Protecting You ("The Shadows" Series: Book I)

XLI.

Lily's POV

I was feeling pain in my head, wrists and legs. I heard a groan escaping, but it didn't belong to me. I tried to open my eyes, but as soon as I did that, I hissed and shut them back. After some time, I opened them again to see a bulb hanging just above my head. My wrists were tied down to the arms of a chair along with my legs that were tied to the foot. I felt my body getting colder. The groaning had stopped and I still couldn't see around the room. I had tried to speak, but I only coughed when my throat felt too tight to work properly. After what felt like forever I heard a voice.

"Lily."

"Alex is that you?" I asked desperately. The voice was coming from my left. I tilted my head and blinked a few times, all the efforts making me groan.

"Are you alright? Lily? Are you hurt? Shit they tied us? They didn't give you medical treatment? What the fuck is going on here?" He started cursing under his breath as my eyes continued to adjust to the darkness where I guessed he was. When my vision got clearer, I saw a bandage wrapped around his forehead and a few stitches along his shoulder. He was also tied up on a chair, but his chair was chained to the wall so that he couldn't reach me. Fortunately for him, he looked better than I had imagined.

"What do you mean they didn't treat me?" I asked.

"I don't remember, but when I woke up a few minutes ago, I had this bandage and could smell alcohol on my wounds. Also I had this cut stitched, but your's still bleeding and your wrists and legs look burned by those ropes. They haven't treated you." He explained how I looked and frowned.

"Why would they do that? Who are they?" He muttered lowly. Before I could answer, footsteps descended to what I could guess was the basement where we were and stopped in front of the door to our cell. The door creaked in resistance and opened. It was still too dark for me to see who entered but there were more than three people who came in.

"I see you're awake." The voice sounded familiar, but me losing blood was making me too weak to pinpoint the familiarity. I didn't answer.

"I see you don't want to talk to me. How about you talk now." He said and got closer to me. As soon as his face came into the light, a small gasp left my lip, not because I got scared, but because of the surprise.

"Good evening sweet cheeks. It took you exactly-" he glanced at his watch that shined due to the diamonds in them "-five hours to wake up from your beauty sleep." He said. I felt my eyelids getting heavy.

"Don't worry. We stitched the cut on your head. It's on your scalp. You wouldn't see that. But I left the cuts on your body heal on their own. They aren't too deep. I wanted you to survive so I could have a little chat with my daughter. I also wanted to have some family time with you before you die." He said as if talking about the weather. I still didn't answer.

"I see you don't want to talk to me. What about you talk to your brother." He said and walked back towards the door, but didn't exit. Suddenly someone came back into the light and when I looked up to see who it was, I felt my heart stop. I couldn't believe my eyes. His face showed mischief but not the playful kind, more like deadly kind.

"Finally we got introduced properly. It's nice to meet you as my sister." He said. My tongue felt heavy as my vision blurred. Tears stated streaming down my face. I had never in a million years thought that he was related to me in such a cruel way. My fate was so screwed up. I wanted to cry, scream, laugh and dig a hole for the man who stood in front of me with so much pride, I felt disgusted.

"Zach?!" It was Alex's horrified voice that cut through the silence we were enveloped in. I wanted this to be a nightmare because if I was the one getting so affected by his betrayal, I couldn't even imagine about how Ryan would feel. Did he know Zach was the mole?