“You’ve got to tell Robin… we’ve done so much. It’s our turn to be helped. If something happens to Reid…” I blow out a breath, squeezing my eyes shut. “I’ll burn this city to the ground if one single hair on his head is hurt.”
Mason gasps loudly. “You care about him that much?”
I swallow roughly. “I’d fucking kill for him. He’s mine. Take that how you will.”
Parker moans loudly from the living room. “They smelled like the guys from the one job. The one where we killed the guy and returned all the money in his bank account to the people he’d stolen it from. The club owner.”
“What?” Hayden asks around a laugh. “You remember them from the way they smell?”
Parker shrugs lightly before moaning. “Clove cigarettes and salami.”
Hayden squeezes his eyes shut tightly, then pulls out his phone to type away. He collapses at the table and Jacob joins him, their bodies pressed tightly together as Jacob keeps a wary eye on his twin. Mason stands uncomfortably by the front door, eyes darting around the room. I haven’t cleaned in a while, so it’s messier than normal, but we're not dirty guys. It’s a normal lived-in house, but Mason’s cheeks take on a flush as he wraps his arms tightly around himself.
“Please find my brother soon,” Mason pleads.
“I’ll tear the world apart to find him,” I promise, meaning every word.
Hayden quickly stands from the table, chair screeching against the tile floor. He heads outside into the night, voice hush-quiet as he whispers on the phone. I feel anxious andout of it while I wait for some sort of hint, some way to find Reid.
What if I can’t find him? What if someonehurtshim? What if he’s crying out for me, waiting for me to save him, as the minutes tick by without me bursting through the door. So many what-ifs run through my brain that I start to feel sick with it. I dip down in a squat, cradling my head in my hands as I almost vomit from the emotions sweeping through me. I’ve got to get to Reid before someone tries to hurt him. I’ve got to tell him that I love him.
10
REID
That motherfucker locked me in the safe room or panic room whatever he wants to fucking call it. I squeeze my eyes shut tight as the nauseating dizziness overtakes me, the thrum of the anxiety of being shut in a room without any escape. Scully tries to calm me, pressing her slight black body against my face when I fall to the floor in a ball. My heart is pounding so hard in my chest that I assume it’s going to stop beating altogether. This is it. I die in a safe room instead of by taking random pills, by seeking out dangerous men in clubs that only see me as a fleeting good time. This is how I die and how it all ends.
Tears fall from my eyes as I weep all my fears away. Dante will come back for me. He won’t leave me locked in here forever. Dante loves me, I know it. The way he looks at me has to be love. Dante… come back.
“Please,” I whimper into Scully’s soft fur.
She purrs loudly as she rubs all over my face and oddly it distracts me enough for my heart to start to slow, for the tears to turn to a gentle stream instead of a torrential river. Howlong will it take him to come back for me? Why is someone trying to get to him through me? Jesus, if someone hurt Mason and I survive… what a cruel twist of fate. He survives childhood cancer just to die because I got twisted up in something that I’m not able to handle.
I roll over onto my back gasping, blinking up at the bright white lights that flicker in the room that’s no longer closing in on me. Scully moves from my face to lie on my chest, kneading biscuits on my chest with her little bean paws. God. I curl my fingers into her soft fur, probably harder than she’ll like, no doubt she’ll hiss and claw soon. But she doesn’t. No. Scully just purrs louder to distract me, nuzzling her soft head against my chin until I can’t be anything but solely focused on her. Smart girl.
“Almost like you have experience with this stuff, girl.” I pet her slowly, letting the feel of her hair against my sweaty palm distract me from my current predicament. Gradually, as I pet her, my heart slows enough that the anxiety of being stuck disappears just enough to make me feel less insane than a few moments ago. Maybe being trapped here won’t kill me. I still hate it, I’m still going to murder Dante for this, but maybe I can live through this.
A sound from outside the door has me scrambling up, clutching Scully in my arms. She meows loudly at the sudden movement, and I scramble into the corner to protect my back. My anxiety ramps up again when I hear furious shouting and what sounds like banging coming from outside. Oh. That’s not Dante. That’s not the boys. They would’ve opened the door and let me out already. Scully seems to know it too because her claws press into me, making me hiss at the sensation.
The lights flicker just as the door slips open to reveal twovery large men with black masks over their faces. They smell disgusting. I am totally fucked. One inches forward, eyes lit up with the glory of a win. Do I fight or do I give in? What’s the easiest way to avoid murder? Instincts say for me to bite their balls off, but that’s probably not the best way to go about this.
The man lunges for me before I can even come up with another escape idea. Scully yowls loudly, hisses, and bites the guy, but he just grabs her by the scuff and slings her against the wall of the panic room.
“No!” I scream, terrified that he just hurt Scully. I can’t see her over his back, but I glare at him in fury that I can’t hold back any longer. “You’re fucking with the wrong people.”
“Give me a break,” the guy sneers, just before jabbing a needle into my neck.
Oh no.
I try to lunge at him, but my arms are too weak, and the walls are seriously closing in now. The last thing I hear is the men’s soft laughter as I fall into a hazy, scary sort of sleep. Dante…
Drip.Drip. Drip.
The world is a blurry mess when I blink my eyes open. Everything hurts. Not in the fun way I’ve gotten used to either. I kind of feel like how I used to feel after taking those random pills at clubs. Wrung out and achy. The urge to puke is so overwhelming suddenly that I roll over onto my side and hurl straight up stomach acid. Yuck.
Wait. Why am I on the ground? Why is it concrete? I squeeze my eyes shut tightly, then carefully sit up despite theache of my muscles. My arm catches on something, and when I look down, it’s to find I’m chained to a metal pillar in the middle of some large room. Squinting against the bright light, I follow the length of the pillar to the ceiling above that’s got holes in it from age. So much rust. When’s the last time I had my tetanus shot? Mason is going to be furious if I die from tetanus, an easily preventative disease.
I take in my surroundings, wondering where the fuck I am and how I got here. It appears I’m in a beaten-down and ancient warehouse. Mostly empty, since it’s just me, the holes in the ceiling, and the handcuffs chaining me to the metal pillar. Now the small pile of stomach acid to my right. Where the hell am I? I don’t remember anything from the night before. Well. I remember Dante fucking me into oblivion, then everything gets kind of blurry after that.But that’s kind of normal considering the shit we get up to.
