“Get to the car, Kaya,” he said, collapsing to the slick road. “Get as far away as you can. Just keep going and don’t look back.”
I just stared at him.
“Run, please…”
I was frozen. “I can’t. I can’t leave you here.”
He looked at me the same way he had in the Death Race when I was stuck in the mud. His chest was heaving as he gathered a massive lungful of breath. “I… said… run!”
I spun away and dug deep for whatever energy I had left. One foot after the other, I struggled to get my speed up, my lungs burning instantly. I slipped and fought to keep traction as I forged forward, each step as difficult as it was that day in that mud. Oliver had spurred me ahead. His ferocity hadn’t scared me into it, nor was it some sense of obedience that got me going forward. It was because I saw something in his eyes I’d never seen before. The same thing that was in Marlene’s eyes when she talked about Ben. The same thing I felt when I thought about Luke in my father’s hands—fear.
The road stretched on and on… and I could have wept when I saw the car and came skidding to a halt at the black four-door sedan. Hands and legs vibrating, I bent over to catch my breath before I could muster up the strength to even open the door. The keys were already in the ignition. A note on the steering wheel said ‘Go Straight. Trust me’. I recognized Sindra’s handwriting and looked ahead; yesterday, the plow had left behind a massive mountain of snow at the end of this dead-end road. Now there was a space carved out in the middle wide enough for the car to fit through.
This was great and all… but I didn’t know how to drive.
I knew I had to turn the key; when I did, the engine purred to life. There were two foot pedals—I knew one was the gas, and the other the brake, but how to go backward? I had no idea. There was definitely no room to turn the car around. Oliver and Thomas were on the road, in plain sight—one of them dying and the other most certainly dead if found by Henry… and I didn`t know how to go backward.
I panicked, pushing every button and knob. Something made the windshield wipers go crazy and the heat blasted on. I felt the anxiety attack that had been at bay ebb in. I couldn’t catch my breath. The metal around me closed in. I bolted out of the car and stood on the road.
“I can’t do this!” I yelled at the sky.
The chopper was in the air now. I could hear it. It was far off, but wouldn’t take long to be overhead. If I didn’t do something, my friends would die. I had been so strong, keeping my head up, trying not to be weak, and here it was… anxiety… back again. Why now?
Oliver.
Of course! With him around, I was reverting to my helpless self. I’d relied on him so much in the past I never had to be strong. I never had to take charge or do anything when he was with me. I was reverting to the girl I was before Luke. The one who depended on Oliver for everything…and I wasn’t that girl anymore. Now was the time to prove it.
I had to think logically. There had to be something that switched the gears in the motor to make it go forward and backward. I got back in and found a lever beside the steering wheel. I remembered watching Marlene put the left pedal to the floor before going forward or backing up, so I did that, then pulled down the lever until it rested on the letter R. I took my foot off the left pedal, and miraculously the car started moving backward. Shocked, I pushed the pedal down again and it stopped. This was good, I could go backward. I twisted my body around as much as I could to look out the rear window and took my foot off the brake. The car kept going. It swayed, but I managed to get it back going straight. I gave it gas and almost hit the ditch but didn’t let up. When I could see Oliver dragging Thomas behind him, I tapped the gas pedal some more, then stomped on the brakes when I feared I might run them over.
The sound of the chopper roaring through the sky could be heard when the back door opened.
“Drive, Kaya!” Oliver roared after he threw Thomas in and jumped in the backseat with him.
“I don’t know how to go forward…”
“Foot on the break, lever to the D position.”
I did as I was told.
“Push the gas pedal, Kaya!”
He struggled to get into the front seat as we raced toward the dead-end. The road was icy, and Oliver’s hands were reaching for the steering wheel, working with me as I drove. At the wall of snow, we sailed through the space carved out just for us, and Oliver ordered me to keep going. He gave directions while the car sped through a field on a freshly plowed path, past a neighbor’s driveway, and finally onto an actual road again. I gripped the steering wheel, guiding the car on my own now, keeping the vehicle between the lines while we breathed heavy sighs of relief. Frequent looks at the cloudless sky said the chopper was nowhere to be seen.
