Sloane

by V. J. Chambers

  “Start moving the shelves. Let’s see if there’s anything behind them.”

  LEIGH

  The door opened, and French came in, leading Griffin along with her. Griffin wasn’t tied up, but he wasn’t himself either. He stared out into the room as if he couldn’t see anything that he recognized.

  I got to my feet. “Griffin?” I looked at French. “What did you do to him?”

  Silas scrambled out of the bathroom stall, his face twisting into a snarl as he headed for French.

  French looked at him. “Oh, Silas, hello.”

  Silas was still rushing forward.

  French stepped behind Griffin. She stroked the back of his neck. “Don’t let anyone near me.”

  Griffin turned to Silas, his expression blank, his hands curled into fists.

  Silas stopped, his nostrils flaring. He and Griffin both sized each other up, but neither made a move.

  “Griffin,” I said. “What’s wrong with him?”

  French smiled. “I can’t help it. I guess it’s weak of me, but I needed you to know my triumph before you died.”

  Oh, so she was threatening to kill me. Whatever. “You did something to Griffin. I want to know what is was.”

  “Shut your mouth, and I’ll explain,” said French. She let go of Griffin and clasped her hands behind her back. She began to pace in front of us. “You see, it’s like I told you before. You took everything away from me. And I had to build it all back up. I made one big mistake with the assassins I created before. I didn’t control them well enough. I thought that my own abilities to understand the way your brains worked would be enough. But you all surprised me. You rose up against me. And so now, with the help of Costello Labs and James Armstrong, I’ve been able to correct that.”

  French paused at stared at me. She was enjoying this, wasn’t she? “At first, we couldn’t quite get the formula right. It made soup of Knox’s brain. Our trials spoiled him, and he wasn’t any use to us anymore. But then we tinkered a little bit, and now it’s perfect.” She smiled at me. “I was going to keep you alive, Leigh, and use you, but after that little stunt with Sloane, I realized you wouldn’t be of any use to me. You’re not a trained assassin.”

  “Sloane?” I said. “What about Sloane?”

  “You didn’t kill her,” said French.

  “Well, of course I didn’t kill her. I would never kill her.”

  “Sloane?” said Silas

  French eyed him. “Silas, don’t worry. I’ll be sure that you and your sister are reunited soon enough.”

  “Where is she?” Silas growled.

  French only smiled.

  “What did you do to Griffin?” I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He seemed so… empty.

  “The same thing I did to you when you nearly shot Sloane to death,” said French. “Of course, you failed. And I have no reason to keep you alive.”

  “I would never…” I gave Silas a pleading look. He couldn’t believe what French was saying.

  Silas’ face was drawn. “You’ve got him doing what you say.”

  “This latest injection that we’ve created here makes people very suggestible,” said French. “Griffin here will do whatever I need him to.” She ran a hand over his shoulder. “Isn’t that right, Griffin?”

  “Yes,” said Griffin, but his voice was dull.

  “And why is that?”

  “Because I love you,” Griffin said.

  It wasn’t his voice—not exactly. He sounded like a robot, a man in a dream. But it still sent shudders through my body to hear him say those words to Jolene French.

  French turned Griffin to face me. “That’s your target.”

  I swallowed.

  “Kill her,” said French.

  Griffin started towards me.

  “No,” I whispered, gazing into his eyes. “No, Griffin, please. I know you’re in there.”

  “I just want you to know,” said French, “before you die. I win, Leigh. I win.” She backed out of the room, chuckling to herself.

  And the door slammed closed.

  Griffin was coming for me.

  Silas glanced from him to me. “Look, we know it has to wear off. You had it, and you’re okay now. And when she gave it to Griffin before, it didn’t last forever. So, we just have to keep him busy until he’s himself again.”

  “What if he never is?” I said. “What if she tinkered with the formula again. What if it’s permanent?”

  “It’s not,” said Silas. “Now, back away from him, Leigh. Back away.”

  Tears sprang to my eyes. This was Griffin. This was the man that I loved more than anyone on earth, and he was coming after me, trying to hurt me. It hurt in a way that I couldn’t even describe. It felt like betrayal, even though it wasn’t. On unsteady feet, I started to back up.

  Silas stretched his neck. “Sorry, buddy.” And then he lunged for Griffin, tackling him from the side.

  I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting. Griffin had been slow, almost dazed when we’d been talking. He hadn’t even been walking towards me particularly quickly. But now that he and Silas were struggling together, Griffin wasn’t acting the least bit dazed.

  Griffin punched Silas, an uppercut to his chin.

  Silas’ head snapped back. He grunted.

  Griffin drove his fist into Silas’ stomach.

  Silas absorbed the impact. He was on top of Griffin, and he used his position to get his knee against Griffin’s groin.

  Griffin let out a shriek.

  “What are you doing?” I said.

  “I’m trying to get him to go dark,” Silas grunted. He wrapped his hands around Griffin’s neck and squeezed.

  Griffin’s face started to turn red. He scrabbled against Silas, wrapping his hands around Silas’ wrists and pulling.

  Silas’ face started to get red too, from the strain of resisting him.

