“Eenie, meenie, miney, moe,” he said, moving his knife backward and forward between the two remaining men. Despite the pain he knew they were in, they were stubborn ones, and neither was begging and pleading for their life.
Picking one at random, he leaned down and sliced his neck open, enjoying the sight of blood flowing freely, life leeching away. It was satisfying in a way that killing had never been for him before. But everything was different when it involved his girl.
“Guess everything is on you now. I want answers about where they took her, I want a location for your boss,” he told the man.
Defeat crossed the other man’s features, and for a second, Voodoo thought he was going to get the answers he needed for him and his team to finally end things once and for all.
But then the man gained a surge of strength and shoved himself off the ground.
“Rather die now than be punished for being a traitor,” he screamed as he lunged his broken and bleeding body toward Voodoo.
Knowing that the man had put him in a no-win position didn't mean he wasn't frustrated to have to fling his knife once again, ending another life that obviously held vital intel. Not that he’d let this stop him. He was getting Indigo back and then destroying Dr. Gardner and his entire operation. Nothing else was acceptable.
January 24th
8:19 P.M.
It was the weirdest sensation to have a headache without feeling pain.
Her head didn't technically hurt, and yet it made a kind of pulsing motion that told Indigo something was wrong, even if she couldn’t fully comprehend what. It was unsettling, and she didn't like it, but it did nudge her out of the sleepy cocoon she’d been nestled in.
For a second, she expected to feel Voodoo’s hard body pressed up against hers, his strong arms wrapped around her, making her feel like she was in a little bubble of safety.
But there was no warm puff of air against her head, no chest rising and falling with each measured breath, no gentle caress as his fingers traced circles against her skin. Nothing at all to indicate that Voodoo was beside her like he was supposed to be.
Because he wasn't there.
Something cool and smooth was beneath her, hard but in a different way than the stone in the cave had been, cold in a different way too.
Even before her brain could catch up to what was going on, her body knew that it was bad, that she was in a whole world of trouble.
As badly as she wanted to keep her eyes closed, allowing the thudding between her temples to lull her back into a hazy sleep, Indigo knew she couldn’t do that.
Voodoo was out there.
Unless the men who had captured her had killed him, which she highly doubted, then he would be out there looking for her. He’d come. The certainty she felt about that surprised her because she was so used to having no one to depend on, so sure that no person alive could be relied upon.
Maybe she still believed that to some extent, but not when it came to Voodoo.
It wasn't his words that had convinced her he would never leave her behind, wasn't even his actions. It was that she could sense his honesty when he spoke, when he looked at her, when he shot her one of those smiles that set her whole body alight.
“I know you're awake,” the voice from her nightmares spoke from somewhere close by.
Here.
Right beside her.
The man Voodoo and his team had been seeking to destroy for a decade was so close she didn't even think, just flung herself sideways, in the direction the voice was speaking from, as her eyes popped open.
While she would have killed him without a second thought, felt no remorse about it, just like she didn't feel bad for killing the two men in the forest, unfortunately, Indigo couldn’t get anywhere near the deranged scientist.
He was indeed sitting on a chair, just a handful of feet away from her, but she was lying on a metal table, the kind that a coroner used when performing autopsies. Her wrists and ankles were cuffed to the legs of the table, making it impossible for her to do more than rock sideways a little.
The smirk on Dr. Gardner’s face was more annoying than having the man who had destroyed her life, Voodoo’s life, and the lives of so many others so close and yet being unable to do anything about it.
“They’ll kill you,” she rasped, her voice scratchy and insubstantial because whatever drugs she’d been given were still in her system, but she did her best to convey the depths of her hatred with her eyes.
Dr. Gardner just chuckled. “Actually, my dear, I think you’ve just given me the key to finally getting them back.”
