Chapter 39
Quill
Another long, heavy silence follows Logan’s words. This time, it’s punctuated, not by Josh’s loud breathing, but by his equally loud sobs. The sound makes me want to shoot him in the face. Or Logan. No, both.
I’ve never been so angry before.
Adrenaline causes me to jump up. “Impossible. Impossible. We have to go.”
Logan gets up more slowly. “We’ll find Coltello. We’ll avenge her.”
“No.” My hands are clenched into fists, my entire body shaking from the strain of trying not to explode.
“No, we’re not avenging anything. We’re finding her.
She’s alive. I fucking know it. I would feel it if she were dead.
I’d feel it in my bones. Just like I know Liam and Dane aren’t here. I would know. I would fucking know.”
It feels like I’ve never spoken so much, but the words feel right. She belongs to me. Fuck, she’s a part of me. There’s no way she could die and I wouldn’t feel it. I’d feel it if half my body was hacked to pieces, wouldn’t I?
She’s not dead. Certainty floods me, and the look on my face makes Josh lift up his tear-streaked face hopefully.
He follows me to Logan’s car, his sudden optimism an unsettling contrast to Logan’s darkness. But I know. I fucking know. It’s the only thing I know in this world. Piper isn’t dead.
Another buzz from behind me makes me stop in my tracks and turn around. This isn’t a single buzz, like the earlier message. This is a constant buzzing sound, like someone’s calling.
Logan takes the phone out of his pocket and stares at it for a second.
“Unknown number,” he frowns.
“Well, pick it the fuck up!” I roar. “Maybe it’s her! You fucking idiot!”
Logan flashes a murderous look at me. I guess the Devil founders are not used to getting cussed out like that. Luckily, he lets it go, and answers the phone.
“Hello?”
His anger gives way to perplexity, followed by just a glint of strained hope.
“It’s for you,” he says quietly, handing me the phone.
My chest hurts so much it feels like I’m on the verge of a heart attack. “Yeah?” I say.
A male voice answers. I don’t recognize it, but I can tell it’s a soldier’s by the somewhat robotic, lifeless sound. “Someone wants to talk to you.”
There’s a slight pause and a shuffling noise as the phone seems to pass through different hands. Then a small voice says, “Quill?”
Shock floors me. I fall to my knees on the ground before the car, holding onto the door to steady me. “Piper?”
A sharp intake of breath tells me Josh is just as surprised as me. Meanwhile, Logan gets closer, crouching once more beside me as if desperate to catch every single part of what will come next.
“Where are you, Piper?” My voice comes out throaty, the lump in my throat making it hard to keep the tears out of my voice. “Where are you, my little cricket?”
“I… uhm…”
I frown, concentrating on whatever noise at the other end could give me a hint to where she is. Who she’s with.
It sounds like muffled voices are telling her what to say. Voices far too muffled and distant for me to be able to make them out.
“I’m safe. Everything’s fine. Don’t worry, Quill.”
Her voice is stiff, unnatural, as if she’s carefully following instructions. There’s a hard edge to the way she’s speaking. I can tell she’s scared.
Whoever has her must be threatening her. She must be terrified of saying the wrong thing. I clench my fists, so furious I see white. But she’s alive. That’s the important part. She’s alive, and if I want her to stay that way, I need to think fast. I need to say the right things too.
“Everything is fine, Piper,” I say, trying to make my voice as soft, reassuring, and also, as unthreatening as possible, in case her captors are listening in. “Can you tell me where you are?”
“I…” She pauses, probably listening to their instructions. “I can tell you, Quill. I can tell you, and you can come find me.”
“Okay.” I struggle to take in a slow breath, keep my voice soft and controlled. “Is there something I need to do so you can tell me? Whatever it is, I’ll do it.”
There’s a longer pause, and I grow weak with worry, wondering if I’m about to be disconnected. I exhale in pure relief when she speaks again.
“Yes. I am going to tell you who took me, and you need to promise not to hurt them.”
“Okay. Okay, I won’t hurt them. Of course I won’t. I promise.”
I’ll do anything. Anything to get you back. I promise, Piper.
“No, they didn’t take me.” Piper’s voice sounds suddenly strangled with fear, as though she said the wrong thing, and is being threatened now. “They didn’t take me, Quill. They saved me. Believe me.”
“I believe you, Piper.” I’ll believe anything as long as I get you back.
“They saved me, Quill. Coltello took me, and they shot him. They killed him to save me, because they’re loyal to you.”
