Page 25

Chapter 25

Cate

H e was right, of course. And while I didn’t appreciate his snarky attitude, something in his resigned tone hinted at knowledge from experience.

We could be here a while and conserving energy was a good idea. I leaned against the side wall, keeping my distance from Jaden, and slid down to a seated position. The cold from the cement seeped through my jeans in no time.

I closed my eyes and prayed for courage. Roman wanted revenge, which meant he’d make this as unpleasant as possible.

Choosing not to continue the argument, I said. “There’s no way we can break out. We’ll have to find a clever solution.”

“Obviously.”

I could hear him rolling his eyes. I took a deep breath in and held it, steadying my nerves and calming my irritation. We’d never get out of this if we couldn’t work together .

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t know.”

“Thank you.”

I opened my eyes, the strobe making me regret it, when Jaden landed on the floor with a thud, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

“So, any ideas?” he asked.

“Not yet.” We hadn’t even been here an hour. “You see any cameras?”

“No, but it’s safe to assume they’re watching,” Jaden said. “And listening.”

Which would make it hard for us to plan. I spoke fluent Spanish, and passable Arabic, but didn’t know if Jaden spoke any other languages. Besides, they’d be easy enough to translate. Speaking in code might work, but we didn’t have one and creating one on the fly would create confusion.

I nodded, which was stupid; his eyes were probably closed. “It’s safe to assume so.”

“How long do you think he’ll leave us here before-”

The strobes cut off and a horn blasted, startling us both, a second before the door opened. We stood, walked to the center of our cell, and faced the stairs, waiting. Three men stomped down; Roman and two men with rifles in their hands.

Jaden laughed.

“Knock it off!” I hissed. The last thing we needed to do was piss Roman off and make things worse for ourselves.

“We’re literally locked in a cage, and they’re still afraid of us.”

“Hardly, but I’m not taking any chances,” Roman said .

If he had armed goons every time he came down, we had no hope of surviving an escape attempt.

When Jaden walked towards the front of the cell, I followed.

“I’m giving you a one-time offer. Tell me everything you have on me and my nephew, and how I can find Ms. Davenport, and I’ll make your deaths relatively quick and painless,” Roman said.

Relatively quick and painless? I doubted either Jaden or I would think it was quick or painless.

I said, “We didn’t get very far.” At the same time Jaden said, “Go to hell.”

Roman wouldn’t get anything out of us.

“Suit yourselves.” Roman shrugged before making eye contact with Jaden, then me, and slowly turning his back.

The two guys with rifles followed him, walking backwards until the reached the staircase. Roman sauntered up the stairs like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Like he hadn’t just promised to kill us, slow and painful.

Unable to suppress the trembling in my hands, I clenched my fists.

He hadn’t actually said it, but his implication was loud and clear.

After the two guys left the basement, Roman called down, “You have no idea who you’re fucking with.”

I have a feeling we were about to find out.

The door slammed shut.

The lights cut out.

A piercing alarm split the silence, making me jump .

I covered my ears and turned to Jaden. This was his fault. I wanted to get Roman talking, buy us some time. But no. He had to piss him off.

“What the fuck was that?” I shouted over the incessant blaring of the alarm.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Jaden yelled, his hands covering his ears to dampen the sound.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I understood his sentiment, what I wanted to know was why he insisted on poking the bear.

I could barely stand hearing my alarm go off in the morning. This will drive me certifiably insane long before Roman kills me.

Which was why they did it; to torture us and break us down physically and mentally.

“We’re not telling him shit.”

“No, but there are better ways to handle the situation.”

“I got my point across.”

“You’re going to get us killed,” I yelled.

He pointed to the door. “That fucker torched my truck!”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” That’s what he’s worried about?

“As a heart attack!” Anger rolled off him in waves.

I took the bait. “That’s why you have insurance. You do have insurance don’t you?” I asked. Not that it would matter if we died here.

Will this fucking alarm ever stop?

“Of course I have insurance. I’m not a complete idiot. ”

“From where I’m standing you’re the idiot who wants to piss off the guy who gets to decide if we live or die.” My voice sounded hoarse from the strain. I should probably stop arguing .

“He plans on killing us no matter what we do. Or were you not paying attention?” His sarcasm thicker than molasses.

I returned his glare. “I was, but I’d rather not rush to the scaffold, if it’s all the same to you.”

“He has a plan; our actions are irrelevant,” Jaden shouted as he turned and walked to the back wall. He slid down to the floor and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands still blocking out the sound.

“Your actions will piss him off and we’ll die sooner because of it.”

“You think playing nice will save you?”

“No.” Maybe. Hopefully. “But it could buy us some time.” Time for SSI to find us and save us.

“Maybe, but we may not want to buy ourselves too much time.” Resignation replaced his sarcasm.

