Chapter Twenty Three, No Loyalty
Danika sat with one hand loosely gripping the wheel, her other arm resting on the doorframe, fingers drumming lazily.
Gio had gone into the gas station, and now it was just her and me in the cramped car.
The air between us felt like it was shrinking, growing heavier with every second of quiet that was driving me insane.
I wanted to stab her in the face and watch as she bled to death. I also wanted to hug her and say sorry for leaving her behind when I’d faked my death. Both options were equally good to me. Especially when she opened her mouth.
“How did you pull Heaven?” She clicked her tongue.
“She’s beautiful, and I don’t just mean in looks.
I mean, she’s nice. She talks to strangers, helps them out.
She lets them live when it could have cost her everything—and she’s a walking rainbow.
None of that fits you. You’re boring, dark and mean. ”
My gut twinged. There was an odd sort of recognition to her words. Like a bad dream I’d had more than once being mentioned as fact. But even though my brows furrowed, I still snapped back, “You’ve met her once—”
“Wrong.” She cut me off, hand waving. “I stole her. A few months back, when Reaper’s dad first hired me and I found out you weren’t dead. I wanted to do a test run to see how easy it was to kidnap her and piss you off. Turns out it was way too easy. Almost boring, really.”
My gut twinged harder. Pulse racing. There was no fucking chance she was telling the truth because if she was, it meant I’d slacked in my care of Heaven. I’d failed and not listened to my instincts, even when they’d been screaming at me that something was wrong.
My heart pounded in my chest. “You’re lying. I don’t—”
She yanked a knife free from her jacket, slamming it down into the leather of the center console, barely half an inch from my hand. “Don’t call me a liar, you self-serving, traitorous little cunt.” She snarled.
My jaw ticked, but I reworded myself as I tried to wade through sluggish memories to figure out what was fact and not just a nightmare. “I don’t remember that shit happening. I think I would know if my girl was kidnapped.”
“You were drugged, dumbass. I shot you with a tranq gun, and shot Reaper too. Then I kidnapped Blue, chucked her in my dungeon, and was ready to go ahead and turn her into a pumpkin before I sent her back to you with a ribbon on. And I drugged you again, so you wouldn’t know I was playing a game of chase. ”
My temper flared harder, but I wasn’t in the mood to be stabbed, so I tried to rein it in. “Then why didn’t you hurt her? Why did you send her home perfectly fine?”
“Because she was nice. I fucking told you.” Her eyes rolled, and for a moment I debated risking the knife so I could throttle her.
“If I kill a nice girl to get back at you, it doesn’t fill me with joy.
It just makes me feel like even more of a worthless bitch.
” She ran a hand over her face. “I’m already dead inside; I didn’t want to add to it.
I figured it would make me feel better if I made you dead instead. ”
There wasn’t a lot I could say to that, so I tried to be as petulant as I had been as a teenager. “You can’t kill me. I can take you in a fight.”
“Why do you think your boy toy is here?” She laughed. “I think I can take you, but on the off chance I can’t, Giovanni De Pretty is here to make sure you behave and play my game until it’s over.”
It was hard to work her out. I remembered that vividly.
She said one thing, but did another. Got bored at the drop of a hat.
Everything with Danika was a game—one that only she knew the rules of.
But I was going to try my best, and the second I had a chance, or a mere inkling of an opening that wouldn’t harm either of the people I cared about, I was going to take it.
“So you’re not here because of his father? You’re not going to finish the job you were hired to do?”
“Meh.” She yawned as she kicked her feet up on the dashboard, careful not to kick the cactus she had nearby, in a tiny terracotta pot. “Depends on how the day goes.”
I switched tactics, trying to play on her emotions more than the common sense I was sure she did not have. “You should feel bad if you hurt him. He’s not a killer—all the things Reaper got credit for were done by me.”
She shrugged, entirely unbothered. “I won’t feel bad for killing him.” She snickered. “I’d feel bad for that brother of his, though. If I weren’t busy being murderous, I’d climb Emilio like a tree. Have you seen the size of him? He’s absolutely delicious.”
Ignoring half of her bullshit, I tried to work out her endgame.
She was clearly going to drag things out and try to have as much ‘fun’ as she could.
But to what end? Were we going to be tortured, and forced into agony?
Handed over to Giorgio? Or was she just going to lock us in her dungeon, never letting us escape?
I hated that I couldn’t work it out. “Why didn’t you just kill us the last few months? Or just kill me?” My words came out softer than I intended. “That’s what you were hired for, and I know you always finish your jobs.”
Danika didn’t react at first. Her profile remained impassive, her sharp jawline catching the dim light from the dashboard. She was just staring at her black painted nails like they were far more interesting than me.
“Hello?” I pressed, shifting in my seat. “Did you lose your trigger finger, or was there a sale on mercy that I missed?”
Finally, her lips curved into the faintest smirk, though her gaze stayed locked on the road. “You’re exhausting,” she muttered. “You were nice and quiet when you were dead.”
“Yeah, I was great when I was dead,” I shot back. “Now, are you going to answer me, or do I have to keep talking until you snap? We both know I can annoy you endlessly.”
Her smirk faded, and she exhaled a slow breath. “You’re right. You are annoying.” She reached a hand into her jacket. “I also don’t owe you an explanation. If you can’t figure out why I would need a few months to plan your death, then I guess you’re not very smart.”
