The Altruism Effect: Book One (Mastermind Murderers Series 1)

by Kristin Helling

  She didn’t move.

  He walked up to her, so close she could smell the sweat mixed with pine soap. The same soap she’d showered with in the guards’ quarters. He shoved her up against the wall.

  Raine winced as she hit the wall. He was much stronger than her, and her hands were cuffed, resting at the small of her back.

  Keep him talking, just keep him talking. She peered around him at Arie one more time, then turned her attention back to him. “The other guards don’t treat us like this. They don’t need to exercise their… authority.”

  “When I woke up ‘ere, I decided there was only one way ta play this game. It’s muh choice ta act like this.” His diction was syrupy. He wasn’t from the Bay area, that was obvious. She wondered how far the Warden, Allen, had gone to find victims.

  “You were taken from your life too. Like me. You’re trapped here.” It was worth a try. Maybe he would crack.

  “Listen ‘ere.” He knelt down to the ground in front of her. “We’re not out there. We’re in here. And in here, I’m the boss.” He placed his hand on her thigh.

  His touch was like a thousand needles as his crusty hand rested on her bare leg. She recoiled. “See. That’s where you’re delusional.”

  He tilted his head in contemplation.

  In that second, Raine twisted onto her hip and pulled her free leg up between his. It was enough to do the trick. Her knee landed right between his legs, and he fell over on his side, doubled over in the pain from the blow to his manhood.

  While he tried to recover, she twisted and wrestled herself to a stand, all the while dodging him. She pulled her foot back and kicked him in the ribs, and he moaned again. She couldn’t think twice about what she was doing, she just had to do it. There wasn’t time for conscience. There wasn’t time for plotting. Only instinct.

  So when Buck opened his mouth to speak once more, she drew her foot back and swung forward, hard, kicking him in the mouth. The kick to the face was painful, sending a lightning bolt of agony up her leg. She must have cut her foot on one of his jagged teeth.

  But it wasn’t enough to stop him. He grabbed her ankle and yanked it.

  She had no time to brace herself, and the impact of her tailbone on the concrete was enough to send shudders through her body. She moaned and rolled away from him. She saw the guard roll onto his back. His face was bloodied, and he still clutched his groin.

  She was grateful for her flexibility and small stature, for she was able to pull her arms from behind her back, underneath her butt, and step through them. Even though her balance was better with her hands in front, she gingerly used the wall, as her tailbone and hips were sore from the fall.

  “You lil bit-”

  Raine pounced on his stomach. She closed her eyes and beat him with her fists locked into a club. As she slammed into him, she thought of every man in her life that this guard represented. Every time she felt out of control. The times she was walking down the street, minding her own business, and had to grip her keys tighter as an innocent man walked towards her. Every time Troy got handsy around her, and thought it was his right to. When she laid her head down on her pillow at night and closed her eyes, only to see the black car at the curb, waiting… lurking…

  She squeezed her eyes against the pain cutting into her wrists as she pounded her handcuffed fists down onto him. This person underneath her represented what she feared most in this world. She experienced a sort of release as his flesh ripped at each blow, and the blood sprayed.

  She beat him until she heard a moan ring out from behind her.

  Arie.

  She stood up from Buck, and staggered to Arie, kneeling down by his side.

  His eyes were half open, and the pupils large, petrified.

  Raine looked over at her shoulder at the scene. She froze. “I… I didn’t mean… he was-”

  Arie reach out and touched her hand. “You had to,” he croaked.

  The overwhelming sense of regret drowned her. “What do I—What do I do, Arie?”

  “Run.” His voice was low and scratchy, but plain as day.

  “I can’t leave you.”

  “You have to. I can’t make it like this. You can make it.”

  “I’ll—” She looked up at the door. “I’ll carry you.“

  “Don’t be silly. Go.”

  She looked down at him, her mouth twitched. “I’ll come back for you. I promise.” She couldn’t stop her tears, salty as they collected at the corner of her lips.

  He nodded, his eyes as wide as saucers. “You are so beautiful, Raine,” he whispered as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back.

  She knelt down and smoothed his hair back. “I promise I’ll come back.”

  He opened his eyes and touched her cheek. He wiped away a trail of a tear.

  She closed the gap between them.

  He put his lips on hers.

  It was soft, and sweet, and it took Raine all the rest of her resolve to back away.

  “Go,” he whispered, his eyes intense as he stared into hers.

  Raine stood up. She turned around and looked at the man she had beaten to a pulp, then at her bloodied wrists. He had the keys to her cuffs. She walked over to him and knelt down. She avoided looking at his face, reached into the pocket of his pants, and pulled out the key ring.

  “C’m here.” Arie croaked.

  His voice startled her as she looked through the keys, and she looked up at him. She went to him.

  He winced as he propped himself up on his elbows.

  Raine held out the keys to him.

  He sifted through a few larger ones on the top of the ring, to a small key that was tucked in between.

  She held her wrists out.

  Arie put the key into her cuffs, gingerly holding the back of her hand, and twisted it. The mechanism snapped off both wrists and dropped to the floor with a clink.

