The words are so surprising I let out a loud snort. “Wait, what? What the fuck?”
Liam leans in, and I shrink back again, but now, it’s in disgust more than terror. Though I still can’t really understand a thing, I do suddenly trust them. At least, enough to believe that they won’t hurt me.
“Quill Nelson is a fucking psychopath,” he hisses. “And he’s found out what we did to you. He found out that the rest of the soldiers stood by and watched. And do you know what, Piper? We are all, every single last one of us, shitting our pants right now.”
A little thrill bubbles up in my chest as I slowly start to grasp the subtext. Quill.MyQuill. He scares them.
He scares them a whole lot more than the mafia or Devil. It sounds crazy, but I believe it, coming from them. Not so soft after all, my husband.
I don’t know what that says about me, that I’m proud to bemarried to a man who terrifies the most hardened criminals. But there’s no denying that’s just what I am.
“He’s not the kind of man who puts a bullet in the head of the men who’ve wronged him,” continues Liam. “I would rather die at the hands of Coltello, Moretti’s men, or Devil, than to live at Quill Nelson’s.”
I nod slowly. “So you think helping me will save you from that fate.”
They glance at each other, and then Liam asks nervously, “Won’t it?”
I hesitate. The truth is, I’m not entirely sure if anythingcouldsave them. But I’m aware that saying so is a terrible idea. “Yes. It definitely will.”
Liam’s face relaxes, and I breathe easier too, seeing that my words have convinced him. Then I spot Dane’s troubled expression, and a new pang of anxiety creeps into my stomach.
“Alright, come on,” he says brusquely.
His hand shoots out to close around my arm, and I recoil. “I can get up by myself.”
But when I try to, I feel suddenly lightheaded. I stumble backward, and Dane hooks his arm around me again.Fuck. I hate this so much. I hatehimso much.
I bite down on a cry as he lifts me up, lying me over his shoulder. His hand stays resolutely around my calves, pinning me to him but not touching any intimate part of me. And yet, his touch, no matter where it lands, burns me.
He carries me back toward the car, where the third soldier is waiting at the wheel. I guess they really were telling the truth. The soldiers are loyal to no one and nothing. Their only drive is fear.
Dane plops me into the backseat, and even though I cringe back when he gets in next to me, I guess it’s better than Liam being close to me. I remember enough from that night to knowthat Liam was really the initiator. Dane seemed to step in mostly to fix the situation. Though vague memories remind me that he did participate somewhat.
I shiver, my mind trapped by the painful memories crowding back. Luckily, the panic attack I had last time I saw them doesn’t seem about to repeat itself. I guess everything that’s just happened has put me in quite a different mindset than before.
I sag back onto the seat, my body relaxing despite itself. I just don’t have the energy to stay tense.
The car drives for a little ways, through increasingly narrow roads, and a weird unsettling feeling rises up in me when we at last stop in what looks like the middle of nowhere. A desolate shack looms before us, and Dane once more lifts me up, gently but firmly, carrying me toward it.
“What is this place?” I ask nervously. “Is Quill here?”
None of them answer. We enter the one-room cabin, which looks abandoned. I guess they must have found it by chance, driving over here, and decided it would make a good place for… whatever happens next.
There isn’t a single piece of furniture. Just four rotting walls and a busted up window.
Dane puts me down in a corner of the room, while Liam fumbles with the sweater he’s just removed, trying to make it fall over the window by sticking it through the uneven cracks in the wall. Meanwhile, the third soldier, still wearing his mask, stands stiffly near the door. He hasn’t said a word this whole time.
At last Liam manages to get his makeshift curtain to work, and the room is plunged into darkness.
Soon, nothing is visible except the glint of the gun in the masked soldier’s hand, as it’s lifted, pointing straight toward me.
“Uhm, what the fuck,” I say nervously.
Dane walks over to me, and I can just make out the flip phone he hands me.
“You’re going to do exactly what we say,” he threatens, “or you’re dead.”
Chapter 38
