Chapter 2

The Maybach glided smoothly through the flooded streets. Outside the tinted windows, the neon lights of Brooklyn bled into the rain, but to Eliza, they were just blurry halos of color in the dark.

She curled into the corner of the leather seat, hugging her knees to her chest. The cut on her forehead had stopped bleeding, the blood drying to a tight, itchy crust, but the shivering wouldn't stop. The car's climate control hummed quietly, pumping in warm air, but the cold radiating from the man sitting two feet away froze her to the bone.

Clifford sat with his long legs crossed, completely ignoring her existence. His attention was fixed on the tablet in his hands, his fingers swiping rapidly through a Wall Street M&A report.

From the passenger seat, the crisp sound of a throat clearing broke the silence. Alistair Pembroke, the butler, turned his head. His posture was rigid, his tone flawlessly polite and utterly devoid of warmth.

"Sir, the alarm system has been neutralized. The Manhattan Private Medical Center has been notified. The surgical team is prepped and waiting."

Eliza's heart skipped a beat. Medical Center. Surgical team. The words hit her like a physical blow to the chest.

She leaned forward slightly, her voice trembling uncontrollably. "Where are you taking me?"

Clifford didn't even blink. He just continued scrolling, his face carved from stone.

Alistair answered, his British accent sharp and clinical. "We are taking you to have the pregnancy terminated, Miss Christian. A forced abortion."

The words detonated in the quiet car. Eliza's mind went completely blank, the last thread of her sanity snapping.

She lunged. Her hands scrambled against the smooth door panel, her fingers finding the metal door handle. She pulled it up with all her strength, desperate to throw herself out into the traffic.

Click.

The electronic child lock engaged, a mocking, mechanical sound that severed her only escape route.

Clifford finally lowered the tablet. He turned his head slowly, his eyes like chips of ice fixed on her frantic, useless pulling.

"If you scratch the leather interior," he said, his voice a low, bored drawl, "I will chop you into pieces and feed you to the dogs."

Eliza let go of the handle. She turned and threw herself across the seat, her hands blindly reaching out until they grabbed the hem of his suit jacket. She didn't care about the mud on her fingers. She didn't care about the dignity she was scraping off the floor.

"Please," she begged, the word tasting like ash in her mouth. "Please don't do this. I'll disappear. I'll never tell anyone. You'll never see me again, I swear!"

Clifford looked down at her dirty, rain-soaked hands touching his expensive fabric. A look of pure disgust crossed his face. He reached down and peeled her fingers off his jacket, one by one, as if removing a leech.

Then his hand clamped onto the back of her neck. He shoved her down onto the seat with brutal force, pinning her there.

He leaned down, his lips brushing the shell of her ear. "Gray blood does not exist in the wild," he whispered, the words venomous. "And it certainly does not gestate inside a cripple."

Eliza went rigid. The sheer cruelty in his voice was paralyzing. Tears spilled from her sightless eyes, sliding down the sides of her face and soaking into the leather.

Slowly, unconsciously, her hands moved down to cover her flat stomach. It was a primal, instinctive gesture of protection.

Clifford's gaze zeroed in on her hands. A flash of irritated bloodlust flickered in his eyes.

"Drive faster," he barked at the driver.

The Maybach surged forward, tearing through the yellow lights of the city like a beast fleeing hell. The air inside the cabin turned solid, thick with Eliza's silent despair. She closed her eyes, her lips moving in a soundless prayer to a god who clearly wasn't listening.

Suddenly, a sharp, electric pain stabbed deep inside her brain. It was a micro-second zap, like a needle piercing gray matter. She winced, attributing it to the overwhelming stress.

The car plunged into the Midtown Tunnel. The overhead yellow lights strobed through the windows, flashing rapidly-bright, dark, bright, dark.

Eliza's retina seemed to twitch. A phantom sensation of light flickered in the endless blackness of her vision, there and gone in a millisecond.

The car slowed down. The smooth hum of the engine shifted to a stop. The smell of antiseptic and concrete seeped into the cabin. They were in an underground garage.

Alistair stepped out of the car and pulled open the rear door. He stood there, perfectly composed, and made a cold, sweeping gesture with his hand toward the steel doors of the clinic.

"Miss Christian," he said. "After you."