  She twisted her wrists and winced.

  “Warden will probably come back, considering—” He nodded to the man behind her. “You need to run. That door is still-”

  “Unlocked,” she finished. She squeezed his hand. It was hard to stare into his face, black and blue from being beaten. She nodded and turned from him, rushing to the door. She couldn’t imagine what she herself looked like.

  “I’ll come back,” she whispered over her shoulder one last time, before she cracked the door open, and looked both ways down the hallway. The coast was clear, and she darted into it.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Raine left the door to the room ajar and peered up and down the hallway. Voices were coming from past the warehouse doors. From behind her, she heard them coming from the stairwell that led to the Warden’s loft. She turned from the muffled sound and hurried down the hallway, headed for the door to the roof.

  Though she ran as fast as her legs would take her, it was as though they were filled with cement. The door seemed farther and farther away. Like one of those nightmares where function and senses become impaired. Her legs slowed down, her peripheral vision narrowed. Each time her bare foot hit the ground, not only did the impact jolt up through her leg, past her hip and into her back, but her dominant foot, the right side, was covered in blood, much of it hers, and sent a shock of pain with every step.

  She had no time to look back. As she passed the guard quarters, she thought of Brandon Perez.

  What happened to him? Where is he now?

  When she got out of here, she would find his wife and deliver the news that he was still alive. At least the last time she’d seen him, he was. And he’d had a major role in helping her survive. She’d go back and save him.

  There was no time to look for him now. The voices were getting louder, closer.

  She reached the door, and for a split second before her hand wrapped around the handle, she had a moment of sheer panic. What if it w
as locked? She should have taken Buck’s keys, instead of leaving them behind after Arie relieved her of the cuffs. The brass knob was cool against her skin. She twisted, and pulled the door open.

  Unlocked!

  The sun greeted her again, blinding her briefly. She started up the cement steps. In her haste, she slipped and slammed her shin into the edge of a stair.

  She cried out and crawled up the rest of the stairs with both hands and feet until she reached the top.

  The stairwell opened out to an expanse of bare roof. The perimeter was large, with nothing but vast sky and white puffy clouds above her head.

  Arie often referred to “the yard” as if he was floating in the sky. They were only brought up here on cloudy, foggy days. And she knew the Warden drugged them beforehand, hence the disorientation and visuals Arie associated with the yard.

  She spun around, looking for any signs of a fire escape. Though the walls surrounding the perimeter of the roof were not tall, only about four feet, the top was lined with barbed wire. It looked like a prison yard.

  She traced the perimeter of the roof.

  She could hear voices down by the door.

  If she wanted to escape, she needed to act quickly.

  She ran to the fence and put her swollen foot into the chain link, hoisting herself up. Her other foot came next, straight above that. She grabbed onto the chain links directly under the barbed wire and pulled herself up. She couldn’t say she’d ever climbed a fence before, but then again, there had been a lot of firsts in this prison.

  As she carefully swung her leg over the barbed wire, watching so she didn’t catch herself on the barbs, she caught a glimpse of movement in her peripheral vision. She had to focus on the fence before she could look, but as she swung her other leg over and dropped down onto the ledge of the other side of the fence, she heard the distinct voice.

  “What are you going to do? Jump?” he asked.

  She held onto the fence and shifted her gaze to the hunched over man standing too close to her. His glasses reflected the sunlight, but he was looking right at her.

  She didn’t answer. She hadn’t even looked over the edge yet. Surely there’s a fire escape somewhere? She turned her body and looked down.

  There was no ground beneath the building. Clouds. Fog. She couldn’t see anything below. She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again.

  “It’s 843 feet to be exact. You’re standing on the roof of one of the highest skyscrapers in the city. I own it.” The words were sickly proud.

  Her body filled with rage. She was losing control. She was out of options. What do I do, what do I do? Her mind raced.

  “Just walk on the ledge over to the corner and I’ll let you back in.” He was calm.

  That was the last thing she wanted to do.

  “Unless you want to die.”

  The words pounded in her ears.

  What would happen if I went back in there? I would die. Die at the hands of a terrible man in a terrible place, or die on my own accord? She couldn’t believe she was contemplating the thought, and yet she couldn’t seem to find any other outcome for her. Her eyes pricked with tears as she decided her fate, and her body filled with overwhelming anticipation of what was to come.

  The man on the other side of the fence stepped towards her.

  “Get the hell away from me!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  He laughed nervously, and looked over his glasses at her. His voice was as cold and deep as the rain on the night of her capture. “Do you think you can escape me, even in death?”

  The threat sent a chill through her. Her thoughts raced at a million miles a second. There is no hope here. No hope of escaping. And I will never surrender to him. That’s what he wants. “You allowed us this little escape so I could find out on my own that there was no way to defy you. You’re always watching us. You knew we were going to find out about this roof. We either stay in that prison, or die.” Her voice was low.

  I would become Meg if I stayed.

  “What about all the rest of those people? What about them, Raine? No one will ever know they’re here.”

