Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Evie hit the ground with a thud, lifting her hand to her mouth and it coming away red. She barely had a chance to get her hands up to defend herself before she was backhanded again, hard enough that it made her head spin a little and her vision blur.

“James…please! I…I’m sorry!”
“Shut up. Have you forgotten how this works, little girl? I tell you what to do, and you do it. Perhaps a reminder is in order, hm?”
“No…please…I…I know how it…it works. Please, James. Please…NO!”

*****************

The only thing that Evie found was worse than working the streets was having to work one of the most powerful businessmen in the city. At least when she was on the streets, she and the other girls looked out for each other and here she didn’t have that. The 22 year old had long, wavy dirty blonde hair, pale, milky white skin, soft hazel eyes with long, dark eyelashes and soft, pink lips. She was short, around 5’3, and slender, with large breasts and her pale skin was smattered here and there with colour from various tattoos. She’d been working for her current boss for a little over 6 years now, and whilst she was terrified of the man, it wasn’t all bad. The mansion he owned was huge and Evie had access to every luxury you could think of, as well as her own huge suite. There’s plush, black carpet with matching curtains, and black chiffon hangs off the queen size four poster bed that sits in the middle of the room. There’s a giant walk-in closet filled with designer labels that were gifted or bought for her, and a massive ensuite. There’s also a plush bench seat underneath the bulletproof plated glass window which catches the afternoon sunlight. Evie likes to sit there in the summer, reading of princesses being rescued by handsome princes and going on adventures in far off places. She woke up much like she did most mornings, wishing that it was all a dream. She woke up in pain this morning, emanating from her ribs and jaw from the beating she received the night before. Evie dragged herself out of bed and into the shower, knowing that if she’s not in her bosses office by 10am she’ll be in more trouble. The bruises were worse once she’d gotten out of the shower and Evie put makeup on to try and cover the one on her jaw, not bothering with the ones on her throat and then got dressed. Dressed in ripped, black skinny jeans and a black almost-see through tank top, Evie headed down to her bosses office and knocked timidly on the door.

“Come in.”

Evie opened the door and went to stand submissively in front of the bosses desk, waiting for him to acknowledge her. James looked up from the morning paper and took in the sight of his girl, smirking at the bruises on her jaw, neck and ribs, and the look of apprehension on her face. James Dewees was a handsome, thirty-seven year old businessman who was extremely proud to own a highly successful tech company. He appreciated the finer things in life and was a man who was very used to getting what he wanted. Evie had been one of those things and he was delighted to have her to control and use as he pleased. He was 6’2’ with short, light brown hair and brown eyes with slightly tanned skin and a light shade of stubble.

“I have a meeting at 1 o’clock at the office, and then this evening we’ll be attending a charity gala being held by the mayor. I want you on your best behaviour, and I’ll be extremely disappointed if you misbehave.”
“I promise Master, I’ll be good. Am I…am I required for the meeting at your office?”
“Yes, you can wear what you’re wearing now but I want you in those red Jimmy Choo’s and that diamond necklace I got you for your birthday. Down here at 12.15 so we can leave.”

James goes back to his newspaper and Evie leaves and goes back to her bedroom, pulling her knees into her chest and sitting at the window.

“Hey Evie, can I come in?”

Evie looked over to her door when she heard her name and smiled, nodding and shifting over a little to make room. Jimmy Sullivan had been working for James for almost 6 years as part of his security detail, and had spent the last 4 years as Evie’s bodyguard and confidant. He was thirty-two, tall and lanky with a pretty smile and bright, crystal blue eyes. He had choppy, dyed black hair and was covered in tattoos. Evie had been completely terrified of the man when they’d first met 5 years ago, but it hadn’t taken very long until they were close friends. Jimmy did everything he could to protect Evie, wishing that he could whisk her away from the life she’d been forced into. They could never do it of course, James had too much power and resources and would find them and then they’d be in trouble. Jimmy frowned as he got close enough to Evie to notice the bruises she was sporting, knowing that they hadn’t been there when he’d seen her yesterday.

“Hey Jimmy.”
“Hi Baby, how’re you holding up?”

Jimmy started carding his hand through Evie’s hair when she laid down with her head in his lap, laying on her back and smiling softly at him.

“I’m okay. My…my face hurts a little because I got attitude with James last night and he belted me, but other than that I’m okay.”
“I’m sorry, I wish I had of been here to look after you. Are you excited for the charity ball tonight?”
“I guess so? It’s the only thing that’s stopping James from hitting me in the face because he won’t want anyone asking questions about it. I don’t particularly want to go but it’s not like I have a choice is it?”

Evie sat up and hugged Jimmy’s arm like a teddy bear, kissing his shoulder and smiling when he put his free arm around her. Jimmy kissed the top of her head and tangled their hands together, just sitting and enjoying her company. These moments were rare for them as usually he wasn’t allowed to spend time with Evie without James watching over them or without a direct order, but his girl meant everything to him.

“Wish you were coming with me tonight. Would be nice to be on the arm of a handsome man who loves and appreciates me.”

Jimmy chuckles and stands, offering Evie his hand.

“May I have this dance?”

Evie giggles and stands, letting Jimmy pull her into his arms. He twirls her around the room for a half hour until they both collapse onto her bed, giggling and pink faced. Evie gets a hand in Jimmy’s hair and he realises too late what she’s going to do, not having a chance to push her away before she’s kissing him. He rolls them over using his hips as leverage and pins her to the bed, kissing Evie roughly for a minute before remembering where they are.

“Evie……”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, baby, you know I do but we can’t. If James catches us we’re both dead. I have to go and run some errands and you need to fix your lipstick and your clothes before you go downstairs. I’m sorry.”

Waiting for Jimmy to leave, Evie wraps her arms around herself and cries. Upset at Jimmy and angry at herself for kissing him and putting him in a compromising position.

When Jimmy makes it down to the kitchen he hasn’t managed to wipe all of Evie’s lipstick off his lips and he jumps when James rests a hand on his shoulder.

“James, you scared me.”
“You know I put camera’s in the bitches room, don’t you?”
“I…I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to……”

Jimmy swallows harshly and shuts his mouth when James presses his gun against his head, closing his eyes and praying silently.

“Touch her again and I’ll kill you. You hear me?”

Nodding, Jimmy lets out the breath he didn’t realise he was holding when James walks out, running a hand through his hair and pulling his phone out of his pocket.

Babygirl: Baby, he knows. He put cameras in your room and threatened he’d kill me if I ever touched you again. Please be careful.

Evie’s phone vibrates from under her pillow and she’s about to pull it out when James comes in, smiling sadistically at her and pulling her up from the bed by her throat.

“You let any part of Jimmy touch you that isn’t his hands and I’ll kill you both.”
“I…I don’t know what you’re talking…talking about.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me you little bitch. I saw you together. I saw you kissing him. I’m not going to tell you again. This fucking stops now you hear me?”

James drops her to the floor and Evie takes a shuddering breath to calm herself down, getting her shoes out of walk in robe and putting them on before heading downstairs. Jimmy corners her on the way down the stairs and pulls her aside, whispering quickly and lowly in her ear.

“He put cameras in your bedroom. Promise me you’ll be careful and only use your phone in the bathroom.”
“I promise I’ll be careful. I’m sorry that I let him see me kissing you, I’ll cover for you.”
“Don’t you worry about me, I can look after myself.”

He looks around to make sure nobody else is on the staircase and cups Evie’s cheek, kissing her quickly and then pulling away. 

“I love you. Always. Don’t ever forget that okay? No matter what.”
“Jimmy…you’re scaring me.”
“I know, I’m sorry. You…you better go. Before he comes looking for you.”

Jimmy tucks her fringe behind her ear to make her smile and then gives her a little push, Evie continuing downstairs to meet James and Jimmy continuing upstairs. James’ office door is closed so Evie just stands next to it and waits, nervous and apprehensive about whatever the meeting she’s being dragged to is all about.

Chapter Text

Evie stood silently behind James’ desk, hands clasped behind her back and looking submissively at the floor. James had done her collar up tighter than usual and she swallowed nervously, twitching a little and wanting to adjust it but knowing she couldn’t. He hadn’t told her who the meeting was with or what it was about, but the collar secured around her neck gave away that she was about to be used in some way.

“You keep your pretty mouth shut when my guest arrives or you’ll have a black eye to match that bruised throat you hear me?”
“Yes Sir.”
“There’s a good bitch.”

Evie rolled her eyes but bit her tongue, attitude would get her nowhere. The intercom buzzed and James pressed the button to answer it, frowning at Evie as he caught her rolling her eyes.

“They’re here, Mr Dewees.”
“Thank you, Cassandra, send them in.”

He let go of the button and turned to Evie.

“Don’t forget what I said about running your mouth. Eyes up.”

James smirked as his office door opened and he heard Evie whimper, turning to look at her when she took a step back.

“Don’t fucking move.”

He growled under his breath, turning back to smile at his potential new business partner. Evie took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, trying to hide both her fear and the fact that she was shaking from James’ acquaintance. Matt Sanders was the second most powerful businessman in the city after James and twice as ruthless. Evie had scars on the inside of her left thigh where he’d carved his initials into her last time they’d met. Matt was 6’2’ with bright, hazel eyes, short, light brown hair, a lip piercing and both arms were filled with tattoos and was full of muscle. He was flanked by his partner Zacky Vengeance, a nickname he’d earned through dealings he did for Matt and nobody in their right mind dare cross the man. Zacky was 5’11’ with shaggy, black hair and pretty jade green eyes. He too sported two arms of tattoos and two lip piercings.

“Matthew, Zachary, welcome. Please, have a seat.”
“Matt, please, Matthew is what my mother calls me when I’m in trouble.”

He chuckled at his own joke and then sat down opposite James, all but leering at Evie. Zack chose to stand behind him, arms crossed and looking surly.

“I’m listening.”
“I believe it would be beneficial for the both of us to put aside our differences and merge our companies together. Between my tech, and your arms contracts there would be nothing between us and whatever we want. Theres a few other interested parties that are looking to turn me against you and vice versa, as well as a few who would like nothing more than to see both of us fail so that they can get control but I don’t really feel like letting that happen and I believe that this is the answer as we can help each other out. I know you’re having issues with the Germans and I can make that go away for you and stop the police sniffing around.”

Matt raises a sceptical eyebrow and turns to look at Zacky, whose response is to shrug helpfully and give Matt a dazzling smile. Evie tunes out the conversation as it turns to business, not needing to be involved in anything that’s going on.

“I don’t know how you found out about the Germans but I’m impressed. What exactly are you wanting in exchange for making it go away?”
“I don’t want anything apart from your loyalty.”

James pauses for dramatic effect and then smiles.

“......and your contacts in Russia.”
“I’m willing to think about it. You’re going to need to give me some sort of assurance though. I don’t want you offering this to anyone else and I don’t want you dealing with our little problem if I choose not to agree to the deal. The last thing I want is to owe you a favour.”
“You have my word.”

Matt opens his mouth to speak but Zacky rests a hand on his shoulder to silence him, looking to James with a wicked smile.

“Your word doesn’t mean shit, Dewees. We want her.”

Evie looks up from the spot on the floor when she hears Zacky, biting her lip and trying to hide the fear and apprehension on her face. Matt and Zacky are both smirking at her, mischief glinting in both their eyes. James beckons her forward and stands, resting his hand possessively across the back of her neck.

“I had a feeling you were going to say that. I need her tonight for the charity ball but you can have her tomorrow for a week while you think it over.”
“A week? James…please…n…no.”

James forces her to her knees with the hand he has on the back of her neck, fisting a hand in her hair and pulling her head back.

“Shut the fuck up. I warned you. Warned you what would happen if you opened your fucking mouth.”

Matt stands and offers James his hand, wrapping his hand around Evie’s throat. She whimpers and tries to get away from him, pleading at James with her eyes for help.

“You don’t want to parade her around in front of the mayor and the police chief covered in bruises, James. Please, let me?”
“Master…please.”
“Shut it, bitch. She’s all yours, Matt.”

James lets go and Matt hauls Evie to her feet by her throat, shifting his hand to her hair once she’s on her feet and dragging her around to the front of James’ desk. Evie struggles and tries to get free when Matt pulls her in front of him, pinning both hands behind her back and ducking his head to talk in her ear.

“You remember Zacky, don’t you puppy? He remembers you.”

Zacky catches Evie by the hair when Matt shoves her into him, smiling sardonically at the fact that she’s shaking and the terror on her face.

“I’d forgotten how pretty you look when you’re scared.”
“Master please!”
“He can’t help you now, little one. Now be a good little bitch and scream for me.”

Evie bites her lip to hold back her scream as Zacky attacks her with the handheld taser from his pocket, following her to the ground and pinning her down. She doesn’t scream though, not giving any of them the satisfaction. Zacky gives her a minute to recover before hitting her again, Evie biting her lip hard enough that she makes it bleed to hide her screams. It’s not until the fourth round of being tased that Evie finally gives in and screams, closing her eyes so she can’t see Zacky’s sadistic, satisfied smile.

“There we go, that’s a girl.”
“Fuck…fuck you, Zac…Zacky.”

Zacky laughs and puts his hand over Evie’s mouth, leaning down to whisper in her ear.

“Just you wait until I’m allowed to bruise that pretty face, puppy.”

Evie rolls her eyes and spits blood at Zacky, flinching when he raises a hand towards her and growls.

“Zacky. Don’t. You can slap her around as much as you want next week.”

Matt cautions and Zacky smirks, standing and pulling Evie back to her feet.

“I’ll send Evie to you first thing in the morning, boys. Usual rules apply. Email me if you have any questions.”

Evie wipes the tears from her eyes and shudders, wrapping her arm around her stomach and dropping to the floor when Matt punches her as he passes. She spits blood on the floor and sits back on her knees, still cradling her stomach and all but glaring at James.

“Wipe that look off your face, Evie. You shouldn’t have run your mouth. Be grateful that I wasn’t the one punishing you for it. I would have given you a lovely bruise to match the one on your neck, but Matt has a point, I don’t want you having a reason to talk to the mayor about that.”

She looks away and stands up, drawing her knees into her chest when she sits down on the chair in the corner of the room and crying silently. When James is ready to leave he grabs Evie by her collar and drags her to the elevator, Cassandra giving her a sympathetic smile when she catches her eye. James pins her to the wall of the elevator by her throat once the door is closed and Evie shivers but keeps her mouth closed.

“You embarrass me tonight the way you did in front of Matt and Zacky and you’re going to wish that you’d never been fucking born.”

James’ voice is low and dangerous and all Evie can do is nod in understanding, too terrified to do anything else. He runs his hand through her hair when he’s done threatening her, smiling when Evie flinches when he cups her jaw to stroke her cheek. The rest of the ride down to the car is silent and Evie cries the entire drive home, shrinking back and shaking violently when James opens the car door.  

“Move it, bitch. The stylist will be here in 3 hours to get you ready for tonight and I don’t wanna see your fucking face between now and then.”
“Yes Sir.”

Evie all but runs upstairs to her bedroom and curls up in a ball, trying not to cry and just getting herself under control.

Chapter Text

The worst thing about these stupid charity events was that James spent most of his evening sucking up to his contacts, trying to make it look like he gave a shit. Evie knew that James could care less about what was happening, as long as he got to flash his money around and show off Evie, he was happy.

“You look incredibly bored, darling. Mind if I steal you away for a dance?”

Evie looked up as she was addressed, planning on telling whoever was talk to her to fuck off but the words died on her tongue when she saw who it was. Gerard Way had been the Mayor for two years and was the front runner to be re-elected for the third year in a row. He had shoulder length, sleek black hair, hazel eyes, a small nose, full, pink lips and high cheekbones. He was about 5”7’ with a thin build and a kind smile. Evie blushed and took the hand she was offered, allowing Gerard to pull her up from her seat.

“I uh, I’d be honoured Mayor Way.”
“Oh please, call me Gerard. And you are?”
“Evelyn, Sir. Evelyn Rose. I should um...I should make sure it’s okay with James......”

Gerard chuckled and put his arm around Evie’s waist, guiding her over to where James was talking to the police chief, Synyster Gates, and Gerard’s brother, Mikey. Syn Gates looked more like a man who should be a model rather than the Chief of Police. He was 6’1’, toned, tattooed and gorgeous. With messy black hair and high cheekbones. He looked immaculate in the navy blue suit he was wearing and Evie blushed and looked away when he winked at her. The younger Way looked nothing like his brother, except for his hazel eyes. Mikey had short, dyed blonde hair, full lips and a jawline that could cut glass. He was 5’9’ with a smattering of tattoos and was toned but lanky. The smile he sent Evie’s way didn’t carry the kindness and warmth that Gerard’s did and it didn’t meet his eyes. He’d long lost his suit jacket but the black waistcoat and pants, which Evie realised now she was close up were leather, complimented the olive green shirt he was wearing. Gerard had gone for the traditional black suit with a white shirt and waistcoat and Evie relaxed into the arm he’d settled around her waist, stroking her hipbone absent-mindedly. Evie was dressed in a strapless, pastel purple chiffon gown that nipped in delicately at her waist and tapered out to just below her knees. She was wearing a pair of black Louboutin pumps but Gerard still had a good 2 inches on her.

“Ah Mayor Way, I see you found my girl.”

Evie noticed that James doesn’t get the same invitation to call Gerard by his first name and she smiled a little.

“Seems such a waste to have poor Evelyn sitting there on her own. Would you mind awfully If I borrowed her for a dance?”
“Ah I was hoping for a word with you and your brother actually.”

Gerard smiles easily and kisses Evie on the cheek, unwrapping his arm from around her and stepping aside.

“I guess we’ll have to wait until another time, my dear.”
“I’d hate for you to be bored, Evelyn. Would you accompany me instead?”

Evie doesn’t really get a chance to complain as Syn takes her by the hand and leads her out onto the dance floor, twirling her and then pulling her into his arms.

“Not just a pretty face and a fantastic police officer, Mr Gates.”
“You’re not so bad yourself, Evelyn.”
“My friends call me Evie.”

Syn smiles and spins Evie again, chuckling at the slight blush on Evie’s cheeks.

“Gerard and I have something we need to ask you, but not in front of prying eyes.”
“I...I don’t understand. What...what are you talking about?”
“Just trust me sweetheart. Head for the bathroom and Gee will meet you there, Mikey is occupying James so you don’t need to worry about that.”

He leans in to whisper in her ear.

“We know about what that asshole does to you.”

Evie shudders and bites her lip, throwing a nervous glance over at James and then doing as she’s told. Gerard is waiting for her by the bathroom like Syn said and he takes Evie’s hand and leads her down a hallway she hadn’t noticed and into another, smaller ballroom.

“How’s Mikey going with James?”
“Yeah he’s got it all under control. You know how much he likes to play dumb and be a tease. Jeez, he really did a number on you didn’t he sweetheart?”

Gerard reaches out to softly stroke Evie’s cheek and lifts her chin, frowning at the bruises he can see around her throat.

“I don’t…I don’t understand. What…what are you talking about?”
“Evie, sweetheart, we know that James abuses you. We know that a lot of his business deals are dirty. We want to take him down and put him away, but we need you to help us.”
“No. Whatever it is my answer is no. You don’t understand what it’s like to be stuck in that house and under his control. If he even suspects that I’m working for you and going against him he’ll kill me. I’m sorry but I…I can’t help you.”

Evie turns to leave but Syn blocks her path, holding his hands up to show her he doesn’t mean her any harm.

“Honey listen to me…”

She opens her mouth to argue but he cuts her off.

“…please, just listen. I am not going to hurt you, I would never do that. I don’t want to freak you out and make you feel scared. Gee and I are just trying to help you get out of an awful, scary situation. We know that you used to be a prostitute and James blackmailed you into working for him, but we don’t care about any of that. That’s not who you are anymore. We can protect you from James and from the people who work for him, you just need to help us out. You don’t have to answer straight away but please, at least think about it?”
“How did you find out about what goes on between James and I?”

Syn and Gerard look at each other, Gee running a hand through his hair and shrugging.

“She’s going to find out eventually so you may as well tell her, Gates.”
“I went to high school with Jimmy. He came to me a couple months ago and told me what was going on, but I didn’t believe him. Then he called me earlier today and told me that James had threatened to kill both of you, and sent me pictures of the bruises and the scars James has left on you.”

Evie smiles to herself, not making eye contact with the other two. She should have known that if anyone was going to be looking out for her, it was going to be Jimmy. It also explained the message that he’d passed on about loving her no matter what, he knew what was coming and the risks that the two of them were potentially going to be taking.

“I…I’ll do it.”

She said softly, flinching a little bit relaxing when Gerard put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.

“Are you sure? There is absolutely no pressure on you to do this and we’d never force you.”
“No, it’s okay. I…I want…want to. You can guarantee that I’ll be safe, and that you can keep Jimmy safe?”
“Yes. You’ll be meeting with me or Syn at least once a week so we can get updates from you, and Jimmy has promised that he’ll keep an eye on you when we can’t. We’ll do everything in our combined power to make sure that you’re both safe, but there is always the possibility that something bad will happen. You need to be prepared for that.”

Evie laughs easily and shrugs.

“I’m sure James can’t do anything worse than what he’s already done to me.”
“You’re a very brave young woman. Now, we should get back to the party, I know that my little brother is charming but even James can’t be occupied forever. We’ll be in contact with you in the next week or so. Thank you, Evelyn.”

Syn kisses her on the cheek and Evie blushes, accepting the hug that Gee gives her before he leaves. When she and Syn make it back out to the ballroom and to James, he’s making easy conversation with Gerard but eyes Evie suspiciously. She drops her eyes and both Gee and Syn notice the smile drop from her face, as well as the twisted smile on James’.

“James, I was wondering if it’s at all possible for Evie to come and work for me? My assistant is about to go on maternity leave and I think she’d be perfect for the job.”
“I don’t see why you’d think that, Evie has pretty much no transferable skills. Pretty to look at though, Chief Gates.”
“I don’t think that ‘pretty’ really cuts it to be honest, she’s beautiful. Besides, I do most of Syn’s admin, it’d just be filing, answering phones and the like. I’d be the one looking out for Evie and showing her what to do.”

Mikey puts his arm around Evie and winks at her, flashing a cheeky smile at James.

“You’re going to have to give me a week to think it over, Chief.”
“Of course, here’s my card, Evelyn. Give me a call when you’ve had a chance to think it over. I have to head off, my wife worries if I’m not home when I say I will be. It was a pleasure to meet you, sweetheart, please really think about my job offer. I’ll see you in the morning, Mikey, and on Friday for that meeting, Gerard.”

Syn shakes hands with James, Gee and Mikey, hugging Evie and kissing her forehead and then he’s gone.

“How long have you been working for the Chief, Mikey?”
“About 4 years I think? I’ve known Michelle, his wife, since grade school and when I dropped out of college she suggested that I work for Syn. Been doing it ever since. What about you, Evelyn? How did you and James meet?”
“Evie, please. Um…well…I uh…”

Evie looks to James for help, panicking about what she’s supposed to say.

“I found her on a street corner and thought she was hot so figured I’d take her home.”

Mikey laughs but Evie can tell that it’s forced but James is too busy looking across the room to notice and Evie rolls her eyes, shrugging James’ arm that’s around her off. She goes back to sit down at the table, ignoring the way the James glares at her. When James heads over to talk to Evie Mikey stops him, leaning in to whisper something softly in his ear and he stays with him. Evie’s had five vodka tonics by the time James makes it back to the table and he shakes his head and helps her to her feet.

“I’m perfectly capable of walking on my own thankyouverymuch!”
“Oh I’m sure you are, my pretty little slut but I ain’t letting you walk out of here on your own and potentially making an idiot out of me.”
“I’m sure you’re more than capable of doing that all on your own, you don’t need me for that.”

