Sloane (23 page)

My father’s voice.

But he wasn’t here. He was dead.

Except for the fact that it was just like before.
Here I was, surrounded by people who were trying to hurt me. They
were all coming at me from every direction, and I could smell their
blood, the way I’d smelled it in that basement. The sharp, metallic
tang, like a slaughterhouse.

And then—

I couldn’t move.

I struggled, but all my muscles were tense and
stiff.

In front of me, the men that I’d shot before got to
their feet, turning angry faces on me.

Behind me, I could hear the other man moving too.

They were everywhere.

I was frozen. I couldn’t even yell for Axel, because
I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t do anything. I was useless, that’s what
I was. I was stupid a fucking idiot, and I wasn’t ever going to be
able to—

“Die, you fuckers!” yelled Axel’s voice, and there
was a stutter of gunfire.

It startled me so much that I could move, and I saw
that Axel had picked up the gun that I’d kicked away—the one that
had belonged to the guard. He was spraying bullets everywhere, and
the men at the door were dancing from the force of the bullets in
their skin.

Axel! I smiled gratefully at him.

And I whipped up my gun to help.

But it was too late, because there were two men
behind me, and one of them still had his gun.

I heard the sound of shots explode behind my head and
it was loud, so fucking loud, but before I could do anything about
it—

Dark.

* * *

When I woke up, I was in a small room with Axel.
There was empty shelving on the wall and a light bulb with a pull
string hanging over our heads. The floor was concrete, as were the
walls. It was cold.

I sat up. “You’re okay.”

He was leaning up against the wall in between two of
the empty shelving units. “I don’t know if I’d go that far.”

I crawled over to him. “Did you get shot?”

He shook his head. “No, by some miracle, no. I shot
them all after they got you, and I knew they weren’t dead, but I
didn’t know how to kill them. And while I was trying to tie them up
before they woke up again, so that when you woke up again, you
could tell me what to do with them,
they
woke up. And they
got free and got their weapons and held me at gunpoint while they
talked about what to do with me. Apparently, they thought I must be
something special if I shot all of them. But all that was special
was their guns.”

“Christa?” I said.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I hid her, like you said. I
made her get in the pantry in my kitchen. I didn’t tell them she
was there, but she was losing a lot of blood, and…” He looked
away.

I bit my lip. Then I shook myself. “No, she’ll be
okay. I’m sure she got herself to the hospital after they took us.
I’m sure she did.”

Axel nodded too. “Yeah. Sure, she did.”

Were we lying to ourselves?

Possibly, but I couldn’t handle thinking that Christa
wasn’t okay. I couldn’t do anything about that right now. I needed
to believe that she’d made it. It was the only way I could focus on
the other problems at hand.

I gazed at him. “And you’re okay too.”

He half-smiled. “I don’t know about that.”

“You’re here, right?”

He looked up at the ceiling. “They almost killed me,
you know? They had this conversation, right in front of my face
about whether some woman would want me alive or not. And they
weren’t sure if she even cared about me. She’d never said anything
about me before, so they almost shot me to death. But then they
didn’t want to make a mistake, so they brought me back here.”

“Where’s here?”

“I don’t fucking know.”

“Are we in the secret lab?”

“They blindfolded me, Sloane. I don’t know.” He shut
his eyes. “Whenever that woman figures out that I’m not important,
she’s going to kill me.”

“No.” I touched his face. “No, I won’t let anyone
hurt you.”

He covered my hand with his own and slowly opened his
eyes. “I didn’t want to let anyone hurt
you
. But look what
happened.”

“Axel, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I ever got you mixed up
in this.”

He gave me a small smile. “It’s not your fault. I did
this myself. I’m the one who wanted to help you out. And, you know,
honestly, despite the fact that I’m really afraid of dying right
now, I don’t regret any of it.”

I shook my head. “No, you don’t really mean
that.”

“Of course I do.” He reached over and brushed my
cheek with his fingers.

His touch still gave me shivers, even here.

His hand slid back behind my neck. He pulled me
close, and our lips met.

I relaxed into the kiss for a minute, enjoying the
sweetness of the way we fit together. But then I pulled back.
“Axel, we can’t get…” I got up and went over to the door.