“I can’t believe we got away,” I said, every muscle quivering.
“You can pull over. I’ll drive,” Oliver said. “We need to get Thomas to a doctor. Not end up in a car accident.”
I agreed. “I just can’t believe it. If it weren’t for Sindra, we’d be—” I didn’t get a chance to finish.
“Don’t say her name,” Oliver hissed. “Just… don’t. Ever.”
“All right.” Now I had a million and one questions. I held them in as I brought the car to a stop on the side of the road, which was just another lonely line stretching from who knows where to nowhere.
“Just know I am not under her control anymore. I am my own man,” Oliver said. “I am not following her orders, or Henry’s orders, ever again.”
Night was falling over the prairies, but Oliver was being cast in a new light. He was here… on his own… for me. How could I hate him? We’d both made mistakes. We’d both been assholes. I glanced at him, now calm, focused, and certainly not angry, and realized he really was different. I could feel it. It was like the blanket of sickness he’d been covered with had been cast off.
“What you see is the real me now, Kaya. Here by my own choice. Just know that.”
I gulped. Silence fell between us as we stared at each other. And after a full minute of sharing a wordless and unexplainable level of understanding, Thomas spoke up from the backseat.
“Hey,” he said weakly. “Can you finish your heart to heart another time? I’m kinda dying back here…”
The room came in and out of focus—brick walls, a light bulb dangling from the ceiling, silver carts covered with shiny vials, and a wall of whips and chains. Through a drug haze, I realized I was in a cell of some sort. My body felt as if floating, not comfortable, but on edge. Was I on a table? Shaking? Cold metal bit into my bones as I drifted between being awake and asleep. Voices rolled over my mind like thorns on a breeze, real or fake I couldn’t tell. Regardless, I refused to answer any questions. No amount of threats or drugs would make me talk about Kaya. Whatever pain they would inflict was nothing compared to what I felt when she told me she didn’t love me back at that beach…
Jabs to my ribs. Multiple blows to my stomach. No way was I talking. No way was I uttering one word about her, even when the pain became something else—torture. I was pulled upright. Chained from the ceiling. And suddenly, my insides were on fire and my back felt like the skin was being stripped from the bone. A whip was delivering lashes between my shoulders—crack, crack—I gasped for air as it seemed to cut through to my spine. A lashing licked the tip over the back of my ear. Warm blood trickled down my neck. They could cut me to shreds, and I still wouldn’t talk.
“Don’t damage his face or Henry will have your head,” someone said to the girl with the purple hair and neck tattoos.
She was the one enjoying causing me pain. I told her it didn’t hurt. At least, I thought that was what I said. Whatever drug was in me had my mind jumbled. My thoughts were jumping from where I was to a serene, flowing river with Kaya standing at my side… smiling in the moonlight…telling me she was just trying to protect me…
I blacked out. I thought I did, anyway. And when the light bulb came back into view, there was only silen
ce. All I could hear was my own heartbeat, which seemed to be alarmingly erratic. Alone in the dim room, I waited, until I could see blurry shapes moving around me again—lunch break was over. White hooded figures hovered over the silver tables. They were readying some sort of concoction to slip into my veins. I fought with everything I had, but the chains holding me were unbreakable. So was the determination of the people in the lab coats.
Soon, liquid fire surged through my blood and seeped into my mind.
Then came more questions… Where is Kaya? Why did you go to the Carlson Ranch? When did Sindra come to your motel? Where is Oliver?
I tried, but couldn’t lie. Whatever they injected me with had taken away the ability to hold my tongue. Not one part of me could hold back the honest answers that flowed, my voice sounding nothing like my own as I relayed that I didn’t know where Kaya was. They could beat me to a pulp and it wouldn’t matter, because I truly didn’t know. And the baby she lost… why were they questioning me about that? And why was I answering? Something sharp was diving into my arm again, and my mind wasn’t under my control. Questions were followed by pain… the purple-haired girl was demanding answers… Where is Oliver? Do you love Kaya? Does she love you? Would she truly do anything for you?
