With a grunt, he shoved me back, barely having to move from his position at the entrance.
I flew backward, my body like a ragdoll. I hit the corner of the bed and stumbled, falling onto the floor on my hands and knees.
Scrambling up, I prepared to fight some more. But the man now had a gun pointed right at me.
“The last time someone pointed one of those at me, I threw a pan of hot food in their face.” I warned.
He didn’t say anything, just held the gun as someone else came around the corner.
Flashbacks ripped through my mind. A red haze fell over me, and through it, all I saw was the night my father was killed. I smelled the urine and sweat in the room. I heard the slaps and grunts as my father was beaten. I heard the man piss in the toilet while I shook and swallowed down my own vomit.
I saw.
I saw the vacant, empty stare in my dead father’s eyes. The blood… dear God, the blood.
“Remember me?” the second man asked as he shut the door behind him.
I blinked, focusing on the sudden perfect vision I had of the giant black spider tattooed on the back of his neck.
He had hair now, but that tattoo would be seared into my brain for all eternity.
“You were dead,” I whispered, shocked.
He laughed. It was an ominous sound. “Because I had to be. Hard to put a dead man on trial.”
The lengths at which these people would go to be free shocked me. Even now.
He must have seen it in my face because he laughed. “You think the only people that have witness protection are the police?”
I couldn’t think. All I could do was stand there paralyzed—body and mind—from the shock of seeing him and having such vivid memories of that horrible day.
He chuckled. It was warm and cocky. “Oh, sweetheart. Where I’m from, we have this thing called hitman hiding.”
The man who never smiled made a noise. Just a nondescript sound that meant nothing. Spider guy seemed to know what it meant, though.
“I don’t care for the term either. Everyone knows guys like us are way more than just hitmen.”
I opened my mouth to scream. I planned to scream so loud all the windows in this entire building would shake.
Spider guy launched himself across the room and tackled me. His large, bricklike body mowed me into the carpet. Before I could say or do anything, he hit me right across the face.
Pain exploded behind my eyes and radiated through my skull. My head lolled to the side for a minute before reality came back, and I tried to fight him off.
He made a sound and stood, grabbing me by the front of the T-shirt and yanking. One of the shoulder seams ripped, and something inside me broke.
This was Liam’s shirt.
Tears welled in my eyes, and I tried to blink them away. They fell over my cheeks.
Liam.
The thought of him became clearer, and real fear settled deep inside me. He was coming back here. He could get caught in the crossfire.
I glanced around at the phone on the bedside table. Spider dude grabbed me by the back of the neck and squeezed so hard my knees buckled. I would have fallen, but he held me up, holding my limp body hostage.
I tried to hit at his arm, to smack it away.
He ignored the movements and leaned down into my face. “You got my buddy sent to prison for life. He’s not getting any time off for good behavior. Know why?”
I made a sound and tried to break free. I couldn’t breathe.
“Why’s that, Spidey?” the man with hollow eyes asked.
“‘Cause someone shanked him in his cell while he was sleeping.” The fingers around my neck tightened, and a cry ripped from my throat.
He dropped me, and I fell onto my knees, gasping.
A gun appeared in Spidey’s hand. There wasn’t a silencer on it, though, and I wondered why.
He pressed the barrel against my temple, pushing it so hard I fell over, and he jammed it closer, pushing the side of my face into the carpet.
I kicked out, my heel connecting with his knee.
He cursed, and the gun left my head.
“You’ve caused us a lot of problems for a fucking little girl.” He grunted and yanked one of my braids. I stood as he pulled.
“Let’s go.” The man by the door grunted.
“Go?” I asked, my voice hoarse and shrill at the same time.
“She thought we were gonna waste her right here,” Spidey said, amused. All joking left his voice, and he shoved close again, so close his lips brushed against my cheek. “If you wanted to be eliminated the easy way, you should have let us kill you the first couple times we tried. That last time? That was the end of us being nice.”
“If that was your idea of being nice, you really should take a class on manners.”
Both men stopped and glanced at each other.
Spidey looked back at me. “You joking right now? You got jokes before you die?” He shook his head. “Man, you are one crazy bitch.”
He gestured with his gun, and the other man opened the door and gazed down the hall. “Clear.”
“Let me tell you how this is gonna go,” he whispered in my ear as he dragged me to the door. “You’re going to walk out of here like we’re all friends. And you ain’t gonna cause a scene.”
“And if I don’t?” I spat. Oh my God. Where is Liam? Please, please, let him not come back yet.
“If you don’t, we’re gonna start shooting people. Everyone we see. And then once they’re dead, we’re gonna come back for your boyfriend.”
My voice shook. “What boyfriend?”
“Don’t play stupid with us, and we won’t play stupid with you.” He shoved me. I fell out into the hallway, ass in the air.
“Fuck,” Spidey said. “Where’s your pants?”
I stood, glancing down to the hall where a red EXIT sign was lit up.
“Go put some pants on. Shoes, too. And a coat.”