  She turned away from him and looked down into the clouds again. The words burned in her mind as he spoke them, guilt ripping at her insides. No one will ever know they’re here. Some of the people trapped in there helped her get this far. Arie, Megan, Perez. She didn’t come this far to fail them. And She knew exactly what the Warden was capable of. She’d found that out in the red room with Troy. Troy told her they were in a building just above the city, and that people walked by with shopping bags and coffees in their hands just underneath them. If he was telling the truth, and she jumped, someone would find her and that would lead them to the others. Her head was spinning, but all the pain she felt in her legs, feet, and in her heart had dissipated.

  “An unknown fate,” she whispered once more to herself.

  She looked back at the Warden before she let go of the fence.

  And fell.

  Fell into the cloudy oblivion.

  THIRTY-TWO

  Free fall.

  The feeling of complete loss of control. She spread her arms out like a bird falling from the sky. She’d have liked to see where she was headed, but the speed at which she was falling forced tears from her squinting eyes, and she had to close them. The wind picked up her gown and it flapped against her.

  In those few seconds, she felt exhilarated and defeated all in the same moment. She’d made the decision to fall. She’d given in to the circumstances. She’d given up. All hope was gone, and she surrendered.

  She wanted to allow herself to fall into unconsciousness. It’d be easier that way, but for some reason she couldn’t.

  Because in those moments, as the wind whipped her hair, she was free.

  The ground came quicker than she’d expected. Only she was still breathing. The impact wasn’t pavement.

  She was alive.

  It was a soft, bouncy landing. With her stomach in her throat, she turned to her side, her whole body aching and sore, and gripped onto the unstable surface she’d fallen into.

  A net.

  Panic set in, gripping her tightly and she looked down through the braided net to the rooftops of the city buildings below. She was still high above the ground, but when she turned and looked up toward the roof, the distance she’d fallen became apparent. The delusional man called the Warden had turned the penthouse of his skyscraper into a makeshift copycat prison from an archived psychological experiment—only he’d glorified the experience and all that came with it for its participants, physically and mentally.

  And words she’d heard before she made the decision to fall were flooding back into her now. Do you really think you could escape me, even in death?

  This was his net. It was as though he were a poisonous arachnid, waiting for his prey to send vibration across his web so he could make his way over to them, stick a needle in their vein to paralyze them, and tie their limbs for consumption later. She was his prey, just as she was when strapped to his table.

  She’d read an article about these nets once, they were actually called suicide nets. There was talk of a large cell phone company in Asia lining their buildings with these suicide nets because workers were jumping from the high windows to escape the working conditions.

  She needed to move. And fast.

  She rolled over onto her stomach and tried to push herself up to a crawling position, but the net was wobbly and unstable. She gripped in the braided ropes and pulled her weight over to the side. If she didn’t act quickly, Allen would be here to reel her in.

  She squinted down to see what was underneath. There was a small alley, of course everything was small from this height, but next to that was another building. From the sky, she hadn’t recognized where in the city they were, though she’d suspected they’d never l
eft the Bay area. Troy was telling the truth!

  If she was caught, she could suffer a similar fate. Though it could be worse for her. She had not escaped just yet. And the guilt of leaving Arie and Megan and the others behind was enough to keep her from wanting to crawl over the edge of the net. But something inside her told her she had to. She’d made this choice, even if out of dire desperation.

  She lay with her chest on the net, looking over the edge at the building below. She imagined the flights of stairs the Warden was taking to reach her. He knew exactly at which height he’d built the suicide net, close enough to the building that bystanders down below would never notice it. If they had caught a glimpse, they’d perhaps think it was just scaffolding on the building, something common in the city.

  As she looked at the building, she realized what she’d done. She’d jumped. She’d made the decision to kill herself. And that would be on her for the rest of her life.

  But right now, she needed to push that aside. This net, a death trap, was also a second chance at life.

  She was given a second chance.

  Whether it was the wind, or just her imagination, she felt a jolt in the net. A brisk tug. She grabbed onto the braids, rug burn on her palms, and scaled the net all the way until she was hanging over the rooftop of the building below. This was the choice she had.

  So she rolled off the net, tucked her arms in, and allowed the fall to embrace her once more.

  THIRTY-THREE

  A sharp pain seared through her arm and up to her shoulder.

  This fall was not as cushiony as the last. She’d hit the rooftop and rolled. She lifted her limp, pain-shattered arm and saw a white prick of bone piercing through her skin.

  Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she held her numbed arm against her chest, her gown soaking with more warm, crimson liquid, mixed with the rest from before. She lifted her head and banged it against the roof to try and stay conscious.

  “Stay… awake.” she whispered to herself. If she faded to black, she didn’t know where she would wake up.

  And as of now, she was laying sprawled on the rooftop below her captor’s line of sight, like a fish flopping out of water. The bird above was her enemy, and could swoop down at any moment to scoop her up. And despite the pain resonating through her whole body, she needed to get out of sight. She inched herself over to the edge of the building. This time she saw a fire escape. She could crawl down the fire escape and get help. Call out for someone to come help her.