Chapter 16 Jo
sixteen
Jo
The guys keep trying to give me their bullet-proof vests in the elevator, no matter how many times I tell them no.
It’ll only slow me down, and more importantly, it’ll squish Turnip.
We arrive at the floor “D”, and I’m not sure what it’s supposed to stand for, and I don’t really care as long as it’s not D for “Dick”.
My heart thrums with anticipation. Finally. Finally, after five years, I’ll see my Mabel again.
The doors ding as they slide open, and this floor is…much different than the one we just left. It opens to one big area, set up like a living room, with a TV in the corner, a couch, and a couple of recliners. As soon as we step out, I see them.
They turn to look at us with wide eyes, eight women huddled together between the couch and the floor. Their hair is ratty, their eyes sunken, and expressions fearful. Immediately, my gaze scans over each terrified, startled face, and my heart sinks.
No Mabel.
But maybe…maybe she’s in her room.
These girls might know, but they look half-frightened enough to bolt at any sudden movement.
“Stay here,” I mutter, and my guys nod as I slowly walk over to the group of girls.
They look at me warily, their eyes going to the hospital gown under my cardigan.
“Hi,” I paste on a non-threatening smile, “I’m Jo. ”
One of the girls frowns, tilting her head.
“I’m Nina. Though they only call me 347B now.
Are you a new patient?” She has comforting arms around two other girls’ shoulders, and she looks at me with a hint of fire.
I recognize a fellow protector when I see one.
The rest of the girls might listen to her.
“No,” I shake my head. “Listen. We don’t have a lotta time. Do you guys wanna get out of here?”
“Maybe. Who are the men with you?” she demands, tilting her chin towards my guys.
I give her a gentle smile. “That’s my pack, and my big brother and his packmate. They’re breakin’ me out.”
The girl next to Nina whispers something in her ear, and her eyes dart to Kole.
Nina frowns again. “Gemma says she recognizes the big tattooed one. That he brought her and a truck full of omegas to a shelter instead of where they were supposed to go.” She gives Gemma a look.
“Kinda sucks that you still ended up here.” The other omega only shrugs.
I nod. “That’s Kole. That stunt actually got him sold to Thornfield.” I call back to Kole. “Do you regret it, Sugar Bear?”
“Not even a little bit.” His Russian accent—or maybe it’s the deepness of his voice—startles some of the girls.
When they look at the guys nervously again, I glance around, on the lookout for guards that could pop up any second. “Like I said, we don’t have a lotta time. I promise none of these men will hurt you. If they do, I’ll cut their dicks off myself.”
Nina scoffs. “Yeah, like that’s possible.”
I plant one hand on my hip and raise the knife Sam gave me with the other. “Honey, I got myself sent here because I single-handedly murdered thirteen alphas. If these men lay a hand on you, they are not who I thought they were, and I won’t hesitate.”
The girls look at me with varying degrees of shock before Nina nods once. “Alright. Let’s get the fuck out of here. But we gotta hurry, Johnson and Keller will be back from their smoke break any minute.”
“Where the hell do they smoke in here?” West mutters behind me. “We’re literally underground.”
“Is there a girl named Mabel being kept here?” I ask, making Nina’s eyes narrow.
“Why?”
“My sister. She’s why I’m here.”
Nina sighs, looking hesitant. “Down the hall, third door on your right—” I take off. “You might not like what you find!” Her morbid words echo in the hallway behind me, but I’m already gone.
Pushing her words to the back of my mind, I run down the hall with single minded focus, skidding to a stop in front of the door. There’s a nameplate, with “666C”. I almost laugh at the triple 6. Mabel’s the most angelic being on this Earth.
“Are you ready, Lisichka?” Kole rumbles behind me, and my mouth goes dry as my eyes fix on the door handle.
Mabel is just on the other side of this door.
Only a scrap of metal separates us, after all this time.
I knock lightly, and listen. No answer.
Nina sighs down the hall. “Seriously, they’re going to be back any minute—”
Declan interrupts her. “Rory and I are going to take the girls upstairs. You have five minutes before I come back down and get you—got it?”
The guys murmur their agreements, but I can’t take my eyes off the door handle.
