Page 23 of Endurance
With a clenched jaw, his gaze flicked from me to the two vehicles disappearing in the distance. His hand at my shoulder fisted my shirt before his head turned downcast and he squeezed his eyes shut.
“They won’t catch them,” I gritted what we were both thinking. Dean and Asher were chasing after them, but the van had a distinct lead. We needed to do something. We needed to get her back. “Jameson.” I sounded desperate and panicked but I didn’t fucking care.
“I know,” he snapped, his eyes shooting open to glare down at me. His regret was easy to see.
I stopped fighting to sit up and rested my head on the asphalt. I regretted him saving me too. “You should have kept going for her instead of protecting me.”
His glare lessened. “If I had, I’d be bleeding out or dead on the ground a few feet away.” He clenched his jaw again. “I just don’t want her to think I didn’t choose her.”
I knew he wasn’t talking about dying recklessly trying to save her. Maura had asked us to fight for her—to prove to her that she was enough.
I grabbed his arm. “They’re going to torture her.”
He nodded slightly.
A growl overtook my voice as I said, “They’re going to rape her.”
He put more pressure on my wound. It hurt like hell but that was alright. I could take it.
“Once they see that they’ve broken her, then they’ll kill her,” I said as evenly as I could.
“She’s too stubborn to give them the satisfaction.” His tone was confident, and he was right. Our girl was indeed stubborn. As much as it pissed me off, right now, I was glad.
“Besides, she already thinks she’s broken.” He shook his head, more apparent regret furrowing his brow. “So she’ll fight them like she has nothing left to lose.”
My strength was fading fast, and the cold had long since seeped in. I didn’t have much time left.
Unable to hold onto him any longer, my hand fell from his arm. “You have to prove it to her, Jameson.” He gave me a puzzled look. I took in a shallow and shaky breath before continuing. “That she’s enough. Don’t just say she is but show her. She won’t believe you otherwise.”
Understanding, he frowned. “Don’t talk like you aren’t going to be right there with me proving it to her.”
The next breath was even shallower than the last. “Promise me?”
His lips moved but I couldn’t hear him. Then my vision turned blurry before everything faded to nothing.
“Are you going to tell us what happened?” Detective Cameron asked from where he sat across the metal table. I had already given my statement to him at the hospital but apparently a hospital staff member claimed that I was the one who had started the shooting. I was calling bullshit.
As soon as Cameron and his little sidekick, Brooks, had slapped cuffs on my wrists, I'd lawyered up and shut my fucking mouth. It had been hours since they'd brought me to this dim interrogation room. They had tried many tactics to get me to talk. Threatened me, played out the good cop bad cop ruse. When none of it had worked, Cameron had gotten more and more frustrated. If they truly had any condemning evidence I would have been charged already.
Detective Cameron slammed his hands down on the table as he glared at me.
“Let’s take a break,” Detective Brooks said from where he was standing in the dark corner. Cameron reluctantly stood, and the two of them left.
They had never offered me my phone call. Not that I needed it. I knew Stefan would send Adam, the family’s lawyer, sooner or later.
What felt like a few more hours passed and it was getting harder to stay calm. Maura had been taken. The last time I had seen Louie, he'd been being wheeled into emergency surgery.
I was almost to the point of feeling like I’d explode from the inside out when the door ripped open and Cameron came in followed by Adam and Stefan. Relief washed over me, not that I showed it.
Cameron looked beyond pissed as he pulled out his keys and unlocked my cuffs. “Don’t leave town,” he grumbled as I stood. I had the urge to roll my eyes, but instead I remained unfazed and walked over to where Stefan was waiting by the door. I tried searching his face for any hint of whether Louie and Maura were okay. I found nothing. Stefan stepped back into the hall and I went to follow him.
“Before you go,” Cameron said, making the three of us pause. “Witnesses say that there was a red headed woman at the scene. By chance were they talking about Miss Quinn?”
“My daughter is in Ireland visiting family. Has been for little over a month now,” Stefan responded.
Cameron narrowed his eyes. “I’ll have to verify that, and she needs to return my call.”
“I’ll be sure to tell her that the next time she calls,” Stefan informed him and walked away.