“What difference does it make? She don’t need pants to die,” the other man remarked.
“Because people will notice some half-naked broad walking around with two men. Especially in the snow.”
In the snow? We were going outside?
“Take her,” Spidey ordered.
The other man came over, picked me up around the waist, and carried me back into my room. He threw me down on the bed, and I bounced up. “Get dressed.”
I threw out one hand, grabbing the jeans I’d been wearing for days. As I snatched them to me, the man reached out and grabbed my wrist.
His eyes were still hollow, still black when they met mine. His thumb caressed my wrist where he held. “If we had more time… oh, the things I’d do with you.”
A scream built in my throat, and I jerked away from him. The action made me fall across the bed. The man leaned over me, caging me in with his arms. He smiled.
Oh God. It was the sickest thing I’d ever seen.
Lifting the gun, he used the muzzle and ran it up the inside of my thigh. I jolted up, trying to scurry back. He forced me down on the bed, holding me down with his arm. His chest was touching me. And so was the gun…
It kept going higher and higher until I felt it over my panties. He rubbed the cold metal against my core.
“You ever been fucked to death?” he asked, his voice near emotionless. “Imagine being shot from the inside.”
He smiled again, and I screamed.
His hand slapped over my mouth, and I started to fight.
“What the fuck?” Spidey spat from the doorway.
The man holding me down stood. I scrambled back and got off the bed so it was between us.
Quickly, I pulled on the jeans. I wanted as many clothes on as humanly possible.
“We don’t have time for that. Let’s go!” he ordered.
The man came around for me, and I shrank back. My butt came up against the side table. I bumped into it, and a pen fell against my hand. Carefully, I pulled it beneath my fingers, slipping it
behind my back.
“Now,” the man demanded.
“I need my shoes.” I pointed to the boots Liam bought me.
The man turned to get them, and I shoved the pen in my back pocket. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
My boots were thrown at me. One hit the wall, and one hit me. With trembling hands, I pulled them on. Next, he threw my coat at me. I pulled that on, too.
I left the room willingly. Spidey walked in front of me, the other one behind.
Instead of going the way I hoped, they forced me down the stairs but then off onto another floor where they forced me down a flight of service stairs, ones that clearly were not used by guests.
They hustled me through some part of the resort I’d never been in, a place that seemed to be maintenance. The corridors were dark and loud, and the hum of equipment drowned out the sound of them barking at me to move faster.
Eventually, we came to a door. Spidey shoved on it and it swung open. Snowflakes and cold air rushed inside and swirled around my feet.
The sky was dark, and everything outside felt still and quiet.
I stepped out into it all, the snow crunching under my loosely tied boots. The man from behind shoved me. I fell face first into the snow. Everything under the newly fallen powder was hard packed and unforgiving.
I cried out and pushed to my feet.
“Let’s go, Little Miss Star Witness,” Spidey mocked, pointing the gun at me from his side. “It looks like an awfully nice night to die.”
Liam
I had a key to her room, but I didn’t need it.
It was open. The do not disturb sign hanging on the back had flipped around and gotten stuck between the door and the frame.
Alex and I glanced at each other. I put my finger to my lips, and he nodded, taking Charlie by the collar.
I pushed open the door and glanced into the room.
The lights were on. The TV was on. My empty plate and her untouched dinner sat near the window. I stepped inside. “Bells?”
Something crunched under my boots. I looked down and saw chunks of white porcelain all over the carpet.
“Bellamy!” I bellowed and stalked farther in.
It wasn’t hard to see she wasn’t in here. Her absence rang out like the nefarious vibes still wafting around. Panic unlike anything I’d ever felt grabbed my chest and squeezed. Pain lanced around my ribs and choked me.
Practically blind, I shoved past Alex and rushed into the bathroom.
It was empty, too.
“They have her.” My voice was stricken. “They forced their way in and took her.”
“Are you sure?” Alex said, worry written all over his face.
I bent down and picked up the handle of the broken mug. I chucked it across the room and it hit the wall, shattering. “They fucking took her!” I raged.
“Whoa,” Alex said and laid a hand on my shoulder. “Chill.”
“Don’t you tell me to fucking chill!” I jerked away from him. “I gotta find her.” I started to rush out.
Alex grabbed me, yanking me around. I glanced down where he held me. My chest was heaving. “I love you, man, but I will fucking rip off your arm if you try and stop me.”
“I’m not trying to stop you.”
“Then let go,” I grumbled.
He pulled a phone out of his pocket. “Let me call downstairs see if anyone knows where they went.”
I took a breath. “You have five seconds.”
“I’ll do it in four.” He blew out a breath, and I paced to the other side of the room. The sheets were mussed and part of them were dragged toward the floor as if she’d fallen.
I made a choked sound and ripped at my hair.
“It’s Alex. Hey, those men that were downstairs a few minutes ago? Where’d they go?”
My entire body tensed as I listened.
“You better find out right the fuck now, or you’re fired!” Alex whipped the words out like lightning.
