“Hello?” she called out softly.
But there was no reply. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could make out a dresser with a mirror, a camera on a stand, and what looked like a deep freezer across the room.
Her mind instantly rejected the idea that Eden could be in there.
That she may end up there herself.
No. There had to be a way. A way out. She did a quick analysis of her surroundings. She was bound, wrists and ankles, but there was slack. If she could lift herself up just a little, her mouth could reach the bindings and she could untie the knots with her teeth or chew threw the lace. Then she could use her hands to free her ankles and escape this damp hell.
But he’d be waiting. She knew it as certain as she knew her own name.
Fucking Brian.
The sweater-vest-wearing, aww-shucks-I’m-just-a-film-guy piece of shit was a sadistic psychopath who had been steering them in the wrong direction the entire time.
She felt stupid for missing the signs and the shame threatened to hold her down. Tears formed in her eyes. If only she’d figured it out sooner. Maybe Eden would still be alive. The tiny embers still burning inside her sparked to life when she thought of Eden. There was no telling what he’d done to her sister.
Sick bastard.
Chloe stretched her body as far as her stiff muscles would allow. Her face burned from chafing against the material, and her jaw ached like hell but she ignored it, chewing and biting and tearing until she’d freed one wrist.
She used her free hand to loosen the other binding, then yanked free and undid her ankles. She was barefoot and the cold cement floor felt wet with something she suspected was blood, but she didn’t check. She tried her best to find a light bulb, a flashlight, anything, so she could see if Eden was with her in the basement, but there was nothing.
She ran face-first into something hanging from the ceiling—something cold, metal, sharp—and nearly screamed. Clamping a hand over her mouth, she made her way to what felt like wooden stairs.
Slowly, carefully, she made her way up them in the pitch-black darkness. Her fingertips ventured out until they felt a door handle.
Throwing up a silent prayer, she twisted the knob.
Locked.
Her chest felt as if it had caved in, and the overwhelming urge to cry out in frustration nearly took over. But then the knob twisted and the door swung open, bathing a fully stocked torture dungeon in harsh fluorescent light.
For a split second, an optimistic part of her she didn’t even know existed allowed her to hope it would be Gage standing there. Rescuing her.
But princes who rescued women were for fairy tales only. She’d known that for a very long time.
“Chloe,” Brian greeted her with a repulsively wicked grin. “Nice outfit.”
“Fuck you,” she spat at him, hurling her body weight at him with all her might. It was the wrong way to go.
Brian shoved her backward, and she felt the sickening thud of her skull on the stairs as she bounced unceremoniously backward on her back.
“Let’s not rush things, sweetheart.”
She lay motionless on the cold floor at the foot of the stairs, listening as he came closer at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Everything hurt but it didn’t matter. All she could think was still alive, still alive, still alive. That meant she had to keep going, to keep trying. She’d honor Eden’s memory by not giving up without a fight. Or she’d avenge her death if fate allowed.
Play dead, Chloe, she heard Eden’s voice say. Pretend you’re asleep like we used to do with Dad.
Their dad, when he drank and could make it home, often came home angry and looking for a fight. He’d scream about a dish left in the sink, then call anything they said backtalk and slap them around until they hid in their rooms. They hadn’t known how much their mom had protected them until she was dead and no longer the human shield between them.
Chloe made her breathing as shallow as possible while lying in an unmoving heap.
“I saw the video.” Brian laughed. “You and your sister both have a lot of fight in you. But she never tried to chew the bindings off. You must be the smart one.”
She felt her eyelids twitch but hoped it was still too dark for him to notice.
She had a plan. There was one weapon in this room, and she was going to use it and run like hell. It was the only chance she had.
“You know, I had a sister once.”
Chloe did her best not to clench her jaw. Vomit was rising in her throat, likely from the head injury, the stench, and the circumstances.