Once again, I had a feeling he was speaking from experience. I wanted to ask him about it, but discussing anything in a calm, rational manner was near impossible with the alarm blaring non-stop.

“So, what? You’re just giving up?” I pulled my hands away from my ears to put my hands on my hips and instantly regretted it. The alarm seemed loud with my ears plugged, but it was nothing compared to the eardrum-rupturing level when they weren’t .

The sliver of light coming from under the door was just enough for me see him shake his head back and forth. “I didn’t say that.”

Good. We’d need to work as a team if we had any chance of survival.

I went back to the side wall and sat. Plugging my ears as best I could and waited it out. It may have lasted minutes or hours, it was hard to tell.

When the alarm finally stopped, the silence sounded foreign.

Finally, I can hear myself think again.

“Thank God.” Jaden said, as he stood and stretched his neck.

Given how my mind raced with a thousand and one ways this could end, all of them badly, it wasn’t much of an improvement.

My brain had conjured up images of everything from Jaden and I slowly starving to death in the cell while being psychologically tortured, to being physically tortured, clinging desperately to life until our broken bodies gave up the fight.

There wasn’t a single scenario among them I wanted to experience.

“You okay?” Jaden asked.

I wasn’t. But Roman was probably watching, so I refused to admit it or show any sign of weakness.

“I’m okay. Pissed off, but okay. You?”

“Same. ”

We sat in dark silence, for who knows how long, as time lost all meaning. I’d just dozed off when the strobe lights came back on.

“What the fuck?” Jaden yelled, jumping to his feet and looking around like he’d forgotten where we were. He must have fallen asleep, too .

“You don’t happen to know how long we’ve been here, do you?” I asked, hoping he could judge time better than I could.

“No.” I was afraid he’d say that. “Fucking strobe and alarm. Audio and visual torture is designed to distort our perception of time and reality.” I didn’t call him out for telling me what I already knew, knowing it’d start another fight.

I doubted we’d been here more than a few hours, but it already felt like the longest day of my life.

My bladder complained so I asked Jaden to look away while I used the pail. It was humiliating having to empty my bladder with him nearby, but I didn’t have a choice. Thank God he can’t see me . The strobe fucked with my balance as I hovered.

“Thanks,” I muttered as I walked back to the wall. The snap shots of his head nodding would have been comical under different circumstances.

Luckily, it was easier blocking the light than the alarm, so I relaxed for a few minutes.

But it was too quiet, and I didn’t like being left alone with my fear-driven, morbid thoughts.

Will I ever see my father again? Will I see Charlie say I do in the fall?

Then my brain remembered all those romance books I’d read where two people think they’re going to die and decide to have sex before they do. Only to survive and regret it. At least at first, they almost always fall in love…

I looked at Jaden, his arms resting on his legs, his head resting on his ink-covered, corded forearms.

Not happening .

“Jaden?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you a question?” I wanted to know what he’d experienced.

“You just did.” His forced laugh echoed in the space. “Go for it.”

“Have you ever gone through something like this before?” I asked, intentionally keeping the question broad.

Silence filled the space as the light flashed off and on.

He lifted his head and answered, “Yes.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

Just one word, but it spoke volumes. As a Marine Raider it was safe to assume he’d seen a lot of shit, and even suffered through some shit.

“How long?”

Another long pause.

“Five days,” he said. “But it felt like a hell of a lot longer.” He rested his head against the back wall and hung an arm over his eyes to block out the light.

“Were you alone?” I should have let it go, but something in me needed to know.

If he survived it once, maybe he can do it again .

The pause was long enough that I didn’t think he’d answer. Figuring it was bringing up memories he didn’t want to revisit, I apologized.

“It’s okay.” He turned towards me in what I assume was an attempt to make eye contact. “To answer your question, no, I wasn’t alone. I was with my team buddy. It took the rest of our team five days to find us.”

I was still debating whether it’d be rude to ask what happened when he said, “I can practically hear you wondering if it’s okay to ask.” His laugh sounded hollow and sad. “It’s fine. They chained us to a wall in an unfinished basement that felt more like a fucking cave.” His voice was thick with emotion, “They released us for random beatings, but otherwise we shared five square feet of space to eat, shit, and sleep.”

I couldn’t begin to imagine how horrific that must have been. At least we weren’t chained up and had room to walk if we wanted to.

“Though we didn’t eat much. We didn’t dare to. On the plus, side it meant we didn’t shit much either.” He ran both hands through his hair. “The fucking lights and noise made it impossible to sleep.”

Five days, chained to a wall, with little to no food or water, subjected to psychological torture and random beatings. A cold chill swept over my body that had nothing to do with the temperature of the hard floor I sat on.

I squinted at Jaden, trying to read his expression. His voice sounded flat, but there was no way the experience hadn’t left a lasting impact .

He lifted his head off the wall and said, “We needed two months to recover enough for them to let us operate again, but we both made it back.”