It was big and metal. It had a knob but no lock. I
turned the knob, but the door wouldn’t budge.

“I think it’s bolted closed from the outside,” said
Axel.

I slammed my shoulder into it. Ouch.

“Careful,” he said. “You’re going to hurt
yourself.

“We need to get out of here,” I said. “And I heal
fast.” Even though I was pretty sure that I’d just healed with two
bullets in my body. Wasn’t the first time it happened, but I was
probably going to have to cut them out at some point. Otherwise it
was a bitch to go through a metal detector.

“You still shouldn’t—”

Axel stopped talking, and I backed up, because the
door was opening.

Jolene French stepped inside.

I launched myself at her, but she held up a hand.

“I wouldn’t,” she said, gesturing to the top pocket
of her lab coat where several syringes peered out. “I’ll stab you
with one of these, and, trust me, you wouldn’t like the
results.”

I hesitated. Could she really be fast enough? Maybe I
could get one of the syringes and stab her before she—

“Who are you?” French was scrutinizing Axel.

Axel got to his feet. “I’m Axel Whitman.”

French raised her eyebrows. “That means nothing to
me.”

I took a step towards her.

She snatched one of the syringes and brandished it
like a knife, holding me off. “Really, Sloane, can’t you ever be
civilized for even a few minutes? You and your brother are the most
bloodthirsty people I think I ever met, but neither of you has any
range. It’s just kill, kill, kill all the time.”

My nostrils flared. As always, she knew just what to
say to get to me. She had to bring Silas into it. She knew Silas
was my weak link. “Where is Silas? What have you done to him?”

“Oh, he’s here.” She waved off into the background
idly, but she was still staring at Axel. “But let’s talk about
you.”

Axel smirked. “That happens to be my favorite
subject.” He glanced at me. “I guess this is the bitch psychologist
you told me about?”

I nodded.

French made a tsk, tsk noise. “Sloane, Sloane, you
really need to work on your manners.”

“So I keep telling her,” said Axel. “Look, lady, you
don’t know what it is that you’ve got yourself into here. My father
owns Whitman Industries and half of the city. You don’t want to get
messed up with me or my family. Because I guarantee, whoever you
are and whatever you’re doing, my father has the power and the
connections to destroy it all, and when he finds out—”

“Whitman.” She tapped her chin. “You’re one of
those
Whitmans.”

“That’s right,” said Axel. “Bitch.”

French just chuckled under her breath. “If you’re
trying to make me angry, don’t. I don’t get angry, I get even.” She
looked him over. “And I have to say, there’s nothing about you
that’s really worth my ire. You wouldn’t even be useful. You’re far
too high profile to be an assassin.”

“Assassins?” I said. “But you don’t have assassins
anymore. We stopped you.”

She rounded on me. “Stopped me? Oh, I don’t think so,
Sloane. You and the rest of your little rag tag group of neglected
children and sexual abuse victims certainly haven’t done anything
like stopping me. You’ve created a few setbacks, it’s true. But
right now, I’m fixing everything.”

“What do you mean? What are you up to? Why did Leigh
try to kill me?”

French threw her head back and laughed. “You’re so
adorable when you get angry like that, little one. Careful, though.
We wouldn’t want anything to remind you of the time you had to
watch your brother kill your mommy, now would we?” She smiled.
“Then you’d just freeze right up, wouldn’t you?”

The hell of it was that just her words made me tense.
I choked trying to answer her.

She leaned close. “You could never be a threat to me,
Sloane. You’re broken and pathetic. I never even would have kept
you around if it weren’t for Silas. I knew he’d never do what I
wanted if I killed you. But you’re
useless
.”

“Hey,” said Axel.

My whole body shook, but I couldn’t speak.

She tucked the syringe back in her pocket, clearly
not expecting me to be any kind of threat anymore and turned to
Axel. “And you? You probably have rich daddy issues.”

“Just don’t talk to her that way.”

