I got as far as the front sidewalk before Mateo burst through the door behind me. Tackling me from behind, he slammed me down onto the concrete, squishing me beneath him. I gasped as my cheek scraped across the sidewalk.
An elderly couple entering the building paused, the man asking cautiously, “Everything all right here?”
Mateo glared up at him. “It will be if you walk away now.”
The man grabbed his companion’s arm and disappeared into the building.
So much for my escape attempt. So much for Good Samaritans rescuing me.
My brief attempt at bravery had failed.
Why wasn’t I surprised? I was pathetic.
Mateo yanked me up and dragged me down the sidewalk toward the parking garage. My cheek burned where it had scraped on the concrete.
“Time for Plan B.”
Fight him, Liz. Don’t let him kidnap you again. Try to escape. Try to draw attention to yourself. The next person might help you get away.
“Help!” I screamed. “He’s kidnapping me! Please help! Someone, help!”
Mateo’s fist slammed into my face. The force of the blow caused my head to jolt to the side as pain ricocheted across my face and blood spurted from my nose. I whimpered, stumbling back, clutching my bloody nose.
No one stopped to help me. No one even glanced my way. What was wrong with people?
Smart, Liz. Real smart.
Mateo latched onto my arm again, yanking me forward. “Try that again, bitch, and I’ll just snap your fucking neck.”
My face hurt. My eyes watered. My nose burned, a steady, painful throbbing. I resisted the urge to cower and sob. Lifting my chin, I met his black gaze.
Mateo wouldn’t really kill me. He needed me to lure Ryan out. So what did I have to lose? He might beat me up some more, but I might manage to escape in the process. It would be worth it if I got away, right?
We reached the parking garage and got on the elevator. Minutes later, we reached the stolen car in the lot. A man two cars away was unloading a suitcase from his trunk. He eyed Mateo warily as Mateo yanked open the passenger’s door and barked, “Get in!”
I pulled back. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spied the man stepping closer. “Hey,” he said, pausing a few feet away. “The lady said she doesn’t want to get in your car.”
Mateo spun on the man so swiftly, he was just a blur.
Smack. Crunch. Thud.
The man dropped to the ground, moaning softly. Mateo searched the man’s pockets and pulled out his car keys. Then he snagged my arm and yanked me toward the man’s car.
“Get in!”
This time, I got in. I didn’t want Mateo to hurt anyone else. And I was tired of getting beat up. I vowed I would find a way to escape when the time arose. For now, I would just cooperate and wait until the time was right.
Moments later, we were screeching out of the parking garage and heading down the road.
“Where are we going?” I asked, fearing the worst.
Mateo sent me another one of those dark glares that made me want to cringe and hide.
But I was done cringing and hiding. I was learning how to be brave. I was learning to stand up for myself. You could only kick a dog so many times before she decided to bite back.
“We’re heading to the designated location to wait for reinforcements. It will be a few hours or more before the soldiers arrive.” He let his gaze crawl down my body and back up. “Plenty of time for me to have some fun with you. When I get done with you, Lizzie girl, you’ll be begging for mercy. There won’t be any fight left in you.”
I swallowed hard. That meant he was probably going to beat me, and rape me, and who knew what else.
My pulse accelerated. My skin grew clammy with terror. I would not cower from this asshole any more. I bared my teeth at him, my eyes shooting hate-filled daggers.
His lip twisted in a sneer. “Ooh, I’m going to love breaking you, bitch.” Mateo snickered and turned away.
My heart gave a frightened thump. I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, then out.
Be brave, Liz. Be strong, just like Ryan told you to.
Thinking of Ryan gave me strength. I focused on that strength now, bringing it forward, centering on it.
I turned away, staring out my window. Clenching my teeth, I accidently bit my swollen lip. But this time, I welcomed the sting of pain.
I needed to prepare myself for battle. When it came time for Mateo to “have fun with” me, I was going to fight back with everything I had.
He thought he was going to make me bleed?
Little did he know, I was going to make him bleed, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Ryan
Mateo was just two steps ahead of us.
When we arrived in Oklahoma City, we parked in the parking garage next door to the hotel. As soon as we stepped out of the car, we spied a man lying in the lot next to a gray sedan that could only be the car Mateo had stolen from the woman back in Lawton. Luke and I helped the man up and asked him what had happened.
He explained he was unloading his suitcase from his car when he saw a man ordering a woman to get into the gray sedan. She refused, pulling back, so he went to assist.
“He attacked me like a crazed beast,” the man murmured, clutching his bloody nose. “Then he took my keys and stole my car.”
Luke and I exchanged a glance. “There was only one woman with him?” I asked.
“Yeah. Young, pretty thing with reddish-brown hair and glasses. She looked scared.”
Luke tapped my arm. “Let’s go ask around inside the hotel. See if anyone knows anything.”
We hurried into the elevator, and a few minutes later, we entered the hotel. When the hotel clerk spied us, his eyes widened and he backed up a few steps, holding his hands in the air. “I don’t want any trouble.”
Luke and I exchanged a glance. “We’re not here to hurt you,” I said. “We just need information.”
