Chapter 19 #3
“It’s not in the bank. We’re below it, and we have supreme security so that nobody can access it except the three bosses.” Meaning, her, Ryder, and Hayden.
By the time we jog across the street and up to the back entrance of the office, I’m totally winded and gasping for air. Meanwhile, Jessie’s not even phased. I need to start my morning run routine back up.
“Okay, cameras are off in three… two…”
Shit shit shit, I don’t think I’m ready.
“One. Let’s go bitch!”
Jessie slings the door open, and the hallway is pitch black. “Can we turn on a light?”
Jessie and I stand frozen in time as the lights flicker to life. The silence is deafening as the bulbs buzz above us. My hands begin to tremble as we stare at the figure before us.
“That better?” His low, dark tone elicits a shiver down my spine.
“Fuck!” Jessie curses, her hands going to her head as she turns to me, then back to Ryder. “She just wanted to see the two dipshits for a minute, that’s all.” She concedes.
“And that required cutting the cameras?” He counters.
“We didn’t want you to go all ape shit over it,” she argues.
“Why didn’t you just ask me?” He’s talking to me now, but another wave of nausea hits me, and I can’t bring myself to speak. Why hadn’t I asked Ryder to bring me? Was I afraid he’d say no? That I wasn’t ready yet? Possibly deep down, that could’ve been my reasoning for going to Jessie instead.
“Kelsey.” His voice is like ice, but still calm, jarring me from my thoughts.
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
If I don’t stop biting my lip soon, I won’t have a lip left. “Would it have mattered if I asked? Or would you have simply said no with no ifs, ands, or buts about it?” I return, crossing my arms in front of my chest with my hip popped out. You know, for added emphasis.
He seems to ponder that for a minute. “No, I wouldn’t have said no initially. I would’ve asked you why and if you were truly ready for that yet. This week has been a lot to take on…”
“You calling me weak?” I hiss through clenched teeth.
“That’s not what I said.
“Sure sounds like that was exactly where you were going with that.” My head tilts, mirroring his.
He brushes a hand through his onyx locks of hair with a deep sigh.
“Look, I would feel better if I were with you for this. I don’t like my sister and my girl being alone together.
” Now Jessie looks offended too, edging closer to my side, facing her brother.
“That came out wrong,” He grimaces. “I meant without backup.”
“Uh-huh,” Jessie chides, tongue in cheek. “I think you forget just how highly trained I am, or do you not trust me?”
“I do trust you, and I do know how trained you are, but you know these people don’t show up in ones or twos, Jess.”
“Well, maybe I don’t trust you.” Perhaps that was too far, considering Ryder flinched as if I had slapped him.
I hadn’t thought before I had spoken, but now that I am thinking about it, wasn’t it the truth?
It was he who warned everyone not to tell me anything.
It was he who was so damn angry at me for staying that he refused to be around me and kept leaving.
He was too caught up in being angry to be aware of all the shit around him.
So, who’s to say it won’t happen again? That he won’t let his anger get the best of him.
“I’m the only person you should trust,” He growls, low and dark. Suddenly, the air is too thick to breathe, and I understand why they call him Shadow. His words sound as if they had crept from the darkest crevices of the room. They shouldn’t be that eerie, but somehow he manages to do it.
He inches closer to me, every nerve ending in my body is screaming at me to move back, but I’m frozen solid. Incapable of moving even a centimeter.
He gently presses the palm of his hand to my jaw and swipes his thumb across the apex of my cheek, “It didn’t seem that way when I had you bent over the shower, moaning my name.”
“I didn’t moan your…”
His finger presses to my lips, silencing me. “Don’t lie to yourself.” He croons.
Being this close to Ryder is dangerous. The way his breath kisses the sensitive part of my ear causes my belly to squirm, and the way he talks so salaciously has my thighs tightening to the point the muscles are burning. And those mischievous green eyes… Oh God… It’s too hot in here.
A throat clears from behind Ryder, “Can you two get a room?” Jessie comments sarcastically, breaking me from the lust spell Ryder had cast.
“What were you doing here, anyway?” It was Jessi who spoke. That’s a good question, but if I had to guess..
“Paying a visit to our newest guests.”
“Did you leave them conscious at least?”
“Well, I hadn’t expected any visitors today, but I should be able to wake them up.” He smiles demonically, and I’m beginning to learn just how cruel he can be, but I have a feeling I don’t know the half of what he’s capable of.
“Where are they?” This doesn’t look like an appropriate torture room, I mean, I’ve never seen one in real life, only the movies. So, maybe it’s different?
“We’ll have to go downstairs,” Jessie explains. Ryder has already stalked off down the hall, scanning his hand on the door. The door clicks, and Ryder pulls the door open.
“I don’t have all day, walk faster,” he says as he checks the time on his phone.
“What the hell are you in a hurry for?”
“I mean, if you want the office swarmed by S.W.A.T., then by all means take your time.”
“It didn’t take us thirty seconds to walk fifty feet, calm down.” Jessie sasses when we enter the door to a darkly lit, steep staircase.
“This isn’t creepy at all,” I remark sarcastically.
Ryder chuckles behind me, “This is my favorite level of the office.” He whispers sardonically over my shoulder.
The stairs seem to go on forever, but I can tell when we’re getting close.
The smell of formaldehyde and copper invades my senses, making my eyes water and stomach roil.
A dim yellow light illuminates the last few steps.
The closer we get to the bottom, the more pungent the smell becomes, and I fight to cover my nose with my shirt.
The sketchy staircase opens up to an even sketchier room.
Stainless steel tables line the walls with an array of tools—surgical tools.
Three large brUTE trash cans sit side by side on the far wall, and three black rubber aprons hang above them.
I try to process my surroundings, my eyes landing on a huge grated drain on the floor under the stainless steel table sitting in the center of the room.
I think I might vomit. I wrap my arm around my waist, gripping my side, attempting to alleviate that intense urge to puke.
“They’re in the cells in the back.” Ryder saunters over to one of the tables with the tools, picking up a… saw? Oh God. “Jessie, you go with her, I’ll hang back here if you need me.”
Jessie led me down the short hall to the cells, which are, in fact, jail cells, except these are much less dignified. No cots or blankets, but a lone red bucket sits in the back corner. I imagine the people who are brought here don’t leave this place… Alive.
My hands are trembling, but I don’t dare show weakness. A faint grunt comes from the furthest cell, so one of them is conscious.
Jessie crouches in front of the cell, “Wake up fuckers!” She yells as she bangs on the metal bars.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but Graves and Rocky being chained to a brick wall, naked and covered in sticky dried blood, wasn’t it. It reeks of foul urine and feces, and my nose scrunches on instinct.
A sickening, bloody smile pulls at Rocky’s lips. Graves appears unresponsive. His breaths are shallow, almost unnoticeable.
“You’ve come to see me, Beautiful.” His voice is scratchy like gravel, but his words cause a flash of irritation through my blood.
“Don’t call me that,” I snarl.
His ominous laugh causes me to step closer to the bars, “Something funny?” My head cocks to the side, “I can think of something. How about how you’re chained up in there, standing in your own defecation, and I’m out here, free?
” Now it’s I who laughs maliciously, but his following words have my heart racing out of my chest.
“Oh, how funny it is that you think,” He coughs, and blood trails down his chin. “You’re free. She won’t stop.” His head goes limp, dropping to his chest.
I smack the bars, making him twitch a little, “What does she want?” I ask, my voice surprisingly smooth compared to how I truly feel.
His response was one word on a shallow breath before he passed out, “You.”