“Not smart enough to keep your mouth shut!”
I shouldn’t have been surprised, not with my parent’s deaths so fresh in my mind. But this was Peyton. Despite sleeping with Marcus, I expected her to have some small shred of moral decency. But now I was beginning to think she was right in league with Alec.
“Run it off again, and I’ll have Alec use Bennie as a chew toy.”
Turning to the window, I stared into the passing fields. “He was like a brother to you, Peyton. What the hell happened to make you treat him this way?”
“You.”
“You were my best friend.”
“Shut up.”
“I would’ve done anything for you.”
“Would you have given up Michael? Or Marcus?” Peyton snapped. “I crushed on Michael Dougherty since we were in kindergarten, Thale! You never once asked if I cared when he asked you out!”
“No—”
“See!” she hissed. “At least you’re admitting it now!”
“In hindsight,” I qualified. “Michael Dougherty was a player! He wasn’t worth it! And Marcus wasn’t much better. God, Peyton—don’t you see how twisted this whole thing is? Did I live happily ever after with either one of them?”
“No, you’re not the happily ever after type. I am. I’m the one they marry, because I would worship the ground they walk on. But they were to dumb to see it, blinded by your unearthly beauty. You were always there, hogging their attention!”
“You’re absolutely right. I’m just the one they want to fuck and brag about it. I’m the one with the reputation. I can see why you’re so jealous.”
Blinking nonexistent tears from her eyes, Peyton pulled her mouth into a contrived frown. “Woe is me. Everybody wants me. What to do?”
“I didn’t know,” I said wearily, giving up. “If I had known you liked them that much, I wouldn’t have dated either one of them. But you never said anything either. So you’re at fault just as much as I am.”
Pulling a sharp left, the H2 took a deep dip onto a dirt track that led into the far side of the state park. There were nothing but a few large barns, abandoned horse rentals after insurance premiums skyrocketed. That and the West Nile Virus exploded, killing a handful of horses, and leaving the rest quarantined. Many of the stables were never able to recover.
The farms lining the park, originally privately owned, were now park property, expanding the seventeen hundred acre park with another hundred odd acres of open land space. Some of them were rented out to private borders, but others remained vacant still today.
As the H2 bounced vigorously down the path, it was obvious they were using one of the vacant stables. It was wet and the tires slid occasionally in the thawing mud. The vegetation was wintered, with only stickers and thorns overhanging the path, marring the paint with hairline scratches as we bulldozed through. The ruts weren’t deep, which told me this wasn’t their official hideout. I hated to think of the reason for choosing such a remote location today.
“Do you mean that?” Peyton asked reservedly. “You really didn’t know?” I turned my head; her face turned immediately cool. “Not that it’s an excuse. You were my best friend, and best friends know these things, but I’d like to know how diluted I was to think you cared.”
“Yes,” I said simply. Let it be on her conscience, not mine. I thought I saw her eyes shift, dilating with emotion, but she was quick to compose herself.
“It’s a shame we didn’t do this two years ago. It’s too late now.” Peyton released her seatbelt and slid from the jeep, not bothering to glance in my direction. If she had, she might’ve noticed when I reached for my Berretta, but she was so confident of my compliance.
My heart sank in my chest, stuttering with dread as my fingers fondled the empty holster. I must’ve dropped it when Icarus tackled me. I hadn’t noticed the missing weight earlier.
Absently, I thanked God that I hadn’t thought of it. I might’ve chosen it instead of the train. I was much quicker with a trigger than my own two feet. Where would Bennie be then?
“Are you coming or not?” Peyton snipped, waiting by the door of the barn. The breeze lifted a curl of her hair; she batted from her face and stepped through the old wood door.
Steeling myself for the worst, I followed, stepping over the chipped cement threshold of the barn, and into the musty shadows. My eyes took a moment to adjust. Dust motes drifted lazily though the air, sparkling like glitter as they floated though the rays of sun peaking between the slatted walls, then dark again, abandoning its warmth to hide in the shadows.
