Sneak Peek of Knot All is Whole
SNEAK PEEK OF KNOT ALL IS WHOLE
ATLAS
Puck left ages ago.
This room carries the ghosts of a thousand orgasms, and with the synthetic Omega hormones running through me, I’m jealous as fuck, eager to add one to the count.
But what kind of person would I be if I jerked off during the hostile takeover of a criminal organization?
I’m lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling, when noise outside the room has me shooting to my feet.
It sounds like people are shouting and running around.
Why? Why aren’t they lying low?
If it’s time to get out of here, why hasn’t Puck called me? Why hasn’t Sebastian shown up?
Before I can make any moves, the door to my room swings open, and my ex, Tyler, is there, halfway out of breath.
Tyler is gorgeous. Always has been. But we broke up for a reason.
The reason being he was shady as fuck, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was keeping something from me. Anytime I asked him questions about where he was and what he was doing, he redirected the conversation.
Eventually, I grew tired of it and ended it.
“Oh my god, Atlas, what are you doing here?” he says, closing the door behind him and leaning against it. “It’s chaos out there. We gotta go.”
“What’s happening?” I ask, taking a step closer to him. “What kind of chaos?”
“All the workers of the den are running out. Someone killed Kieran, and the Conglomerate is falling. We gotta go. The Hawks have gotten here, and I don’t want to get caught in the crossfire.” His eyes are darting around the room, and he’s shifting back and forth on each foot.
He seems anxious and uncomfortable.
I don’t like it.
“I’m not concerned about the Hawks,” I tell him. “I’m working with them.”
“Working with them?” he echoes. “What do you mean, working with them?”
I try to open the door, but he slams his back on it, keeping it closed and not allowing me to pass. “I’m trying to get the girls out of here and to safety. They’re not all here willingly. Come help me.”
“Oh, Atlas,” he says quietly, reaching up and stroking my face. “Oh, no.”
I take a step back. Lead is in my veins.
“I wish you hadn’t said that.”
Before I can register what he’s saying, he pulls out a gun and crashes it into my temple.
* * *
Holy fucking shit, this is the hangover from hell.
My head is pounding, my body aching. I’ve never felt this awful before.
I try to stretch out, but my knees crash into hard metal, and everything comes rushing back.
The Prism takeover.
Tyler fucking pistol whipping me.
I groan and pull myself into a sitting position. But my head hits bars, and I realize I’m in a small cage. I have to hunch, and it’s still not comfortable.
The room is cast in shadow, the only light coming in from a dirty window on the eastern wall.
I try to get my bearings. In the low light, I can see several examination tables, as if this were some sort of messed-up horror movie urgent care. There is also a computer on a rolling cart, what appears to be a fridge, and shelves loaded with enough equipment to outfit a high school chemistry lab.
And when I slowly and uncomfortably turn to scope out the room behind me, I find myself staring into brilliant emerald green eyes.
A woman huddles in a cage that matches mine, wearing only a hospital gown. She’s unkempt, her sandy brown hair wild around her face. Despite that, she’s beautiful, with a pouty mouth and a button nose. Her dirty gown gapes at the front, revealing a large scar on her chest.
It doesn’t look like a medical scar, so what the fuck happened to her?
“Hi,” I say quietly, and she flinches like a wounded animal. “Where are we?”
“Dunno,” she replies, but her voice is broken and cracked from disuse. “But they’ll be back soon.”
“Who are they?” She rolls her eyes like it’s a stupid question. It transforms her face from fearful to bratty in two seconds, but it falls out just as quickly.
“The doctors.”
“Real conversationalist, aren’t you?” I mutter, looking around the room behind her.
“I’ve been here for two weeks, asshole. I know you just arrived, so you don’t know what happens here, but I fucking do. Forgive me for not wanting to get attached to you when chances are your cage will be empty tomorrow.”
My stomach bottoms out, and for the first time, genuine fear floods me. “How many people have been in this cage?”
“I don’t know. Nine? Twelve? I try not to think about it, honestly. Regardless of how many there are, I’m still going to end up traumatized. Well, if I make it out of here alive.”
The level of self-awareness this woman has while we’re living out a literal nightmare is insane.
“If my brother were here, he’d tell me that playing Tetris can help with trauma and PTSD, so he’d make sure I play it for at least twenty minutes a day, but we got in a fight before I was taken, so he’s probably not even looking for me so I’ve got no one to give me Tetris to play.” She looks up, tears brimming in her eyes. “I just want to play Tetris.”
Now, I’m not a trauma therapist, but I don’t think this is about Tetris.
She adjusts in her cage, and her hospital gown rides up on her thick thighs. I have to rip my eyes away from them so I do not have incredibly inappropriate thoughts about her when we’re in a literal crisis situation.
“Okay, honey, listen. Will they ever get us out of our cages at the same time?”
The pretty woman tilts her head to the side and clicks her tongue. “Maybe. There’s this experiment that they’re trying to do. Apparently, I’m ready for it, but none of my ‘friends’ have been. So if you’re ready for it, I think they’ll take us both out.”
I sock away the crumbs of information she gives me. I’ll have to try to dig up more info later, but first, I need to earn her trust. I can see in her eyes that she’s given up.
That won’t do.
“That’s good to know. I’ll make sure I comply with everything so we can get out of here together, okay?” She chuckles darkly. It’s okay if she doesn’t have faith. I am a man of my word. “What’s your name?” I ask her.
She pushes some of her unruly hair behind her ear. “Athena,” she whispers. “Athena Valentine.”
I can’t help but laugh at how well our names fit together. “Well, Athena, my name is Atlas, and I promise you, we’re going to get out of here.”