by HELEN HARDT
“It means after a decade on the force, you learn to follow your instincts.”
“No lights anywhere,” I said. “If they’re here, it’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack. We’ll have to check each of these trailers.”
“Not necessarily,” Ruby said. “We look for other things. Tire tracks, for instance. Footprints.”
Ryan kissed her cheek. “That, right there, is why I married you.”
“It’s dark, though,” I said. “Did anyone bring a flashlight?”
“Of course,” Talon and Ruby said in unison.
Of course. The military man and the cop. They’d think of that. Why I hadn’t, I wasn’t sure. It was certainly logical.
Easy. They’d been trained to focus when in dire straits. I hadn’t been. My only thought had been getting to Marj. I was armed because I was almost always armed. My father had made sure I’d gotten my concealed carry permit as soon as I turned twenty-one. Joe, as well. It was pretty much part of getting dressed, as far as I was concerned.
Right now, I was thankful for that lesson learned, even if it had come from my father.
Talon pulled his truck into a secluded spot. “We should do this on foot. Damn. This feels familiar, doesn’t it, Ry?”
“Yeah,” Ryan agreed.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“When we were on that island, looking for Ruby,” Ryan answered. “Tal and I were alone and armed, with no idea where we were going.”
“You found what you were looking for that time,” I said.
“We did. Plus a lot more. Our mother, for one,” Talon said.
“Your mother,” Ryan said tersely.
“Come on, Ryan,” Ruby said. “She was your mother too. In every way that counts.”
Ryan didn’t respond, and I didn’t look into the back seat to see his reaction. None of my business. Plus, we had more important things to attend to.
“Let’s go,” Talon said. “We should split up. Ryan and Ruby, you go together. I’ll go with Bryce.”
“Makes sense,” Ruby said. “Everyone got their phones on?”
We all nodded. We had temporarily retired our normal phones and started using burner phones to stay in contact with each other. It had been sheer luck that Jade and Melanie were still using their original phones. Thank God. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have gotten the text from Colin.
Talon and I headed toward the first run-down trailer to the north of the truck, while Ryan and Ruby headed south.
Talon had his light on the dimmest setting. “I don’t see any tire tracks or anything around here. You want to go in and check it out?”
“I don’t think we should leave anything to chance,” I said. “What if someone walked back and covered the tracks?”
“It’s possible. All right. Let’s go in.”
I walked up the cracked concrete stoop and tried the door. It was locked, but I easily executed a side kick and knocked it in.
“Bryce,” Talon said. “That’s not exactly being quiet.”
“You got a better idea?”
He shook his head, and we both walked inside.
“Marjorie?” I yelled. No need to be quiet after kicking in a door. “Are you here?”
Nothing.
I followed Talon, who had the light, as we searched every inch of the unit.
Nothing.
On to the next one.
Nothing in the next four units, either.
Finally, we came across what looked like tire tracks and footprints.
“This could be the one,” Talon whispered.
This door was padlocked and had been recently replaced. Not a great chance that I’d be able to kick it in. I tried, though, and got a nasty charley horse in my thigh.
“Maybe both of us together,” Talon said.
We kicked on three. Nothing.
“No one’s there, apparently, or they’d have heard us kicking,” Talon said.
“We still have to try,” I said. “What if she’s in there? Tied up and gagged?”
I could hardly bear the thought.
Talon nodded. “Let’s check the windows.”
We walked the perimeter of the unit, Talon shining the light in each window. “A-ha,” he said. “Beakers and Bunsen burners. This is a meth lab.”
“So that’s why it’s locked up, and why there are tire tracks. Still, what if Marj is in there? She could have easily been taken by meth heads.”
“We’d have gotten a ransom demand if that were the case,” Talon said. “My gut tells me she’s not here. We shouldn’t waste the time.”
“We can’t take the chance. We have to know for sure.”
He nodded. “You’re right.” He pushed his flashlight through a window, breaking the glass. “Give me a boost.”
“You need a cloth. What if a shard gets you?”
“I’ve been through worse than a cut from broken glass,” he said.
I nodded and made a scoop with my hands. He pulled himself up to the window.
“You stay here and keep watch,” he said. “I won’t be long.”
“Roger.”
I heard faint noises of Talon tussling around inside, looking for clues. A minute passed. Then another. Then ten more, until—
Crash!
Shit! I hoisted myself up quickly and landed, not gracefully, on the floor of what appeared to be the kitchen. I didn’t have a flashlight, but my eyes adjusted quickly. This was a meth lab, all right, but it had long since been abandoned.
I followed the noises Talon was making, my weapon drawn. “Talon! I’m coming.”
“This way,” he said.
Soon I came upon him. His light was shining on a skinny sandy-haired man. He held his gun aimed at the man’s heart.
“He came in the back way after I got in,” Talon said.
I moved to Talon’s right to cover the guy from the back. I aimed my gun at his brain.
“Start talking,” Talon said.
“You better have a good reason for breaking and entering,” the man said.
