“You don’t know me.” Or maybe he knew me better than I knew myself.
His knuckles grazed my jaw. “I know you. You’re perfect.”
He was suddenly so close. My heart jumped. My pulse raced. I stared into his eyes, my mouth dry. I swallowed the urge to slick my lips, too afraid to move in case he came to his senses as he had so many times in the past. My stomach fluttered as I sat perfectly still, waiting. Do it… the voice inside my head begged. My eyes started to close, anticipation thick.
His warm breath tickled my lip, making them tingle and part. One of us shifted closer. Our noses bumped. But just when we were a hair-width apart, something in the air stirred. It shifted like the hum of static electricity during a storm. Isaiah was off the bed in a single leap. The springs bounced violently, nearly sending me toppling over backwards.
“Get up!” he growled, not looking at me, but something across the room, as if he could see straight through the closed door. His nostrils flared. “Get behind me.”
“What is it?” I asked, getting to my feet, but staying in place. I tried to listen, hoping to hear something the way I had the night at the motel, but my heart was still surging with adrenaline, only this time it wasn’t the warm, fuzzy sort.
“Someone’s here,” he answered, reaching blindly for my hand and dragging me towards the other end of the cabin, as if putting as much space between us and whatever was on the other side of the northern wall was going to help. Halfway across the room, he froze. His grip became crushing. His eyes narrowed. “Garrison!”
Chapter 19
My heart stilled for a full second before I remembered to breathe. The taste of fear sat bitter in my throat. I tightened my sweaty grip on Isaiah’s hand, holding on for dear life as the nightmare descended upon us like vultures on a carcass. I willed myself not to panic or scream. We would somehow get out. We had to.
“Any ideas?” I squeaked.
Isaiah shook his head, still staring at the door across from us. “They have us surrounded.” I heard the grind of his teeth. “Why the hell didn’t I sense them?”
I hadn’t heard anything either. Shouldn’t that many people have made some kind of noise? Yet at the same time, I asked myself, are you really surprised? I really shouldn’t have been. Garrison had proven more than once that he could creep up on us when we least expect it.
“Maybe we can fight—”
“Too many,” he said before I could finish.
The growing urge to vomit intensified. “What do we do?” I croaked.
“You can come out with your hands up.” I nearly screamed at the disembodied voice that rang through the cabin. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere like some evil spirit.
“Isaiah?” He was the expert here. This was his forte. He knew more about these people than I did, and if he said run, I was running!
“Stay close.” That wasn’t what I was hoping he would say. Leaving the safety of the cabin was not what I wanted. Going out and facing whatever was out there was not an option I liked. But what choice did we have? Either we went out willingly or they came in and got us, and something told me they wouldn’t be gentle.
“Okay. Together?” I whispered, not in the least bit ashamed of my pitiful plea.
His fingers threaded through mine, locking them together. It was a silent promise. I understood it. He wasn’t going to let go, not if he could help it. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to ease some of my tension.
We set off at a stiff march. The sun outside was beginning to set, bathing the world in a soft, orange hue. The glow washed over the looming faces surrounding us, twisting their already menacing features into ghastly, demonic scowls. They looked much bigger, meaner in that light. Maia was there, heading a group of men. Her spandex outfit was blinding red this time, matching the strips of crimson in her long, unbound tresses and the full pout of her lips. I silently cursed her. Why did she get to look so flawless when I couldn’t even brush my teeth?
As if reading my mind, Maia smirked, her brown eyes promising a painful death. I doubted my glower was half as intimidating, but I did my best.
I turned away from her and glanced at the others taking position around us as if we were a pair of radioactive beasts. Yuri was there, standing surrounded by… himself. Apparently, he could divide himself into more than just eight men. I counted at least ten. Further along was the black van. Three men stood in front of it, looking very CIA in their black suits and glasses. At the opening in the forest, the only way in or out of the clearing was a sleek, black limo. The back windows were tinted and no one came out. I couldn’t fathom how they managed to bring that long thing in backwards like that, but there it was. I also didn’t understand how we hadn’t heard the approach of cars in the absolute silence that blanketed the clearing. Clearly, they were far stealthier than Isaiah had led me on to believe.
