by Dark, Raven
“Fuck.” I looked pointlessly up at the hatch. At least the thought of Setora with that fuck fueled my blood, making it run hot and momentarily driving away the cold.
Damien had hit her. I hadn’t seen it, but I’d heard the thwack of a fist against bone, heard her scream in pain and hit the floor. The thought made my fists clench. When I got my hands on him, there’d be no more fucking around. No more sword fights. I was going to end him once and for all.
I shut the thought of Setora out and focused on the task at hand. Finding a way out of here before…
Steel roared in rage and threw himself at the door with a thud. It had to be the third time he’d done that.
“Steel, stop.” Water sloshed and Doc took his shoulder. “I already told you, it won’t do any good. You want to add a broken shoulder, too?”
“I’m not going to just sit here freezing my ass off while he’s up there with her.” Steel shook Doc off and slammed himself into the door again.
It still didn’t open.
“Steel,” I growled. “Knock it off.”
Steel put his head back and slumped against the door. He didn’t even bother to shoe Doc away when Doc took his hand and checked over his splint to make sure it was still secure. “Sheriff, where the hell are Hawk and Pretty Boy? They should have come in minutes after we did.”
“I know.” I scanned the room for the hundredth time. “They must have gotten held up. If they’re smart, they’re far away from here by now. Doc, help me go over this room. There has to be an opening somewhere.” I felt along one of the walls.
“Sheriff, there isn’t. We’ve already gone over it twice. And Hawk and Pretty Boy wouldn’t have left us, or Setora. They’d die first.”
His reasonable tone irked me. Not looking for a way out, however pointless it was at this stage, felt too much like giving up. And it pissed me off that, no matter how far gone the plan was, Doc was right, Hawk wouldn’t have left. Neither would Pretty Boy.
“Well, I’m not going to stand here with my thumb up my ass.” I felt along another wall.
Doc sighed and ran his hands along another, knocking on different areas, looking for a hollow spot. “Moving around will keep us warmer anyway. Steel, come on, make yourself useful.”
Steel turned and felt slowly along the edges of the door.
After several minutes, when we still didn’t find a way out, I dropped my shoulders. “Unless someone opens that damn hatch, we’re not getting out of here.”
Doc climbed up on one rock and looked up at the hatch, but it wasn’t any lower than the last time he’d tried that. I saw his breath plume on a sigh before he climbed back into the water.
I scrubbed my face with my palms and looked up. “Wait.” I looked around at the others and then back up at the hatch. “There’s enough of us here. Steel, if we stand on each other’s shoulders, do you think you can get that hatch open?”
Steel pushed to his feet. “I’ll give it a shot.”
I stood right under the hatch and cupped my hands in front of me. “Doc, get a move on.”
“Not so fast, you two.” Steel put his hand on Doc’s shoulder, stopping him when he came over to join Steel and me. “I’m the strongest one here, I should be on the bottom.”
“You can’t.” I nodded up toward the ceiling. “That door is made of solid steel. If one of us can open it, it’ll be you, Steel. Doc?” I put my hands together in front of me again.
Steel sighed but stepped back to give Doc room.
Doc stepped on my hands and climbed onto my shoulders. Then he waited for Steel to climb carefully onto his. “Be careful of your fingers, Steel. You don’t want to aggravate the injury.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Steel muttered, making his way up. “Such a mother hen.”
When Steel was in position, the tower on my shoulders wobbled and I barely kept on my feet. It felt like my shoulders were going to snap. I hissed at the weight pressing down on me, forcing myself not to move and shake Doc and Steel’s balance.
“Fuck, Steel, why do you have to be so heavy? You weigh a ton,” Doc gritted out.
“Fuck you, Doc,” Steel grunted. I heard a hammering; Steel’s fist on the hatch. There was a rattling, a roar of anger, and then a slam.
My knees buckled, and I nearly dropped my men. I puffed. “I’m beginning…to think….this….was a…bad…idea…”
“Steel, get down before we kill the General.” Doc.
“No…let me….” Steel slammed at the hatch. “Fuck.”
“Steel,” Doc warned.
