CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Aislinn could see Groome’s broken body laying out on a steel table. The anguish in his features was evident, even with his eyes closed. She could feel the icy coldness of the metal table on her body, the sterile smell mixed with the metallic taste of blood. He was breathing, but he was in agony, and most certainly, he wished he were dead. She walked around the room, eyeing the horrific tools that served as his torture. Saws, knives, scalpels, a hammer, all covered with blood – his blood.
He was alone and cold, terrified, yet repentant.
Come back to me, Aislinn. Baby, don’t get lost in there. He knows you’re there, but she might too. Come back, honey.
I can’t leave him yet, Kane. Groome, I’m here…
Leave. L-leave before… I’m dying. There’s nothing you can do now. Don’t stay. She’s changed. She’s different. Watch for her. Short dark hair; thinner, face lift…
Don’t speak. It’s okay. We’ll find you.
No! Do not come…
He gasped for air, and she could feel his body slipping away, the words filtering from his thoughts to her own. S he’s coming back. Leave now…
Aislinn! Now, baby, please leave now!
Aislinn jolted awake, sitting straight up in bed. Kane was already awake, waiting for her to return to him. She shook from the cold, sweat, and fear rolling over her body. Her heart rate raced to the point of danger. She tried to control her breathing, tried to use the techniques that Angela and Caroline Brennan taught her, but it was too much. The torture, the gruesomeness that filled her mind, was too much.
Kane pulled her closer to him, grabbing the heavy blankets and wrapping them around her body. Her breathing was so rapid he worried for her health.
“I’m okay… I’m okay… He was…” She tried to find the words but could not. It seemed she couldn’t focus enough to complete a thought or sentence.
“I know, baby. I saw. He was without limbs. I saw. One leg, one arm.”
Kane was no virgin to the horrors men committed, but seeing Groome lying on the table was almost more than he could stand. The pain that he must have felt in those hours. The torture that woman inflicted on him was unimaginable. Kane could not fathom how he was alert enough to sense Aislinn and speak with her.
“She did that! She did that to him,” whispered Aislinn through tears and gasps of breath.
“She’s pure evil, baby, and we will not be engaging with her unless we have to.”
Kane ran the scenario through his mind again. The sterile operating room where Groome’s broken body lay waiting to die. His leg and arm crudely amputated. His body was fighting infection and pain, blood seeping from every wound.
Kane had tried to survey the room as Aislinn tried to bring comfort to Groome. He noticed the bloodied instruments of saws, hammers, and knives. He knew that usually, Aislinn’s visions were a future scenario, but that could mean minutes or days. In his heart, somehow, he knew that it was occurring even now as they spoke.
“We have to help him,” she sniffed into his t-shirt, the agonizing reality of what was being done to the man seeping into her body.
Aislinn suffered nightmares unfathomable to most people in her life. Gruesome nightmares that were visions of the future crimes men and women would commit. Yet this nightmare, this one was more than she could stand.
“We cannot, Aislinn,” he said calmly. “I know what you saw, and I saw it too, but you heard Groome, we cannot go there. He will be dead by the time we get to him, and I will not risk any more lives to save him. That’s what she would want. She expected us to see him and come running to save him. He has given us his warning and redeemed himself in his final days. I think that’s all any man can do.”
“But, Kane…”
“No buts, Aislinn. I won’t risk it. He knew it. He could be in the state we saw him now, or it could be a future vision, but I will not risk other lives.”
There was a small knock on the bedroom door, and Aislinn pulled her body closer to Kane’s, wrapping herself in his warmth and strength.
“Come in,” he said gruffly.
“Sorry to disturb you, Kane,” said Spook, standing in the doorway with Valentina, both breathing heavily. “I heard. I saw the images. I can’t explain it. I’ve never seen what you were seeing, Aislinn. Valentina woke up in the tent next to me crying.”
“You saw too?” asked Kane, eyeing the woman suspiciously.
“No,” she said quietly. Kane noticed that she held tightly to Spook’s hand. “I felt it. I felt his sadness, his regret. Groome’s. I felt his pain. I think I felt it through Aislinn. It was…”
“Horrific,” whispered Aislinn, staring at the beautiful woman in front of her.
“Yes. More than any emotion I’ve ever felt. But there was love there as well. He was trying to save us, I think. I could feel his regret and sadness. He was genuine. He was trying to tell us that he was sorry. I could feel the regret and disgust with his own actions. It was oppressive.”
“Any noise from him now, Spook?” asked Kane. If Groome was still alive, he actually might reconsider the rescue.
“Nothing. I don’t think he’s alive, Kane. I think what we all were seeing, hearing, and feeling, I think it was real-time. I think he’s dead.”
The foursome stood now in the gray, early morning light, silence stretching between them. The man they once thought of as an enemy, in recent months, turned the tables and tried to help. He fed bits of information as he received them on Karena Viskoff, but he failed to protect himself.
“He knew we saw and heard him. It’s all he wanted,” said Valentina. “He was trying to make amends. I felt his sadness, his pain. It was overwhelming. He was sorry.”
Kane nodded and cursed under his breath, looking out over the valley. Frost covered the foliage, and the glistening crystals covered the rooftops of the finished cabins below. Winter would be on them soon enough. He would not risk their lives chasing the woman now.
“We’ll find a way to repay Groome. I’m not sure how or what that looks like, but we’ll figure it out,” said Kane. “For now, I think we should be grateful that he had a change of heart concerning all of this. If he decided to work with Karena, our outlook would be very different right now.”
Aislinn pulled on the Army sweatshirt of Kane’s that was now her favorite. She kissed his cheek, her soft hands gripping his forearms. The scars on his face never gave her pause or notice anymore. She loved him because of those scars because he was brave enough to survive.
Kane knew that Fiona could rid him of the scars, but somehow, he needed the reminder. It didn’t matter to Aislinn one way or another, but it mattered to Kane.
“I’m going to make some coffee and start breakfast. The others will be rising soon. Do we tell them?” she asked.
“No,” said Kane, kissing her back, “not yet.”
Aislinn nodded, and he waited for the nods of Spook and Valentina. With her violet eyes, she stared up at Spook and nodded, who gave a quick nod back at Kane.
“Alright then, let’s start some breakfast.”