  They were locked that way for several eternal moments, both giving their all to trying to hurt the other.

  And then Griffin suddenly let go of Silas.

  And Silas was so startled that his grip loosened on Griffin’s neck.

  Griffin yanked one of Silas’ hands away.

  Silas struggled to get it back.

  But Griffin snatched Silas’ free arm and twisted it behind his back.

  Silas cried out, letting go of Griffin’s neck.

  Griffin turned Silas’ body so that Silas’ back was pressed against him. Quickly, he snapped Silas’ neck, and then flung the motionless body away from him like it was a broken toy.

  Silas’ lay against the concrete floor. His eyes were still open, but he was dark.

  Griffin got to his feet. He looked at me. “Target.”

  I put my fingers over my lips. Oh no. Oh, no, no, no.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  We’d taken apart some of the shelves, at least as best we could. We’d tried to use some of the pieces to pry the door open. That had been a bust.

  We’d used the other intact shelves to climb up and inspect the ceiling, looking for some way up into the upper level of the building. That hadn’t helped either.

  We’d gone around knocking on all of the walls, hoping that we’d be able to find one that was hollow, that we could maybe break through. But the walls were all concrete, and they were solid.

  I was out of ideas at this point. There simply wasn’t much in the room that could help us. And there wasn’t much on our persons either. Of course, they’d taken away our weapons when they brought us here, but they’d also emptied our pockets of wallets and phones and anything else we might have had.

  Axel had made some comment about how Crocodile Dundee had rigged something up with a bra, but I told him we weren’t in the Australian outback, and besides, the bra on that movie had an underwire, and I thought underwires were tantamount to torture.

  We’d both laughed, because at that point, we’d been in high spirits, thinking we were going to get out of here somehow, if we just figured out a way.


  But that had been a long time ago, and we didn’t feel that way anymore.

  We both were sitting on the floor, amongst the dismantled shelves. We were tired. We were hungry. We weren’t sure how long we’d been in this room, but it had probably been a long time. Hours and hours, maybe. We didn’t want to sleep, though, because both of us were afraid that if we did that, French’s people would come and kill Axel.

  She’d taunted us when she left, saying that we wouldn’t know when, and that was because she knew that waiting would wear us down.

  Now, sitting in the room, staring at the gray walls, the light above us casting long and dark shadows over everything, I could feel despair starting to seep into me. It was in the stuffy air, oppressive and strong. It was in Axel’s own face. His bow-shaped lips were still perfect, but he was pale and worn.

  And my eyes kept closing. Sleep was threatening to drag me down into oblivion.

  I focused on his lips. I thought about kissing them. And my lids drooped.

  And…

  “Sloane.”

  My eyes snapped open. Had I slept? I struggled to an upright position, rubbing my eyes. “What? I’m awake. I’m awake.”

  “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.” His voice had a gravelly quality, so different from his usual self-assured silk purr.

  I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I wanted to stay alert. I needed to do that.

  “You know,” he said, “the first time I saw you, when you and Griffin came in to the club to ask about Leigh, I didn’t think anything of you.”

  Why was he saying that? Was that really the thing we needed to talk about right now?

  “You weren’t like the other girls that I know,” he said. “You were ordinary and plain. You didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in me. And I wasn’t interested in you either.”

  Oh, maybe I understood this. Maybe Axel was trying to apologize to me. He knew that I had feelings for him, and he’d used me, and he wanted me to know that he felt bad about it, since he was going to die. I shook my head violently. “Axel, you don’t have to say stuff like this. Just because we can’t get out of this room doesn’t mean we won’t fight. When they come for you, I’ll do everything that I can to stop it, you understand?”

  He gave me a weak smile. “Yeah, but if it doesn’t work out, I think I… I think I want to have said this.”

  “I don’t need your apology,” I said. “I don’t even blame you anymore. Everything I was worried about seems stupid now. Even if it was only sex, it was really good sex, and I’m glad that I—”

  “I’m not trying to apologize.”

  He wasn’t? Oh, of course not. Even when facing death, Axel was an asshole. I tried to summon a glare, but I couldn’t seem to manage it.

  “Maybe I should apologize,” he mused. He furrowed his brow in thought. Then he nodded. “Yeah, I should. I’m sorry for not being honest with you. It’s one of the things I pride myself on. I don’t lie. But I did lie to you. I guess I lied to myself too.”

  Now I was confused. “What did you lie about?”

  He looked up at the ceiling. “You have to understand that I didn’t know what it felt like, and I really thought that it didn’t even exist.”

  “What didn’t exist?”

  “All I knew was that I wanted to be around you. I wanted to see you and talk to you and touch you. And it was never enough. I always wanted more of you. You were all I could think about. I thought…” He fixed his gaze on me. “When my mother talked to me about the way things were in the beginning of her relationship with my father, she said that back then, he wouldn’t let her get away from him. She said he pursued her fanatically. But then he lost interest. And I thought that he must have only done it because he wanted to possess her. He didn’t care about her. He wanted to have her, and then once he did… that was it. I thought what my father did to my mother was dishonest, because I couldn’t imagine being that drawn to a woman.”