Steel cursed and jumped down with a splash. Doc climbed down.
“Sorry, General,” Steel puffed. “Either the door is too thick, or the lock on the other side is too hard to break.”
“It’s fine. You tried.” I rubbed my shoulders out and rotated them.
“You okay, General?” Doc asked.
“I’m good. Just remind me never to join the damn circus.”
Steel waded across the room and slumped into the water against the door.
Long minutes passed. We went over every conceivable plan, only to dismiss them. Silence descended between us.
“Doc,” I whispered at last. “How long until…. With the water this cold… How long?”
“You want the truth, or a nice lie?”
My stomach clenched. “That bad, huh?”
“Get up on one of those rocks. Steel, you get on the other. If you stay out of the water, it’ll buy more time.”
“What about you?” I nodded to the rocks. “You and Steel take them.”
When neither of them moved, I waded over to one wall and leaned against it, trying to keep my teeth from chattering.
“Steel.” Doc nodded to one rock.
“Doc,” Steel deadpanned, remaining by the door. “General, take one, Doc, you take the other.”
I put myself toe to toe with Doc. “Take a rock. Now.” I put my face right in his. “I’m bigger than you and stronger than you. Don’t think I won’t knock you out and put you there. Steel, you too.”
Steel gave me a weak smile. “You’re gonna knock me out, General? Let’s see you try.”
I let out a long growl and put my head against the cold wall. “Fat lot of good it does us arguing over who’s sitting on those rocks.”
“It’s a brilliant set up, you know,” Doc said with a wry sort of thoughtfulness.
I lifted my head. “What are you babbling about?”
“Oh, it’s just… psychologically speaking, Damien set this up well.” He fixed me with a solemn gaze. “Two rocks, three men.”
Staring at the rocks, I knew what he was saying. The two stones were exactly large enough for the average man to sit comfortably, but not enough for two to occupy the same one. In prisons where this same tactic was sometimes used with three prisoners, normally they’d fight each other for spots, possibly killing each other to stay out of the water, thus doing the warden’s job for him. It reminded me of a torture technique I’d seen men like Damien use before, sending three men into a boiling hot desert with one canteen of water. That kind of situation turned the most loyal men into wild animals, ready to kill his own brothers to survive.
“We won’t give him what he wants, Doc.” I nodded to the rocks. “Steel, Doc, take your seats.”
The hatch cracked open with a whine. Light from the room above flooded in.
All of us started toward it, but before we could even come up with a way up to it, a body fell in.
Blade yelled and hit the water with a splash. He leaped to his feet. “You sons of bitches, if you think this’ll get me talking, you’ve got another thing coming!”
“Shut your hole, pirate.”
The hatch slammed shut.
“Fuckers.” Blade shook himself, running his hands through his waterlogged mop and shivering in the cold. “Well, that was bracing.” Then his eyes took notice of me. They widened in the half-light. “General?” He glanced at Steel and Doc. “How long have you guys been here?”
<
br /> “Long enough to feel like my nuts are gonna fall off,” Steel said.
I sloshed over to Blade. “Blade, where are Hawk and Pretty Boy?”
According to the plan, Blade was supposed to have been with them, the three of them meant to storm in after ten minutes, when Damien should have been neutralized.
Blade shook his head. “General, fuck, I’m sorry man. A couple of guards nearly caught us. They must have heard us, but not realized how many of us there were, because they were shouting ‘Show yourself,’ as if there was only one of us there.”
“What happened?”
“I pushed Hawk and Pretty Boy into a dumpster chute before the guards found me. They think I was alone there. That the other two were somewhere else, because they were still looking for more Legion men all over the mansion when they threw me in here.”
Aware of the sacrifice he’d made, I sighed and clapped him on the shoulder. He’d let himself get caught to save Hawk and Pretty Boy and give them time.
“Brilliant,” Steel grumbled. “You should have run, dickhead. Now there’s four men and two rocks.”
I would have given Steel a piece of my mind, but I knew he was just pissed because Blade was stuck here with us.
