by Jayne Blue
There was only one kind of man who could have touched Lila last night. And he was someone like me.
Chapter Twenty
Lila
It’s a strange thing to wake with your hands and feet bound. For a moment, I thought I was already dead. It was cold and dark in this place. The scent of damp earth filled my brain and I thought maybe I’d been buried alive. Then my whole body erupted in painful coughs and I knew I was very much alive.
“Shhh!” A voice echoed from across the room. A room. This was a room. My cheek pressed against cold cement. Blurry light came from behind me. I twisted, trying to see.
Glass block windows? A basement. This was a basement. A hulking shadow moved in front of me. Panic set in. I drew my legs up and tried to roll into a sitting position. I had little memory flashes of being on the move. It had been hot and dark and my stomach flipped with motion sickness. He’d put me in the trunk of a car, I think. My ribs ached where his shoulder had cut into me. He’d carried me over it, slung like a sack of potatoes.
“Sorry about that,” a ragged male voice said. I didn’t recognize it. Not Tommy. Not Damon. What was that accent? It had a nasal twang but it wasn’t Texas. Midwestern, maybe.
I managed to right myself. Pain shot through my ankles as blood started to flow there again.
He’d taken me from behind. I remembered that. It had felt like a steel bar across my chest and all my air went out. I’d scraped the ball of my ankle. I think I’d tried to kick backward. Dried blood covered the side of my leg and I’d lost my shoes.
He came into the light. My eyes went up and up. He was tall with stringy brown hair. He might have been handsome once. What an odd thing to think. He had dark eyes and scratches on his neck. Had I made those? They looked healed though. How long had I been here? Not long. My timeline was all jumbled. I knew I’d woken up at least once in that trunk.
He’s gone now. Time to get set up. He’d said that just before he opened the trunk. Who did he mean?
“You’re pretty,” he said, sending a new chill of terror through me. But his tone wasn’t predatory. It was more matter of fact.
“Of course you’d be pretty. You’re probably smart too. Maybe even rich. Come from a good family, do you? Homecoming Queen?”
“What the actual fuck are you talking about?” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud. My throat was on fire. Thirst gripped me.
“You probably said yes as soon as he asked you out, didn’t you? No. Girl like you? I bet you asked him. He doesn’t have to work for it. Slips right in.”
“Look, I’m sorry. I don’t know who you are or what you’re talking about.”
“I watched you,” he said. “You bake even.” He started to laugh. It became a little maniacal and my blood ran cold.
I felt like everything in my head was on a time delay. Like I should know something about him already but my mind just wouldn’t catch up. Come from a good family, do you?
My family. This was about Tommy. It had to be. Except he’d just asked if I’d been the one to ask someone out. Nothing made sense.
“Where are we?” I asked. Again, my throat scratched and I started to cough.
He disappeared back into the shadows. When he re-emerged, he held a small water bottle. I would have lunged for it if not for the ropes. He held it to my lips as I tilted my head back. I drank greedily, hungrily.
“Take it easy. Don’t want to choke.” He took the water away. Some still dripped down my chin.
“Slips right in,” he said.
“You said that before. Who are you talking about?”
“It’s a nice life. I can’t have that. I can never have that.” The man’s eyes went wide. He crossed the distance between us and skidded to his knees. He was only an inch away from me. I smelled beer on his breath and the stench of his body odor. He was sweating.
Drugs. He was on something. He picked at his collar and I understood the scratches on his neck.
“Look. Is it money you need? You’re looking to score? It’s your lucky day, buddy. Do you know who I am?”
The guy’s eyes widened and he finally stepped back. He sat cross-legged in front of me, picking at his beat-up tennis shoe.
“My name is Lila Kelly,” I said. “Kelly. Maybe that doesn’t mean anything to you, but it does to my father and my brother. I really don’t know what you want from me. But they’ll pay you. If they don’t kill you first.”
I said the wrong thing. They guy moved with cat-like quickness, getting in my face again. He curled his fingers around my neck. He didn’t squeeze, didn’t hurt me. I think he just wanted me to know he could.