  I cocked my head at him. What was he saying?

  “I never was, you know?” He laughed a little. “They were always there. I could take whichever I pleased, and when I got bored with one of them, which was quickly, I found another one. I thought the way that men went after women was part of some elaborate ruse. I thought they did it because they had to.”

  “Had to?”

  “Yeah. I thought that most men had a hard time finding women. I thought that women wanted to be chased, and so men chased them, because it was the only way they could actually get any action.”

  “But you don’t think that now?”

  His flawless lips parted. He hesitated. “It’s only that I didn’t realize it was happening. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not really one for self-restraint.”

  Well, that was true.

  “I knew I wanted you, and so I went after you, because if I want something, I try to get it. But then… then I had you. Really had you. The first night that we made love, I felt like I got lost in you somewhere. And the only way I was going to find myself was to keep getting back inside you over and over again. But the more I did it, the more of me that got lost, and I…” He bit his lip. “I didn’t mean it when I said that I wasn’t falling for you. I wanted to mean it, because I didn’t want it to be true. I didn’t think it was possible.”

  I was blushing again. I tried to find words. I needed to say something back.

  But he plowed on. “I was wrong. I was wrong about all of it. I don’t know what my father did. I don’t know if he loved my mother but fell out of love with her. I don’t know if he really did manipulate her just to have her. But I know that the way I feel about you isn’t like that. I know that I…” He gave me a funny look, as if he couldn’t believe he was saying it out loud. “I love you.”

  My heart skipped, and it was almost painful. I hadn’t realized how much I’d wanted him to say that. I hadn’t realized how much I felt it to. But it was such an intense bit of emotion that I couldn’t figure out how to talk. I was speechless.

  He was still staring at me with that hungry look that seemed to reach inside my soul and lay all of me bare. He took several shaky breaths.

  I opened my mouth to speak, and no sound came out.

  “You’re probably thinking I’m only saying this because I’m about to die, and you’re about to get brainwashed into some kind of killing machine.”

  I shook my head, but I still didn’t say anything.

  He looked down at his hands. “You’re probably right, because if all of this hadn’t happened, I don’t know if I’d ever have admitted it to myself. It’s easy for me to run away from things if I don’t feel like thinking about them, you know? But being locked up here, especially these last couple hours when we’ve had nothing to do but think? Well, that’s been making it hard to run away from anything.” He raised his gaze to mine. “I don’t know if you think that makes it less real—”

  “I love you too,” I blurted out.

  And for the first time ever, I think I actually caught Axel Whitman off guard. The expression on his face was so open that he looked completely vulnerable. And he was more beautiful than ever.

  I laughed. And I scooted over to him. “Probably stupid to do that, because I don’t think you’re very trustworthy, and you have a drug problem, and you own a strip club—”

  “Gentleman’s club.” He reached for me.

  “And I don’t think you’re really good for me, but—”

  “I’m the best thing that ever happened to you, and you know it.” He threaded his hand behind my neck.

  “And you’re really arrogant,” I said. “I hate practically everything that comes out of your mouth.”

  He kissed me.

  I melted into him. And as we pressed close together, his warmth started to melt away my despair.

  He held me close.

  I moved my lips away from his but lingered close. “But I love your mouth. I think you have the most perfectly shaped lips—”

  He kissed
me again, harder, fiercer.

  And I clung to him.

  LEIGH

  Griffin slammed my head into the concrete wall, and pain burst through my skull. I cried out. “Stop it, Griffin.”

  He was stone. It was as if he hadn’t even heard me.

  “Griffin, please, you know this isn’t you,” I said.

  He slammed me back into the wall again.

  I whimpered. “Remember who I am. I’m Leigh. I’m your wife. Remember that you love me. Remember everything we’ve been through together.”

  He did it again, and my skull glanced against the hard wall. But was I imagining things when I thought it hadn’t been quite as hard that time?

  “Griffin.” I reached up and touched his face. “You saved me, remember? Remember all the times you’ve saved me. Remember when I ran away from you in Thomas so that I could do cocaine with Clint. And you busted into the house and picked me up and carried me out of there. Remember when I went to Morgantown, and you killed that guy from Op Wraith. Remember when you yanked me off the stage in Axel’s club and dragged me out into the street.”

  He hurled me away from the wall, sending me sprawling.

  I landed painfully, throwing out my hands to break my fall. Sharp tinges of agony traveled up my arms into my shoulders.

  Griffin walked over to me and aimed a kick into my waist.

  I screamed, doubling around myself.

  I could see Silas’ body lying across the room, but he wasn’t moving yet. He wasn’t coming to save me. And Griffin was too strong. I couldn’t fight him.

  I peered up at him, tears streaming down my face. “Remember how I saved you?”

  He yanked me up by the collar of my shirt.

  “Remember that you trusted me enough to let me touch you. Remember that I helped you make love again. Remember what I let you do after we escaped from Marcel. In the woods. Remember that I was there for you. That I held you while you sobbed, that I took whatever ugliness you had inside of you into my own body—”

  He let go of me. Something crossed over his eyes.