Taking a deep breath, I reach for the lever, and push it down and open.
Yellow, flickering lights that are all too familiar to me light the space, and my eyes are immediately drawn to the bed.
And the motionless form laying in it.
The only thing about the ghostly pale figure laying on the bed that’s similar to my Mabel-cakes is the shock of white-blonde hair.
“Mabel?” I choke out, but she doesn’t move.
She’s wearing a muzzle, just like the one they put on me when I was in the Cathedral, and her eyes are closed, her breathing coming in shallow breaths.
Her hair is in greasy tendrils splayed out on her pillow, and her face is shallow and sunken, like she hasn’t had a proper meal in years.
She has scars—the telltale crescent shape of bite marks on her arms. Two on her left arm, three on her right.
They don’t look like my bondmark though.
They look like the alphas were trying to take a bite out of her.
Before I know what I’m doing, I’m dropping to my knees next to her bed, and burying my face in the sheets.
It’s too much. Seeing her like this, cold and near lifeless, makes my heart feel like it’s being ripped out of my chest. All the pain and helplessness I’ve felt the last three weeks bubbles to the realization that even before I got here, I was too late.
“Mabel!” The sob rips out of me as I drop my knife and bang my fist on the mattress with an unsatisfying thump. “What did they do to you?!”
“Her chart says she’s feral,” West says quietly.
“She has five bondmarks—which based on the scarring and jaggedness—look forced. When all five bonds were destroyed…it drove her insane. That they’ve been using the same concoction they gave to Jo to try to temper it, but she’s reacting poorly, growing even more erratic.
There’s a log for a heavy-duty tranquilizer for earlier today. ”
I lift my head, blinking at my beta who is holding my sister’s chart in his hands. “So she’s just…she’s just tranqed? That’s why she’s like this?”
“It’s hard to tell—” Everything freezes as a cold hand grasps mine. My head whips towards my sister, and I almost start bawling when I meet her baby blue eyes.
“J…Jojo? Is that really you?” The croak has my heart ripping itself in two as she weakly pushes herself up. She doesn’t look feral.
Just gaunt. Malnourished. Sick. But not feral.
“Mabel!” I crawl onto the bed and pull her into my arms. Her body is weak, her form nearly skeletal.
She has no scent—but that’s probably just the instinct inhibitor working on me.
“Mabel, oh my gods, I missed you so much! I can’t believe it!
I knew you’d never hurt a fly—not that they didn’t deserve it, but I know they pinned it on you! ”
“Jo, wait—” West is cut off by Mabel’s rattling cough.
“I…I killed ‘em, Jojo. Every…single one of ’em. They were comin’ for you next.” My blood turns to ice at her words, and then she goes limp in my arms.
“Mabel?!” I cry, shaking her. “Mabel, wake up! What do you mean?”
Before I can look at her closely, Hayden is calling from the hallway, “We got company!”
Then, I’m crying out as I’m being thrown over a shoulder.
“Time’s up, Trouble,” Sam says gruffly as I half-heartedly hit my fist against his back.
“Be careful with her!” I fuss as I spot Kole scoop her up. He holds her carefully, and Sam sets me down outside her room. I gently pat my pocket with Turnip to make sure she’s okay.
“I need you to walk. I hear the guards coming back.” He hands me the knife I dropped on the floor, and I sniffle, nodding once.
Let’s fucking go.
My ears perk up at the voices coming from around the corner, and I take off at a run, needing to make the bastards pay for what they’ve done to my sister. My sweet, perfect sister.
Since she’s already murdered her whole pack, the only thing left to do is go after the orderlies who put a muzzle on her.
The two guards round the corner, the one on the right sporting a giant scar that looks like it was caused by a bite on his left cheek. Did…did Mabel do that?
Guess I know which one is dying first. There’s only one reason a man would get close enough that she could bite him like that.
They are so engrossed in their conversation, they don’t even notice us.
Idiots.
With a scream of rage, I launch myself at the asshole, plunging my blade into his chest and use it as leverage to swing myself around and onto his back.
His howl of pain is cut off when I take the knife out of his chest and slit his throat.
His body falls to the floor, and I use the momentum to roll onto the ground.
