Deadlock

by Cherrie Lynn

  He was shoving everything back inside when he noticed the dark spots on the ground. They could have been oil spots to the untrained eye, but he knew they weren’t. Dotting the ground next to Lindsey’s driver’s side door were drops of blood.

  By the time he made it back to the apartment, her bag dangling from his hand, the others were gathered in his living room with grim faces. He took one look at his screen and saw that someone had pulled up the note.

  “Fuck all y’all,” he spat.

  “Jace, come on, dude,” Helix said, putting both palms out as if trying to calm a rabid tiger. “You know we had to question everything—”

  “Oh my God, you guys are dense,” Sully exploded. “This is all still part of her plan, Jace! Jesus Christ, she just wants you to follow her so that they can take you out. Don’t you see that?”

  “Sully,” he said lowly, dangerously, closing his eyes. “Don’t.”

  She threw her hands up. “Fine. If you’re going to rush in and get yourself killed, then I am, too. We are not letting you do this alone.”

  “And that,” Drake said, “is one thing we all agree on.”

  “Then that’s too fucking bad.”

  “I’m calling Cap, then,” Sully said. “You’re out of control.”

  “Call him. See if I give a shit. She’s only out there right now because she couldn’t stand us not believing her.” He threw her handbag down on the floor for all of them to see. “There. Her car is still out there. This was lying beside it. There was blood. She did try to leave, but before she got very far, someone took her. And I’m tired of sitting on my ass.”

  “Jace,” Helix said, his eyes filled with the words he probably couldn’t say. “I’m sorry. But this is a trap. Even if they did take her, they’re doing it to lure you in. You know this.”

  They’d been through so much together, Helix had to know this wasn’t going to cause a divide between them. He’d given Lindsey the benefit of the doubt more than any of the others. Even if he hadn’t, Jace couldn’t fault him for it when he hadn’t fully trusted her, either. If anything happened to her, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

  I swear on my life I’ll make it up to you, he promised, wishing more than anything that she could hear him and that she knew there was no stone on this earth he would leave unturned to find her.

  “You’re right,” he told them all. “It’s a trap. But try and stop me from going.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Lindsey? Lindsey.”

  The voice wouldn’t go away and let her sleep. It sounded like her own, and still she couldn’t make it stop. It hammered inside her skull like the beat of her heart, and…oh, everything hurt. Every single cell in her body throbbed, fire racing along her nerve endings. Darkness sought to pull her back under, and she went gratefully.

  Images flashed through her mind. Memories. Snow, endless snow. Rapid steps behind her. The sensations, something choking her, blinding pain. In her head, then everywhere. Cold seeping into her bones. More pain. Her face pressed against freezing concrete. Being lifted, moved, which only drove the pain deeper. Voices. No faces. Hoods. Maybe even masks.

  The voice in her head wouldn’t let her go. “Please wake up. Please be okay.” Someone was patting her cheeks. Rubbing her face gently. Putting something cool and wet on her lips, which in contrast felt bone-dry. Even licking them did nothing to replenish the moisture. Lindsey tried to open her eyes, found even that tiny effort cost her too much, and let them fall closed again.

  “Linz, if you can hear me, say something. Please.”

  She grunted. It was all she could muster. The other voice muttered, “Thank God,” sounding extremely relieved. Darkness teased at the edges of Lindsey’s mind again, beckoning her back into its warm void.

  Minutes passed, or hours, or days…she didn’t know, didn’t understand anything except that every muscle screamed when she tried to move. Someone tried to give her water, but she choked on it and brought it back up. Then the other person—was it one or many?—began banging on something and screaming, each sound like an ice pick chipping incessantly at her brain.

  “Let me out of here, you motherfuckers! If you let my sister die I swear—”

  It was the voice that sounded so much like the one she heard in her own ears every day of her life. My sister, Lindsey thought. Oh God, Lena was dying. They’d been too late, and someone had hurt her. She groaned, crying, and the screaming stopped, except in her own mind. Lena Lena Lena—

  Gentle hands cradled her head but didn’t lift it. “Lindsey? Lindsey, baby, open your eyes and look at me, okay? It’s me. It’s Lena. You have to wake up. You have to.”

  All at once, her thought processes came online. She gasped in a desperate breath, forcing her eyes open as far as she could—which wasn’t very—and looked into the mirror of her twin sister’s face. “Lena?”

  “It’s me, I’m here, you’re okay, I promise you’re going to be okay, I’ll get you out of here.”

  Lindsey sobbed. It was Lena’s desperate assurances that spoke to the severity of her injuries. She didn’t have to hear the fear in her sister’s voice; she could feel the agony, the wrongness in her body. As if her heart fought for every beat and each breath made her lungs scream. If you let my sister die…

  “Am I dying?” It felt like it.

  “Hey, I said you’re going to be okay, right?” She fussed with something, there was a rustle of fabric, and Lindsey felt a coarse blanket being tucked around her as tightly as Lena could without causing any undue agony. Still, every touch jarred through her like an electric current.