Beneath the must, I could smell Bennie’s scent. I trailed after Peyton as she ambled through the barn, batting away loose spider webs from her face, spitting and puffing disgustedly.
She hated spiders. She hated nature. Another reason I knew this wasn’t their hideout. She wouldn’t have lasted a day out here. She was the answer to what happened when you mixed big city with rural country. The closest thing to wildlife she ever came was the Philadelphia zoo.
I guess some things change. She had to feed. Knowing Peyton, she probably ate babies and small children served in designer strollers. She never settled for less than the best.
Reaching the center of the barn, Peyton stopped at a padlocked door. It was the only stall door, I noticed, that was closed. I quickened my pace, reaching for the chicken wire and twining my fingers into the small octagons. Inside, curled on a bed of musty straw was my little brother.
Chapter 20
“Bennie!” I exclaimed, tugging at the chicken wire as if I could tear through it. Fat lot of good, I only managed to chafe my hands, and Bennie hadn’t moved so much as an inch. Panicked, I turned to Peyton, gritting my anger through my teeth. “What did you do to him?”
“He’s sleeping,” said a masculine voice. Alec. Stepping from behind the next stall, he came into view. “He’s had a traumatic day. I thought it would be best if he were sedated.”
He wasn’t exceptional. Older than I assumed. Thus, the need for Marcus to woo the younger girls. He must’ve been cur, because he was well past his prime, with a slightly baggy chin and a receding hairline. If Icarus was my Barberini Faun, Alec was my Julius Cesar.
He smiled at my candid assessment and turned to Peyton. “I take it you didn’t have any trouble?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“Good…good,” Alec praised, oblivious to Peyton’s blatant omission. “He should wake any time now. Then we can be on our way.”
“My brother stays here. You have what you want. Leave him out of this.”
“I’m afraid not. He proves a useful bargaining tool.”
A leash.
Moving toward me, his posture was cavalier. I stepped back, more comfortable with a little distance between us. He reeked not of perversion, but of danger, of pain, and death.
“I mean you no harm, but if you don’t cooperate, our time together will be markedly less pleasant. For your brother, particularly. Now stand still.”
He shoved me against the stall door, sending dust and dirt billowing in the air. My face abraded against the chicken wire, his palm cupped over the back of my head. I squinted against the pain, impulsively resisting his touch. His other hand swept my hair aside, exposing my nape.
I gritted my teeth, growling under my breath.
Alec grunted disapproval. Whether it was over my resistance or the mark on my neck, I couldn’t be certain, but he continued his exam, performing a cursive onceover before dropping his hand and releasing me.
“I told you,” Peyton snickered. “Her middle name is pious.”
“She is scathed.”
All humor vanished from Peyton’s expression. “She did that herself. She tried to throw herself in front of a damn train!”
“Then you should’ve reached her sooner! I told you I wanted her unharmed! I can’t deliver her to the customer damaged!”
“I tried! But they never leave her alone! As it was, I had to ram their car just to get her
away from them! I was outnumbered!”
“You said you were free of incident!” Alec shouted, now red in the face. It wasn’t pretty at all. His cheeks were mottled with color, revealing the tiny veins just beneath his skin.
Peyton’s eyes dropped to her feet. “Why are you so angry? I told you I wasn’t followed! We have her! The job is done!”
Composing himself in a calm that belied his anger, he approached Peyton, and cupped her chin. “Because I have taken painstaking precautions to avoid the attention of the mortal police, and a major traffic violation counteracts everything I have worked for. How am I to transport her to New York if I am on the radar of every officer in this state and the next?”
Meekly, Peyton shrugged.
“And her face? Did she receive those when she jumped in front of the train?”
“They’re just scratches. They’ll be gone within the hour.”
With a swift and unexpected strike, Alec raked his nails across Peyton’s face. He shredded her cheek from ear to mouth, mocking the cat scratches that earned her reprimand in a callous show of cruelty. Peyton screamed, covering her cheek with her hand. Dark red rivulets poured between her fingers, staining the sleeves of her coat. She sank to the ground, scuttling away from Alec on her hand and knees, blubbering and sniveling in long-overdue fear.