I made a rough sound and went to the window, flattening both palms on the glass. My body shuddered with energy, fear.
She swore she’d be here. She should be here. The only reason she wouldn’t be was if someone forced her out.
When I was staring into that gun… all I saw was you. Her words filled my head. The anguish in them, the fear.
“I should have been here!” I roared and hit the glass with the side of my fist. The entire window shook under the hit.
I watched the glass wobble. That’s how I felt inside. Wobbly. About to break. Cold.
Up on the mountain, off to the side of the lift and on the edge of the light, something caught my eye. I smacked my hands into the glass again. It nearly shuddered to a halt as I leaned in and stared.
There were three figures moving. Two large and one noticeably smaller. The light-colored hair on the small one stood out like a beacon for men lost at sea.
It was her. I knew it was. I could feel my soul trying to rip out of my body to fly to where she was. It hurt, so desperate it was trying to claw its way out of my chest.
“Watch Charlie,” I ordered and rushed from the room.
“Liam!” Alex yelled, following me out into the hallway. “Liam, where are you going?”
I glanced back as I continued to run. “If I’m not back by morning, send a search party.”
“Let me come with you!” he yelled, but I just kept on running.
Bellamy
It was cold. Not just any cold, though. The kind that reached through the howling wind with its scrawny, thin fingers and wrapped around your skin, searing past the flesh, reaching all the way to bone.
Winter was a worthy opponent. It didn’t need to be anything other than what it was to win a war. It could bury you in snow, suffocate you with frigid air, or drop your body temperature to a point that the blood just froze in your veins.
And it could do it all while looking like a wonderland.
“Is all this really necessary?” hollow eyes asked as we trudged through the snow.
I didn’t say anything. For two reasons:
1. I was terrified.
2. I was conserving my energy because I wasn’t going to die like this.
“You heard the boss.” Spidey tossed the words over his shoulder like a snowball.
Bitter wind blew, and I squinted against it. Jeans, a T-shirt, and a coat were not enough protection against a snowy mountain at night. My ears already ached inside, my fingers were stinging from lack of heat, and even pushed inside my pockets, they were stiff and unbending.
Snow coated my hair, and my nose was numb. I’d nearly bitten my tongue twice because my teeth were chattering so violently.
I stumbled and would have fallen if I hadn’t caught myself with my hands. They screamed in pain when they sank into the icy snow. Funny how it looked so beautiful through a window, but the second you stepped out into its world, all bets were off.
“Get up.” Hollow eyes grabbed me, forcing me to my feet. My knees ached from the cold.
Even if I managed to survive a gunshot wound, I’d never survive a trip back down the mountain.
“Where are we going?” I asked, shuddering.
He shoved me, and I started trudging again.
“To a place where your body won’t be found until spring. And when it is, it’ll be by the bears,” Spidey replied.
“Why not just kill me now?” I asked, glancing back at the resort. It was getting farther away with every step.
Just keep going. Lead them away from Liam. The farther the better.
“I already told you. You earned a painful, frigid death. Not only did you put the boss and a lot of his people behind bars, but you made us all look like fools when you escaped. We’re gonna make an example outta you. Anyone who thinks they can follow in your footsteps will think twice.”
“That why you came out of hiding?” I goaded. “So you could take care of me yourself?”
“I don’t like loose ends,” he spat.
My toe
s burned, and my legs felt wind burned through these stupid jeans.
“This way.” Spidey grabbed me suddenly, forcing me in a different direction. So far, we’d been going up the mountain. Off to the side of the lifts. I’d tried to wave at some people riding on it about a mile back.
Spidey and friend laughed at me.
The snow falling from the sky had picked up. Visibility was lower than before. We weren’t under lights, and all of us were dressed in black. Why couldn’t I have picked a neon-yellow coat?
We walked some more, past a marker gesturing for us to turn back for the black diamond hill. It was darker the farther we got, so dark that Spidey pulled out a small flashlight and led the way.
He shined a light on another marker, one that distinguished the parameters of the resort. Everything beyond this point was unpatrolled and considered unsafe. They were making me hike through the snow up the side of a mountain to the place I would die.
I started to think about Liam. About everything we would never get to do. About how glad I was I got to see him again. How glad I was I got to at least tell him I loved him.
“Whoa,” Spidey said, stopping abruptly. He shined the flashlight over what looked like a drop-off. The light stretched down to the untouched, smooth snow.
“We’re here,” he said, turning. The whites of his eyes glowed in the dark, and his pale face stood out against the night and the black beanie he’d pulled on.
I bet it was warm under that hat.
Hollow eyes shoved me toward the edge, and I grappled for balance before managing to right myself.
Two guns lifted and trained on my chest.
Another flash from the night my father died slapped over all my thoughts. The way he jerked when the bullets hit him. The way his body dropped to the floor.
“Any last words?” Spidey asked.
“Yeah,” I said, reaching around to my back pocket. My fingers were so cold it was difficult to force them to bend, but they did, and I grabbed the pen. “This is for my father.”
Avalanche Page 18