My muscles felt like they were being stretched apart. Only when I decided that trying to bite off my own tongue was better than talking did they stop the questions.
Then there was nothing. The throb of my heartbeat pulsed through every wounded part of my body, and the taste of blood in my mouth were the only things reassuring me that I wasn’t dead. So I welcomed an impending blackout wholeheartedly…
A surge of fire shot through the tips of my fingers to my neck and shocked me awake. I was hanging from the ceiling by my hands. Metal cuffs were digging into my wrists and attached to chains. I straightened my legs to ease the pressure, but realized my ankles were cuffed, too. I fought against the restraints even though I knew it was futile, and even though every part of my aching body screamed in rebellion.
“Struggling is stupid,” the girl said.
Her hair was done up in some intricately arranged style, her makeup plastered on masterfully, and a polka-dot dress matching the pink cactus tattoo on her neck had replaced the lab coat. I pulled against the chains, feeling fresh blood trickle down my arms.
“Stop doing that, or I’ll make you stop,” she threatened.
I obeyed, mostly because I was too exhausted not to. “Nice dress,” I found myself saying. Slurring slightly, tongue throbbing but thankfully still intact. “I appreciate you dressing for the occasion. Torturing someone is such a glamorous event.”
She laughed. “Ooh, you’re good. And those eyes of yours… no wonder Kaya has fallen for you. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone quite so gorgeous. I bet you clean up spectacularly.”
Kaya. I allowed my mind to drift back to the vision of her standing on that beach, eyes pouring with tears when she said she didn’t love me. I could have died right there…
“Hey, are you listening to me, Luke? What do you say when someone gives you a compliment?”
“Depends, I guess,” I said, trying to get some saliva in my mouth to swallow. “If it was from someone I respected, I’d say thanks. But from a sadistic bitch like you? I think I’ll just say fuck off.”
She laughed. It was a horrifying sound. It gave me the chills more than the metal table displaying shining vials of God knows what ready at her disposal. She caressed a few of the needles, dragging thin fingers across the syringes, but it was the whip that she settled on and picked up with a gleam in her eye.
“You look good with that skin of yours nice and pink,” she said. “It sort of takes my breath away.”
I couldn’t help but shudder. She circled me, running her fingers across my bare arms, then across the welts on my back. Her breath was on my neck as she spoke. “Oh, darling Luke, there’s no place in the world I’d rather be than here with you. You see, at first, I fought it. I fought them. But then I realized they were right, and I could have everything I ever wanted if I just did as I was told.” She pressed her body against mine, reaching around so the tip of the leather strap rested against my bare stomach. “I have all the pretty dresses I want, makeup and jewelry for miles, and a cozy little suite with twenty-four-hour room service. Plus, now I have a man to play with.” She came around to face me and tugged on the waistband of my pants, toying with the button. “My old life sucked. My new life is superb. All I have to do is make people talk—and I’m good at that. When I get my hands on Kaya, I can personally thank her for landing me this job.”
There was so much crazy in her eyes it made my stomach churn. She backed up then. With a flick of her wrist, she sent the tip of the whip across my hip bone. This was just a warm up—I knew what was to come.
“Then you owe her,” I said, clutching at straws, trying the nice-guy approach. “She would want you to let me go. I can get you out of here and take you somewhere nice, away from all this—”
The girl put her fingers to my lips, dragging a pointed fingernail down to my chin. Her breath smelled of cinnamon, her hands like leather and metal.
“Shh… No, no, no, darling. Soon, you will stand here, next to me, the whip in your hands when you deliver the first lashing to your precious Kaya’s back. I wonder… will you break her skin? Oh, I get goose bumps just thinking about it. I can’t imagine how she will scream.”
I pulled with everything I had against the chains, feeling my head spin with pain. “There’s nothing you can do that would make me hurt Kaya. Nothing,” I hissed.