James tightens his grip on Evie’s arm and all but drags her out of the party, forcing her down an alleyway next to the building and shoving her against it with his hand around her throat.

“You know, I really love drunk you. Drunk you is a mouthy little brat that I have an excuse to smack around.”
“Like you need an excuse.”
“You’re just asking for it aren’t you?”

He lets go of her throat and lets Evie get a few a steps in front of him and spins her around by the shoulder and punches her hard in the face, knocking her out and to the ground. James picks Evie up and carries her to the car, laying her down in the backseat and covering her with his jacket.

Chapter Text

When Evie woke up everything was dark, and she couldn’t move or breathe very well. There was a dull rumbling that she could hear, but Evie wasn’t 100% sure if that was real or in her head. She was jolted as the rumbling stopped, a dead giveaway that she was in the trunk of a car and she swore internally, struggling with the ropes she could feel around her wrists and ankles. Evie could vaguely hear footsteps and the low hum of voices and she whimpered, trying even harder to get free and at the possible outcomes of her current situation. Zacky whistled quietly to himself as he walked around the shiny, black Mercedes, looking at the cryptic text he’d gotten from James about going out front for a surprise. He chuckled as he opened the truck and discovered the bound, gagged and blindfolded Evie, running a hand softly through her hair and tugging off the blindfold.

“Looks like my birthday came early this year. Matt’s gonna be thrilled.”

Zacky cuts the ropes tying Evie’s feet and her hands together, then holds the knife to her throat.

“You kick me when I cut the rope around your ankles and I’ll slit your throat.”

Evie nods, inching away from the knife at her throat. Zacky cuts the rope and then fists a hand in Evie’s hair, using his grip to haul her out of the car and to her feet. He pulls the blindfold back down over Evie’s eyes and then drags her inside, keeping the knife at her throat to keep her from struggling too much. Matt smiles and puts down the magazine he’d been flicking through when Zacky comes in, admiring all of Evie’s pale, unmarked skin that’s on display in the black mini skirt and pastel pink, sheer, chiffon button down blouse.

“Well well well, lookie what we have here. I will give Dewees points for being prompt.”
“Always a bonus when we don’t have to worry about tying her up. What should we do with her?”
“Take her downstairs and make her comfortable, I’ll be down soon. Don’t start without me.”

Zacky corrals Evie over to the staircase to the basement, keeping a vice like grip on her hair to stop her from falling down the stairs. He unties her hands once they get downstairs and drags her over to the wall, keeping her pinned with his hand around her throat and pulling the gag from her mouth.

“Unless you want to spend the next week out of your mind on smack, you’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do. Got it?”
“Yes Sir.”

Evie shivers and licks her lips, starting to shake from both the coldness of the basement and in fear of what Zacky and Matt are going to do to her. Last time they got their hands on her Evie spent three days being treated like a dog, led around with a collar and leash, forced to eat and drink out of a dog bowl and chained to Zacky’s bedpost. Matt beat her senseless every day for entertainment and carved his initials into her thigh so she’d have something to remember him by.

“Good, now spread your legs for me, puppy.”

Zacky strokes the inside of Evie’s thigh when she spreads her legs and then cuffs her ankles about shoulder width apart and stands, dragging his nails across her stomach as he stands. He pulls the blindfold off and lift’s Evie’s chin, only now noticing the black eye.

“This happen before or after the charity ball?”
“After.”
“Mmhm, and what did you do to earn it?”

She pulls her chin free of Zacky’s grip and glares at him, shaking her head and crossing her arms over her chest.

“I didn’t fucking do anything! He hit me because he wanted to, like he always fucking does.”

Zacky backhands her hard across the face and wraps his hand around her throat, Evie grabbing at his wrists and trying to pull him off.

“Watch your fucking mouth or I’ll gag you, which would be a damn shame because I’m intending on your mouth being quite useful.”
“She does have a very pretty mouth.”
“She does, doesn’t she?”

Evie squeaks in surprise when Zacky kisses her, biting her lip and shoving his tongue in her mouth when she gasps in surprise. Matt finishes securing Evie to the wall while Zacky kisses her, chaining her wrists above her head.

“How does she taste, Zacky?”

Evie rolls her eyes but bites her tongue, knowing that giving Matt attitude will get her nowhere.

“You gonna be good for us?”

Matt smirks at the shiver that runs through Evie when he strokes her cheek with the back of his hand and she nods, trying to take a deep breath and keep her composure.

“Like I have a fucking choice. Zacky threatened to drug me if I didn’t do what I was told. You may as well just gag me now because like hell am I going to just sit here and take whatever you’re going to do to me without kicking up a fuss! Why don’t you unchain me? Let me take you in a real fucking fight. I’m not scared of you. Of either of you.”

Zacky shoves his hand over Evie’s mouth to shut her up, looking to Matt with a raised eyebrow.

“What do you think, Matty? Should we untie her and have some fun?”
“After we went to all that effort to tie her up in the first place?”
“We should have tied her up on her knees, I’ve still got her collar and leash in my bedroom from last time.”

Evie rolls her eyes and swears at Zacky from behind his hand and he laughs, shoving his two middle fingers in her mouth and making Evie gag.

“You bite him and I’ll knock your fucking teeth out.”

Worried about the prospect of being bitten, Zacky pulls his fingers out of Evie’s mouth and slaps her with his damp hand.

“As if I’d waste my teeth on him. You scared of me, Matty? That why you don’t wanna let me go and let me take you on?”
“Gon on, Zacky, give her what she wants.”

Zacky does as he’s told and unchains Evie, ankles first and then her hands. Once she’s got her hands free, Evie takes a swing at Zacky, smirking when she catches him in the jaw. He wipes the smirk off her face when he backhands her across the face, sending her careening back into the wall. Evie gets about 3 seconds to catch herself and her breath before Matt takes a shot at her, but she moves out of the way and he ends up punching the wall instead. She laughs and then ducks when Matt goes for her again, grabbing the knife from around Zacky’s ankle before she stands up. When Matt grabs her around the throat Evie slashes his hand with the knife, kicking him between the legs and smirking as he drops like a stone, clutching himself.

“You know that Matt is going to make you pay for that, don’t you puppy?”

Evie just shrugs and goes for Zacky with the knife but he catches her hand and twists it painfully, forcing her to drop the knife and it clatters to the floor. He twists her arm up behind her back and fists his free hand in her hair.

“Give it up, Evie, before you get yourself more hurt.”
“Fuck you, Zacky, fight me like a real man.”

She throws an elbow with her free arm but Zacky just lets go of her hair and catches that arm too, using his grip to wrestle her to the floor. He flips her over and pins Evie down by her wrists, enjoying the way that she struggles beneath him.

“I’d tell you to stay still but while you’re down there I’m happy for you to just wriggle.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“Get the bitch on her feet, Zacky. Now.”

Zacky looks up and smiles at Matt, pulling Evie back to her feet by her hair and shoving her into Matt’s arms.

“You’re going to wish you were never born by the time we’re through with you.”
“Do your worst.”

Evie spits at him through gritted teeth, trying to break free of the vice like grip he has on her hair and forearm. Matt just laughs and lets go of Evie’s hair, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand.

“I’m gonna give you to Zacky first, then I get what’s left.”

Matt lets go of Evie’s hair to slap her hard across the face, letting her fall to the floor and tasing her once she hits the ground. Zacky picks her up once she’s unconscious, ragdolling her over his shoulder so he can look at where she sliced Matt’s hand open with the knife.

“Let me take this upstairs and deal with it then I’ll clean up your hand. Want me to get the bitch round to take care of your dick?”
“Mm, that sounds like a great idea. Been too long. I need to go and sit down, Evie has really good aim.”
“Don’t worry, Evie’s gonna pay for what she did.”

Zacky smiles wickedly and continues to head upstairs, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he goes. It only rings twice before it’s answered, Zacky smiling softly at the sweet, submissive voice on the other end.

“Hello Sir, what can I do for you?”
“Need you to come over as soon as you can. Matt would like to make use of you.”
“I can be there in 20 minutes.”
“Such a good girl. See you soon.”

He pockets his phone and drops Evie on his bed, brushing her hair off her face so he can admire her bruises from the fight with him and Matt. Zacky chains one of Evie’s ankles to the bed in case she wakes up before he gets back and goes to find Matt and tell him the good news.

“She’ll be here in 20 minutes.”
“Thank fuck for that. Fucking hurts, dude.”

Zacky laughs and puts his arm around Matt’s shoulder, steering him towards his bedroom and encouraging him to sit down.

“Relax, put your feet up. I’ll get you a drink while you wait.”

Matt raises an eyebrow and looks quizzically at Zacky who just smiles.

“What?”
“You’re planning something, I can tell. Share ZV.”
“Well, you know how we keep saying that we should just tell James we accidentally killed the bitch so we could keep her? I think now is the right time to do that, or we just demand her in the agreement.”

Zacky turns away to get Matt a tumbler of whiskey from the shelf in the far corner of the bedroom, returning to his side and handing it to Matt with a smirk.

“I’ll think about it, but I’m not promising you anything. We need to be careful with this deal to make sure it goes the way we want it to.”
“It’ll go that way anyway, especially if he wants it to go through. I’m gonna go and unlock the front door for when she gets here, then I’m gonna go and tie Evie up and play with her.”
“Leave some for me, hm?”

Matt tips his glass and his head at Zacky as he leaves, fondly rolling his eyes. Zacky unlocks the front door before heading back upstairs to check on Evie. She’s awake and glaring at him distastefully when he comes back in, sitting on the edge of the bed with her arms crossed and looking surly.

“Nice face, asshole.”
“You can talk, little girl. You should see your face, and I haven’t even started with you yet. You gonna be good for me, or am I gonna have to knock you out again to tie your ass up?”
“Or you could just let me go. Come on, Zacky, you don’t want to hurt me.”

Evie bites her lip and looks up at Zacky through her eyelashes but he just laughs, fisting a hand in her hair and pulling her to her feet, back against his chest.

“You’re not getting out of this by batting your eyelashes at me, sugar, that shit doesn’t work on me and you know it. Stop fighting and just take it like you know you should.”
“Fuck you.”

Zacky just laughs and uses the grip he has on Evie’s hair to smash her head into the bedpost hard enough to knock her out, stepping over her once she’s on the floor and whistling to himself.

Chapter Text

Matt didn’t even realise he’d fallen asleep until soft lips pressed against his cheek and palms pressed against his thighs.

“Mmm, Hi kitten.”
“Hi Daddy.”

Lily kept her hands on Matt’s thighs and she sank to her knees between his legs, biting her lip and giving him bedroom eyes. Matt brushed Lily’s hair out of her eyes and cupped her jaw, running his thumb across her lips.

“I like the red, baby. It suits you.”
“Thank you, Sir. How can I make you feel better?”
“Go wait for me in the playroom, I’ll be there in a minute.”

Matt wraps his hand around Lily’s throat and kisses her, biting her lip when he pulls away and pulling her to her feet. Lily was twenty with crystal clear blue eyes and a pretty smile. She was 5’4’ and petite and had been working for Matt and Zacky since she was fifteen. She’d started out as a drug mule as she was small and unassuming so it was easy for her to pick up product and move it for them, but Matt had had other things in mind as soon as she turned eighteen. Lily was submissive and would do anything to please him and Matt took full advantage of that fact. Zacky had always assumed that Lily was the way she was with Matt because it was what he wanted, but little did he know that it was how Lily wanted to be and Matt was just happy that she did what she was told. Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder and gave Matt bedroom eyes as she headed to the playroom and he rolled his eyes affectionately and went to lock the front door again before meeting her there. She was naked and on her knees by the time he got there and Matt smiled, cupping Lily’s cheek and running his thumb across her lips.

“I like those, when did you get that done?”

Matt nodded towards her nipples and Lily smiled.

“Couple of days ago. Knew that you’d be into it. Just…go easy today if you’re gonna hit me? They’re still tender Sir.”
“Of course, baby. You know I would never hurt you in a way that you don’t like. Now, up on the bed for me, on your knees and hands behind your back.”

Lily does as she’s been asked, crawling over to the bed, wiggling her hips a little as she goes. Matt rolls his eyes and crosses to the other side of the playroom, removing a few items from the toy cupboard and then going back to Lily. He runs a hand through her hair before grabbing a chunk of it and pulling her head back.

“You gonna be a good little slut for me today babygirl?”
“Yes Daddy.”
“Good. Now, put your hands by your sides, spread your legs a little more and hold still.”

Matt lets go of Lily’s hair and ties the black silk blindfold over her eyes, smiling as she shuffles a little to spread her legs and relaxes her hands by her sides. He kisses her neck softly and smiles at the little shiver that runs through her, but Lily stays still, her fingers twitching ever so slightly.

“Stay still. Don’t make me hit you.”
“Is that a threat or a promise, Sir?

Matt doesn’t answer and just chuckles darkly in Lily’s ear, cuffing her hands together with the soft, leather padded cuffs and then secures them above her head. Lily bites her lip to hide the smirk as she hears Matt head back to the toy cabinet and open a drawer before returning to her side. He runs his hand gently down her side before resting his hand around her throat.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, Lily. Somebody clearly pushed their brat button before coming here today, but I’m not going to play into that. Instead, I’m going to gag you, and then spend the next couple of hours reminding you exactly who you belong to. Got it?”
“Yes Sir.”

Lily licks her lips and moans around the shiny, red ball gag as Matt shoves it in her mouth, securing it tightly at the back of her head while still being careful not to catch any of her hair in it.

“Ready to play, my pretty little pet?”

Lily nods and shivers as Matt kisses the back of her neck and then bites her earlobe.

“Lets get started then, shall we?”

***********************

Matt uncuffed Lily’s hands and pulled the gag softly from her mouth, leaving the blindfold on and gently picking her up. He carried Lily up to his bedroom, kissing her forehead once he put her down.

“Where are you going?”
“Just gotta go check on Zacky. I’ll be right back I promise.”
“You better be.”

Lily lifts her hands to untie the blindfold but Matt catches her hands, kissing her wrists softly and then tightly gripping both her wrists with one hand and brushing her hair off her face with the other.

“Leave it, baby. I’ll take it off when I get back.”

Matt kisses the smile off Lily’s face and heads down to Zacky’s room to check on how he and Evie are going. Zacky has Evie chained to one of the corners of his four poster, hands cuffed behind her head with police issue handcuffs and a knotted rope as a gag. She’s got twenty or so small and shallow cuts scattered across both her arms and chest, tear tracks down both her cheeks and mascara running down her face. Zacky is passed out on the bed with a bottle of whiskey in one hand, and the knife he’s used on Evie in the other. Matt puts the knife safely away across the room and then crouches in front of Evie, pulling the gag from her mouth.

“They look like they hurt. You scream for him?”
“Zacky didn’t gag me because I was screaming, he gagged me because I wouldn’t stop telling him how fucking pathetic he was.”
“Looking forward to getting my turn with you tomorrow. You’ll scream for me.”

Evie just laughs and then spits in Matt’s face, laughing even harder when he growls and backhands her hard across the face and shoves the gag back in her mouth.

“You’re so fucking lucky I’m not allowed to kill you.”

Evie waits until Matt is out of the room and out of earshot before she breaks down in tears, hanging her head and trying to get some rest despite the uncomfortable position she’s in.

Chapter Text

Mikey sat back and watched with an amused smile as Jimmy paced back and forth in his kitchen, sipping pensively on his cup of tea.

“Would you sit down, or change your pattern or something? You’re making me dizzy, Jim.”
“I can’t do it, Mikey. I know what Matt and Zacky are capable of, know how much they get off on hurting Evie. James just handed Evie over to them like she was nothing, all because of some stupid fucking bullshit deal he’s trying to get through with them.”

Jimmy flopped down in the chair opposite Mikey and Mikey smiled sympathetically, getting up and making Jimmy a cup of tea. He pushed it into his friends hands and stood behind him, wrapping his arms around Jimmy’s neck and resting his chin on his head.

“She’ll be okay, Jimmy. You know that Evie is a whole lot stronger than you give her credit for, and she won’t have let them have it easy. You get her back tomorrow, and then she starts working for Syn next week so James can’t hurt her at home anymore.”
“I just…I don’t know if she’s going to come back the same person. It took me almost a month to get Evie to let me touch her after last time, and they only had her for 48 hours.”
“I hate seeing you like this. How can I make you feel better?”

Jimmy squeezed Mikey’s forearms that were around his neck and smiled softly. He wasn’t meaning to be grouchy with Mikey, just worried about Evie.

“I’m just happy that you’re here for me, Mikes. I just worry so much about her and what her state of mind will be like. James locked her in her bedroom because of how bratty she was last time. I don’t even know if she’s going to be allowed to work for Syn, James won’t want her to.”
“You let me take care of convincing James. Nothing that I’m going to say to him is going to be the truth though, just so you know. He’ll gloat to you that I’m not really your friend and said all sorts of things about you, but it’s only so I can guarantee that both of you will be safe. This is just as risky for you as it is for Evie, and I don’t want to risk losing you, Jimmy.”

Mikey leant around to kiss Jimmy on the cheek and Jimmy smiled, keeping the grip he had on Mikey’s wrist to pull him into his lap.

“You never have to apologise to me, Mikey. I know that you only do what you do to look out for the people around you. I’m glad that Evie’s going to have you in her corner while she’s working for Syn.”
“It’s my genuine please to look out for her, Evie seems like a really sweet kid.”
“I should go, James is on my back a lot more now he knows that I’m in love with Evie and gets weird if I’m not where he expects me to me.”

Jimmy finishes his tea quickly and then puts his mug in the sink, kissing Mikey on the cheek and then heading out to his car. Mikey watches Jimmy drive away and then waves as Gerard’s car pulls up, heading back inside to put the kettle back on again to make coffee. There’s a fresh, steaming mug of coffee on the kitchen table when Gee comes in and he smiles at his little brother before sitting down and taking a massive gulp. Mikey brings the pot over when he sits down, filling his own mug and waiting for Gerard to speak.

“You get a chance to talk to Jimmy yet?”
“Yeah, he just left actually. I had to tell him that I was going to bad mouth him to James to help with convincing him to let Evie work for Gates.”
“Oh yeah, and how’d he take that?”

Mikey just shrugs, taking a sip of his coffee before he answers.

“Better than I thought he would. I think he just wants what’s best for Evie, especially considering that he’s in love with her.”
“Jimmy’s in love with Evie? Damnit, I owe Syn $100.”

Off Mikey’s confused look, Gee laughs and runs a hand through his unruly hair and checks his watch.

“Syn bet me $100 that Jimmy was in love with Evie and that was the real reason he called and wanted us to get involved. According to Syn, Jimmy is too proud and likes the money he makes from James to do anything to jeopardise his payday meaning he’s in love with the girl.”
“I don’t blame the guy, she is quite beautiful. That dress that she was wearing to the charity ball? Was kinda hard not to rip it off her.”
“Ew, shut up, I don’t want to hear what goes on in that filthy mind of yours, Michael.”

Mikey just smiles and wiggles his eyebrows and Gee rolls his eyes, finishing his coffee and standing up.

“I gotta get going, been arguing with the schools minister for the last week over whether or not he can bring back capital punishment.”
“Oh Jesus. I don’t even know why you approved him getting hired, Toro was always a weird one. Even back in school.”
“It wasn’t even my choice. He had a whole lot of financial backing from Sanders’ company and my hands were literally tied.”

Gerard hugs Mikey when he stands up, smirking at Mikey’s scowl when he ruffles his hair and then heads out.

By the time Gee made it back to his office, Frank was waiting for him and looking panicked. Frank and Gerard had been dating for 6 years and Gee had only popped the question a couple of months ago. He, Frank and Mikey had been friends since high school and it was Frank who had helped Gee come to terms with and accept his sexuality. Frank was 5'5' with short, brown hair, pretty green eyes and was covered in tattoos. He was the sweetest man Gerard had ever met and Gee thanked his lucky stars every day that he got to call Frankie his. Frank wasn't great with people and scared easily so it made perfect sense for him to be Gerard's secretary so he could keep an eye on his fiancée and look after him. 

"What's wrong sweetheart?"
"I...I told him no, Gee, but he...he wouldn't listen."
"Told who no, Frankie? Did someone hurt you?"

Frank should his head profusely and bit his lip, looking toward Gee's office and then back at him.

"Mr Toro is in your office, waiting to speak to you. I told him no, Gee, I swear. I...I'm sorry."

Gee scowled and then took his fiancée in his arms, kissing his forehead and running a hand up and down Frankie's back to calm him down. 

"Shh Frankie, it's okay. You have nothing to apologise for. I'll go and talk to him."

He squeezed Frank's shoulders and then headed into his office, schooling his face to a smile and shaking hands with the schools minister. Ray Toro was an unassuming looking type of man, about 6'3' with shoulder length, curly hair, dark brown eyes and a shade of stubble across his jaw. He'd gone to the same school as Gerard, Mikey and Frank but the year ahead of them. He was a bully and frequently picked on both Frank and Mikey. The last thing Gee wanted was Ray anywhere near the future leaders of the country, but when he had Matt's company backing him financially, there was nobody else willing to run for the job. 

"What do you want, Toro?"
"That's hardly the way to speak to one of your peers, Mayor. I can't imagine the city being happy with how you've been treating me."
"You upset my assistant and barged in here even when he told you no. Don't talk to me about the correct way to treat people."

Ray smirked and looked towards where Frank's desk was located outside the room and smiled, turning back to Gerard with the same sinister smile plastered across his face. Gerard remained stony faced and unmoving, setting his jaw and sitting down opposite Ray. 

"It's still as fun to terrorise Frankie now as it was when we were at school together. Lucky the pretty little thing has you by his side. I'd hate for something bad to happen to him. 
"Don't you fucking dare threaten Frank, Ray. Now, tell me what you came here for, or fuck off."
“Okay, jeez, don’t get your panties in a twist. I just wanted to ask if you’d had a chance to read through my proposal yet?”

Gerard clenches his fists on top of the table and takes a deep breath.

“No, I haven’t had a chance yet. I’ve given it to Chief Gates’ assistant for him to look over before I have a better look at it myself. I need to find out what he thinks of it first as corporal punishment is more his department. I’ll have an answer for you within the week.”
“I’ll have my phone at the ready for your call. It’s always a pleasure Gerard.”

Ray reaches across to shake Gerard’s hand, pulling him close and resting his hand on the back of Gerard’s neck and holding him there so he can whisper in his ear.

“I meant what I said about Frankie. Keep an eye on that pretty little thing before something bad happens to him.”

Gerard shoves Ray off him and glares.

“Stay the fuck away from Frank. If anything happens to him I’m coming after you. Get out of my sight.”

He spits, following Ray from his office and making sure he doesn’t go anywhere near Frank. Frank looks worriedly at Gee, standing up from his desk and gently touching his fiancée’s face.

“GeeBear? Are you okay?”
“Yeah baby, I’m okay. Sorry, Ray just said something that rattled me. Come on, let’s get out of here. Gates invited us over for dinner. I know you miss Michelle so we figured it’d be good for us all to catch up, and I think she wanted to go over some engagement party plans.”

Frank smiles at the mention of their engagement party and nods excitedly, going around to turn his laptop off and grab his messenger bag from under his desk. Gerard takes his hand and the two of them head out to the car and head to dinner.

Chapter Text

Lily chewed her lip and looked anxiously towards the basement door, she’d been able to hear Evie screaming for the last hour and it scared her thinking about what Zacky was doing to her down there. Usually Matt wouldn’t let Zacky anywhere near her, but Lily had come to know his bad side more than once.

“What are you doing down here? I told you to wait for me upstairs.”
“What’s Zacky doing to her down there? Why is he doing it?”
“It’s just business, Lily. You don’t need to concern yourself with things that don’t have anything to do with you.”