We were so screwed.
“Step away from the girl, Isaiah,” Maia taunted, taking a swaggering step forward in her kick-ass boots.
Isaiah didn’t respond, but his single step back spoke volumes, especially when he positioned himself between them and me.
“This is now how you want to end this, Isaiah.” Yuri cracked his knuckled, smirking coldly. “There are more of them than you!”
The lot seemed to move in as one, closing us in.
“You’re making this too much fun, Isaiah!” Maia cackled, unholstering her gun from the nifty gadget belt circling her tiny waist. “Don’t worry,” she taunted, cocking the weapon. “You won’t die from a flesh wound, but it will hurt… a lot!”
I’d never been shot at, and the longer I stood there staring down the barrel of her gun, the more I was certain I wouldn’t like it.
“Wait!” I put my hand up and slipped out from behind Isaiah, ignoring the tightening of his hand and the deep growl in his throat. “Look, there’s no need for violence! Can’t we talk about this?”
Wild dreams and false hopes, that was me, but I really did not want to be shot. Besides, if we staled for enough time… maybe one of us would come up with an idea for an escape plan.
“Absolutely!” Yuri crowed. “We will talk… after.”
Isaiah gave me no chance to respond. I was thrust behind him again as he crouched low, preparing for attack. It was a Mexican standoff, two against thirty, or maybe more correctly, one against thirty, because I had no idea what I could possibly do to help Isaiah. If I had any sort of useful superpower, this would have been the perfect time for it to present itself. Instead, the thing that saved us was the soft whirring sound that muffled the scuffle of approaching feet. The advancing group froze as one and turned to the limo. We all watched as the back window scrolled down by a few inches.
Maia hurried over, bent at the waist, her nose practically touching the dark glass, and peered in through the thin slit.
The wind whispered through the trees, sending a sort of hush through the clearing. The sun was nearly gone and a smear of orange, pink and blue quickly trailed after it. It would have been a beautiful evening if we hadn’t been facing certain death or worse… imprisonment.
Maia returned, a sour look twisting her face. “The boss wants her in the car. Put him,” she gestured to Isaiah with the jerk of her pert chin, “in the truck.”
We were surrounded at once, so fast that I hadn’t seen anyone move until there were hands digging into my arms, fisting in my hair and dragging me away from Isaiah. Our locked fingers grinded together, bone against skin. It held us together, but it also made it impossible to fight properly with one hand attached to something else.
“Let go!” I shouted at Isaiah.
“No!” he snarled, delivering a perfect punch to one of Yuri’s double’s face.
“Knock them out if you have to!” Maia snapped impatiently, walking straight up to me with that sole purpose in mind.
I was stuck, I couldn’t retreat and I couldn’t fight with one hand held behind my back and the other clutched in Isaiah’s.
“
Let go!” I snapped, shoving his hand off at last.
I spun on the spot, twisting around to face the trio that held me. It was far less than the seven piling up on top of Isaiah, restraining and bringing him to his knees. Maybe I wasn’t enough of a threat or they didn’t think I knew how to fight back, which was technically true. But I knew enough.
The foot I crushed with the heel of my sneaker crunched. The man howled, hands falling away. I drew back the same foot and kicked him in the knee for good measure before delivering the same blow to the second guy’s kneecap. The third was faster, jerking away before I could make contact. But his retreat gave me just enough slack to wrench free and run to where they were dragging Isaiah down, even though he was putting up a pretty good fight of his own.
“Get off him!” I screamed and kicked at the Yuri closest to me in the back of the knee.
With the grunt, he hit the ground hard on one knee. His hands fell away, flying out to save him from a face planting. For a split second, I wanted to whoop with glee, but my moment of triumph was short lived when he regained his footing and turned to me, menacing scowl turning his face demonic. Stars burst across my vision with the unexpected backhand and my whole face went numb. I was tasting blood when Maia’s face appeared above me, smirking. I didn’t remember falling, but I was on my back, watching the navy blanket of night take over the sky.
