Twist My Heart

by Brooke Taylor

  Fear flickered through my mind. If he moved me again it would be even harder for Nik to find me. But if Clay could lead me to my sister… “Is she alive?”

  * * * *

  Nik broke through a stand of trees, skidding to a stop alongside of Titan. The shepherd had lost Thea’s scent on an old mining pass. From the tracks in the rarely used dirt road, a vehicle must’ve picked her up and turned back toward the highway. Nik led the way for a stretch, allowing Titan to slow down and catch his breath. At the slower pace, Nik noticed a slight gimp in Titan’s hind leg. “Come on, pup, let me give you a lift.”

  Titan eyed him, growling low as Nik’s hand came around his belly.

  Nik retreated, squatting on his boot heels. “What will your momma say if I bring you back limping? Because we’re going to find her, Ti. I promise.”

  The dog lowered his head and allowed Nik to heft him over his shoulders. Soon they met up with Coop on the paved road.

  “Titan, okay?” he asked as Nik opened the door and set the dog in the back.

  “He will be. Sliding down the mountain might’ve been a little much at his age.” Nik rubbed at his own hip. “Mine, too.”

  “I thought he was back at your place waiting with Leo?”

  “He kind of insisted on coming with me. Glad he did, though, he’s a better tracker. Unfortunately, it didn’t get us very far. I’ve been thinking about where they turned before the crash. There’s a dude ranch and a couple older, less frequented cabin rentals out that way. Perfect places for someone wanting seclusion.”

  “Makes sense.”

  Nik swung up into the passenger seat. Thea had been here. He could still smell her shampoo. She’d been in this very same seat the last time he’d seen her, confused and hurt as he refused to tell her goodbye.

  Refused to tell her he loved her.

  “Go!” he bellowed.

  Coop whipped the truck around and Nik directed him to the initial ranch. There were at least twenty cabins and this was just the first place on the road. “Any signs of activity?”

  “Not really. Want to check the next resort?”

  “There are some cabins hidden from the road. Let’s check them out first.”

  Sure enough, they drove farther back into the campgrounds and spotted tire tracks in front of one of the remote sites. Retreating, they parked behind another cabin, out of sight. Coop gave Titan a stand-down command and left him to wait in the truck as he took out his rifle and split from Nik.

  Somewhere up in the treeline, Coop moved into a position where he could watch through the scope on his rifle, ready to take out any threat. Even in civilian wear, with his bright blue shirt, Nik hadn’t been able to spot where he’d settled in. They didn’t call Coop the Ghost for nothing. And if that sick fuck, Clay, did anything to hurt Thea, he’d learn why they called Nik the Darkness.

  Gripping his Sig, Nik approached. The cabin’s curtains were drawn tight, making it impossible to see in. But it also meant whoever was inside couldn’t see out.

  Head on a swivel, Nik watched for signs of tripwires while also scanning for possible accomplices, like Aimee. He moved silently and a hell of a lot slower than his pulse dictated. It’d been a long time since Nik had to truly exercise control over his patience.

  His heart punched at his chest, eager to get inside the cabin, closer to Thea. She wasn’t a target he had to hit or an asset to extract. And in all of his varied training rotations, the scenario of how to control your shit when the woman who could twist your heart was in danger had never come up.

  Barging in blind could not only mean his own life, but also hers. He kept his ear trained toward the dark, squared-off logs and heavy cream chinking of the aged cabin. The voices he’d heard had come from a television. Over it, he couldn’t hear anything else. No movement at all. No telling how many people might be inside or what they were armed with. After another glance around the compound of cabins, Nik breached the door, easily kicking it open.

  The sight punched his gut, worse than any slug to the body armor he could’ve taken. He signaled for Coop as he went inside. They’d been here. The controls for the drone were discarded on the coffee table. Clothing and toiletries were out. But no Clay. No Aimee. And no Thea.

  At the sound of Coop wheeling the truck through the gravel, Nik abandoned the cabin. He swung up into the passenger seat. “They’re gone.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Clay laughed maniacally at my disappointment. He’d never intended to take me to my sister. All we’d done was move cabins. It’d all been a joke to him. Another way to mess with me. And yet, I still found myself begging, “Is my sister alive, Clay?”