“She was younger, pretty and blond like you.” Brian sighed as if recalling a fond memory. “I liked to play with dolls. Did you and your sister ever play with dolls?”
She remained motionless and silent.
“Anyway, my dad thought that made me a, let’s see, what did dear ol’ daddy call me? A sissy-ass faggot if I remember correctly. But it’s hard to remember after so many blows to the head.”
Do not pity him. Do not try to reason with him. Chloe ignored her instincts.
“He burned all my dolls. Made me watch. The smell was terrible.” Brian sounded genuinely heartbroken. “It was like . . . like they were made of actual flesh and bone. They were all I had.”
Chloe did her best not to picture him as an abused little boy. She and Eden had survived an abusive childhood, and they didn’t go around hurting anyone because of it.
“After that, my sister became my doll,” Brian announced as he descended the final step and surveyed his surroundings triumphantly, like Satan reclaiming his throne in the pit of hell. “She was my favorite. Did everything I told her to.”
His footsteps came closer. Chloe held still until he was nearly touching her.
“But then Daddy caught us playing and he sent me away. I spent nine years in a state mental facility. Do you have any idea what that was like for a child, Eden? Can I call you Eden? I miss her. You do look so much like her.”
She flinched at the mention of her sister’s name and it was go time whether she was ready or not.
It’s him or you, Chloe, Eden’s voice said clearly. Survive. You have to escape, Chloe. Now!
She reached out with the precision of a viper and struck him directly in the scrotum. He leaned forward and she sprang to her feet and kneed him hard in the face. Something snapped against her knee. Bone.
It wasn’t graceful, it was primal.
Survive, survive, survive, Eden chanted in her head.
Chloe felt his hand grip her waist but he was too late. She grabbed hold of the mirror above the dresser and slammed it down hard on his head. Instinct kicked in and she grabbed a large shard of glass before darting up the stairs as fast as her legs would carry her.
She’d just made it to the top when she heard him behind her. She glanced back, feeling like a character in a horror film. Blood and glass were everywhere. He reached for her and she kicked her foot back, connecting with something solid. But he was fast. She hadn’t made it halfway across the living room when he tackled her from behind.
“Stupid bitch,” he growled, straddling her. “If you’d played along you could’ve bought yourself some more time like your sister did.”
“Where is she?” Chloe screamed out.
“You’ll never find her.” He grinned and leaned in so close she could smell the tea and lemon from earlier mingling with blood on his breath. “Never, Chloe. All that hard work you and your special little FBI agent put in for nothing. How does that feel?”
“Go to hell, Brian,” she shouted as she pierced his side with the shard of glass she held. It sliced into her hand at the same time, but she was too numb to cry out in pain. He looked down and she used the distraction to scramble out from beneath him.
His hand wrapped around her ankle, yanking her foot out from under her. She fell to the floor just as the front door burst open. Her head smacked the hardwood and she wondered if she were hallucinating.
Her vision was blurry as light came in from behind what looked to be a team of superheroes. She half expected to hear the dun-dun-dah-dun music.
Gage. And Holt.
“Run,” she cried out, afraid of what weapons Brian might have on him.
A back door slammed open and Aly and Elaina appeared in the hallway, blocking Brian’s exit.
“He took her. He has Eden somewhere,” Chloe gasped out.
Brian charged at Elaina, nearly knocking her down.
Holt was quick on his feet though, and wrapped him from behind, pinning his arms backward and hauling him out of the house.
“Let’s go, lover boy.”
Gage nodded at Elaina once he saw that she was all right. “Go, see what you can get out of him about Eden’s location.” He lowered himself to the floor and took Chloe’s limp body in his arms. Aly ran out the front and began flagging down the medics. Sirens wailed, but they were fading in and out.
“You’re okay now, baby. We got him. You got him, Chloe. You’re okay. I’m so sorry. God, I’m so sorry.” He made quick work of removing his button-down shirt, then used it to cover her. She was silent, processing, as he rocked her battered body gently until the medics rushed in and took over. She felt his reluctance to let go of her.