“No.” She sounded surprised. She pursed her lips.
“Probably something with your mother, then. You have an overblown
sense of trying to protect women you care about. I guess that’s why
Sloane here is attracted to you. The only man she was ever close to
was her brother, and he did the same thing. But it’s ridiculous,
can’t you see, Axel? You always try to protect women in a way that
guarantees you’ll fail. You’re no match for the kinds of enemies
that Sloane has. And I rather imagine your mother would never
accept help from her own son. Probably just beneath her. You’re
useless too. Such a pretty boy, but impotent as a man. Really, it’s
not going to be any kind loss if I have you disposed of.”

No.
But I couldn’t move.

Axel’s jaw worked, but he was silent too.

French tapped her chin. “Oh, but when will I do it?
And who will I send to do it? Would you like it if Silas did it,
Sloane? Would you like Silas to kill your boyfriend? He probably
wouldn’t like him anyway. No one’s good enough for his sister.” She
turned on her heel. “Have fun waiting, you two.” And then she swung
open the door and left us both there, motionless.

LEIGH

Silas was inside the bathroom stall. He was still
trying to make a tunnel. I’d gone back to look at his progress, and
there wasn’t any to speak of. He’d managed to chip away at the
wall, but there was nothing more than a small circle of chipped
concrete. At this rate, it was going to take years for him to have
anything resembling a tunnel.

“Why are you doing that?” I demanded.

“Trying to keep busy,” he said.

“They have Griffin.”

“They had him before.”

“French
has Griffin, and we don’t know what
she wants.”

Silas used the spoon to dig at the wall. “I know
that.”

“But you’re just sitting in here, doing this stupid
thing that isn’t going to help us at all, and I don’t even know
what’s she’s doing to Griffin.”

Silas set down his spoon. “Don’t yell at me, Leigh. I
know you’re tense, but don’t take it out on me.”

“It’s just this tunnel—”

“Stop it,” he said. “I have to try something. I can’t
sit out there doing nothing. At least you have him here, you know?
I don’t know where Christa is. I haven’t talked to her in a long
time. When I left I really thought I’d see her again. I knew it
might be bad, but we’ve been through bad before, and we always came
out on the other side. But now… hell, I don’t know if I’m ever
going to see her again. And there are things I didn’t say, things I
didn’t do. We haven’t even had a whole year yet. We’re supposed to
have so much more. And… But I can’t think about that, all
right?”

“Silas.”

“I
can’t
. I have to think about something
else. So, I’m going to think about this tunnel. And you’re going to
let me do it, okay?”

I bit down on my lip.

“Okay?”

I backed away.

I went into the middle of the floor and wrapped my
hands around my knees. I wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn’t
come. So I just sat there, my body curled up.

It was quiet except for the noise of Silas’
chipping.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

I started to pace, clutching my head. “There’s got to
be something we can do. Something we can try. I won’t let it end
like this, I won’t.”

Axel looked around. “Okay. Let’s think.”

I pounded my fist against my forehead. “Oh, what does
it matter? I could come up with the best plan ever, and then I’d
just freeze again. I’d ruin everything. French was right when she
said I was useless. Everyone knows that about me.”

“I
don’t know that about you.”

“I’m getting you killed!” I said. “You of all people
should know it.”

“You’re not, though.” He took a deep breath. “We’re
going to figure this out. We can do it.”

I shook my head. “Who am I kidding? I can’t do this.
Has anything gone right since I started this? After everything I’ve
tried, we’re locked in this room, and she’s going to kill you and
brainwash me, and it’s not fair.”

He took a deep breath. “Look, Sloane, there’s no
reason for you to freeze.”

“I know that.” I dragged my hands over my face in
frustration. “It doesn’t happen because there’s a
reason
. It
happens, and I can’t fight it, no matter how hard I try. Don’t you
think that while I’m standing there, unable to move, I’m telling
myself that that there’s no reason for it to happen?”

“I just mean that I think you freeze because you
think
you’re useless. I spent a lot time with therapists as
a kid. My parents thought it was a good substitute for parenting.
So, I’m pretty good with the psycho-babble by now. I’ve picked up a
lot about the way people’s brains work. And I think that feeling
useless is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You think you’re worthless,
and then you make yourself worthless. And I think you do it because
it’s easier to face the idea that you might be worthless than it is
to face the idea that your brother is a psychopath.”