Crooked shook his head slowly, his eyes never leaving mine. “We don’t want money. We aren’t playing around. We want what you took. Where is it? Where’s our map?”
Even if I wanted to tell them, I had no idea what they were talking about. “I have no idea—”
“No one ever believes us.” Crooked shook his head. “Chuck here, he likes hurting little girls.” He nodded toward Chuck. “Give her a little taste.”
Chuck pulled a knife from his ankle, and then Crooked was yanking my shoulders forward. The rope around my wrists was cut, along with a bit of my skin, and before both arms fell forward, Chuck had one arm in his hand and was twisting it upward at an angle it wasn’t supposed to move.
The air whooshed out of my lungs with a small squeak, and then I was panting as I was held leaning partially forward, trying to brace myself with my free arm.
Crooked shifted lower so he could look me in the eyes. “It only gets worse. Are you sure you don’t want to tell me where the map is?”
“I’d tell you if I had it. I don’t.” They were violent, but I hoped they weren’t insane. “Why would I take your map?”
“Because you are the most likely culprit. Are you sure you have nothing else to say?”
“It’s hard to say anything else when I don’t have it.”
“Chuck?”
Chuck placed both hands on my arm and then yanked it. A searing pain ripped through me. When he let go, I was gasping for air and my arm was dangling at a weird angle. I fell forward, my cheek pressed to the cement.
“Can I do the other one?”
“Not yet. Let that one marinate for a while. We’ll come back in an hour or so, after she’s had some time.”
“I think I should do it now,” Chuck said.
Crooked stared down at me as he said, “Patience. You’ll have plenty of time with her.”
Chapter 6
I pushed with my feet, moving farther into the corner, every move shooting pain into my arms. They’d held true to their word, and now both arms were useless, and I felt a stabbing pain with every breath.
I heard footsteps above me and muffled voices I couldn’t make out, all while I prayed they wouldn’t come back downstairs.
They were going to question me again, ask me about the missing map. I didn’t know how many more beatings I could take. If I had any idea, I would’ve told them. If I had any magic, I would have made them a map just to get rid of them.
There was light streaming in the window, and even though I knew I hadn’t been here for a full day, it was already feeling like a lifetime. Or the rest of my lifetime, as I wasn’t sure if I’d set foot out of this place again.
I looked over at the farthest corner. The same crawler was there, watching me. It was waiting for its opportunity, and it might get it. I’d rather go out in a blast, or get lost in the Shadowlands, than sit here and wait for them to kill me. At least I’d go out trying.
Whatever this building was, it was old. Was it possible that maybe it was gargoyle-worthy old? Was I somehow still wired in, maybe? I’d been able to call a gargoyle before.
Even if I couldn’t get Zee, maybe I could get a gargoyle like I had before. On my list of options, it was definitely higher up than burning to death or fading away in the Shadowlands.
“Zee? Can you hear me? I need a gargoyle,” I whispered.
Zee popped in instantly and looked around. “How the hell did you call me here? I can’t be here. This isn’t my building, or anyone’s building, and I don’t even know how you got to me. You’ve been officially off my roster for months.”
“Shhh,” I whispered, afraid she’d alert them before I could get a word in, but she wasn’t paying me much attention.
She shuddered as if finding the place utterly unpleasant, and then her eyes finally landed on me for more than a second and she took a step back. “What the fuck happened to you?” She pointed at my shoulder area. “You don’t look right.”
“I need help.” I was gritting my teeth through the words now, trying to move forward.
She nodded, pursing her lips, and said, “I should think so.”
“Can you help me?”
“I can’t help.”
Was she really going to just stand there and not help? I was about to break down again. I was not having a good week.
Her hands went up. “Not here, not against the leprechauns. I’m out of my jurisdiction. I literally can’t help you. It’s against the magic that binds me. I do anything while you’re here and I’m dead.” She patted her chest.
I heard the sounds of footsteps hitting stairs and whispered to Zee, “Get Kane.” She was already gone before I got the words out. I was fairly certain she’d heard me. What I wasn’t certain about was whether he’d help me.
I looked over at the crawler, who’d moved a couple of feet closer to me, as if it knew how desperate I was getting.
If I didn’t take the chance soon, these men might kill me, and that would be the end of it.
I swallowed, my mouth dry, as I heard the footsteps on the stairs getting closer. Did I do it? Did I talk to the crawler and hope for the best? It inched even closer, as if I were calling it to me.
The door creaked open before I’d gathered up the guts to speak to it. Chuck walked in, and headed toward me. Crooked paused by the door, digging out his buzzing phone.
“Yeah?” he said, as Chuck kneeled by me, his gaze moving over my torso and then shifting to my legs. If he dislocated my legs, I’d never be able to escape. Not that there was a great chance now, but it would dwindle to zero.
I looked back at the crawler, knowing my options had run out, and was about to speak to it when Crooked stepped forward.
“Hang on,” Crooked said to Chuck. “Don’t do anything yet. We’re getting company.”
“So?” Chuck asked as if someone had stolen the lollipop from his hand.