“Now settle down, Luke, or I’ll light your insides on fire with one of these fancy Eronel Pharmaceutical cocktails.
I growled, baring my teeth with the primal urge to rip her head off.
The girl backed away and smoothed her hair. “Anyway, let’s not worry about Kaya for now. We are on a tight schedule. We only have a few minutes of fun before I have to clean you up and fix that messy hair of yours. If you’re a good boy, I’ll get you something to eat and drink.”
Ha. No way in hell was I taking anything she was offering.
She moved to a small mirror hanging from the wall and checked her makeup. “Oh, I’ve picked out some nice clothes for you to wear,” she added. “So don’t worry, you’ll look good when the camera crew gets here. I’ll make sure you’re ready for your television debut.”
Had I heard this crazy broad correctly? “Camera crew? What are you talking about?”
She licked her lips, cherry-red lipstick glistening. “Oh, you’ll see. You’re going to cooperate. Right, Luke? Cause if you don’t, I’ll pump you full of so much dope you’ll be crying for your dead mama, and then, when it wears off, I won’t be as gentle with you as I’m going to be right now.”
She smiled, and I braced myself for what was to come.
Crack…
I kept the hot water trickling, not just to rid the chill clinging to my bones, but to drown out the voices incessantly blathering in the next room. The motel walls were paper thin and everything—even Lisa’s sniffles—were unavoidable.
The men were arguing about what to do next, where to go and how to hide me, and Lisa was having a meltdown over Luke. She wanted to find him. Now. She wanted to rip the world to shreds and seek revenge tenfold for every hair mussed on his handsome head. And, since her feelings mirrored my own and she vocalized them so well, I didn’t have to say a word. I realized—as she ranted and yelled—that she could speak for me while I dissolved in the bathtub.
The whirlwind of the last few days had caught up with me. When we’d found a doctor for Thomas—a well-paid veterinarian, but a doctor just the same—he got the help he needed while stretched out on a metal table too short for a human. It was then it hit me. Full force. All the physical exertion I’d managed to force with the exhaustion I had on every level came at me with a crushing blow. Even my heart was tired. While the doctor dug the bullet out of Thomas’s body, then used something like a staple
gun to put him back together, my legs dropped out from underneath me.
It infuriated me that my body was failing while my mind seemed to have become stronger, and I was livid when Oliver got Thomas in the car and had to come back for me. I couldn’t stop shaking, clothes damp and filthy, clinging to the chair I’d melted into in the veterinarian’s waiting room. My legs and arms were limp as rags. Useless. I was angry I needed his help. And now, as my discarded clothes lay strewn across the lime-green bathroom floor, I was angry I had nothing clean to change into.
I sank into the water, my ears filling up, holding my breath and losing myself in my heartbeat and the soothing sound of the faucet running. I stayed submerged for as long as I could, but it was too tiring and required too much effort to keep bobbing up and down for air. So I rested my head against the wall, letting the bubbles from the cheap motel shampoo build up against my skin. I tried to tune out the voices in the next room, but Oliver’s—deep and loud—was impossible to escape.
“No… I say we head east. Get lost in a big city for a while. It’s most important we get Kaya as far from here as possible.”
Lisa was raging. “More important than going after Luke? Are you kidding me? Who knows what Henry will do to him! There is no time to wait. You can take Kaya wherever you want, but I am going to go get Luke back, starting right this second.”
Oliver was calm. “Lisa, relax, please. Sindra promised us he wouldn’t be hurt, and although she is heinous beyond belief, she would never break a promise. So, we have time—”
Lisa was on the verge of exploding. “I don’t give a stinkin’ rat’s mangy ass about what this devil woman Sindra says! She works for Henry, for God sake. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Seth piped up. “Listen, Lisa, honey, I know you’re upset, but we have to think things through. We need a game plan. A good one. Do you realize what we are up against? Luke could be anywhere. Henry has estates and lab facilities all over the country. So, I think Oliver is right. For now, we concentrate on getting Kaya somewhere she won’t be found.”
Nocturne Page 32