“They can’t kill me. No one can kill me. I can’t even do it. You think I haven’t tried?”
“Okay. Okay. Fine. But they’ll pay you. They’ll pay you a lot of money.”
He let go of me. “So you’re rich too. Of course you’d be rich.”
With each word he spoke, my hopes sank. This guy seemed to have zero clue who my family was. The one time in my life I almost felt grateful for my family name, and it didn’t matter at all.
“Team Six,” he said, letting me go. He puffed out his chest and leaned back against the wall. For the first time, I noticed the gun he held casually in his left hand.
“They called me a hero, did you know that?”
My brain fogged over. It got hard to breathe.
“That why you were turned on to him in the first place? Hero? Is that what you thought you were getting? Well, let me tell you, it’s all a lie.”
Team Six. Hero. I pressed the back of my head against the wall. I was so tired. Everything ached. My mind felt like it was stuck in frozen molasses. Think. I had to think. Who was he? What did he want? I had to keep him talking.
“Fancy job where the town worships him. Nice brick house. Gets to look out at cows all damn day if he wants. Then you. I saw you kissing him. I saw what you wanted.”
Beckett. Was he talking about Beckett? Instinct made me afraid to say his name.
“I’ll tell you about your hero. Get in. Get out. He was the best I’d ever seen except for me. Nothing fazed him. Not in BUD/S. Not in the field. Nothing. M.O.H. We used to tease him. As in, most likely to win the Medal of Honor. It was a joke. He hated it. Then ... those fuckers tried to give it to him.”
“What’s your name?” I tried to scratch my nose with my shoulder. It didn’t work. Beckett. This was about Beckett. Once again, instinct bled through me. Keep him talking. Get to know him. Figure out a way to let him get to know you.
“He never told you? Why does that not fucking surprise me? He can just go on, move on, keep on. Fucking Superman.”
“He was worried about you,” I said, throwing a line out I prayed would stick. “You came to see him a few weeks ago, didn’t you? Beckett said …”
“Don’t!” He put a finger up. “I don’t want to hear his name. You got me?”
I nodded quickly. “Yes. Yes. All right. I won’t.”
“He should have left me there! He should have been there with us!”
God. What was his name? Had Beckett mentioned it? He’d said he had a friend in need that night back when we first met.
“He says the same thing,” I whispered, hoping I’d struck the right note. “He blames himself more than you know.”
The guy froze. His eyes flickered. “He doesn’t talk about it. He never talks about it.”
“It must have been a nightmare. I can’t imagine. But you’re wrong if you think it doesn’t haunt him too. I’ve seen it. He can’t sleep. He can’t let go.”
Wrong. I’d hit wrong. His face changed, going still as if he’d just turned into a block of ice.
“They didn’t do to Finch what they did to the rest of us. Golden Boy. Came charging in like some kind of hero with flesh on his bones and his eyes sharp. Mine are never going to look like that again.”
“They captured you?” I asked. “The Taliban?”
He changed again. One moment he was here, staring hard at m
e. The next, he was somewhere else. Living out whatever nightmare he’d been through. Part of me wanted to feel sorry for him. I’d lied. Beckett said so very little about what happened to him in Afghanistan. I’d only just heard him thrash in his sleep.
“Fucking Finch. They ambushed us. Ten to one. But they don’t take him. He’s too smart for that.” The guy punched his finger into his temple. “Too fucking smart! Too fucking lucky.”
“But they got you instead,” I said. “You and your buddies? Finch’s unit? Is that what happened? That must have been so awful. But you made it out. You’re alive. You’re here. They can’t hurt you anymore.”
He let out a choked sound and ran a hand beneath his nose. “They hurt me every day. They take away everything from me bit by bit. They took Brady too. He put a bullet in his head. Did Beckett tell you that? Brady. Connor. Jody. Meathead. Powell. Tully. They’re dead. All dead. Beckett thought he saved us all. He should have just left us there. I’m still there!”
