Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
“You want to tell me how you guys fucked up so royally that there are two extra fucking women in that cell with Laurel?!”
Mae’s eyes shot open as she sat up on the bed. She groaned, the pure exhaustion after a massive dump of adrenaline still kicking her ass.
“How long was I out?” she whispered.
“Not very long.” Jessie’s worried eyes met hers. “They just started shouting… Do you think they are going to come in here?”
“God, I hope so.”
“The whole point was to get access to the building! To send the threats from their devices! We’re meant to frame them for the fucking attacks!”
“Stop panicking.”
“I fucking saw Wilson and Limerick walk into their offices. It’s over.
We’re cooked. Fucking drug them and get them in the van.
The auction is tonight in Kansas City, which means we’ve got a long drive ahead of us and we need time to clean them up once we get there.
Those whores will be our ticket to save face with Alejandro. ”
“At least we still got the bombs in place, right boss?”
“What the fuck do you want, Jase? You want me to lick your balls and tell you what a good boy you’ve been for daddy?”
“No, fuck…”’
Bombs. She’d been hoping all along to be wrong. Mae looked at Laurel, but she was sitting wide eyed and silently shrugged. Just great.
“Just go get the bitches ready, would you?”
“This is it.” Mae moved next to Jessie. “Are you guys ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Jessie gave her a weak smile, the torn and knotted sheet rolled up next to her hip.
“Alright,” Jase yelled as he strolled in. “Time to get you all ready for your next masters.”
Mae stood. “Funny. I didn’t realize we had masters before.”
His eyes locked in on her. “Oh look. A volunteer. You know, we always have to test drive our merchandise before we sell it. Looks like you’re up first.”
“Eat shit,” Mae replied. She knew it would be easy to rile him up, and the twitch under his left eye told her it was working even faster than she imagined.
He stalked towards the metal bars. “Put your hands through over here, you fucking bitch. I’m gonna cuff you and then teach you some goddamn manners.”
She had to be careful. The goal was only to lure him in. If he called for backup, they were screwed.
“Fine. But try not to be too rough. It’ll turn me on.” Mae winked, slipping back into her protective persona.
She put her hands through the small space so he could get the cuffs on her. A single movement behind her let Mae know it was time to put their plans into action.
Instead of allowing him to slip the second cuff over her wrist, Mae moved, grabbing his closest hand and pulling his arm through the bar.
His face bashed against the metal, his mouth opening wide to yell.
But they’d planned for that. Lo burst forward, burying one of her dirty socks past his teeth and over his tongue.
Jessie was next, looping the fabric out and around his neck and pulling it tight.
“You’re going to have to get the keys, Mae.
I can’t with my side…” Lo whimpered as Jessie tightened the sheet around Jase’s neck.
The asshole was clawing at the fabric, his beady eyes popping out as his sock-filled mouth gulped like a fish out of water.
Mae knew, from somewhere in the back of her mind, that the sight should have made her feel nauseous.
But all it did was make her feel powerful. One sick bastard down, two to go.
She dropped onto her knees, her hand snaking out between the bars to grab the key ring on Jase’s belt.
He was so lost to self preservation and fighting off the pull towards unconsciousness Mae could see creeping in as his eyelids drooped that he didn’t seem to even notice her grabbing desperately at the key ring attached to his hip.
Finally, her fingers snatched them, the keys jingling loudly as she pulled them through the bars.
Jase’s body slumped to the ground in a heap, and Jessie finally let go of the sheet.
“Oh, god. Did I just kill someone?”
“You did what you had to do Jessie, now come on! We have to go!” Mae hissed.
She figured they had thirty seconds, tops, to get out of the cell and through the back hallway door Laurel had mapped out for her.
There had to be an alarm or a camera somewhere along the way, and they needed to bolt past it as fast as they could if they stood any chance of surviving.
“He has other keys!” Jessie cried reaching through the bar to grab the other key ring of his belt. They looked like keys to a vehicle!
“Lo, grab his knife before I get this door open.” Laurel nodded at Mae’s instructions.
“Here,” Laurel handed the knife to her. “Figure you offered to get me out, you won’t stab me until we’re free and clear of this place.”
“And after?” Mae asked, slipping the knife into her right hand.