Matt kisses Lily’s forehead and she frowns, all but storming upstairs. Matt watches on, amused, as Lily shoves her arms into her jacket almost angrily and glares at him.

“Baby, what are you doing?”
“Don’t fucking ‘baby’ me, Daddy. Just because I act all innocent and sweet for you, doesn’t mean that I’m fucking stupid. You get off on causing pain just as much as Zack does so why don’t you go down there and join him! Call me when you figure your fucking shit out.”

Lily storms passed him and Matt laughs to himself as she slams the front door and he heads down to the basement with Zacky. He’s gone for a quite simple torture method this time, but with the beatings the two of them have dished out to Evie over the last three days it doesn’t take much to mark her up.

“Did I hear the front door slam?”
“Yeah. Lil just left. She was really irritated at me over this little predicament here.”

Matt runs his hand down Evie’s sweaty cheek and wraps his hand around her throat, holding on until she starts to pull against the cuffs because she can’t breathe.

“You look like hell, princess. How’re you feeling?”
“Fuck. Fuck y…you Shads.”
“She just doesn’t shut her fucking mouth does she?”

Zacky puts his hand over Evie’s mouth and she glares at him, resisting the urge to move her head and bite his hand.

“I like her better when she’s screaming anyway. You want to take over for a little bit? You’ve been busy with the kitten and haven’t really had a chance to play, or make the bitch pay for what she did to you.”

Evie mumbles something from behind Zacky’s hand and he raises an eyebrow at her, taking his hand away and just resting it on her neck.

“You want to try that again? Bear in mind, you piss me off and I’m going to go back to beating you instead of this fun little game we’ve been playing.”
“I said that you can let him take over because I’m not fucking scared of him.”

Matt laughs and pulls the switchblade from his pocket, fisting a hand in Evie’s hair with his free hand and pulling her head back so he can hold the knife at her throat.

“You were scared of me last time, puppy. I seem to remember you screamed and cried for me. Maybe I should give you another brand to match this one, hm?”

Evie flinches when Matt moves the knife to dig it in to her thigh where his initials are carved and he smiles, the dimpled smile not matching the threat coming out of his mouth.

“Maybe I should carve something a little more visible? What do you think, Zacky? Should we carve whore into her collarbone where she can’t hide it? Or maybe I should just fuck you? I know James won’t mind if I do, but I can’t imagine Jimmy wanting you back after I’m through with you.”
“Please n…no, Matt. Please.”
“Oh what’s that there, Evie? Is that fear I hear in your voice?”

Shaking her head Evie tried to pull away from the knife at her throat, not being able to get too far because of Matt’s hand in her hair. Matt leans over to kiss her, sticking his tongue down Evie’s throat to distract her from Zacky carving his initials into the opposite side to where Matt’s initials are. When Matt pulls away Evie cries out, flinching away from the knife but not being able to go very far because of the shackles around her wrists, waist, knees and ankles.

“Why don’t you sign your name that neatly on business documents, Zacky? Looks like a fuckin’ tattoo.”
“I don’t have the patience to sign my name like that all the fucking time. I just wanted to give Evie something nice to remember me by.”
“You lazy fuck. Why don’t you head upstairs and organise with Dewees if he’s coming for Evie tomorrow or if we’re taking her home.”

Zacky drops his hand down to put pressure on her thigh, making it bleed a little more where he’s carved ZV into her and then heads upstairs.

“What am I going to do with you, puppy? James said I’m not allowed to mark-up that pretty face of yours because you’re starting a new job with the police chief next week.”

Evie raises a confused eyebrow, both at what Matt said and at James actually agreeing to let her work for Syn.

“You’re confused, I can see it on your face. The mayor’s pretty little brother talked James around into letting you take the job. That’s how I found out about yours and Jimmy’s little romance. Mikey told James all about it, about how you’d be better off working with him so that Jimmy couldn’t be near you. How Mikey thinks that he can talk you out of wanting anything to do with that pathetic loser.”
“You’re lying. Mikey would never say that about Jimmy, they’ve been friends for years.”

Evie’s voice cracks and Matt can see the tears collecting in the corners of her eyes.

“That’s what you’ve been told by Jimmy anyway. Are you sure that Jimmy really cares about you? I feel like he’d tell you the truth if he was your real friend. I’m sure he does what everybody else in this town on James’ payroll does and tells you whatever you want to hear just to get a chance with you. Not that it matters what they tell you, does it? You’ll do whatever and whoever James tells you to because you’re such an obedient little whore.”

Matt can see that Evie has started to cry and continues to press on, tucking her fringe behind her ear and cupping her cheek.

“Pretty, little obedient whore who’ll fuck anyone she’s told to just to keep a roof over her head. You know that James tells everyone about you and how you’ll do anything they want.”

He leans closer so he can whisper in her ear, holding her hair when she tries to turn away from him.

“He’s had those cameras up in your bedroom for months, Evie. Has a live feed going that he gives out to potential clients that want to have a look at you before they fuck you.”

Evie won’t look Matt in the eye when he pulls away, her eyes clouding over with tears that she tries to shake out. Matt kisses Evie’s forehead before leaving the basement, waiting in the shadows to hear her cry and smirking as he leaves.

“What are you grinning at?”
“Have I ever told you how much I love psychological torture? Pretty little puppy is down there crying. What’s the plan for tomorrow?”
“Toro is coming to get her. He wants to have a proper look at her before he decides if he wants to fuck her.”

Zacky hands Matt a glass of whiskey and the two of them share a knowing smirk before collapsing on the couch together to watch TV.

Chapter Text

Evie pulled her knees tightly to her chest in an attempt to make herself as small as possible, shivering at the chill coming in through the open window in Zacky’s bedroom. He and Matt had taken her clothes off her as soon as they’d dragged Evie back down to the basement to torture her some more. She was chained to Zacky’s bed with a leash attached to her collar, and her hands were tied togetherEvie was happy that she was going home today, but was terrified of what was going to happen when she got there. All Evie wanted was a hot bath and for Jimmy to hold her, but only one of those things was going to happen.

“Thanks for being so much fun for Matty and I to play with, Evie.”

Zacky runs his hand down Evie’s shin, forcing his hand between her thighs to run his thumb over the still healing brand. Evie whimpered and tried to shift out of his reach, but Zacky held her ankle with his other hand so she couldn’t go anywhere.

“Go…go away Zacky. Haven’t you put…put me through eno…enough?”
“But you’re so fucking fun to play with. I’m interested to see how you fare on your way back to James’.”

Evie cocked her head to the side like a confused puppy and pulled herself up into a sitting position, wincing from the pain shooting through her ribs, arms and right thigh. Zacky giggles manically and Evie swallows thickly, taking a couple of deep breaths to calm down.

“The schools minister, Ray Toro, he’s an associate of Matt’s as well as James. He wants to get a look at you, and James can’t be bothered coming to get you so Ray will be giving you a ride home. He’ll be here any minute now, that’s what I came up here for. To come and get you. Now, be a good girl for me and don’t struggle.”

Zacky unlocks the thick, heavy padlock holding Evie’s leash to his bedpost which he wraps around his hand to haul her to her feet. He shoves Evie back into the bedpost with a hand around her throat, forcing her head up with his thumb.

“Such a lucky little whore, being allowed to go and work for the police chief. I was hoping we were gonna get to keep you this time around, wanted to tell James we killed you accidentally. You’d make such a pretty slave and I can think of so many things I could use you for.”

Evie wills herself to go numb as Zacky kisses her, then works his way down her jaw and throat. He moves his hand from her throat to her hair, wrenching Evie’s head to the side so he can suck a painful and large hickey into her neck just above her collar. Evie whimpers when Zacky bites her collarbone hard enough to draw blood and then yelps when he fists a hand in her hair and pulls, using the grip he has to drag her down the stairs and shove her to her knees at Matt’s feet.

“Feel like we should put some clothes on the puppy before we hand her over.”

Matt says thoughtfully, pulling on Evie’s handcuffs to force her higher onto her knees and she bites her lip to stay quiet. Before Zacky can answer there’s a knock on the door and Matt just smiles, letting go of Evie’s hands to backhand her hard across the face.

“Guess it’s too late now.”

Evie spits blood onto the floor and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, swearing under her breath when Matt pulls her back onto her knees and holds her there by her hair.

“You weren’t kidding about her being pretty, Zacky. How are her manners?”
“They leave a lot to be desired, nothing James smacking her around a little more can’t fix. Lovely to see you, Ray.”
“I’ll make sure I pass that onto James when I get her back home. Need you to work your magic again, Matt. Mayor is being a pain in my ass about the educational reforms I want to make. Come here, gorgeous.”

Ray leans down to pick Evie up by her throat and she lets him, closing her eyes and imagining it’s Jimmy as he roughly gropes her. Evie’s eyes shoot open as she feels the cold steel of a knife against her chest.

“You’re gonna keep those pretty hazel eyes open for me, little girl. I’d hate for my knife to slip and to add to all the work Zacky’s put into you.”

Evie shudders but does as she’s told, keeping her eyes open as Ray traces her body with his switch blade.

“Glad I got to view the merchandise in person before I purchased. Would have been a waste of money, she’s too scrawny for my liking.”
“I’m way too good for you anyway, you bastard.”

Ray just smirks and before Zacky can tell him not to, slashes Evie’s cheek with the knife and punches her hard enough that she’s out cold before she hits the floor.

“Mouthy little bitch. James is gonna kill me for that one, he told me not to mark up her face. Oh well.”

He leans down to ragdoll Evie into his arms, making sure he’s holding her in a way he’s not going to get blood on his shirt.

“Make sure you let James know that we’re going to sign the contract once you get her home. I’ll email his assistant to organise a meeting.”
“No worries. You know I go where you go. See what you can do about the mayor yeah?”
“You got it.”

Zacky and Matt take turns kissing Evie on her good cheek and Zacky removes the collar and leash before Ray carries her out of the house and places her gently down in his backseat. Evie doesn’t stir until they pull up in James’ driveway and she sits up in the backseat, pulling her knees to her chest and looking out the window. Ray opens the car door and pulls Evie out of the car by her hair, dragging her the rest of the way to the house. She doesn’t try to fight him and lets herself be dragged, self-consciously wrapping her arms around herself.

“Welcome home, little girl. You look like shit.”

Evie doesn’t respond to James, just rolls her eyes and lets the tears fall silently down her cheeks. James cups Evie’s good cheek and lifts her chin, frowning at the cut on her right cheek.

“Matt and Zacky do this to you?”
“No, that was my fault.”
“That’s unfortunate. Oh well, not much we can do about it now. I heard that you were a good girl for the boys, Evie. Jimmy is up in your room waiting for you. The two of you can have the rest of today and tonight together. Repercussion free, just this once.”

James smiles softly as Evie looks up at him with wide eyes and shakes her arm free from Ray’s grip, stepping forward and kissing him on the cheek.

“Thank you, Master.”

Evie heads quickly upstairs and James watches her fondly before turning back to Ray.

“Repercussion free?”
“At least that’s what I’m going to let her think. We have business to discuss. Come on, I’ll open a bottle of the good stuff.”

James puts his arm around Ray’s shoulders and leads him towards his office.

Evie took the stairs as quickly as she was able in the pain she was in, collapsing into Jimmy’s arms as soon as she made it to where he was waiting for her by her bedroom door.

“Jimmy.”
“God baby girl, they really did a fucking number on you this time didn’t they?”

Jimmy picks Evie up and carries her into her bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him and gently placing her down on the bed. He tries to get up but Evie reaches for him, whimpering and tightly gripping the bottom of his t-shirt.

“Hey it’s okay. I’m not going anywhere, just want to run you a bath.”

He kisses Evie to calm her down and pries her fingers from his shirt, heading to the bathroom to run Evie a bath and get back to her as quick as he can. She’s curled up in a ball and shivering when Jimmy gets back to her and he pulls Evie into his lap and rocks her gently.

“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t. Don’t you dare apologise for what those bastards did to you, Evie. They hurt you for sport, and because James told them they could. I’m going to kill them.”

Evie winces and yelps as Jimmy’s grip tightens as he gets angry and he immediately loosens his grip again.

“Fuck, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you it just makes me so fucking angry. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and warm.”

Jimmy helps Evie to her feet and keeps his arm around her to keep her steady, lifting Evie up and sitting her on the vanity while he checks the water temperature.

“Come on, sweetheart.”

Evie extends her hand to Jimmy and he smiles gently and helps her down, kissing Evie softly and helping her out of her lingerie. She tangles her hands in Jimmy’s hair and pulls him close, sighing softly when Jimmy runs his hands down her sides.

“I love you. You know that don’t you?”
“I know, Jimmy. I love you too. More than anything. It was the only thing that kept me from giving in to what those assholes were doing to me. Knowing that I was going to get to come home to you.”
“You’re always going to come home to me, Evie. I don’t care what James says or thinks. You’re mine and you always will be.”

Once Jimmy has stripped Evie naked he helps her into the bath, putting on a little bit of a show as he takes his clothes off. He gets into the bath and pulls Evie to lean back against his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course you can, baby. Anything.”

Evie licks her lips and tilts her head back to softly kiss Jimmy’s jaw, tracing the handcuff tattooed on his neck with her tongue. Jimmy groans and drops his hands to Evie’s hips, holding her still and trying not to thrust up against her back.

“I want you, Jimmy. I want you to fucking own me. In all sense of the word.”

Jimmy’s resolve gives out as Evie takes his hands from her hips and moves them up to cup her breasts.

“Are you sure, Evie? That this is what you really want?”
“Please, Jimmy. I’ve always been yours, always will be yours. Want to be yours properly, while we don’t have to worry about repercussions. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t gotten myself off to the thought of you fucking me, Jimmy. Of you in me, over me, fucking owning me and making me scream your name while I fall apart around you.”
“Fuck, baby. I’m gonna fall apart right now if you keep runnin’ that dirty fucking mouth of yours.”

Evie giggles and rolls her hips, moaning softly when Jimmy tightens up his grip on her breasts and starts mouthing at her throat.

“Alright, we’re gonna get you cleaned up and then I’m going to make you scream, just like you wanted.”

Jimmy whispers in Evie’s ear, his words low and full of dark promise.

Jimmy smiled at Evie and kissed her forehead, running his hand softly through her hair.

“Stop staring at me, you’re creeping me out.”
“Can’t help myself, you’re beautiful.”

Evie opened her eyes, soft hazel meeting crystal blue, and she smiled back, leaning on one arm so she could kiss Jimmy, wincing at the pain it caused her. Jimmy knew that the pressure would be hurting so ducked his head and pressed Evie back into the mattress, cupping her jaw as they lazily made out. After Jimmy had cleaned Evie up he’d carried her to bed and made good on his promise. Making her beg, squirm and scream for him. They’d dozed on and off for most of the afternoon, tangled around each other in Evie’s four poster. There was a breeze coming in through the open window that carried a bit of a chill, but with the way they were curled around each other and Evie’s silk sheets wrapped around them they couldn’t feel it.

“We should probably eat something my love.”
“No, don’t wanna get up. Comfy and warm with you here.”
“That’s why we call down to the kitchen and get someone to bring it up, silly.”

Jimmy could tell that there was no way Evie was going to move and he chuckled softly, wrapping his arms around Evie and for now, accepting defeat and just enjoying the feel of Evie pressed close.

Chapter Text

For the first time since he’d moved Evie into his house, James knocked on her door and waited instead of just barging in. Evie untangled herself from around Jimmy, smiling when he snuggled into her pillow, and wrapped her pink, satin kimono around herself to answer the door.

“Enjoying your day, sweetie?”
“Yes, Master. Thank you for giving this to us, and for letting me work for Syn. What…what made you change your mind about Jimmy and I?”
“I told you, you were good for Matt and Zack and they agreed to sign the merger contract. You just made me a fuck load of money so I figured that you deserved a reward. Just remember this next time you decide to throw a hissy fit at me.”

Evie hugged James and kissed him softly on the cheek.

“I know you well enough to know that your ‘no repercussions’ is bullshit. Please just promise me that you’ll take it out on me, not on Jimmy.”

James chuckles lowly and Evie subconsciously takes a step back, wincing when James grabs her arm and pulls her a little further into the hallway.

“You don’t get to call the shots, Evie, you know that.”
“I…I’m not trying to call the shots, Master. I…I’m just…just trying to protect Jimmy. I love him, you know that I do.”
“I do know that. You do realise that I have more reason to hurt Jimmy knowing that it’ll upset you? But you have nothing to worry about my sweet, I won’t hurt him. I have no reason to. I need you in my office at 8am tomorrow to talk over your job with Chief Gates. You have until then to spend with Jimmy.”

He lets Evie go and heads off downstairs, Evie pulls herself together and goes back into her bedroom and raises an eyebrow when Jimmy nearly falls through the door.

“You eavesdropping baby?”
“Just keeping an ear out on you. You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m alright. He just grabbed my arm and it’s gonna bruise but that’s normal. 8am meeting in James’ office with Syn but until them I’m yours. I’m sure there’s a few things we haven’t tried yet.”
“God I love the way your mind works.”

Jimmy smiles and Evie giggles when he picks her up and carries her over to the bed.

Evie smiled softly as she rolled over and Jimmy just hugged her tighter.

“I have to be downstairs in half an hour, Jimmy.”
“That means you don’t have to be up for another 20 minutes.”

Jimmy kisses her and rolls over to pin Evie to the bed and she giggles.

“Baby, come on, I gotta go. Come shower with me first?”
“Mm, shower. The magic word.”

Due to Jimmy joining her in the shower, Evie's hair was still wet and she hadn't put any make-up on by the time she made it down to James' office with barely 2 minutes to spare. The shimmery, pale pink lace crop top and dark blue denim jean shorts covered enough off the bruises and scars inflicted by Zacky and Matt, but the cut across her cheek from Ray was harder to disguise. The hickies from Jimmy were also impossible to hide, but they were about the only marks Evie wasn't ashamed were showing. Her ordeal had also meant she'd lost weight and her stomach was more toned than usual, something James noticed as soon as she walked in.

“You’re late.”
“It’s 7.58, no I’m not. Get over it.”

James slaps Evie’s good cheek and then grabs her by the throat, pulling her close so he can speak dangerously low in her ear.

“Drop the fucking attitude, you little brat.”

Evie grits her teeth and bites her tongue not to retaliate, fixing her hair and clothing when James lets go. James slaps her again before sitting down and Evie just crosses her arms over her chest and leans against the desk, facing away from him. There’s a quiet knock on the door at 7 minutes past 8 and Jimmy sticks his head in.

“Chief Gates is here to see you, Boss.”
“Thank you, Mr Sullivan. Send him in.”

Jimmy nods and then opens the door, ushering Syn in, winking at Evie and then leaving. Evie pulls a chair out for Syn and smiles at him, taking her position leaning against the desk once the tattooed man is comfortable.

“Good Morning James, Evie. How are you both?”
“We’re well, thank you Chief, and yourself?”
“Yeah I’m doing alright thank you, James. What happened to your face, honey?”

He stands up and cups Evie’s jaw, looking concerned, worried and protective all at once. Evie blushes at the gentleness and softness of Syn’s touch, smiling softly and taking his hand away.

“I had a disagreement with a pair of scissors whilst trying to cut my fringe yesterday. I’m okay, Syn. I promise.”
“Remind me not to let you have scissors anywhere near your face while you’re working for me, and to tell Mikey not to let you have scissors.”

Evie laughs and gives a minute nod when Syn’s eyes flick to James and then back to her. He sits back down again and smiles at James.

“Now, let’s discuss what Evie is going to be doing for me.”
“Whatever you want, Chief. Evie, honey, why don’t you get us some coffee and then come and sit down.”

Fake smiling and rolling her eyes Evie does as she’s told, going out to the kitchen and making a pot of coffee and taking it, milk, sugar and mugs into James’ office. She lets James make his own, and makes one for herself and then turns to Syn.

“How do you take your coffee, Sir?”
“White with two sugars, thank you love.”
“You’re welcome.”

Evie busies herself making Syn’s coffee, handing it to him with a wink and then sitting down.

“Now, let’s discuss this position that you want to take my Evie away for.”
“As I said at the charity ball the other night, James, my assistant is going on maternity leave and I’m going to need someone to take over her job. All Evie is going to be doing is filing papers, answering phones, taking notes in meetings and helping me around the office. All things I’m sure she is more than capable of doing.”
“How many hours and days a week are you going to need her for?”
“As often as you can give her to me for. Ideally I’d like her to be there Sunday to Thursday from 9am to 6.30pm, plus any overtime hours that I work she’ll need to be there for as well. Mikey and I tend to do dinner at the office on Wednesday nights and Evie is welcome to be around for. We would like to get to know her better.”

James pretends to nod in agreement but Evie can tell that he’s faking looking interested and couldn’t care less about anything that Syn is saying.

“5 days a week and long days? I’m not sure Chief, I really don’t like the idea of my girl being away from me for that long.”
“The way I see it, James? You’ve just signed a new business deal with Matt Sanders and you’re going to be extremely busy anyway. I’m getting Evie out of your hair and helping her to stay out of your way while you have more important things to do. Plus, I give her a job and she’s earning her own money and you don’t have to be solely responsible for her financials. I’m also sort of jealous that you get to keep her all to yourself. I’ve heard rumours about you, James, and exactly what it is that this pretty little thing does for you. Do you mind?”

Evie swallows thickly as she catches on to what Syn is trying to do, shivering a little at the smile James sends her way when she turns to look at him.

“Please, be my guest.”
“Thank you.”

Standing up Syn takes a step towards Evie and fists a hand in her hair, Evie whimpering and dropping to her knees when Syn uses the grip on her hair to get her down.

“So pretty on your knees, doll, and so responsive.”
“Go to hell, asshole.”

Evie spits through gritted teeth, trying to pull free of Syn’s grip on her hair and he just laughs. He backhands Evie hard across the face and drops her to the floor, stepping over her and offering James his hand.

“Do we have a deal, James?”
“She’s all yours, Chief. I’ll send her over first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you. See you tomorrow, beautiful.”

Syn kisses Evie’s forehead as he leaves and she shudders, wiping a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand.

“You’re excused, Evie. I don’t wanna see your fuckin’ face for the rest of the day. I’ll have the cook make you lunch and dinner and send it up with Jimmy.”
“Thank you, Master.”

Evie picks herself up from the floor and runs back to her bedroom, throwing herself onto the bed when she gets back to her bedroom. Curling up in a ball Evie cries, gripping her pillow tightly and breathing in the scent of Jimmy to calm down. She should have known that everything was too good to be true, that Syn was just another man in her life that was going to abuse and take advantage of her. After twenty minutes of her pity party, Evie’s phone buzzes under her pillow and remembering what both James and Jimmy said about the cameras in her room shoves the phone into her bra and heads into the bathroom. The text is from an unknown number and Evie opens it, biting her lip apprehensively.

From: Unknown
Sweetheart, I am so sorry for what happened in James’ office. I was losing James and I did the only thing I could think of to make him change his mind. I promise you, I am not that person and I will never ever put my hands on you again. Hurting you is the last thing I want. I want you safe and for you to feel safe with me. Please accept my deepest apologies.
I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Syn.

Putting her phone back in her bra, Evie schools her face to sad and gets a flannel out of the cupboard under her sink and wets it. Pressing it to her cheek where Syn and James hit her, Evie curls up in front of her window and trying to hide her smile.

Chapter Text

Evie woke up at 7.30am to start getting ready for her first day of work. She snuck her phone into the bathroom and smiled at the text from Jimmy.

