Chapter 3
LEX
Home
Staring at the ceiling.
Morning stalks in like a damn punishment. I toss and turn, again. The silk sheets twist around my legs like restraints as the first hit of pale light slides across the ceiling. I squint over at the window, middle finger extended at the jackass of a sun trying to blind my eyes.
Cade sent me to our room like a toddler on a timeout a few hours ago. Right after I checked Tex in the jaw.
Couldn’t fucking help it. The guy kept talking like Zeke’s some sort of saintly prodigy who walks on water and shits out gold.
Gag.
It ended in blows. He got a couple cheap shots in and busted my lip all to hell. But I nailed the guy clean in the eye and gave him quite the shiner. So clearly, I won.
Nate nearly had to shoot the both of us just to break it up.
But I’m still not buying it. Not after everything that has happened. Definitely not after seeing our girl on a screen with blood in her hair and a damn Project Dylan bomb collar strapped to her neck.
I glare at the ceiling another ten seconds before the memory knocks me in the throat: Ellie and Haley. They walked through the door a few hours after our little meeting with the guys.
Telling the girls that we lost Bella and reliving those moments in Roman’s office gutted the room. Ellie screamed so loud it nearly shattered the window. Cade tried to hold her together, but she was shaking so hard he could barely keep a grip on the poor thing.
Haley didn’t scream at all. Which was somehow even worse. She just went silent, her face draining of every speck of color. She collapsed to the ground before Knox could get to her.
I couldn’t look at either of them. Not without feeling like a fucking failure for not following Bella into Roman’s office.
I rake both hands down my face.
My skin feels too tight. My lip stings. And to top it off, my fucking head feels like someone’s driving an ice pick into it. I swing my legs out of the bed, elbows digging into my knees.
“Get it together, Barinov,” I whisper to myself, taking a glance at the painting hanging right over our bed. The one Cade painted for Bella’s birthday. The one of the three of us naked and intertwined as one in this same damn bed. “Your girl needs you.”
When I get to the living room, the sight hits me harder than Tex’s cheap shots to my face last night.
Ellie and Haley look completely wrecked curled up next to Cade on the couch.
They’re wrapped in a blanket and are clutching mugs of steaming hot coffee.
Both girls’ eyes are red and swollen with mascara smudges down their pink cheeks in rivers of black.
Knox and Nate are sitting at the kitchen table with their laptops open. Both still searching for anything they can find. Tex is pacing over by the window. His eye purple and jaw flexing while he stares out over the city.
Cade sees me first. He carefully untangles himself from the girls and heads toward me.
“Get any sleep, babe?” he asks softly.
“No.”
He nods, dread flashing across his face. “Do you want me to make you something to eat?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I know, but you need to—”
“I said I’m not hungry,” I cut him off.
He flinches. Barely. But enough.
“Wait, babe. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I’m just…” I reach over and grab his hand. “Stressed isn’t even the word.”
He steps closer and gently presses his forehead to mine. It’s grounding and soft. It’s exactly the fucking thing I don’t deserve right now.
Exactly the thing I need right now.
“I know,” he whispers.
I slide my arms around his waist and pull him into me. I hold him tight, the sudden rush of warmth drowning out the cold.
“Actually,” I whisper against his neck. “I’d love to eat.”
A small and tired smile curves his mouth. “Okay,” he says gently. “I’ll make you something.”
He brushes his thumb over my jaw once before pulling away and heading into the kitchen.
I turn and stride over to Tex who is still pacing by the window. He stops when I approach. We face each other. Two men who nearly beat the living shit out of each other last night over grief neither of us really know how to hold.
Knox yanks his eyes from the screen. His fingers tighten around his mug. Nate flattens his hands against the table, ready to launch up at me all over again.
I clear my throat. “Hey.”
Tex lifts his chin. “Hey.”
Silence stretches for a beat too long.
“About earlier,” I force out. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…” I swallow. “I wasn’t thinking straight.”
Tex nods. “Yeah. Me neither.”
“We good?” I ask.
He claps a heavy hand on my shoulder. “We’re good.”
Knox sets his coffee mug down with a thud. Nate leans back, his shoulders dropping as he returns his focus back to his screen.
“And,” I add, shifting my weight. “I’ll try to keep my comments about Zeke under wraps.”
Even though I still plan on gutting the fucker when I turn out to be right.
Tex studies me for a long moment. Then, he nods again. “Good.”
“How’s the eye?”
“Better than your lip from the looks of it,” he laughs.
“You both look like hell,” Knox says, shaking his head. He’s slumped back over his laptop, scrolling through some shit.
I move behind him. Both mine and Bella’s phones are hooked up to cords. He’s got tabs open everywhere—messages, our social medias, maps, and code windows I can’t even read. The guy’s eyes are dry and bloodshot.
“You been up all night?” I ask.
“Yep,” he mutters, typing something rapid-fire. “Still trying to comb through everything he’s ever sent you or Bella to see if he left anything behind. So far, nada. It all just looks like some sort of sick obsession.”
“What about Roman?” I ask, glancing over his shoulder at Nate. “Did we ever get a hold of the doc?”
“I got off the phone with the hospital while you were out,” Nate says, scribbling something on a notepad. “It was touch and go. Surgery lasted almost five hours, but he made it through.”
Relief hits me in a painful rush.