“You wanted to make a spectacle out of it?” I presumed.
She laughed as she yanked her hand free, slamming a needle into my arm before I could stop her. “Exactly. I had to plan the perfect game. The only trouble was, there was no perfect game. So I’ve stopped trying. I’m just going to have fun and see where we end up.”
I wretched myself backwards, but it wasn’t fast enough. Whatever shit she’d stabbed into me was already coursing through my veins.
“You can go to sleep for a while and dream about how you left me.” She cooed.
“You can have nightmares about the fact that you abandoned someone who loved you and let her think you were dead. Then we can get to the fun part of our game, and we’ll see how things turn out for you.
” She yanked open the car door, slamming it shut a second later as my world blurred around the edges.
I hadn’t left her. Not the way she thought.
But my escape hadn’t been planned. It had been a once in a lifetime situation, and I…
I thought about myself first. Then Silver and the others.
And sure, I had wanted Danika with me. A part of me hated leaving her behind and never going back. But I had no choice.
It was run or stay trapped.
Leave her, or lose myself.
I’d just chosen myself.
Her words triggered something in me, and as I collapsed back in my seat, I couldn’t stop things from boiling to the surface. My world went dark, and my mind went back a few years, recalling memory after memory of things I didn’t want to think of again.
The ropes bit into my wrists, and I shifted just enough to relieve the ache in my shoulders.
My toes barely brushed the concrete floor, enough to keep me from dangling completely, but it didn’t help much.
Every muscle screamed in protest, and the cold air prickled against my bare skin, sinking straight into my bones.
I didn’t dare make a sound, though. Not even a groan. That would only make it worse.
The punishment was fair. That’s what they’d said, anyway.
I’d made a mistake during training, picked an option that would’ve gotten me caught in the real world.
Too bold. Too obvious. Too stupid. Mistakes like that couldn’t happen, not when lives depended on getting it right.
So now I was here, hanging like a carcass in a meat locker, freezing, hungry, and too damn thirsty to think straight.
Time didn’t mean much in this place. It could’ve been hours or days since they left me here.
The room was dim, lit by a single flickering bulb that hummed faintly overhead.
I stared at the cracks in the concrete below, focusing on each jagged line, trying to keep my mind off the gnawing pain in my arms. My wrists burned, raw from the rope digging into them.
My stomach ached, but it wasn’t just hunger. It was the weight of failure.
The door creaked open, and my heart jumped into my throat.
I lifted my head, blinking against the sudden stream of light from the hallway.
Footsteps followed, echoing in the small space.
I braced myself, every muscle locking tight, expecting another punishment.
A slap, a whip, maybe a few harsh words to remind me of my place.
Instead, it was Danika.
She slipped inside, her movements quiet, like a shadow.
Her hair was tied back in a braid, and her too-big jacket hung loosely over her thin frame.
She closed the door behind her with a soft click, then turned toward me.
Her black eyes met mine, and for a second, she looked almost…
human. Not the cold, calculating girl I knew, but someone softer. Someone kinder.
She put a finger to her lips, signaling for silence.
I nodded weakly, my head too heavy to hold up for long.
She moved closer, her footsteps barely making a sound, and reached into her jacket.
When she pulled out a small plastic bottle of water, my throat tightened, and I couldn’t stop the pathetic whimper that escaped my lips.
“Quiet,” she whispered, unscrewing the cap. Her voice was soft, but there was an edge to it, a warning that I knew better than to ignore. She held the bottle to my lips, tilting it just enough for the water to trickle into my mouth.
The first sip was heaven. I swallowed greedily, the cool liquid soothing my cracked lips and dry throat. She pulled the bottle back before I could gulp down too much, and I let out a shaky breath, my shoulders sagging in relief.
“Slow down,” she murmured, glancing over her shoulder toward the door. “They’ll notice if you’re too strong when they come back.”
I nodded again, licking the last drops of water from my lips. She crouched slightly, her sharp eyes scanning my face, and then reached into her pocket. This time, she pulled out a small foil packet, tore it open, and slipped a couple of pills into her palm.
“Painkillers,” she said quietly, holding them up. “Swallow.”
I didn’t hesitate. She pressed them to my lips, and I took them into my mouth, tilting my head back as she poured another trickle of water to help me get them down.
The relief was instant, not from the pills—they wouldn’t kick in for a while—but from the simple act of someone caring. Even if it was her.
“You’re brave,” she whispered, stepping back and tucking the water bottle into her jacket. “Don’t forget that.”
Brave? I didn’t feel brave. I felt small.
Weak. Pathetic. But her words still carried weight, and I held onto them like a lifeline.
She reached out, her fingers brushing against the rope around my wrist for a fleeting moment, and I wondered if she might cut me loose.
But then she pulled back, her gaze hardening.
“I can’t stay long,” she said, her voice barely audible. “Stay strong, Atlas. Don’t give them the satisfaction of making you into a monster.”
I wanted to ask her why she was helping me, why she cared at all, but the words didn’t come. Before I could gather my thoughts, she slipped back toward the door, her movements quick and practiced. She glanced over her shoulder one last time, gave me a small nod, and then she was gone.
The door clicked shut behind her, and the room fell silent again. I stared at the spot where she’d stood, my heart still racing, and the faint taste of water lingering on my tongue. For the first time in hours, maybe days, I didn’t feel completely alone.
And it was all because of Danika.