The man eyed us warily, lifting the receiver of his desk phone. “Stay back! I already called 911. They should be here any moment. But I’ll call them again if you don’t leave right now.”
I hesitated, exchanging a look with Luke. He jerked his head in a nod. Time to use the pheromone again.
So I released just a small amount of the pheromone, enough to make the man loosen up and tell us the truth.
It worked like a charm.
The tension eased out of the man’s body and he replaced the phone’s receiver. “What information did you need, gentlemen?”
“We’re hunting a felon,” Luke spoke up. “A tall Hispanic kid. He took a woman hostage and we found his car abandoned in the parking garage.”
Relief crossed the young man’s features. “That’s the guy that was here a few minutes ago. He asked about a guest, but I told him she’d already checked out this morning. So he grabbed me and demanded I let him use my phone. I gave him the phone and he called someone. While he was talking, the woman fled out the door. But he ran after her and tackled her. I didn’t see where they went after that.”
“Did you overhear his conversation?” I asked.
The man nodded. “He said something about having a hostage and luring someone out, and sending soldiers. Then he ran after the girl.”
“Thanks.”
Luke and I spun around and raced back to the parking garage.
Apparently Mom had already checked out of the hotel. I had no idea where she’d gone or where she might be. But I could only be grateful that Mateo didn’t have her. That meant we only had Liz to save.
But we had no idea where Mateo had gone. Not even a clue.
How could we track him without any clues?
We needed Tracker. And he was still a few hours away.
There was no telling what Mateo might do to Liz during the time it might take us to find her.
If I thought about that for too long, I was going to lose my shit.
He was right. I needed to chill out before I lost it. I did as he instructed, drawing in a deep breath and slowly exhaling.
“There’s not much we can do until Tracker gets here. We have no idea where Mateo took her.”
I sighed. He was right again. We couldn’t just drive around Oklahoma City looking for Liz. Over half a million people lived here. It was four times the size of Lawton. The chances of us spotting her were slim.
We needed to find a place to lay low until the other dregs showed up. And then strategize and go find Liz.
“Fuck.” I turned away, heading for my car. Luke followed. We’d parked next to each other in the garage. I got into my car and Luke slid into the passenger’s seat. For a moment, no one said anything.
Then Liz’s phone rang from the backseat. I jumped out, flipped my seat up, then rummaged around in the back for her purse. Finding it, I returned to my seat behind the wheel and pulled her phone out.
“It’s my mom,” I told Luke.
He raised a brow. “Well, answer it.”
Every time I thought about talking to my mother, hearing her voice again, I got anxious and my nerves tingled. I turned into a thirteen-year-old kid again.
Seeing my hesitation, Luke snagged the phone from me and swiped the screen.
“Hi Glenda,” he said. “This is Luke, Ryan’s friend. We’re at the Marriott in Oklahoma City, but the clerk said you already checked out.” He listened a moment, then smiled at me. “Smart thinking.”
“Put her on speaker.”
Luke lifted the phone away from his ear and pressed the “speakerphone” button.
“Here’s Ryan,” he announced, handing the phone to me.
I cleared my throat. “Hi Mom. Where are you?”
“I’m down the street,” she admitted. “I checked into a different hotel. I thought it would be smart to move around and not stay in the same spot in case someone was tailing me.”
I exchanged a glance with Luke. “That’s smart. Where are you, exactly?”
“I’m at the Hampton. Can I talk to Liz, please? We need to discuss what to do with the inn until we get back.”
“Well, um, she’s not here right now. She’ll have to call you back.” I wasn’t about to tell my mother what had happened to Liz. I didn’t want her to freak out and do something rash. “Stay there. You should be safe for now. If I am unable to come for you, then I will send one of my friends. We’ll get back to you.” I disconnected the call and dropped Liz’s phone back in her purse.
“Coward,” Luke whispered. “Why didn’t you talk to her longer?”
I jerked my gaze back to his. “You’d be a little nervous too if you were talking to your mom after not seeing her for fourteen years.”
“True. I envy you. I wish I had family out there somewhere. A mom, a sister, someone.”
I held his gaze. “You have the other dregs,” I reminded quietly. “You have me. Always.”
Something flickered in his eyes, then he smacked my arm. “I know, bro. I know. Thanks. But if that were my mom, I’d talk to her for as long as I could. Because you never know when you’ll get the chance to talk to her again, so you should take advantage of every opportunity.”
He was so right. Instead of being a chicken shit, I should talk to Mom as long as I could. Because tomorrow I might not get that chance.
I reached back into Liz’s purse in search of her phone, intending to do just that.
My gaze landed on a brown and white business card, the name on the front left hand corner glaring up at me.
Detective Mark Ellington, Atlanta PD.
Shit. I snatched up the fake business card, showing it to Luke.
His eyes widened. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Yeah. I just don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”
Luke’s lips twitched, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “To quote a guy I know, ‘you were caught up in a hot chick and not thinking straight’.”
Heat crept into my face. He was quoting me. I’d said that very thing to Noah less than a week ago when he’d been helping Shannon, who was now his girlfriend. They’d had a whirlwind relationship, but were now very much in love. I was happy for him. Envious, even.