My head spun as I tried to make sense of what he was saying. Ambush. Capture. Somehow Beckett got away but the rest of his unit, including this guy, had been captured. I felt for him. I did. But I just couldn’t see how this was going to end in any good way for me.
“You’re not,” I said. I wished I had my hands. I could touch him. Maybe bring him back to the present. “What’s your name, sailor? Will you tell me that, at least?”
He stayed stone still and ghostly silent.
“Finch. Brady. Connor. Jody. Meathead. Powell. Tully. And you. What did they call you?”
He squeezed his eyes shut. “Henny.”
“Hi, Henny. I’m Lila. It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. We can get you some help. You don’t have to live like this anymore. There are people who …”
He grabbed me by the shoulders and jerked me to my feet. He was so big. So strong. He held me off the ground. “Shut up. Shut your mouth.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please.”
He let me drop. Somehow, I managed to stay on my feet even with them bound at the ankles. Every part of me ached. God. Beckett. Where were we? Would he even realize I was gone? Would he think I’d just left town again?
“What do you want from me!” I screamed. I tried to play it calm and cool. Get in his head. But I was just too damn scared and the look in his eyes had gone from sad to just plain crazy.
“He needs to feel what I feel! For once! It has to be hard for him too. He has to listen!”
“He will,” I said. I couldn’t hold my tears back anymore. This guy was going to kill us both. I saw it written plainly in his eyes. He wanted to hurt Beckett. He wanted to make him pay for whatever he thought he’d done in Afghanistan.
“Hero. Some hero.”
“He doesn’t think that,” I said, sobbing. I was tired, hungry, scared. I felt so far away from everyone and everything I knew. I even missed Tommy, God help me.
“You are,” I said. “Henny. What you’ve been through. What you’ve sacrificed. I don’t know what you did over there. I can’t even imagine. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like after that ambush. They took you prisoner?”
He closed his eyes slowly. It was enough of an answer.
“There’s a name for what you’re feeling. You’re not alone. You can get help. Please. Just let me go.”
“He loves you,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
I swallowed hard. “I think so.”
He smiled. “And you love him too?”
I could lie, but something in his eyes told me he’d know. “I think so,” I said.
His smile broadened. “Good. That means he’ll come for you. He’ll try to rescue you just like he did me.”
Slowly, he sat back down, pressing his back against the wall. I sank to the floor in front of him. No. God, no.
He’ll try to come for you. He’ll try to rescue you just like he did me.
It’s what he wanted. I was bait. Maybe it wasn’t me he wanted to hurt.
“Henny, please.” My plea died in the air.
A shrill ring cut through the silence, hitting me like a lightning bolt. Henny didn’t move. A second ring came and he calmly took his cell phone out of his pocket. He kept his cold eyes locked with mine. Tears wet my cheeks.
“Took you long enough, Beckett,” he said, his face spreading into a crazed smile. His eyes went dead and I knew he was well and truly gone.
Chapter Twenty-One
Beckett
My heartbeat slowed. My vision narrowed. I pressed the phone to my ear, listening for any clue. Henny’s breathing slowed too.
“Henny, let me talk to Lila.” My voice didn’t sound like my own. I was here but not here. Sand filled my nostrils, drowning me. I squeezed my eyes shut then snapped them open again. No. She needed me. I had to stay right here.
“She’s pretty, Finch. You always got the pretty ones.”
“Henny.”
“I don’t want to hurt her.”
“Then don’t. It’s not too late to undo all of this.”
“The fuck it isn’t!” Tommy Kelly paced next to me. His face turned red and he reached for the phone. “You tell that piece of shit who he’s dealing with.”
I raised a single finger to my lips.
“Don’t worry about him, Henny,” I said. “This is between you and me.”
“You can’t talk your way out of this one, Finch. You can’t swoop in and be the hero. You should have been there. Right beside me. You and Connor. How’d you get so lucky, huh? Not a scratch on you.”
