Lily opened the door which led onto the bathroom. The connecting door to Jess’ room was still firmly shut, so she crossed the space to stand before it.
She knocked. “Jess?”
No answer.
Was she still sleeping? Lily couldn’t blame her if she was. After spending countless nights on the floor of the shipping container, the luxury of a real bed was immeasurable.
Knocking harder, she called out. “Jess?”
Butterflies, that were more like large, furry moths, beat their wings against the inside of her stomach. A sudden certainty something was very wrong fell upon her, sending adrenaline shooting through her veins.
Not wasting any more time, she pushed open the door.
Lily gasped, the bowl of chocolate falling from her fingers to tumble, forgotten, to the floor.
Eight
“Oh my God!”
Jess lay slumped on the floor beside the closet, a white sheet wrapped around her throat. She was unmoving, her eyes closed. From where she was standing, Lily couldn’t tell if she was still breathing.
She rushed over and dropped to her knees beside the other woman. Frantic, she pulled at the sheet, loosening it from Jess’ throat, before yanking it back over her head. Please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead. Her eyes filled with tears, and she blinked them away, needing to see clearly. She held her hand beneath Jess’ nose, trying to feel any breath, but she couldn’t tell if she could or not. Her skin was still warm, something she took hope in.
“Come on, Jess, please don’t be dead. I need you.”
Lily’s mind quickly pieced together what might have happened. The mattress was bare, where the sheet had been pulled off. The closet door was open, the clothes pulled out and thrown to the floor. The end of the white sheet was wrapped over the top of the hanging rail inside the closet.
What had she done? The rail wasn’t high enough for Jess to hang herself on. Did she really have the will and determination to strangle herself? From the abrasions on her neck, and the way the end of the sheet was still wrapped around her hand, it certainly looked that way. Lily didn’t need to question the reasons why Jess had done such a thing. She knew the reasons, and she wished more than anything that she hadn’t stormed out earlier when Jess had refused to eat. Perhaps if she’d stayed a little longer, been more understanding and patient, Jess would never have done this.
She realized in that moment Jess gave her a reason to be strong. She gave Lily a focus other than her own pathetic existence. Perhaps Lily had always thought she’d helped others because it was in her nature, but perhaps this whole time it had never been about helping others, but instead about giving herself a reason to live. She wasn’t altruistic at all. She was as selfish as every other asshole out there.
Lily took hold of Jess’ wrist, feeling for a pulse. She held her breath, concentrating. She felt something! She was sure she did—a faint beat, but a beat nonetheless. Or was she feeling her own pulse in her fingers …
Uncertain if what she was doing was right, she leaned over Jess, pinched her nose shut, tilted back her head to lift her chin, and open her airways. She tried not to look at the bright red abrasions around her throat. She sealed Jess’ mouth with her own and exhaled a long breath, watching her chest rise and fall, as her lungs expanded. Nothing else happened, so Lily repeated the process, each second that passed making her panic and dread rise higher and higher inside her. She was certain this was all going to be pointless. Jess was going to die, and Lily was going to be left here alone with Rodriguez.
Suddenly, Jess took a sharp breath by herself, the sound a wheezy rasp that was both painful and miraculous to hear.
“Oh, thank God.”
She helped Jess sit up, as Jess took big gulps of air between coughing.
Jess caught her breath, looked around, and burst into tears. “What did you do?”
“I saved you! You could have died!”
“Don’t you think that was what I wanted? Why else would I have done this? I was finally getting my way out.”
“No, you’re giving up too soon. Please, Jess. Just give it a little more time. Give me a little more time to figure out our way out of this.”
She covered her face with her hands and continued to cry. “I don’t think I can.”
“Yes, you can. It just takes some more bravery, and I know you’ve got that in you. After everything you’ve been through and come out of in one piece, you’ve got enough courage inside you, I know you do.”
She shook her head. “I’m not in one piece. Maybe physically I am, just, but inside I’ve broken into a million little pieces.”
Lily squeezed her fingers. “We can put them together again. Maybe they won’t be exactly the same, but they’ll still work, eventually. I promise.”
She sniffed. “The problem is, Lily, you still believe we’re getting out of here. I don’t know why you believe so whole-heartedly that somehow we’re going to walk out of this place, but in my mind all my future is going to consist of is being raped repeatedly by these guys, until I eventually end up dead. I don’t want that for my future, and I don’t want my death to be at their hands. At least if I do it my way, then I’m making my choice. I’m not giving those bastards what they want.”
“You don’t know Monst—Merrick,” she said. “He’s the reason I have hope. He’ll kill every man in his way to get to me, I know he will.”
Her blue eyes filled with tears. “You, Lily. He’ll come for you. No one who cares about me even knows I’m here.”
She locked her gaze with Jess’, wanting to drive home her sincerity. “I’m not going anywhere without you. I swear. If I leave this place, you’re coming with me.”
Jess pressed her lips together, looking down as she nodded frantically. “Okay,” she whispered. “Okay.”