“Foolish girl, you can’t take us all on.” Her long, red-tipped hand fisted in my hair. I was dragged to my feet like a puppet on strings. I dangled there a moment, woozy and nauseous. The bitter taste of fear lathered the back of my throat with bile that was quickly threatening to come out. Roots were torn from my scalp, springing tears to my eyes. I grabbed at her wrist, trying desperately to wrench off her hold, but even with two hands working to free me, her hold was ironclad.
“Isaiah!”
“He can’t hear you, love,” Maia purred, sadistic glee darkening her tone.
“No!” I twisted my body, ignoring the wet, sticky trickle slithering down my right temple. I didn’t have to touch it to know it was blood; I could smell it.
The crowd was huddled around the back of the van, forcing something inside. I didn’t have to see it to know what it was.
“Let him go! Let. Him. Go!” No amount of heel digging relinquished the death grip Maia had on my scalp. My efforts instead knocked me on my knees, tearing the fabric on my jeans and scraping flesh away from bone.
Dragging the full weight of my body didn’t seem to faze Maia. She continued to walk as though I were merely a bothersome purse in her clutches.
The door to the limo flew open as if by magic. My heart throbbed in my skull like a drum. Fear crawled into my lungs, crippling my ability to breathe.
“No!” The half-moan, half-growl came out hoarse and was ignored.
“Get inside!” Maia hissed, shoving me forward. I was saved solely by the soft, velvety carpet inside the limo that cushioned most of the fall. I landed facedown, half in and half out of the car. For a moment, I tasted the carpet before regaining some of the air back into my lungs.
Hands shot out of the darkness and grabbed my arms, dragging me the rest of the way inside. I was tossed like a ragdoll on the seat. My teeth clacked together beneath the force. The smooth, chilled leather nearly slipped under me like a child on a slide. I quickly righted myself and stared around at the faces surrounding me.
There were four men crammed inside the car with me, bathed in black. Three sat across from me, the forth sat on my left. The dingy light most cars had that went on when a door was opened shone dim, barely bright enough to show anything beyond their pasty-white faces. They were floating heads.
I swallowed hard.
“Close the door, Maia,” the one in the middle commanded. I recognized the voice for a moment, but I couldn’t place from where.
The door closed, casting us into shadows. I pressed deeper into the seat, wishing I could melt into it and disappear. Why couldn’t that be my power? Where I could turn into vapors and slip away through a crack?
“Hello, Fallon.” A light flared on overhead, illuminating the spacious compartment and the unmoving figures around me. “It is such a delight to see you again.”
I winced at the sudden explosion of light. “Where’s Isaiah!” I demanded, meeting the kind, green eyes of the man in the middle. I didn’t for a second believe the illusion he was putting forth. There was no kindness in him. He stank of evil.
The man had to be in his late sixties with light-brown hair peppered with gray, cut neatly around his long face. His nose was almost beakish. He was thin, gangly, even sitting the top of his head nearly brushed the ceiling. His shoulders were slightly hunched as though weight was pressed against his shoulder blades, driving him forward. His long, bony fingers were clasped just beneath his chin, threaded together and steepled. He watched me, the stare calculating, watchful… interested.
“He is perfectly safe,” he assured me, voice dripping with honey.
“I want to see him!” I was amazed at my own bravery when I was prepared to soil myself on the glossy seat.
“There will be time for that.” He waved a long hand towards the side where I could just make out a miniature bar. “Would you like a drink?”
The goon on his left opened the mini refrigerator, brimming with an assortment of drinks in both bottle and can variety. My tongue had never felt so dry. It rubbed against the roof of my mouth like sandpaper. I would have happily drunk the entire fridge dry.
“I want to see Isaiah.” I forced my gaze away from the taunting droplet of dew trickling down the side of a Coke. “And I want you to let us go!”