“He’s heavily sedated,” Nate continues. “They said they’ll call me when we can speak to him.”
I nod. “So what do we—”
DING-DONG.
Everyone freezes.
Cade strolls to the front door and opens it slowly. No one’s there. He bends down to pick something up. When he turns back, the look on his face makes my blood run cold. It’s a twisted blend of disbelief and something else I can’t name.
He walks to the table and sets it down. It’s a glass jar filled with white sand.
“What is that?” I ask.
“I don’t know.” Cade shrugs. “It was just sitting out there on the mat.”
DING.
“Shit,” Knox mutters.
My pulse spikes. “What?”
“It’s him.”
@LucaWasHere
Welcome, boys, to the opening scene.
Where I took my Izzy, soft and pristine.
If you want her back, you’ll play my game.
And prove your bodies can bear the flame.
Whitmore and Lexie. Your path is set.
Show me how far your strength will get.
The first clue waits in your trembling hand.
You already have it, don’t you understand?
Clock’s ticking, baby. Two hours to try.
Type the right code or you’ll watch her cry.
Choose wrong once and she’ll pay your price.
For her suffering grows with each roll of my dice.
“What the—”
“Wait,” Knox cuts in, hand raised. “Something’s happening.”
The laptop screen glitches once and then reappears.
“No way,” I whisper, yanking it closer to me and Cade as the feed stabilizes.
It’s Bella sitting on her bed upstairs in her room on the 41st floor. She’s attached to the bedpost by a chain wrapped around her ankle.
“Is that the—” Cade starts.
I don’t let him finish. I bolt to the door, rip it open, and sprint to the elevator. Cade barely makes it inside before the doors slam shut. When we get to the 41st floor my pulse is blaring in my ears.
“Bella!” Cade yells as the penthouse door flies open.
“Malyshka!” I roar back.
We take the spiral staircase two steps at a time, our lungs burning, and nearly tear her bedroom door off its hinges.
Then freeze.
The room is empty. No Bella. No restraints. Only Razorback Stadium staring back at us like some sort of sick joke.
“What?” Cade whispers. “She was just here.”
“Fuck!” I drop to my knees, the impact shooting straight through my bones.
“I don’t understand,” Cade says as he sinks down next to me. “We saw her, Lex.”
“No,” I snarl. “We saw what he wanted us to see. The room. The mural. That sick bastard is playing with us.”
Footsteps pound behind us. Knox nearly trips over me when he skids into the doorway, gasping for air.
“You guys,” he pants, bracing himself on the wall, “need to come back downstairs. You got to see this.”
“What is it?” I ask, pushing myself to my feet.
“Just come on!” Knox yells, racing out the door.
When we get back into the apartment, it’s complete and utter mayhem. Nate and Tex are arguing near the window. Ellie is crying by the fireplace. Her hands tangled in her blonde curls. Haley is frozen in front of the laptop, like if she glares hard enough it might tell her what to do.
“What the hell?” I ask.
“When you guys ran upstairs,” Knox says, walking over and taking the laptop from Haley, “a countdown appeared.”
He turns the screen toward us.
00:11:22 blinks.
“He gave us fifteen minutes.”
“What?” I ask. “He said two fucking hours!”
“I know.”
“W-what do we do?” Cade’s voice shakes.
“We solve his riddle,” Knox answers. “But we don’t know what it is. And if we get it wrong?”
“Luca’s gonna hurt her,” I answer for him.
He nods.
“We’re running out of time,” Tex barks from the window. “We have to put something in.”
“Sand?” Ellie says, turning back to the table with her hands on her hips. “What kind of clue is sand? I don’t get it.”
“Is there a letter count or something, babe?” Haley asks. “Anything?”
“No,” Knox answers. “Just an empty box.”
The timer bleeds down.
00:06:00 blinks on the screen.
“Six minutes,” Nate says, fingers tapping on the table. “We need to think. What did he say?”
“Just that we have the first clue.” Knox nods toward the jar of sand. “That it’s in our hands.”
“This is insane,” Cade says, his fingers digging into his scalp. “He said two hours.”
“Well, he fucking lied,” I snap.
The seconds keep bleeding away.
00:03:30
“Locations?” Knox asks, looking at me. “This is a game to him, right? What if we’re supposed to guess where he’s keeping her?”
“Possibly,” Tex replies for me.
My palms slam into the table. “Okay,” I say, forcing my breathing to slow. “Somewhere he’d take Bella. Somewhere with sand. The beach? The lake?”
“There’s no way that’s literal enough,” Nate says. “It’ll be a specific place and we only have one shot.”
“I know!” I yell, stepping back. My fingers tangle in a white-knuckle grip. I press the backs of them to my mouth, the pulse in my thumbs hammering against my lips.
“I know,” I whisper again.
“One minute,” Knox says.
Think, Barinov.
My stomach twists into a billion knots.
“Miami, maybe?” Cade mutters under his breath. “I mean she said they had an ocean view.”
“Plus,” I add. “It’s where her twisted life with her sick brother began.”
“Lex,” Tex warns.
“Thirty seconds!” Knox says louder.
“Miami,” Cade says, his hazel eyes locking with mine. “Type it in, Knox.”
“If we are wrong,” Knox says.
00:00:15
Knox types it in.
He hesitates.
00:00:02
He hits ENTER.
The timer stops.
The screen flashes once.
And turns to red.