30. Raegan
Chapter thirty
Raegan
“Portia! Portia !” My voice cracks.
“Such a shame she woke up so quickly,” Joe says over her screams. “But it is morning and as good a time as any to get started.”
“Stop hurting her! You gave me two days.”
“Of course, and you’ll have them. However, our mutual friends would like to learn more about her while she’s here. She’s refusing to answer any of their questions. So, really, this is her doing. I must say, she’s stronger than she looks.”
“Anyone who touches her is dead,” I bite out. “And I won’t be using a gun to do it. Tell that to everyone if they want to live. You’ll all leave her alone until I come for the swap.”
Joe chuckles. “If you so happen to turn the girl and yourself over sooner, you can cut her time here short. Tick Tock.”
Portia’s screams are cut off when the connection ends.
“No, no,” I breathe and dial her back. It rings again and again, and then cuts over to voicemail. I try again.
And again .
“Portia.” My voice comes out in a pained whisper. I’m tempted to chuck the phone at the wall, but it’s my only connection and hope for her. I steady my grip on it and shove it back in my pocket to take away that temptation.
A gaping pit of rage swirls in my gut. I close my eyes and feed it with more and more until my skin is brimming with it.
Someone touches my shoulder and I snarl at them. Dane watches me solemnly. “Put your gift away. Now isn’t the time.”
I look at my hands. My arms. All of my exposed skin has a soft reddish glow. I didn’t even realize I’d activated my gift.
The others are standing and staring at me as well.
“Did you find her?”
“Not yet.”
I can’t sit around here waiting while she’s being tortured. “Call me when you do.” I tug away from his grip and turn to the door.
Jackson somehow beats me to it. “Where are you going? The hour’s not up yet.”
“I can’t just stand around doing nothing while she’s being tortured! I’m leaving.”
“To go where?”
For once, his calmness doesn’t soothe me. It has the opposite effect. I have to go . Now . Portia has been there for me since the first time we met. She’s listened to all of my crazy stories, supported me in any of my choices, and never once judged me for anything I said or did. The girl has the biggest heart, and I can’t let her lose that because of me.
She deserves so much more from me. I’ve been selfish dealing with my own problems and asking her to wait for me to help her with hers.
I should have done more. To help her. To keep her safe.
“I’ll check every building in this city if I have to,” I snap. “I have to try.”
“You’ll be wasting your time and energy,” Aiden chastises. “Wait here, get sleep if you need to, and we’ll wake you when we’ve found something.”
“You think I can sleep after hearing that? You think I’m just going to roll over and do nothing?”
“The alternative is you burning yourself out until you’re useless to us when the time actually comes.”
“I won’t.” He’s not wrong. I could easily do that if I don’t control my gift and let it run wild. I finally reel it in, leashing it.
I look to Jack, who’s still standing in front of the door. He tilts his head and smirks at me. I take it that he’s not planning on budging from his spot, but then he side-steps from the door. That was unnervingly easy. I’m shocked he’s letting me go, but he’s always been able to read me well. He must see how determined I am and that they can’t stop me.
I grab the door and wrench it open.
Elias storms inside and surveys the room. His slate eyes fall back on me. “Well?”
His dirty blond hair is in disarray and his suit is unbuttoned and wrinkled. His face is tight and dark, and he’s working a five-o-clock shadow along his face and neck. There are dark circles under his eyes.
Another guy steps inside behind him. He’s tall and lean, but his jacket clings to his arms to show off that he’s no pushover. His skin is like milk chocolate, and his eyes and hair are both dark. He keeps his gaze on the room and the others in it.
“We haven’t found her yet,” I admit. There’d be no point trying to lie to him with his gift, though I wouldn’t ever lie to him about Portia regardless. I’d hoped to have her back before he returned.
“Where have we looked so far? Do we have any information on GE-owned locations in a fifty-mile radius?”
Aiden doesn’t look all too pleased with Elias standing in his apartment. The others don’t seem to care less, but I can tell there’s something between them. They know each other. If Aiden tries to kick him out, I’ll punch him.
“Dane, get back to the computer and keep following those cameras. We’ll narrow down the direction and area and we can cross reference it with a list of Gifted Enterprise-owned buildings.”
Dane follows Aiden’s direction by immediately returning to his seat. “I was able to pick up the car they took her in from Hype,” he says. “I’ll see how far I can follow them.”
Elias turns to the other guy he brought with him. “Start pulling the list of properties they own while he’s doing that, Noah.”
The guy, Noah, nods and then his eyes flick over to me.
“That won’t be necessary,” Elias says, as if understanding what that simple eye movement meant.
Noah grunts and moves to the dining table to set down a simple briefcase. He pulls out a laptop and powers it on.
“What won’t be necessary?” I question since it obviously involved me .
“It’s nothing,” Elias replies and I frown at him. “He doesn’t know or trust you and thinks you may be involved. He’d like to check your memories to be certain this isn’t some sort of trap.”