Lily fought her body’s desire to freeze as she reached out and pulled Jess into a hug. The other girl allowed herself to be pulled and she clung to her, her fingers bunching the thin material of Lily’s dress.
Lily held her tight. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Nine
Lily didn’t dare leave Jess alone again, though she knew chances were they would be separated at some point. Instead, she helped the girl up onto the bed, settled her down beneath the covers, like a mother caring for a sick child, and then curled up beside her.
She didn’t think she would sleep after everything that had happened. She felt shaken from finding Jess like she had, and worried if she fell asleep Jess would try the same thing again. The sheet was still bunched up on the floor, so they slept on the bare mattress, Jess beneath the covers and Lily on top. Considering the conditions in which they’d both been forced to sleep in the past, this was luxury.
Despite thinking she wouldn’t sleep, Lily found herself fighting oblivion. Sleeping felt too much like giving in, when giving in was absolutely the last thing she wanted to do.
She needed to get a better idea of the layout of the house, and the outside grounds. She’d seen the wall and the gate when they’d been driven in, but was that the only way in and out? Perhaps there was smaller gate around the back, a service entrance? The other thing she needed to discover was if there were any phones or computers she could get access to. She had a vague idea of the location of the property, and so if she could just get to a phone she’d be able to dial nine-one-one and tell them she and Jess had been kidnapped. It occurred to her that she had forgotten Jess’ surname. Something ‘Stone,’ she thought, but couldn’t be certain. So much had been going on when she’d told her at the airfield. Her stomach knotted at how important that tiny bit of knowledge was. If she didn’t know, and Jess had succeeded in killing herself, her family might never have gotten to know what had happened to her.
Another possible avenue of help might come from the other people who worked here. She’d seen several in the kitchen, and chances were Rodriguez had more people working in the grounds. Men like Rodriguez didn’t clean or garden themselves.
Her mind whirred as she lay with her hand beneath her cheek, watching the steady rise and fall of Jess’s shoulders, trying to think over all the possibilities. The main thing all her ideas had in common was that she needed to get out of this room. She couldn’t do anything locked up in here, and the rooms had no windows to the outside world. She needed to make Rodriguez trust her enough to give her access to the rest of the house, but she shuddered at the thought of what that might entail. She knew what her one power over Rodriguez was, but the idea made her blood run cold. Was his ego big enough to make him believe she actually wanted him, when everything she’d done and said up to this point had been the complete opposite?
More importantly, could she fight her fear of touch and her hatred of Rodriguez enough to make it appear genuine?
At some point, lost in thought, Lily’s eyes slipped shut and she slept.
Monster (Present Day)
Sophia stopped the car one block from the hospital.
Chapman was already waiting for them, standing beside a car Monster didn’t recognize. He guessed the vehicle was stolen, or possibly rented under an alias. Either way, Monster figured he was better off not knowing.
Chapman spotted Monster in the passenger seat and straightened, his gaze flicking between his employer and the gorgeous blonde beside him, clearly trying to figure out where she fit into this whole thing. Monster climbed from the car and Sophia followed.
There were no niceties, no hugs of affection, or claps on the back to show appreciation of the other man being alive. They didn’t work that way. Chapman gave him a nod as he approached, his eyes flicking to Sophia, and then he launched straight into business.
“I figured you’d need this,” Chapman said, leaning back into his car and pulling out something wrapped in a jacket. He handed the bundle to Monster, and by the weight alone, Monster knew what he’d been given.
A gun.
“Thank you, Chapman,” he said. “I feel better knowing I’ve got this on me. How’s our other situation looking?”
“Sean is awake. He’s on the fourth floor, with two police officers outside his door. They don’t exactly look like high security, just a couple of local cops, though if Sean starts to talk, that will change. They’ll get the feds in.”
“I don’t think he’ll talk so soon,” said Monster, “But even so, I think we should get him out of there.”
Sophia looked between the two men. “Please, no more violence.”
“I can’t promise that,” said Monster. “We have to do what needs to be done.”
She chewed at a piece of dried skin on her lower lip. “But you don’t want to be arrested at the same time, or have cops chasing after you. Maybe I can do something?”
“Like what?”
“Cause a distraction? Or try to get into the hospital room and tell your guy what’s going on? I don’t know. I just think rather than going in shooting, we should look at other options. Surely that’s better than more people getting shot.”
Monster narrowed his eyes. “They’re not going to let just anyone wander in.”
“No, but you seem to be forgetting I’m a registered nurse. I have identification to prove so in my purse, so if they ask for it, I can show them.”
“They might get suspicious if it’s not under this hospital.”
“Possibly, but I’ll just say I’m new and then throw some jargon at them. If they see a uniform and some ID, and I sound like I know what I’m talking about, I doubt very much they’ll ask any more questions. This hospital must have a couple of hundred nurses working in the wards. I won’t stand out as someone suspicious.”
“Okay, so say you get into the hospital. What then?”
She smiled. “I have a plan.”
