Page 29

29

SEAN

My head is spinning like I’m on the merry-go-round in Central Park as I look around, searching for Ellie even though I know she isn’t here.

As I struggle to sit up and do another visual search of the room—a room with nowhere to hide—Aiden groans from beside me.

I shuffle to sit closer to him. “Do you know where Ellie is?”

Aiden shakes his head. “No.”

The grip fear has on my chest tightens, fingers digging into my lungs and forcing me to take shallow breaths.

“Where the hell is she?” I snap, tone sharp and cutting as I look down at him. “I passed out. You should’ve been watching her.”

“Not awake either.” Aiden rolls onto his side, his body curling in on itself.

I take a deep breath, pushing to my feet as the door to the room opens and Noah steps inside. He looks between the two of us, satisfaction in his gaze.

“I had hoped you would be awake,” Noah says, closing the door and leaning back against it. “It’s been a long twenty hours waiting for you.”

“Where is Ellie?” The words come out raspy, my throat dry.

My blood boils, but when I take a step toward him, my head spins faster. “What the hell did you inject me with?”

“You don’t need to worry about that right now.” Noah crosses one leg over the other at the ankles, nodding to Aiden. “He’s not going to survive for much longer.”

I stumble forward, pushing through the fog in my head.

All I want to do right now is get my hands around his throat and squeeze until the life drains from his eyes.

He took Ellie.

He’s doing who knows what to her, and it’s my fault.

I passed out.

I wasn’t able to protect her.

With a deep breath, I stop in front of him, and Noah arches an eyebrow. He makes no move to stop me as I pull my hand back, closing it into a tight fist.

It feels like I’m moving through a vat of molasses the size of a football field as my fist swings forward.

Noah moves out of the way with ease. “Your medication should wear off soon. Just in time for Ellie to decide who is going to die. She’s been rather stubborn about the entire thing, but don’t worry, Jace is teaching her an important lesson.”

Everything around me is red as I shoot forward, slamming my shoulder into his chest and driving him hard back against the wall.

His hands push against my shoulders, and I stumble backward, tripping over my feet and colliding with the ground.

Noah cracks his knuckles and shakes out his hands. “That was a mistake.”

“Fuck you. You bring her back here right now.” I get back on my feet, some of the room slowing to a stop instead of spinning out of control.

“You’re not in a position to make demands.” Noah grabs me by the collar, spinning and slamming me into the wall. “If I were you, I would remember who is in control here.”

He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a frosted syringe, the clear liquid inside sloshing around as he flicks off the plastic needle cap.

The world goes black as he sinks the needle into the side of my neck, pushing the plunger down.

The world isn’t spinning when I wake up, but my arm is aching, and my mouth is drier than it’s ever been.

We’re back in one of the other cells, metals bars in front of me and a stone wall to the side.

Aiden is crumpled in the corner, a sheen of sweat covering his skin and glistening beneath the yellow-tinged lighting. He mumbles something but I can’t make out the words that he’s saying.

Where’s Ellie?

My heart rate speeds up, pulse pounding as I get up and walk over to the bars.

Pressing close to them, I look up and down the hall, trying to find her. She’s got to be here somewhere, but I don’t know where. She’s not in the cell across from me, and if she’s in the one beside me, she’s not making any noise.

She could be dead.

It would be my fault if she is. I haven’t been able to protect her, even though I promised myself and her that I would.

He said that she still had to make her decision, though.

There’s a chance she’s alive, and that chance is going to have to be good enough for now.

Aiden grunts and struggles to sit up, leaning back against the wall. “Sean.”

I walk over to him and crouch down, trying to ignore the way my body protests every single movement.

When we finally get out of here, I’m going to spend the next week sleeping.

“I’m sorry.” Aiden glances up at me but the look there is distant, like his eyes can’t quite focus on anything.

I snort, pretending like this is just another argument between the two of us. “We’ve fought before, Aiden. It’s fine.”