  Bone shards grinding on nerve endings. Horrific, disjointed flashes came back to her then, the slam of a boot against her arm, her leg, her stomach. How everything had gone white and she’d thought she was dying then. How she’d cried for Jace, but he hadn’t been able to hear her. Because she’d run from him. Because she’d thought she was so smart.

  Somehow, that hurt worse than anything else she’d endured, any physical pain anyone could inflict on her. She’d been safe with him, and she’d run.

  As soon as Lena had her tucked in, she was back at the door, banging on it and screaming. “Bring her some more water, you son of a bitch!”

  “How long?” Lindsey croaked from the bed. “How long have I been out?”

  “They threw you in here last night, and I’ve been going batshit ever since.”

  “Have you been here this whole time?”

  “No, they move me. They always put a hood on my head; sometimes they even put sedatives in my food and knock me out. For all I fucking know, we could be in a different country.”

  “Have you figured out who has us?”

  “No.”

  “You don’t have any idea why this has happened?”

  Lena was silent for a long time, then resumed her demand for water. But after what she’d said about their captors lacing her food, Lindsey wasn’t sure she wanted anything they might bring.

  “You didn’t answer me,” she said softly.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re lying to me. God, Lena, of all places, don’t lie to me here.”

  “I promise you I’ll explain everything I do know when we get out of here. But this place isn’t for the truth, either.”

  Lindsey focused on keeping her lungs working for the next few seconds. Then she tried to move her right leg and nearly blacked out. The room spun around her, weakness and nausea forcing her to close her eyes, but that only made it all worse, so she wrenched them open again. Her throat muscles tightened. “I’m going to be sick. I can’t move.”

  Lena’s steps shuffled quickly to her side. “Come on, I’ll help you. Turn your head, it’s okay.”

  Somehow she got Lindsey on her side, trying to soothe her as she grunted from the agony of what was most likely a broken arm, and to
the edge of the cot just in time so that she didn’t lie on her back and risk choking while she was sick. Lena stroked her forehead and cursed the whole time. “I swear I’m going to kill every goddamn one of these motherfuckers.”

  Lindsey listened to her rant as she caught her breath, wishing more than anything for a sip of water. “At least we’re together,” she said, looking at Lena through streaming eyes. We came into the world together; it only makes sense we go out that way.

  Lena squeezed Lindsey’s hand, looking earnestly into her eyes. “Don’t you dare start saying goodbye to me. I told you, we’re going to be fine. They haven’t let me starve or die yet, and I don’t think they’ll let you, either. I’ve been as good as I can for them, but they’re about to learn that they’ve fucked with the wrong one today.”

  She’d always talked a tough game; it was the former cop in her. But Lindsey wasn’t convinced. “You’re only going to get yourself hurt like me. Or killed.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ll take some of them out with me.”

  “I know who they are,” she said softly.

  “How?”

  “So much has happened since you disappeared. But I found him. I found Jace.”

  Lena went utterly and completely still, and for a second, Lindsey thought she was going to deny sending that text. But then she said, “You did?”

  “It’s a long story, but all this has something to do with an enemy of his. You must know something about it, or else why would you tell me to contact him? Lena, what’s going on?”

  “Not now.”

  The evasion only made Lindsey’s anger rise. “Why did you do that to him?”

  “Hey, what did I say, huh? Not here, not now. We have to figure out how we’re gonna get out of this. There’s no way you can run.”

  Likely she was never going to get the answers she wanted. “I doubt I can even stand up.” Fresh tears squeezed from her eyes. “If feels like they broke every bone in my body.”

  “I do think you have a broken arm and leg. You might have a cracked rib or two and a concussion. I have got to get you out of here and to the hospital, if I have to fight through the fuckers to do it.”

  “Don’t leave me, not when I’ve only just found you.”

  Lena squeezed her hand again, one of the few places on her body that felt as if someone could touch it without making her scream. “I won’t if I can help it. But if I can break out and go get help, I have to take that chance.”

  Lindsey managed a weak smile. “If you could break out, you would’ve already done it, and you know it. You’re just trying to make me feel better.”

  “I didn’t have the incentive they’ve given me. I’ve been a good little captive, sat in my room, eaten my meals, watched TV when they let me.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it. But now I’m pissed. What the hell have you ever done to anyone to deserve this?” Seeing tears in Lena’s eyes was a rare sight to behold, and nothing could shake Lindsey’s faith in their survival more than seeing her fearless sister afraid. But Lena was scared for her. God, what hope did they have if Lena thought it was hopeless?

  Maybe for once, she needed Lindsey to be the strong one. “We can do this,” she said, swallowing against the dryness in her throat. Water, she needed water like she needed her next breath. She would lie here and die if she didn’t get it soon. “If you can see a way out, Lena, I’ll do whatever I can. I’ll drag myself with my one good arm.”

  “I’ll carry your ass if I have to.” Lena’s expression softened. “Like when we were kids. Remember when we were up at the cabin that one summer with Mom and Dad, and we were hiking in the woods by ourselves where we weren’t supposed to be, and you twisted your ankle and couldn’t put any weight on it?” Somehow, through their tears, both of them found laughter.

  “And you couldn’t pick me up,” Lindsey said, “so you kind of dragged me behind you, and when I kept complaining about rocks and roots, you started gathering all these sticks together thinking you were going to build me some kind of stretcher?”