From: Jimmy <3
Hi Baby, I hope you have a wonderful first day. Can’t wait to hear all about it tonight. Don’t forget to show me a photo of how you look my little sexy secretary.
Love you xo

She showered quickly and did her make-up, pulling her hair into a high ponytail with her fringe out. Wrapping her towel around herself, Evie stood in the middle of her walk-in closet and tried to decide what to wear. It took her almost half an hour but she finally decided on an above the knee black pencil skirt, knee-high black boots, a light purple camisole with a purple button down short sleeved shirt and a black blazer. She headed downstairs once she was happy with how she looked and knocked lightly on James’ office door.

“Come in.”
“Good Morning, Master.”
“You look absolutely fuckin’ gorgeous, little girl. Make sure you behave today, Evie, I’ll be extremely angry with you if the Chief tells me you were bratty for him.”

Evie nods, backing up a little out of instinct and trying hard not to roll her eyes at the smug look on James’ face. Evie jumps at the light knock on the door, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. There's a hand around her throat and a strong body pressed against Evie's back before she registers it's happening and she struggles out of instinct

“Did you miss me, puppy?”

Matt whispers in Evie’s ear and she shudders, struggling harder as he kisses down her neck.

“Perfect timing. Evie, Matt is gonna be driving you to work, and Zacky will be picking you up. Unless you want some bruises on that pretty face you’re gonna be good for them.”
“Somehow I don’t think it’ll be good for me to be covered in bruises if you want to leave a good impression on the community, everyone in this town knows who both of us are and not everyone is fucking scared of you.”
“Do me a favour and get her the fuck out of my sight before I kill her, Matt.”

James growls, Evie struggling to hide the satisfaction in her face at the pure, unadulterated fury on his.

“With pleasure.”

Matt lets go of Evie’s throat and presses his gun against the base of her spine, his other hand tightly gripping her upper arm.

“Let’s go, little girl.”
“Fuck you, Sanders.”

Evie goes where Matt puts her, unable to fight much with the gun at her back. Evie crosses her arms across her chest once they make it out to the car, crossing her legs as well and staring silently out the window. The ride to the police station is quiet until they arrive in front it, Matt reaching out to grip Evie’s wrist as she tries to get out of the car.

“You tell anyone that some of your bruises are from me and I’ll do worse to you, got it?”
“Don’t worry, I have way more interesting things to talk about than you. Thanks for the ride, asshole.”

She pulls her wrist free of Matt’s hand and jumps down from the car, heading inside after taking a nervous breath.

“Hey Beautiful! Good Morning. You look amazing. You ready?”

Evie giggles at Mikey and how fast he talks, smoothing her skirt down with a smile.

“I’m ready. I think so anyway. Where do we start?”
“Well I think you’re going to be wonderful. First off is going to get coffee, and then we’re going to see Syn.”
“Mm, coffee. The magic word, Mikey.”

Mikey smiles and puts his arm around Evie, leading her towards the kitchen and pointing out areas around the office that she might find useful. Evie makes Syn a coffee and takes that into his office, placing it down on his desk and stepping back with a small smile.

“Good Morning you two, you look beautiful by the way, Evie. Mikey, can you give us a minute please, love?”
“Sure thing, Boss. Don’t forget you have that meeting with the school’s minister at 10.”
“Thanks Mikey.”

Syn waited until Mikey was out of sight before getting up and closing the door to his office, flicking the lock closed as well and then taking Evie in his arms.

"I am so sorry that I hit you yesterday sweetheart, as I explained at the charity ball we know what James does to you. I don't want you anywhere near any of that but hitting you was all I could think of to get him on board. Can you forgive me?"
"Of course I forgive you, I know that you were just doing what you thought was right."

She wriggled out of his arms and kissed him on the cheek, smiling softly and sincerely to show him she was okay. Syn smiled back at her and lifted her head with his fingers under her chin, eyeing off the hickies on her throat with stormy eyes.

"Sanders give you those?"

He asked darkly and Evie blushed, giggling and shaking her head.

"Jimmy. We were allowed to spend the day together the day before yesterday, James' way of 'thanking me' for helping him get the deal through with Matt & Zacky. He was allowed to be possessive so Jimmy went a little nuts with putting his mark on me, you should see the rest of them!"
"James let you two be intimate with each other?"
"He said that it was repercussion free, just this once. But I trust James about as far as I can throw him, so I know I'm going to pay for it in some way. I won't let him hurt Jimmy anyway, so I'll gladly take the beating if I have to."

Syn opens his mouth to say something else but they're interrupted by a knock on the door.

"What is it?"

He yells out, looking slightly irritated but proud of Evie at the same time.

"There's been an accident down at the town hall, casualties suspected and I can't get a hold of my brother."

Mikey sounds frantic and worried and Syn unlocks the door and throws it open.

"We will find him, Mikey, I promise. Meet me in the car in 5 minutes. Send Alex and Brooks ahead now and we'll meet them there."

Syn runs a hand through his hair and unlocks the top draw of his desk, pulling out his gun and holstering it. Grabbing his jacket and Evie’s hand and heading out to the car that Mikey is standing next to, chewing his lip nervously with his phone pressed to his ear. Mikey shoves his phone in his pocket when he doesn’t get an answer and Evie puts her arm around him, resting her head on his chest and squeezing gently.

“Gee will be okay, Mikey, probably not answering his phone because he’s trying to help everyone else.”

Mikey wraps his arms tightly around Evie, resting his chin on the top of her head.

“I hope so, sweetheart.”

He says quietly, kissing her forehead softly before pulling away and jumping in the car.

“When we get there, Mikey, I want you to set up a command centre at the front of the building, and keep Evie with you. I need the two of you to keep on top of comms and in contact with everyone else. Evie, Mikey is going to get you a list of names of everyone who works in the building and you’re going to keep track of anyone who is missing or unaccounted for. Mikey, babe, I know that you’re going to want to go and look for Gee but I need you to run point on the ground. There’s nobody else that I can trust with this, okay?”
“I know, Syn, I’ll do what I can just, please, promise me that you’ll find him.”
“He’ll be okay, Mikey, you know what Gee is like when shit like this happens.”

Syn leans over to squeeze Mikey’s thigh before focusing back on the road, none of them really sure what they’re about to stumble across.

“Oh my god.”

Evie covers her mouth with her hand as they pull up to the town hall, or what’s left of it anyway. Half of the building is smoking and has collapsed in on itself, the other half slowing blackening from the thick smoke.

“Call the tac squad, Mikey. We’re going to need all the hands we can get.”
“I’m on it. Fire department is about 2 minutes away, and Mercy General is sending as many ambulances as they can spare. Baby, take this. I’ve got a list of everyone on staff that’s here today. It’s touch screen so I want you to cross out the names of people as they check in with us, and then leave the ones that you don’t. Okay?”

Mikey pushes a tablet into Evie’s hands and she nods slowly, swallowing harshly and trying to hide that she’s scared.

Three hours later and Evie has overcome her fear and is helping Mikey run a command centre in the top of the carpark, over 50% of the people in the building have checked in with them, about 40% of them being sent directly to the hospital with minor injuries, and 10% in critical conditions.

“Mikey!”

Mikey looked up at the sound of his name and barely had time to react as Frank threw himself into his arms, the smaller man was covered in blood and dust and looked white as a sheet.

"Frankie! Thank fuck you're okay. Where's Gee?"
"I don't...I don't kn...know. He was in...in his office and I went to get us...get us coffee and then there was a...a huge explosion. I tried Mikey...but I...I couldn't find him. I...I'm s...sorry."
"It's okay, Frankie. What's important is that you're alive. This is Evie, she's going to look after you, okay?"

Frank nods slowly and lets Evie sit him down, flinching a little bit when she touches him. Evie looks over Frank, examining him for any sort of injury but not being able to find anything. She looks at Frank and frowns at the glazed over and far off look in his eyes, not worrying until she touches the back of his head and her hand comes away red. 

"Frankie, I need you to listen to me very carefully, can you do that?"

Frank doesn't answer her and Evie swears, throwing a worried look over her shoulder at Mikey and reaching for some gauze.

"I need you to tell me what happened, Frank. Do you remember how you hit your head?"
"I...didn't hit my...head...what...what are you talk...talking about?"

Evie barely manages to catch Frank as he slumps over and she lays him gently on the ground in the recovery position.

"Call an ambulance over here, Mikey. Now!"

Mikey jumps into action and Evie pales, Frank has stopped breathing. She rolls him onto his back and starts performing CPR.

"Come on, Frankie, don't you dare give up on me! Please."

It takes three rounds of compressions before finally Frank starts breathing on his own and the paramedics take over, Mikey having to pull Evie away and help her to her feet. He sits her down and hands her a bottle of water, crouching in front of her and smiling softly.

"Heck of a first day so far, hey? You did really well babe, Frankie is alive because of you."
"Most eventful first day ever. I was so scared, Mikey. Have they..."
"Mikey, we found Gee. They're taking him straight to the hospital and you're going to go with him. I'll take over here."

Mikey hugs Syn and Evie and then takes off in the direction of the ambulance he's pointed towards, Syn bundling Evie into his arms.

"We're done here, there's nothing else we can do. I heard over the radio what you did for Frankie, that was really brave of you. Come on, I'll take you back to the office with me and we'll debrief the team then we'll go wait at the hospital with Mikey."

"O...okay."

Evie numbly follows Syn back to the car, taking her blazer off that's covered in Frank's blood and dirt. Aside from radio calls and updates every few minutes, the ride back to the station is quiet, both of them too exhausted to speak. The station is quiet when they get back, and Evie heads straight to the bathroom to wash her hands and compose herself.

"Alright, everyone did an amazing job today, and despite the amount of casualties I was you all to know that the people who made it out of that building alive, did so because of us. Alex, Rian, you two need to go and get yourselves checked over at the hospital, Brooks, Arin, I need you two to set up a control centre here and start contacting the families of those that we lost today. Victoria, Nate, I need you two to get to the hospital and start questioning people about what they saw and heard, Jack, Gabe, head home, and then relieve Brooks and Arin at 23.00, then Alex and Rian will relieve you two at 07.00. I'm getting in back-up from New York and they'll arrive tomorrow. Evie, you and I are going to go to the hospital and check on the Mayor. Once again, great work today everyone, I'm proud of you all."

Everyone starts to get onto their tasks and Syn puts his arm around Evie and helps her out to the car, being able to tell that she's still in shock over everything that's happened. Her phone starts ringing as they get into the car and she answers it with shaking hands. 

"Hel...hello?"
"Hi Baby, I just got off the phone with Mikey and he told me what happened, are you okay?"
"I...I think so. Syn and I are heading to the hospital to sit with Mikey and wait for news, any chance you can come and meet us there?"
"Already on my way sweetheart, hang tight okay? I love you."

Jimmy hangs up before she can respond and Evie takes a shuddering breath, giving Syn a half smile to try and convey to him that she's okay and shoving her phone back in her pocket.

Chapter Text

The hospital was bustling with activity once Evie and Syn arrived, and he went straight up to find out where Gee and Frank were. Evie was silently staring at one of the walls when Jimmy found her and he wrapped his arms around her from behind, she turns and puts her arms tightly around him and breathing him in.

“You okay baby?”
“Mom died at this hospital, and I had to come here and ID Dad’s body after the accident.”

Jimmy squeezes Evie a little tighter and kisses her forehead softly, running a hand through her hair.

“How old were you?”
“Nine. How’s Frank and Gerard?”
“Haven’t seen them yet, wanted to come check on you first. Let’s go up together? I know Mikey will want to see you.”

Evie numbly lets Jimmy lead her upstairs to a quieter floor, a lot less action happening up here than on the lower floors.

“I’m okay, Mikey, stop fussing.”

They can hear Gerard before they can see him and the head towards the voices, Mikey has his arms wrapped tightly around his brother.

“I thought I was gonna lose you, Gee. Nobody could find you and you weren’t answering your cell and…”
“Hey, I’m not going anywhere, Mikey. I’m right here yeah? I’m here.”

Gee hugs his younger brother tightly, rubbing his hand in small circles between Mikey’s shoulders. Evie can see the way Mikey’s shoulders shake, a dead giveaway that he’s crying.

“I was so scared that they weren’t going to be able to find you. You can’t leave me, okay?”
“Never gonna leave you, Mikes. Ever. Syn and I are gonna go and see Frankie, and Evie is gonna stay here with you. Honey…”

Evie steps over and wraps her arm around Mikey’s waist, smiling softly at him and turning to Gerard.

“I’m really glad you’re okay, Gee. This town wouldn’t be the same without you at the helm.”
“Thank you, love.”

Gee kisses her forehead and giving Mikey one last hug, follows Syn down the hall.

“So, don’t get mad at me…but I did some research into you and I know your Mom died at this hospital. You doing okay?”
“Yeah…I’m okay. My Mom…she didn’t really like me anyway. She was jealous of me and how pretty I was, or at least that’s what my Dad told me anyway. She took off when I was 6, made a reappearance a year later and then she died on me from a drug overdose. Stupid cow. Dad died when I was 9, in a car accident. He was driving drunk and uh, and wrapped his car around a lamp post.”
"Were you guys close?"

Evie nods, wiping the tear from her cheek and giving Mikey a small smile.

"Yeah, my Dad was like my best friend. I was a total Daddy's girl as a kid and followed him everywhere. Because my Mom took off we couldn't really afford much so we were poor, but we got by. Dad made sure I had pretty much everything I ever wanted, and he was really all I needed. I...I remember when he died and they asked me to come down and ID his body. I'd been at school, rehearsing for a school nativity play and he'd been on his way to pick me up. It was probably the wor...worst day of my life. I didn't have anyone else so after Dad died I got put in foster care, but I got beaten and abused in all of them so I ran away when I was 15 and was living on the streets. Took care of myself mostly...until...until James found me and well, you know the rest."
“I’m so sorry, love. You’re an amazing young woman and your Dad would be so proud of you. Come up and see Frankie with me?”

Mikey doesn’t really give Evie a choice, tangling their hands together and leading her down the hall to a closed door. He knocks lightly on the door and then opens it, closing it once he and Evie are inside. Jimmy pulls Evie to sit on his lap once their inside, Mikey standing behind Gerard and putting his hands on his shoulders.

“How is he, Gee?”
“No change, which is good I suppose? At least he’s not getting worse. He’s just being Frankie, being stubborn aren’t you love?”

Gee takes Frank’s hand and squeezes, reaching back to put a hand on top of Mikey’s. They sit in silence for a few hours, Syn coming in and out to check on everyone and bring everyone coffee.

“Come on baby girl, let’s get you home.”

Jimmy says softly in Evie’s ear, shaking her gently to wake her up. Evie kisses Jimmy when she wakes up and he smiles at her sleepy kiss, running a hand through her hair and pulling away.

“You’ve had a long day, Evie. Take her home Jimmy, and I will see you both bright and early tomorrow morning.”

Syn helps Evie to her feet and kisses her on the cheek, shaking Jimmy’s hand and smiling fondly at Evie when she hugs Gee and Mikey.

“Mikey you have Jimmy’s number, and he’ll text you mine. If you guys, either of you guys, need anything, please just call me. I got you at work, Mikey, you take all the time you need to be here with Gee and Frankie okay?”
“Thank you, beautiful. I wouldn’t have gotten through today without you. Get some sleep.”

Jimmy hugs Mikey tightly, running a hand through his hair.

“You know where I am if you need anything.”

He leans in a little closer and drops his voice a little bit.

“Keep me updated on Gee and look after him yeah?”
“Thanks Jimmy, you’re the best.”

Evie is asleep by the time Jimmy gets her home, and James is waiting in the driveway for them.

“Don’t bother getting her out of the car, Jimmy. You’re taking her to Matt and Zacky’s and she’s staying there for a while.”
“Please don’t do that to her, James. Please. Evie’s been through enough the last week.”

James just laughs and Jimmy instinctively takes a step back.

“No point in begging me, Jimmy. You’re going with her. I need both of you out of the way for a little while. Send Zacky my regards.”

When James pulls the gun on Jimmy he has no choice but to get back in the car, glad that Evie is still asleep and not getting caught up in this. Matt and Zacky are waiting for them in the driveway when they pull up and Jimmy swallows harshly, jumping down from the car and leaning against the door to the backseat.

“Long time no see, Pretty Boy.”

Matt pins Jimmy up against the passenger side door of the car so Zacky can reach in and carry Evie inside. Once Zacky is out of sight Matt fists a hand in Jimmy’s hair and kisses him, Jimmy sighing softly and resting his hands on Matt’s hips.

“Fuck I missed you.”
“Missed you too, Matty. Let’s take this somewhere private shall we?”

Jimmy takes Matt’s hand and winks, biting his lip and leading Matt upstairs to his bedroom.

Chapter Text

When Evie woke up she rolled over and was completely confused when she found Zacky smiling sadistically at her.

“What…what the fuck is going on?”

She stands and backs up as Zacky follows her, standing a few feet away.

“You and Jimmy are going to stay with us for a little while. I’m not sure what it could be but there’s just something about you the makes James want to kill you.”
“You hurt one hair on Jimmy’s head and I swear to God I will kill you.”

Zacky laughs and closes the gap between them, crowding Evie against the wall and talking at her ear.

“You are in no position to be making threats, Little One.”

Keeping her pinned with his hips, Zacky secures the collar around Evie’s neck and clips the leash on. Evie takes a shuddering breath to try to stop herself from crying, but a tear slips slowly down her cheek anyway.

“I want to see him, Zacky. I’ll do whatever you want but please, just let me see him.”
“Anything huh?”

Evie numbly moves her mouth against Zacky’s as he leans forward and kisses her, shoving his tongue in her mouth. He pulls away and kisses her forehead, cupping her cheek and running his thumb across her bottom lip.

“Alright, I’ll take you to see Jimmy. You’re gonna be good for me tonight though, otherwise I’m gonna make sure Jimmy pays for it tomorrow. Okay?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Mmm, there’s a good girl.”

Zacky leads Evie down to the basement by her leash, pausing every now and then to pull tighter on it and choke her. He unclips her leash and fists a hand in her hair, pulling her close and biting her earlobe.

“You’ve got 10 minutes, so make it count.”

He shoves her into the basement and Evie can hear the bolt being pulled across. She runs to Jimmy’s side once her eyes have adjusted to the light and curls into his side, wanting to hug him but being too scared she’ll hurt him to actually do it. Jimmy is sat on the floor with his hands chained above his head, his lip bloodied and a black eye rapidly forming on the left side of his face.

“I’m gonna kill them, Jimmy. I’m gonna kill them all for hurting you.”
“Hush baby ,I’m okay. S’not as bad as it looks.”

Evie rolls her eyes and stands up, pacing back and forth in front of him and getting increasingly angry.

“That’s not the fucking point, Jimmy! None of this has anything to do with you, they’re doing it for fucking sport and that’s not okay. I don’t care what they do to me, I…I deserve it anyway but you? You haven’t done anything to deserve any of this. The only reason you’re getting hurt is because of me, because you love me. Maybe it would just be better if I killed myself, then nobody would be getting hurt!”

She hangs her head and curls in on herself when she’s done and Jimmy can tell that she’s trying not to cry.

“Don’t you dare say that, Evie. Killing yourself is how they win, don’t let them do this to you. Come on, come sit with me, I feel better when your close.”

Conceding defeat, Evie sits back down and rests her head on Jimmy’s chest. He rests his chin on her head and kisses her softly, just enjoying the feel of her pressed up close against him.

“I want you out of here, Jimmy. I’m going to make some sort of trade with Zacky, me in exchange for you. Maybe…maybe if I agree to be his sex slave, something I know he…he wants…they’ll stop hurting you.”
“Don’t worry about me, Evie, I can take care of myself. Don’t let those bastards change who you are and take advantage of you like that. I don’t want that for you.”

Evie shuts Jimmy up by kissing him, trying to be gentle to avoid hurting his split lip and climbing into his lap. She rests her hands on his shoulders and tries not to roll her hips, it not being the time or the place to try and have sex with him considering the circumstances. She rests her forehead against Jimmy’s when he breaks the kiss and he smiles.

“I love you, Jimmy.”
“I love you too, Evie.”
“Well, this is cute, and a little pathetic. Never thought you’d bother with a little whore like her, Jimmy.”

Matt reaches between them to clip Evie’s leash back onto her collar, pulling her to her feet and pinning both hands behind her back. He keeps eye contact with Jimmy and winks while kissing up and down her neck. Jimmy’s lip curls and he pulls against the chains around his wrists for Evie’s benefit.

“She’s not a whore, Sanders. You don’t know shit about Evie and you don’t get to talk about her like that.”

He growls and Matt just laughs into Evie’s shoulder, holding both her hands with one of his and wrapping the other arm around her neck.

“Did you really mean what you said, Evie? I hope you did, you got Zacky all excited. He’s been wanting to fuck you ever since he first saw the video feed of you.”

Jimmy shakes his head and Evie just swallows thickly.

“Only…only if you promise not to hurt Jimmy.”
“Baby, no, I told you, you don’t have to do this. I’m fine.”
“I’m not going to let them hurt you! Yes I…I’ll do it.”
“Either of you fuckers hurt her and I swear, you’re going to wish you were never fucking born by the time I’m through with you!”

Matt just laughs over Evie’s shoulder at Jimmy as he rages, dropping Evie to the floor once he’s knocked her out with a syringe she didn’t even feel.

“Little over the top acting don’t you think?”

Jimmy just shrugs, smiling and taking the hand Matt offers to get him back on his feet.

“She believed me didn’t she?”
“Sorry, I got a little carried away.”

Matt gently touches Jimmy’s black eye, frowning and looking apologetic.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve had worse.”
“Not from me you haven’t. You know I don’t enjoy hurting you unless it’s in a way I know you like. Want me to blow you to make up for it?”

Jimmy laughs, kissing Matt on the cheek and leaning down to pick Evie up.

“I’d much rather you fuck me until my brain leaks out my ears, but if you’d rather blow me…”
“Such a romantic, Jim. Now, let’s take this to the bedroom shall we?”

Matt puts his arm around Jimmy’s shoulders and the two of them head back into the house.

Syn gently shook Gerard awake, pushing a paper cup of shitty hospital coffee into his hand.

“Go home, Gee. You need to rest.”
“I don’t want him to wake up alone, Syn.”
“He won’t be alone, I’ll stay with him.”

He said softly, squeezing Gee’s shoulder. Gee hadn’t left Frank’s side since they’d arrived at the hospital, too worried about his fiancée to go anywhere. Mikey had stayed with him for the first four hours, then Syn had come to take over around 5am so Mikey could get some rest.

“Mikey is going to come and relieve me at 9 so I can go to work, then you can come and take over at lunch time. You need sleep, otherwise when Frankie’s stubborn little butt does wake up you can take care of him.”
“M’not stub…stubborn.”

Comes the reply and Gee huffs a laugh, leaning over to kiss Frank gently and run a hand through his hair.

“How’re you feeling, love?”
“I hurt, kind of everywhere and a little dizzy. What happened?”
“There was an explosion, we’re still not really sure what caused it. You got caught up in it when you were getting coffee, then you passed out on Evie and Mikey at the comm centre.”

Frank frowns, looking like he’s trying to remember and then nods slowly.

“I don’t remember the explosion, but I do remember passing out on Evie. Is she okay? I must have scared her.”
“The young lady saved your life actually, Frank, did CPR until the paramedics arrived.”

The doctor says as he walks into the room, holding Frank’s chart and smiling. Doctor Spencer Smith had been taking care of Frank since he was in his early teens, and cared deeply for the young man. He was tall, with soft blue eyes and shaggy brown hair.

“How are you feeling, Frankie?”
“I’m okay, Doc. Just feeling a little dizzy and really sore but I’m okay. Any chance I can……”
“You’re not going home tonight. I want to keep you in for a couple days, just to make sure everything is alright. Definitely for tonight at least. Mayor, I can have an extra bed brought in for you if you’d like to stay here?”