  I pleaded with my eyes for an honest answer, even though I knew better than to expect one. He was loving this. I needed to go back to not caring about what he was saying to me. Not letting him see my emotions.

  “She’s dead, Thea,” Aimee scrambled to say. “He told me.”

  The soft way she said it made me believe her. Relief and heartbreak warred inside me. The game he was playing with me was over, but so was the hope of finding my sister.

  “Aimee, Aimee, Aimee… So jealous. Green is not as good a color on you as it is on Sera. You must get used to sharing me now that you are one of the Six. Thea won’t mind if you go first. She prefers to watch. Besides, she must atone for watching her sister be taken while doing absolutely nothing to save her. Aimee here is going to help. She looks a bit like Mandy in the blonde wig, doesn’t she?”

  “I have amnesia.” I grunted. “I don’t remember what Amanda looks like. I’ve only seen a few pictures.”

  At my use of the less familiar name, Clay’s sadistic grin faltered. Still, he grabbed Aimee, hauling her body against his. “If it’s true, then watching will help jog your memory. Pay attention, Thea, because, unlike last time, you’ll be next.”

  Clay dragged Aimee by the arm as he grabbed up a nightgown. Obediently she changed clothes, her brief nudity revealing a freshly raised, red scar over her heart. The same symbol as in the autopsy photos. Despite the terror crackling in my veins and the overwhelming desire to break free to help Aimee, I forced myself to stay controlled. Clay fed off instability, fear. He wanted me desperate and, oh, I was. But like hell would I let him see it. I kept my tone bored, absently muttering, “I don’t get it.”

  “What don’t you understand, Thea?”

  “Well, you say in order for me to atone, I must relive the worst thing in my past. Why?”

  Clay coiled Aimee’s hair in a harsh grip, the pale wig tangling awkwardly with her flame-red strands. “Explain it to your new sister.”

  He spun her to look me in the eye, as she choked out automatically, “To prove you can overcome it.”

  At each movement from Clay, Aimee flinched. Her body trembled so hard, I expected every single bone was rattling. But for some reason she continued obeying him, her eyes pleading for me to do the same. As much as I wanted to rip her from his grasp—both physically and mentally—I ignored her, casually shifting as I addressed Clay again.

  “But haven’t I survived it already?”

  Clay’s eyes fired. He’d wanted screams and begging and pleading, not questioning and mockery. Frustration flitted over his hard face. With a heave, he thrust Aimee onto the bed alongside the one I’d been dumped on. He’d as much as said so, but given the wig and nightgown along with my being on one bed and them on the other, I was realizing he wanted his little show to be as close to the original as possible.

  “I don’t need some silly reenactment to prove anything. I’m not ten years old, she’s not my sister, and this isn’t our old room.” I rolled over, staring at the ceiling.

  I was quite certain Aimee was questioning my sanity. That made two of us. I’m sure there were smarter strategies than to prod Clay into a rage with the hopes he’d make a mistake. But without any sign of Nik, Coop, or Leo, and doubting they even had a way to find me, I couldn’t count on them rushing in to save the day.

  Someho
w I had to get Clay’s focus off Aimee. She was simply a means for him to get to me. And getting to me, he was. Every grab and shove he’d given her blazed through my already battered body. But I couldn’t let him see how much he was hurting us both.

  “This all seems kind of dumb, don’t you think? How does my watching you and your girlfriend put on a half-ass show— Her wig is barely even on.”

  “You think I’m pretending? You think this is fake?” he bellowed, as he pulled out a gruesome pocketknife and ran the tip down Aimee’s arm. Her scream pierced my heart as surely the blade had slit through her skin.

  “Don’t worry, my pretty, you’ll bleed out, but you won’t miss a thing.”

  Oh God, maybe I was being extremely stupid. The blood dripping down her forearm was incredibly real and entirely my fault. But my inner voice was telling me to stick with it. Keeping the horror from my face and voice took everything I had. “I didn’t say it was fake. I said it was an act. Clearly, she’s working with you and a willing participant. But I didn’t see anything in the reports about Amanda being cut with a knife and bleeding everywhere. I mean, I have amnesia, and even I know you’re doing this all wrong. I’m beginning to wonder if you were really even there.”