Even in her haze, she knew his apology wasn’t just for her. It was for Kate too. He hadn’t been too late this time. Not for her, anyway.
“Find her, Gage,” Chloe told him as they lifted her onto a stretcher. “Please, find out what he’s done with her. I could hear her. In my head. Her voice was so clear. She’s alive somewhere. I know she is.”
Gage nodded. “I’ll do everything I can, Chloe. I promise.”
She held on to that promise as the ambulance doors closed between them.
32
Brian Wells had been under Elaina’s brand of interrogation for less than five minutes when she broke him.
“Your real name is Ray, isn’t it? Ray Thomas Early,” Elaina confirmed. “You’re from Louisiana, where your daddy beat you real good for as long as you can remember. Until he sent you to William Bryce Asylum for abusing your little sister. That where you came up with your name?” She didn’t wait for an answer. Elaina’s voice held no emotion as she stated the facts she’d discovered on the way over about “Brian.” “Your sister ran away from home when she was thirteen. According to your daddy, they never found her. But I did some research, and that daddy of yours is still alive somehow. So I’ll tell you what.”
Gage and Holt watched on, impressed as Elaina leaned in close to the man’s face. Thankfully, he had already been restrained by the officers on the scene. Aly had opted to go to the hospital with Chloe, which Gage was also thankful for.
“I’m going to make sure your dad visits you in prison, Ray. I’m going to call it part of your rehabilitative therapy. I’m going to pick him up and bring him there myself. Every. Day.” She glanced around. “I’ve got plenty of friends who are guards. I think I’ll make sure they give you and daddy dearest plenty of alone time.”
“She’s alive,” Ray groaned as a medic applied pressure to his stab wound. Blood gushed out in a steady pulsing rhythm, soaking the medic’s bandages. “Well, she might be. I don’t know for sure.”
“What the fuck do you mean, you don’t know?” Gage stepped forward. “I’m not playing games with you. Where is she?”
“Promise me no one will contact my father. Ever.”
“I couldn’t give a shit about your fucking father, you lowlife son of—”
“Promise me!”
“Fine,” Elaina broke in. “I promise. No one will contact him. Tell us where she is, Ray,” she prodded gently.
The paramedic made eye contact with her and shook his head. They had to get their answers now or never.
Ray Early’s stab wound was fatal.
Gage didn’t know how Chloe would feel knowing she killed a man, even though it was a man who deserved it. But he knew he’d help her deal with it if she’d let him. He’d been there. He just wondered where she’d be. LA or Boston. He couldn’t think about that now.
“Trust me, you’ll be glad you got it off your conscience.”
“A, B, C, D, you looked in all of them except the one registered to me.” Even dying, Ray was still a very sick man. Gage longed to put a fist through his pale face.
“Storage units,” Elaina said quickly. “We looked in Ulrich’s storage units. Not his.”
Ray laughed maniacally. She grabbed her radio and made a beeline for her car. Gage and Holt were right behind her.
Gage grabbed the sheriff in charge of the scene and barked at him to follow them to the self-storage facility a few miles away. Then he called for an ambulance to meet them there as well.
Tires complained against the pavement as they tore out of the neighborhood. Gage didn’t even register the faces of the neighbors standing outside to watch.
Time practically stood still as they raced to the storage facility.
“Gage,” Elaina began once they were on the highway. “We can have Chloe’s ambulance diverted. We could bring her there.”
Gage had thought of that, but he didn’t know what they were going to be walking into. Eden mangled and near death or already there.
As if she’d read his mind, she continued. “Even if her sister is gone, this could give her peace. Closure. A chance to say good-bye.”
He tightened his grip on his cell phone.
“Pierce,” Holt broke in from the back seat. “You know her. You know what she’d want.”
