me in for revenge.

Aydin’s eyes fell, and he tightened the rope around Will’s wrist. “I want him to know what this feels like,” he murmured. “To watch the one woman it physically hurts to look at, because you want her so much, give her time and loyalty and love to another.” He glared over at me. “I want him to feel this.”

Alex stepped up next to me, and I could hear her breathe.

“Then why not try to seduce me?” I charged before she could say anything. What was with all the big brother shit?

He just chuckled. “The only thing more powerful than the heart is the brain, and it was so much more useful to get into your head than into your bed.”

I shook my head. “Or maybe you didn’t want to take me away from Will, but Will away from Alex. Maybe she was the one you wanted to hurt.”

He shrugged. “Either way.”

The room fell silent except for Taylor’s shaking. I looked over, not that worried about him, but Aydin was going to have to help him. Close the wound or something.

My hand shot to my hair. He brought me here.

But that meant he also gave me the knife. Did he think that was going to be enough protection?

The floor above us creaked—as well as the wood in the walls—and I smelled smoke in the air, but then thunder cracked overhead, the lights flickered, and I raised my weapon again, opening my mouth to speak.

But Aydin spoke first. “You both will stay down here,” he told Will, “and if Micah and Rory know what’s good for them, they’ll fall in line.”

He turned to the guys, ordering them, “Take the women to my room,” he told them and then looked at us. “I’ll be up to see you ladies in a while.”

I tensed.

“Maybe they’d like some exercise tonight,” he said, staring at Will. “I’ll take them to the pool. Party of three.” His voice lowered, but I could still hear the smile in his tone. “Maybe Emmy