“No.” He coughs and hauls up the hem of his shirt to wipe some of the sweat from his forehead. “I’m sorry. I forced you to marry Ellie. Acted like an ass when you stepped up and acted like a husband. I’m sorry.”

“We’re good.” I clap him on the shoulder, but I can’t ignore the heat radiating through his shirt. It scorches my fingertips.

He’s running a fever and if it keeps burning through his body, I’m going to have a dead body for a best friend.

Aiden’s eyelashes flutter. “You’re good for her.”

“She’s good for me.” I smile, spine stiffening as a cough comes from the cell next to us. “Ellie?”

“Yeah?” she says, her voice soft and low. “Sean?”

I stride over to the wall and drop down to the bars, attempting to reach around the stone for her, but she’s not close to the bars.

Ellie lets out a small whimper. “I can’t get over there. I think I might have a broken leg.”

Rage floods through me as I pull back. “The bastard broke your leg?”

She laughs, sounding happy for the first time since we were abducted. “Yeah. I might have punched him hard in the balls and then scratched him pretty good. It’s a little hazy.”

“Only you would be laughing about that.” A small smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. “Have you been given anything for the pain?”

“Yeah. Think it was probably morphine. He injected me with something, and it stopped hurting as much, so I’m guessing that’s it.”

“Alright, well, we’re going to find a way to get out of this.”

I start running my hands over the stone, hoping that something is loose.

A loose stone that I could pry out would be a good weapon. Something that I could use to bash Noah’s head in.

Aiden coughs and curls in on himself again, falling to the side, head cracking against the cement.

Hurrying over to him, I check for a pulse. It’s there and it’s faint, but he’s alive for now.

I take a look at the rags wrapped tight around his cuts. They’re turning a dark crimson color, but there isn’t any fresh blood staining his skin.

There isn’t time to sit there and make sure Aiden comes back around, though. He would want me to focus on saving Ellie.

She’s the most important person to me.

I run my hands over the wall two more times, high and low, searching for a loose stone.

Finally, I skim over one and it wiggles a little in place. It’s not much, but as I sink my nails between the stone and the crumbling mortar, it starts to pull away.

Even though my fingernails tear and blood pools, I keep pulling until the stone is out.

It’s a good-sized one, nearly double the size of a baseball with a jagged edge.

With the stone out of the way, there’s a hole big enough to look through to Ellie’s cell.

She’s curled up in the corner, but her right leg is stretched out in front of her at an awkward angle. Eyelids dip down, her chin hovering close to her chest.

Ellie looks like she’s death warmed over, but when she lifts her head and looks back at me, I know that we have a fighting chance.

Footsteps echo down the hallway, and I stay close to the hole, the stone in one hand while I lean against the wall and block what I did.

There’s a low beep before a cell door opens.

Crouching down, I look through the hole and watch as Dad and Noah stride into her cell. Dad moves closer to her while Noah hovers toward the back, but Dad would be a fool to think that he’s the one in charge of the situation.

Noah edges around Dad. “Time’s up, Ellie. Who’s going to die?”

Ellie glares up at them, the stubborn set to her jaw that I’ve grown to love over the last few months. “Kill me. Let them go.”

No.

I keep my mouth shut even though I want to scream at her. She isn’t seeing the bigger picture here.

Aiden and I both want her to live.

In the grand scheme of things, she’s the innocent one in this entire mess. She should be the one who gets to walk out of here and live the rest of her life, but instead, she’s telling them to kill her.

Noah laughs and crouches down in front of her, his back to me. “That’s not how this is going to work. You’re going to tell me who I’m killing, and then I’ll call Royce to come get you.”

“Kill. Me.” Ellie glowers at him like he’s the scum of the earth before that gaze turns on Dad. She spits at his feet, smirking when his face glows the same shade of red as a traffic light.

Dad lunges forward, his hand colliding with the side of her face that’s taken most of a beating today.