Blade must have realized the same thing, because after he noticed the rocks, he just gave a resigned shrug. “General, I’m guessing you three have already tried to find a way out?”
“Yeah. There isn’t one.”
“For now, it seems he’s right,” Doc said.
“So, what now?” Blade glanced at all of us.
“Now, we stay alive until someone opens that hatch.” Doc looked pointedly at the rocks, then at me.
“Good plan,” Blade muttered, clearly at a loss for a better one.
“This changes nothing,” Steel snapped. “General, Blade, sit yourselves down. Doc can sit in Blade’s lap.”
Doc gave Steel a pissed off look but nodded for me and Blade to take the rocks.
“I said no.” I crossed my arms. “Figure it out between the three of you, but you’re all taking them.”
“It’s too bad Damien didn’t throw Setora in here with us,” Blade said.
“Excuse me?” I retorted.
“I don’t want her in this freezing shit either, General, but from what I heard about her super strength, she could have got that hatch open.”
“I doubt it.” Steel shook his head at the ceiling. “I felt that strength. It’s more than me, but I doubt it’s enough to open that hatch.”
“And Setora doesn’t have super strength,” I said, feeling the absurd need to make the distinction. “She only gets it when Julian takes over.”
Doc and Steel snickered.
“My mistake, General.” Blade’s eyes gleamed knowingly.
“All right, enough fucking around.” I gestured to the rocks sitting behind me. “All three of you, up on those things now.”
“There’s only room for two.” Steel shoved Blade at one. “General, take the other.”
“When pigs fly.” I pushed Steel and Doc at one of the stones.
“Sheriff.” Doc put his hand on my shoulder. When I met his gaze, he said solemnly, “Ten minutes.”
I shook my head, hating the fogginess there. “What?”
“Ten minutes.” He glanced at Steel and Blade, then back at me. “Look at the walls, Sheriff. There’s frost on them.” He gestured to the steel walls where white frost was beginning to crystallize. “Damien must have rigged this room with some sort of thermostat to lower the temperature in here. My guess, this water is just above freezing. All our screwing around with that hatch created heat and would delay things a bit, but not by much. I give you ten minutes, and hypothermia will set in. A few minutes after that, and your bodies will start to shut down. You’ll pass out—”
I looked away, shutting him out.
“Sheriff, listen to me.”
“Take a seat, Doc.”
“No!” Doc snapped. So rarely did the club’s doctor get angry—and never with me—that it caught my attention instantly.
When he spoke again, his voice was a doctor’s tone, level and reasonable, impossible to ignore. “If you pass out, it’ll be two minutes before you die. It’s over. You’re the General. If only one of us makes it out, it has to be you.”
“That’s right, Doc, I am the General. The three of you can make it work, even if you have to lie on top of each other. When you get out of here, Doc, if anyone gets hurt, they’ll need you.”
Doc closed his eyes and his shoulders drooped in defeat. He sloshed over to one of the two rocks, but not without glaring at me. “You are the most stubborn man I’ve ever met, you know. It’s a wonder Setora puts up with you.”
Except his tone lacked force, and I swore I saw amusement in his eyes before he climbed up on the rock and squatted there.
I grunted a laugh and put my head back. “Steel, take the other one.”
Steel didn’t move. “Blade.”
Blade shook his head and looked at me, waiting.
“Steel, Blade, get the fuck up here,” Doc drawled when I didn’t move, patting the other rock. “If you die, I’m not carting your heavy ass back to the camp, Steel. Blade, snuggle up with him.”
Steel sighed and waded over to the second boulder. “General, you had to bring a fucking doctor with us, didn’t you?”
All of us gave strained laughs.
Steel pulled himself up onto the rock, doing so with surprising ease since he had to do it mostly with one hand. He sat and folded his legs on the rock. Then he reached over and tried to grab Blade, but the red-haired man twisted free.
“General,” Blade prompted.
Steel flopped back on the rock. “I guess no one wants to snuggle with me, Doc.” He descended into peals of laughter.
“Blade,” Doc said. “Sitting on one of these will keep you from losing some of your body heat. Choose. Me or Steel.”
