But for the most fucked-up reasons ever, I welcomed the aches that flooded my body. It meant Priest hadn’t drugged me.Not yet. And I took the win for what it was. A painful motherfuckin’ victory that didn’t feel all that victorious as I shifted, testing the rest of my body, movingslowly,in case Priest had stuck around, waiting for his moment to put me down again.
After a beat, I accepted that he hadn’t. That weakness and nausea were my only company, save the mess my body had become.
I was alone.
Water.I wasn’t thirsty, but I knew if there was any, I had to drink it before some arsehole took it away.
I unclenched my fists and forced my eyes open, searching the shadows for the telltale shape of a water bottle. Moving my body sent fresh pain to my joints. I let it draw my focus, narrowing my thoughts to the fact that hurting like a motherfucker meant I was still alive, cos it was theonlythought I could handle. Logan. My kids. Nash and Orla. I pushed them out of my head. I had to, or the raging terror I’d kept at bay this long would pull me under.
That freakish calm was still in reach. Just. I snatched the fraying threads of it and claimed a half-squashed water bottle, sucking in a deep breath that my lungs weren’t ready for.
A vicious coughing fit kicked the shit out of me, helped along by the airless box I seemed to be trapped in. Was this a truck? The surface behind me felt like a tailgate, and the cold air smelt like a mouldy fuckin’ fridge. Worse than that, it smelt likedeath, and dizziness swamped me.
Still coughing, I rooted a hand on the grimy floor, fighting to stay upright. Fighting to give a fuck if I failed. More sleep called my name.
Then someone else did. “Locke?”
I blinked, following the hoarse whisper.
Viktor. Fuck. I’d lost track of him. Maybe I was more beat up than I thought. “You okay?”
“Are you?”
“Ask me after another fuckin’ nap.”
“No.” Viktor moved, leaning forward, catching, like I had, his sketchy balance on the floor. “They will come soon. You need to stay awake.”
“What?”
“I tell you this every time. It is the seventh night.” Viktor pushed himself upright, one arm wrapped tight around his torso, bracing his battered body. “Priest must go to a meeting point and wait for the men who gave me to him to guard.”
I frowned, deep and hard, trying to make sense of a conversation I’d definitely had before. Trouble was, getting my head kicked in every few hours was starting to mess with my brain. “Who is he meeting? And why?”
It was Viktor’s turn to lose his train of thought and I let him be. He was the one getting stuck with a needle at random intervals, and I reckoned this was why. To stop him being all clever and shit and Houdini-ing out of here. I wasn’t all that offended they’d pegged me as too thick to figure it out on my own. The track marks on Viktor’s arms pissed me off more.
Unbidden, my gaze slid to them. A shudder wracked me and I forced myself to think of something else. Gave myself a pass on thinking aboutthem.Of that blissful afternoon with Orla, floating on two hours’ sleep and the residual buzz of my night with Nash. The amazing day I’d spent with Willow at the festival. Fuck me. I’d been so damn happy. Had it even been real?
“Locke.”
I refocused. Viktor was alert again. “What are they sticking you with? Is it smack?”
“I think so. I am starting to crave it.”
Goddamn. I edged closer to Viktor. “Does it at least help with the pain?”
Viktor nodded. “At first. I am trying to convince myself that is why I want it, but that lie is running out of time. I’m hoping it will not be much longer before your friends find you.”
“What about your friends?”
“Perhaps they did not think to look among the birds.”
The Crows. “Maybe mine won’t either. This shit has been dormant a long time.”
Viktor’s lips twisted in a shadowy smirk. “Then maybe Gianni Sambini will show his hand soon, because this is boring. Even for him.”
That he still had his sense of humour made these long days and nights together survivable. But there was a flaw in his thinking. A massive, gaping hitch that had my sluggish brain tripping over itself, struggling to compute. “Sambini who? I thought there were none of those fuckers left?”
Viktor’s brows shot up so fast I thought he might throw up. “What did you just say?”