“So, the big guy said wait.” Crooked pocketed his phone and crossed his arms. “We gotta wait.”
Chuck glanced at me and then back to Crooked. “He’s coming? He told us to handle it.”
“No. Someone else,” Crooked said, and then licked his lips as if this other person was making him nervous.
If he was making him nervous, it was definitely a good thing for me. The crawler was hissing toward me off to the side, as if trying to draw my attention to it. Nope, not talking to you yet. Hiss away.
“For what?” Chuck asked.
Crooked opened his hands and swung them outward. “I don’t know. Maybe to help?”
Chuck walked the basement, but every time he got close to me, Crooked warned him off. Something was about to go down, and Crooked wasn’t looking too happy.
Five minutes later, I heard another pair of feet hitting the stairs. The door swung open and the air was sucked right out of my lungs.
Kane walked in the basement. He hadn’t fought his way in. He’d walked downstairs as if invited. He was their company? What the hell did that mean? Was he here to help them or me?
He glanced at me, taking in my condition, and I couldn’t see a drop of emotion in his eyes. Had he known they were going to drag me in here? Was he in on this? Did they do it for him?
Kane turned toward Crooked. “You said you questioned her.”
Had he known or just found out? My attention turned to Crooked, and the way he was trying to causally widen the gap between them.
“We d-did,” he said.
Kane’s jaw shifted. “Why does she look like that, then?”
Crooked quickly swung a hand in Chuck’s direction. “He might’ve dislocated her arms.”
Kane’s attention swung to Chuck. “You did the handiwork?”
Chuck tipped his head after a long moment.
And then he didn’t have a head anymore. Had Kane just ripped it off? It was there one second and then gone. I might’ve gasped, but it was lost to the sound of Crooked dry-heaving beside Chuck’s head.
Kane waited for him to stop and straighten up
.
“You overstepped your bounds,” Kane said to Crooked.
Crooked stepped back, lifting his hands in a gesture of surrender as he did. “Complete misunderstanding.”
Kane took a step, following him. “Do you understand why I’m letting you live?”
Crooked nodded furiously.
“Good.”
Another blur and then Crooked was flat on his back. Blood ran thick down the side of his face from his shattered nose. But at least he still had his head, and his chest was moving. His face…that was another story.
Maybe Kane didn’t hate me? The way he’d talked, though, he knew I was here. But for how long? Had Zee gotten to him? How much had he known before her?
Kane took a step in my direction. “Can you walk?” I saw him taking inventory of my injuries.
I managed to get to my feet before he could offer to help. It was bad enough I’d needed saving.
He walked toward the basement door, holding it open for me. I wasn’t going to fight with him about how he’d known I was here, or if he’d known why, until I was out of here. Why? Because I wasn’t stupid. There were more questions rattling around in my brain, but my top priority was to get out. I’d figure out the rest after that.
I made my way slowly up the stairs, managing to grit my teeth through the pain, the adrenaline from leaving helping me out a bit. The house was empty as we walked through it, except for a few sparse furnishings. A couch in the living room. A couple of chairs and an empty pizza box on the table in the kitchen. This wasn’t a home but a place of business—seedy business.
Kane opened and shut all the doors as I managed not to scream.
Fresh air was hitting my skin and filling my lungs, and it never smelled so good before because I knew how close I’d come to dying in that basement.
“Can you make it a couple of miles?” Kane arranged his body to block me from people walking across the street as we made it to the passenger door of his car.
“I can make it as far as I need to.”
Without asking, he helped me into the car. It was a good thing he hadn’t, because I would’ve insisted I had it and probably would’ve fallen on my face.
All my intentions of questioning him once we got out of there went by the wayside as soon as the car started moving over early spring potholes. Each bump in the road felt like a hot poker sticking me, warmed in the fires of hell.
By the time he’d pulled the car into an alleyway several miles shy of the Underground, I was ready to crack my teeth in my effort not to scream out. He walked around and opened the passenger door for me, and I wondered why the hell he was dropping me off here.
If he had come to save me, wouldn’t he be bringing me to a safe location, like my home? Or was he going to finish the job, in which case this was the perfect place? It was far enough away from his building that if the fleshy bits got stuck in the concrete, my remains wouldn’t stink up the alleyway. It was wonderful how Butch’s words chose this moment to pop into my head.
“Why did you stop here?” I’d been nervous around Kane in the past, but never thought he’d kill me. Not even when I first met him had I thought he’d actually kill me. But now, after realizing he’d known those goons had me, I’d be a fool not to consider it.
“Get out.” He stood waiting while I debated my next move. It was a quick debate, considering I didn’t have one.
Kane helped me get out of the car as I moved a foot out. Didn’t seem like he was going to kill me.
He moved so quickly, and the pain was so intense, I thought he was killing me. I would’ve struck out at him in a feeble attempt, but he’d gripped both of my arms. When he let them go, his hands were at my waist, leaning me against the car. My arms were back in their sockets.
As soon as I could speak, I said, “Thanks. You could have warned me, though.”