With an exhalation of defeat, Gage radioed the dispatcher and told her to reroute the ambulance to the storage unit. It took some convincing, but he managed. Elaina called her judge friend and got a verbal warrant based on Chloe’s assault. Then she got in touch with the manager of the self-storage facility and ordered them to open any and all units belonging to Brian Wells or Ray Early.
There was only one.
“E-Thirteen,” Elaina informed him. “Fifth row, left side, in the back.”
The convoy that now included Elaina’s sedan, an FBI van, two police cruisers, a fire truck, and two ambulances—one of which contained Chloe—roared into the parking lot.
“Open the fucking gate,” Gage practically screamed at a small Middle Eastern man coming out of the office door.
“Scare him to death and it will take longer,” Elaina said gently. “Breathe, Gage. Either way, she will get some closure tonight. I think you both will.”
“How do you stay so damn calm?” Holt mused from the back seat.
“Blessing and a curse,” Elaina told him as they sped past the slowly opening gate.
E-13 was already open when they arrived. A boy looking to be no more than sixteen stood off to the side wearing an orange T-shirt with white lettering that read SELF STORAGE on it. The brigade was definitely the most excitement the kid had ever seen. Gage jumped out of the vehicle and practically accosted him.
“What’s in there?”
The kid gaped at all the flashing lights. “I—I don’t know. A bunch of camera stuff and video equipment. I think there might be a cat or something in there. I heard it making sounds. It’s a climate-controlled unit but it would still be too hot for anything to survive for long.”
“Help me,” Gage called out as he began tearing and discarding the high-tech equipment from the room.
Holt and Elaina joined in and before long, Gage could see her. A crumpled mass with matted blond hair way in the back.
“Get the medics in here now!” His voice was an animalistic roar as he continued destroying everything in his path with his bare hands. Metal twisted and cut into his skin but he didn’t even feel it.
The din around him faded into silence. This was it. This was the end. One way or another.
“Fuck this,” a disgruntled firefighter proclaimed before shoving them all aside and using an ax to clear the path to Eden’s body.
It might as well have been Chloe lying there broken. Gage lost his b
reath like he’d taken a sucker punch to the gut from a prizefighter.
She looked exactly like her.
Eden Sterling was beaten, bruised, and covered in dried blood. But it was her. Her matted hair was a lighter shade of blond than her sister’s, but even as battered as she was, he could see the resemblance.
“Gage,” a small voice cried from beside the medics trying to navigate their way into the unit. “Gage, is she okay?”
When he reached the frail, broken body, her eyelids flickered.
The firefighter looked him in the eyes. “She has a pulse.”
She was alive. But okay was not something he could guarantee.
“She has a pulse,” he reported as the firefighter carried her out and the medics took over. “She’s alive, Chloe.”
Just as he reached her, she collapsed in his arms. He carried her until the medics made her get onto a stretcher.
“What the hell,” the paramedic in the ambulance mumbled when he saw Eden’s destroyed body. “She’s beat to hell and back and dehydrated. We won’t be able to get her to County General fast enough in traffic. We need Life Flight,” he told another one. “Make the call. Now.”
Within minutes, a helicopter landed in the parking lot and whisked Eden into the air.
Gage stared up at it as it grew smaller and smaller. Once it was out of sight, he climbed into the ambulance with Chloe and Alyson.
Chloe’s eyes were on him while the medics worked to restart her IV. “She’s going to be okay, right?”
Gage nodded, hoping like hell he wasn’t lying to the woman he loved.
Let her live. Please, God, let her live.
Do not let me be too late this time.
Epilogue
Three Months Later
Chloe sat on the end of her sister’s couch completely ignoring the episode of Project Runway on the television.
Eden was wrapped in a chenille blanket beside her, with her feet propped in Chloe’s lap. Chloe gave them a light squeeze. “CJ is coming for a visit next week. I thought maybe the three of us could have a girls’ day. Maybe do some shopping or just relax on the beach.”
Blood & Lace Page 19