  “I said, shut up!” He rashly shoved Aimee to the side, discarding her. The force of his thrust propelled her into the wall with a heartbreaking thud. But at least she was away from him. If only she’d take the opportunity to run, get the hell away from this cabin and this demented man, go for help. But she was frozen in fear, burrowing into the corner, blood still seeping from her arm.

  Clay seized me. “You’re right, we’re deviating from the past. This time it’s only you and me. The way it should’ve been in the first place.”

  He lunged for me, grappling with my body, gripping at my jeans as he tried to remove them. I squeezed my bound legs together, making it harder for him.

  My heart slammed to a stop as his hand slipped into my front pocket.

  “What’s this?” His body stilled as his fingers coiled around my last hope—Nik’s knife.

  “I always knew you would be fun to play with.” He tossed the knife aside, leaning in close to whisper, “But let’s play with my toys first. Don’t want our games ending too quickly.”

  Clay’s weight jammed me into the mattress, his hands bruising as he grabbed at my clothes. Bound as I was, I managed to knee and kick at him enough to prevent him from doing much more. With a jerk, he flipped me. My face and upper body were shoved into the old bedding and my lungs filled with dust.

  On my belly and bent over the bed’s edge, my eyes were level with Nik’s knife where Clay had tossed it onto the bedside table. With my hands behind my back, I would never be able to reach for it. I eyed Aimee in the corner and motioned with my face for her to grab it. She turned her cheek away from me, her eyes squeezed shut, her lips moving as if in prayer.

  This was how I would die. How Nik would find me.

  Clay laughed as his finger sloppily mashed the slick streams of tears, swirling them playfully on my cheek. He sucked the salty remains from his fingers. “There’s the girl I remember so well.”

  The success in breaking me invigorated him. He yanked at my jeans, working them over my hips as his fingers dug into my skin. My bound hands clutched my back pockets, but it wouldn’t be long before the tightly pinched denim would give. I fought against every slipping inch and he enjoyed every second of it, knowing he’d win.

  I filled my mind with darkness. Dark as the blackest night sky. I went behind the moon where it was as cold as the snow in the mountains where Nik had taken me. Where there were so many flecks of light, so many stars infinitely spreading into the universe like they had from up on the boulders above Estes. I reached out, wanting to be far, far away. The heaviness holding me here to this earth, gone. I floated, flying.

  Wait… The weight holding me down was literally gone. A horrifying groan ripped through my ears. My eyelids sprang up. Nik’s knife wasn’t on the bedside table, Aimee wasn’t in the corner, and Clay’s body was off of me. I rolled over as Clay reared back in pain, clutching his bleeding neck.

  Aimee delivered blow after blow until he wheeled, turning his fury once again toward her. Darkening spots grew on the back of his shirt, but the wounds didn’t look imminently fatal. Most were in the muscles of his shoulders, but his breath wheezed and gurgled as if she’d managed to nick his lung.

  He staggered toward her. The cabin was too small for her to escape.

  Bound as I was, I helplessly watched him lunge for her. With a shaky slash she caught him under the chin, right across the throat. But the blade only lanced off his thick larynx, angering him more.

  “Use both hands,” I called out. She gripped the knife as instructed and as he lunged for her again, she struck. This time she caught both his carotid artery and the jugular vein. He careened forward, falling hard into the coffee table with gruesome thud.

  Aimee scrambled around his body and raced to me, the bloody knife still clutched in her right hand. She straddled over me as I angled, giving her access to cut my hands free. We were both shaking so bad, it was a challenge for her to safely slice the ties.

  My eyes flashed to Clay. A sick smile splayed across his face. His eyes wide with life. “Hurry, he’s not dead.”

  Aimee, not paying attention to Clay, struggled to cut the tie at my wrists. “Stay still.”

  He crawled across the floor toward us. “I’ll take you to her,” he threatened as he came ever closer. With a large hand, he reached over the wood floors, grabbing my ankle. A scream ripped from my throat.