“And you better have a good reason for having a meth lab in your kitchen,” I retorted.
“It’s not mine,” the man said.
“Sell it to someone else.” Talon cocked his gun. “We’re looking for three people. An older woman with brown hair and eyes, a younger one, same coloring with long hair, and a young man with light brown hair and hazel eyes. Hair’s real short.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “Put those guns down, please.”
“Not on your life,” I said through clenched teeth. “You’re holed up in a meth lab. Even if you don’t know where—”
A slight movement to the man’s right.
Then, a woman’s voice.
“Brad? Is that you?”
Chapter Sixteen
Marjorie
Slit her throat.
The words rang in my head.
Could I? Was I capable of doing harm to another human being?
I was certainly capable of harming myself. With the slight thought, my fresh cut itched and tingled, and the steel blade grew hot against my breast.
My friend…
Would I get in trouble? I’d been kidnapped. Taken against my will. Surely this would be a case of self-defense.
If only Jade were here. She was an attorney. She could tell me for sure.
Alex rustled around in the other room. Until she fell asleep, we couldn’t do anything anyway.
Still, the blade burned against my flesh, as if it were branding me.
“What now?” Colin mouthed to me.
“We wait, I guess,” I mouthed back.
We should be exhausted, but energy rolled through me. My heart beat rapidly, keeping me on edge. No way would I be able to sleep. No way.
I just hoped Alex could. Apparently, she was used to doing these sorts of things for a living. If so, she should be able to sleep through anything by now. Or she slept lightly. I prayed it was the former.
Come on! Fall asleep, damn it!
Still, she rustled around, sounding as if she was having a difficult time getting comfortable. Served her right, though I wanted her comfortable at the moment.
I wanted her damned comfortable, dreaming about pink clouds and unicorns and sleeping like a baby.
I lay down on the bed. “Lie down,” I said barely audibly to Colin. “In case she comes in here.”
He nodded and took his place on the floor.
Normally I’d have resisted lying down, afraid I’d fall asleep. Not tonight. My beating heart wouldn’t let me succumb to slumber anytime soon.
I sat up in bed and checked my watch. Shit! Forty-five minutes had passed in the span of two. So much for not falling asleep. On the floor next to me, Colin had succumbed as well. Maybe this had been a good thing. If Alex thought we were asleep…
I moved slowly, cringing every time the stupid bed made a creak. I didn’t want to wake Colin. Not yet. The less sound, the better.
I tiptoed to the door and peered into the other room. I squinted to try to see better. Alex was a dark lump on the bed, her chest rising and falling in a regular rhythm. Did that mean she was asleep?
So far, she hadn’t heard me. Did I dare actually walk into the room?
No.
I had to wake Colin first. But how to do that without alarming him? He might cry out, and that would wake up Alex.
I walked back to where Colin lay on the floor. I nudged him gently.
He opened his eyes. “It’s okay. I’m awake,” he said, mouthing more than saying the words.
Relief swept through me. “I think she’s asleep,” I mouthed back.
He nodded and sat up. “Let’s do it.”
Again, the blade burned against my flesh. Take it out of your bra, Marj. You need to have it in your hand.
I drew in a deep breath, gathering my courage.
I was about to wound—perhaps mortally—another person.
“You have no choice,” Colin whispered.
Had I said those thoughts out loud? Or could he just read the tormented expression I probably had on my face?
Didn’t matter. He knew. And he understood. He’d been through a hundred times worse than what we were going through now.
Once more, I gathered my courage, my cut itching and throbbing. I reached into my shirt and pulled the blade out from my bra.
My friend…
Tingles shot through me, and my fingers itched to descend to the bandage on my thigh. I could easily sweep my sweatpants over my hips and slice into myself again.
Easily.
So easily.
“Ready?” Colin said.
“Thank you,” I mouthed.
He cocked his head at me. He had no idea why I was thanking him, of course. He was my focal point. He was keeping me focused, and I was eternally grateful.
I suppressed the shivers that threatened to overtake me as I walked as quietly as I could out the door and toward the lump on the bed that was Alex.
The blade flamed between my fingers, growing hotter, hotter the closer I got to its target.
Did Alex feel the tingles, the thrilling sensation? The torturous pleasure at knowing she was about to be cut into?
I didn’t.
Seemed I only got that when I was about to cut into myself.
Instead, jitters tormented me—jitters, and shivers, and shakes.
Closer. I walked closer. Her chest rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell…
Colin was behind me. I motioned for him to escape, get out the door.
Still, he stayed next to me.
A nice gesture. He didn’t want me to be alone while I potentially ended another human life. Gentlemanly of him. I’d have felt better, though, if he’d have just gotten away. He could run and find help.
Again, I motioned for him to leave.
Again, he didn’t.
These are my friends…
Do it. Do it. Do it.
I moved closer to Alex, my hand hovering above her.
Chapter Seventeen
Bryce
“Brad, is that you?”