She didn’t look so tough now.
Awakened by the commotion, Bennie roused in the padlocked stall.
“Wake your brother,” said Alec. “We leave soon.” Turning on his heels, he strode from the barn without a second glace. For the second time in an hour, I wished I had my Berretta.
Turning, I faced Bennie, staring down at him though the dusty chicken wire. “Bennie! Bennie! Wake up!”
“Thaleia?” Bennie murmured. His eyes went wonky, rolling around as he tried to focus. “Thale, is that you?”
“Yeah, I’m here, buddy.” I wanted to cry. As he sat up in the pale shaft of sun, I could see the scrapes and bruises covering his face. They’d ripped his lip ring out, and his right eyebrow was split open. It was crusted with blood and dirt, and the socket below was eggplant in color. His eye itself was solid red, with only the small trace of white showing through.
They’d beat the crap out of him, but what I really feared was the injuries I couldn’t see.
“Bennie,” I murmured, afraid my voice would crack. “How bad are you hurt?” In answer, his face crumpled. Tears streamed down his cheeks, leaving black streaks on his dusty face. His cried, a hoarse, raspy wail resonating from deep inside. The sound broke me.
“He killed them, Thale. They’re dead. Mom and Dad are dead.”
His pain rendered me speechless for only a brief moment. I had no tears left. I was beyond sorrow. Anger had set in, and resolve. Peyton was right. Vengeance was a bitch.
“Bennie!” I hissed, gathering his attention. “Bennie! How bad are you hurt? Can you walk?”
Bennie lifted his head, rubbing his nose with the back of his wrist. “Yeah, I can walk. It’s mostly my face. It was Mike. He…he…They were trying to make us call you. They wanted us to lure you out.”
“Your mom broke,” said Peyton from the floor. “She couldn’t handle poor wittle Bennie getting tortured. Shame you didn’t answer the phone. You might’ve saved them.”
I kicked her once and then gave her another for good measure.
“Thale!” Bennie gasped. “Don’t, Thale! Stop it!”
Peyton curled on her side, rolling up into a ball. Her face had stopped bleeding, but now had dirt caked all over it from lying on the ground.
“She’s helping him, Bennie!”
“Shut up Bennie!” Peyton shouted. “Shut up or I’ll kill you right now!”
I kicked her again, three times, happy only when I heard her yelp. Threatening my brother right now wasn’t the brightest thing for her to do.
“Stop it!” Bennie shouted. Up now, he was jerking on the wire of his stall like a man on fire. “She’s not helping him! Well, she is, but she doesn’t have a choice. He’s got her under that compulsion thing he does with his voice. She’s the one who stopped Mike. She killed him, Thale! Peyton killed Mike!”
“What?”
Bennie looked at me matter-of-factly, nodding toward Peyton on the floor. “She was protecting us.”
Peyton curled herself tighter into a ball, shaking and trembling. “Kill me now! Just kill me! I can’t take it anymore! It hurts too bad! I don’t want to live!”
“He told her he would put her out of her misery after he found a replacement,” explained Bennie. “That’s what Mike was supposed to be, but she killed him, and he told her she has to wait until he finds someone else.”
“I.CAN’T. WAIT. THAT. LONG!” Peyton wailed. “And I thought if I pissed you off enough you would do it nnnnooowwwwwwww!”
Shaking my head, I hissed, “Shut up Peyton, and get up!”
Panning the barn around me, I searched for something I could use to pry open the lock. I only had minutes before Alec came back, if even that long. I spotted a farrier rasp atop an old galvanized pail, and grabbed it, hoping like hell that it would do the trick.
“Seriously, Thale?” Bennie scoffed. “I don’t think we have that long.”
“I’m not going to file it, Bennie; I’m going to pry it open!”
“MacGyver did it once with a soda can,” Peyton snuffled, picking herself up from the dirty floor.
“Well I don’t have a fucking soda can! Now go watch the door!”
“I don’t want to go near Alec again. He’s really demented.”
