Chapter Five – The Ride
Eva
The car was silent, but not in any normal way. This wasn’t the kind of quiet that came with luxury or peace. It was too controlled, too intentional, like the silence in a courtroom just before a sentence is passed. No radio. No idle chatter. Even the engine made barely a sound beneath the sleek hum of motion.
I sat in the middle seat—lower than theirs, narrower, like it had been designed that way on purpose. The fabric was smooth under my palms, some kind of expensive leather that felt like it should’ve smelled rich, but didn’t. Nothing in this car had a scent. Even the air conditioning was neutral. Sterile.
Sebastian sat on my right. Gabriel is on my left. Both of them stared straight ahead as the black-tinted world passed in a blur beyond the windows. We could have been heading anywhere. A mansion. A dungeon. A cliff. They didn’t speak. They didn’t look at me. But I felt them; one was a wall of ice, and the other was a spark barely contained under his skin.
The dress I wore clung to my thighs, heavy in the wrong places, slick in others. I became aware of how exposed my skin was. How deep the neckline dipped. How little protection silk offered when seated between predators. I folded my hands in my lap, knuckles pressing against the velvet, and stared at the floor mat, trying to slow the pace of my breathing. They hadn’t told me to stay silent, but speaking felt like breaking some invisible rule I didn’t know yet. Still, the question burned behind my teeth until I couldn’t hold it back anymore.
“Is this the part where I disappear?” My voice was quieter than I intended, but in the silence, it sounded louder than it should have. It cut between them like a blade.
Gabriel was the first to turn. His profile had been relaxed, almost bored, but now I saw the edge beneath it. He looked at me like I was something curious he hadn’t decided whether to play with or avoid.
His voice, when it came, was smoother than it had any right to be. “If we wanted you to disappear, little mouse, we wouldn’t have put you in leather seats.”
He smiled as he said it. Not cruelly. Not kindly. Like he enjoyed the weight of those words rolling off his tongue.
Sebastian didn’t smile. He didn’t even look at me when he spoke. “We paid too much to waste you.”
His tone was clipped, all business, as if I were an investment. It was as if this were a transaction, not a life.
The silence stretched again after that. It was worse than before. I looked back at the road. It wasn’t a road, really. Just black glass and the occasional flicker of trees outside the tinted window. I didn’t recognize the route. I wouldn’t be able to find my way back. They’d made sure of that. My fingers dug into my palm.
“I thought someone might explain what happens next,” I said, careful to keep my voice even. “What’s expected of me?”
Sebastian’s reply was immediate. “You’re not here to think.”
The words landed like a slap, but Gabriel’s quiet exhale beside me told me even he found it harsh. He leaned his head back against the seat and glanced sideways, gaze raking over me without subtlety.
“You’ll be housed,” he said lightly. “Clothed. Fed. Kept intact. That’s all for now.”
“For now?”
He didn’t answer right away. Just let the silence stretch again. Then, after a beat, he turned toward me with that half-smile still playing at the edge of his lips.
“We don’t bite. Not right away.”
A chill moved down my spine. The brothers weren’t threatening me. They weren’t reassuring me either. They were telling me the truth. Or just enough of it. I tried to breathe through my nose. Slow. Controlled. My throat still felt dry. Outside, the trees thickened. We’d left city lights behind. The blackness beyond the windows was absolute now; there were no buildings and no headlights from other cars. Only our vehicle moving forward into something that didn’t want to be seen. The car slowed.
I felt it before I saw it, the shift in the suspension, the tension in Sebastian’s posture. He sat straighter. Gabriel’s knee bounced once before he stilled it.
We turned.
A long, narrow drive curved between wrought iron gates, which creaked open before we reached them. I didn’t see a guard. No gatehouse. Just stone columns draped in ivy and the impression of something ancient watching from the shadows. The estate came into view slowly, like it had been waiting to be noticed, three stories of dark stone and sharp corners, windows that glowed low like animal eyes. The porch stretched wide beneath an archway carved with old symbols I couldn’t name. Everything about it was elegant. Expensive. Quietly monstrous. The car rolled to a stop. The doors unlocked with a soft click. Sebastian exited first, not sparing me a glance. Gabriel lingered a second longer. He looked at me, really looked at me, and something passed through his gaze, curiosity, amusement, maybe even pity. Then he gestured with his chin.
“Let’s go,” he said. “The longer we keep Father waiting, the less fun he becomes.”
I swallowed and slid out behind him, heels clicking against the stone. The wind bit against my bare skin, cool and scented with pine, and something underneath it was older. I stood between them on the steps. Behind me was a car I couldn’t drive. A forest I couldn’t escape from. A world that had already sold me. Ahead? A door that opened by itself.