He roared and howled and fought, despite the alpha trying to keep him still. He had to find her. He had to. His life was over if he didn’t.
Chapter 32
Percy
My head ached abominably. Like someone drove a stake through my temple, and it throbbed in time with my heartbeat. At least my heart still beat, though. Everything else was cold and wobbly, blurring in and out of focus as I forced my eyes open. I didn’t recognize my surroundings right away. The last thing I remembered was a man from the car putting a cloth over my mouth, then everything went dark. And then I woke up in a chair, freezing my ass off, wearing almost nothing.
The stainless steel and tile floor gave it away eventually, after I managed to keep my breathing just on the right side of hyperventilating. And when I recognized the location and the fact that I was tied to a chair, panic spiraled up and I started to black out again. It was the kitchen at the animal sanctuary. The same place where they’d already chopped up a couple of bodies and got rid of the evidence.
My breath wheezed as I struggled to stay conscious despite the terror that gripped me. I wanted to scream but knew it would send me to pieces. I wrenched at the ties binding my hands and ankles to the chair, but they were those plastic zip ties that even scissors had difficulty getting through. I only succeeded in cutting into my skin and sending dribbles of warm blood down my wrist.
No one else was there. Although being alone just made my heart pound faster against my ribs, as if it, too, wanted to escape. I tried to focus, fighting through the fog of panic and nausea. They took me out of my apartment, after they... after they shot Dodge. I squeezed my eyes shut against a surge of tears. They tracked down my cheeks in scalding trails. He was gone. He couldn’t have survived that, no matter what kind of luck he had. The echo of the gun’s recoil ran through my mind again and again –bang bang bang. Over and over.
I couldn’t give up. I knew he wouldn’t have wanted me to. He’d want me to fight, to at least try to make it out. Someone must have heard the gunshots, one of the neighbors must have called the police. Someone would find Dodge and... My mind recoiled from the thought as images of police and investigators and a body bag surged to the surface. I squeezed my eyes shut again and tried to breathe in and out, in and out. O’Brien would realize, maybe. Or someone would come looking for Dodge. There had been a few of his pack-mates outside the building. They must have seen something.
If the bad guys hadn’t killed them, too. A low keening noise escaped between my clenched teeth. Had I gotten four men killed? Had my stupid curiosity and inability to just walk away led to their deaths? I tried to rock back and forth, desperate to move or escape or do anything so I didn’t have to face the reality staring me in the face. I couldn’t stop crying. I cried so hard, whispering Dodge’s name over and over, that I missed the sound of a door closing. And the tap-tap of boots on the tile.
But I couldn’t avoid seeing Geordie and another man as they stood in front of me. Geordie grinned with a cruelty I’d never seen up close, and folded his arms over his chest as he studied me. “Told you to mind your own business, bitch.”
I coughed and choked, wanting to curse him but not wanting to anger him more. “Let me go. Just let me go.”
He laughed and elbowed the man next to him, like I’d made a great joke. The stranger went to one of the tables to my right. “Tell us what you saw. And who you’ve told.”
“I didn’t see anything, I promise. And I wouldn’t –“
“Don’t lie.” The stranger, with black eyes as flat as a beetle’s shell, picked up what looked like a very small hammer, and held it up for me to see. “It’s better if you tell the truth, girl. You’ll tell the truth eventually. Everyone always does.”
A knot tied up my throat and made it even more difficult to breathe. I couldn’t look away from the hammer as the man advanced a step. “What is – what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to hurt you,” he said, his tone oddly gentle. Almost like he regretted it, although the hint of a smile curling his mouth told a different story.
All of my insides shivered and shook, and I pulled at my restrained limbs once more as he got another step closer. Geordie leaned back against one of the fridges to watch.
The black-eyed man tapped the hammer softly against my knee. “Should I break your knee first? Go through your fingers and toes until you crack? You have so many bones I can break, dear. Just talk.”
I clamped my lips shut against a scream. I’d never been brave, not the kind of brave that would have helped me stand up to men like that. Being tied to a chair without much in the way of clothes didn’t help inspire confidence. I shook my head and gulped for air. “I didn’t see anything. I don’t know why you’re doing this.”
“Why do I not believe you?” Geordie added from the other side of the room. He stood well back. Maybe he didn’t want to get his hands dirty. “Tell me, Percy, why the fuck should I believe you when I have goddamnvideothat shows me you were creeping around that night?”
I swallowed hard and whispered, “I don’t know. I didn’t see anything. I saw the new cars in the parking lot and you said you had a meeting so I left. I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Bullshit. You would have loved to fuck up my plans,” he shot back. His expression turned ugly. “Uppity bitch, acting like you’re better than everyone.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. Tears started anew and slid down my cheeks and dripped onto my chest and thighs. I hiccupped and choked on each word as I forced it out, not above begging. “I don’t care about any of this. I’ll leave. I’ll leave the city. You’ll never see me again.”
“Too late for that,” the black-eyed man said. He put the hammer down just long enough to put on latex gloves, then carefully selected one of the fingers on my right hand, holding it out flat.
I tried to curl it down, tried to keep him from holding on, and screamed. I screamed and wrenched against the ties, panicking even more as the hammer flashed and asnapof pain shot up my arm.
Geordie looked annoyed. “Stop making so much noise unless you’re going to talk. You already got your boyfriend killed. Who else do we have to get rid of to make sure you learn a lesson?”
“No one. I told no one.” I sobbed for breath, trying not to move my hand. I shook my head. “Please. I can’t...”
The black-eyed man lifted the hammer again. “What did you see?”
I screamed again, begged for them to stop, for help, for a reprieve, but it didn’t matter. The hammer flashed again and again, and it didn’t matter what I said or how fast I talked.
Chapter 33