“I see that,” I agreed. “Now go watch the door. Maybe if he catches me doing this, it’ll piss him off and he’ll kill you like you want.”
“He doesn’t kill people. He tortures them.”
“Peyton!” I snapped, losing my patients. It wasn’t working. Every time I got the file into the lock, it slipped out, rather than breaking it open. I didn’t have the leverage I needed.
Peyton crept down the corridor completely girl-like, more concerned with the cobwebs than Alec coming in. I still had my doubts about her.
Finally, I had an ‘ah’ moment, and slipped the rasp between the hinge and the aging wood. It was fairly old and evidentially completely dry rotted, because it gave with a sturdy tug.
“Fuck yeah!” I hissed, dragging the door open. I grabbed Bennie in my arms for a solid but brief hug, because Peyton came tearing back into the room, all but screaming at the top of her lungs. She didn’t even bother to swat the cobwebs away this time, because she was wearing them like a wedding veil.
“He’s coming! He’s coming! He’s coming! He’s coming! He’s coming!”
I shoved the rasp into Bennie’s hand and pushed him back into the stall then kicked the door closed with my foot and stood in front of the broken lock.
“Fool!” Alec hissed, storming into the barn. In his hand, he held Icarus’s cell phone. “What is this?” he spit at Peyton, thrusting the phone in her face like the pile of poo he just found in his favorite pair of loafers.
“A phone?”
“Yes, it is a phone, but WHAT is it doing in the car? Did I not tell you to discard all cellular devices?”
“I did! I swear!” Peyton whined. “It was one of those men! He must’ve thrown it in the car when he broke the window!”
I almost laughed with relief. Almost. Alec didn’t appear to be neither the type to tolerate humiliation, nor did I think he had a sense of humor whatsoever.
But Icarus had to be tracking us right now with the location services.
Tossing the phone to the ground, he stomped on it, crushing it under his heel. “We leave now!”
Well, so much for that plan.
“Bennie, stay in the stall. Find some way to bolt the door closed from the inside.” I began undressing, removing my clothes as quickly as possible.
“What are you doing?”
“Buying time.” If worst came to worst and Icarus couldn’t find us, Alec would take me and leav
e Bennie behind. It was me he wanted. Bennie was just the means to control me.
“Let me get in there with you first!” Peyton said, running for the door like she were sprinting into a bridal dress blowout.
“No!” I snapped, backing up with Alec’s advance. Maybe he did have a sense of humor, because he was grinning like the Cheshire cat. “Lock yourself in the next one. Then he can’t use you against me.”
“She’s no use in any case,” Alec drawled. “I’d do better herding cats.”
“He’s right,” Peyton agreed. “I really am useless.” Peyton was never good in a fight, or in contact sports, even ones with sticks, but she really was too obsequious in my opinion. On the other hand, if Bennie was right, which was highly likely, I’d be eager to escape Alec too.
“Thanks, Peyton, big help. I’ll just hold him off on my own.”
“You know I’m all bark.”
“You could have humored me, at least.”
I was only disgusted more so when Alec began undressing and I found that he was appreciating my figure a little too much for my comfort. “If you take one more step toward me,” I warned, “you’re going to be a cue stick and two balls short.”
“Ooh,” Bennie muttered.
“Yak. Guess your sister got over her aversion to blood, Bennie.”
Among other things.
Crouching—which I was loath to do despite my threat, because it put me at eye level of his reproductive appendages—I shifted form. Alec lunged for me, underestimating my abilities, so I caught him off guard with the speed of my shift, and sank my teeth into his hand.
He jerked his hand back, bellowing in outrage. (And maybe a little bit of pain.)
“Holy shit, Thale!” Peyton exclaimed. “Bite him again! Go for the cojones!” Might I mention that while Peyton sucked at sports, she was, however, very good at cheering people on, and very inventive with her encouragements. “Rip them off—we’ll make a pouch out of ‘em! No, we’ll stuff ‘em in his mouth when we bury him, and cram his face in his ass! Yeah!”
This did have its drawbacks. I really pissed Alec off.
Feral Page 31