He’s a dead man.

Ellie laughs and shakes her head. “Is that the best you have? You’re losing your touch in your old age.”

Dad raises his hand again. “You little bitch. It’s a wonder that your father never taught you to keep your fucking mouth shut.”

When he slaps her again, her head snaps hard to the side, blood pooling at the corner of her mouth. She spits it back at his feet, though tears shine in her eyes.

Dad shakes his head and looks at Noah. “You deal with her. She’s nothing but a problem.”

He’s already punched her in the face and now he’s slapped her.

I was going to kill him before, but now it’s cemented.

The first chance I have to get my hands on him, I’m going to kill him.

Noah sighs and stands up. “If you don’t choose, everyone is going to die.”

“No!” Ellie’s voice breaks, a sob tearing from her chest. “I told you to kill me. My choice is me.”

Laughing and shaking his head, Dad paces away from her. “Good luck with this one. She’s nothing but trouble.”

Dad strides out of the cell and his footsteps grow louder. He stops for a moment before continuing down the hall, his breathing heavy.

I stand, blocking the hole in the wall and hiding the rock behind my back.

He appears at the bars, glancing in at me before keying the code into the pad by the door. “You know, if I were you, I would teach your wife how to behave.”

Blood boiling, I take a step forward, still keeping the stone behind by my back. “You better watch what you say about her.”

Dad shakes his head, stepping into the cell as Noah appears in the hallway. Noah glances at the hand I hold behind my back, but he keeps his lips pressed shut, amusement in his gaze.

The second Dad gets within swinging distance, I slam the stone into the side of his head. He stumbles, his body colliding with the wall.

Adrenaline and rage course through me, fueling me forward before he even has a chance to consider defending himself.

I’m on him again, barely seeing the man in front of me as his blood coats my hands and the stone, the sound of bone crunching filling the cell.

When he finally slumps to the ground, the side of his head bashed in, I drop the rock.

My chest is heaving, and my stomach tosses and turns, but there isn’t a shred of regret in me.

He had what was coming to him and now he can’t hurt Ellie again.

Noah’s clapping is slow as he walks into the cell and looks at Dad’s body on the ground. “Well, I do have to thank you for taking care of that problem for me, but you’re still going to die.”

“As long as she lives, I don’t give a shit.” I stand in front of him, but my entire body feels numb.

He draws a gun from his waistband, pointing it at me. “Your little wife is going to die too. After I’ve killed her family.”

Jace appears with Ellie in hand. She hops on one foot, falling forward and screaming when she collides with the ground.

She rolls onto her back, tears streaming down her face as she looks at me. “Kill me, you bastard!”

Noah flicks off the safety, leveling the gun with my forehead. “I told you the conditions, Ellie, and you chose to throw my kindness back in my face.”

Before his finger wraps around the trigger, shots echo from upstairs. Jace pulls his gun, standing in the doorway and facing the hall.

Noah hurries to Jace’s side, looking into the hall.

I drop to Ellie’s side while Noah’s distracted, but she shakes her head.

Ignoring her, I cradle her face in my hands. “How hurt are you?”

“Not going to be able to walk.” She gives me a wry smile, but it gives way to pain.

That’s when I know that she’s more injured than she’s letting on.

Right now, I can’t worry about how much she’s hiding from me. Not when I have to get us out of here and get her to a hospital as soon as possible.

With whatever is going on upstairs, this might be the only chance I have to save her.

I cast a glance over my shoulder at Aiden.

I might not be able to save them both.

Ellie has to be the priority. Aiden would kill me if he knew I had the chance to get her out of here, but I took him instead.

It would be the fight we would never recover from.

More men rush by the cell and up the stairs, their boots thudding as the shouting grows louder. Royce’s voice echoes above them all, screaming for everyone to find his family.

It looks like the guard Ellie spoke to was able to get help.

Now all we have to do is try and get out of here alive.