For an instant, Talon lost his focus, and the thin man lunged toward him. I aimed to graze the bastard’s ankle and shot.
He cried out as he fell to the floor.
Talon went running toward the voice, while I dealt with the asshole on the ground. “Who else is here?”
No response.
“It’s a scratch. Answer, damn it, or the next bullet will go between your eyes.”
“No one. Just me and the old lady.”
The old lady.
Brad, is that you?
Brad Steel. Shit! We’d just found Daphne Steel!
“Where’s Marjorie?” I said through clenched teeth.
“I need medical help here!”
“You’re fine. If I’d wanted to kill you, I would have. Trust me.”
“Please. Call 9-1-1. Please.”
“You’ll get nothing until you tell me where Marjorie Steel is.” I grabbed his shirt collar. “I don’t give a shit if you bleed to death right here in this trash heap, got it? I only care about Marjorie, so start talking.”
“Down the road,” he gasped. “Next block over. Mobile…home…” His eyes fluttered closed.
What a fucking wuss. An ankle graze hurt like hell, for sure, but he wasn’t going to bleed out. I hadn’t hit an artery, for God’s sake. “Dude,” I said out loud, “you’re in the wrong business if you’re fainting from this.”
No response, but I couldn’t take the chance he was bluffing. I continued to hold my gun on him. “Tal! What do you have in there?”
“My mother. She passed out. I’m bringing her out.”
He emerged, carrying Daphne Steel as if she weighed no more than a child. In her arms, she clutched a realistic-looking doll. Marjorie had told me about the doll she called Angela, which had been Marj’s name at birth.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
“She’s far from okay. She’s messed up. But she’s alive. She was in a room that looked…” He shook his head. “This isn’t a meth lab at all. Her room was a replica of her room at the facility, right down to the bassinet for her doll. The abandoned meth lab is a cover. Fuck. I need to get her out of here.”
“We can’t go yet. Marjorie.”
“Ryan and Ruby are still on it. They can help you. I have to see to my mother.”
Marjorie was first on my mind, so I had a hard time understanding. But I’d do just about anything for my own mother, so I nodded. “Call them and tell them to meet me a block over. Dickless here says that’s where Marj is. He might be bluffing, for all I know.”
“He’s out cold,” Talon said.
“Maybe. I don’t trust him.”
“Looks out to me. I’ve got my mother. You go find Marj.” He tossed me the flashlight without so much as letting his mother drop.
I caught it easily. “Count on it.”
Talon carried his mother out of the room and then out of the mobile home. He’d have to carry her all the way to his truck, which was several blocks away by this time. He could do it. Talon had carried many wounded soldiers out of harm’s way in Iraq. He’d returned as a hero because of his actions.
I hurried back to the thin man, who was still passed out on the floor. “For God’s sake.” I quickly unbuttoned his shirt and removed it, ripping it into strips. I bandaged his wound. I’d call 9-1-1 on the way to Marjorie.
I hurried out. Next block over, he’d said. What the fuck did that mean?
Didn’t matter. I had to find Marjorie. I had to.
And I would.
Or I’d die trying.
Chapter Eighteen
Marjorie
I trembled, my heart pounding.
These are my friends.
Do it! Do it! Do it!
Then I jerked.
Alex had moved ever so slightly.
“Easy,” Colin said quietly behind me.
&nb
sp; I slowly brought my hand—
No. This blade. This friend. This friend who had seen me through some of the most difficult times in my life was not my friend.
It was all a lie.
Using this blade on myself didn’t make me stronger. It had made me weaker. Now I needed strength. I needed the strength to save myself, but the blade didn’t give me that.
Still, I had to.
Had to…
Alex jerked upward. “Fuck! What’s going on?”
Do it. Do it. Do it.
But I froze. I fucking froze.
Only seconds before Alex would get her bearings. Do it! Do it! Do it!
But the blade was no longer in my hand. Colin had yanked it from me, slicing his own fingers in the process. “It’s okay,” he said to me. “Go.”
Then he lunged at Alex and jammed the blade into her throat.
Her scream rang through the air like a shrieking storm.
Still, I stood, immobile.
My friend.
No longer my friend.
Colin’s friend now, and though it had made me weak, this friend gave him strength. The strength to do what was necessary.
“Go!” Colin commanded again. “Go!”
I ran for the door, nearly stumbling over a bulge in the carpeting at the doorway. Was Colin behind me? I had no idea. I cared…but at the same time I didn’t.
One thought and one thought only permeated every membrane of my body.
Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. Here.
And that was what I did.
I ran.
I ran back through the kitchen.
Through the living area where I’d been when I’d woken up here.
Out the door.
Into the darkness.
I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.
Still I ran.
And ran.
And—
Until the breath was knocked out of me by the force of a mountain in my way.
“No!” I yelled.
Massive arms wrapped around me, forcing me to stop in my tracks.
“Let me go! Let me go!” Tears welled in my eyes as I drummed my fist against the hardness of the mountain holding me. “Let me go! Let me go!”