***
They took the back entrance to the hospital and found the staircase which headed into the bowels of the building. The few people they passed didn’t pay them any attention—the way Monster still held his injured shoulder must have made him look like a patient. They needed to get down to the laundry room and find Sophia an outfit.
“There,” she said, nodding down the windowless corridor they had found themselves in. This was the same floor which held the morgue and pathology suite, but, according to the sign on the wall, the laundry room was located at the end. The three of them hurried toward the room, hoping they wouldn’t meet anyone else along the way. They might have more trouble explaining away their reason for being this far into the hospital’s infrastructure.
Sophia hurried to the door, looked around quickly before pushing it open. “Wait here,” she said, and then disappeared inside.
Monster was pleased the access was so easy—he’d been concerned a keypad lock might have been on the door—but it appeared the hospital didn’t think anyone would want all their dirty sheets and uniforms. He and Chapman exchanged a glance, and Monster knew what he was telling him without him even needing to open his mouth. They were both armed now and were willing to shoot if necessary.
A couple of minutes passed, with them remaining undisturbed, and then Sophia emerged wearing a set of blue nurse scrubs—wide legged pants with a short sleeved top.
“These were the cleanest I could find,” she said. “I’m trying not to think whose bodily fluids might be on them.”
Monster didn’t care. More important things were at stake than her personal hygiene. “Let’s move.”
“Wait one minute,” she said. She approached him and reached to the zipper of his borrowed jacket. He reared back, jerking away as she started to unzip him.
“I’m not trying to hit on you,” she said in exasperation. “Just expose your bandaged shoulder so you look like you should be here. The two of you hanging out in the corridor will look like a couple of hit men. At least with the bandage you’ll look like a hit man with a reason to be here.”
She had a point, and he allowed her to undo the jacket enough to pull it over his shoulder and expose the bandage.
“Stay close,” she said, “but give me enough space to do my thing. You’ll know when it’s time for you to step in.”
Monster didn’t like putting this much trust in someone else. On one part, she was a stranger to him, but in other ways she was someone he’d known his entire life. But she appeared to want to help him, and he couldn’t see any reason to doubt her. Sometimes, he just needed to trust people.
He gave a nod. “Okay. We won’t be far behind.”
They hurried back up the staircase, to the floor where Chapman had discovered Sean was being held. A quick glance down the corridor revealed two young, uniformed officers. One lounged against the wall, staring up at the ceiling while he flicked a coin between his fingers, while the other sat in a chair positioned outside of the door, leafing through a magazine he must have picked up left over from a patient.
Sophia locked eyes with Monster. “This won’t take long.”
She turned from them and hurried toward the officers.
Monster and Chapman stepped back around the corner. A notice board was attached to the wall, and they stood as though studying it, while every nerve was on edge, waiting for Sophia’s signal. The seconds stretched on, and Monster felt like they’d been waiting forever, each passing minute making them more conspicuous and likely to be stopped and questioned by a member of the hospital’s staff. He didn’t want that to happen. Shooting innocent people in a hospital wasn’t something he felt comfortable with, though he’d do it if not shooting them meant he’d never find Lily.
A sudden shout snatched his attention.
“Help, he’s having a seizure!”
It was Sophia’s voice, shortly followed by the loud, urgent beep of machines—the kind that always got medical staff running.
Monster risked poking his head around the corner to see Sophia emerging, panicked, from the room. “Find a doctor,” she yelled at the two cops, who were suddenly spurred into action, “or your prisoner is going to die on you.”
Both cops rushed down the corrid
or, one heading the opposite way from the other, so one of the officers ran right past them. Wasting no more time, Monster and Chapman ran down the corridor and burst into the room where Sean was being held. To Monster’s surprise, Sophia was already getting Sean dressed, the pair of handcuffs he must have been cuffed to the bed with discarded on the floor.
Monster glanced down at the open cuffs and raised his eyebrows.
Sophia noticed where he was looking. “You learn some skills when you’re raised among people like the Gonzalez family,” she said.
“So I see.”
“Now help me before they come back.”
Between Monster and Chapman, they hauled Sean to his feet.
“You have no idea how happy I am to see you, sir,” said Sean.
“Save the mushy stuff for when we’re out of here,” he replied.
Sophia checked out of the door to make sure no one was coming, and jerked her head. “Let’s go.”
They hurried out of the room, and ran down the corridor, Sean held up between them.
A couple of uniformed officers were running down the hallway toward them, and Monster did an about turn, moving the others with him. His fingers twitched to pull his weapon, but so far those particular cops didn’t appear to have pieced together the small group with the man they’d left supposedly having a fit and cuffed to the bed in the private hospital room.
Monster took another turn, which led them back onto the corridor they’d started on.
“The stairwell,” Monster gasped, his breath harder to catch since he’d been shot himself. They ran toward the back staircase, Sophia leading the way, and heard a yell of alarm and annoyance.
The cops must have discovered the room empty.
Delivered (The Monster Trilogy Book 3) Page 9