His words cut through me. Lucky. He thought I was lucky. That had always been Henny’s problem. “I know,” I said.
Tommy was getting twitchy again. I couldn’t stay here. I started toward the elevator. He had the good sense to motion to his men to let me pass. But he followed close behind. I knew I should have made this call far away from Tommy, but once the puzzle pieces snapped in place, I couldn’t wait.
Henny was my brother. He’d trained right alongside me. He was one of the only other men on this planet with the skills I had. Now he was using them against me. If I couldn’t get to her, Lila would pay the price.
“You think that’s not on my mind every day, Henny? Every night? It was an ambush, man. Our intel was wrong. Other people let us down. It wasn’t your fault and it wasn’t mine. It was bad luck. If I’d been standing on the north side of that fucking road, they would have got me and Connor too. If either of us had been walking just a few feet further west, snipers would have taken us out instead of Tully, Powell, Meathead, and Jody.”
Henny’s laugh made me sweat. I made it down to the lobby, and broke into a run. Tommy and his man Damon kept up with me. I supposed in some corner of my mind that should have impressed me.
I slammed through the revolving doors and headed for my truck. When I got to it, Tommy blocked my path. I held up a finger again then hit mute on my phone.
“Get the fuck out of my way. I do this alone.”
“You don’t even know where you’re going!”
“I have an idea,” I said. Henny was rambling on the other end of the phone. It was good. The longer he talked, the better chance I’d have of figuring out where he’d taken Lila. He wouldn’t have gone far. He wanted me to find him. I sensed that in my bones. Dammit, I just wanted to hear Lila’s voice.
I pushed past Tommy. Damon pulled up alongside my truck in his huge Mercedes. Tommy shot me a look, then slipped into the passenger seat beside Damon. Fuck them. I could lose them if I needed to.
“Henny!” I shouted into the phone. As soon as I got the truck started, his voice came through my Bluetooth speakers. I tossed the phone on the seat and peeled away from the curb. I headed back toward Crystal Falls. It was just a hunch. But even if I was wrong, I could stop back at my place and get some supplies. Keep him talking. That was the only thing I could do right now.
“Superman. You’re fucking superman.”
“Cut that shit,” I said. “You’ve been
playing that tune for seven years, Henny. I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t do. You didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have.” Except for now. Except for this. I left that part unsaid.
“You can’t save the world, this time, Finch.” His voice broke.
“I never saved the fucking world, Henny. I didn’t even save you. It was all four of us. Connor and I figured out where they’d taken you and Brady. But we wouldn’t have won that fight without you. You rescued yourself, Henny. You survived.”
He was laughing now. That felt worse than crying. “They wouldn’t have broken you. Not you. Not Beckett Finch.”
“Goddammit, Henny. You didn’t break. You’re alive, you asshole. You survived three days of the worst torture any man could live through. But you did. That’s on you. I didn’t do that for you.”
“I didn’t survive.” He got quiet. “They took something from me. Now it’s time for you to feel that same pain, Finch.”
Lila screamed and my heart ripped in two. Then everything got quiet.
“Henny! Dammit, Henny!”
I heard him sniff hard. I couldn’t hear Lila. Either he’d moved away from her, or he’d silenced her. I couldn’t let myself think of how.
“It’s peaceful now,” Henny whispered. “But it never stays like this.” His voice was different. Before it had echoed. Now I could hear background noises that weren’t there before. A breeze. Maybe a dog barking? I pulled to the side of the road and cut my engine. I turned up the volume on my speakers as loud as it could go.
Another bark. No. Not a dog. Not a bark. That was the bleat of a cow.
My heart turned to stone as I realized where Henny might have gone. And it meant he’d planned for exactly how this should end.
* * *
Henny hung up on me. He knew I’d heard what I heard. He knew where it would lead me. But that was his plan all along. What I didn’t know is whether he was so far gone he’d really hurt Lila. I wanted to believe he wouldn’t. She was innocent in this. But it was my pain he was trying to cause. So he’d picked the perfect target.
