Strength (Mark of Nexus #1) (23 page)

Something fiery shot through my veins as I whirled around to face him. “Where the hell did you come from?”

“Because
that
matters right now.” He rolled his eyes. “And I was listening from the window, so don’t bother feigning ignorance.”

That’s it.
Rage consumed my vision as I balled my fist and twisted my hips, throwing a hard right at his jaw. As I should’ve expected, I caught nothing but raindrops on the back of my hand. He was already three paces back, hands in his pockets, looking highly amused.

“I shouldn’t have restrained you before,” he mused. “This is way more entertaining.”

I didn’t think after that. I just lunged. The shadowed scenery twisted, and I crashed onto the sidewalk, growling out my frustrations.
Don’t stay down!
I pushed myself to my feet and braced for retaliation.

My knees and elbows were pulsing with pain that had yet to completely register. There wasn’t time. I finally had my captor on even ground. I just needed one opportunity, one hit to catch him off guard, and he’d be out of the way.

Then I’d tend to Wallace. Screw this superpower shit. I was 120 pounds of angry, wet female, and I was ready to fight. Cole wouldn’t stop me a second time.

“Rena, seriously.” He rounded on me, holding his hands up at his sides. “You’re going to hurt yourself, and then my brother over there is going to pay me back tenfold—so, let’s avoid that.”

“Like you give a shit about me,” I spat, keeping my arms up. “You can’t just kidnap someone and expect everything to be fine. Obviously, you need Wallace for something, but you picked a fight with me first. I don’t care if you bartered my life for his cooperation. I’m not some stupid pawn in your plans.”

A loud growl emanated from the alleyway, and my desperation kicked up another notch. “That’s your brother over there,” I berated. “Don’t you care what’s happening to him?”

Cole looked taken aback, almost insulted. “You act like I can stop it. He’s been having clusters since he was seventeen.”

“Clusters?” A cool wind slipped past, bringing with it a horrible realization. “It’s eight thirty.”

“Yeah.”

I hadn’t even considered it. I’d been so caught up in the moment, the thought never even occurred to me. Another weight stacked onto my load of guilt. “He came all the way here, without his meds, for me? That’s so stupid...”

And sweet, on a disturbing level.

“I bet he didn’t think about it. He probably sensed your distress and came straight here, without considering the consequences.” He shrugged. “Lucky you.”

The fear dissipated, replaced by a resentful sense of comfort. It was strange. I felt like I was dealing with my friend’s brother, instead of my captor. “You know what?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “I think I’ll call you AssCole.”

“Cute.” The corner of his lips twitched upward as he gave me a once-over, shaking his head. “Gotta say. I wish we’d met under different circumstances.”

Are we seriously having this discussion?
I eased my stance and rubbed at my temples. “Will you at least answer some questions now?”

He hunched his shoulders, letting the rain soak through his shirt. “Shoot.”

It was either a trap, or I’d gained some leverage somehow. “Okay, so, you guys aren’t just jerking my chain about this bloodline thing, right? I mean, you’re pretty quick on your feet and he’s left some bruises, but is he, like, rip-through-a-telephone-book strong?”

“Rena, he could rip through a telephone
pole
without realizing it. We’re not just”—he made quotations in the air—“‘jerking your chain.’”

As soon as the words left his lips, I understood. Wallace had snapped my handcuffs apart as if they were a toy. There was no disputing it.

A heart wrenching cry sounded from the alley and before I knew it, my legs were moving of their own accord. I jogged to the corner, without regard to Cole or anything else, squinting into the darkness.

Wallace rocked back as he let out another growl and slammed his head onto the pavement. “Grrrraaaah!” He reeled back, clutching at his left eye with one hand and holding onto the base of his skull with the other.

Even after a night’s worth of horrors, it was the worst thing I’d witnessed. He was a man possessed by pain. Gruesome, tortured pain. And there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

“Every night,” Cole commented behind me, not bothering to pull me away.

“If he’s so strong, how is anything standing when he’s like this?” I asked. It was a horrible thing to ponder at the time, but I couldn’t help it.

“Wallace is significantly weakened during these episodes.” His voice was tight as he leaned against the building. “He’s usually out of commission for a while.”

“I’m surprised you don’t take advantage,” I quipped humorlessly. “You know, strong-arm him while he’s down.”

My hood had fallen back in our near-scuffle, and I hadn’t bothered to fix it. Trails of rainwater slid down my face and dripped from my chin. I could barely feel it.

“I’m a lot of things, Rena, but I’m not cruel.”

I shifted my gaze to his. “You cut me.” Was he crazy? “You pretended to be nice and drugged me with a needle. I woke up in a freakin’ warehouse! Are you serious? You used me against him.”

Okay, he’d hit a nerve.

He sighed and crossed his arms. “Would you have cooperated otherwise? You were the incentive.” His eyes were alight in the darkness, half-mast with subdued interest. “It’s not like I really hurt you, right?”

Aside from mental scarring that would probably take years of therapy to resolve? No, I guess not.
“So, am I to understand that if I don’t keep this secret, you’ll kill me?”

“No.”

A zephyr of hope whirled inside me, stirring a second wind to run on.

“If you tell,” he continued, “I’ll have to kill both of you.”

“What?” I shrieked, wiping the rain from my lashes. “You’d kill your own brother because of me?”

“He accepted responsibility when he told you about us.” He paused as if that made perfect sense. “Look, just think about it this way. If you let our secret slip, it’ll become a problem bigger than just the three of us. You’d be endangering everyone in my family that carries the bloodline. Who even knows how many that is? The government and media would intervene, chasing us down like lab rats. Sure, I’d get away easily enough, but Wallace? Not without going against his precious sainthood. I’d be doing him a favor.”