Blade looked at me. When I didn’t move, he rumbled in irritation and waded over. Doc pulled him up first, then gave a violent shiver. “Fuck, you’re like ice.”
The two of them struggled to get comfortable.
“Just pretend he’s Diamond, Doc.” I cackled.
“Aww, fuck.” Doc’s shoulders shook. “Asshole.”
I laughed harder.
Again, minutes passed. No one came to open the hatch. Leaning against the wall, I clenched my teeth to keep them from chattering, refusing to let my men see how cold I was.
Doc looked up at the hatch. His face was frighteningly pale, his voice hushed. “Hawk and Pretty Boy must have got caught. Otherwise, they’d have found a way in here.”
Steel closed his eyes. He swayed on his perch, then shook his head violently.
Doc reached over and put his hand on Steel’s shoulder. “Steel?”
I started toward him. Dizziness made my head swim, but I pushed it back. “Steel.”
Steel shook himself again. “I’m good.” His words ran together.
Sitting awkwardly between Doc’s legs, both of them barely fitting on the rock’s surface, it was Blade’s turn to stare up at the hatch. “Guys,” he muttered between chattering teeth. “We’re gonna die in this fucking tomb.”
“No, we’re not.” Doc rubbed his eyes.
“What makes you so sure?” Steel’s words sounded like they were coming down a long tunnel.
Fuck I was tired. Bone tired, as if I’d been running for hours. My arms and legs felt like they had lead weights on them.
“That’s too easy,” Doc said. “There’s no pleasure for Damien in letting us freeze to death. He’d want something long and drawn out. Something he can see. Something Setora can watch.”
If Doc believed what he’d just said, I had to wonder why he’d gone through that whole hypothermia bullshit with me earlier.
Son of a bitch, I needed sleep. Fucking Grim and his sex dreams keeping me up.
“So he’s going to torture us to death,” Blade muttered. “I feel so much better,
Doc.”
Doc gave a helpless shrug.
Steel swayed again. This time he almost toppled off the rock.
“Steel.” I rushed over to him, grabbing his arm and holding him up.
“Steel, stay the fuck awake,” Doc ordered.
“Huh?” Steel looked at us both foggily.
“Don’t sleep, Brother.” Doc rubbed his back hard. “If you do, you might not wake up again.”
“I’m not sleepin’, Doc. Take it easy.”
I swayed and covered it by jostling him. My teeth rattled. As soon as he stopped looking like he was going to roll into the water, I let go of Steel.
The wave of fatigue hit me hard. I must have swayed again, because Doc jumped into the water and hurried toward me.
The room tilted, there was a distant splash, and then my whole body felt as if I’d been thrown into a lake in winter.
“General!” Doc’s voice sounded far away. He was pulling me up by my J’nai vest.
“Sleep,” I heard myself mutter. “Just for a minute let me rest…”
Someone pulled me against a cold chest. Arms that were so big they could only be Steel’s closed around me, tightening when I tried to push him off. Water flowed around me, making me even colder as he pulled me backward.
“Get off, Steel. Get…out. Stay warm.”
“Get him up here, Steel.” Doc’s voice was urgent.
I felt my body being lifted like a damn woman in the arms of her lover. I pushed at Steel, but it was like shoving at a wall of solid iron.
Hard, cold stone, but not as cold as the water, settled under me. My jaws wouldn’t stop gnashing. The rock wasn’t even big enough for me; my head dropped over the side.
“I don’t need this. You boys do.” My words were slurring. I tried to roll off.
“General, stay there!” Blade shouted.
Doc held me still and thumbed open my eyes. “Fuck. General, don’t sleep. Open your eyes.”
I blinked, forcing back the fatigue that had nearly swallowed me whole.
“Good. Stay with us, General. Setora needs you.”
Setora. I wouldn’t give up on her. “I’m here,” I murmured. “I’m here.”
I wanted to get off this damn rock and put Steel and Doc both back where they should be, but I couldn’t make my limbs move. Four hands rubbed at my arms and chest, my legs, trying desperately to bring heat back. Water sloshed, and I heard Doc order Blade to remain on his stone perch.