  “I knew everyone would marvel at my ingenuity. How old were we? Nine? Ten?”

  “Something like that. You started to figure out you didn’t have anything to tie the sticks together with. Finally you dragged me to my feet and made me walk when all I wanted to do was whine that I couldn’t and you needed to go get Mom. You didn’t want to get in trouble. But you carried most of my weight.”

  Lena drew a breath. “I’ll carry it again, if I can’t drag this fucking cot out of here. For now I want you to lie here and rest as best you can. Before we can do anything, I have to get them to bring you water.”

  Lindsey nodded, closing her eyes, thankful for the blessed darkness. The room wasn’t bright, but any light at all was torment.

  “Try not to fall asleep again,” Lena said. “I’m going to check on you every few minutes.”

  “Okay.” Sleep was all she wanted. An escape from the pain until help came for them. If it came. Please, Jace, please find us.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  With no windows, she had no way to mark the hours. Was it day, was it night? Lena thought they were in a basement room. That’s how she passed the time: speculating. Maybe they were here, maybe they were there. There was definitely more than one person in this operation, Lena said. Lindsey could agree; she didn’t remember much from the beating she’d taken except that the blows had seemed to come from all sides and at the same time. If their places had been reversed, Lena probably would have found Lindsey a long time ago.

  She tried again to get her sister to tell her why she’d sent her to Jace. And again, her twin turned her questions aside.

  “I’m going to keep asking you until you tell me,” Lindsey told her.

  “Shh. Think, Linz. They listen,” Lena hissed softly. She gestured toward the ceiling, then shot the finger in that general direction.

  Lindsey turned her eyes, since it hurt too much to lift her head. Mounted high up in the shadowy corner of the room was a camera, a tiny white light burning. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it before, but most of the time her eyes were shut against debilitating pain.

  Jace would be able to disable it in seconds. God, she wished he were here. To think, she had planned to run in here and save the day. But she hadn’t expected this. Why hurt her so badly when Lena seemed fine…?

  She was taking his punishment.

  Of course. She should have realized it before. I beat him within an inch of his life. Jace’s words about Rhys. But instead of Rhys doling out his revenge on Jace, he’d turned it on her. As someone he suspected Jace cared about? Well, he was most likely wrong.

  It was hopeless. She wanted to believe Jace would come, that he would care. And that he wouldn’t get himself hurt or worse. But maybe she could remove herself from this equation as much as possible.

  “Lena?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m going to die here.”

  “No. You’re not. Stop talking, Lindsey.”

  “He hates me.”

  “Who?”

  “Jace. He hates me.”

  “The hell are you talking about?”

  “I was falling for him, but he doesn’t trust me at all. He thinks I’m a liar. He thinks you and I are both horrible people. He’s the only one I know who could help us, and he won’t come, he doesn’t care…” It wasn’t hard to bring up racking sobs. They were always near the surface. All the while, the little light burned on the camera.

  “Lindsey, anyone who could hate you is a fucking jackass, and I’ll tell him straight to his face right before I spit in it.” Dammit, Lena, go along.

  “I wish I’d never met him. He’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  “When we get out of here and you recover, I’m taking you on a trip. We deserve a nice vacation after this.
I’m going to find you a man who’s worthy of you.”

  She didn’t think she wanted any other man for the rest of her life. She’d already found the one, no matter how infuriating he was, and she couldn’t have him. Anyone else would pale in comparison.

  Lindsey didn’t want to believe it, but she thought she was developing a fever. The matter of when they got out was shifting more to if. Her thoughts seemed to be getting muddier, not clearer. Everything felt hot and sick; her pulse felt thin and rapid where it throbbed in her wounds.

  “Come feel my head,” she told Lena, who jumped up from where she’d slumped in one corner. Her sister’s palm felt cool on her sweaty forehead.

  “God. You’re burning up.”

  She coughed and sobbed, raw agony spearing her broken rib. But the spasm went on, heedless of her injuries, and a coppery taste filled her mouth. She lifted her good arm and touched her lips. Her fingertips came away spotted with bright red blood. Panic stole what breath she could catch.

  “Jesus,” Lena whispered. “I am not going to let you lie here and suffer.”

  Die, you mean? Lindsey thought. You might not have a choice. This time, Lena turned her fury to whomever was watching their video feed, screaming at the camera. “She’s bleeding internally, do you hear me? She has a fever. She needs a fucking hospital!

  “Keep me but let her go. She didn’t do anything to you! I swear to God if you let anything happen to her, there’s nowhere on this earth you can run to hide from me. We will smoke your asses out and destroy every one of you.”

  We? Lindsey barely had time to puzzle over it. The door to their small room jerked open while Lena was still doling out threats to annihilate entire families of the perpetrators. She couldn’t get a good look at whoever it was, only being vaguely aware of a dark figure. But Lena rushed him.

  There had been a lot of hardships lately, but Lindsey didn’t think there had been anything harder than listening to her twin scuffle with who knew how many baddies while being unable to help. Lindsey had never been in a fight in her life, but dammit, she could do something. If only she could move.