Frank pouts at having to stay in the hospital and Gee chuckles, taking Frank’s hand and squeezing.

“How many times do I have to tell you it’s okay for you to call me Gerard, Spencer? I would appreciate the bed, if you can spare it.”
“My apologies, Gerard. Yes, of course, I can make that happen. I do insist Frank gets some rest now though, if you don’t mind Chief?”

Syn laughs, ruffling Frank’s hair and embracing Gee quickly.

“Consider me gone. I’ll call Mikey on my way out, Gee. Thank you again, Doctor Smith, and get some rest Frank.”

He waves to them all as he leaves, Spencer following not long after to organise a bed for Gerard, leaving the two alone.

“You scared me.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I’m here now though, and I’m okay. I’m just tired. Love you, Gee.”
“I love you too, Frankie. Get some rest, I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

Gerard let’s out a sigh of relief once Frank has closed his eyes again, gently touching his lovers face.

Chapter Text

The last 2 months had been nothing short of hell for Syn, having to sit in his office and watch Evie’s condition worsen. She’d been telling him and Gerard that she was alright, that Zacky was abusing her sexually but nothing else. James and Matt were in the process of importing arms from Russia and using shell companies to do it. They were no closer to finding out who set off the explosion, but they all had suspicions that it was Matt, James or Zacky. They had no way to prove or disprove it though, and everyone was working overtime to try and figure it out. Jimmy had been allowed to go back to James’ after two weeks, and after intense negotiations and a huge argument Evie had been moved into Matt and Zacky’s.

“Hey Mikey, how’s Frank?”
“He’s doing really well, thanks Evie. How’re you?”

Evie shrugged and ran a hand through her hair, Mikey frowning at the bruises on Evie’s forearm that he could see when her shirt slid up. Noticing him looking, Evie tugged her shirt back down to cover her arm and smiled softly.

“I’m okay, Mikey. You and Syn need to stop worrying about me so much yeah? I’m worth more to Zacky alive. Have you been sleeping at all, Mikey?”
“You worry too much about everyone else, love. I’m fine. I know you’re worth more to them alive, but that depends on their definition of alive. You don’t look like you’re eating, all you drink is coffee and your hands shake like crazy all the time. Every day you come in here with new bruises and marks on you and we’re all worried about you. Even though you tell us that you’re okay all the time, we know that you’re not and we worry about you. You’re a beautiful person, Evie, and I don’t just mean on the outside.”
“Mikey, can you come in here for a minute? I need you.”

Mikey gives Evie a quick hug and then heads into Syn’s office, Evie rolled her eyes fondly and got back to her paperwork. She’d been sitting quietly for about half an hour and Mikey still hadn’t emerged from Syn’s office, she could hear them having a heated discussion though and she was trying to tune it out.

“Hey Evie, can I uh, can I ask you a question?”
“Oh hi, it’s Gabe, right? Go for it.”
“This is gonna sound creepy, so I’m really sorry in advance but uh, I was just wondering if…if maybe you’d let me take you out for dinner next week? I’ve been sitting at the desk across from you ever since you started here and you’re absolutely gorgeous and…and I’m gonna shut up now.”

Evie giggles at Gabe’s rambling, running a hand through her hair and smiling softly. Gabe is nervously wringing his hands, his brown eyes darting around the room. Gabe is quite pretty in Evie’s opinion, with kind, brown eyes and brown hair.

“That’s really sweet, Gabe, but uh…”
“Hey Baby, you ready to go to lunch?”

Zacky strode in and put his arm around Evie’s shoulders, making a big show of kissing her and getting a little more aggressive until she kissed him back.

“Gabe, this is my boyfriend Zacky, Zack, this is Gabe Saporta. He was one of the hardest working patrol officers after the explosion and really helped me out while Mikey was helping take care of Frank.”
“Nice to meet you, Gabe. Thanks for looking after my Evie.”
“I have to check with Syn before I can leave for lunch. Please be nice while I’m gone, Zacky.”

Evie sends a quick smile in Gabe’s direction and then knocks on the door to Syn’s office, using her spare key to let herself in and immediately starts giggling.

“Oh my God you two!”

She leans against the now closed door and puts her hands over her eyes, trying as hard as she can to stop herself from laughing.

“This…this isn’t what you think it is, Evie. Mikey…and I…he was…”
“You mean Mikey wasn’t on his knees sucking your dick? Coz, you know, that’s kinda what it looks like. Also, not gonna say I’m surprised. I kinda had a feeling something was going on between you two.”
“Was there something you needed, babe? We’re sort of……”

Mikey wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and huffs impatiently, Syn rolling his eyes and pulling a little harder on Mikey’s hair to shush him.

“Yeah I uh, I just wanted to tell you I was going to lunch. Zacky’s here and he’s gonna start throwing punches if I don’t go and settle him down.”
“Yep, no problems. Please lock the door on your way out and we’ll um, we’ll talk about this later.”
“Sure thing. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Evie giggles as she leaves Syn’s office, getting between Zacky and Gabe as soon as she comes out and senses that something is about to go down.

“Come on, Zack, let’s get you some food and me some coffee, yeah?”

She puts her hands on Zacky’s chest and kisses him in an attempt to distract him, and it takes a second but he relaxes under her lips and rests his hands on her hips.

“Okay, coffee and lunch. Let’s go.”

Zacky takes Evie’s hand and waits until they’re out of the building and around the corner before shoving her into the wall, he spins her face first into it and pins her with his hips.

“I have a much much better idea than lunch and coffee, puppy. Can you guess what that is?”

He asks against Evie’s ear and she whimpers, not answering Zacky and just trying to push him off with her shoulders.

“Please Zacky…d…don’t.”
“Fucking love it when you beg, little girl.”

Zacky whispers in Evie’s ear and fists a hand in her hair, wrenching her head to the side and biting her neck hard enough to make her bleed.

“C’mon, let’s get somewhere more private hm?”

Evie goes where Zacky puts her, not really being able to fight without causing a scene and just hoping that Zacky does whatever it is he wants to do quickly.

Mikey knew something was wrong as soon as Evie walked back into the station after she’d disappeared to lunch just from looking at her. Her hair was mussed and her mascara and eyeliner had run down her face, and her eyes were completely glazed over.

“Syn…”
“Yeah?”

Syn followed Mikey’s eyeline and his mouth fell open in shock at Evie’s appearance, and her apparent unawareness of where she was. Mikey walked over and put his arm around her shoulders, corralling Evie into Syn’s office and sitting her down.

“Honey are you alright?”
“Huh? Y…yeah, I...I’m ff…fine.”

Evie ran a hand through her hair and that’s when Syn and Mikey noticed the blood trickling slowly down her arm.

“What the fuck?”
“Evie, what happened on your lunch break?”

Mikey asked her softly, crouching in front of Evie so she was looking at him. She furrowed her eyebrows and bit her lip, looking like she was trying to remember.

“Zack…he showed up…he…here. Gabe…asked…asked me out and then…we…we went out and…uh…I…I don’t remem…remember. Mikey?”
“Yeah love?”
“I don’t…I don’t feel so g…good.”

As soon as Evie started to fall Mikey was there to catch her, easing her gently onto the floor and half in his lap.

“Take her home, Mikey.”
“Where, Syn? I’m not taking her back to Matt’s, or to James’. Not this time.”
“Take her to your place. I’ll call Gee and fill him in what’s happened. See if you can figure out what that asshole dosed her up with and if you can get her to talk to you.”

Syn kisses Mikey’s forehead and strokes his lover’s cheek, Mikey turning into the hand n his cheek and kissing Syn’s palm.

“She’ll be okay, babe, don’t stress too much yeah?”
“I’m trying, Syn, I promise. Come home soon, alright? We have a lot of work to do when you get there, so bring food too.”
“Whatever you want, Mikey. Go on, get out of here.”

Mikey carries Evie out to his car and straps her into the passenger seat, driving back to his apartment and trying to keep his composure. When he makes it back to his place, Mikey carries Evie inside and puts her down in his spare bedroom. He removes her shoes and her jacket, then heads into the bathroom to get a warm washcloth. Using the washcloth Mikey cleans the blood from the inside of Evie’s arm, shaking his head at the fresh track marks.

“You have really pretty eyes. Has anyone ever…ever told you that?”
“Not recently. How’re you feeling?”
“Like…like shit. Where uh, where am I?”

Evie gratefully accepts Mikey’s hand and he helps her sit up, passing her the glass of water that’s on the bedside table.

“My place. You passed out in Syn’s office, scared the heck out of us. What did Zacky shoot you up with, Evie?”
“Probably smack, knowing him like I do. I don’t know though, it could be anything. Most likely smack though. He likes to dose me up with it so I don’t know where I am or what’s going on.”
“Fucking hell, Evie. Get some rest and see if you can sleep it off. I’d give you some painkillers, but I don’t think that it’ll help. Syn will be here later, and the three of us are going to sit down and come up with a plan of attack. There is no way in hell I’m letting you go back to that asshole after this. No way.”

Mikey sits with Evie until she falls asleep, trying not to get too angry at the situation and the circumstances, and determined to find a solution to what’s going on.

Chapter Text

“He shot her up with what?!”
“Fucking heroin, and from what she was saying it’s not the first time he’s done it either.”

Mikey had filled Syn in on what Evie had told him and Syn was seething, pacing around Mikey’s living room and trying to keep his emotions in check.

“I knew what James was doing to her and could let it slide but this? This is just going too far. I have it in mind to go over there and arrest that son of a bitch for this.”
“That’s all well and good but I think you need to leave that up to Evie. She’s terrified of them, of all of them and arresting them is only going to make it worse. You said it yourself when you set all this into motion, you need to wait until she’s ready and until you have enough on them to put them away for good.”
“How are you so calm right now? He could have killed her, Mikey! That would have been my fault if it happened. This was all my idea and…”

Syn stopped mid-sentence and Mikey followed his eyeline to Evie, freshly showered and wearing one of his old Pink Floyd shirts as a dress and leaning against the wall looking slightly amused.

“Like I was telling Mikey this morning, Syn, I’m worth more to Zacky alive. He’s a sick fuck but I can’t see him being a necrophiliac so I’m more interesting to him you know, breathing.”

Evie nudged Mikey until he moved enough to let her curl into his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Didn’t hear the shower running.”

Mikey mused into Evie’s hair and he felt her shrug.

“Probably because you and Syn were too busy yelling to hear it. Found your shirt in the wardrobe, hope it’s okay I borrowed it.”
“Of course, honey. How are you feeling?”
“Like shit to be honest, the come down always sucks. Don’t suppose I could trouble you for some strong, black coffee? It usually helps.”

Evie pouted when Mikey got up, smiling when Syn came and sat with her and she curled into his side.

“You’re as bad as Gee with your coffee aren’t you? Just lucky I always keep coffee in my kitchen.”
“Like you can talk, Mikey. You’re worse than your brother when it comes to coffee.”

Mikey flips Syn off and then heads into the kitchen, leaving Evie and Syn alone in the lounge. Syn wraps his arm around Evie’s shoulders and she shifts, pulling her knees into her chest and almost sitting in his lap.

“Wouldn’t be your fault if I died by the way, just so you know. I knew what I was signing myself up for when I agreed to this, knew what the risks were going to be. You and Mikey need to stop worrying so much okay? I’ve been with James for six years and I’ve been through a lot worse than being shot up every now and then to be kept under control. I can handle myself pretty well when I need to. At least Zacky is careful  when he doses me up, more careful than I ever was when I was on the street and taking whatever I could to make myself numb.”
“What were you taking?”

Syn can feel Evie shrug and she runs a hand through her hair and bites her lip, she won’t look him in the eye and has started to shake a little. Mikey hands her a strong cup of coffee and kisses the top of Evie’s head, she gives him a small smile and takes a massive gulp before continuing.

“It varied, but mostly MDMA, Special K, GHB. Party drugs you know? It’s easy to get your hands on that sort of stuff when you know the right people, and being a street kid I always had those contacts. When I started seeing James as a client, that was when I started getting my hands on the harder stuff. I had to take something to deal with the things that he liked to do to me. It took him 6 months to completely detox me from the drugs I was taking by the time he moved me into his house though, it was why I was so scared of Jimmy at the start. He helped James tie me down to force me to get clean, that wasn’t something I had the choice about. I spent 3 months chained up in the basement, being forced to take methadone and detox. There was a lot of fights and abuse at the start, but once I got clean I calmed down a fair bit. I got better at being normal I guess.”
“Well as glad as I am that you got clean, I don’t like the reasons why you had to do it. Honey, do you have anyone else that you could go and stay with? I really don’t want to send you back to James, or back to Matt & Zacky. Not after what they’ve done to you.”
“Don’t worry about me, okay? You take me away from them and they’re going to know that something is up. All you have to do is tell Matt what Zacky did and things will be fine, he’s gonna be pissed.”

Evie giggles a little bit and kisses Syn on the cheek, her smile disappears and she shudders when there’s knocking on Mikey’s front door.

“Mikey? It’s Matt Sanders. Jimmy……Jimmy told me that Evie was here?”

Syn got up to answer the door, opening it half way and then standing in front of it to block Matt’s view of Evie & Mikey.

“Oh, hello Chief. I uh, I didn’t know you were here. Is my Evie here? I went to pick her up from the station and was told that Mikey had taken her home early because something had happened?”
“I think I’ll let Evie explain it to you, why don’t you come in and have a seat? Mikey just made a fresh pot of coffee.”
“Thank you for the offer, Syn, but I really should take Evie home. If something’s happened to her surely resting at home is in her best interests.”

Matt throws a dazzling, dimpled smile at Syn but doesn’t try and push passed him, just crosses his arms over his chest and waits patiently. Syn looks back at Evie and Mikey, Evie smiling softly and Mikey looking nervous. Sighing deeply he runs a hand through his hair, stepping out of the way when Evie comes to the door.

“Thank you, Syn, Mikey, for looking after me. I’ll uh, I’ll wash your shirt and bring it to work with me tomorrow Mikey.”
“Don’t worry about it love, it looks better on you anyway. Keep it. We’ll see you tomorrow. Get some rest, yeah?”

Evie fake salutes Mikey with a laugh and let’s Matt put his arm around her and lead her out to the car.

“What the fuck kind of stunt do you think you’re pulling little girl? Taking off like……”

Matt starts to growl at her under his breath but Evie interjects.

“Zacky shot me up with smack again.”
“…what?”
“I said, Zacky shot me up again. Came to see me and take me to lunch but then caught one of the patrol officers flirting with me so figured that I needed to learn a lesson. Took me to the hotel around the corner from the station that you two own, dosed me up and I assume he raped me. I don’t actually remember.”

His face twists in anger and he wrenches the car door open and points to the passenger side.

“In.”

Evie does as she’s told, trying to hide both her fear of Matt and her satisfaction of Zacky being punished for what he did.

“Matty?”
“Yes baby?”
“Haven’t heard that from you in a long time. What……what are you going to do to Zack?”

Matt doesn’t answer for a long while, just puts his hand on Evie’s thing and squeezes softly. She takes his hand in both of hers, trying not to make it too weird with him.

“When we get home, I want you to go straight to your room okay? I have to deal with Zacky and you don’t need to be around for that. The last thing I need is you getting in the way, because I want to hurt you in other ways later. I got a new electro-unit and I want to play with you.”
“I should have known you were sucking up for something, calling me baby and being nice.”
“I don’t have to suck up to you though, I can do whatever I want anyway. But I mean it alright? Steer clear while I deal with Zacky.”

Evie just rolls her eyes and goes back to staring out the window, content at ignoring Matt until they get back to the house.

“I want you to know, I’m truly sorry for this Evie. It wasn’t ever part of my plan, but it was part of his.”
“What the hell are you talking a………”

Her words die on her tongue when they pull up at the house, Jimmy and Zacky waiting patiently for them in the driveway. Jimmy is smiling and joking with Zacky from what she can see, the shorter man laughing at whatever Jimmy has just said. Matt hears Evie sigh heavily and feels a tiny pang of guilt in his stomach about the whole situation. It was never his intention for the girl to be so besotted with Jimmy, he was cold and calculating yes, but this felt cruel. Zacky helped Evie out of the car and pinned her arms tightly behind her back with one hand, using his other hand to hold her head so she was forced to look at Matt & Jimmy.

“Hey babe.”

Evie was forced to watch as Jimmy and Matt embraced each other and began to passionately make out with each other and Zacky laughed in her ear as she began to cry. Jimmy turned to smile at her when they separated and Zacky let go of her hair, Evie turned her head away and gave up the fight against Zacky to get her hands free.

“Need you to take her downstairs for me and tie her up, Jimmy. Make sure she knows that she isn’t going anywhere. I’ll be down soon, but first Zacky and I need to have a little chat.”
“Sure Matty, any specific way you want her?”
“Shirtless and wet. I think the electro-play will be more fun that way.”

Jimmy chuckles and pulls Evie from Zacky’s arms by her throat, wiping the tears from one cheek with the back of his hand and smiling.

“I’d forgotten how fuckin’ pretty you look when you’re scared.”

Evie just looks away and bites her lip, trying to hold her tears in. Jimmy manhandles her down to the basement, not that she’s fighting him anyway. Evie goes numb as Jimmy kisses her and she shivers at the coldness of the room when Jimmy takes Mikey’s shirt off her.

“Not going to try and fight me, love?”

She still doesn’t answer Jimmy, unable to hold back her tears as Jimmy guides her down to the steel table in the middle of the room by her throat. Evie doesn’t struggle as Jimmy tightly ties her hands tightly above her head, tying her ankles to one of each of the table legs and then stands between her spread legs. He runs his hands gently up Evie’s thighs to her hips, running his thumbs softly across her hip bones.

“Did you……no, it doesn’t matter. I don’t ca…care.”
“No no, go on, ask me what you want to ask. I’m curious now.”
“No.”

Jimmy smirks and drags his fingernails down Evie’s stomach, watching the way she flinches and tries to pull away from him.

“What were you going to ask, love?”
“No.”

Evie spits at him and smirks satisfactorily when she hits him in the cheek, the smirk disappearing from her face and her left cheek and side of her jaw explodes with pain as Jimmy punches her hard in the face.

“Ask me what you wanted to ask you little brat or I’m just going to keep hitting you until you can’t talk anymore.”
“Go on then, do it. See if I fucking care! I loved you, you son of a bitch, and I trusted you! I let my fucking guard down around you because I thought you gave a fucking shit about me! But you’re just like the rest of them, you only wanted me for one fucking thing and now you’ve got it you don’t give a fuck again. Well neither do I! I’m not playing your little game, Jim. If you want to smack me around, fucking do it, you coward. Fuck you.”

Jimmy punches her again and Evie just laughs, spitting blood at the floor. Taking a length of material from his pocket, Jimmy ties it tightly over Evie’s mouth, securing it at the nape of her neck.

“I’m going to really, really enjoy torturing you. Just think about that okay?”

Evie muffles something that sounds a lot like go fuck yourself through the gag and jimmy just smiles.

“You’re just lucky I have to wait for Matt to come down here or you’d be unconscious right now.”

Jimmy taps Evie’s cheek a little too hard to be friendly and retreats to a corner of the basement to watch, and to wait.

Back upstairs Zacky was sitting on the couch looking bored as Matt paced back and forth and yelled.

“What were you fucking thinking Zacky? Shooting her up then sending her back to the fucking police headquarters? Is your head even fucking screwed on right? You shouldn’t even be fucking shooting her up anyway, you know the little bitch will do whatever you say anyway, and she’ll keep her fucking whore mouth shut if she knows what’s good for her! I have worked too fucking hard to get my hands on James’ tech contacts for you to fuck it up. You know the bitch is reporting back to the mayor and the police chief about everything we fucking do? I’m careful with what I do and what I say to and in front of her, but then you fucking pull this stunt? I should fucking kill you for this.”

Matt turns on his heel and glares at Zacky, the vein in his forehead pulsing and his hands shaking dangerously by his sides.

“Well?! Don’t you have anything to fucking say for yourself?”

Jimmy comes up the stairs just in time to watch Zacky plunge the knife deeply into Matt’s stomach, Zacky stepping over the wounded man and wiping the blade clean on the side of the couch. Jimmy stands still, shell-shocked and stunned at what he’s just seen and not really sure what to do. He takes an unsure step towards Matt and Zack spins sharply, brandishing the knife to Jimmy’s throat.

“You have two options, Jimmy. You can either join him, or, you can get the fuck out of here and never come back. I will tell James how you betrayed him and he’ll thank me for killing you if that’s what you choose.”

Taking one look at Matt, Jimmy puts his hands up in surrender and backs up.

“Consider me gone.”

He’s out the door by the time Zacky had made it back to Matt, crouching by his side and putting pressure on the knife wood in his stomach.

“You really are as dumb as you look, aren’t you?”
“Why?”
“That’s for me to know, and unfortunately you’re never going to find out.”

Zacky stabs Matt twice in the chest and then heads downstairs to Evie, covered in Matt’s blood and still holding the knife.

“Well now, what do I do with you?”

Evie screams through the gag and struggles against the ropes tying her down as Zacky raises the knife.

Chapter Text

Gee ran his hand through Frank’s hair, smiling down at his fiancée.

“You’re so beautiful, Frankie.”

Frank giggled and saw up a little more so he could kiss Gee, straddling his hips and resting their foreheads together.

“Can’t believe we’re getting married in 3 months.”
“We still have so much to do, think I’m going to have to take some time off work.”
“No we don’t. Evie and I have already done most of the planning, Gee. That’s what she usually does at work instead of what she’s supposed to be doing.”

Gee laughs and cups Frankie’s cheek, leaning in and kissing him deeply. Frank doesn’t pull away until his phone starts ringing on the bedside table and he leans over to answer it.

“Hey lovely, we were just talking about you.”
“Hey…Hey Frankie. I um……I found a cool little place that we could have……have the reception if you want to……to come see it.”
“Ooooh that sounds awesome, babe! Text me the address and I’ll meet you. Everything okay?”

Frank covers the speaker on his phone and mouths to Gee that it’s Evie on the other end of the phone. Gee nods and leans forward, kissing Frank’s collarbones and squeezing his hips. Frank squirms at the contact and pokes his tongue out at Gerard, shaking his head and trying not to laugh.

“Alright, I’ll see you at 3.30 Evie.”

Hanging up he smirks at Gee and rolls his hips, putting his phone safely out of the way and giving Gee a little more encouragement.

“Is that you home, Jimmy?”

James called as he heard the front door open from the kitchen, not looking up from the email he was writing.

“Not quite.”

Zacky walked into the room, using Evie as a human shield. Her hands were tied tightly behind her back and then looped around her throat, forcing her to keep her hands near the middle of her back to stop from choking herself. Zacky had left the gag in Evie’s mouth, and added to the bruising on the left side of her face with the knife.

“Hey Zack, what’re you doing here?”
“We need to have a little chat, James. You got somewhere I can dump the little bitch while we talk?”
“Sure, I’m sure Ray would like to take care of her. Wouldn’t you?”

Evie turns her terrified eyes to James, begging him with her eyes not to let Ray put his hands on her. James just laughs and Zacky lets go of her hands, Ray pulling her from his arms.

“Let’s go have some fun shall we? Any restrictions this time Dewees?”
“Just try not to mess her face up anymore? Got a couple of contacts offshore that are a little interested in her.”
“No messing up her face. Got it. Guess we can just have fun other ways hm?”

Ray picked Evie up and tossed her over his shoulder and she whimpered, moving her hands higher up to prevent cutting off her airway.

“Think I can make you scream, Evie?”

He asked as he put her down in her bedroom, untying the rope from around Evie’s neck. Ray tied the rope around one of the bed posts so Evie couldn’t run, taking the heavy backed, wooden chair from Evie’s desk and dragging it to the bed.