I forced my head up when he didn’t speak, and I saw him staring off down the alley, almost on the other side now, as if he didn’t want to be too close. It felt like an act, as if all his senses were still trained on me. I glanced down the other way, knowing that even though it was a short run, I’d never make it. It was a silly thought. He’d saved me; he’d fixed my arms. But the underlying anger I felt coming from him in waves would make anyone fear they might get pulled under.
“Would’ve made it worse,” he finally said. His words echoed in the alley.
I wasn’t sure if it was the shade of the alley that was giving me a chill or the coldness of his eyes as he asked, “Have you taken anything that didn’t belong to you?
“You too?” What was this? Was there a strange contagion going around? Was I going to get home and have Asher asking me the same thing?
“Answer the question. Have you taken anything that doesn’t belong to you since you left the Underground?” He took a few more steps away and even gave me his back, as if trying to lure me deeper into the facade of safety. Had he fixed my arms for the same reason? Was this all a trap?
No. Not all for show. He’d really killed that man back there.
“Olivia.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t know what they were talking about when they kept asking about their map.”
I watched him take another measured step across the alley and then turn back to me. “Tell me you didn’t take anything.”
He was staring at me in a way that made me thankful I could honestly say, “I didn’t take anything.”
He nodded once. I’d passed his test.
He walked back to the car, standing beside it and waiting for me. “Get in.”
I didn’t move. “What would’ve happened if I’d said yes?”
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get in the car with him. I might be better off on my own. After all, what did I really know about this man? My naivety had led me to believe I was safe with him, but that was quickly changing.
“Get in,” he said, his tone suggesting he was growing tired of waiting.
I took a step toward the car but with no intention of getting in. “Would you have killed me?”
His jaw locked, and it looked like he had to fight to get the next words out. “I don’t know.”
He got in the car as if his answer, his indecision over my life, was nothing. As if it was not a question of the utmost importance, at least to me.
Three months ago, I wouldn’t have worried about being abandoned in an alleyway by Kane. Now I was choosing whether my odds were better being left here or getting in with him. How things had changed.
He’d believed me when I’d said I hadn’t taken anything. If he hadn’t, I might’ve already been a mass of meaty bits in the concrete.
I looked around, knowing what walked these streets so close to the Underground. I didn’t know why this missing map was so important, or why I was the prime suspect, but I did know I had two banged-up shoulders and not a lick of magic on hand.
I got in the car.
Chapter 7
I shifted on the car seat, trying to find a comfortable position that didn’t exist, and probably wouldn’t for at least a week or so from the feel of things.
It looked like we were heading toward the Underground, but I wasn’t taking anything for granted at this point. “Where are you bringing me?”
“Underground.”
He made a couple more turns and then we were pulling up to the familiar building.
“I need to get home.” I’d already been missing for a day. Asher would be climbing the walls at this point. Imagining what he might do was almost as bad as being stuck in that cellar.
“When I’m done.” He shut the car off and got out.
Well, so much for that debate. As much as I worried about getting home, figuring out why I was abducted in the first place wasn’t a bad thing either. He wasn’t the only one who wanted some answers.
I followed him into the Underground and up to his office without too many stares. Definitely more than I’d gotten the other day, though, as people probably wonde
red if I was working for him again.
Or maybe they were looking because I appeared to have just woken from a nap in a dumpster. That might be it.
He sat in his chair behind his desk, his expression not telling me anything.
I moved to the other side of the desk, forgoing the couch. The couch harkened back to the past, a time when this had felt like the safest place I’d ever been. Today, I wanted to make sure I had clear access to the door and a good running start.
Kane gave me a hard look, then shifted his eyes toward the door and back. “You really think standing makes a difference?”
My hand tightened where it rested on the back of the chair in front of me. I didn’t have an answer for that—or not a good one that would put him in his place. I’d seen him move so fast that it was as if he’d materialized in a different spot. I might’ve been clinging to a delusion of escape, but that wasn’t something I was willing to share.
“I could give you a demonstration if there’s any doubt.” He kicked his heels up on the desk and then crossed his ankles, rubbing in the fact that he might have an edge on me—or a mile.
I felt my jaw shifting and locked that sucker down. I walked around to the front of the chair and sat. There, you win—this time. Now let’s move it along. “What did you want?” I was done with the niceties. I’d tried that and it had gotten me nowhere.
The side of his mouth looked like it wanted to tick up into maybe a smirk, but it didn’t. Not that there was any joy here. The easy banter we’d started to have before I left the Underground, the playful pushing and prodding at each other that had become almost ritualistic—there wasn’t even a remnant of that relationship now.
As we sat across from each other, there was little doubt what we were—adversaries. It would be nice to know what we were fighting over, but I’d clearly been given my role, and I was fully accepting it now.
“If I was getting what I wanted, we wouldn’t be speaking.”
I stayed relaxed in spite of the chill in his words, or how they made me want to run out of the room. There wasn’t a reason in the world he’d understand why I did what I did. I couldn’t expect him to.
Walking in the Dark: Ollie Wit, Book Two Page 4
