Page 137 of The Outsider
“I was only checking on the Vessel,” Holly answered, her voice shockingly calm. “Doxtator said that she was showing signs of waking. He was right, so I wanted to be sure she couldn’t escape.”
Jim J scanned her face for a moment, and I held my breath.
“Fine,” he replied tersely. “Just get out.”
Holly nodded and left without looking back at me. I didn’t know if I could trust her to help me, even if she reallyhadhad a change of heart. It could be a trap.
Jim J turned to me, and his sadistic smile returned. “You’ll soon be ready for my family to join us. Just one more step; we’ll have to get you out of those clothes.”
He turned to pick up a knife from the cart he’d brought in, and a surge of panic flooded my system. Before he could turn around, I sprang up off the table, my knees wobbling dangerously. I tackled him, fastening my legs around his torso as I jumped on his back. I had no weapons, no plan, and absolutely no chance, but I didn’t care. The only thought in my head was that I wasn’t going to lie down and surrender.
I pummeled his head with my fists, each blow harder than the last. This man had ruined my family and stolen my home and desecrated my father’s memory. If I was about to die, I’d make him sufferfor it.
Jim J let out a shout of surprise and grappled with me. I clung to him, clawing at his eyes, but he caught my wrist in a vicelike grip. With a growl, he flipped me over his head and tossed me like a ragdoll. I skidded along the hard stage floor for several feet, pain shooting through my body. Jim J turned to me, his face bloodied by my assault, his jaw hardened with sudden rage.
Chapter 40
John
The Red Zone was crawling with cultists. I was forced to move slowly, silently taking out lone men, but I had to hide anytime a group of them got too close. I searched as I went, but I turned up nothing to lead me to Claire. I ground my teeth in frustration.
I was looking for a needle in a nest of hornets. Every second I wasted was a second that my girl could be fighting for her life—without me. It was a special kind of torture.
I ducked into an alley, behind a dumpster, as two masked cultists turned a corner behind me.
As they passed, one said to the other, “The Vessel’s been recovered. Jim J’s prepping for the ritual now.”
“Bet she’ll bleed real pretty for Him.”
Shit.I took a deep breath against the panic rising inside my chest. The loss I’d been so afraid of was right there, about to sink its claws into me. But it wasn’t over yet. She was alive. For now.
As I watched them walk away, I debated killing one of them and torturing the other for Claire’s location. Not something I wanted, but I was fucking desperate. I’d die before I let them touch her.
Instead, I followed them. If Claire was captured, they’d probably go wherever she was. Just based on the one time I’d seen Jim J, I got the feeling he was a guy who needed an audience to take a shit.
They led me down a bunch of side streets, then eventually to a main road that was obviously the place to be. Masked men and women were crowded in front of a large, dilapidated building. A faded sign above the door readCollege Theatre. Across the street, a massive, hollowed-out shell of a building stood—aCollege for Performing Arts, crumbling into dust like everything else around it.
The cultists were waiting for something, because there was a buzz of impatient chatter. A couple of guys shouted orders back and forth. They weren’t allowed inside yet. That gave me hope—the ritual hadn’t started.
Daylight was starting to fade, and I stayed hidden in shadowy alleyways as I made my way around the block. I needed to scope out other possible entry points.
I settled into an alley half a block away and looked through the scope of my rifle. The back exit of the building had only three guards. Even though it was better odds, I wasn’t sure how to take them out without alerting everyone. Stealth was the only way to get in there, but it might just be impossible.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement from the old college building across the street from the theatre. Looking through my scope, I realized that a woman, dressed in black and wearing an Order mask, was leaving the hollowed-out shell—on the side facing away from the theatre. The way she moved and kept looking over her shoulder said that she was trying to avoid the attention of the other cultists.
I frowned.Why?
I watched her for another minute. She came in my direction, weaving in and out of alcoves and alleyways, as if she was looking for something. As she got closer, a flash of golden hair caught the fading light.
If that’s Holly, I’m going to fucking kill her.
Even if it wasn’t, she may have info that could help me get in. I flattened my back against the brick wall, right at the mouth of the alley. I listened to her footsteps get closer. Right as she walked past, I grabbed her. My hand clapped over her mouth to smother her scream as I hauled her into the alley. I crushed her against the wall, face first, twisting her arm behind her back.
The ties on her mask sprang free on impact. The mask clattered to the ground, and I was again looking at the too-perfect face of my fiancée’s sister.
“Scream and I’ll wring your neck,” I growled.
Holly groaned in pain, but managed to get out, “I came to find you.”
