Chapter 39
Chapter thirty-nine
Eden
“Dead Man Walking"
I didn’t think I’d ever really been down like this before.
Sad? Yeah, I remembered when my parents passed away, I had this hollow ache in my chest for years.
I still missed them. I had cried over a movie or sad song on the radio.
Who hadn’t? But this emotion that was swallowing me was something I had never experienced before.
It was a soul-deep helplessness that I couldn’t overcome.
Halo had been gone maybe ten minutes. He was going to kill the last guy on the list before Matteo and his inner circle…
and I knew he would succeed. He never failed.
We were one step closer to him disappearing, and there was nothing I could do about it.
There was only the unbearable weight of knowing that everything we had shared would be over.
It would be like he never existed, a secret I had to keep for the rest of my life.
There was a knock on the door and I jumped to my feet too eagerly. Had he forgotten something? Was he coming back because he had a change of heart? Both of those were equally unlikely, but I jerked the door open anyway. Hope truly does make fools of us all.
The man from the snack machine was standing outside the door, leaning on the door facing expectantly. His grin was oily, smug, and it turned my stomach before I even registered the two men standing behind him. Both of them were built like concrete walls.
“Well, hello, sweetie,” he said with a grin. “So good to see you again.”
I tried to slam the door as panic seized me, but one of the big guys caught it with his thick hand, shoving it so hard that it slammed into my shoulder and knocked me off balance. They were in and after me the next instant.
I scrambled across the carpet, my knee hitting the corner of the nightstand hard enough to numb my whole leg.
The bathroom was the only thought in my head, some illusion of safety…
until I saw the knife. The one we used the night before, still lying there on the floor where Halo had thrown it after I cut him.
I dove for it, my hand closing around the handle just as fingers brushed my ankle. I spun and slashed. The knife sliced through the small man’s arm with a sickening give of flesh.
“You fucking bitch!” he growled, reeling back, clutching his bleeding forearm. “Get her now!”
The two big men came at me like trained dogs.
I kept the knife angled forward, shaking but determined.
One of them grabbed for my wrist, but I twisted and drove the blade deep into his thigh.
He howled and crumpled to one knee, but before I could free myself, he smashed his elbow into my face.
My nose exploded with pain, blinding and hot.
Stars burst behind my eyes, and my legs buckled.
He ripped the knife from his own leg and tore it from my hand, flinging it across the room with a metallic clatter. “I’m going to fucking bleed to death,” he muttered, trying to hobble upright.
“You’re fine,” the small man snapped, pushing forward. “Let’s go before he gets back. Move.”
He.
They meant Halo.
They grabbed me under the arms like I was luggage and hauled me towards the door. I kicked, twisted, and screamed until my throat was raw. No words, just a feral snarl that I hoped carried so that someone heard me.
My fingers scraped against the doorframe as they dragged me through it.
I clawed at it, desperate to anchor myself to something, anything, but their grip was iron.
I could feel my nails bending, breaking as I fought, fire sparking through every fingertip.
My vision blurred from the pain in my face, my head spinning from the loss of equilibrium.
Blood from my nose dripped down onto my shirt. I tasted copper.
If I could just buy Halo time, maybe he would come back.
“Fucking hell, she’s fighting like a cat,” one of them grunted.
“Just get her in the goddamn car.”
They pulled me into the parking lot, and the sudden blast of sunlight burned into my swollen eyes. The parking lot was empty. No one watching, no one to help me. They knew what they were doing. I tried to scream again, but all I could manage was a whimper as they threw open the back of a black SUV.
I thrashed harder, bit someone’s hand, and heard them hiss a curse of pain. I felt myself slipping in and out, adrenaline surging like tidal waves, then crashing.
They slung me into the back seat, and my body hit the floor mats. I curled into myself on instinct, breathing ragged.
“She fought like hell,” the man with the stabbed thigh said.
“Not surprised,” the leader said, glancing at me through the rearview mirror. “That’s what makes her valuable.”
The door slammed shut behind me, and the car started to move.
The smell hit first: sweat, old fast food, something metallic and sharp that might’ve been blood.
The floor was cold and ribbed, scraping the backs of my legs as I was shoved down.
A zip tie cinched tight around my wrists before I could twist away, plastic biting deep into skin already scraped raw.
I thrashed one last time, heel slamming into someone’s shin, before a hand caught my jaw and forced my face upward.
“Feisty,” the smaller man said, that same sleazy grin still stretching across his face as he leaned into the back from his place in the front seat.
His bloodied arm was wrapped in a towel now, though it wasn’t doing much good.
Crimson leaked through the fabric in pulsing dots. “I like that. Got some fight in you.”
“Go to hell,” I hissed. My voice cracked, thick with blood from my nose.
He laughed like we were just chatting in a diner. The van rocked as it pulled out of the lot, the engine humming like a lullaby.