I swayed uneasily on my feet, running through scenarios that made a disturbing amount of sense. “B-But…”

“That’s assuming anyone believed you,” he said. “Best case scenario, they lock you up for medical evaluation.”

I shook my head, spraying the air with rogue droplets. “No, just…forget I asked.”

His lips twisted into a smirk. “Sure.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Half an hour later, Cole and I were locked in a shivering stalemate. Neither of us seemed to trust the other enough to walk away, so we waited together. Or at least, beside each other.

The rain drowned out Wallace’s groans, but his screams were still fresh in my mind. Over and over, he’d slammed his head against the bricks, tortured and delirious with pain. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he’d gone through—what he goes through
every night
.

I took a shaky step forward and paused, braced for Cole’s interception. When nothing happened, I glanced over my shoulder.

“Go ahead,” he muttered, jerking his chin toward the alley. “It’s over now.”

That was all the permission I needed. I sprinted headlong into the darkness, splashing through puddles until my legs gave out and I fell to my knees. “Wallace…” The icy water soaked into my jeans as I knelt before him, panting in the bitter air. “Hey, are you—”

“T-Told you…to go.” His sharp words were muffled as he ground his face against the slick, broken pavement, heaving his shoulders. “Go!”

“No!” The refusal was a reflex, a childish sob that caught in my throat. I lowered my voice and tried to sound calm. “Do you need anything?”

He looked up, eyes radiating a startling blue as he pushed himself into a sitting position. Slow breaths worked through his chest as he studied me, rubbing at his eye. “No.” His brows drew together, and he wiped at his nose with the back of his sleeve. “Thanks.”

Something tightened around my arm in response, like a phantom blood pressure cuff that’d been placed too high.
Shit.
Was twenty one too young to have a heart attack?

Before I could consider it, frustration poured to the forefront of my mind. Gratitude followed right after, warring with humiliation. I wanted refuge. I wanted peace. I wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

Wait.

My eyes grew wide as I watched him, recognizing the familiar, but foreign surge of emotion. “Can you project your feelings at someone?”

“No,” he replied in a flat, lifeless voice as he tried to catch his breath. Resignation weighted his posture as he sat there, no longer adamant about pushing me away.

And just like that, the pressure stopped.

Well, there went that idea.
“Do you want me to drive you back?”

“No, I’m fine.” He scrubbed a hand down his face, and I caught a glimpse of something dark twisting down around his eye. “Give me a minute.”

“Take as long as you need,” I said, fighting the urge to pull him into a hug. The situation was uncomfortable enough, without my ovaries kicking in.

A few minutes passed before he pushed himself to his feet with a heavy sigh. “Let’s just go.”

A bone-chilling gust swept past as I got up. If his sweatshirt were anything more than a wet blanket at this point, I would’ve given it back. It wasn’t, so I pulled it close.

“Cole,” he called, walking toward the sidewalk. “We’ll finish this elsewhere.” He cast a quick glance in my direction and added, “Somewhere warm.”

Cole pushed off of the wall and nodded. “Let’s just go home. It’s close enough, and you can’t take her back like that, anyway.”

He gestured toward me, and I felt my lip protrude in offense.

Sure, my neck was bandaged, my wrists were cut, and I was probably going to die of hypothermia, but that didn’t mean I was a complete wreck.
AssCole.

“Fine.” Wallace reached into his sweatshirt pocket without looking, his fingers brushing my pelvic bone as he fished the keys out. “We’ll follow you.”

“Hey, I’m not a hostage anymore.” I frowned. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

“No,” both men answered in unison.

Twins.

Thankfully, the trip wasn’t long, and I got to ride with Wallace. Within fifteen minutes, we were home—wherever
home
was.

“Wait. What about my car?” I asked as we got out in front of a cozy, white one-story.

Cole had already caught up with us, despite having parked a ways down the street. “I’ll take care of it.”

“What does that mean?” I lifted my brows. “We can’t just leave it there.”

He rolled his eyes and pulled a phone out of his pocket. The same one he’d used to taunt his brother hours before. “I’ll have him bring it over in the morning. No big deal.”

“In the morning?” I repeated, my voice lifting into a shrill whisper. “You mean we have to stay here?” Wallace had said on the way over that we were stopping at his grandma’s to discuss things, but he never said anything about spending the night.

“What happened to your car?” Wallace cut in, eyeing me as we walked up the porch steps.

“Tire blew out. Your brother came to change it, and then he led me to his friend’s garage—you know, the scene of the crime.” I glanced back at Cole, who had lagged behind to make a call. “Now I have to buy a new tire.”

The porch light flicked on.

“I said I’ll take care of it,” Cole snapped and shook his head, pressing the phone to one ear. “I’ll get the tire.”

“
Oh.” That was oddly generous, given his track record for the night. “Thanks.”

He nodded and looked down, plugging his other ear. “Hey, Jeremy. Can you bring that Sentra over to Grandma’s in the morning?” He blinked a few times and waited. “Yeah, I’ll get you the money Tuesday night at poker.” There was a pause as he listened. “Okay. Later.”

I watched him tuck the phone away. “How does he know where your grandmother lives?”

“He lives down the street,” he explained. “The three of us went to school together.”

“Oh.”

The door creaked open before anyone could knock, and an elderly woman pushed the screen open. “Boys! I thought I heard someone out here.”

Oh shit.
I hadn’t prepared for this part. Meeting a friend’s grandmother was awkward enough, without showing up on her doorstep in the middle of the night. I ducked my head down, pretending to study the green outdoor carpet.

“And who’s this pretty girl?” she asked. “Does someone have something to tell me?”

Wallace caught the door, and I felt my cheeks grow warm. “She’s my friend, Grandma. I actually have a favor to ask you, if that’s all right.”