She wanted to believe him. Every cell in her body said he was trustworthy, but that’s what all serial killers seemed like, according to crime TV. “That’s what Hannibal said before he ate his victim’sbrains.”
Diggs rolled his eyes. “You’re just like my brother, addicted to TV. Don’t you know it scrambles your brain?” He paused and then said, “I’m not like some fictional horror movie serial killereither.”
“You have abrother?”
“Yep.” Diggs stared straight ahead, as if mentioning his brothers were a soresubject.
Seeing as how she wasn’t sure yet whether he was really taking her home to save Trigger or play ninja chop on her organs, she kept her mouth shut and didn’t ask him toelaborate.
“Listen, you’re just going to have to trust me. I swear to you, I have no intention of harming either you or thedog.”
She took a cautious stepback.
Diggs let out a frustrated sounding sigh. “Fine, stay up here if you want. I’m taking the dog with me. He needs medical attention.” And with that, he turned and descended the stairs, leaving her to stare in mute shock afterhim.
The door started to close.It was now or never.Audra sucked in a breath and squeezed past the door just before it slid shut and locked behindher.
Darkness swallowed her up. She had a brief flash of Jonah and the whale. She couldn’t help the tremble that started in her limbs and didn’t try to fight it knowing that Diggs couldn’t see her anyway. The only light seemed to be emanating from beneath her very feet, each step dimly illuminated just enough so that she didn’t trip and go head first down the stairs. Stairs of which she couldn’t see theend.
She could barely make out Diggs’ feet moving down the steps in front of her, so that’s what she focused on, mimicking his movements in an attempt to keep up. But her insides were a jumbled-up mess. Was she descending to her owndeath?
She nearly missed a step and would’ve tumbled if Diggs hadn’t reached back and caught her midair. “Watch your step. There’s noguardrails.”
Audra’s heart jammed up into her throat and lodged there, making it impossible tospeak.
“Just a few moresteps.”
Finally, she heard the click and hiss of a door opening and a low blue tinged light flooded the doorway directly below her. A doorway she hadn’t seen at all, but was thankful fornonetheless.
Hesitantly, she stepped from that platform out into the hallway. Diggs moved off to the side to allow her to pass by before he kicked the door shut behind him. White half walls topped with glass lined the hallway, the same way they did in hospitals. “What isthis?”
Diggs’ response was a grunt as he strode past her and muttered, “Medical. Followme.”
Audra searched every nook and cranny for hints of machetes or chained-up prisoners hanging from the walls. Cubicle-shaped room after cubicle-shaped room were full of empty stainless-steel tables and what looked like tubes in a college biologylab.
Completely confused but unwilling to leave Trigger behind, Audra stayed a few steps behind Diggs as he turned right and entered a room a little farther down the hall. If he so much as twitched the wrong way, she’d grab the dog and haul ass out of there. There was no way she’d let them end up as this guy’ssupper.
But as soon as she entered the room behind Diggs, her fear was eased by a small measure. This room was darker and held a padded table at the head of which stood a giant white circular machine. “You have a CTscanner?”
The only reason she knew what it was, was from the time she’d twisted her ankle walking down the stadium staircase at Jeremy’s junior world championship game and they’d rushed her to the emergency room to make sure it wasn’tbroken.
Diggs gently laid Trigger on the table and all thoughts of fear for herself vanished. Audra flew to his side, running her fingers lightly over the fur on his head, “It’s okay, boy. We’re going to take care ofyou.”
Trigger’s eyes were closed and his tongue hung from his mouth as he continued those short shallow pants. Fury blasted through her entire body. How could her father have donethis?
“Audra, I need you to step behind the wall.” Diggs’ gentle voice penetrated her thoughts and she turned to see him standing behind her, his brown eyes full ofunderstanding.
“But he’s hurting,” shesaid.
“The sooner I run this scan, the sooner we can give him something for the pain. Trustme.”
What was it about this man that made her want to believe him? She had to be insane to even be down here in the first place. “Okay, just hurry.Please.”
He nodded and gestured for her to follow him around an open corner. “This will protect you from the radiation, and it only takes a couple of minutes to run the test. There will be some loud noises, but if you watch the screen here, it will show you the scan as it develops.Ready?”
She wasn’t ready for any of this. The entire situation had been thrust upon her. What she wouldn’t give to go back in time and yank Jeremy from that recruiter’s office in the strip mall downtown. Their entire lives changed the moment he’d stepped through thatdoor.
She might not have been able to stop her brother, but she’d stop the bastard responsible for his death, even if she had to take down the whole United States military to accomplishit.