The man sighed. “You are not a prisoner, Fallon!”
I barked a laugh. “Seriously? Are you really going to play that card? You’re not the misunderstood bad guy either! Where are you taking us?”
“Home,” he answered so simply, like it made all the sense in the world. “We are on our way to my private jet.”
“I want to see Isaiah!” I shouted, hands fisting at my sides. “You better not have hurt him!”
He actually rolled his eyes. “So much like your mother. She was melodramatic as well.”
“Don’t!” The vicious growl could have come from someone else because it sounded nothing like me. “Don’t you dare talk about her! You don’t… you don’t get to talk about her! You killed her!”
“Do I have to tranquilize you?” So much for the good guy act. “I was really hoping we could take this time to talk.”
“Why would I want to talk to you? You’re a monster!”
He nodded slowly. “I am much worse than that, I assure you.”
I swallowed hard. “Who are you? What do you want?”
He smiled a little, displaying his slight overbite. “I think you know who I am.”
I did. “Garrison.”
His long fingers flickered as if brushing away invisible lint from the air. “Aside from that.”
“I don’t understand.”
His eyes narrowed. “I’m surprised you haven’t been told.” His smile grew, becoming chilling when I continued to be confused. “Why, I am your father, Fallon.”
Chapter 20
Garrison laughed when my jaw dropped. The sound was of someone who had swallowed nails, wrecking the soft tissues of their esophagus — raspy and painful.
“You’re lying.”
He sobered slightly, but his smirk remained bitter. “Oh, if only that were true.”
I set my chin in denial. “You’re not my dad.”
“No, this is true. I’m not. However, I did create you, making me your father.”
Disgusting. I couldn’t even think of another word.
“What do you want from me?”
He splayed his hands out, palms up and gave a shrug. “Just a friendly chat.”
“Where are you taking Isaiah?” I twisted around in my seat, peering through the tinted window and the darker night in search of the van. I could just make out twin pi
npricks of light in the distance, but it was unclear if it was them or not.
“He will be joining us,” Garrison assured me. “We have many things to discuss — the three of us.”
Yet, we discussed nothing throughout the remainder of the drive. I maneuvered my position, pressing my back into the door and folding one leg beneath me. I kept a close eye on the four watching me as though expecting me to grow wings. Every so often, I darted a glance out the back window as well, searching for signs of the van and Isaiah. My insides twisted every time I thought of the things those monsters were doing to him. Each time I thought about them hurting him, red hot anger filled me and I half expected to go up in flames with it. I would have happily taken out everyone in that car if I could, just to get Isaiah out of their clutches.
The road went from smooth asphalt to crunching gravel. We were thrown from side-to-side inside the cabin. I had to dig the heel of my sneaker into the lush carpet to keep from being thrown off my seat.
The ride felt like hours before we came to a rolling stop. I couldn’t see anything at first, but the darkness ahead parted and we were surrounded by blinding lights. Spotlights followed the limo to an open slab of concrete. A large jumbo jet sat in the shadows, wings stretched far. It was facing a brightly lit runway.
“Please don’t try anything foolish.” Garrison shifted forward in his seat, preparing to exit the limo. “Bruce and Lew won’t take kindly to it.”
Bruce and Lew, I assumed, were the gorillas on either side of him. They straightened their shoulders at the mention of their names.
“Johnson will escort you.”
A bodyguard named Johnson. I would have snickered if the guy didn’t look like he could kill me with his pinkie. So I kept my amusement to myself and followed him out of the car when he kicked open the door.
The air was brisk, not at all the muggy warmth it had been by the cabin. I couldn’t be sure where we were only that no one would ever hear me if I screamed. The entire base was enclosed by trees, miles and miles of it. I don’t know how I knew we were alone, but maybe it had to do with there being no other scent in the air except pine, moist dirt, oil, grease, and rotting things. I couldn’t be sure if this was a new talent or if the scent was so strong, anyone could smell it.
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