“Now, I’m going to untie your hands and you’re going to sit in this chair. If you try anything, or try to run this won’t be half as much fun for you as I’m intending it to be. Got it?”

Evie nodded her agreement and Ray smiled, removing the gag far more gently that Evie had been expecting. Once he’d untied her, Evie sat in the chair as she was told, watching Ray with intrigue. He cut the rope previously around Evie’s hands and throat into two smaller pieces, using them to tie her wrists to the arms of the chair.

“This might surprise you to know, but I don’t actually want to hurt you. I may not want to sleep with you, but there are so many other things I can do with you.”

He ran his hand up Evie’s leg, tracing where Matt’s initials were carved with his thumb and then his hand travelling higher. He knelt between Evie’s legs to keep them open, smirking as the high pitched whimpers that she tried to hide slipped through her lips.

“Yeah, we’re gonna have so much fun.”

Meanwhile downstairs Zacky and James were sitting at the kitchen island, drinking coffee and talking business.

“The Russians have said that the guns should be here in the next week or so, Ray has agreed that he’ll go and do the collection for us.”
“Matt will be happy with that, he hates dealing with that sleazebag. Any word from the Italian on when we’re going to get the next shipment? I used the last of my smack dosing up Evie yesterday to keep her compliant while I fucked her tight little ass.”

James rolled his eyes and Zacky just grinned, shrugging and downing the last of his coffee.

“Spoke to him this morning and he can’t get it here for another week, apparently he was having trouble with customs on his end. I’ve dealt with it on our end so it’s just a matter of getting it on a plane apparently.”
“Damn, guess I’m just going to have to keep smacking her around to make sure she does what she’s told. Not that she puts up much of a fight nowadays anyway.”
“Smacking her around is the best way I’ve found to get Evie to behave. Should we go up and see how Ray is doing?”

Zacky tips his head and gestures, sliding off the stool and following James upstairs. Ray is still on his knees when they make it upstairs, one hand around Evie’s throat, the other pulling on the chain connected to the nipple clamps and his head between her legs. James leans against the door frame to watch and Zacky walks over to Evie and Ray, standing behind them and running his hand through Evie’s hair.

“You look so beautiful like this, pet. All strung out and desperate.”
“Thank…you S…Sir.”

Zacky smiles softly at Evie, just how far gone she is coming across in her tone and her face. Ray looks up and smiles at Zacky, wiping his chin with his free hand.

“One of the prettiest little subs I’ve ever seen that’s for sure. You want to join in on this, ZV?”
“Sure, what would you like me to do?”
“I’ll leave that up to you, don’t think it’s going to take much anyway.”

Zacky winks and fake salutes at James, wrapping his hand around Evie’s throat to hold her still while he kisses her. Ray watches for a second, just admiring how gorgeous their captive is and the way her legs start to shake a little. He pulls back to slap the inside of her thigh and get her attention away from Zacky’s mouth.

“Not gonna come without permission are you, little one?”
“No Sir…I promise……I’ll be good.”
“You’re so good, baby, so good for me and Ray.”

Evie’s eyes roll into the back of her head and she starts whimpering when Ray gets his mouth back on her, Zacky abandoning her throat to tug on the chain of the clamps. Evie tries to simultaneously twitch away from Zacky’s hand, and roll her hips towards Ray.

“Zacky……close. Please.”
“Please what, pet? I trained you better than that.”
“Please can I co…come? Please Zacky…Sir…please!”

Zacky rests his hand around Evie’s throat, leaning down to bite her lip.

“If Ray says you can come, then you can come.”
“Ray...PLEASE! Please let me come. Please.”
“What do you think Zacky?”

Evie looks up at Zacky a little desperately, chewing her lip and begging with her eyes. Zacky waits until Evie has closed her eyes again and then squeezes her throat tightly, smiling as her eyes shoot open again.

“Come, pet.”

Ray pulls away as Evie comes, Zacky holding her throat as she twitches.

“You two look like you’ve done that before.”

James pipes up from the doorway, coming to stand opposite them. Zacky isn’t paying attention to Ray & James, too busy untying Evie and setting her down on the bed. He looks over his shoulder at Ray at winks, covering Evie’s ears as Ray pulls out the gun and aims it at James.

“Oops.”
“What the fuck are you doing, Toro?”
“It doesn’t look like we’ve done this before, because we haven’t. You really thought Sanders was backing me financially because he agreed with my views? You’re an idiot, and you always have been. Zacky and I have been pulling the fucking strings the whole time, you and Matt were just too stupid to notice. Matt’s gone, and now, it’s your turn.”

Evie flinches as the shots ring out, Ray shooting James once in the head and once in the chest.

“Go shower and clean yourself up then come downstairs, okay pet?”
“Yes Sir. You…you’re not gonna hurt…hurt me right?”

Ray laughs from across the room and Evie shivers, Zacky not answering her question but kissing her on the forehead.

“Two down, one to go.”
“Good riddance I say. Come on, let’s go and have a celebratory drink and work out what we’re going to do next.”

Zacky puts his arm around Ray’s shoulder and leads him back downstairs, stepping over James’ dead body as he goes.

Chapter Text

Mikey approached the building carefully, double checking the text he’d received from Frank about meeting him. He grabbed a flashlight out of the trunk of his car, and got his gun out as well and headed inside. The building looked abandoned once he got inside and he covered his mouth with his sleeve at the retched smell he was met with once he’d kicked the door open. Mikey tried to stay as quiet as possible as he checked out the rooms, trying to find Frank and getting more and more apprehensive as he went. Hearing what sounded like a muffled cry for help, Mikey turned sharply to his left and headed up the rickety stairs.

“Jesus Christ.”

He found Frank tied up and gagged in one of the bedrooms and raced to his side, dropping to his knees to quickly pull the gag from his mouth.

“Get out of here, Mikey! It’s a trap!”
“What the hell are you talking about, Frankie. What’s going on?”
“Hello Mikey.”

Mikey froze as he felt the barrel of a gun against his temple, putting his hands up in surrender and trying to mask the shock on his face.

“Drop the gun and put your hands behind your head.”
“You don’t want to do this
“Shut up, Mikey. Now, drop the gun, and put your fucking hands on your head.”

Slowly dropping his gun to the floor, Mikey gives Frank a quick hug and then interlinks his hands behind his head.

“That wasn’t so hard was it?”
“You don’t have to do this.”

Evie giggles in Mikey’s ear and handcuffs his hands behind his head, leaving him on his knees and walking around to stand behind Frank. She pulls Frank to his feet by his hair and kisses him on the cheek, smirking at the still confused look on Mikey’s face. This Evie is not the one that Mikey is used to seeing and although he’s confused and Evie is holding a knife to Frank’s throat, this Evie looks fucking beautiful. Her normally soft waved hair was dead straight now and she’d cut her bangs so they framed her face. Her hazel eyes were ringed with dark blue eyeliner that made them pop and her eyelashes looked longer and darker in contrast to the shimmery gold eyeshadow and highlighted cheek bones. Her lips were painted in a deep purple colour that matched the leather choker around her neck. The black, thigh-length lace and leatherette dress clung in all the right places, and her look was completed by knee-high, black leather boots.

“Don’t cry, Darling, I’m not going to hurt you. You did exactly as I asked and you’ll be back home with your sweet GeeBear soon. I’m a little upset we’re going to miss the wedding, but we had to move our schedule forward a little.”
“We? What are you talking about, Evie? What the fuck is going on?”

Mikey asked impatiently, testing the give in the handcuffs but immediately stilling at the sound of Frank’s sharp breath in as Evie pressed the knife against his throat.

“He still doesn’t get it. He’s not as clever as you are, Frankie.”

She whispered in Frank’s ear, loud enough that Mikey could here, dragging her lower lip up his neck to nibble on his earlobe.

“She’s in this with them, Mikey! The whole thing was a set up.”
“With ‘them’? James, Matt & Zacky? No…that…that can’t be right. I…I did my research on you, Evie, you’d never met any of them before……I checked.”

The angrier Mikey got the more it seemed to amuse Evie, the smirk on her face growing wider.

“Close, Mikey, but not quite. ‘We’ refers to me and Him.”
“I was coming up to help but you look like you’ve got it all under control, babygirl. Anything I can do to help?”

Zacky stood behind Mikey and rest his hands on the blonde’s shoulders close to his throat, smiling at Evie as he felt Mikey swallow nervously.

“I think I got it under control, honey, thanks. You can take this one out to the car though, I should probably fill Mikey in on why we’re doing all of this.”
“Sure thing. Just make it quick, okay? We need to get out of here as soon as possible before suspicion is raised and we don’t have time to leave.”
“Let’s just hope Toro is doing his fucking job properly and running interference like we told him to.”

Frank shuddered as Evie passed him over to Zacky, looking away as they paused to make out with each other.

“This won’t take long.”

Evie waits until Zacky and Frank are gone before she starts speaking, picking up Mikey’s gun and keeping both hers and his pointed at him.

“Ask me why, Mikey. Ask me why I’m doing this.”
“I don’t care why, Evie. If you hurt Frank I swear I’ll kill you myself.”
“I have no interest in hurting Frank, I just needed him to get to you.”

She takes the safety off both guns and takes a deep breath.

“Ask. Me.”

Mikey rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything and Evie huffs impatiently, brutally pistol whipping Mikey and straddling him. She presses her gun firmly against Mikey’s jaw, using his to press his cuffed hands to the floor.

“You may as well just do what I say, Mikey. Trying to be fucking noble ain’t gonna get you anywhere, and even if you don’t ask me why I’ll fucking tell you anyway!”
“Okay fine, why are you doing this you crazy bitch?”

Evie giggles and flicks the safety back on Mikey’s gun and throws it out of reach, leaning over him and putting a little more pressure on his wrists.

“Crazy bitch. I haven’t heard that one in a while. This actually isn’t anything I have against you, baby, I just need you to get what I want.”
“This is about Gerard?”
“Not quite. If it was Gee I wanted, I wouldn’t have needed you. Frank would have been more than enough to get to him. Try again.”

Mikey furrows his eyebrows and Evie waits, smiling widely when the realisation dawns on his face.

“S…Syn? This is about Syn? What...what did Syn do to you? We tried to help you!”
“That bastard took away everything that I ever loved! Now, I get to do the same to him.”
“You’re insane. What the hell are you talking about?”

Evie just laughs in Mikey’s face, letting go of his wrists so she can leave over him and whisper in his ear.

“Well you know what they say about the crazy ones.”

She rolls her hips against his, giggling more when she gets the desired reaction from him.

“If you’re after Syn, why...why me? Why not go after Michelle?”
“You assume I haven’t already done something to her, not that I needed to of course. He did that pretty well all by himself actually. Michelle knows that you two have been fucking behind her back, doesn’t want anything to do with either of you. Didn’t you wonder why she stopped answering your texts? Before you say it, because I can see it on your face, no, I didn’t tell her. Syn did. Couldn’t take the guilt apparently. Unfortunately for him though that guilt isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Now, on your feet babydoll, Zee will be waiting for us and he gets impatient.”

With his hands free Mikey pushes Evie off him, reaching for his gun. He swipes Evie’s legs out from under her as she recovers and straddles her hips. She just giggles manically at him and smiles, Mikey swallowing harshly when he feels the cold steel at his stomach.

“I’ll always be one step ahead of you, Mikey. I wouldn’t be very good at getting back at Syn for killing my Mom if I was a step behind him. Now get the hell off me, I really don’t want to have to kill you.”

Evie picks Mikey up by his wrists once he gets off her, pulling so the handcuffs dig painfully into his skin and he has no choice but to do as he’s told. Frankie curls into Mikey’s side when he’s shoved into the back of the van and Mikey rests his chin on Frank’s head. They sit silently for what feels like an hour before Mikey piques up, running his hand through Frank’s hair to calm him down.

“It’s okay Frank, they’re not gonna hurt you. It’s Syn they’re after, not Gee. They just needed you to get to me.”
“Zack...Zack told me that James & Matt are dead. They killed...killed them once they had what...what they want...wanted.”
“I can’t say that it’s a bad thing those two are gone. That’s probably better for everyone. The didn’t hurt you did they?”

Frank shakes his head and Mikey lets out the breath he didn’t realise he was holding, putting himself defensively in front of Frank when the door to the van opens.

“Stop trying to be a hero, Mikey. C’mere Frankie.”

Mikey grabs Frank’s arm when he goes towards Evie and she sighs, pulling the gun and pointing it at him.

“I told you, Mikey, I have no interest in hurting Frank. You on the other hand…”

Frank yelps when Evie shoots, and Mikey can hear the bullet whizz past his left ear. Evie just shrugs when Mikey turns wide eyes towards her, Frank shaking his arm free from Mikey’s grip and getting down from the van.

“Smart Frankie, I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
“Go on, get inside. I’ll deal with this.”

Zacky kisses Evie’s temple and she smiles, putting her arm around Frank and leading him into the house. Frank goes where Evie puts him, shaking and trying not to cry as she sits him down on the edge of a bed and stands, turning the chair in the room around and sitting on it.

“I don’t need to tie you up, do I Frankie?”
“No. I…I’ll do whatever you say just please…don’t…don’t hurt me.”
“Not going to hurt you, love. I don’t gain anything by hurting you. It’s Gates that I want to hurt, Gates that I want to suffer. I don’t achieve that by doing anything to you. I have to go and make sure Zacky doesn’t hurt Mikey. Not without me there anyway.”

Evie winks at Frank and he shudders, curling up in a ball on the bed when she leaves and locks the door.

Chapter Text

Zacky hummed quietly as he walked Mikey into the house, a blade at his throat and his hand on the back of Mikey’s neck.

“How did she rope you into this, Zacky? I know that dealing with little girls and their problems isn’t really your forte.”
“You really don’t know Evie at all, do you? She is so much more than a little girl.”

He gave Mikey a shove towards the stairs, pushing him up them and towards a bedroom.

“Have I ever told you how much I love you, Evie?”
“Not today, no. Sit down, Mikey.”

Mikey sits down in the chair the Evie is pointing him towards, biting his lip to keep quiet as Zacky starts to tie him tightly to the chair.

“Where’s Frank, Evie? What did you do to him?”
“Nothing, and I will continue to do nothing to him as long as you do what you’re told.”
“You don’t need him anymore, you have me. Let him go.”

Evie laughs, running her hand up Mikey’s chest and cupping his jaw.

“Not a chance in hell. Then Gee and Syn come running, and we’re not ready for that to happen just yet. For now, what I really want to do is torture you. The best thing about Matt and James getting their hands on me is that I learned a heap of new tricks. Now, sit tight and we’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
“Not like he can go anywhere, baby.”

Zacky says in Evie’s ear, loud enough that Mikey can hear him.

“I’m not scared of you, Zacky, or your little whore either.”

Evie rolls her eyes and backhands Mikey hard across the face, wrenching his head back by his hair and speaking dangerously low in his ear.

“You severely underestimate me, Mikey. I’m going to hurt you, and I’m going to make you scream, and then when it’s over? You’re going to beg me to do it all over again because it’s going to hurt so damn good.”
“Fuck you, you crazy bitch.”

Zacky giggles and pries Evie’s hand from Mikey’s hair, punching Mikey hard enough in the face to knock him out and takes Evie from the room.

“Come on little girl, let’s go and find things to torture Mikey with. It’ll calm you down once you get to make him scream.”
“You should go and make sure Toro is doing what he’s supposed to be doing. I don’t trust him enough to let him go off on his own.”

Evie shakes her arm free of Zacky’s grip and kisses him on the cheek and heads off down the hallway.

“Honey, your toy chest isn’t that way.”
“No, but Frankie is.”
“Evie……”

She rolls her eyes and bats playfully at the hand he tries to put around her.

“I’m not gonna do anything to him. I just want to make sure he’s alright. Can you go and get me a knife, some iodine, and a pair of scissors then meet me back in Mikey’s room?”
“Alright baby. Just don’t do anything stupid.”

Zacky shakes his head as he watches Evie skip down to Frank’s room, and then heads down to their bedroom to get what she’s asked for. Frank sits up on the bed and hugs his knees when he hears the door open, sighing in relief when it’s Evie and not Zacky, being a little more convinced that Evie won’t hurt him.

“Hi Sweetheart, can I get you anything to eat or drink?”
“No…no thank you. I’m…o…okay. Is Mikey alright?”
“For now he’s fine. If he doesn’t drop his attitude however…”

Evie leaves the sentence hanging and Frankie shudders. She smiles and runs a hand through Frank’s hair, kissing him on the forehead and stands up.

“This will all be over soon, Frank. I promise you that much.”

She locks the door when she leaves, smiling at Zacky when she sees him.

“Perfect baby. Let’s go have some fun shall we?”
“After you my love.”

Zacky opens the door for her and Mikey looks up when they come in, stilling and trying to hide the fact that he was pulling against the ropes.

“It’s okay, Mikey. I’d be disappointed if you didn’t at least try to escape. These are a dead giveaway you were trying though.”

Evie straddles Mikey’s lap and holds one of his wrists, running her thumb along the red circles from where he’s pulled on the ropes.

“You’re pathetic, you know that don’t you? Hurting me isn’t going to make you feel any better about yourself.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m going to have so much fun hurting you, and even more fun when Syn comes to rescue you and I make him watch.”
“Fuck you, Evie. Seriously, fuck you, and you too Zacky. You’re both going to fucking fry for this, I’m going to make sure of that!”

Zacky just laughs and picks up a piece of rope from the dresser, fashioning it into a gag and tying it tightly around Mikey’s mouth.

“That’s enough out of you I think. Go on, baby, show him what you’ve learned.”

Evie picks out one of her favourite knives from the shoebox that Zacky offers her, smiling as it catches the light and Mikey whimpers.

“Don’t worry, Mikey. Not going to use this one on you, well, not on your skin at least.”
“You want the butterfly knife for that?”
“Yes. Now, stay still please, this will only end up hurting more if you do.”

Pulling his shirt away from his body, Evie runs the knife up the inside of the material and cuts it open. She pushes the material from Mikey’s chest and stomach, running her hands along all of his exposed skin.

“You’re so pretty, Mikey. So much pale, unmarked skin for me to play with.”
“Here you go, love. I have to go grab something from downstairs, I’ll be back in a minute okay? Don’t have too much fun without me.”

Zacky kisses Evie’s temple and ruffles Mikey’s hair before he leaves the room, Evie smirking at the death glare that Mikey is giving him.

“Now, I’d tell you that it’s okay if you scream, but with that gag in your mouth you’re not really going to make much noise anyway.”

Evie flairs the butterfly knife around, smiling at Mikey while she plays with it and he flinches as it gets closer to his skin. She watches as Mikey’s knuckles turn white from how tightly he’s gripping the chair he’s tied to as she makes two precise cuts with the knife. One from his belly button to his left nipple, and the second from his collarbone to the base of his sternum. Zacky comes into the room as Mikey’s phone starts ringing and he takes it from Mikey’s pocket, exchanging the knife in Evie’s hand for the phone.

“Hey Syn.”
“Oh hey Evie, is Mikey with you? Kinda need to talk to him.”
“He is, but he’s uh, a little tied up right now.”

Mikey struggles against the ropes tying him to the chair, Evie smirking at him as he swears at her through the gag. Zacky cocks the gun and presses it firmly against Mikey’s temple and he quiets down, not giving up his struggle with the ropes. Having heard the gun through the phone Syn closes his office door, sitting back down at his desk and trying to trace the call.

“What have you done, Evie? What’s going on?”
“Don’t act dumb, Brian. I have far more respect for you than that.”
“Evie...”
“No! Shut up. I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully. 1630 Rovello Drive, 7pm tomorrow. You come alone. No wires, no back-up, and you don’t tell anyone where you’re going. If I get even the slightest idea that you’ve broken the rules, all you’re going to find when you get here is Mikey’s corpse. Frankie’s too. And Brian? Stop trying to trace the call. It’s not going to work. Do I make myself clear?”
“Promise me you won’t hurt Mikey and Frank and you’ve got a deal.”
“You have nothing on me. I hold all the cards here. Mikey and Frank’s condition depends on how well you follow the rules. See you tomorrow, Brian.”

Evie can hear Syn try to protest down the phone but she just hangs up on him, kissing Mikey on the cheek and standing up. Zacky takes the phone from her as they passionately start making out, crushing it under the heel of his boot and running his hands through her hair.

“Now we wait.”
“And now we wait. Come on, let’s go downstairs. We have things to plan.”

Zacky and Evie turn the light out in the bedroom and slam the door closed as they leave, Mikey hanging his head and no longer able to old back the tears he was hiding from them.

Chapter Text

Syn stared at his phone for a few minutes after Evie hung up on, in shock and angry and upset, as well as being scared for Mikey’s safety.

“Gabe, that was Mikey. He’s gotten himself into trouble with his car just outside of town, and I’m going to have to go and save him. Cancel all my meetings for the rest of the day okay? Reschedule them for Monday. I’m taking the weekend off for once.”
“Sure thing, Chief. Enjoy the weekend off, you deserve it.”
“Thanks Kiddo, I’ll see you on Monday.”

Gabe excused himself from Syn’s office and he quickly packed up all of his bits and pieces, then headed out to his car and drove straight to Gerard’s house. He checked the whole drive to make sure he wasn’t being followed, taking Evie’s threat completely seriously. He knocks on the door and waits until Gerard opens the door, swallowing harshly and making sure again that nobody is following.

“I have to tell you something about my past, and you’re really not going to like it.”
“What have you done, Gates?”
“Can we sit down? This is kind of a lot.”

Gerard puts his arm around Syn’s shoulders and shepherds him inside, setting him down on the couch and getting some fresh coffee.

“Go and get Frank, baby. I’m going to sit him down with Mikey and tell them why it is we’re doing this.”
“Are you sure?”
“They need to know why, Zacky. I wish we hadn’t of dragged Frankie into this, he’s one of the sweetest kids ever and I feel guilty.”

Zacky kisses Evie softly and runs a hand through her hair in an attempt to calm her down, understanding exactly where she’s coming from with getting Frank involved.

“Alright my love, I’ll go and get him. Meet you there.”

Evie bites her lip and takes a deep breath, heading down to the bedroom where Mikey is. She opens the door to Mikey’s bedroom and pulls the gag from his mouth, picking up a bottle of water and offering him some slow sips.

“I…I don’t get you, Evie.”
“Oh yeah, and why’s that?”
“You said you wanted to torture me, to make Syn suffer for whatever it is that you think he did to you. But to me, it didn’t really feel like your heart was in it while you were.”

Zacky comes in with Frankie before Evie can reply and she steps back, giving Frank the space to go to Mikey’s side. Evie relaxes into Zacky’s arms around her and watches Mikey and Frank together, feeling pangs of jealousy inside her and reacting out of instinct.

“Alright, that’s enough. Sit down, Frankie, before I make you.”
“Leave him alone, Evie.”

Evie backhands Mikey hard across the face, pushing Frank back onto the bed when he tries to go to his side.

“Sit down, Frank. Last time I’m going to ask you nicely.”

Frank sits and Evie runs a hand through her hair to calm herself down, taking a deep breath.

