“Can’t believe she came willingly,” sniggers Aaron. “Fucking brain-dead cunt.”
“We would have gotten her anyway,” smirks Gabriel. “But it’s a lot easier this way. If Wells hadn’t been such a fucking tool, we would’ve had to beat the shit out of her before dragging her out. But I’d take any amount of risk to get my hands on that motherfucking nanochip.”
“I would’ve liked to beat her up,” says Aaron, licking his lips.
Aaron, Noel and Elias walk away, then, but Gabriel and Lazarus hang back for a moment. The former lifts his phone and snaps a picture of me.
“For Damien,” he chuckles quietly.
“You’re going to send it to him now?” breathes Lazarus in astonishment. “He’ll figure out where we are.”
“That’s the idea,” retorts his older brother. “But I’ll wait a bit. I’ll send the picture once everything’s ready. I just wanted to take it now, before she’s disfigured.”
I inhale sharply and the filthy rag presses against the back of my throat. I bite down on the wave of nausea that overwhelms me.
“But if he comes and saves her…”
Gabriel chuckles again, then leans over to Lazarus and speaks in a whisper that I can just make out.
“He won’t. Don’t you understand? She’s taking the fall.”
“But you didn’t tell them. The other boys think…”
“Fuck them. The other boys are idiots. It’s you and me, Laz, forever. Remember that.”
“I know. But I have a bad feeling about this, Gabriel. I think we’re underestimating Wells’ obsession.”
“We’re not. On the contrary, I’m counting on it. Believing she’s guilty will utterly destroy him. Trust me. By the time we’re finished here, he’ll be the one plunging the knife into her heart.”
They walk away, closing the door behind them, leaving me enshrouded in darkness.
I close my eyes a moment, reeling from everything I’ve just heard. They want Damien to find me. They want Damien to kill me.
She’s taking the fall.
I don’t have the nanochip and Gabriel and his brother know it. The others don’t, though. Are they planning to fuck over Aaron, Noel and Elias?
Not that it matters to me. What matters is that they’re planning to fuckmeover. Torture me, disfigure me… then wait for Damien to finish the job. Somehow, that’s what hurts the most. Damien. Everything else pales in comparison.
I press my arms to my sides. The sharpness of the blade as it slices through more skin keeps my mind focused.
I take a deep breath and do my best to move the rag back in my mouth, sucking on it, folding as much of it into my cheeks as I can manage, while shuddering at the disgusting taste. After a few minutes of effort, I manage to free my teeth from the rag and then, after some contortion, to snatch the handle of the knife through the cloth that covers my mouth.
Freeing my hands takes a long time. Beads of sweat prick the back of my neck as I hear footsteps outside, but at last, after a lot of accidental cuts that dye my skin bright red, I manage to slice through the zip ties tying my wrists to the pipe.
I pull off the rag pressed against my lips and spit out the one filling my mouth, then take in great big gulps of air.
The zip ties that bind my ankles only take thirty seconds more to cut, but those are the thirty seconds that ruin everything.
Just as I spring up, the door opens again, and I find myself face to face with Noel.
He stares at me for a second in surprise, and I take advantage of his shock to lunge at him, swiping blindly with my knife. I know too well the feel of a blade in human skin to believe I’ve made any real damage, but I don’t look back to check. I keep running as a flow of curse words follows me.
No way am I getting out of here alive.
I know it for a fact even before I come crashing to a halt near the entrance of the warehouse. Gabriel has just materialized in front of me, and the early morning light that spurred me on, and which was visible through the cracked door, is blotted out by his large frame. I stare at the memory of that light for a moment, letting my irrational hope die down before tearing my eyes away andforcing them onto my captor.
He’s grinning.