Logan’s eyes widen. He’s clearly heard the shocking revelation that Coltello is dead. But I don’t feel anything but a sudden uneasiness.
“I understand, Piper. Can you tell me who saved you?”
Another beat, and she at last breathes, “Liam and Dane.”
The confirmation sends blood crashing through my veins.
I can barely hear her over the sound of my heartbeat in my ears as she continues, “They will give you my location. But first they need you to promise that you will not harm them in any way. Or kill them. They know your promises are sacred, and they want you to promise.”
I close my eyes, my entire body leaning against the car. She’s right. Loyalty means nothing to me. And yet, I’ve never broken a promise. Not because of honor. Because of something far deeper.
Believe me.
The words my mother once spoke to me are etched into my brain. I’ll never leave you. Believe me.
She destroyed my childhood with that broken promise. I swore to myself then that for all my cruelty, for all my psychopathic tendencies, I would never break a promise.
I couldn’t do it, any more than I could prevent myself from doing things in threes.
It has nothing to do with honor. It’s a tic. An urge. An obsession.
Dane and Liam know that, and they’re using my weakness against me.
“Quill,” hisses Logan, as I hesitate.
“Quill,” echoes Piper into the phone, her voice tight with fear. “Promise, Quill. Please promise. I need you so much, Quill. Promise.”
A sob makes her voice break, and it’s all I can do to not cry too. I need her just as much as she does. More. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her, and that includes binding myself in a promise to the actual devil.
It feels like I’m violating everything when I at last murmur, “I promise, Piper.”
She lets out a shuddering sigh. “Okay. Okay, Quill. They’re going to give you the address.”
_
“What the fuck was that all about? Are you fucking lacking in brain cells? Or do you just not give a shit about her?”
We’re speeding down the busted-up country roads toward the address Piper gave us, Logan keeping up a continuous stream of insults.
“You fucking numbskull. You complete idiot. You—”
“Hey,” cuts in Josh. “Maybe there was a good reason for it.”
“A good reason for hesitating? Hesitating when we were just one word away from getting her location? Who the fuck cares? Just say what they want you to say, and then do what you want to do.”
“Well, we got the location,” shrugs Josh.
“We nearly didn’t. We were about two seconds away from the call hanging up on us. If that had happened, they wouldn’t have called us back. They would have gotten freaked out, disposed of her, and run away. All of it would have been her idiot boyfriend’s fault.”
“I can’t break my promise,” I say through my clenched jaw.
“You can’t break your promise,” he echoes in disbelief. “A fucking psychopath with an honor code. I’ve really seen everything.”
I fist my hands against the leather seat, staring out the window. I’ve still got my AK-47 in my lap, but I’m not even holding it anymore. What’s the point, since I promised them I wouldn’t harm them?
“I can’t break my promise,” I repeat.
Logan opens his mouth, probably to attack me with a whole new slew of insults, but Josh interjects from the backseat, “They probably know that about him. That’s the reason they’re trusting his promise.
We can feel confident they’re giving us their real location.
If Quill wasn’t so honorable, maybe things wouldn’t have played out like that.
Maybe they wouldn’t have killed Coltello.
Maybe they would have hidden behind him, staking their hopes on him to protect them, rather than on a promise of Quill’s.
If Piper is safe, it’s because they’re fully aware and dependent on Quill’s sense of honor. ”
That logic shuts Logan right up. But I growl, “I don’t have a sense of honor. I just can’t break a promise.”
Barely repressing an eyeroll, Logan fixes his attention back on the road. He’s going at a pretty surprising speed, given the numerous potholes on the road. I look out the window, my entire body tense, every one of my cells humming with the desperate need to have Piper safe in my arms again.
It takes a bit less than an hour to get to the location, but it feels like an eternity. Logan at last pulls up to an abandoned-looking shack.
“Is she really here?” questions Josh uncertainly.
Before I can answer, Logan’s phone rings again. It’s the same number as before, and he passes it wordlessly to me.
“Hello?” I say, my chest tight with nerves.
“Quill.” It’s not Piper this time. It’s Liam.
I can barely breathe, I’m so focused on controlling every single part of me so that I don’t rush in and strangle him with my bare hands.
“Piper is safe. Now, I want you to listen to these instructions carefully. Do everything I tell you to. We have a gun pointed at her head, but we are not going to harm her. We have no plans to, as long as you do everything we say. Okay?”
I clench the phone in my hand and try to calm my breathing. A gun to her head. It’s like they’re trying their best to get me to break my promise.
“Okay,” I accept, my voice strained. “What do I need to do?”