Was I all caught up in Liz? I definitely cared about her. She was all I could think about. And I missed her already, even though it had only been a few hours since I’d last seen her.
I wasn’t sure if I could save her before Mateo hurt her, and that scared the hell out of me. It would literally gut me if he hurt her. I’d fucking kill him.
I was killing him anyway, as soon as I found him.
I pulled my gaze back to Luke’s.
“Let’s call Ellington.”
Luke’s eyes hardened, glinting with his customary coldness that told me he was shutting his feelings down. I understood it more now that I knew his secret. It was how he dealt. How he kept sane. I had a lot more respect for him now. The other dregs thought he was a cold bastard, but he wasn’t. It was all an act to protect himself. My dreg talent seemed more like a nuisance in comparison. I could turn mine on or off at will, while he didn’t have that luxury.
And it suddenly occurred to me that his “coldness” wasn’t just to protect himself, it was also to protect me. Because I felt everything he felt. And if he were to allow all those emotions, all those energies from everyone around him to affect him, it would, in turn, affect me.
Holy shit.
I glanced at him in wonder. I could only imagine how much inner strength it took for him to do that.
“Why the fuck are you looking at me like a chick in heat?” he growled out. “I’m not hugging you and I’m sure as hell not showing you my dick, so don’t ask.”
I choked out a laugh and shook my head. This was the Luke I knew. The smart ass. The one who kept his distance from everyone, even me at times. Luke and I might be thick as thieves, but he’d always kept an emotional distance from me. Now that I knew his truth, it made more sense. Would he continue to remain so closed-off about his feelings now that I knew his secret? Or would he be more open and not block his emotions from me so much? Luke was so good at hiding his emotions that there had been times that even I had wondered if he had feelings. Now, I knew better. Now, I understood.
“You don’t need to block your feelings from me anymore. There’s no shame in having emotions, you know.”
Silence stretched, then he let out a long sigh. “I know, but I didn’t want to burden you with it. I’ve had years to adapt, to learn how to handle it. If I didn’t hold it back from you, it could break you, man. It’s pretty powerful sometimes. Especially the evil energies that come off some people. It’s hard to deal with so much hate.”
He was probably right. It made perfect sense now why The General had partnered us up. My easy-going nature countered Luke’s dark moods and sarcasm. We were all trained soldiers, taught not to feel, but we still had feelings. Even so, I had never experienced firsthand the deep feelings of other humans, except for the brief flashes of emotion that Luke gave off from time to time. He was so good at keeping his emotions hidden from me that rarely did I even experience that. If he were to suddenly stop hiding all that from me, it might be overwhelming. But I had to wonder, what did he feel? Was he just like anyone else? Or did being an empath make him different inside? Could someone like Luke ever have a real relationship with a woman? Could he ever fall in love?
That was some seriously heavy shit that I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into with him. We weren’t exactly emotionally-sharing kind of guys. It was best not to breach the current state of our relationship. We were still best friends. Brothers. Dreg partners. It we got too personal, it might change things between us, and I didn’t want that. But I still didn’t like being kept in the dark. Luke wasn’t cold. He was just trying to protect himself.
“Let’s just keep th
ings the way they are,” he suggested, which told me he had read my thoughts.
I cleared my throat. “Okay. I understand. But it would be nice if you stopped hiding your own feelings from me. I mean, shit, you know all of mine. I can’t hide them from you. It’s only fair that I know yours, too. It’s what all the other dregs experience. I feel kind of left out here. All this time, I believed you were emotionally cold inside, but now I know better. You don’t have to hide from me anymore.”
Luke glanced away uncomfortably. I decided not to push the matter right now. I would let him have some time to think about it. I didn’t expect him to get all lovey-dovey, touchy-feely and whatnot, but I didn’t want him to keep me in the dark any longer. He needed to allow me to experience the things he felt. I was tired of being the odd man out.
He sighed. “Don’t feel that way, man. Come on, you’re still my best friend.”
I decided to let it go. For now. He obviously wasn’t ready yet.
I fished Liz’s phone out of her purse again. I would use it to call Ellington because I didn’t want Ellington to have my number.
“Ready to call Ellington?”
Luke nodded, the wariness slowly leaving his eyes.
“Yeah, let’s do this.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Liz
Mateo drove into the driveway of a partially rundown house in the Adventure District. The bare branches of vining plants climbed up the side of the house and trailed along the porch railing, empty of leaves in their winter dormancy. The house was small, brick, square-shaped, and situated at the very end of the road. A thin layer of snow covered the ground as we exited the vehicle and headed for the front door.
Mateo ushered me inside after retrieving a key from beneath the twining branch of the vine that snaked along the window ledge to the left of the front door. The house was partially furnished, but vacant, everything covered in a film of dust. It didn’t look like anyone had been here in a while.
Mateo dragged me down the hallway to a small bedroom in the back. A few discarded toys lay on the floor next to a dresser, and an unmade, twin-size bed took up the center of the room. He opened the closet that was empty of everything except for a box. I nervously watched the door, waiting for a chance to escape, while he opened the box and pulled out a white rope. Then he advanced on me with an evil glint in his eyes.
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