“I deserve worse.” She shrugged. “Give me the keys. I’ll open the door, you run first. I’ll have your back.”
“Alright. Jessie, you ready?”
“To freedom?”
She nodded. “To freedom. Let’s go.”
The next thirty seconds were a blur. As soon as the cell door was open, their feet slapped harshly against the linoleum and the second they hit the hallway, Mae was transported back to the hospital, to the moment she ran down the ICU the afternoon Stone woke up.
So much had happened in just a few short weeks.
But she was still running to him. Because that’s what getting out of the facility meant.
The only thing keeping her going was the thought of running back into his arms.
She didn’t look back for Laurel as her hands slapped against the metal push bar to the door at the end of the hallway.
Blinding bright light assaulted her, halting her steps, but only for a second until she started to see the forest in front of her.
It was daytime. That was good for making sure they could see any dangers in their path, but also more dangerous, because they could be easily spotted.
“Mae… which way?”
“The van. It has to be out front. Hug the building and let’s go.”
The women linked hands and with as much urgency as their cold and stiff bodies could manage made their way around the building. The area around them was eerily calm and quiet.
It felt like an entire year passed by as they made their way along the facility. It was huge, but Mae was thankful they weren’t stuck inside, trying to navigate through a maze of rooms. Out there, in the frozen wild, they stood a chance of escaping their captors.
Another minute passed before the vans came into view.
Freedom. They were so close, Mae could taste it.
Her fingers shook around the keys. Maybe that split second, where she looked down at the keys, was the reason why she didn’t see him step out of the shadow.
Why she didn’t know he was coming for her until it was too late.
Mae turned, just in time to take the brunt of a man crashing into her. And in that split second, everything went dark.
Steps crunched in the snow. Stone. He was there. Mae’s eyes fluttered open, waiting to see the man she loved crouched down in front of her.
“Wake up, bitch.”
No. No, no, no, no.
A scream pierced the air.
Jessie.
“Where… w-where are they?”
“Doesn’t matter. They weren’t going to be worth much anyways.
But you,” She recognized the man standing above her.
Christoper’s hand came up to touch her hair.
“You are too important to me. Doesn’t mean I won’t teach you a lesson.
A little present for Stone to discover when he finally finds your body. ”
“F-fuck you.”
“Exactly what I plan on doing to you, Mae. I’m going to fuck you, mark you like the dirty little bitch that you are after being with a fucker like him, and then I’m going to leave you to rot out here in the forest.” His eyes darkened as his lips curled in the corner.
Mae’s eyes rolled, her vision spinning. “But don’t worry.
I’ll leave a little tracking device here.
I know how much the Montgomery Defense team loves those.
Once I have what I want from them, I’ll send the coordinates to come get your spent body off my property. ”
Christopher bent forward, his nose pressing into her neck beside the hand that was choking her. She felt his disgusting tongue lick across her skin. Mae’s whole body trembled, and she tried everything to make it stop, because it only seemed to fuel him.
Her body was slowly slipping into the cold. Pins and needles seared her skin, and her muscles wouldn’t listen to the commands her mind was screaming at them. To thrash. To buck. To try anything to get this putrid asshole off of her.
Instead, she laid gasping for her next breath while he lifted the hem of her shirt and forced his fingers under the band of her pants.
Mae’s mind went blank. It was like a switch flipped. Her eyes slammed shut and her brain went offline, unable to stay in the forest, on the dirty, frozen ground, while she was violated as the life was being choked out of her. Nope. Her mind didn’t let her suffer, and for that, she was so grateful.
Instead of staying in the forest, she drifted back to Silver Springs. The warm, cozy bed she shared with Stone. Wrapped safe in his arms. To the night they shared talking about the future with their baby. His hand pressed protectively over her belly. It didn’t matter what came after that moment.
The pressure over her windpipe cleared, and Mae coughed, gasping desperately for air.
But still she sank into the feeling of being back in the apartment she shared so many nights in with Stone.
Swaying back and forth with no music playing, just the two of them, heart to steady beating heart, connected in a way she’d never been with anyone else. And would never be again.
“Mae!”
She could actually hear him. What a gift. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Stone had experienced the same thing when he was shot. Hearing her voice call out to him. It certainly was a comforting thing for her mind to do.