I feel fucking helpless, and I know they’re feeling it too. We have no idea if this is Viktor or not.
“Why would they take Zane and not Gage too?” I ask. That question is plaguing me because they could have left Zane there to die, also.
“I don’t know, man. But we will find out,” Dex answers.
With that promise, we lapse into silence; the only noise is Micah arguing with the nurses.
We need answers. And we need them now.
Chapter 57
Alessa
Everything fucking hurts.
My head hurts from whatever they dosed me with, my arms from being strung up over my head with my toes barely touching the ground, and the bullet wound that they roughly came in and patched up earlier. They wore masks, so I can’t tell who they are, and they never spoke. I repeatedly asked about Gage and Zane, but none of them would fucking answer me.
I saw the hits Gage took and felt my soul leave my body. Is he dead?
A sob escapes my throat before I can stop it. I can’t break down now. I have to believe they’re both still alive, or I won’t make it through this. I need to figure a way out.
I test the chains on my wrists, which are attached to solid chains wrapped around a steel beam. Someone’s making sure I don’t escape, so it’s someone that knows what I’m capable of. I go over my options. I can dislocate one of my thumbs to slip out of a cuff, but I can’t get the other one out without dislocating them both. They’re cinched so tight they’re pinching the skin.
I look up at the chain, thinking I can pull myself up and over that beam that will get the chain to fall, hopefully giving me more options.
“Fuck,” I whisper desperately. I have no idea what to do. I hear coughing, and my head snaps to my left. “Who’s there?”
“Hey, Beautiful,” Zane answers before coughing again. He’s on the other side of a raggedy curtain. What the hell is he doing here?
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Yeah,” he answers, coughing again. “I think they broke my fucking ribs.”
“You got shot,” I point out dumbly. Of course, he knows that.
“I had a vest on,” he answers, and I can hear him shift and groan. “Why the fuck didn’t you?”
I close my eyes, feeling stupid as hell that we didn’t think about it. “I don’t know.”
I hear him shifting again, stopping when he starts coughing again. The cough sounds wet, like he has a punctured lung. I hear him groan in pain then the curtain is pulled back with a jerk.
He wrapped his leg around it because his arms are tied behind his back. I feel tears prick my eyes at the sight of him. His lip is split, his nose has been bleeding, and you can see the pain in his whiskey-colored eyes. “Tesoro,” the old nickname falls from my lips easily.
He closes his eyes and leans his head back against the pole. “I didn’t think you would ever call me that again.” He opens them, and I can see him checking me for injuries. “They hit you,” he grits out when he sees my own bleeding lip. He almost knocked me out from the pain of hitting me almost directly over top of my black eye. Zane almost had a mental breakdown when he saw it when we first dropped Nina off. The only damn reason he followed us was that Gage convinced me I needed to talk to him. Gage would cover for us until we worked through whatever this is. I pulled Zane into whatever shit I got myself into. This doesn’t feel like a Viktor attack, but I don’t know what else it can be. And why the hell would he take Zane? A fucking cop and not Gage? The thought of Gage brings the panic rushing back. I can’t lose him no matter what happens to me; Gage deserves a place on this earth.
I can’t stop the near hysteric laugh from coming out. “That’s the least of our problems,” I say, jerking against my chains.
Zane tests the bindings on his wrist and grimaces. “They’retight.” He jerks against them again and starts coughing all over again.
“Please stop moving,” I beg.
He spits blood from his mouth. “I have to get us out of here,” he says, jerking harder on his wrists. I can see the muscles in his arms bulge and flex. He coughs the whole time and never stops. I know he has a punctured lung, and if he doesn’t stop, he’ll drown in his own blood.
“Zane,” I say quietly. “Zane!” I whisper shout. I don’t want to bring any attention to the fact we’re awake yet. “Tesoro,”I say desperately, and he freezes. “Please stop,” I cry because I can’t stop it now.
“They have you tied up, Beautiful,” he says, lifting sad eyes to mine. “I have to get you out.”
I smile the best I can. “Wewill get out.” I don’t know how true that is at this point or if we do get out if it’s going to be in a body bag.