Kellan whistles and strolls over to sit at the dining table with Noah. His back is to me while Noah sits at the end, but I notice that he’s casually placed himself between us. “Checking memories, huh? That’s a crazy gift. Is it like sorting through a file cabinet? Or like a long movie?”
Noah ignores him and instead pins me with another stare. “You show up out of nowhere, find out Elias’s weakness, and then within hours of him coming home, she’s suddenly taken?” He pauses as that sinks in. “Too much of a coincidence.”
“I didn’t—”
“I know,” Elias cuts in. He gives Noah a look. “I already vouched for her. There’s nothing more to discuss on that.”
I’m still frozen with shock that Elias said he vouched for me. He doesn’t know me, not really. Or anything about my past. Seeing the truth can’t be enough for him to know who I am.
Elias gives me a small smile, almost like he can read my mind and is trying to comfort me.
Ugh, stop it.
I owe this man so much.
“Do it.”
Kellan, Noah, and Elias all look at me. Aiden and Dane glance over too, but they’re mostly focused on cycling through cameras in the city. “Read my mind or my memories or whatever. I’ll do whatever it takes to get Portia back. ”
Noah looks surprised and then smirks at Elias, who shrugs. “If that’s what she wants.”
Noah stands and we meet each other halfway. Jackson’s suddenly leaning against the dining room table and watching Noah in a ‘hurt-her-and-die’ kind of way. Kellan’s turned in his seat, his body tense.
“You don’t have to do this, beautiful. You don’t owe him shit.”
“I do. For Portia.” There’s a hushed argument happening between Dane and Aiden, but I give my attention to Noah in front of me. “Do you get to pick and choose what you see?”
“For the most part. It’s like rewinding a tape. I can move quickly through it or stop and let it play out.”
I draw in a deep breath. “Okay.” Noah’s hand comes up to reach toward my face. “Does it hurt?” I ask quickly, and he pauses.
“Not at all. Just close your eyes and it’ll be over before you know it.” His tone is soothing, but it doesn’t calm me as much as having Kellan within arm’s reach of him and Jackson right there.
“Just look at the stuff that has to do with Portia. I only met her a month ago, so you don’t need to dig any further than that.”
“What if you plotted to get to Elias before you came here?”
“Fine. Check a couple of months back then.”
“Close your eyes,” Noah commands softly.
His hand covers my eyes and gently hugs the sides of my head with his thumb and fingers. Then, just as quickly, it’s gone and I’m blinking up at him in confusion.
“Is something wrong?”
Dane and Aiden have joined the crowd around us .
“It’s already done.” Noah nods to Elias. “She’s clear.” Something else passes between them. I bite my lip with worry. He wouldn’t have pried and looked at anything else, would he?
He offers me a small smile, which is the first one I’ve seen on his face since he arrived. Is that a good thing or bad?
“Hear that?” Kellan aims at Dane and Aiden. “Clear. No GE secret agent.”
Dane scowls at me. “Just because she’s innocent of this incident doesn’t prove anything else.” He stalks back to his chair and plays the next camera footage.
Aiden’s studying me, but jury’s out on which side he’s on. “Let’s get back to work.”
As much as I’d rather avoid them, I join in the camera hunt. There are enough monitors that we can split them up to check and get through them faster. As soon as the car Portia’s in leaves the current camera’s frame, Dane spins up cameras in the area in thirty-second loops for us to check.
We call out the camera name at the bottom when we see her, and he plays it through until she disappears again. And so on.
“That’s it. We’re out of cameras.” Dane freezes the last frame of the car on his screen. “They’ve left the city, and I don’t know of any cameras in that area for at least a half mile after that.”
“Noah got the list of every building owned by Gifted Enterprise and their subsidiaries within fifty miles.” Elias hands Dane a USB drive. “Can you filter it to that area?”
Dane plugs it in, drops the list onto a map, and then circles the area. The list decreases to three spots. “We’ve got a house, a warehouse, and a butcher shop.”
My stomach drops at the last one. I fucking hope it’s not there.
“Mm, wait a minute,” Dane hums. “The warehouse is the address you just gave us.”
“Did you guys check it out?” I ask.
“Not yet. The scouts we had out were finishing up the last location before I called them in to rest.” Aiden puts his phone to his ear. “I’m sending you a new location. Secure the area around it and then hold it. We’ll be there as soon as we can to move in together.”
He then texts the address over.
I start checking my weapons to make sure I’m locked and loaded. No matter how much I wear, it never feels like it’s enough. What if I’m a bullet or a knife shy?
Then use your gift , I remind myself.
Elias hangs up the phone call he made as well and looks between Aiden and the others. “Do you have any weapons Noah and I can use? My teams will be meeting us there as well. We can come up with our plan while your team secures the perimeter.”
Jackson smiles and waves them after him down the hallway. “This way.”