The other guard scrambles for his gun, but before he can grab it, I adjust my grip on my knife and swing upwards, effectively gutting him.
Breathing hard, adrenaline rushing through my veins, I stand, turning to check on my guys. They’re all staring at me with a mixture of fear, amazement, and from Kole, arousal.
Nobody says a word as I walk barefoot through the blood on the tile. “Let’s go gentleman, I believe our five minutes are up.”
“Fuck, Fireball,” Hayden sighs as he runs a hand over his face. “I forgot how hot you are when you’re all stabby.”
“Well then I better make sure to keep remindin’ you.” I grin, but falter when my eyes land on Kole, still holding Mabel. I swallow the lump in my throat. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Jo, if you’re not ready, I’m kicking your ass up to the vans myself!” Declan’s voice rings out, and his jog slows to a stop as he comes upon us, his words catching in his throat as Kole turns, and his eyes latch onto Mabel.
His body goes eerily still, his jaw tightening.
What…the hell?
“Declan…?” I ask, taking a step forward.
He seems to snap out of it, shaking his head.
“Sorry. We have to go. You guys need to get changed—now.” He takes a duffel bag off his shoulder and hands it to Sam, who takes it with a nod as he unzips it and starts handing out clothes.
“My guys combed the surrounding forest for Whitmore, but there’s no sign of him.
We don’t know if he went underground, or if he’s coming back with more men.
His hand was badly damaged when Aidan blasted the radio he was holding, so he may have gone to the hospital.
Regardless, I’ve grabbed the flash drive from the server room, but if we don’t do this perfectly, the evidence will get buried before the right people hear about it. ”
“You have contacts to make it happen though?” Sam asks, pulling on a shirt.
Declan looks at him like he’s an idiot. “I’m the fucking head of the Irish Mafia, dipshit.
Of course I have contacts.” He sighs and shakes his head.
“Listen. Everyone besides my pack, Fuzzy, and Helaena have already taken off to escort the van of stolen omegas. We’re taking them back to base.
You five are going into hiding—at least until we can get this mess sorted out—and I’m taking Mabel with me. ”
“I just got her back, and you’re goin’ to take her from me again?
” I can’t help the whine in my voice. My guys start shedding their clothes and getting changed into the gear that Declan brought.
I don’t even have it in me to ogle their delicious bodies at this point.
Or appreciate how much better Kole and Hayden look in clothes that aren’t an asylum-issued orange jumpsuit.
“What do you want me to do, Jo?” he asks, his tone frustrated.
“You need to stay safe. We don’t know if Whitmore is going to try to keep everything quiet, or if he’s going to start a manhunt for three escaped psychopaths and the orderly and doctor who helped them!
Mabel obviously needs extreme medical care, and I don’t know how you expect to provide that while moving from safe-house to safe-house. ”
“I…” He’s right, I know he is. But this is my sister. The person I’ve been aiming for the last five years, and I finally have her.
Declan sighs, running a hand over his face. “I promise, as soon as it’s safe for you to come home, she’ll be happy and healthy and waiting for you. But you need to lay low for a while.”
Huffing, I nod, and grab the clothes Sam holds out to me.
Declan turns around to give me some privacy, and the guys do too.
I’m kind of relieved, because it would be a bit weird to have them checking me out with my brother standing right there.
I sigh in relief when the soft, buttery fabric of my favorite high-waisted leggings slides over my skin.
“And a proper bra!” Tears nearly sting my eyes.
“Now I know Maeve packed my clothes.” Rory’s sister was always so sweet to me, even though I was just the annoying teenager who came to live with her brother’s pack.
“She did,” Declan confirms, his back still to me. “You almost done?”
Sighing, I slide off the cardigan and tap Hayden on the shoulder. “Darlin’, will you hold onto this? Turnip’s in the pocket.”
“Sure thing, Fireball.” He takes it gently, and turns back around while I shed my hospital gown, and then put on the bra and crop top Maeve packed me.
“Shoes?” I ask, using my discarded hospital gown to wipe the blood off my feet.
“Bottom of the bag,” Dec answers, and a minute later I’m taking the cardigan back from Hayden and slipping it on, my cross trainers on my feet.
Then we all head for the elevator, ready to get the fuck out of here.