  “It’s me!” Aimee rose up. The binding at my ankles cut free. She gripped my shoulders. “He’s dead, Thea. He can’t hurt you.”

  My eyes refocused on Clay, slumped across the coffee table. The sick smile I’d caught was the gaping wound at his throat. His eyes were wide open, but dead.

  A loud noise fired off as the cabin door flew open, startling us both. Nik cleared the threshold. His eyes flicked to Clay’s lifeless body and then to us. Instead of appearing relieved, he continued to stride forward with his pistol aimed at Aimee.

  Realizing she still grasped had the bloody knife in her hand, I spun, shielding her with my body. “Don’t shoot her. She saved me,” I kept repeating as we slid from the bed’s edge to huddle on the floor.

  Nik holstered his gun, skidding to his knees alongside of us. We looked a mess, blood coating us both from the wound on her arm. Reaching in to separate me from Aimee, he commanded, “Let me see how bad it is.”

  “I’m okay. It’s not my blood. Aimee’s arm is really bad. Help her first.”

  “On it!” Coop stated, breaking down the rifle he’d had trained on Clay’s dead body. He stripped of the tourniquet he had banded to his bump stock. Kneeling, he deftly wrapped Aimee’s arm, high up near her armpit. Her face contorted more from him cinching the tourniquet strap than it had from the original cut.

  As Coop checked her over for other wounds, I turned back to Nik. His face drawn unrecognizably tight in fear. “I’m just shaken up, promise.”

  He scooped me into his lap, his back bracing against the wall as his arms wrapped around me. Coop, who’d gone to the truck for his med kit, returned with Titan. The dog rushed to my side and licked my face with gusto as he curled into me. I snaked an arm out to pull him even closer.

  Several minutes passed before I realized Nik hadn’t moved. Tension gripped his body. I tried to alleviate it by joking, “Aren’t you going to check my eyes? Make me count your fingers?”

  He squeezed me tighter, as if making sure I was really there. “I thought I’d lost you.”

  “I’m here, thanks to Aimee and your knife.”

  Coop had laid her out on the bed, seeming to have everything under control. He used his teeth to strip a cap off a needle and injected it as he muttered something about always having to do Nik’s job.

  Against my neck, Nik growled, “This isn’t my job. It’s my life. Thea’s
my life. Can I hold on to her a little longer?”

  “Hold on to her as long as you can.” Coop chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ve got it all covered. Aimee’s stable. Helo is en route. Coleman’s here and will assess the scene…” His eyes quickly scanned the bloody room, stopping briefly on Clay’s body draped awkwardly over the coffee table. “And dispose of the trash. Which one of you killed him?”

  “Aimee saved my life.” My eyes met hers and we shared a grim smile.

  “No, not Aimee,” she managed to whisper. Her adrenaline had waned, and the loss of blood had caught up to her. “Rebecca.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  “Do I even want to know how you boys got a dog smuggled into a hospital?” I asked, shifting more upright in my bed.

  Leo pretended to lock his lips and throw away the key as he dropped into the chair in the corner of the private room. The German shepherd in question leaped up, landing more on Nik than me.

  Nik grunted. “This is the only time you’ll be sharing the bed with us, dog.”

  I elbowed him in the ribs, even though I knew he was all talk. I’d caught enough exchanges between the pair to know Nik was way more of a dog person than he let on.

  “Your chariot awaits, Goddess Thea.” We both looked up to see Coop rounding the corner with an empty wheelchair.

  “More tests? I thought I was done.”

  “You are. Rebecca is awake and asking for you. Thought you’d want to go see her, since she’s all you’ve asked about the last few hours.”

  Nik swung out of my bed and shoved Coop away from the handles. “I’ll be driving her from now on.”

  Backing off, Coop laughed. “Miss Daisy is all yours.”

  Coop’s newest passion in life was teasing Nik about me, while Nik’s was staying as close to me as he possibly could.

  “I can walk,” I protested. With all the painkillers they had me on, I was actually doing good. The private room was merely a perk Coop had pulled strings to get while we waited on test results for my original head injury.