“Sure.”
Winnie stood off to the side, watching the interaction unfold. A lot of fucking help she was. Why didn’t she fall into a pit of acid and die? I bet Sheldon had a poison that could kill her fast.
“I hope he brings a dart for you,” I said to her. “You know those things they use to administer sedatives to animals at the zoo when they need medical care? I want him to hit you with one where you won’t get back up again.” TV was to blame for my random knowledge of zoos.
“Ignore her.” Isaac waved his gun in her direction. When did he take that out of his pocket? If he started shooting me in areas I wouldn’t die from, I was in for a very painful day. “She’ll be dead in no time.”
“You said you weren’t going to kill me,” she whispered. “What about Stephen? You promised he’d live.”
“He will. You won’t. See how that worked out? I don’t give a shit about either of you. If only you hadn’t taken so long getting Forest out of the building and to me.”
“It’s not easy leaving Jordan’s building. I had to stage everything, take down a guard, and get Forest out the door.”
“And I told you before, I didn’t care how you did it, just that you did,” Isaac seethed.
“I got the job done.
He hummed. “Nothing will be worth it if I can’t lure Sheldon to my house so I can kill him.” Sheldon would come. There was no way he’d hang back and wait for news.
I’d seen enough crime dramas to know this wasn’t going to end well for either of the two in front of me. Sure, in the shows, the cops always came out on top. The good guys won. In this case, the good guys straddled the line. Some would say they didn’t and were bad, but they didn’t know them as well as I did. And I loved one of them, so he was good to me. Either way, these two would die by the end of the episode. As for me, well, I might be collateral damage. There was no way to be sure. The white cabinets could be sprayed with my blood. There was a visual I didn’t need.
A sharp slap had me drawing my attention to Winnie again. I was too lost in my daydream of terror to watch their conversation unfold. Isaac had hit Winnie. At least it wasn’t me. Maybe he could slap her hard enough she’d ricochet off the wall and be knocked out. Although, that would be getting off too easily for her. Somewhere in this house was a man who wasinnocent in this. He made no decision to be taken while Isaac did this to me.
“It’s only a matter of time before Sheldon arrives and I’ll have my revenge.” Isaac’s eyes swung to mine. “Winnie will be easily trackable once they see her boyfriend is gone. I didn’t hide my connection on purpose. What would be the point if the end goal was to do to Sheldon what he did to Tripp?” Was he asking, or was this one of those questions where he didn’t want me to answer?
Glancing around the room, I wondered where the trap was and if there was a way to intercept it so Sheldon didn’t fall victim to it. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s downstairs,” Isaac growled. “You’re going to lead him to it, and it will serve in capturing him, then severing parts of him off a little at a time.” Okay, I was scared again, fucking petrified as the visuals entered my mind of what could happen to Sheldon.
“Keep me and leave him alone,” I begged. He wouldn’t, but it was worth a shot. This man had been planning Sheldon’s demise for a long time. Offering myself up wasn’t going to do anything.
Okay, so I had to create a distraction. I couldn’t lead Sheldon down the death trail. I did the only thing I could think of. I pretended to faint. My god, did it hurt landing on the tile floor without the ability to brace myself. However, I couldn’t move, couldn’t flinch, certainly couldn’t groan, or this would all be for nothing. I had no other way to save Sheldon than to stall us going downstairs, and through whatever traps were set.
Winnie scrambled to my side. “Forest, are you okay?” She carefully brushed the hair back from my forehead.
“Get the fuck out of the way,” Isaac yelled. He roughly kicked my shoulder. I couldn’t hold in the groan. At least my eyes managed to stay closed. Another kick, this time to my stomach. It was worth it if it meant buying time and keeping Sheldon outof the basement. “Get up! You need to move so you can lead him downstairs.”
I’d play dead before that would happen. Just when I thought it might be working, I was lifted and thrown over Isaac’s shoulder. With my arms behind my back, that hurt way more than I expected it to.
I began to struggle. If I ever ended up in a situation like this again, I wouldn’t make the same move. Now I had no control and was being carried downstairs as I fought against him.
Near the bottom, he stopped, lifted me again, and dropped me to the floor. I bit back a groan of pain. Then panic took hold. There was no way for me to warn Sheldon. There was nothing I could do to keep him from coming down here.
I stilled. My eyes landed on what could only be described as one of those sheds of blades I’d seen in horror movies. Why the hell did they always run into the place with the murder weapons? Except I was in a basement.
Hanging from the ceiling, some propped on tables, were saws and knives. I didn’t even know the names of them all. There was no way Sheldon would get out of this alive, because he would come down here. He would fight for me. Someone was going to lose multiple limbs.
A switch flipped, the sound reaching me a moment before more lights turned on, and I was dragged into the middle of the room. My hands were uncuffed but quickly bound in front of me. I was in so much pain I couldn’t even fight Isaac off. Then I was strung up from the low ceiling by my hands. Motherfuck that hurt. I had to stifle the shout of pain.
I was going to die down here, and so was Sheldon.
33
SHELDON
It wasn’t hard to track down the ex once we knew where he was. After all, buying a home with the same name was easy. Once we got in the SUVs, Jordan refused to let me take my bike because he knew I’d get ahead of them and go in to kill—we were on our way to the location where I had no doubt Forest was being held.
In the vehicle with me was Oleander behind the wheel, Kayli, Barrett, and Reghan. With Jordan in front of us were Albert and Vincent. Behind us were Raiden, Lane, and two guards Jordan thought about moving up, who still had to prove themselves.