“Syn isn’t who he pretends to be. His real name is Brian Haner, and before he became Synyster Gates he was one of the most successful pimps in Jersey City. My Mom was a good for nothing whore and she worked for him right up until the year I was born. She disappeared when I was born for a year and had me, the dumped me on my Dad’s doorstep and went back to him. When I was 7, my Mom decided she wanted to come back to me and told Brian she was out. He let her go, but not before he sent her out with one of the other girls on a job and that little bitch shot my mom up with dirty drugs on Brian’s orders. I lied to you when I told you my Dad was my best friend, Mikey, that bastard was an abusive alcoholic and took pride in reminding me how much he hated me every day of my pathetic life. Until the drunk idiot wrapped his car around a telephone pole when I was nine, and I spent the next 7 years being bounced around from foster home to foster home until I took off when I was 16. Then James found me when I was 17 and you guys know the rest. The other thing you don’t know is that even though I was in foster homes, I still went to the best schools and had everything I could ever want. Makes no sense for a poor, little foster kid, right? Well, it doesn’t, and it wasn’t until I started working for James that I finally figured it out. There’s an upside to working for a tech giant. You find things. Like all of the records that they tried to keep sealed and hidden from me when I was a kid. My schooling, my life? It’s all been bankrolled by, yep, you guessed it, one Brian Haner, also known as Synyster Gates. That is why I’m doing all of this. He's going to pay for what he did to my family and for ruining my life.”
“You went to the best schools and had everything you ever wanted, you selfish little bitch! Syn did you a favour and this is how you’ve decided to repay him?”
“Get Frankie out of here, Zacky. Now.”

Frank shivers at the coldness in Evie’s voice and goes easily when Zacky comes to his side, throwing a nervous glance at Mikey and Evie.

“Don’t kill him, pet. You need him alive for this to work.”

Zacky kisses Evie on the cheek as he passes and takes Frankie from the room.

“Do you know what it’s like, being raised by an abusive alcoholic, Mikey?”

When she doesn’t get an answer, Evie sighs and shakes her head. She viciously slaps Mikey across the face, hard enough that it makes his lip bleed.

“It’s a lot like that. Every time my sperm donor laid eyes on me, he’d slap me hard enough to make me bleed, to make my ears ring and my head spin. Then once I hit the ground he’d spit on me, or kick me, pour alcohol over me and then leave me to go and have another drink.”
“Then when your Father died that all stopped. I’m still missing the part where he ruined your life.”
“My mother was trying to leave Brian, Mikey. He took away my chance of having a happy life with my Mom, I never knew what my life could have been like with her. Because of him. Then I ended up in foster care. Foster kids who have everything they could ever want don’t get treated very well by their siblings, or their foster parents.”

Evie’s voice cracks and she takes her shirt off, Mikey’s mouth falling open when he see’s the scars that litter Evie’s back and chest.

“My foster parents from the ages of nine to eleven, and from the age of fourteen until I ran away? They let their other children beat me, throw things at me, spit on me, hit me with crops and whips and tree branches. I’ve spent my entire life being tortured by the people who were supposed to be taking care of me, being neglected and abused. I never felt cared for, or loved, or cherished. Not until I met Zacky anyway.”
“Until you met another man who tortured you, you mean?”
“Zacky never hurt me, Mikey. The first time James gave me to him and Matt, he was kind to me. I asked him to give me bruises, to pretend that he was hurting me so Matt wouldn’t suspect anything. I believe in love at first sight, and so does he. We’ve been secretly together and plotting against Matt and James ever since we met and fell in love. He was the first person that ever cared about me, that wanted to know about me and what I was like as a person. Zacky…Zacky wanted me, Mikey. He cares about me, for me. When you’ve grown up like I have, being mistreated, tortured and sexually abused by every single man in your life? When you meet one that doesn’t, that lets things go at your pace, that holds you when you cry, that tells you that you matter? That means something. Well to me it does anyway. I wouldn’t still be here without Zacky. I would have ended things a long time ago.”

Zacky stands behind Evie and squeezes her shoulders, kissing the back of her neck and hooking his head over her shoulder to look at Mikey.

“I would never have let you do that, Evie. You know what I’m curious about? That’s how a man, who has never shown any compassion to anyone in his entire life, including to his little whore wife. Could change everything that makes him he who is, for you Mikey. What’s so special about you? You let Syn get rough with you? You let him smack you around? Is that it?”
“That’s none of your fucking business and I ain’t telling you shit about me and Syn, Zacky, so fuck off. Evie, I’m sorry that you went through all of that, nobody deserves to be treated the way that you have been but that…that’s not Syn’s fault! That isn’t who he is anymore, he’s a changed man and you don’t know him anymore. He tried to rescue you from James, don’t you remember that?  So did my brother! This is how you’re thanking them for trying to protect you from James, Matt and Him?”

Mikey throws a dirty look at Zacky and Evie giggles, kissing Zacky on the cheek.

“But I never needed protection from Zacky, Mikey. Everything he did to me was because we were covering it up so that Matt didn’t suspect anything. Not that it matters anymore, nobody will be needing protection from those two assholes ever again.”
“You…you killed them?”
“I didn’t, no. I orchestrated their murder’s, but I wasn’t the one that pulled the trigger.”
“Or twisted the knife.”

Zacky says quietly in Evie’s ear and she snickers, reaching over to cup Mikey’s cheek and he pulls his chin free and glares at her.

“What…what about Jimmy? Where…where’s Jimmy? What have you done with him?!”
“You mean the pathetic little coward that’s been fucking Matt for the last 8 years?”

Mikey pales and he immediately starts shaking his head.

“You’re lying.”
“He’s not, Mikey. Jimmy was using me, only pretended to care about me until he got in my pants. He helped Matt to torture me before Zacky threatened to tell James he’d betrayed him and took off. I daresay he was using you too, I don’t know what for but, it’s the idea. I’m sorry for that, Mikey. You deserved better and ended up with Gates instead.”

Evie’s phone starts to vibrate in her pocket and she pulls it out, handing it to Zacky who proceeds to throw it out the open window.

“That was probably Gee, Toro will call you, not me. I’m going to go and make us some dinner. Mikey, if you promise to behave I’ll let you come down and have something to eat.”
“And if I don’t?”
“If you don’t I’ll just leave you up here on your own and take Frankie downstairs instead.”

Mikey bites his lip but nods, signalling his compliance to Evie and Zacky’s commands. Zacky unties the ropes binding Mikey to the chair and Mikey rubs at the red circles around his wrists and stands.

“Hands please.”

Rolling his eyes Mikey gives Evie his hands and she ties his wrists together, leaving enough rope at the end to use almost like a leash.

“Come on, Zacky will go get Frankie and bring him down.”

Mikey goes with Evie, mentally mapping out the house as she takes him downstairs and planning their escape.

"Can you say something, Gee? Please?"
"What do you want me to say? That I forgive you? That it's okay? Well I'm sorry to tell you Gates but that's just not true! My brother, and my fiancee are in danger, all because you've been fucking lying to me for the last fucking eight years! If anything happens to either of them, I'll kill you."
"I'm sorry, okay?! I should have told you! But I...I never thought Evie would find out! How was I supposed to know that she's a fucking crazy bitch and she's been playing us since the beginning. How could I have possibly known that?!"

Gerard laughs coldly and Syn shivers, not missing the way the vein in Gee's forehead is pulsing and the way his clenched fists shake by his sides.

"You think she's a crazy bitch? I kind of admire her for what she's doing. She managed to hide in plain sight from us for the last 6 months, she's been helping Frankie plan the wedding as well, and all the while she's been planning revenge. I don't blame Evie for what she's doing, Gates. I'm holding you responsible. What's our play tomorrow? Like hell am I letting you go over there on your own. Who knows who's helping her with all of this."

Gerard's phone starts ringing and he puts his hand up to silence Syn when he answers, frowning at the caller I.D.

"What the hell do you want, Toro? I'm kind of busy right now."
"I need to talk to the Chief, do you have his phone number? It's urgent."

He covers the speaker with his hand and passes the phone to Syn.

"What is it, Ray?"
"I...I went over to Matt's, we had a business meeting, and...and I found...He's dead, Chief. The girl he has here, James' whore, she's missing, and so is Zacky."
"Shit. Alright, don't go anywhere, and don't tell anyone where you are. I'll be there soon."

He hangs up the phone and passes it back to Gee.

“She’s got James and Zacky with her. Ray just showed up at Matt’s house and found him dead, safe to assume that she and Zacky killed him.”
“You don’t know that. You go over to Matt’s and meet Ray there, I’ll go to James’ and get Gabe to meet me there.”
“Gabe? I don’t really think you can trust anyone right n…”

Syn jumps when Gee slams his hand down on the table.

“Shut up, Gates. You don’t get to call any of the shots or say anything right now. Not when you’ve been lying to me for the last 10 years. Go and do your job, Gates.”

Gee picks up his phone and storms out of the house, grabbing his car keys on his way out.

Chapter Text

Evie stuck her tongue out at Frank across the kitchen table and giggled, using her spoon to flick peas at him. Zacky had made dinner for the four of them and rolled his eyes at his girl, watching the way she and Frankie interacted with each other. Mikey was glaring at the both of them across the table, one arm protectively around Frank's shoulders, and his other hand tied securely to the heavy oak table leg. Zacky trusted Mikey about as far as Frankie could throw him, and had taken all of the necessary precautions to make sure the young man didn't try to do a runner on them. 

"Hey Evie, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure Frankie, what's up?"
"Were...were you just pretending to be my friend to get closer to Mikey and Gee, or do you really care...care about me."

Chewing on her lip Evie thinks about her answer, looking pointedly at Zacky who just shrugs and she frowns, playfully punching him in the arm.

"I...I care about you, Frankie. I wish I hadn't of dragged you into all of this, but I knew Mikey would come if you asked him to. Me, not so much. You remind me a lot of myself actually. I was so glad when you weren't hurt in the explosion, was really scared that you'd get hurt."
"You should have thought about that before you set the fucking thing off in the first place! Did you ever give a shit who got hurt when you set it off? Or did you just want to do as much damage as possible because you don’t care about anyone but yourself!”

Mikey manages to reach far enough across the table that he can backhand Evie across the face and unsettle her from her chair.

“Mikey don’t! You’re not helping the situation.”

Frank gives Mikey a bit of a shove and goes to Evie’s side, helping her back to her feet.

“How the hell are you taking her side in all of this Frankie?! After what she’s done to you! To us?!”
“Back off! I mean it, Mikes. I’m not taking anyone’s side, I just…I believe her, okay? How the fuck can Syn have been bankrolling Evie’s education and giving her everything she ever wanted, but still have left her to be treated the way she has been? Even if he didn’t know what she was going through when she was younger, he definitely knew what was going on with James and he let it happen! You’re just refusing to see Syn for who he really is because you’re in love with him, Mikey.”

Evie puts her arm around Frankie’s waist and kisses him on the cheek, standing protectively in front of him.

“It’s okay, Frankie. Syn is one of the most manipulative men I’ve ever met, I don’t expect Mikey to understand. Like I told you yesterday, he’s not as smart as you are.”
“You’re not as smart as you think you are, Evie. You’re cocky, and it’s going to get you killed one day.”
“Yep, probably. That day isn’t going to be anytime soon though. Get him out of here, Zacky. Gag him while you’re at it, yeah? I’m getting bored of his attitude.”

Zacky unties Mikey from the table and gets a hand in his hair, dragging him upstairs with a gun at his back.

“Don’t worry, Frankie, I’m not going to hurt him. Much. Provided he drops the attitude. Why don’t you go and get some sleep? I’ll clean up down here.”
“Sure Evie, I’m uh, I’m sorry about him yeah?”
“Don’t worry about it, love. Go on, go get some sleep.”

Frankie heads upstairs and Evie starts to clean up from dinner, starting to plot in her head what the plan is for their endgame.

Gabe was waiting for Gee outside James’ when he arrived at the house, leaning up against his patrol car and looking nervous.

“What’s going on, Sir? The Chief wouldn’t really tell me much over the phone, just to meet you here and that it was urgent.”
“The schools minister, Ray Toro, called Gates and told him that Matt Sanders was dead, and that Zacky Vengeance and Evie Rose are missing. Evie works for James, so we’re going to check in with him and see what he knows.”
“God I hope they haven’t done anything to her.”

Gee looks at him with a raised eyebrow and Gabe just blushes, running a hand through his hair.

“Evie’s a sweetheart, I’m kinda sweet on her.”
“Trust me Gabe, that pretty little girl isn’t who she says she is. I’ll explain it to you later, right now however we have other things we need to worry about. Come on.”

Gabe follows Gee up to the house, albeit confused but following orders. The front door is ajar when they make it there and Gabe draws his gun, following behind Gerard and keep an eye out on everything.

“Evie? James? Zacky? Can anyone hear me? Anybody home?”

On receiving no answer, and hearing silence, Gerard and Gabe split up and begin to search the house. Gabe doing downstairs, and Gerard heading upstairs. It’s Gee that finds James’ body in Evie’s room, not bothering to check for a pulse when he can see the two gunshot wounds and that he’s definitely dead. His phone rings as he starts to back up and Gee answers it, not bothering to look at the contact information first.

“Anything Gee?”
“He’s dead, Syn. Two shots. Looks like it’s just Evie & Zacky we’re up against. Makes me feel a little bit better I guess.”
“It’s about 10 times messier here, stab wound to the stomach and two to the chest. Zacky’s handiwork if I had to guess, Evie’s not strong enough to have made cuts this deep.”

Syn looks at the way Ray is standing away, almost smirking at Matt’s body. He walks a bit further around the corner, outside of Ray’s earshot.

“I don’t think Evie was the only one who was playing us, Gee. Toro. Something about the way he’s regarding, or rather, disregarding Sanders’ body. I’m bringing him back to your place for questioning, I don’t trust ears down at the station.”
“You got it. I’ll put a call in, we’re gonna need CSIs from upstate to deal with this mess.”
“Yep. We’ll be back ASAP.”

Gee hangs up and shoves his phone in his back pocket, heading back downstairs and collecting Gabe on the way out.

“There’s nothing more we can do here, Gates is gonna call some CSIs from upstate to help.”
“What’s going on, Sir? I may not be the brightest of the bunch, but I’m not stupid. You don’t seem to be concerned that we can’t find Evie, or Zacky.”
“Evie and Zacky have been playing us for months, she isn’t who she says she is, never has been. Syn and I had a theory that Zacky and James were in on it with her, but it looks like it’s just Evie and Zacky. They’ve got my little brother, and my fiancée, and she’s threatening she’ll kill them if we don’t do what she says.”

Gabe runs a hand through his hair and seems to be thinking as he follows Gee out to the car.

“So, what’s our play? What do we do next?”
“We’re still trying to work that out. I don’t think that Evie will actually hurt anyone, but Zacky is a variable that I’m not too sure about. We’ve been given instructions by Evie that Syn has to go alone to see her tomorrow evening, any hint that we aren’t following her orders and she’ll kill them, so we’re still figuring out how to do that as well. Gabe, you can’t tell anyone what’s going on, okay? We don’t know who, if anyone else, is working with the two of them so we’re being extra careful.”
“You got it, boss. Thank you for including me on all of this, I want to do anything that I can to help you guys out.”

Gee smiles and squeezes Gabe’s shoulder as they drive off, heading back to Syn’s place to come up with a strategy.

“I’m scared, baby.”

Zacky rolled over and propped himself up on one arm, running his fingers softly across Evie’s cheek and she leaned into the touch.

“Scared of what, pet?”
“Of losing you. There’s too much that could go wrong. Syn isn’t going to play by the rules, Gee will know what will be going on and they’ll both be here tomorrow.”
“Hey look at me.”

Evie bites her lip and looks up at Zacky, trying to force a smile on her face,

“You’re not going to lose me my love, I promise you that much. You’re the one thing in my life that I can’t do without, I’m so glad that I don’t have to pretend to hurt you anymore.”
“I’m just so scared, Zacky.”

Zacky kisses Evie to shut her up, getting a hand in her hair. Evie smiles against his mouth and uses her weight to roll them over, pinning Zacky down by his wrists.

“I’ve missed this. You, on top of me, riding me like a fuckin’ champ.”
“Do you ever shut the fuck up, Zacky?”
“No, not when you’re so perfect up there.”

Evie rolls her eyes at the stupid grin on Zacky’s face and gets to work on shutting him up.

Chapter Text

Mikey grunted as his jaw exploded with pain, thankful for the gag and it’s inability to make him bite his tongue. Evie had been laying into him for the last 25 minutes with a set of brass knuckles, but she’d abandoned them a while ago in exchange for using her fists. Her hands were slowing getting covered in Mikey’s blood, her shirt and face as well.

“Ready to apologise for giving me attitude yet, Mikey?”

Evie reached around to untie the gag, pulling it from Mikey’s mouth and wrenching his head back.

“Fuck you, Evie.”

Laughing, Evie pulled her arm back and Mikey winced, closing his eyes. The blow never landed though and when he opened his eyes, Zacky was holding Evie by her elbow to stop her from hitting Mikey again.

“He’s had enough, pet.”
“Get off me, Zacky. I’m not done yet.”
“Yes, you are.  Brian will be here soon, and you know he’ll bring Gerard with him. Go downstairs and make sure everything you need is down there and easy to get to. Don’t argue with me, just do it.”

Evie scowls at Zacky and pulls her arm free from his grip, slamming the door closed on her way out. Zacky rolls his eyes and heads to the bathroom, returning to Mikey’s side with a bowl of warm water and a washcloth.

“You’re lucky she went with the brass knuckles. Usually she prefers her vampire gloves.”
“Vamp…vampire what?”
“Vampire gloves. They’re leather gloves with a whole lot of tiny spikes on them. Would have made you bleed a lot more than you are now. Hold still please.”

Mikey flinched but tried to stay as still as possible as Zacky began to slowly clean the blood from his face, trying to avoid places where Mikey was already bruised as to not make them worse. Both of his eyes were blackened, and most of the right side of his face was bruised. Zacky strongly suspected that he had a shattered cheekbone and was surprised that his jaw wasn’t broken.

“I don’t get why you’re bothering to clean me up, Zack. She’s just going to kill me anyway.”
“She won’t. I believe she told you this about me? That I prefer her breathing? You’re worth more to us alive. Besides, there’s no point in pissing off the mayor and chief of police in one go. It’s not you she’s angry at anyway, it’s Brian she hates. Brian she wants to suffer. And she’ll make sure he does when he comes to get you in about an hour. Can you walk?”
“Yeah, I think so. You’re gonna have to help me though.”

Zacky pulls a switchblade from his pocket and uses it to cut the ropes tying Mikey to the chair, brandishing it at his throat and Mikey just rolls his eyes.

“I’m not gonna try anything, especially when I don’t know where Frank is.”
“Come on, I’ll take you to him.”

Mikey accepts the hand Zacky offers him to help him stand, having to lean on the other man when standing makes his head spin. Zacky helps him down to Frank’s room, giving the two of them a minute together before shepherding them both downstairs.

“We’re good to go here, baby. Mikey, sit.”

Evie points to the couch on her left, taking a step forward and putting her arm around Frank while Zacky holds a knife to his back.

“Okay, okay, I’m going. Just don’t hurt Frank.”

He puts his hands up in surrender and sits, Zacky putting his knife away and tying Mikey’s hands together.

“I’m sorry Frankie, I know I shouldn’t have dragged you into this. Go on, get outta here.”
“Stop apologising, okay? I get it.”

Frank hugs Evie and kisses her forehead and after a quick, nervous smile to Mikey, dashes out the front door.

“You don’t deserve him being good to…”

Evie takes the gag from her pocket and straddles Mikey’s lap, tying it tightly in his mouth.

“That is quite enough out of you. Now, just sit there, shut up, and be a good little hostage.”

She pats him condescendingly on the head and climbs out of his lap, joining Zacky in the kitchen.

“Now we wait.”
“And now we wait. You sure letting Frankie go was a good idea, pet?”
“Stop questioning me, ZV, or I’ll kick your ass.”

Zacky sighs and Evie runs a hand through his hair and kisses him.

“It’s gonna be fine, baby. Letting him go doesn’t make much of a difference now, not when Syn & Gee will be here within the hour. Toro just texted me to tell me they’re on their way over, and they’ve told Gabe what’s going on which isn’t at all surprising. I love you, nothings ever gonna change that, just trust me.”

She kisses him again and Zacky smiles, pulling Evie into his arms.

“I trust you, it’s them I don’t. I don’t want to lose you, Evie.”
“You’re not going to lose me, Zacky. Not today, not now, not ever. I promise.”

Zacky pulls Evie onto the couch opposite the one Mikey is sat on and she curls up in his arms, one eye on Mikey, and one eye on the front door and waiting for Syn & Gee.

As soon as he was out of the house and around the corner, Frankie pulled his phone out of his pocket. He was surprised that Evie had charged it before slipping it in his pocket when he said goodbye, and he pulled it out and called Gee.

“Frankie? Are you okay? How did you get away?”
“I’m fine, Gee, and I didn’t have to, she let me go. It’s not me that Evie’s after.”
“Yeah, I know. Syn filled me in on his history with her. She let you go…what about Mikey?”

Gee makes his own assumptions when Frank doesn’t answer straight away and he looks across the car at Syn, trying his hardest not to glare.

“Be careful when you go in there you hear me? Zacky has a gun, and Evie’s pretty handy with her switchblade, and her butterfly knife.”
“Thanks Frankie. Promise me that you’re going to take your amazingly fine ass home, and let me and Gates deal with this. I know you, I know you’re going to argue with me but please for once, just listen to me and do what I say. Please.”

Frank laughed at Gee’s comment about his ass and rolled his eyes, stopping to lean against a wall and catch his breath.

“Don’t worry, I promise I’m going straight home to shower and crawl into bed and wait for you. Evie told me her history with Syn, don’t let him hurt her, Gee.”
“That’s not going to happen. I want Evie to get the help she needs, I don’t want her dead. Text me when you get home, please. I love you.”
“I love you too. Be careful!”

Gee pockets his phone and looks over at Syn as he rechecks that his gun is loaded.

“Alright, are we clear on the plan?”
“We go to the door, and we go together, and then we try and talk Evie around. I know, Gee. I let you run the show.”
“Yeah, you do. Evie let Frank go, it’s not me she wants to suffer, it’s you. Therefore, she’s more likely to listen to reason if it’s coming out of my mouth, and for Gods sake keep your gun out of sight.”

Syn doesn’t say anything as he pulls up a few houses down from the address Evie gave him, he and Gee agreeing that parking a few houses down is probably a better idea. Once they’ve parked the car Syn and Gee double check their guns and then head over to the house, Syn knocking lightly on the door.

Evie looks to Zacky when she hears the knock of the door and runs a hand through her hair, standing up and readjusting her jeans to hide the butterfly knife.

“Get the bitch on his knees for me would you, Zacky?”
“Of course, baby. Come here, you.”

Zacky pulls Mikey off the couch by his hair and forces him onto his knees, the switchblade poised delicately at Mikey’s throat.

“I believe I told you to come alone, Brian.”

Evie says as she opens the door, pointing her gun at Gee and waving the two of them inside.

“Mikey, you okay?”
“Yeah Gee, I’m fine. Frankie?”
“Touching, however we don’t have time for this. Stay where you are, Brian, and get your hands where I can see them. Gee, I want you to go to Zacky, and Mikey, come over here for me.”

Gee and Syn share a look, and when Evie sighs impatiently they move. Syn backs up towards the door, his hands up by his head to show Evie his compliance. When Gee gets to Zacky’s side he lets Mikey go, Evie pulling him back to his feet by his shirt.

“I’m going to really enjoy making the boy suffer while you watch, Brian.”
“Don’t hurt him, Evie, please. He’s not the one that you’re angry at.”
“Bit late for that. Can’t you tell from his pretty face that I’ve already hurt him? I can’t tell you how much satisfaction I got out of smacking him around.”

Syn flinches when Evie cuts Mikey’s cheek with Zacky’s switchblade before giving it back to him, forcing Mikey to back up towards the stairs so that the two of them are dead in the middle of where Zacky has Gee and where Syn is standing by the front door.