“See, this is why he liked you,” he said, nodding to himself. “Halo has never been the sentimental type. He’s all business, a real cold-blooded bastard. But you—” He tilted his head like he was analyzing me. “You made him soft. I saw it on his face.”
“You don’t know him.”
“Oh, I know him plenty. I probably know him better than you do,” he said, almost too casually.
“You think this is about you? It’s not. You’re a means to an end.
He paid me to keep your location private, to book the room for him…
paid well. But there’s always someone who’ll pay more to watch him bleed.
And that’s the thing about loyalty… it’s not worth much in this business. ”
“So you’re lying, cowardly fucks.”
The bigger man driving snorted. The other one, the one I stabbed, didn’t speak, just cradled his leg with a white-knuckled grip and glared at me like he wanted to return the favor.
“Call it what you want,” the small man said, unfazed, “but at the end of the day, everyone’s afraid of the wrong man. They think Halo’s the monster, but I’ve met the people hunting him…”
I spat in his face. It wasn’t graceful. I had to twist and jerk my head, and most of it landed on his cheek, but it was enough.
He froze and then wiped it away with the back of his hand. Looked at me with a kind of amused rage, like he couldn’t decide whether to hit me or admire me.
“Well,” he said quietly, “now I really see what he saw in you.” He sat back again, voice dropping to a murmur. “Too bad you’re just bait now.”
I clenched my jaw. My heart was still beating like it was trying to crack through my ribs, but I didn’t show it.
I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. They could keep me tied up, haul me off to whatever shithole they wanted, but if they thought I’d just sit pretty and not give them hell, they didn’t know me at all.
The ride felt like it lasted an hour, maybe more. No one spoke again; there was just the hum of the van and the occasional hiss of pain from the guy I’d stabbed. I kept my head down, wrists burning where the plastic zip tie dug deeper each time I moved, but I didn’t stop moving.
I was counting seconds, tracking turns. I knew they weren’t taking me to kill me – not yet – because I was leverage.
Which meant I had a window.
I felt the burner phone in my pocket. I didn’t remember putting it there, but I thanked my lucky stars that it was. I struggled to get it out of my pocket with my bound hands and then slung it under the front seat.
When the van finally slowed and groaned to a stop, I tensed. I heard a heavy chain dragging across metal… likely, some kind of gate. Gravel crunched underfoot as someone stepped outside. Then the back doors creaked open and bright light flooded in, blinding me.
“End of the line,” one of them said.
I didn’t move. The smaller man reached in, grabbing my arm, and that’s when I struck. I swung both legs forward, catching him right in the chest with everything I had. He staggered backward with a surprised grunt, tripping on the uneven ground
The other two scrambled to grab me, but I was already on my feet. I launched myself out of the van, hitting the ground so hard that the impact sent pain ripping through my knees and shoulder, but I didn’t stop. I ran… or limped, staggered, whatever I could do to put distance between me and them.
We were at some kind of warehouse on the edge of an industrial lot. Rusted fencing, stacked pallets, a row of dead trucks baking in the sun. If I could just get into one… hide, or find a weapon, or…
“You stupid bitch!” one of them shouted behind me.
I didn’t look back. I ducked behind a crate and yanked my arms down under my legs so that they were in front of me. I dropped to my knees, found a jagged piece of broken metal sticking out of the ground, and sawed.
Plastic was weak, plastic could break. I just needed time.
“There’s nowhere to go!” the small man called out, voice echoing off the walls of the yard. “You think Halo’s gonna save you? He’s a dead man walking.”
I didn’t stop. My breath was ragged, vision blurred. The tie was weakening.
Footsteps pounded closer.
“You’re dead the second I catch you,” he snarled, “and if you make me bleed again, I’ll make it slow.”
I snapped the zip tie. The sting was sharp and electric across my skin, but it was gone.
I was free. I grabbed the metal shard in both hands and turned just as he came around the corner.
He hesitated, just for a second, and that’s all I needed.
I jammed the shard up toward his face. He jerked back too late, and it caught him across the cheek, slicing a ragged, bleeding line from chin to temple.
He screamed. The other two were on me again before I could run. One tackled me from behind, and I hit the ground hard, the wind knocked out of me. His weight was crushing, and for a moment I thought I’d suffocate before he got off of me.
“Enough!” the smaller man barked, blood streaming down his face. “Tie her up, and don’t let her move again.”
They pinned me to the gravel, rough hands on my shoulders, my ribs. One of them used duct tape this time, wrapping my wrists so tight, they might as well have used wire.
“I told you,” I spat, panting, my lip split and swelling. “You’re nothing but cowards. Three men and you still can’t control one unarmed girl.”
The smaller man wiped his face again, eyes full of something colder than fury now.
“Keep talking,” he said, voice low. “I already want to put a bullet in your fucking face. Maybe you need a lesson in submission, huh? We’ve got time.”
I didn’t flinch.
“Try it,” I said. “He’ll kill you slower.”