“He tell you who he really is, Gee? Or is Brian still trying to keep it hidden from you?”
“No honey, he told me who he used to be. How he was your Mom’s pimp and that she was working for him when she overdosed. But Evie, sweetheart, you can’t keep blaming him for what she did to herself.”

Evie laughs, pulling Mikey’s head back by his hair and rests her knife at his throat.

“Tell them the truth, Brian. Tell Mikey & Gee what you really did to my Mom.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about, Evie. It’s not my fault that your mother overdosed in that motel room, and I didn’t know what your father was doing to you.”
“You’re a dirty, sneaky, little liar, Brian. You have about 30 seconds to tell them the truth or you can say goodbye to Mikey, then you’re next.”

When Brian doesn’t immediately start talking Evie pulls Mikey’s hair again, twisting his neck in an uncomfortable way until he grunts in pain.

“Okay, okay okay. Just let him go, Evie, let him go and I’ll tell them.”
“I don’t think so, Brian. You’re not the one calling the fucking shots anymore. Tell Mikey & Gee what actually happened to my Mom.”

Seeing that he has no other option Brian sighs, leaning against the front door and crossing his arms over his chest.

“The truth is, I…I gave Michelle the dirty needle that was used to kill Evie’s Mom. She was making me a lot of money and I couldn’t afford her to leave, the drugs weren’t supposed to kill her but Michelle fucked up. That was why I married her, she’s pretty but also daft as hell. Keeping her with me was the best way to keep my money and my business safe. I knew that Evie’s father was an abusive alcoholic, but I had no need for a child so it didn’t matter to me what happened. It wasn’t until I nearly died in a police raid that I turned my life around and became Synyster Gates, that I cleaned up my act. It was too late by then though, I had no idea where Evie was. All that I could do was find her name and use what money I had left to support her that way. Evie I swear, I didn’t know what was happening to you in those foster homes until you were already working for James, and by then there was nothing I could do about it without blowing my cover. I’m sorry, Evie, I really am.”

Evie shudders and it’s only then that she realises she’s crying, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand. Out of the corner of her eye she spots movement and Evie turns on her heel, taking Mikey with her as she goes.

"Don't fucking move, or I swear I'll slit his throat."

Evie growls, pushing the knife harder against Mikey's throat and he whimpers, Syn putting his hands up in surrender and stopping dead.

"Come on, love, let's just talk this out. Let Mikey and Gee go, you don't need them. You don't want to hurt them."
"You know, I'm getting really sick of people telling me what I don't want."
"What is it that you do want? I can help you get what you want, but you need to talk to me, honey."

Gee breathes in sharply as Zacky pulls harder on his hair to shut him up, flicking the safety off his gun. Evie bites her lip and forces Mikey to his knees so she can look at Gee and keep an eye on Syn at the same time.

"What I want you can't give me, Gee. Nobody can. The only way I can fix everything is if I kill him."
"You don't mean that, Evie, that's not who you are."
"You don't know me as well as you think you do. I had Matt & James killed, and I played all of you. For months. The whole time I was with Zacky and Matt, the only violence I got was from Matt. Zack and I were faking everything else. Except for the almost heroin overdose. That wasn't supposed to happen, but what can I say? My boy gets jealous sometimes.

Evie winks at Zacky and he smiles back at her.

"Only get possessive and jealous when I see some pretty boy eye-fucking my girl, especially when she's too much of a flirt to notice the affect she has on men."
“Please Evie, at least let my little brother go. You of all people know that you can’t help who you fall in love with. He has nothing to do with this, this is between you and Syn. Let me stay here and we’ll talk this out until we get something that everyone is satisfied with yeah? Please?” 

Zacky looks at Evie warily and she bites her lip, communicating with him in eyebrow about what they should do.

"You're calling all the shots here baby, you decide what you want to do."
"On your feet, Mikey. Now."

Evie steps back from Mikey and allows him to stand, gripping him by the front of his shirt and forcing him towards the front door.

"You're so lucky your brother is a good negotiator, Way. Now get out of my sight, you even try to come back in here and I'll kill you."

Mikey throws a dirty look over his shoulder at Evie and then backs slowly down the front steps of the house, keeping his eye on her as she closes the door. Evie trains her gun on Brian when she turns back around, forcing him to back up towards the stairs. She sweeps his legs out from underneath him and gives Brian a bit of a shove and he hits the deck. Hard.

“Get that upstairs and out of my sight, Zacky. Gee and I need to talk.”

Evie kicks Brian in the stomach and walks over to Zacky, sticking out her hand and helping Gee to his feet.

“Come on, I’ll make you a coffee and we’ll talk.”

Gee does as he’s told, obediently following Evie into the kitchen and sitting down while she boils the kettle.

Chapter Text

Gee took in the way Evie’s hands shook as she passed him his coffee, taking a deep breath as she sat down opposite him.

“You wanted to talk to me, Gee. So talk.”
“I understand what you’re going through, Evie and…”

Evie cuts Gee off, raising her hand to silence him and shaking her head.

“No you don’t. You have no idea what I’m going through, what I’ve been through because of him.”
“Okay you’re right, I don’t know what you’ve been through. Mikey and I still have our Mom and Dad, and they’re some of the most supportive people around. I know that you’ve lost both of them, and that you’re scared and hurt and angry. Brian took away your chance of knowing what your life would have been like with you Mom after your Dad died, he took away your chance of having a childhood. But sweetheart, killing him isn’t going to make everything that happened to you go away.”
“I don’t want to kill him, not yet anyway. I want to make him suffer first. Why didn’t you let him come alone, Gee? I was going to let Mikey go and then torture Brian, but now I can’t do just that. You aren’t leaving here, Gee. I’m sorry.”

Gee looks up from his mug to find Evie pointing her gun at him, the tears falling silently down her cheeks.

“Evie, what are you doing? Come on now, put the gun down.”
“Not gonna happen. I can’t…I can’t let you leave, Gee. I let you leave and you go and tell everyone what I did here, and everything I’ve worked for gets taken away.”

He puts his hands up and stands, following when Evie directs him to the stairs and heading up them.

“Evie…”
“No! Shut up, Gee! There’s nothing you can say to me that’s going to change my mind. Now I’m sorry to take you away from Mikey and Frankie, but I can’t let Brian hurt anyone anymore.”

Evie grabs Gee by the back of his shirt and hustles him faster up the stairs, shoving him onto the bed in the room previously occupied by Mikey.

“Don’t make me tie you up and gag you, Gee. Stay here while I go and deal with Brian.”

Gee waits until Evie has closed the door before trying to open it, banging on it in frustration when he finds that it’s locked. After banging on it for a further ten minutes and having no luck, Gee sits down on the bed and presses his ear up against the wall.

“You tie Gee up next door?”
“I locked him in, but I didn’t tie him up. I don’t see a reason to, he’s not going to try anything.”
“Not one of your smartest decisions I don’t think, pet.”

Brian scoffs from behind the gag and Evie turns sharply to glare at him, smirking when he flinches as she presses the switchblade against his jugular.

“Something you want to say?”

She roughly pulls the gag from his mouth and forces Brian’s head up with the knife.

“I just think it’s funny that your boy here thinks that any of what you’ve done in the last couple of days is smart. When I get out of here, I promise you that you’re going to suffer for what you’ve done.”
“Oh Bri, you still don’t get it do you? I don’t understand what it is with you and your pretty little lover. You’re both idiots. Makes sense I suppose.”

Zacky returns with the chair from his and Evie’s bedroom and she turns it around, sitting on it facing Brian and smiling. Zacky stands behind her, resting his hands on her shoulders and just observing. Evie doesn’t say anything, just rests her chin on her forearms and smiles at Brian.

“Are you going to explain to me why you think I’m an idiot, Evie? Or are you just going to sit there.”

Giggling, Evie bites her lip and looks over her shoulder at Zacky. He smiles and leans down to whisper in her ear, much to the chagrin of Brian who frustratedly pulls on the ropes tying him to the chair.

“You’re an idiot for a couple of reasons, Bri. Firstly, you’re an idiot because you insulting me and Zacky is just annoying me more. Secondly, I’m not concerned about Gee, he can leave if he wants to. I have nothing against him. Mostly though, you’re an idiot for thinking that you’re going to get to leave here. The only way you’re leaving here is out that window when I’m done with you. The coyotes can have whatever’s left of you. Oh and in regard to me suffering? I think I’ve already done enough of that, now it’s your turn.”
“Why do you even care that I killed your Mom? It’s not like that bitch was even a part of your life before she died. You really think that she could have taken care of you? Evie, babe, she was a good for nothing whore who was useless unless she was on her back or her knees. She would have been a terrible mother. Trust me, you were better off with your Dad.”

Evie is up and in Brian’s face as soon as the words have left his mouth, her hand around his throat and her switchblade pressed firmly against his cheek.

“Shut the fuck up.”

Brian just laughs and smiles at Evie, raising an eyebrow at the way her hand holding the knife shakes.

“Truth hurts, doesn’t it? I strongly doubt you’d still be alive if you’re mom was still around, she could barely take care of herself let alone a child.”
“Well I guess I’ll never know will I? No thanks to you!”

Evie lets go of Brian’s throat so she can backhand him hard across the face, sending him flying with a firm kick to his chest. It all happens very quickly then. The chair he’s tied to topples over and Brian gets his hands free, reaching for his gun and firing it. Evie screams and drops to her knees at Zacky’s side, desperately trying to put pressure on the gunshot wound in his chest.

“You…you promised me! Promised you’d never…never leave…leave me.”

Zacky reaches up to cup Evie’s cheek, stroking her skin softly with his thumb.

“Shh pet, it’s…it’s gonna be…be okay.”
“I’m so sorry, Zack. This…this is all my…my fault. Please…please don’t go…don’t leave me Zacky. Please.”

The tears fall free and fast down Evie’s cheeks as Zacky quickly loses all the colour in his face, his breathing slowing and becoming erratic.

“I…I love…I love you, Evie. Don’t…don’t ever forget.”

Zacky’s hand falls from Evie’s cheek and she cries harder, resting her head on his chest, not caring that her clothes are getting covered in her dead lovers blood. Evie screams and thrashes as Brian pulls her off Zacky’s dead body by her hair, shoving her face first against the wall and cuffing her hands behind her back.

“Get off me! I’m gonna fucking kill you, you bastard! You’re going to pay for what you’ve done! You killed him, you killed my Zacky!”
“Evelyn Rose, you’re under arrest for kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, fraud and for accessory to murder. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you can’t afford an attorney one will be provided to you. Do you understand your rights I have just read to you?”

Evie doesn’t say anything so Brian spins her around, keeping her pinned to the wall with his hips and a hand in her hair.

“What? Got nothing to say now, baby?”

Brian slaps Evie hard enough in the face that her head bounces off the wall and she just looks blankly at him, her eyes drifting to Zacky’s body and all the fight going out of her.

“Move it.”

With a firm hand around her forearm Brian marches Evie from the bedroom and down the wall, kicking the door open to the room where Gee is. Gee almost sighs in relief when he see’s Brian and Evie, having heard the gunshot but having no way to tell who’d been shot.

“Jesus Christ. Are you alright?’

Evie doesn’t react as Gee reaches out and touches her cheek, the concern that she’s covered in blood written all over his face.

“She’s fine, Gee. It’s not her blood.”
“Zacky?”

At the mention of his name Evie starts crying harder, Brian having to put a little more effort into holding her up.

“Let’s get you downstairs and sitting down yeah? Let her go, Gates, call Mikey and Gabe and get them here, then call the paramedics.”
“But Gee…”
“I wasn’t asking you, Syn. Let Evie go. Now.”

Syn all but shoves Evie into Gee’s arms, throwing his hands up in exasperation and storming downstairs. Gee picks Evie up and carries her downstairs, gently putting her down on the couch.

“I’m so sorry, Evie. I know how much he meant to you.”

Gee takes his jacket off and puts it around Evie’s shoulders, sitting with her for a minute to make sure she’s going to be okay. It’s clear to him that she’s in shock and despite everything that’s happened, Gee can’t help but feel sorry for Evie. He has a sneaking suspicion that Syn only shot Zacky because he wants Evie to suffer, but with her in shock and not speaking he can’t prove that. When he see’s Syn walk out the front door, Gee pulls his phone out and walks into the kitchen to make sure he’s out of earshot.

“Hey Pete, it’s Gee. I need your help……”

Chapter Text

One Month Later 

Gee smiled at Evie as she was led into the room, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek. He frowned when he noticed the rapidly forming bruise on her jaw though, tilting her head to the side so he could look at it properly.

“I’m fine, Gee.”

She tells him before he can ask, sitting down at the cold, steel table.

“The guards still giving you trouble?”

Evie shrugs, trying to hide her wince as not to worry Gee more.

“Only a couple of them, but it’s mostly okay. I should know better than to antagonise them, especially after everything. How are Mikey & Frank?”
“Frankie is great, he said to send you his love, he wrote you another letter as well.”

Gee takes the latter out of his pocket and hands it to Evie and she smiles, folding it in half and putting it in the pocket of her jumpsuit.

“How’s Mikey?”

Evie bites her lip and looks down at her lap when Gee doesn’t answer her, just runs a hand through his hair and sighs.

“I haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks, and he won’t speak to me or Frank on the phone. Syn is gloating about it every chance he gets which isn’t helping. He wants to see you.”
“Not a chance in hell. I don’t want to see him. Please Gee!”
“Honey I have no control over that, if he wants to see you the request has to go through Pete and Johnny. Speaking of, Pete is going to come by and see you later on.”

The guard appears over Gee’s shoulder and he and Evie both stand, he pulls her into his arms so he can whisper in her ear.

“Who’s giving you a hard time, love?”
“Nate & Alex, they were the ones that roughed me up. Please, don’t get involved Gee, I can take care of myself.”

Gee doesn’t get a chance to reply before the guard is roughly grabbing Evie by the arm and leading her from the visiting area. Once she’s on the other side of the door the guard roughly pulls Evie’s hands behind her back and cuffs her, getting a hand in her hair and forcing her down the hallway.

“My shrink and my lawyer are both coming by to see me later, Rian. Please, please don’t do this.”

Evie shrank back against the wall as she was circled by the officers, Nate Novarro, Alex Gaskarth & Rian Dawson. They had been taking turns in taking advantage of Evie either physically or sexually for the last 2 weeks. She was currently in jail awaiting trial for the kidnapping of Mikey & Frank, and for being an accessory to Matt & James’ murders. Syn hadn’t been able to get the unlawful imprisonment charges to stick when Frankie wouldn’t agree to testify in court, and the fraud charges had been dropped when Evie’s lawyer Johnny had threatened to expose who Syn really was. After Evie’s arrest Mikey had moved in with Syn, and was having a lot of trouble getting passed her torturing him. The two of them had cut almost all contact with Gee, Syn having to talk to him occasionally for business reasons. Gee had really rallied on Evie’s behalf after everything had happened, and had started paying all her legal fees. He hired her a fancy New York attorney, and a high end psychiatrist, who also happened to be one of his closest friends. They were trying to downplay her crimes as a psychotic break after all of the abuse she had suffered in her life, and were trying to prove that she would do better in a mental hospital than in a prison. Syn was obviously trying to argue the other way, and Mikey was doing everything he could to support him and make sure Evie got the maximum sentence for what she did.

“I don’t think your lawyer is going to be looking at you naked though, darling, and you won’t tell anyone if you know what’s good for you.”
“Brian put you up to this didn’t he? Is he threatening you, Rian? I…I can help with that.”

Evie yelped as Rian smacked her hard in the face, Alex shoving his hand over her mouth.

“Shut up. Knew I should have brought the gag with me. Nate, go and keep watch, Alex, hold her down would you?”

They dragged her over to the bed and Evie gave up the fight, knowing from experience that if she struggled it would be worse for her.

Evie curled up in a ball on the bed when Rian was done with her, shuddering in disgust and willing herself not to cry. She closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep, taking a few deep breaths to calm down.

**********

“You have to go back now, pet.”
“But I don’t want to, I don’t want to be there without you.”

Zacky ran his hand through Evie’s hair, pressing soft kisses to her forehead, nose, and finally her lips. Evie held tightly onto his shirt, fighting against letting the material slip through her fingers.

“I know baby, I know you don’t want to be without me but it’s time. It’s time for you to move on with your life. You promised me that you’d never stop fighting and now you’re giving up? You let those assholes take advantage of you, but I know you. You’re so much stronger than you think you are, and you can do this. It’s time now, time for you to leave. I love you, and I will always be with you in your heart.”

**********

“Evie, you need to wake up now.”

Gabe gently shook Evie awake and let her throw herself into his arms, running a hand up and down her back to try and help her calm down.

“You have that nightmare again, love?”
“Yeah. I had a run in with Rian and Alex after Gee came to see me.”
“I figured that much, your throat is bruised. Pete & Johnny are here to see you, you gonna be okay?”

Evie nods over Gabe’s shoulder and he lets her go, wiping the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs and taking her hand. He leads her back down to the interrogation room and sits her down, cuffing her hands to the table and squeezing her shoulder before he leaves. Evie doesn’t have to wait long before her psychiatrist, Pete Wentz, and her lawyer, Johnny Christ, walk into the room and sit down opposite her. Pete is about her height, with messy black hair, tattoos and kind, brown eyes. He and Gee had been friends since kindergarten and Pete had flown in from Chicago specifically to advocate for Evie. Johnny was shorter than the both of them with a black mohawk, nose piercing, tattoos and light brown eyes. Johnny was one of the best lawyers in California and had flown to New Jersey to work the case as a favour to Gee.

“Names of the officers who hurt you please, Evie.”
“Rian Dawson & Alex Gaskarth, but Johnny, please don’t do anything to them. I just have to stick it out here long enough to make it to the trial right? If I report them and what they’ve been doing Syn will make sure that I don’t live that long.”

Johnny sighs and runs a hand through his hair, Pete just smiling and shaking his head at Evie.

“Kids got a point, Johnny. Don’t worry, the head of the prison board is an old friend of mine, I’ll have Evie moved to protective custody.”

Pete pulls his phone out of his pocket and steps outside to make the phone call, leaving Evie and Johnny alone.

“I really am okay you know. You know that I’ve spent my whole life being mistreated and abused by the men in my life who were supposed to care about me. Two more in a prison cell for who knows how long isn’t really going to make much of a difference.”
“I don’t doubt that for a minute, and it’s only going to be for another week. We got a trial date set for next week, that’s why I wanted to come in and see you. Tell you the good news.”
“Thank you, Johnny. I would hug you but my hands are otherwise occupied.”

They’re both still giggling when Pete comes back in and he eyes them suspiciously, and Evie just smiles.

“I made a joke about hugging Johnny and not being able to because my hands are otherwise occupied.”
“You’re such a dork, Evie. I can see why Gee likes you so much. You tell her the good news, Johnny?”
“Yeah, she knows that her trial is happening next week. Come on, we need to go and start getting things set up for the trial, I have a whole box full of statements and testimonials from James’ employees that work in our favour. We’ll be in contact to check up on you and make sure you’re okay.”

Johnny shakes Evie’s handcuffed hand and Pete stands and gives her a hug before they leave. No guard comes to uncuff Evie and she sits and waits, jumping when Syn walks in smiling.

“Hello Sweetheart.”

Evie doesn’t say anything and shrinks back in her chair, pulling against the handcuffs and sighing in defeat when they don’t budge. Syn just laughs, taking a seat opposite Evie and looking smug.

“What? No cheery greeting? No snotty comeback?”
“What…what do you want?”
“I haven’t seen your pretty face in a little while, wanted to come and see you. Make sure my boys are treating you right.”

He reaches across the table to pull on the collar of Evie’s jumpsuit and undo the top three buttons so he can look at the bruises on her chest and neck.

“And I can see that they are. Alex or Rian?”
“Rian. Laugh it up all you want Gates, the trial is next week and the jury is going to hear everything that you did to me.”
“You keep telling yourself that, Evie. Nate!”

Nate comes in and takes Evie back to her cell, shoving her in and punching her in the stomach as he leaves. Surprisingly the rest of Evie’s night is quiet, nobody coming in to bother her or give her a hard time. It’s not until 3am that things start to go downhill, Rian and Syn coming into Evie’s cell. Rian grabs her by the hair and forces her onto her knees, holding her still and forcing her to look at Syn.

“Thank you, Rian. I can take it from here, Evie won’t try anything will you?”

Evie rigorously shakes her head when Syn pulls his gun out, taking the safety off and aiming it at her.

“I’ll go and deal with the cameras.”

Rian lets go and leaves but Evie still stays firmly on her knees, keeping her hands behind her head.

“Now, here’s how this is going to go Evie. You’re going to take this razor, and drag it across those wrists for me.”
“Fuck you. Gates. I…I won’t do it.”
“If you don’t want to be the victim of a tragic accident, yes, you will.”

Syn presses the barrel of his gun right up against Evie’s forehead, tossing a razor blade on the floor by her knees.

“Syn please! I…I’ll plead however you want just please. Don’t…don’t make me do it.”
“It’s a little too late for that, darling. I’m not going to ask you again.”

Evie picks up the razor blade with shaking hands, looking up at Syn with teary eyes. She takes a deep breath and drags the razor blade across her left wrist, biting her lip to keep quiet.

“Now the other one.”

She glares at Syn as she slices her other wrist open, struggling to keep her eyes open from the shock and the blood loss. Syn picks Evie up and starts to carry her outside to his car, sitting her up in the passenger seat and wrapping pressure bandages around her wrists so she doesn’t bleed out in the car. Once they get to the hospital Syn goes around to the passenger side of the car, opening the door and picking Evie up and carrying her inside. Just before they get to the door he pulls the bandages off her wrists and leans down to whisper in her ear.

“I thought you should know that the man who raised you wasn’t your father. I am.”

The next few hours are a bit of a blur for Evie, not really being conscious enough to register what Syn has said to her. When she wakes up handcuffed to the hospital bed, Frankie, Gee and to her surprise, Mikey are all sitting by her bedside.

“Hey love, take it easy. You’ve been through a lot in the last 12 hours, we all have.”

Mikey gently takes Evie’s hand and squeezes, Evie can tell from the redness in his eyes that he’s been crying.

“I am so sorry that I ignored you and turned on you, Evie. I let him fill my head with bullshit. He told me what he did to you, that he forced you to slit your own wrists. Bragged about it actually.”
“It’s okay, Mikey. I don’t blame you.”

He kisses her forehead and sits back down, keeping hold of her hand and being careful not to disturb the bandages on her wrists.

“There’s been an emergency dismissal and Syn has been fired. Nate, Rian & Alex have all been charged for their treatment of you while you were in custody, they admitted to everything as soon as we fired Syn. We’re also moving to have the charges against you dropped, seeing as Syn and Mikey were the only ones who were testifying against you. It’s going to be okay Evie, I promise you that much.”
“Thank you, Gee. That…that means a lot. Do…do you guys mind if I…if I get some sleep now? I’m a little exhausted.”
“Of course sweetheart, anything you need you just let me know.”

Gee kisses Evie on the cheek and then takes Mikey from the room as well. Frankie sits on the edge of Evie’s bed, waiting until the others are out of the room to kiss Evie softly.

“You were right, Frankie. Gates really is my father.”
“You should know better than to doubt me by now, babe. Leave it with me and I’ll see what I can do. Want me to call Jimmy?”
“Nah don’t bother, the less he knows the better. Besides, it’s not fair on Mikey to have Jimmy around, not when he knows that he was fucking Matt. You should go, before the others get worried or suspect something. Once we know if I’m getting off or not, then we’ll talk to Jimmy and decide what we’re gonna do about Gates.”
“Alright. Get some sleep, I’ll swing by tomorrow and check up on you.”

Frankie winks at Evie as he leaves and she laughs, rolling over onto her side and getting ready to have the best nights sleep she’s had in a long time.

The end............?